Beading : St. Petersburgh chain

This my attempt at the St. Petersburgh Chain. I found a good clear tutorial in the http://www.beadingdaily.com/ ..
I have tried this stitch before but not with the success that I have had today. It is has very clear instructions It would be very hard to go wrong with them..
This was actually one of the first stitches I ever tried. That one was from this website http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Lofts/8782/beads/beadpatt/pattern07_e.htm
The usual thing happened I ran out of beads before I had the item finished.. It was quite a success, but the instructions were not as clear as the Beading Daily one.
I have also tried a bracelet in S.P. that was hard going too but I got there in the end. This was instructions from the bead and button web site. You had to do 6 rows of SP. and it took me a long time to do it.

Here is the princess's newest effort. I think we have a budding beader in the making what do you think?. We have a couple of kids visiting their grand-parents for the summer. The Wild Child and the Princess play with them when they come to the complex. The little girl is very much into the beading lark and our wee princess thought she would like to try it. She is dying to try earrings I think that will be the next thing on the cards..

I have had a bit of excitement on the complex today the Wild Child let the dogs out on the complex. The dogs are not allowed to run about in case they have 'A little accident' I am the one who is so much against dogs running free .. So of course mine are definitely not allowed to run wild and free on the complex. The princess caught Zapa and the Wild Child caught Annie so all ended well..

Beading to keep the stash down

Here is some of the stuff I have been making from my stash.

Top , started out as a double spiral but I could not get the hang of it. I found it was turning out as an ordinary spiral however it is turning out ok..

Left, is from a pattern I found on the Bead n Button web site. I have done this stitch before and I loved doing it and wanted to try it again. This one was made with the base beads just seed beads. The other on was made in delicas for the base row and the delicas made it more even and stable.

Right, is me trying to do peyote stitch I cant seem to get it quite right I keep showing the threads. I would like to try fancy beaded beads with lots of embellishments.. With this bracelet I am going to make three strands then softly pleat them together. I will keep you updated how it turns out. Hopefully the practice will help me with this stitch.

Neurotic Little Dog

We have two dogs in this little house of ours. Both are mutts but we love then in spite of this handicap. Zapa the black one is a little laid back chappy. But the other one is a kind of ugly but beautiful ( if you know what I mean) she is a yappy kind of dog and drives us nuts with her barking.. However we cope with this as she is a wonderful little watch dog..

Now the next thing we have to cope with is she is terrified of the noise round the pool she shakes and pants at an alarming rate all we can do is shut the glass doors to the patio to try and keep down the noise.. she also suffers from separation anxiety .. Annie and I are joined at the hip at the moment and going to the toilet is fun she worries if I shut the door on her. When I am making the food she has to come with me in case I disappear into the pots and pans.

August in Tenerife is a quiet month if you need anything official done but not so quiet here on the complex with all the spanish having their holidays and of course the tourists from all over Europe..

If you look at the pics you will see Zapa looking after his neurotic companion. Wee Annie is the worried one..

Beading and The Problem with the Ever Growing Stash

Boy! do I have a problem.. as you all know by this time 'I love my beading' BUT and this is a big BUT it seems to have a life of its own, the stash I mean. I am making a lot of things( thinking I am using up my stash) but no there seems to be even more .

Wahhh what can I do to make this lot go away.. NO I dont really mean that .. I love my stash even just to sit and fondle the beads gives me pleasure. The many ideas I have got from just sitting playing with my beads is surprising.

I have been trying to tidy it all up.. I have 6 drawers and they are all a mess. I have a small working table and that is a disaster.

I start tidying it all up and then I come across a lovely set of beads and I have to stop tidying up and test the color and the stitch combination my find has brought to mind.

On Friday I went to the new bead shop and I bought two lovely strands of beads.. I know what you will say to that but how could I resist.

This is the Princess's first attempt at beading.. My photography does not do it justice. She sat and worked at it for well over an hour. I wonder what will be next in her beading challenge. She is thinking up something else I dread to think what it will be.



I made this effort yesterday it is quite nice I think.
Because this is Thursday I have the two children. the wild child goes to karate tonight. Someone left them a blowup boat and I can hear them giggling and squealing in the pool. Today I have asked them to stay in the shallow end of the pool .. each of them keeps coming in to tell me the other one is in the forbidden deep end.
They both can swim like fish but if they go to the deep end I cant see them and I have to sit in the sun. I am not good in the sun.

Having a quiet day. Just sorting the beading table

I have been having a relaxing day. As I look around I find my little beading table needs sorting. I have to admit I am a very messy beader. There is all sorts here, there is thread that is rolled into a ball to throw away and odd beads lingering there too. But the funniest is a set of ear phones for my ipod , I lost them a while ago. Oh my there is even finished stuff hiding there too. I amnot going to show you the mess but I might show you the spiral bugle beaded bracelet I found. Lol



I dont know how I manage it I do hope you all understand..

Quite a day, NO BEADING

This being Tuesday The Wild Child does karate this evening so that means the two of them, The Wild Child and Princess Wattapong , come to us and spend most of the day in the swimming pool with their friends. Me, of course am sitting watching them with their friends . I do love to watch them diving and jumping yelling and screaming with excitement while I am baking in the sun.
Princess Wattapong had a Belly Dancing class this morning. She just loves it, her and two of her little friends take the class together. This is her latest thing I wonder how long it will last..
My latest thingy a dangle for DD's bag

Beading in Tenerife.

As I have explained to you before sometimes it is hard to find new beads in Tenerife. However a new Chinese warehouse has opened up and I have found a glorious treasure of beads sold by the strand.
Here is the selection I bought the other day.
I was so stunned with the variety and colors I just stood and looked and gasped. It was like christmas had come in July. However I am not satisfied because what I really need is seed beads size 11 or 8 mind you I could use some size 15 too.
So you see what I mean I am never satisfied.

Kids on holiday and me trying to bead

I am valiantly trying to bead while the grand kids are running in and out for drinks, a biscuit and anything they can think of to get me away from my beading. This is one of the pieces I made while I was being constantly distracted.
It is lovely having the pool just outside the patio gate. All I can hear is the joyful screams and the over the top conversations. They yell from one side of the pool to the other.

Party Time in Tenerife

No time to bead today. We have a kid's birthday party to attend. The lucky mother has two little girls who are four years apart in age but two days apart in birthdays. The mum just throws a party in the middle and BAM all the birthday craziness is over in one fell swoop.

I went down to Las Galletas with my daughter, the wild child and Princesa Wattapong to get birthday presents and have a wander. The kids played in the swingpark while Bampa (Grandpa) had a coffee and watched over them while my DD and I went shopping.

Believe it or not there is a new kids' toy out called Beados. Ridiculously expensive! In the end we went to two toy shops where I goggled at the price of things. Where do young families get the money? DD dragged me to a paper shop and showed me a well hidden stand stuffed full of arty-crafty kids' things and I ended up getting four different items (one of which is an old fashioned bobbin for knitting which just so happens to be part of a bead set!)

So half an hour of descanso and then it's off to all the madness of eight or nine kids running about like crazy, with outr two somewhere in the middle.

No beading this weekend

I did not get any beading done this weekend. Time just ran away from me and my beading. Housework what a waste of time! I need more hours for BEADING. The motivation thing is kicking in again and my days seem shorter. My head is whirling with ideas, I know most of them are way beyond my capabilities. But I would love to have the time to try them all out. Isn't this the sweetest picture.

Car-Booting for Beads

Just back from the car-boot sale. This is held the first Sunday of the month. For a while there it had stopped but today was the start of the local car-boots.
Actually I did not pick up anything, because it was the first for a while there was not too many people and so not much variety..
I am still finishing my colorful necklace. it is so full of color that it will go with anything. I do love this beading lark.

Another GOOD day

We had the kids again yesterday. No surprises there but what was a surprise they played fine together.Hania as usual bossing Sami but he had no complaints. I got on and did a bit more of my colorful necklace. I tried to do a little bit of a covering for a stone but I need to go back to the drawing board. It did not look the way I imagined it would . Never mind I will try again.

Back to beading at last

Had a really good day yesterday. Although I had the kids they played away with their toys (no fighting or squabbling ) I got a good bit done of the colorful necklace.
Now I am looking to try beading a stone. It seems a fun way to get back my mojo dont you think?

My trouble with Beading.

As I informed you before I have trouble finding my MOJO (my motivation). Well there is still a problem but I am taking myself in hand and going back to basics. I have made a few things, in the last couple of weeks, but I am not happy with them. However I started a colorful necklace today and I do like it, it is in a spiral. It started as a bracelet but , no it is going to be a necklace. Once I have finished it I will upload a photo .. I really think this is my most favorite of all the beading stitches.