in february it will be my snowman’s anniversary.

Chicken soup with rice anyone? Last night I purchased Really Rosie from itunes for my daughter. I remember seeing the movie in school, and I loved the songs, and even to this day I can remember parts of Chicken Soup with Rice. So I burned a copy for her but I’ve already listened to it twice today, and I could just play it on repeat forever. What great fun songs, so catchy but intelligent too. Carole King is perfect as Rosie and her piano-playing is wonderful. I love this album! Ok, maybe I bought it for myself too. Lily may be a little young for it, but at least she’s listening to good music.

American Idol is one of my guilty pleasures (from Carole King to American Idol – these are the times we live in), and I think we should all have at least five guilty pleasures. This is one of the few shows that I watch live, rather than recording it and watching it later, and since I always have to be doing something with my hands that means enforced beading time. So I started working on my Irina bracelet again. I first started working on Irina in the fall of 2006, and I’ve been working on her here and there since then. She started out as a bangle, but then I decided that I’m not really a bangle person. So I took the bangle apart and am now working on a new design. I am planning to submit Irina to magazines as a potential project article.

During this week’s American Idol episodes I came up with a really pretty, and hopefully unique, design – it has an antique look to it, which fits my aesthetic. Here is a picture of what I have so far:

I’m using only Czech fire-polished beads for this project, in blue and silver. I love Czech fire-polished beads; they are one of my favorite types of beads.

First I used brickstitch to create two individual pieces of beadwork. I
then sewed these together, putting the blue beads in the middle. I need to determine the best way to sew the pieces together – it’s a bit tricky, but it’s just a matter of trial and error. And the individual pieces of brickstitch are so pretty in themselves, I think I will try extending them into another bracelet.