Weather Wimps

Okay, I admit it. People in the Northwest (and most specifically the greater Seattle/Puget Sound area) are weather wimps. Until yesterday (July 29, 2009), the official high for Seattle (as recorded at SeaTac Airport) had never gone above 100F (it has never gone below 0F, either, but that's comments for another blog). That is, until yesterday when the official high temperature for Seattle was 103F (with outlying areas going even higher). And, our low for yesterday (71F) was also a record for being the warmest low we had ever had.

Today is supposed to be a bit cooler -- only 99F for a high.

Bitten by the Beading Bug (Again)

Well, some hobbies are like riding a bicycle -- once you learn how, no matter how long it's been, it's easy to pick it back up. I found this out with beading, and I have to admit that the beading bug has bitten me again. When I was attending the UW about 15 years ago, I started stringing and knotting gemstone necklaces. This hobby was a lot of fun and gave me something to do while riding the bus and between classes. Anyway, I continued beading for a bit after finishing at the UW and going on to Microsoft, but soon found that time for beading was not in my schedule. So, after 10+ years, I got out my beading supplies to create a necklace for the National Open Salt Convention that was held in June in San Francisco. One our our costume categories was for a piece of jewelry that used open salts. What could be better than to combine one of my crafting hobbies with one of my collecting hobbies? And, now that I've been bitten again, I've pulled out all my supplies, cataloged everything, bought more supplies (Fire Mountain Gems and Shipwreck Beads are my favorite places to get beads and beading supplies), and am back to a nice hands-on, low-tech hobby to keep me occupied.

Here's the necklace I created using an open salt and a salt spoon as the centerpiece for my beaded necklace: