How to hook up a dishwasher... in forty-seven *ahem* easy steps.

1. Make sure that the old dishwasher really doesn't work. Do this by starting and stopping it numerous times with the same load of dirty dishes inside. Start it, cross your fingers, let it run for awhile, and then stop it when the stupid beeping sound goes off indicating that it's not working properly. Open the door, stare inside, verify that the little soap dispenser thingy hasn't opened yet and that there's a large quantity of water in the bottom of the machine, close the door, and restart it. Repeat. Repeat.
2. Take all the dirty dishes out of the broken dishwasher and wash them in the sink. They won't all fit, so this takes several tries. Because you have a dishwasher, there's no drainboard on which to dry them, so use your best stacking technique to build a tower of clean dishes. Don't wash any of the silverware. That's too tedious, and there's plenty to get you through until the new dishwasher arrives.
3. Look online to see if anyone is having a sale on dishwashers. Sears looks promising, but they have a hefty delivery charge (more about that later).
4. Hop in the vehicle and drive to the nearby family-owned appliance store. They've been reliable in the past and have had prices pretty much in line with the big-name stores.
5. Talk to the salesman about what you really want in a dishwasher. White. Relatively quiet. Something that washes the dishes. Something that doesn't cost $1000 or more. Top of the line isn't necessary, as (with any luck) we'll be moving sometime in the near future and the dishwasher will remain with the house.
6. Pay $373.45 for the lower middle of the line dishwasher. Here's the good part. Opt to install it yourself to save the $119 delivery/hookup fee.
7. Drive to the back of the store and help the warehouse guy lift the dishwasher into the back of the vehicle.
8. Drive home, back into the garage, and remove dishwasher from the back of the vehicle. For some reason, lifting it into the back with the help of the warehouse guy was much simpler than removing it with the help of the husband.
9. Tell husband to stop ripping open the cardboard box that holds the new dishwasher because it will be easier to move into the house while it's inside the protective cardboard covering. He agrees.
10. Wait a day. We don't want to get ahead of ourselves here and do too much in one day.
11. Turn off electricity to dishwasher. This requires that the husband goes to the basement for the dangerous part (flipping off circuit breakers) while the wife stays upstairs to watch the light on the dishwasher door go off. Use cell phones to communicate between basement and first floor. Flip several circuit breakers because you forgot to take glasses to the basement and can't read the labels on the door of the breaker box.
12. Turn off water supply.
13. Disconnect old dishwasher. This in itself is another forty-seven step process and involves hunting down the big flashlight with the rechargeable battery, several screwdrivers (no, I meant Phillips!), wrenches (I don't know where you put those, so you're going to have to go find them yourself), utility knife (please put it back in the drawer when you're finished because that one's mine, and it's not to be confused with the dozens of others you have in the garage), removing everything from under the sink to enable access to the drain pipe, mopping up the floor when the dishwasher is tipped onto the hand truck, and then sitting it behind the vehicle for future hauling back to the appliance store where it will be recycled.
14. Bring the new dishwasher into the house. Once again, this would probably be easier if the moving weren't being done by a husband and wife who always seem to do things in opposite ways.
15. While husband goes to the garage to see if anything needs to be salvaged from the old machine, remove the cardboard box from the new machine by carefully cutting along the dotted lines at the bottom of the box. Take cardboard and styrofoam packing and place with recycling.
16. Stand and watch as husband begins process of figuring out what goes with what and how to hook up the new machine. Do you want me to read the instructions? No. Real men don't need instructions.
17. Listen to all the grunting and expletives that come from the kitchen as husband tries to take off the old electrical box.
18. Go to garage for another pair of pliers.
19. Go to garage again for a flathead screwdriver.
20. Bring insulation from old dishwasher back into house to supplement the thin layer of insulation on the new one (did I mention that the new one only cost $373.45? -- apparently that doesn't buy the thicker insulation).
21. Go back to garage to remove the 90-degree elbow for the water supply so it can be attached to the new machine. Listen to husband complain that the new machine should have come with all the parts needed to hook it up.
22. Go to garage to locate the roll of teflon tape needed for the elbow.
23. Connect elbow to inlet valve in dishwasher.
24. Reroute flexible plastic drain pipe so it won't get caught up when the machine is slid into place under the countertop.
25. Have husband push flexible plastic drain pipe through hole in cabinet while pulling on the other end. Stop! Don't pull so hard! Wait! You're going too fast! It's kinked! Okay.
26. Listen to more expletives and grunting while husband tries to fit arm underneath machine to hook up the water line.
27. Help push dishwasher into place under counter. Stop! You're crinkling the insulation! Wait for me to move my side! Pull the machine back out. Everything's crooked! Okay, try again.
28. Where's the wrench? I need the wrench. It's not level, and the only way to move the legs up and down is with an open-end wrench and a 1/4" socket wrench. Sorry. I still don't know where anything is in the garage.
29. Open and close door to new dishwasher numerous times. It's not as nice as the old one. Are you sure it's right?
30. Call the local family-owned appliance store to ask them whether the door is operating the way the one in the store operates. Yes, it's different than the old machine. It'll work better once the dishwasher is attached to the cabinet.
31. Open and close door a couple of times to test it.
32. Pull dishwasher back out from underneath the counter so some of the extra insulation can be cut away, as it's interfering with the operation of the door.
33. Use a utility knife to cut the insulation, even though it makes a raggedy cut and sprinkles fiberglass bits all over the place. Real men don't use scissors, I'm told.
34. Push the dishwasher back underneath the counter. Test the door seventeen more times. It's working, but it's not as nice as the old one.
35. Connect the flexible plastic drain line to the y-connector on the sink drain.
36. Go to the garage to get the tape measure to make sure the sides are at the same height.
37. Connect the wires that are sticking up out of the hole in the floor to the corresponding wires on the dishwasher. The wires don't seem to be long enough. Maybe they slipped down the hole a bit.
38. Go to basement to see if the wires can be pushed up any more. There's a little more slack now.
39. Connect the wires, now that they're just long enough to reach.
40. Where's the electrical tape?
41. Bring me some of those wire nuts.
42. Tighten the metal band that holds the flexible drain pipe to the y-connector on the sink drain.
43. Go look for shorter screws to use in the brackets that attach the dishwasher to the underside of the countertop.
44. Replace the front panel of the new dishwasher to hide all the electrical connections and plumbing underneath.
45. Replace all the stuff that was removed from the cabinet underneath the sink.
46. Carefully peel off the blue plastic protective coating so you can admire the shiny white front of the new machine.
47. Gather all the tools and supplies used for the installation so they can be put back where they belong. By now we have one moving blanket (for cushioning against the ceramic tile floor), one set of knee pads, two flathead screwdrivers, one Phillips screwdriver, several socket wrenches, several open-end wrenches, teflon tape, pliers, wire cutters, electrical tape, utility knife, flashlight, painters tape (I honestly don't know what that was used for), paper towels, and numerous screws.

There. All done. Elapsed time? Somewhere in the range of six hours, including the trip to the store. But hey. We saved $119 by installing that baby ourselves!

Saturday was a great mail day! The postman arrived with a package of goodies I ordered from Lisa Peters, and I could hardly wait to open it to see everything in person. I've been drooling over Lisa's work on flickr for awhile now, and I was soooo disappointed that I wasn't able to visit her at the Bead and Button Show this year in Milwaukee. It figures that she was there the ONE year I wasn't able to attend. Drat!

Lisa listed a few of her beads in her Etsy shop, but I figured she'd have lots more of them; so I shot off an email and then proceeded to hunt through her photos to choose beads and buttons. Do you know how hard it is to choose when everything you see is beautiful!?!? Somehow I managed, though, and Lisa was nice enough to add some new pictures of pieces she had on hand. She also answered a bazillion questions along the way. My friend and fellow beadweaver Carol Dean (SandFibers), who's been creating beautiful things with Lisa's beads and buttons for awhile, told me I'd love everything and she was absolutely right. I just couldn't stop staring at all those goodies, and I have TONS of ideas floating around in my head now. If only there were more hours in the day...

I'll take photos of some of the goodies in that box later (when the sun comes out). In the meantime, I'm busy taking notes and sketching ideas for how to use them. Want to see some of Lisa's work combined with beadweaving? Check this out! This is Carol Dean's work that she's showing off on flickr, but you can also find some pieces in her Etsy shop.

Yesterday I had just enough good weather (between rainstorms and helping my husband move our canoe around several times as he was trying to paint it and avoid the rain) to photograph my newest beadwoven bracelet design, Little Vine. It's so much fun creating these designs and then creating the bracelets. After I chose the colors for the first version of this design, I thought of a whole bunch of different combinations. I think for the next one I'll use a light background and do the vine and leaves in a dark color.

And a nice surprise this morning! Smadar (SmadarsTreasure) included Little Vine in this beautiful treasury!!
The treasury is brand new, so you can click the picture to go visit it and see everything up close. There are some beautiful pieces in there by some of my fellow Etsy BeadWeavers. Smadar herself is VERY talented, and I'm always oogling the pieces she creates. I really love this 3D Gold Trapezes necklace, but then I love pretty much everything in her shop.

Marilyn (aka GrandmaMarilyns) also featured one of my newest pieces in her patriotic treasury.
We're a patriotic bunch, aren't we!? Marilyn's Caribbean Blue bracelet would fit in there nicely, too.

Now it's time to go do something productive! And no, that doesn't mean dishes, laundry, cleaning, or anything of that nature. Those things can wait while I play with my beads!! :-)

Barack Obama is all about change, so when Emily contacted me to ask if I could make some changes to the Obama cuff I was happy to oblige. She wanted it a bit longer and also wanted stripes added to the "band" portion. A few thousand beads later, and here it is! She's already bought and paid for it, and it's in the mail so she'll have it in plenty of time for the Fourth of July parades. I've been thinking about doing another variation, maybe with a black "band" instead of the gray.

This was the week for custom orders, and I also just finished this spiral design for my sister in law. She wants to give it as a gift to someone, and she sat and looked through my Delica collection for quite awhile before settling on the colors. I think she chose quite nicely, with the color-lined purple and gold.

This was also a great couple of days for Etsy treasuries! The Etsy BeadWeavers Team has been keeping track of treasuries that feature members, so it's nice to be able to hop over to the forums they're posted in and see them. I try to visit and comment/click on all of them, and it's soooo much easier to keep track of them this way. I still go through and look for that little gold star to see if I'm featured in one, but many times I find that it's already been posted to the forum before I even find the star.

The newest one is one of my all-time favorites. Carol Dean (SandFibers) put together this Inspired Simplicity collection and chose all black and white, including my Black and Bright cuff. I love love love black and white together! There's still time to visit this treasury, too, if you want to get a better view. Just click the picture!
Carol Dean's Houndstooth cuff would have fit into that treasury nicely, don't you think?

Carol Dean (using her alias) also included my Bright Right Triangles bracelet in this treasury that shows off her latest obsession -- Triangulation! Click the picture to go to the treasury so you can check it out in person.


Want proof of Carol Dean's obsession with triangles? Click here! (I just went to do that search and found her newest listing, this drop-dead gorgeous Monochrome Triangle Pendant -- WOW!)

These others have already expired, but I'm still honored to have had my pieces featured in them. One of the newest members of the Etsy BeadWeavers team, miamiamia, included the Desert Diva cuff in her Beaded Treasures collection.
And... she included the Foxxy Cleopatra cuff in this treasury, called Did Somebody Mention Colour?
When you look at miamiamia's Etsy shop, it's pretty obvious she likes color. Isn't this colorful bracelet beautiful?

Last, but not least, is this fun treasury that was assembled by Kalos. It's not beadweaving, but it's another of my favorite things... snails. I just love some of these little guys!! Sylvia Snail was in great company here, wasn't she?
I visited Kalos' Etsy shop and found all sorts of beautiful jewelry, including this Toasted Marshmallows necklace which is ON SALE!!! In fact, she has a great sale going to celebrate the Fourth of July holiday, so check it out.

Now it's time for another dose of cappuccino... that's a good way to start the day, don't you think? :-)

Do you remember the songs your mother sang to you when you were a child? My Mother, who was the most important influence in my life in more ways than I can count, had a beautiful alto singing voice (among many other talents) and often sang to me and when she was working around the house. She also whistled beautifully, but it's the songs I remember most. Oh, not for the reasons you're probably thinking. It wasn't that they were sentimental or particularly beautiful or anything like that. The ones I remember the best were absolutely hilarious. I can remember pleading with her to sing them to me, and she usually obliged.

I've had little snippets of some of the songs going through my head for years, but I never knew the origins of them. Obviously, there was no Google way back then, and since I never saw her reading from any book I thought she made them up.

So anyway... On a recent trip to Long Island, my husband and I were being silly one day while we were riding around with the friends we had gone to visit. Our friends are pretty goofy, too, so there was lots of laughter in the vehicle. We were singing songs like "John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt" and a few others I can't remember; and I threw in one of my favorites from my Mother. I couldn't quite remember all the words, although I managed most of them (no mean feat, since I hadn't heard this song for more than 30 years). After I returned home, I decided to Google some of the words, and I FOUND THE SONGS!!!

You just can't believe how excited I was when I not only found the song lyrics but found someone singing them. It's not my Mom, obviously, but the fact that I can now sing these songs in their entirety makes me feel a bit closer to her.

You see, my Mom died 20 years ago when she was the age I am now. She was too young to die, and I miss her every single day. Everything I do, everything I create, is credited to her because of the things she taught me when I was young and the way she lived her life. I couldn't have asked for a better Mother. She was smart, pretty, and funny; and she loved me unconditionally. I think I knew that from the minute I was born. I'm thankful for the time I had with her.

So these songs... I told you she was funny. You'll see what I mean if you watch these videos. These are the two songs I remember her singing to me. They still crack me up.

The first... The Hunting Song



Is it any wonder I thought my Mom was funny? Here's the second song... I Hold Your Hand in Mine

Barack Obama and beadweaving? How do those things go together?

Quite well, actually. I'm not political. I rarely even watch the news. But somehow the fact that a senator from Illinois (where I live!) is running for President of the United States in the 2008 election has sunk in, and somewhere along the way I realized that the Obama logo is a neat bit of artwork.

That was enough to inspire me to create a beadweaving pattern featuring the logo. I just listed the Obama Cuff in my Etsy shop, so we'll see if there are any Obama supporters on the site. Judging by what I've been seeing, I think there are. Who knows, maybe Barack will visit Etsy and decide this is the perfect accessory for his wife to wear on the campaign trail!


In other news, I'm honored to report that I've received the Arte de Pico award from two different people, Lizzy T and Smadar. Smadar gave me the award at the end of May, but I didn't ever get around to passing it on to some of my favorite bloggers (one of the requirements for the award); and Lizzy just awarded it to me today!


I guess I'm going to be "that person" who breaks the chain. I really intended to pass the award along, but when I went in search of the blogs I like to read I found that almost every one of them had already received it at least once. I hope no one's too upset by my decision, but I'd really rather continue to follow the blogs I love to read without requiring that they choose five recipients of the award. Sorry. It really is a nice gesture, but to me it's a bit too much like a chain letter. I'm also "that person" who deletes chain letters. What can I say?

So, thanks to Smadar and Lizzy. I really am happy you chose to present me with the award.

It's Etsy Treasury Day! I was pretty excited when I snagged this one, called Turquoiselicious. A lot of the time I don't plan them ahead of time, but for this one I used the Etsy Poster Sketch Tool and had it all set to go. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that a couple of the featured items from this one get sold, because the alternates I've chosen are fabulous! I may have to switch them out just because I love them. Since I'm the curator, you can get a sneak preview of my alternates in this picture.

It's active until Wednesday, also, so go visit!

While I was busy creating that one, Carol Dean (SandFibers) was creating one of her own; and she included my Forever in Blue Jeans beadwoven pendant in it. Click the picture to go visit this one, also active until Wednesday.

And while you're clicking away, check out Carol Dean's Etsy shop. You'll find all sorts of beadwoven goodies in there, including this beautiful blue triangle pendant. I have it from a reliable source that she's become somewhat obsessed with making these triangles of late... I can see why! :-)

Another Etsy Beadweaver, Marlaine, was also busy creating a treasury with my favorite color combination - black, white, and red. Check this out!
Marlaine has a cuff (with the hilarious title of 'Gimme the Garnets... and no one gets hurt') that would fit nicely into her treasury. Don't you think?

Valerie (mistflowerstudio) is gearing up to start listing in her Etsy shop, so keep your eyes peeled. She's been under the weather for a couple of weeks and included my 'Frog in My Throat' ACEO in her Weekly Review treasury.
There are some gorgeous items in that treasury! My silly little drawing is among great company.

Here's a really fun treasury, curated by Rhonda (thecozyloft), and filled with a an eclectic collection of dolls. Some of these are downright scary! Rhonda included my little scalloped silhouette tags, A Little Girl and Her Doll, in this fun collection.
I went to check out Rhonda's shop to see what goodies she has, and I found this adorable painting, perfect to brighten up your kitchen. I can't believe this is only $5!!

Go check out all the treasuries!!!

Hello, Sweden! Or I should say God dag, Sverige! Said with a horrible American accent, by the way. I tried, really I did, to learn to speak some Swedish when I visited my friend there. She laughed at me a LOT.

Laughter or not, I decided to create this Swedish Checkerboard bracelet after I chatted with my Swedish friend (hej, Maria, my Swedish dotter!) a few days ago. It's in honor of the Swedish flag. I've been thinking of my friend a lot lately because she broke the news to me that she'll be having a baby at the end of the year. She's soooooo excited, and I am also. I'm going to start looking for airfares so I can plan a visit there in the spring. It's an absolutely beautiful country, and I love visiting there; but I've been there in the winter. It's cold, and three hours of daylight just isn't enough for me. I want to go when the weather's just a bit warmer. :-) She'll understand.