Monday, August 23, 2010

Beading Frenzy

It's not really related to my house, but I promised my mom I would share with her the pictures of the necklaces/earrings I made this weekend. Carrie came over on Saturday, and we got our Crafty-Geekness on, and made some jewelry. Carrie finished a necklace her sister had asked for long ago, as well as another necklace using some of her beads and some of mine--both turned out lovely, though I didn't think to snap some pictures of them. I made three necklaces/earring sets, and then felt like making more on Sunday.
The first set I made, I used some lovely rose-coloured glass beads, as well as some mirrored clear seed beads and some silver-plated beads, with a gemstone pendant (quartz?) . I really like how it turned out.
Next I decided to finally do something with the jade-coloured stone beads I had picked up several years ago. I mixed in some sea foam coloured glass beads, as well as some more mirrored clear seed beads. I'm not sure if I'll wear it much, but it's a nice addition to my jewelry.
The final necklace I made on Saturday was a mixture of crazed earthenware pieces, black glass round beads, mirrored grey tiny seed beads, and a large quartz pendent. I know I'll get a lot of use out of this set!Albert decided to inspect the goods as I was taking pictures.On Sunday, I was sifting through my larger glass beads, and decided to make something out of these aquamarine faceted glass beads I bought several years ago. I used some pearlized seed beads and some of the left over glass jade coloured beads from the second necklace I made on Saturday. It's kind of Flintstones-esque but I think it's purty.
The second set on Sunday used up the rest of the rose-coloured glass beads from the first necklace on Saturday, as well as a rose-coloured glass pendent. I think it's awefully pretty!
The final piece I made on Sunday used this beautiful raspberry-coloured quartz pendent as its center-piece. While the glass beads aren't an EXACT colour match, they were close enough to not be distracting. I love it, and actually wore it to work today (it's a much lighter colour than it appears in the pictures).
Every six months or so, I get the itch to just bead and bead and bead and bead. And then I lose interest and move onto some other craft. I wonder how long I'll remain on this kick :o) I should make some Christmas gifts while I'm feeling it!

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

No More Peeping Toms*

The property my house sits on is L-shaped, with neighbours on both sides. Both of the neighours have houses that are set further back than my house, so they have prime-views of the windows on the back side of the house. Before the neighbours to the left moved in, John and I went to look at the place with our realtor to see what they could see, and were happy that they really couldn't see much. The neighbour on the left side, who knows what they can see. Regardless, I never feel quite right leaving windows un-dressed, so as soon as we moved in, I installed blinds and curtains.
The sliding glass door into the back yard presented another problem, because it's really tall (89") and quite narrow (56"). I got some curtains installed, and they were quite delightfully oppressive in their light control. But you know, sometimes, I don't like living in a dark cave.
I installed some Gila Privacy Glass Film to the downstairs bathroom window last year, and had a ton of it left over, so it occurred to me to install some of that on the sliding glass doors. I didn't want to completely obstruct the ability to look outside, though, because then I'd have to OPEN THE DOOR when prowlers were about to verify that prowlers were indeed about, and the kitties would revolt because they could no longer watch the lizards crawl around the rock retaining wall in the backyard. All the windows in the house have a faux panes that divide the windows into several smaller panes. So I decided I would mimic that by cutting eight equally-sized blocks from the film, and applying those to the window, leaving a slight gap between each, creating a "pane." I figured each block should be 11.5" x 21" which would leave around 2/3" between blocks and frame--large enough to see out of when you're standing close to the door, but small enough that the neigbours wouldn't be able to make out much detail when looking through them. This is the first window:
And this is what both windows looked like, finished.
All in all, it was a very simple project, and I think it adds a lot of character. And now I'll be able to keep the curtains open without worrying that the neighbours are watching me do cart wheels in the kitchen (HAH!) AND I don't have to look at the u g l y backyard.
*I'm not saying the neighbours are Peeping Toms. I'm just saying that I felt vulnerable and exposed and paranoid that everyone was watching what I was doing.