She made / She made / She... didn't :)

Therese and Christine are hosting an adventure they embarked long time ago: they sent each other a package of beads and each month they design some beauties with it. Every now and then they extend the adventure to other designers - and for February I sneaked in as well, due to Therese's generosity!

Unfortunately, the crazy real life took a front row place this past month - and I won't be able to show you what I made. But I can show you what I received:

It is a lovely clay face by Susan C Clayton. I must admit - for the very first time in my life I am stumped :) The way I've seen faces incorporated is by bead-weaving a bezel... and you know by now that's most likely not the road I'm going to take. I haven't taken a picture of the back, but it has a lovely thumb imprint, and I just want to leave that space exposed, free.

So - still looking for ideas... I have high hopes for this weekend, I hope I'm going to be able to visit Dee's studio and work on it, so maybe I'll have something to show next week.

To see what everybody else created with their sleepy faces, please make sure you visit this month's participants:

Therese & Christine <- our lovely hosts

Bobbie

Hope

Shirley

Tanya

Cynthia

Alicia <- this is where you are :)

Moments...

(1) The GO bus driver this morning was chatty and very much what I expect a bartender to be: full of life tidbits and very diplomat. He encouraged me to follow my dreams and told me that

• I will be a great teacher, because I have such a lovely personality (that's the diplomat part)
• If I truly believe I can do it, I will do it (I happen to fully agree with him on this one)

(2) The GO bus driver in the afternoon (I rode with him before) was his usual cheerful self: there must have been almost 40 people boarding the bus and he kept saying to each and every one 'thank you!' as they used their Presto cards. Lovely.

(3) Today I saw my pink and turquoise clouds! Years ago, when I started trapshooting, one brilliant summer day, in the middle of the competition I was watching a few white puffy clouds... when one of them became... pink! Not fully pink, just on the lining (some have silver lining, mine have pink and turquoise lining). I realize it's just an optical thing (glasses, and special lighting) - but there are still my pink clouds. A couple of years ago - they became pink and turquoise, next to each other. And then again, today, coming back home - there they were, next to the sun, one pink, and many turquoise / larimar ones. You can't stop smiling after that - I just wish there was a way to capture them, but I realize it's my eyes (as Florin doesn't see them).

(4) On my desk I found a large bouquet of tulips (I bought them yesterday, and after putting them in one pot with water, I forgot about them): they were just screaming 'Spring' at me, such happy faces!!

The Creative Continuum of Seven Artists - Reveal #2 ~ featuring Christine Altmiller

Welcome to the 2nd reveal of The Creative Continuum of Seven Artists.  If you're new to the CC7A blog hops, you can read about how we became in one of my previous posts: Introducing the CC7A.

February is hosted by lovely Christine Altmiller, she chose 'Round and Round' as a theme and sent me these beauties:

I loved them the moment I saw them - the colours are so elegant (pearled grey and sparkly royal blue) and Christine's adornment is absolutely gorgeous.

Seed beading was out of question for me - as this past week has been a little bit of a crazy one (one paper presentation, one assignment due, and 2 other papers due... and that was only on the school's side!), I knew I'll never have time to attempt any beaded rope.

Rummaging through my boxes I found glass pearls in 2 shades of grey (no blue, unfortunately) and decided they'll work the best. Then - you know the deal: the TV on (side note: I am watching lots of Star Trek - The Next Generation with William right now, we've finally introduced him to the series and he was completely hooked after the 1st episode - they aren't even in order!), click-click, snap-snap, wrap-wrap... I decided to keep it simple and long (I have something with long necklaces right now :) ).

I've used the 2 rings as well - you'll see in a moment :)

The pictures of the finished necklace aren't very good, as I just finished it last night and I had no decent lighting (and no energy to figure something out). However, I decided to embellish the focal just a little bit more, to tie my beaded chain into the whole concept (the oval focal was lonely at the end of the long chain, or so it seemed to me).

For some strange reasons I added a clasp - although the chain is long enough to slip it over the head easily... Don't ask, I have no explanation - maybe my brain just wanted to bead 2 more elements?!

This is how it drapes in real life - beautifully! And yes, it is asymmetric - my brain could not cope with symmetry apparently.

Looking at this last picture I realize it looks a bit BOHO :) I wonder if it's the tassel or the beaded focal. Or maybe both.

It needs a name - I just can't think straight at the moment (my apologies, I am also a bit sick - a cold - on top of being overly tired, but this too will pass, I'm sure!).

I would like to thank Christine for being such a gracious host - and Sally, Theres, Cynthia, Emma, and Monique for playing along.

Thank you, too, for stopping by today! I hope you have enjoyed this new adventure - and please make sure you visit the entire group (it's a small one).

Christine Altmiller (February host)

Sally Russick

Therese Frank

Alicia Marinache <- you are here

Cynthia Macatha

Emma Todd
Monique Urquhart (January host)

Update [March 1st, 10:23 pm]: After realizing it's Downton Abbey that subconsciously inspired me, and because I love her to bits (with all her imperfections) I decided to name the necklace 'Lady Mary' :) Here's to the lovely Michelle Dockery's character!

We're back ~ and dazzled!

We are back! Not very willingly, though - we could have stayed there for another month, or maybe a year...

I am not even sure where to start, these almost 2 weeks have been fully packed with tons and tons of amazing moments. Billions of them.

Sunrise - on the way to the airport, Spain trip

Bye-bye, Toronto!

Hello, Philly!
~ or making the best of an unfortunate wait of almost 9 hours

Sunset in Philly!

Growing up in Europe I know North America is different, but having been away from Europe for so long I forgot the feeling of Europe. When we got off the plain in Madrid we had a very long walk back to the airport, through those glass-walled 'tunnels'. At first I saw airplanes: Lufthansa, British Air, and a KLM (if memory serves me well) and I smiled. Yes, we are in Europe. Then we caught a glimpse of the airport outside area and I felt the same huge (almost stupid) smile growing from one corner of my mouth to the others. Oh, yes, indeed - we *are* in Europe! The streets are not as wide, the cars are smaller, the vegetation is greener and lush.

It took a little bit until we were finally seating in our manual car (which only my brave hubby would drive for the next 12 days - if I'm asked to move to Spain I will either take the public transportation or buy a scooter :) ) but we finally started our long way to Andalucia, Granada, Las Gabias. At this point we were already bone-tired, by North-American time it's 8:00 am on Friday and we were on the road since 7:00 am the day before (through some incredible delays in Philadelphia). My job is to keep Florin awake - which means I need to be awake. It is a gray day, and the drive will be through miles and miles of hills and mountains. Perfect for a quick nap. However, I found myself fascinated by many things: the incredible roads (absolutely perfect), the memories of signs (European street and driving signs are slightly different from the North-American ones, and at once I am transported in my youth, when I learned them), and the infinite rows of olive trees. Four full hours of driving through olive trees - that's remarkable!

El Torro (The Bull, everywhere)

The tunnels ~ an impressive work

The tunnels ~ an impressive work

Rows and rows of olive trees... 4 hours of driving

Mountains, real mountains! Sierra Nevada

More nice highways :)

More nice highways through real mountains

And then - the roundabouts! Man... it took us (me as the navigator and Florin as the driver) a good number of intersections to fully understand what the idea is. We both know what a roundabout is, of course, but we rarely see one in Canada! In contrast, in our 10 days in Spain we rarely saw a street light - they keep the flow by using roundabouts... in every single intersection... each and every one... including highways!

We have survived both the roundabouts and a combination of one-way streets with a wrong GPS map right through the heart of Granada and we soon found ourselves at the gates of the Olympic Center.

CEAR "Juan Carlos I" - Olympic clay target training centre
Las Gabias, Granada, Andalucia, Spain

CEAR "Juan Carlos I" - Olympic clay target training centre
Las Gabias, Granada, Andalucia, Spain

Yet another way Europeans (in general) are quite different from North Americans: they truly know how to build a range :) There are handful of bunkers in US and less than a handful here in Canada - so you'll understand how incredible this sight has been for us: a lovely hotel (restaurant, about 20 lovely rooms, recreation area, even a store!) built right on the range. Which range has 6 bunkers, 4 or 5 skeet ranges (over imposed on the trap ranges) and an infinite numbers of pistol and rifle ranges. All on the splendid background of Sierra Nevada mountains and Granada (the city). Pictures don't do justice to reality. If we weren't so tired, I would have shot a round of two right there and then :)

CEAR "Juan Carlos I" - Olympic clay target training centre
Las Gabias, Granada, Andalucia, Spain
~ here we will train for a week, with Sierra Nevada in the background!

CEAR "Juan Carlos I" - Olympic clay target training centre
Las Gabias, Granada, Andalucia, Spain
~ here we will train for a week, with Sierra Nevada in the background!

CEAR "Juan Carlos I" - Olympic clay target training centre
Las Gabias, Granada, Andalucia, Spain
~ here we will train for a week, with Sierra Nevada in the background!

I'll continue our adventure in the days to come.

The barber and God

I came upon this story recently and it's too beautiful not to share it :)

A man went to a barber one day. While the barber trimmed his hair, they started talking about different ideas. At one point the barber told the man: “I don’t believe God exists!” “How come?!” “Well, if God exists – would there be so many unhappy people in the world? so many sick people? so many pain and suffering? I can’t imagine God exists and lets all this happen”.

When he was done, the man left. Shortly after he met another person, with long, unkempt hair.

The man quickly returned to the barber and told him: “You know what? Barbers don’t exist!” “Huh? How can you say that? You were just in, I trimmed your hair!” “Yes, but if barbers would exist, there would be no unkempt man like the one I just met!” “Well, that doesn’t mean I don’t exist, it’s just that not all men come to me so I can take care of them”.

“Exactly!”, exclaimed the men, “many don’t go to look for God either. That doesn’t mean He doesn’t exist”.

~~~~~~~

Disclosure: it doesn't prove God exists, it is just a reminder to keep our minds open and not close it due to incorrect reasoning.

First read on this blog: Exista Dumnezeu