My lovely day for me

Today I spent the afternoon for myself in downtown Chandler & Mesa!

I visited Art on Boston to view Victoria Pearman's "Bo Ha Ha" beaded doll on exhibit there and enjoyed all the different types of art that AoB features, met one of the owners and had a lovely chat, she recommended the Pear Salad at the Urban Tea Loft which was next door. Here is Art on Boston's web address www.artonboston.com

I don't usually eat alone at a restaurant but felt comfortable in their lovely establishment and throughly enjoyed the Pear Salad with Mango Vinegrette and met the owner of UTL while I was dining on the salad. Glynis is a lovely woman who shared some of the history of the restaurant and I'm very glad that I met her. She recommended the Chi Tea Creme Brulee and since I'd never had creme brulee, I thought, why not? Well, what a lovely way to finish off the great salad! Since it was Chi Tea flavored it reminded me of pumpkin pie and was just enough to satisfy me in many ways. I highly recommend Urban Tea Loft and here is their web address www.urbantealoft.com.

After lunch I strolled down the shops along the street and found a wonderful glass store which sells mouth blown glass ware and pieces of glass art, di Sciacca and here is their web address www.disciacca.com. I even bought a Christmas gift there for my daughter.

I left Chandler and went to the Mesa Art Center, they have a lovely gallery and you can visit for free on Thursdays. The current exhibits include Tatoo art entitled "Beneath the Skin" Los Angeles car art entitled "Low and Slow" featuring a beautiful low rider car all painted and chromed as well as another small exhibit entitled "Reprtitive Edge" which had some of MAC's permanent collection. Here is the web address for MAC www.mesaartcenter.org In the low and slow exhibit an artist made a giant bolo tie using a hub cap for the center and they even had seed beads on it for embellishment!

The afternoon was so enjoyable and our weather is finally in the low 70's/80's so I'll be taking more jaunts just for me!

If you live in the Valley of the Sun, get out and explore, if not, explore via the internet and share some of your favorite places with me.

Beadily yours
Susan
Night Beader

November progress in beads and weight

Here is a progress shot of my November Beaded Journal Page. I wanted to feature my photo in a cornucopia and use some of my fruit beads I've had for many years. Since I've still got plenty of stored fat to use up I felt that this would be appropriate for my November page!

I do have some small sucsesses to share: I can now wear my black jeans that I haven't been able to fit into for over 2 years, I can now wear a necklace that I made and never could wear and today I worked out to Richard Simmons, "Tone & Sweat" video and lasted the whole 20 minutes!!!!

So many things to be thankful for this year.

Beadily yours
Susan Feldkamp

My November photo

Here I am all dressed up and ready to attend my niece's wedding on November 8, 2008. You can't tell by the photo but I've lost almost 30 pounds and am starting to feel more comfortable with myself. My husband took the photo for me in front of one of our rose bushes. The weather is finally starting to cool off and looks like no more triple digit temperatures for a few months - yeah cooler weather. This helps me feel more energized and it is easier to eat hot soup in the winter months. I can almost fit into a pair of black jeans I bought years ago and look forward to each new month as I make my way to a healthier body and life.

Beadily yours
Susan Feldkamp

I've been tagged

So now I get to share 7 random things about myself that I haven’t shared with you:

1. I'm mathmatically challenged, or as my dad put it, "You can't even do arithmatic"

2. I hate hot weather yet I live in Arizona.

3. I used to play in a handbell choir and could do 3 bells in each hand (the small ones)

4. I used to be afraid to drive on the freeway, back when the Phoenix area only had one freeway!

5. I used to live in a mobile home - I guess that could have made me trailer trash

6. I love snakes and lizards

7. I used to be very shy, until I'd worked at Motorola for a couple of years.

There you have it, my darkest secrets are now out in the open.

October's BJP is finishedfor 2008

Yeah, October's BJP is finished before the end of the month. I love the fall season and even though we don't have a lot of changing leaves here in the desert, I decided to make beaded fall leaves to surround my photo. Now I'm on to the October doll, way behind and try to catch up on the round robin doll I'm working on.

Beadily yours
Susan Feldkamp
night beader

September doll is finished!

Hi all,

Here is my September doll complete - yeah!

She represents my weight loss surgery. The 5 red beads symbolize my incisions and the green, yellow and purple beads symbolize the bruising around them.

Her face has a Chinese fortune "Courage is not the absence of fear, it is the conquest of it."

I'm now working on the October doll which will be the same form only smaller!

Hi all,

I had so much fun at our bead retreat in Payson, AZ. The retreat center was great, lots of room, kitchen to use and Ponderosa Pine trees all around us.

2 photos are of Gemstones I purchased from Galarneau's Gems, also in Payson as well as some photos of our retreat itself.

I even got to meet an email bead buddy, Jo Holiman, we've been emailing and doing round robin bead dolls for over 3 years. I knew she lived in Payson so I invited her to join us and everyone found her bead work stunning and Jo to be a great person.

Wonderful experience sharing with 23 other beaders in beautiful Payson! We hope to do this again next year.

Beadily yours
Susan Feldkamp
nightbeaderatlarge.blogspot.com