Being at loose ends

the rock garden necklace is finished -- in fact, today I'll be doing the entry in the contest and then we'll be back to the waiting

so now I'm trying to figure out what I can work on that will not require any purchasing of materials

when I was photographing some pieces for the Etsy shop, I found this necklace in the tray

I really like the design of this, but it's another of those pieces that still doesn't feel "finished"

back when I knew I was going to do this necklace because I had collected all of these pieces of stone, I decided that I wanted to use a black bead with an iridescent finish and use only one bead for the entire surface (unusual for me), so I bought a quarter of a pound of the beads

given that seed beads are basically a thin layer of glass surrounding a hole, a quarter of a pound is a lot of beads, so I still have quite a few of them left

and I've decided that the required "finish" is some fringe -- so I'll be working on that soon

it has not been a real good week here

Wednesday I wrote a check for almost $400 to have my van repaired (and I'm grateful that was all it needed!)

Thursday morning I discovered that among the aging appliances in my house, the dishwasher had won the race to dropping dead

so yesterday I went to my local store and picked up this item -- it's been over 30 years since I had to hand wash dishes -- but replacing the dishwasher is just not happening any time soon

the original plan for today was to travel to Denver to the Mancuso Quilt Show where my quilt is on display -- I wanted to take pictures and otherwise hob nob with my fellow wizards - er, quilters

it's not happening

my back is still just too painful to manage the ride that far, much less be able to walk around the big show

my sister may go and take pictures for me if she can

I'm pouting -- think I'll go work on the Hoffman piece (the feathers are almost done)