Congratulations, Netherlands!!

I got up this morning, completely oblivious to the fact that the World Cup competition had resumed. Luckily it was an early morning wake-up (5:45am), so that by the time I realized what day it was, I'd only missed 3 minutes of the Brazil/Netherlands game.

Brazil started out strong, but eventually disintegrated. Yay, Netherlands, for holding it together.

And yay, World Cup, for giving me an excuse to do handwork at 7am!!

I haven't finished with the beads, but I was ready to try adding shells.

Shells have frustrated me for too long. I can't get a needle through them, and Nymo is too flimsy to push through on its own. What is the answer? It's "fire wire." I bought it yesterday, at a Lapidary store. (Fancy name for a rock & bead shop.)

It's a slow process, but one that I find to be very rewarding. I use a needle to get the fire wire (a transparent fishing line that will hold up to abrasion) through the fabric, then I take the needle off and manually string the shell, then put the needle back on and work it through the fabric, and then repeat. I can fit about 27 shells along one side of the binding. Twenty seven have been applied, only 81 left to go. Big smile.

One of these days I'll have more than a peek for you, but that day is still a few weeks away.