Flag.

I cannot believe I've never shown you this crocheted beaded bag. I've shown you others that my brother Randy's mother-in-law Kris has made, but I think this is the largest she's done... and will ever do!

While living in our old house, I was into flags for a while. I had a cross stitch pattern I'd never stitched and I knew the chances of me completing it at any time were slim. Kris agreed to make it up into a crocheted beaded bag for me.

She strings on all the beads according to the pattern before crocheting! She has to be meticulous in following the count of the stitches. And did I mention that she did the pattern on both sides of the bag?

The majority of the beads are clear, which I think would drive me crazy.

I was so pleased with how it turned out. To help give you an idea of the size of this bag, there are two rolls of toilet paper inside of it to make it stand upright. I tried stuffing it with many different things, but that worked best.

After seeing the bag while I was taking photos, N. decided that it should go in his room, so he's taken off with it. He loves flags; we have them all over the place outside right now for July 4th. He was a little put off by it having two rolls of toilet paper inside, so he said he would put something else in it. It will be interesting to see what he decides on. My guess would be some small stuffed animals.

This bag has over 10,000 beads in it. Can you imagine if the order was messed up at around bead number 102?

A mishap.

Last night N. was at the neighbors' climbing the rock wall on their playset when he slipped and cut the very bottom of his toe, where it meets the foot. It looked deep, so we took him to the ER. Good thing we did; he needed five stitches!

It seems to still be quite painful for him, so a pajama day is in order.

Crystal Burst Bracelet.

At long last, this bracelet finished! I think anyone who knows me will look at the color palette and agree that these are my colors.

I thought the rose satin 3mm crystals would stand out more against the 4mm crystal copper bicones than they do.

The seven tabac rivolis are all 16mm. Laura McCabe's kits have different sizes of crystals in the bracelet. I think it looks great both ways.

Instead of digging out the class instructions, I used her book and the instructions were great.

I think I'll keep the Laura McCabe vibe going with my next project...

A peek inside the Japanese beading book.

I could not get the scans to turn out well, so I took some photos. They aren't the greatest photos ever, but you'll get an idea of the projects in the book. The techniques vary, which is nice. Here are just a few...

I'd like one or two of each, please.

Coming along.

The Crystal Burst Bracelet is coming along nicely. Before embellishing with bicones, I had to complete the clasp. Laura suggests using a Margarita bead as a button type of closure. I used the Colorado Topaz color, which is fine, but I almost wish I'd used something else. It blends in a lot with the bracelet. But then, the entire thing is going to stand out, so maybe a quieter clasp is in order.

Here you can see the loop part of the closure. I like when bracelets have clasps that are as pretty as the bracelets themselves.

I've begun adding the bicones. The first layer is 4 mm Crystal Copper.

Yes, I said the first layer of bicone crystals.

Books.

I am often drawn to books with pretty covers. I found this one in an antique shop. I don't know if I'll ever read it, but I have it out where I can admire its cover often.

I signed up for the summer reading club at my library. While browsing the stacks I picked up this one because of the lovely cover. It was a great summer read.

And I've recently discovered a Japanese market that also includes a book store. Oh no! That's dangerous! This was my first purchase.

Lots of crystals and beadweaving. Can't wait to try some patterns in it.

What's on your summer reading list?

Working on a project started long, long ago.

I am not sure when I took Laura McCabe's Crystal Burst Bracelet class, but it was a long time ago. In fact, the one I started in the class is still in my unfinished projects from classes pile somewhere.

I abandoned that color palette in favor of creating a new one. Here and there for the past year or more I've been bezeling crystal rivolis when the mood struck. Last weekend I had six of them done and thought I had enough to put the bracelet together. Wrong.

I need one more! Once that's attached I can start really blinging it out. I like it like this and have considered stopping here, but really, I need to see it through to the end.