Micro Macrame Inspired by Downton Abbey

Downton Abbey is one of my absolute favorites - even if I am still mad at them for killing of Matthew last season.  Besides getting wrapped up in the characters' stories, I get lost in the period setting.  The scenery is amazing and the styles are sublime.  See - I'm getting a little giddy just writing about the show!  So when one of my favorite bead stores, Bello Modo put out a challenge based on Downton Abbey and Vintaj, I couldn't resist.

A waterlily ribbon slide by Vintaj became my focal, and to tie it in a little with my cord color, I hit it with some gilders paste.  I think it really shows off the graceful curves of the piece.

I echoed some of the curves in the micro macrame band, and accented it with vintage Venetian seed beads and some really old (antique?) glass seed beads of unknown origin (maybe French).

Using vintage beads was very different than the precise Japanese seed beads I usually use.  They are very much more imperfect both in cut and color distribution, but really like the feel they bring to this piece.

Even though neither Vintaj nor nylon bead cord were available during the time period, I had great fun with the inspiration.  And it was a great excuse to finally use some of the vintage beads I've been hoarding!

More Micro Macrame in Purple, Olive and Teal

I will admit, I can be a teensy bit obsessive, and lately I've been stuck on a color palette from a quilt my mom made.  If you missed the inspirational quilt, you can find it in this post.  The colors are purple and teal and olive and I can't get enough.  

I've knotted waves of purple and teal and olive and lacy flowers of olive and purple and teal.

I also admit I love to see multiple micro macrame pieces in palette side by side.  To compare and contrast, you know.

All that and I think I am not quite finished with these colors yet.  I still see inspiration in the pile.

Stay tuned!

A New Color Palette for Inspiration

Nothing inspires me quite like a fun, fresh color palette.  My mom loaned me one of the quilts she made (she's amassing quite an impressive collection) to change up my bedroom for a few months.  I chose this one in shades of purple, teal and olive green, and then was inspired to create a palette of cord and beads based on the quilt.

I found lots of seed beads in the purple and lavender colors, as well as the teal tones from the lower right corner of the quilt.  The upper left has greens that move from olive into a deep avocado color, and I found lots to mimic those tones, too.  If you look a little closer, you'll notice bits of a mustard/gold color sprinkled in there, too.  LOADS of inspiration for me!

I've been messing with this sinuous curvy pattern lately and I think it works really well in these colors.  I added some sparkle with a row of beads down the center and a shiny picot edging.  

The jewel tones in this piece are reminiscent of peacocks.  Today I thought I'd play with a design with a few more beads.

These colors are definitely helping take my mind off the January weather!

Experimenting and Keeping Warm

Remember my last post when I showed you this palette and said I was going to stop whining about winter and cold weather?  Yeah, well, I've changed my mind.  Headlines like this one: "Coldest Air in 20 Years to Aim at Nation's Heartland" and an overnight low of -15°F are just more than I can handle without whining.  

While I've been inside huddled under a blanket, I have been working on another piece from what I'm calling my "Cardinal in the Snow" palette.  

  

I'm experimenting a little with this design.  I added a row of beads down the center and a picot edging down the sides.  I wish think next time I'll use beads with a little more contrast or some sparkle down the edges, but I like the overall affect.  

To recap:  I like the picot edging; I do not like the winter.  I'm off to light the fireplace.

A Gray Time of Year

Winter here in Nebraska can be cold and dreary.  Through the end of December, I have the holidays to keep me distracted, but after January 1... let's just say it's never been my favorite time of year.  I've often said I'd be happy if I could just fast forward through January and February.  And most of March.  

Given the new respect I have for life, I don't want to fast forward through any time I could possibly spend with friends and family.  So no more of that whiny talk!  Now that I have my attitude adjusted, I just have to figure out how to make peace with the next few weeks of winter.  I don't like the cold, but I don't think it's the temperature that gets me the most.  I think it's the overall lack of color!  See that photo up there?  That's my yard yesterday.  Shades of gray.

Well, okay then.  If that's what I have to work with:

Hmmm...  it needs something, doesn't it.  So I'm going to pretend one of the elusive neighborhood cardinals has decided to visit my yard and add a bit of red to the mix:

Now that's better!  I'm calling it my Cardinal in the Snow palette.  The whites and grays make a really pretty neutral palette to make the red pop.

While I was trying to photograph this bracelet, my grandson decided my lap looked inviting.  

If there's anything that will take my mind off of dreary weather, it's this little guy.  And my beads!  So bring it on, Winter.  I'm ready for you!

We Now Return to Our Regularly Scheduled Programming

So, I've been neglectful of my blogging for a few days, but I have a good excuse.  We were just carrying on, minding our own business last weekend when life decided to throw us a curve ball.  

Last Saturday we were having family out to celebrate Christmas a few days early to accommodate everyone's schedules.  We bought our grandson, Carter, a Little Tikes school bus with a slide because he's such a little daredevil and loves to climb.  I thought maybe if we gave him somewhere safe to climb, I could keep him from trying to climb on everything else (kitchen drawers, dishwasher, coffee tables).  My son, Nick, was doing his parental assembly duty and then suddenly starting having a seizure.  Nick is 21 years old and is the picture of health and let me tell you, this came from nowhere and slapped us right across the face.

We rushed him to the emergency room, but after scads of tests including CT scans and MRIs, doctors still couldn't tell us what was wrong.  All they could say is that our son was very, very ill.  They were guessing some form of meningitis since the scans didn't show any bleeding or tumors in the brain, and were warning us that his brain could have already sustained damage.  They put him on a ventilator and sedated him to try to stop the seizures.  I have never been so scared in my life.  

On the second day with no change and no answers in sight, my husband and I made the decision to move him to a bigger hospital with more resources.  That hospital is about 300 miles away, so they moved Nick by helicopter.  I won't bore you with all the details and minutia, but believe me, each minute he spent in the neurological critical care unit was an eternity.  I spent nights in the chair beside his bed and held his hand down when the sedation would start to wear off and he would try to pull the tube out of his throat.  My husband and daughter would try to get a few hours sleep at night and spend days in his room conferring with the teams of doctors caring for him.  

On Christmas Eve, we got the best present ever.  They were able to switch the ventilator over to where he was able to breathe for himself.  This may not look like much to you, but it was the happiest sight I'd had for days:

Breaths he was taking on his own.  What followed has been nothing short of miraculous to me.  The doctors let him start coming out of the sedation.  He was still very fuzzy and disorientated and trying to pull at the tubes and IVs and wires.  The doctors were trying to talk to him and reason with him, but he was having none of it.  I just kept thinking about the possibility of brain damage and worst case scenarios.  They asked me to talk to him and when I did, asked him if he heard his mom.  People, when he very slowly nodded his head just a little bit, I wept tears of joy.  He was responsive!!!  They were able to remove the breathing tube and stop the medications keeping him knocked out.

He still had to spend another night in the critical care unit, but he was improving by leaps and bounds.  By Christmas day, they moved him to a regular room and let him take a shower.  By Thursday, we were able to bring him home.  He is healing and is doing so well.  

Yesterday, we decided to have our belated Christmas celebration for our family.  

Typical for his age, Carter spent more time playing with the boxes and paper than the new toys, but he was pretty fascinated with a Slinky.

Nick still tires pretty easily, but that just puts his schedule in line with Carter's:

So forgive me, friends, for my absence here.  I am hugging my family a little tighter and treasuring even the mundane right now.  Life seems so fragile.  I just need to take a moment and regroup.  Hugs to all of you and I hope you are having a great holiday season.

Busy Busy Busy

I don't know about you, but I'm running myself ragged this month trying to keep up with everything.  Between work and family, decorating and shopping, I feel like there aren't enough hours in the day.  Macrame is my relaxation.  My "me" time.  I haven't been able to do as much as I'd like with all the other things, but I did manage to make a really pretty bracelet this weekend.  It's done in colors pulled from my "raku" color palette:

I've worked mostly with the colors found on the right side of this pile, so just to challenge myself a bit, I set out to work from the left side.  The colors there are more of the olive greens and the coppery golds and oranges.  I tried.  Really I did!  I finally had to add a bit of navy to get something to suit me:

You wouldn't think it came from the same pile of beads, would you?  

If you missed the other pieces that rose from this mound, you can find those posts here and here and here.  And if you're looking for me, I'll be in the kitchen making candy and cookies and cheese balls for our family get-together this weekend!