Azalea Pink

With all the snow and cold weather we are having here, I haven't seen much garden color.  Frankly, I haven't seen my garden at all, since it is all under something white!  Our indoor azalea is doing me the favor of blooming, so I am enjoying its color now.  It looks a lot like the "color of the year", which has been deemed to be "honeysuckle pink".  I have never grown pink honeysuckle but I would like to do so.  For now, I will be satisfied with this small azalea plant.

Garnet Red Barrettes

I purchased some barrette backings a while back, and then couldn't decide what to do with them.  I tried gluing ribbon, which failed.  I tried gluing glitter, oh that didn't look right.  I thought large flatbacks or buttons might look strange.  Then I made a section of bead weave, which, after many different attempts, came out just right.  So it reminds me of the story of Goldilocks, who kept trying things and saying "this one's too hot, this one's too cold" until she came across the right combination. 

If you are a beadweaver, you will see that I used the right angle weave.  I originally tried Miyuki 6's, and they just flippity flopped.  When I used these 6mm druks, it all seemed to work out nicely. 

I plan to try out some other beads, like glass pearls, fire polished rounds, or maybe some 4mm druks.  Then I might venture out into a peyote stitch with the smaller seed beads to see how that works.  But don't hold your breath on me fiddling with a complicated stitch pattern and the tinier seed beads!  Oh no!  To paraphrase Dr. McCoy from StarTrek, "Jim, I'm a beader not a weaver!"