WildFire coming soon

Oh goodie, goodie! I've got a stash of WildFire on the way to me, and it will arrive early next week. I'll let you know when it gets here, and I'll be selling it on my website. Kelly R. tried it yesterday at Bead Brunch, and she really liked it too!

The 125 yd. spools will be $18, and the 50 yd. spools will be $8. I'll have the 125 yard spools in black and mossy green, and the 50 yd. spools in black. Everything else is backordered until probably January (a clear will be available then in both sizes also.)

If you know you want some already, you might email me at jill@tapestrybeads.com to reserve what you want. I have a feeling I'm going to run out quickly...but then I can reorder again!

Teaching around Texas

Yesterday's Bead Brunch was a super duper blast, as usual. Lots of folks I haven't seen in a while, like Susan and Bobbi. And then the biggest surprise was seeing the sweet and wonderful Betty Rodriguez! Betty was a regular student in our classes for a long time, and she is a delight to have around. She also had several projects published in Step-by-Step Beads, and BeadStyle magazines! She got seduced by lampworking, and we haven't seen much of her lately, but I think I might be able to pull her back for a seed bead weaving class here and there soon. Even if not, it was great to chat and catch up with her after 2 years.

Today's tasks revolve around a bunch of teaching I'm doing in the next week. Tuesday I'm at Sun City in Georgetown, teaching Russian Splendor, and then this weekend I travel to Fort Worth to teach two classes with ladies from The Wild West Bead Society - Russian Splendor, and Piazza Perline. I need to get kits together, instructions printed, and supplies organized for transport.

I survived the garage

Okay, so maybe I was barely in the garage. (shuffling feet, guiltily) But I was up late late into the night working on labeling and repacking my seed beads into the flip top containers I purchased in massive quantities, as well as creating (finally!) a master list of what the heck we do own. I'm amazed to find far fewer duplicates in bead buying than I was afraid of.

All of which means that by the time I dragged myself out of bed at 11am, Mom had basically put in a full day's work in the garage and was ready to quit. We consulted on a few big items - what goes, what stays. Mainly everything goes. And then we moved the crib out of the Bead Room to be transported to my brother's house. The new baby (due in April) will use it. Which gives us a whole extra wall to put more beads in there! Woo hoo!

So tomorrow Mom's going to buy a few more shelves for the bead room, and project organization will recommence. I'm also working on getting my books and stuff into the new bookshelf in my bedroom and out of the garage. It's all such a domino effect kind of thing.

Mom and I are in like minds about purging the extra stuff out of our lives, though, which makes it easier. I also went through a hall closet today, full of bathroom kind of stuff, and threw out about 80 bazillion old shampoos and lotions and stuff that I just don't use. I know which products I like - so perhaps I should just stick with them!!

Anne is in fine form tonight on her blog. You've got to check it out.

Vet visit

I figured I'd better report in after Maggie's vet visit this morning. I know she has a lot of fans out there!

They couldn't find any bone injury, and her x-ray didn't show any arthritis in either of her hind legs, which is great. So whatever is happening is probably a soft tissue injury, which we're treating with some pain and anti-inflammatory meds over the weekend. The vet will check in with me on Monday to make sure she's made progress in recovering. Other than that, we're supposed to keep her quiet and still as much as possible. No problem - she's been doing that herself already.

My hand is better, although still a little sore. Not nearly as black and blue as I'd anticipated.

Winston, predictably, is 100% fine.

Now, back to beading!

Preview of Parisian Lights

Oo la la...what is it we have here? Perhaps a little preview of my latest project, Parisian Lights, which will be taught at Nomadic Notions in Austin. Probably in November and again in January - I haven't set all the dates for my classes there next quarter quite yet.

Mom managed to name this project while brainstorming before falling asleep tonight. She hit it on the head pretty quickly - and I'm sure she was happy so she could stop thinking about it and fall asleep!

Winston zigged tonight while I was zagging, and his teeth collided with the back of my right hand, and now I've got a painful welt that promises to be a pretty bruise tomorrow. In the meantime, it's just enough to make me quit beading tonight. The hand motions keep aggrevating it.

And tomorrow it looks like I'll have to take Maggie to the vet's office. She attempted a small jump up on the sofa to sit by me this afternoon, and came up limping instead. She was in a lot of pain afterward, so I fed her a baby asprin in a piece of chicken and that made a big difference for her. We'll have to assess her again in the morning.

New Product Review - WildFire

I received a sample from Beadalon today of their new beading thread product, WildFire. It's their competitive version of Fireline, but instead of being plucked from the fishing department, this thread was produced specifically for the bead weaving market.

At first I was skeptical that it was necessary or would be much different from Fireline. So what's the point? But I admit right here and right now, so far, I'm really loving it. You want to know why, right? Well, let me tell you...

• It doesn't have the smoky coating on the thread, so no more messy hands. When you use as much Fireline as I do on a daily basis, you walk around with that coating literally ground into your skin. I'd rather not be mistaken for an auto mechanic...
• It's more supple than Fireline - kind of a middle ground between the softness of Nymo, and the stiffer feel of Fireline. The WildFire is a lovely weight to work with, and I have yet to tangle it in a few hours of working with it. None of the kinks wrapping around your working thread that I always get with Fireline.
• Even though WildFire feels softer, it still retains the non-stretch and water proofing qualities that are important to me.
• I tested it against Fireline in how much effort it takes to get a crystal to saw through it, and the difference was indistinguishable.
• The 50 yard spool is the same type of packaging as Beadalon - which means it comes with that clear plastic half-circle to cup around your spool to keep it unraveling. My Fireline spool is endlessly becoming unraveled and tangled when I travel with it. I haven't seen the 125 yard spool packaging yet to see if it also has the same packaging.

It comes in black (a true black), a mossy green, and crystal. I'm waiting for the wholesale pricing, but the retail pricing I've been able to find online is identical to the Fireline.

I'll keep playing with it, but I honestly think WildFire is going to be a winner and ultimately replace Fireline for me.

I've got plans to start selling some carefully selected beading items on the website and in my Etsy store soon - and WildFire will be joining them. Look for a big Grand Opening announcement in the (hopefully) not too distant future.

I'm so proud

My dear, amazing, talented, and insanely funny friend, Anne...

Caution: Week of work ahead

Something terrible is going to happen this coming weekend. It's so terrible, it makes me want to run screaming through the house to jump in bed and hide under the covers. So horrific, I can't even imagine what the aftermath will look like. So painful, I simply can't keep it inside another moment.

Mom wants to clean out the garage. I don't understand why - we can move from the garage door to the house door by negotiating a single-file path - with only a single location where we must jump over detritus. Good enough! Right??

When we moved last year we found that we had transported a bunch of big stuff at high moving van prices 45 miles from one house to the other, only to decide that we didn't really want it. At the time we weren't ready to get rid of it, but I think we've got to come to our senses now and JUST SAY NO to clutter. The thing I'm most embarrassed by is insisting on moving my old sofa from one house to the other. Now, I'm not ready to tell you just how old this sofa is. Or how 1990's huge floral the print is on it. I kept thinking, "but...someday I can recover it and it was the most comfy sofa ever..." Jill. Get a grip. Seriously. Although I really love that sofa.

I was hoping I could talk Mom out of garage cleaning duty in some way shape or form, but then she actually went and bought some shelving units today. Friends, she's serious. There is no escape.