Cross-needle Weave

Just before leaving the UK 4 years ago, Mike bought me Carol Cypher 's book, Mastering Beadwork.  This is a fantastic book, with loads of inspiration, and fantastic easy to follow instructions.  Over the years I have made a number of bracelets and necklaces using this book.  I wanted to show you one of the projects I've completed recently.  For this project I chose the cross-needle weave stitch.  This stitch uses two needles, but is fabulously quick and easy.  

Here are the results.  I love green and blue, and I think these bicone crystals look beautiful with the gold seed beads.

Carol's book Mastering Beadwork can be purchased from her website carolcypher.com or from Amazon.

Nepal Chain Stitch

In my previous blog is mentioned that I was working on a couple of Mortira vanPelt's tutorials.  Nepal Chain Stitch was the second tutorial I tried.  This is a very pretty stitch, a little fiddly to start, but very rewarding.  First, I made a bracelet with the same loop and toggle as Mortira, then, I made a necklace.  I wanted to incorporate the same flower like toggle in my necklace, but as a pendant.  I tried this, but, it just didn't sit right, as it wasn't rigid enough.  Instead I stitched Brick Stitch around a bead, and attached it in the middle of my necklace.  I think this has turned out quite well.

Here is a link to the tutorial http://inspirationalbeading.blogspot.com/2011/05/beading-tutorial-nepal-chain-stitch.html.   Mortira vanPelt's tutorials are so easy to follow and great inspiration.  Thank you again Mortira.

Ogalala Butterfly

I have been working on some jewellery making projects recently, whilst making sure my youngest daughter completes her school work.  But, we won't go into school work hassles right now.  I really love Mortira vanPelt blog Inspirational Beading, and I have been working on a couple of her tutorials.  The first tutorial I started on was, Ogalala Butterfly weave, which I loved so much.  It is so easy, and stitches up quickly, I've already made three bracelets and a necklace.  As Mortira suggested, I used size 11/0 seed beads for my first couple of projects.  Then on my final bracelet, I tried sizes 8/0 and 6/0 seed beads, which made a much heavier, chunkier bracelet.  There are still some other bead combinations I would like to try, I will let you know the results.

This is my first bracelet.

I then stitched the red bracelet and necklace.  The light blue bracelet is made from size 8/0 and 6/0 seed beads, as you can see it has come up a lot chunkier.

Here is a link to the tutorial, http://inspirationalbeading.blogspot.com/2013/01/beading-tutorial-ogalala-netting.html have a go, it's great fun.  Thank you Mortira for sharing this.

Barefoot Sandals

I made these really cute barefoot sandals using a pattern I found on Crochet Rochelle.  My hearts have come up much smaller as I used finer yarn than that stated.  I made a pair for myself and my two daughters. Thank you so much  for sharing this pattern Tia, I loved making them, they were so quick and easy to whip up!    Here are the results.

My Favorite Travel Photos 2013

Traveling all the time means I take a lot of photos, so I thought it might be nice if I posted some of my favorites here.

Photos from 2013

Rome

Almalfi

Lipari Island

Pompeii

Albania

Greece

Malta

Madeira

Lanzarote

Crossing the Atlantic

2013 Round Up

Our new Moxie

It's been a very busy year!

After 3 years sailing the Atlantic Coast of Spain, Portugal and the Mediterranean in our Beneteau Oceanis 473, we decided to change up to a catamaran.  After a lot of research and help from Multihull World, we purchased our new "Moxie" in January 2013.

In May we left for our next adventure.  We wanted to travel East again, as far as Greece, having only been as far as the Balearic Islands in previous years.  After having a great time traveling to the Balearic Islands, Sardinia, Italy, including a few of the Italian Islands, Sicily, Albania, Greece, Malta and Madeira, we decided it was time to cross the Atlantic.  See our sailing blog http://blog.mailasail.com/moxie for all the details.

Roof Tops in Rome

Lipari Island

Madeira

Please see my favorite photos post for more images from our trip.

 Mike had seen an article about a new Atlantic Rally the Atlantic Odyssey leaving from the Canary Islands to either Martinique or Grenada in November 2013 or January 2014.  It looked great, so we signed up.  We left Lanzarote in the Canary Islands for Martinique, 24 days (6 days longer than expected due to next to no wind) we arrived in Martinique. The girls had a wonderful time taking part in SeaBC SeaBird Count.  They spent time logging sea bird varieties, numbers and locations.  We also took part in another scientific programme by launching a drifter buoy to observe atmospheric and oceanographic conditions.  The Atlantic Odyssey was a fantastic rally, we had a fabulous time.  The Atlantic Odyssey team was fantastic, Jimmy Cornell and his wife and daughter were wonderful.  Plus, we met some wonderful people that we are still traveling with, or are keeping in contact.

We had a wonderful Christmas, spending it with friends from the Atlantic Odyssey.  A pot luck Christmas dinner was had on Moxie.  We ate our New Zealand Christmas favorites like a leg of lamb and pavlova, plus an Irish favorite, soda bread.