Working against a deadline

Seems to be the story of my life these days! Yesterday, I told you that I was trying to finish stitching two new models by the end of this month, so I need to get started on those. But first, (and those two words are becoming a mantra for me) I need to work on my friend Katy's birthday presents. We both love beading, so a few years ago Katy came up with the idea of exchanging bead kits with each other, with the plan that we would make it up and send each other the completed, ready to wear item. This plan has worked out extremely well and so this is now how we handle birthday and Christmas gifts for each other. Having run through all her store bought kits, Katy has started sending me kits she has made herself by pulling beads from her stash, with the idea that I make up the design myself. She tells me what she wants (necklace, earrings, etc.) and includes the findings as well, the rest is up to me. This might be difficult if Katy wasn't so good at coordinating colors and styles. The beads in the kits she made up practically put themselves together-- look at this red/gold/shell combo:
And this blue/silver/Venetian glass combo:
I am having fun looking through my beading magazines getting inspiration and ideas for these. Hope to have them both done by tonight! (That's part of the appeal of beading, I think, is that it can be so quick to complete compared to needlepoint. Most of the needlepointers I know also do beading!) I will post the pictures of the finished items later, after her birthday on the 11th.

I also hope to work some more on this:
This is "Tahiti", a canvaswork design by Needle Delights Originals. A few of us over on Stitcherie are working on this piece in a sort of virtual "stitch-a-long" online, posting pictures of our progress as we go. One of us has already finished hers and was able to share insights and pattern corrections with the rest of us as we stitched along behind her. This has been so much fun so far and it's just one of several projects that I'm involved in on Stitcherie.

OK, now I'm off to start beading! But first... ;)