I wanna get away

Wow, it's been nearly a month since my last post. Apologies to my two readers!

I've had a busy month - vacation with Kristin in the Caribbean for almost 2 weeks, then a weekend in Ashland, Oregon for Dave and Lisa's wedding, and a visit from my parents this past weekend. Oh, and trying to catch up from all this time off at work. Which didn't leave much time for blogging.

So I haven't really been using my time off for anything very useful. It's true that I'm doing a bit better with my workouts, but I'm still not in a real groove. And while I'm happy to work less, I'm not dramatically happier in general. So I'm trying to figure out what it is I want to do.

TJ often comments on the fact that I don't really have a hobby. I guess that's true. This blog is *kind of* a hobby, but everything else I do falls into the errand or *should do* categories, like working out or cooking for myself. So in the process of figuring out what I could do with my extra 10-15 hours a week, I stumbled upon a new and interesting hobby while we were in Ashland.

Ashland is kind of a touristy town, with a lot of really cute little shops designed to separate you from your cash. I wandered into a really neat store that sold jewelry and rocks and beads. Lots and lots of beads. So it occurred to me that I could probably master the skills it took to make some simple beaded jewelry. Especially since I learned to wield wire cutters, a soldering iron, and pliers my freshman year of college in Physics I. I bought a string of really cool green glass beads and figured I'd sort out what to do with them later.

Like a good Techer, I purchased a book to learn how to make jewelry. I'm one of those people who needs to read and prepare for something before actually doing the hands-on part. TJ is more the sort to buy the tools and stuff and just figure out how it works while poking at the stuff directly. Anyway, the book I bought is Get Your Sparkle On by Lindsay Cain, a very fun book with a lot of beading projects that I'd actually wear (vs the grandma stuff I found in a lot of the other books).

So I finally got the chance to play around with this stuff. The first project was to make a very basic choker. The instructions were perfect, and very easy to follow. Here's what I made:

Not bad for a newbie, if I do say so myself. And it was fun and relaxing. I do need to get smaller wirecutters and pliers specifically for jewelry, though - the tools I stole from TJ's toolbox are just a bit too big for working with the tiny little findings.

I signed myself up for a beginner beading class at a local bead store next month, which I'm looking forward to. I'm now somewhat appalled at what I paid for a simple glass-bead necklace from the Seattle Art Museum a few years ago. I could have made that necklace in about 20 minutes, even with my limited new skills. But the beads were gorgeous, so I shouldn't complain too much.

Well, here's to a new hobby and hopefully more posts. Cheers! I'll post pics from my trips as soon as I get them posted online.