After a false start on my November BJP, I removed the beads and the fusible silk leaf I had created using a real leaf as a pattern. It was not turning out the way I thought it would, and the silk edges were getting raggedy looking with the handling. I was pleased that I could just pull off the fused silk leaf and return to the
original fabric "canvas".
So I began another theme for November. When I originally began this piece, things were going along normally for us, then Craig's mom suddenly was in the hospital and died within 6 days. It was a shock. Craig, of course, went back to say goodbye to her and be with his sister and brother for the memorial in Maine. One of the things she told me was that a ring with an aquamarine stone in it should be mine after she died. We shared a birth month and birth stone. I loved the ring, and was glad that no one else really wanted it. I am wearing it constantly, and am working on remembering good times with her. She was a difficult person. So, my November block took a right turn and became kind of a family memorial.
The turquoise beads are to remember the aquamarine stone in this ring. The divisions show that there were three children (with moonfaces for each child), one had no children (leaves) one had one child (one leaf) and one had three (three leaves).
The 5 large-ish discs in the upper left represents the original family... mom, pop, and three kids. The bead towers in the upper middle right have four beads at the tops and they look like miniature crosses in an old cemetery. There are eight of them.... for mom, pop, gram, mom-mom, pop-pop, Aunt Edna, Aunt Ella and Uncle Bub. The four large dark flowers are the four granddaughters... Diana, Sarah, Shelley, and Jill. And the four green leaves in a row represent the great-grandchildren (two of which are still to be born).
I am mostly happy with it as a "journal" piece, but it isn't the best workmanship I've done with beads.
And then I began my December block. I had chosen a really cool piece of hand-dyed fabric, and wanted to make use of the variations on it with the beads. I was spending the weekend caring for a couple of teenagers while their folks were away. They need rides and someone to cook, be there "just in case" and sleep over. So, I had lots of time to bead and just be available to the kids.
It was a challenge for me to do something in basically a monochromatic color scheme. I used some interesting square black matte beads for the first path snaking across. I decided to try a "nine patch" (a quilt pattern) in beads, and liked it so much that I continued and filled that whole space with a basket weave effect. The square bead at the bottom is a wood bead that I got in Costa Rica.
I don't really have any journaling aspects on this one... just that Christmas is a festive time with red all around to decorate the dark places with vibrancy and life. And one of the best parts for me is that December is only half way over and my BJP is finished! On to 2009!
We don't have enough to be used to it and learn to drive in the stuff. But it's BEAUTIFUL! I took photos of our picnic table on the 14th, the 20th and today, the 22nd. It is really stacking up!
The sun on the snow-laden trees and blue sky are a great combination. This is the view right out my living room window of our pond.....currently covered in snow, and I assume frozen solid beneath. We might even be able to skate there if this keeps up. 
Our marsh is already frozen solid across the four acres of it, and we had a community skating party there on Saturday. It was marvelous to see the teenagers skating outdoors! We had kids from age 2 to 16 and a multitude of adults of all ages. Some of us skated and others stayed near the bonfire we built in a mortar basin on the shore. 
