Didi

I have been beading since 1991 when i did a beaded embroidery and tassel class with the Victorian Embroiderer's Guild. I enjoy making christmas decorations and also am trying to be more creative with the beaded embroidery but it is slow.

My favourite colours are blue and yellow but I have been diversifying and wearing lots of grape/aubergine and lime (dull) greens. I do not wear black - reminds me of a depressing time in my life but I do use it in my beadwork. Every time I do a piece of embroidery where I can choose the colour palette I come back to mauve/grey/light pink or else blue-greens. I have done a couple of smaller pieces in purple and dark green and they look good too.

Some of my favourite books are: all Anne McCaffrey, I have a large collection. I am enjoying MaryJanice Davidson at the moment. Pride and Prejudice and also some of the spinoffs written by other authors about the family. I loved Georgette Heyer, Ellis Peters, Brother Cadfael novels and Baroness Orzcy when I was younger. Enjoyed Harry Potter and some other novels for teens, being in a school I have access to them.

My beading is a great pasttime. I joined the beaded journal project in August 2008 and completed 11 of the 12 months. This year I have been slow off the mark and am behind before I start. See my blog[http:\didi-beadwork.blogspot.com]

I make decorated christmas balls which I am going to put some for sale this year. Some are patterns that we have and others (at least one new one a year) are our own designs.

My beading always starts with blue iris and gold beads or else christmas colours but i try to use different ones so the members of my class can see options. I love using opaque beads and use more of them now than in the past. They make the silver lined / shiny beads pop.

I really like trying new herbal teas and regularly have green tea (gunpowder) or nilgiri (black) as my everyday tea. I fell in love with tea when I was not travelling in India but actually working along the road from the Twinings tea shop on the Strand in London and we used to go and try their teas. My first favourite was Lapsang Souchan but now I prefer more green / herbal teas. My sister in law gave me some great pear tea for xmas in 2008.