Sometimes you just feel fancy

...or otherwise could be called "in which I spend way too much time on a bookmark"

In general, I am not a very fancy person.  I don't where fancy clothes.  I don't have fancy things in my house.  My garden is almost strictly functional rather than for "landscaping".  But once in the while, I find myself spending an insane amount of time on an every day item to make it just simply over the top.  This week, I did just that.

This is my new book mark.  It is gigantic.  I made it to hold the page in the book I was using for learning cables (see yesterday's post if you wish).  It is 15" long...and beaded...

This is the top.  It has three rows of beads.  Hold on, I think I have a more close-up view...

This is the bottom...

Ok, here is the top.  There is a row of dangly bits in the center, and then a loopy kind of row on each side.

and here is my very sad attempt at showing you how to make it.

I had a tiny piece left from my kitchen curtains.  Fabric that I love.  Fabric that I thought would be too small to make anything useful with, but I kept it anyways.  So I cut a rectangle, folded it in half, sewed around the edges.  Then, I strung on the beads.

I started with the middle row.  Just string the beads onto your needle in the order that you want them.  Top off the row with a seed bead, then string back through the row the opposite direction...all except your seed bead, which will hold everything in place.  Then stitch back through your fabric and do the next row. 

For the loopy rows, I strung on the beads for each loop, and placed a stitch where I wanted the loop to end, and kept going along both sides.  I took me well over an hour and a half to make this bookmark,

but isn't it fancy?!?

So, although you can see by the size of it, it didn't make much of a dent in my stash...but, it was stash busting just the same (the beads are left over from a bracelet I made for a friend a few years back).

Please come on over and join the stash bash fun at Crunchy Catholic Momma.

And speaking of fancy...it is time for Three Things on Thursdays.

I have 6 of these green goblets.  We use them for grapefruit (as here) or fruit salad, or whatever, when we are in a fancy kind of mood.  And for "feasts", warm water and a lemon wedge as finger bowls.

So, three things:
1.  Whenever we use them, N calls whatever is in them the "appetizer" (except when they are finger bowls, although they have both been known to skip the finger bowl part and just drink the lemon water).  He sets them on the table, and is just thrilled to be eating his "appetizer"...even if it was part of his supper anyways.
As I said, we are not fancy people, so a real and true appetizer does not make a frequent appearance around here.  It is enough just to get the dinner on the table most days, yes?

2.  I love them because for years, I imagined them as Tasha Tudor's finger bowls from "Becky's Christmas".
These finger bowls were a part of every holiday.  They were of thick green glass, and after dinner everyone wet the tips of his fingers and ran them around the edges of the bowls, making thereby wonderful singing vibrations without which Becky would have considered a Christmas or Thanksgiving dinner incomplete.
Note:  Mine do not make "wonderful singing vibrations".  They are just pretty.

3.  I once found another set identical to this, but in orangey-yellow at a vintage shop while I was looking for something else.  For $1.00 a piece.  It took every ounce of my will power to leave them behind (we are working on living with less "stuff", right?).  I have never been back to that particular store because I don't think I would be able to leave them behind a second time on the off chance that they are still there.

Enjoy your day everyone...will it be fancy?