Tag: beading

pondering pastimes

inspiration, Poetry, This and That

So what should I do this afternoon?

study my Russian lesson?
expand my online  book inventory?
repot a thirsty “Wandering Jew?”

walk in the garden,
read a novel
–write a poem?

I could get lost on google…
visit friends abroad…who probably are sleeping now,
giving their blogs a rest.

sit here and daydream?
fix something for dinner…
clean the garage?

get out my zillions of beads
and all of their appurtenances thereto
to borrow a legal phrase

ah, the latter may be the winner
of my afternoon busywork lottery
with granddaughter birthdays approaching

a tiny bit of skill, strong thread and needles
my treasure trove of baubles and beads…
crystals shining of light of their own

so here I sit, writing a poem
about shiny trinkets and glistening orbs
…inviting a nudge from the beading-muse.

©Sometimes, 2017

 

 

Beaded Necklace

Art & Artists, This and That

Here is a photo of a beaded necklace that I made for my daughter’s birthday.  The beads are Tiger Eye stone hollow squares, black glass square beads  inside the Tiger Eyes, and the round black beads are glass.

Beading is strictly a hobby with me.  More of a dabbler than a true artist, my interests involve various handcrafts such as crocheting (not knitting,) and assorted crafts.  Needlework, too, I used to like to do embroidery.  Fortunately,  I am a writer, and as such have produced work in a variety of literary pursuits.

As is the way with many crafters, I am a great afficianado of crafts magazines, and have ear-marked lots of magazines over the years, with little place-markers indicating things I want to make or do.  On rare occasions  something finds its way to my crafts table…mostly made of yarn or beads.

 

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Escaping the Computer

The Daily Post, This and That, Writing and Blogging

[The Daily Post.  Theme: Bloggers, Unplugged]

 

The sticking, tearing sound is ME, being ripped away from my computer.   Theoretically I sit here, in my chair at my keyboard, from the time I get up in the morning — having first started the coffee, fed the cats, and grabbed something for breakfast — for two hours.

In theory.  Actually sometimes I am compelled to sit here until noon…even beyond if there is a lot of feedback traffic on my blog.    My routine is that I check my email, handle any book orders, check several blogs, reply to messages, then write a new blog post.

I know this sounds compulsive and/or obsessive, but hey…I can feel the heads nodding and the clicks of the keyboards out there…I’m preaching to the choir here!

Sometimes I am not literally writing, but working on photos, trying to get my printer to cooperate, or reading other blogs.  I do a LOT of that.   I have about 350 followers and I follow as many blogs as well.   That means that if I am following — I have explored the blog to some practical extent.  I have some at-least-fuzzy recognition of it when I see the blogger’s handle or title of their blog.

I almost without exception comment on the site, even if I get into it and look around and find that I have no relationship with the content.  Once in a great while there is something that I don’t like.   In these cases I do not follow these blogs in the first place.

Gosh!  Every other word in this is I…. I did this, and I did that…what was that old rule that says not to use “I” except very sparingly?   You know, that’s the rule from long ago that was emblazoned on our brains when we were learning to write proper formal letters.    My typing finger DOES twitch when I use the first person, so at least there is some recognition of the rule.   But this particular piece I am writing here is based on the premise that since the topic and theme of the prompt is to chat about what WE personally think and do….well then, it’s OK.

So how do I ever get anything else done? Besides writing, that is?   Well, as I have said elsewhere Writing is now my TOP PRIORITY.   However, there are still “other things” that have to be done.   My son and I have an unwritten agreement about certain household chores…sometimes it is a sort of “stand off” situation where a specific task is not on the Job Description of either of us.

An example of things that I MUST DO…came up over the holiday.   My second daughter’s birthday is November 25, which is always either on or near Thanksgiving Day.      I wanted to make something special for her, so I forced myself to get off the computer chair and onto the “beading chair.”  I have millions of beads…glass, wooden, crystal, turquoise, stone…probably enough beads to reach from here to Chicago if laid end to end along the highway.     (I know, that’s ridiculous–but hey, please work with me here!)

Let’s cut to the chase.   I ran out of procrastinating-time, and dragged out my boxes of beads, selected some nice turquoise stones and black crystals, and created a nice necklace.   Then I helped my son make his sister a necklace himself, so that was a good use (I think) of the time spent watching CNN.

So that is how I take a break from the computer–kicking and screaming being dragged away by Priority Tasks.     There will be a lot of that this next month…another Birthday Daughter next week.   Then a bevy of granddaughters and their daughters who will get holiday gifts hand-crafted By Me.   And of course they all have husbands and sons, but that’s another issue entirely…

Everybody gets a crocheted scarf, too.  And a hat sometimes…although my hats always turn out weird and funky.

<a href=”https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/bloggers-unplugged/”>Bloggers, Unplugged</a>