Signs of Spring

Most people know Spring is coming because the air gets warmer.  The days get a little longer.  The daffodils, tulip trees and Bradford pears all burst into bloom.

All those are true in Kentucky, too.

But y'all, there is one no-fail, unmistakable, eye-popping sign of the arrival of Spring in my neck of the woods.  It's the annual appearance of Derby hats in the stores.

Just a small section of a local store that sells Derby hats AND has
classes in how to make your own.
Lordy, I am SO tempted!!
I hope that it you click on this photo, you can see it in a larger format.
It's eye candy.  Trust me.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, Easter hats show up in stores everywhere.  But let's see your Aunt Melba show up at church in this baby without setting some tongues to wagging:

Yes, that price tag reads "$245".  It costs a lot to wrestle the feathers off those birds!

Last year, Derby coincided with the royal wedding of Kate and William.  I did a week's riff on hats then (it started here), and I'm hoping to do something similar this year, perhaps with the twist of a challenge thrown it.

This plan may be scuttled if I get in trouble for taking pictures of hats in the stores.  I caught a little stinkeye from a sales lady in one department store who obviously thought I looked a little suspicious, skulking around with phone in hand.  Perhaps I should talk my daughter into making a trip home soon -- she can model the hats and give me an excuse to have a camera in hand.

Mwahahahahaaaaaaaaaa!  I feel so stealthy!

The Queen's Tiara

Finally, after WAY too long, here is something relatively fresh off of the worktable.

This crazy lace agate cabochon has been living in the back of the bead drawer for years.  I love the beautiful colors and whorls of this stone.  The shades of grey and pink are so soft, but the striations make the whole thing graphic.  It looks like a designer topographical map.

I decided to surround the cab with soft pink freshwater pearls, but I wanted to make them a little playful.  So they're standing on end.  One's a little wonky in this photo, but he's since been disciplined back into line.

The final result looks kind of like a tiara of pearls surrounding the cabochon.  Or a starburst.  Or a crown roast (that last one may be because I'm hungry...).

I'm gonna go with the tiara comparison.

Not Beady, But It Made Me Smile Anyway...

Driving down the street the other day, I spotted something bright and cheerful in an otherwise fairly icky stretch of urban sprawl.  Stopped and looked closer, and saw what it was.

Whoever thought it was a good idea to drape the hydrant in an old sweater, bravo!  It totally made me laugh.

Hope you find something random in your day to bring a smile to your face!

Just Call Me The Computer Killer

My laptop died about a month ago.  Since then, I've been borrowing my husband's laptop when possible, or using our old desktop computer.  The desktop computer is the one with the photo editing software, Microsoft Office, all the stuff I need when I'm not just surfing the web.

And now, the desktop seems to be going through an existential crisis.  It locks up.  It freezes at unpredictable moments.  It no longer speaks to the printer.  I've tried to clean up the hard drive by deleting some old programs (Office 2000, Office 2003, etc, etc -- told you it was an older computer!), but it stalls mid-deletion.  It's acting like a combination of moody adolescent teenager and stereotypical opera herione who's singing at the top of her lungs while dying from consumption..  No rhyme, no reason, no reliability.

Believe me, I'd rather be posting pictures of some of the goodies I've been making recently.  This is a beading blog, after all.  I have lots of pictures to share, but every time I approach the computer to get them ready to post, the computer decides it's time to freak out.  I swear, it laughs derisively at me.

So friends, consider this a public service announcement.  Do not, under any circumstances, allow me near your computer.  Apparently I am the virus that will kill it.

Dammit.

Up To My Ears In Soup

It's been one of those weeks.  I haven't had a chance to sit down and work my way through the Bead Soup Blog Hop until tonight, and I've only made a dent in all the gorgeousness.

And while I was sorry my name wasn't drawn as one of the 200 participants in this Hop, I realize now that it was a blessing.  One more thing on my plate over the past couple of weeks, and my head would have exploded.

And no one wants to clean that up.

See you around the hop!