Pantone Color Forecast -- Spring 2013

So these are the colors that are forecast for Spring 2013:

Challenge Accepted.

Okay, so I thought it would be really bad-ass if I just ended this with "Challenge Accepted" and strut off without looking back like there's explosions going on behind me. But I have to say that I'm really excited about these colors! Look at them! They're so Preeeeeetttty! And I can see myself combining them in ways that I may not have thought of before. Another bonus is that I'm pretty sure that I have all those colors in my stash already. I also have nail lacquer (that's what they call it now) that is the color of Monaco Blue that I bought a month ago or so. I feel like such a trendsetter! But I digress...

In a nutshell: 

*I'm super-excited about the colors. 

*I'm planning to start early. 

*Buckle your seat belts and be prepared for the awesomeness to come. <--Too much? Maybe, but we'll see.

November 1st "Eureka!" Moment

So this month I've decided to take part in the NaNoWriMo challenge. But I'll still be doing my beading of course. In fact, I have a boutique to sell at this Saturday in Signal Hill. It's at an Antique Mall so I'm sure to have better results than at Glendale a couple weeks ago. But none of that is the main point of this post...

Okay, so this may be a little hard to explain but I'm going to try anyway. Besides, I think it’s a great technique. So today I’m working on a bracelet and I need to add new thread. I already weaved in the end of the end of the thread I was already working with, and I was ready to add the new thread. Now, I would normally add the thread to my needle, go back a few rows, and weave and knot the new thread through to come out at the point where I would continue my rows -- dragging most of the length of the thread through the beads...

This time, what I did was go through the point where I would usually come out to continue beading, and I would only pull through a short portion of the thread and weave that back a few rows. When done, I put the needle at the other end of the thread and continue. This made adding new thread go quicker so I can get back to adding more beads as soon as possible . Quicker, except for this first time because as soon as I did it I felt the need to put a post about it on Facebook, but it turned into this blog post instead.  Anyway, I now have less chance of getting tangles just in the process of adding thread. Also, I don’t have to make any awkward twists and turns to make sure that the thread came out at the right spot.

I don’t know if a lot of people do it this way or not (have I just stumbled upon something that everyone does and I’m just out of the loop?), but I thought it would be a great idea to share and it’s something I’m going to continue doing from now on.  I hope people find this to be a very helpful tip! :-D

Today's gratuitous picture is of a cute, tiny snail that I saw on a leaf as I was leaving a friend's house on Halloween night: 

Smallest I've ever seen! About the size of my fingertip.