Just call me Wimpy

I wimped out last night. I was working away; I have 4 mari wrapped. I have the colors picked. I have a pattern picked to start the first one. The only thing left to do was pick up the needle and start marking, but I picked up the computer instead and played solitaire for the rest of the night.

It's okay! If I mess up a temari, I just have to make another one, and I don't even have to show anyone, or even post it on my blog. It's just that I want these 4 to be perfect, and perfectionism usually blocks my creativity.

I'll try again tonight, and will at least mark the first one. I know I can do that!

C's Temari

I told you how C picked out colors for her own temari several weeks ago, and then was very disappointed in me when I wasn't ready immediately to stitch it with her. I made the mari, and collected everything needed in a bag, and put it away. When C got here yesterday she was helping me stitch my flower temari, and said "What about my ball?" Grandma was so proud to have everything all ready for her.

C helped with the stitching, but she liked putting the thread through the keeper pins the most. It made a little popping sound when it went in. Grandma did have to do most of the stitching. C also enjoyed taking out the pins and putting them back in the pin cushion.



The last time I saw the temari it was clutched in her hand as she was being carried to bed. I think she liked it.

This is a picture of C with auntie J on Sunday. (This is shortly after the delivery of the beads!) Aren't these a pair of cuties?

Pretty Flowers

I finished my multi-pole temari this past weekend. I really like how it turned out. Each face on the multi-pole (12 pentagons and 20 hexagons) got a flower stitched on it with a family of colors. I checked back, and the pattern called for 4 rows, but I only did 3; most of the flowers have 3 colors in them, but a couple have two colors. I started with the darkest color, then one row of medium, then the light color over all.

The temari does have a different character depending on where you look at it. Some sides show more red/orange colors, some sides more blue/green colors. I didn't really plan the placement, but I'm thinking maybe I should have.



I was boasting about my stash a little bit in my last post, but I spoke too soon. This temari showed up a gap in my bead stash. I didn't have 2 yellow/gold beads, an orange and a coral, all warm colors. Michael's provided 3 of the colors I needed, but didn't have the coral. Neither did Joanne's. DD1 to the rescue! She picked up 3 tubes of beads for me at Caravan Beads in Chicago. One of them was a perfect match and I was able to finish. She's a designer, so I knew that just giving her the name of the color would work, and I was right.

I told you earlier what kind of bead storage did not work for me (the little metal cups I got with a kit). I decided to take a picture of the bead storage I use now, that does work. The plastic boxes are clear, so I can see the colors without having to open everything. They boxes hold rectangular "tubes" that hold the beads themselves. These are transparent too, and come in different sizes depending on how many beads of each color you have. This is my box of blue:



I have about 1/2 dozen of these, some a little fuller, a couple a little less. One of the emptiest now has a few more options, the red/gold one.

Personal note:
Many of you know I have been struggling with headaches since last October. Ten days ago I had a "procedure" that had about a 50% chance of working. It was the least invasive of the procedures on the list, so the doctors felt it was worth trying. It took several days for me to know if it worked or not, complicated by the fact I was trying to get off caffeine at the same time. I am cautiously optimistic that it worked! I was very depressed last Monday because I had gotten a bad headache on Sunday; I think now that was due to caffeine withdrawal, and that the procedure did work. That is the only headache I have had all week, and everyone is commenting about my changed attitude. I was hoping I would get my energy back as soon as the headaches were gone. That hasn't happened. I guess losing my energy was a gradual thing, and I will have to build it back up, now that getting up and moving around won't threaten a headache. I hope this isn't TMI, thank you for listening.