Beads I View by Pat - oblog

Just some quick thoughts: Here are some things to think about!

Why do scientists call it research when they are looking for something new?


Why isn't phonetic spelled the way it sounds?


Why are there interstate highways in Hawaii?


The items pictured this time can be found on my "Hair accessories" page at my web site store. These include hair barrettes and hairbands or headbands which I have beaded using bead techniques in various patterns and styles. These are only a few of the unique hand-beaded item available at Beads I View by Pat.

Respectfully submitted,
Pat
Beads I View by Pat

Welcome! Ole! Guten Tag!
Here's my thought...


By now you may have guessed that I love to learn. When I came across the following, thanks Zoe, how could I resist. I thought of you, right away and wanted to share it.

This is a quiz for people who know everything !!! I found out in a hurry that I didn't. These are not trick questions. They are straight questions with straight answers. No cheating! If you get the answer wrong, you'll probably remember it even longer. Use the information at a party to impress you friends with your knowledge. That could be another post. Useless Factoids... should I do that one next? In the mean time, no grades are given for your answers, although you might want to come back later and see how many of the answers you remember.
This is just for fun!

- - - -

1. Name the one sport in which neither the spectators nor the participants know the score or the leader until the contest ends.

2. What famous North American landmark is constantly moving backward ???

3. Of all vegetables, only two can live to produce on their own for several growing seasons. All other vegetables must be replanted every year. What are the only two perennial vegetables ???

4. What fruit has its seeds on the outside ???

5. In many liquor stores, you can buy pear brandy, with a real pear inside the bottle. The pear is whole and ripe, and the bottle is genuine; it hasn't been cut in any way. How did the pear get inside the bottle ???

6. Only three words in standard English begin with the letters 'dw' and they are all common words. Name two of them.

7. There are 14 punctuation marks in English grammar. Can you name at least half of them ??? (ah, come on, no looking at your keyboard)

8. Name the only vegetable or fruit that is never sold frozen, canned, processed, cooked, or in any other form except fresh.

9. Name 6 or more things that you can wear on your feet beginning with the letter 'S'.



Answers To Quiz:


1. The one sport in which neither the spectators nor the participants know the score or the leader until the contest ends. Boxing

2. North American landmark constantly moving backwards. Niagara Falls (The rim is worn down about two and a half feet each year because of the millions of gallons of water that rush over it every minute.)

3. Only two vegetables that can live to produce on their own for several growing seasons ... Asparagus and Rhubarb.

4. The fruit with its seeds on the outside ... Strawberry.

5. How did the pear get inside the brandy bottle ??? It grew inside the bottle. (The bottles are placed over pear=2 0buds when they are small, and are wired in place on the tree. The bottle is left in place for the entire growing season. When the pears are ripe, they are snipped off at the stems.)

6. Three English words beginning with dw. dwarf, dwell and dwindle.

7. Fourteen punctuation marks in English grammar . . Period, comma, colon, semicolon, dash, hyphen, apostrophe, question mark, exclamation point, quotation marks, brackets, parenthesis, braces, and ellipses.

8. The only vegetable or fruit never sold frozen, canned, processed, cooked, or in any other form but fresh. Lettuce.

9. Six or more things you can wear on your feet beginning with 'S'. Shoes, socks, sandals, sneakers, slippers, skis, skates, snowshoes, stockings, stilts.

Please feel free to drag your friends by to check it out and compare your results to theirs, if you want to.

Pictured are of handmade bracelets from Beads I View by Pat found in my bracelet/anklet category pages. I love to make bracelets that are lightweight and fun to wear. The first is a Swarovski crystal bracelet/anklet in deep siam red and crystal ab beads on stretch material, the next is a hex style woven stretch bracelet using faceted shiny brown/bronze beads, and lastly one of my favorite spiral rope style beaded bracelets in a beautiful capri blue color.

Respectfully submitted,
Pat
Beads I View by Pat - store

Welcome! Ole! Guten Tag! Salve!

Here's my thought...

I sometimes buy the strangest things at a garage sale. At least that's the the way it seems to my husband sometimes. But he knows me and we agreed a long time ago, "never buy anything at a garage sale (or a craft fair) unless we know where it's going to go. So, with this in mind, we set out on our bikes (trike for me) to just take an early Saturday morning ride and maybe hit a few of the neighborhood sales. We had stopped at a couple of sales on our tour when unbeknownst to me (he usually follows me in the bike lane) he turned off to follow a sign that I hadn't noticed. Riding onward, I noticed that he wasn't following (if he really needed me he'd call me, cell phones mandatory on a trip like this). I saw a sign for a sale just 2 blocks before our original starting point, and followed it into one of the mazes that flanks the circle around the lakes where we live. "And what to my 'wandering' eyes should appear?" A "waterbed" (water not included) ...complete with shelved headboard and 6 under the bed drawers. It was made of pine and had a few stickers, kid's stuff, on it, and about a quarter inch of dust and grime. It had potential! The kicker was that they were asking just $15.00! Now, I had been trying to think of how to better organize my bead repository, my bead room, and this seemed like the perfect solution. The parts to the bed were laying un-neatly stacked by the side of the driveway and my mind was working overtime putting it together in my head and justify the buy. It consisted of headboard, two sets of 3 drawer base side rails, two long trim boards, and a header and footer board. It also included the plywood pieces (2) upon which the waterbed form was meant to rest. I thought it was a fair price, so I didn't even dicker on the price with the soon to be former owners, and it was mine. My next thought, call Denny! And speak of the devil... he came riding up the street. It was a good thing, too, because I only carry about $10.00 and I needed a few more from him to actually complete the transaction.



Did he question my why and where concerning the purchase? No, but I volunteered it. Storage! We only had to ride the short distance back to our house and get the RAV4 to take it home.


The pieces sat in the garage for a week and a half before I had a chance to clean them up. I used very mild soap and water and a good hard spray from hose, couldn't hurt it! I then destickered it, let dry in the AZ sun. Further assessment of the finish, told me it had solid pine drawer fronts, all handles secure, drawer glides in good condition, with a little white grease powder lubricant, they functioned very well. The finish was in good shape so that I only gave it a good coating of Scots Liquid Gold. Beauty!


How did it get repurposed? Just like I pictured with a little adjustment in thought about the use of the side boards. This is how it went together.



1. Need to be raised off of floor. I had 5 styrene bin drawers that had been stacked in the space where the new unit was to go. Ok, that's my base.


2. Need - stabilizer where 1 drawer unit will rest - answer: use the two finished edge 2 x 10" side rails, adjust them to proper length so they don't overhang the sides of the units. (Denny's idea) cut off about 8" of overhang, thank you, sir.


3. Need - stabilizer between the 2 drawer units - answer: use 1 piece of plywood, with the extra overhang, between the styreen drawers and that unit.

4. Need - Top of Entire unit - answer: use 2nd piece of plywood, with the extra overhang, it forms a cubby-like area right next to my printer for my ream of paper and extra supplies.




5. Finish off by placing the headboard shelf unit on top of the newly set up drawer unit. Place my canvas lined baskets on top for extra storage, personalize with a few accessories, fill the drawers in an organized fashion with the "stuff" from the 3 cabinets that it replaced and "Voile'". My garage sale water bed find, is now my no nail, stable, super storage space, chest of drawers! And, I even have one empty drawer.... ummmm, MORE BEADS!

I realize that a true pro job could have been done with glue and nails and a base of well formed 1 x 2's, and more, adding to the price and time spent completing of the project. I may do that in the future. We'll see. In the mean time this is just what I needed for now. My total time in the project was maybe 4 hours including bringing the original pieces home. With these things in mind, I am very happy with my Garage Sale - DIY - Waterbed, storage unit.

And this:

Little Sue was standing in front of her mirror with her eyes closed.
“Why are you standing there with your eyes closed?” asked her sister.
“So I can see what I look like when I’m asleep,” she replied.


Respectfully submitted,

Pat

Beads I View by Pat - store


Purple pressed glass beads with Czech frosted faceted crystal beaded necklace... Use promo code "biv1" for 10% discount on total order (excluding shipping and handling).

I've dedicated the last 3 days to further education in my choice of crafts and in beading in general. There's really so much more that I could be doing, and I want to know much more. I have been designing and creating beaded jewelry and crafted beadwork for over 8 years. I have only taken a very few hours of formal lessons here and there. I have learned mostly from books and from seeing, and listening to what people like. I guess I am a sort of interpreter. I translate or interpret what is said or how a person reacts to something that I make. I think that's why not 2 of my created items are exactly alike.
I've approached this education by reading some of the beading books which I've had around for some time but have previously used to look up one certain thing. I decided to take a more thorough approach this time. I set my sights on some of the sections in which I thought I would not be interested. So, in my pursuits, I think I've picked up at least 4 or 5 more thing to try, including a couple of new bead weaving stitches. Beaded Ornament Ball

Now, to find time to actually do them. The family is coming into town the week after next. there's a new place that I have been considering setting up a satellite store to my existing web store, Beads I View by Pat, and they are having a grand opening sometime next week, I have to keep up with any orders that come in, including updating my store site and my books, and it's the end of the month and reporting must be do, books updated, etc. etc, etc... oh, and the house needs a really good once over (and child proofing) for the visitors. I also bought a water bed, with drawers underneath that I'm going to turn into a chest of drawers for my "beadroom". Pictures later. I want to keep up my blogging. It's fun, too!


Turquoise and Swarovski crystal necklace

Well I'd better get started.

But first, this:
An Antartian boy and his father were visiting a mall. They were amazed by almost everything they saw, but especially by two shiny, silver walls that could move apart and back together again.
The boy asked his father, "What is this, Father?" The father [never having seen an elevator] responded "Son, I have never seen anything like this in my life, I don't know what it is."
While the boy and his father were watching wide-eyed, an old lady in a wheel chair rolled up to the moving walls and pressed a button. The walls opened and the lady rolled between them into a small room.
The walls closed and the boy and his father watched small circles of lights with numbers above the walls light up. They continued to watch the circles light up in the reverse direction.
The walls opened up again and a beautiful 24-year-old woman stepped out. The father said to his son, "Go get your mother."


Repectfully submitted,
Pat
Beads I View by Pat - store

Selling is hard for me, while creating the pieces of jewelry is FUN! In hopes of a sale, what do I do? I hand out my cards to anyone who shows interest in an item of jewelry that I am wearing. I tell them about the other pieces that I have made. I often get an impression of style or dislikes in style about people from talking with them. My mind roams through my mental catalog of items that I have already created to that special piece that would look good on him or her. If I don't have something that I think would suit a person, SO WHAT! I often get some of my best NEW design ideas by talking with someone who doesn't seem interested in jewelry. I get impressions of color and texture and whether a piece should be casual, or simple, or more ornate and vivid in color. What would look good on this seemingly uninterested person? I know my inventory of products pretty well, but it's fun to find that certain string of beads that will fit with the design I have in mind. When I make a sale, I see how happy the person is to receive the gift, for herself (himself) or her (his) special person. I get a charge out of seeing a person's reaction to their new found treasure. Ego? Immediate reaction for a job well done? Ego, or pride.
Lanyards

But what of this new "venue" that I've chosen, Beads I View by Pat, the internet store? How do I reach the people who would be interested in my merchandise? In selling at craft fairs and farmers' markets, the people are right there, in front of me. Personallities interact. On the internet, that can only happen via the way I present myself in print. I put as much into my store looks and the pictures of items along with their descriptions as I can. Then I hope that what I have produced is good enough to make a person want to buy from me. I try to do my homework in discovering ways to promote my site so that people will want to visit my store and have trust in the items that I create. One on one interaction is limited to an email or phone call.

I an constantly learning new ways to get the word out about my store and what I sell. I am on a tight budget so I will take all of the free "word of mouth" or word of "email" advertising that anyone wants to give me. If you like my products, please help me get the word out... and If you buy from my store, please use promo code "biv1" for 10% off on order total (excluding shipping charges) as a big THANK YOU! (promo code good until Sept. 1, 2009).

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and just this:
Little Emily was complaining to her mother that her stomach hurt. Her mother replied, “That’s because it's empty. Maybe you should try putting something in it." The next day, the pastor was over at Emily's family's house for lunch. He mentioned having his head hurt, to which Emily immediately replied, "That's because it's empty. Maybe you should try putting something in it."

Respectfully submitted
Pat:hat:
Beads I View by Pat
Bead Well and Prosper!


Just added, EyeGlass' necklace


Memory wire chevron beaded necklace