Back to the Beads
Over the last few weeks, my toddler has had a tummy bug -- twice -- and I've had pneumonia. My husband has had to work extra to make up for sick co-workers, my sister had a baby, and wasn't there a holiday in there somewhere? In short, I've worked on no crafts at all in that time. But there is one thing I did do: I downloaded and installed Inkscape , software recommended by a reader a few months ago that can be used for charting bead patterns. I'm very eager to view the tutorial on 3Dbeading.com that she also mentioned. (Thank you, Merris Hawk!) I can't wait to do some patterns, and I love that the free software is available. Once I get the hang of it, it will come in handy for more than just beadwork. (Also, thanks to Debra Wilson for her tip on Gimp . I downloaded that one, too, and it helped me to work from home when a snowstorm blew through where I live this past week.)