 room, but it always ends up spreading through the entire house!
I live in a cute neighborhood in Seattle called Columbia City with my rescue dog Scout. When I am not beading, I can be found riding my bike, kayaking, or hiking in and around Seattle. And I try to travel as much as I can. My happy places are Lake Tahoe, Rome and Orcas Island, but I want to go everywhere! The list is long and growing, next up is Iceland or Machu Picchu. I also stay busy by serving on the Young Professional Board for a local organization Treehouse, which helps support youth in foster care in Washington State. And I volunteer every month in their store where foster youth can shop called the Wearhouse.
My favorite product, projects and techniques are always changing. Right now, I’m on a bead crochet rope bracelet kick. I’m trying to make my way through all of the Delica colors. They are just so gorgeous that I want to have an entire collection of them! I’ve made about 60-70 so far. I love the texture that you get in these bracelets. Only 1100 or so more to go. Yikes! I also love working with lots of color. Our new seed bead palettes are calling my name! I had fun using one of the new mini palettes in our new Beachy Necklace and Beachy Bracelet. I also created the Deco and Coastal crochet rope bracelets using our original collection of seed bead palettes and had fun playing with different patterns and color blocking with these!
When I’m not obsessing over bead crochet, I also love to right angle weave, wire wrap and of course just string up beads. Below are some of my favorite projects that we’ve featured on the site over the years.
And to wrap this all up, THANK YOU! I love being inspired by everything that we see you, our customers, making and sharing with us. We have such a vibrant and creative community of beaders that support us. It’s so fun to see how everyone uses beads in their own unique way and to find inspiration from each other. Looking forward to many more years of sharing my love of beading with you.
P.S. Look out for my takeover on Instagram this week! I’ll be sharing more of my life and beading adventures with you there!
4 comments to Designer Spotlight – Meet Katie!
You are doing great work Katie. Keep up the good work!
I am truly inspired by you and your creative work Katie.
How fun to read about your busy and talented lifestyle! I LOVE Fusion Beads and hope to see more of your work for future inspiration. I am now on a mission to learn that crochet stitch for those cool bracelets you featured.
on July 23, 2017.365 Days of Localism
By admin | September 30, 2011
By:Â Melaina Gasbarrino
Imagine a year without Target, Starbucks, Costco or Walmart. It might be a tough feat to beat but the Levitch Family of Scottsdale, Arizona, pledged they would buy local for a year. Localism, defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as “an affection or partiality for a particular place,” is all about buying, eating and shopping locally. It’s about ensuring the mom-and-pop shops in your town stay open.
Lets first take a look at the statistics, for you to understand why localism is so important. A study found in Grand Rapids, Michigan demonstrated localism is the way to go as “for every $100 spent at a local business, $73 remains in the local economy, compared to $43 if the same $100 was spent on a non-local merchant.” Also, if you shop locally, your money is continually re-circulated in the community, which in essence generates up to 75% more tax revenue to your community and state. Finally, on eLocal’s blog, because “transportation costs alone by shipping produce creates emissions of 1 billion metric tons of CO2 and uses 11 billion gallons of fuel per year internationally,” localism should be your next step in creating a greener, locally grown world.
What spurred The Levitch Family to buy local was when they saw their favorite Middle Eastern mom-and-pop shop had to close its doors due to economic hardship. In seeing this, the family of four made a pact they would buy local for a year. Their journey can be followed on One Local Family, The Levitch’s blog, where a plan is devised to create a nationwide movement in supporting local businesses. The process became ever so easy for them as noted in Pauline Arrillaga’s “Of The Moment: One Family’s Adventures in Localism,” as they found “Local First Arizona, a buy-local coalition with around 2,000 members with dining, entertainment and necessity local options.” With a plan, a blog, and a whole lot of information readily available to them the Levitch family continues on with their year of localism. 270 days and counting, we wish the Levitch family a whole lot of success on their campaign to go 365 days of living local.
Looking to get inspired from buying locally? Here are a few things you can do:
- Look for local restaurants like The Red Rooster who focus on developing a localized community
- Shop at your local farmers market, The Harlem Farmers Market is one of the best
- Join ABC’s Made in America Pledge
- Read “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life” by Barbara Kingsolver
- Encourage others to go local today
How often do you buy locally?
For more updates on local eating, follow me on Twitter (@MarcusCooks)
Photo:Â andy castro
More about: Farmers Market, food politics, local, melaina gasbarrino, shoppingHi, I am 6 ft tall, weigh 92 kg and had some boobage thanks to 3 years of HRT.

I was a 16B cup, and wanted to go to E as I am quite broad across my shoulders and had quite developed pecs.

The plan was to go to 450 cc, and to have teardrop implants inserted intraplanal so the top is anchored under the muscle, as it would promote fullness under my nipple line and give me more cis looking breasts.

At my consultation the surgeon determined that my skin was too thick and he couldn't fit 450s and close up the incision without tearing. I wasn't too happy but told him to go as big as he could.

He ended up fitting in 375 cc. Surprisingly they have worked out incredibly well, if you look at my post history I have put an image up taken a few weeks after surgery. I am 3 months down the track now and they have dropped and softened and I am an 16 DD.

I think it all comes down to the shape of the implant and the surgeon's skill in maximizing its benefit.SF Tools, the world’s leader in heat shrink tools, was looking to rebrand from Shrinkfast to SF Tools. Understanding that their audience is very visual and actively consuming video, they looked for video to be an important component of the rebrand.
SF Tools was selected to partner with Granite River Studios based on their portfolio which includes a strong collection of company storytelling pieces.
Granite River was selected by Chuck Sink Link who developed the storyboards and wrote the content for the series. To maintain consistency, all the videos in the series had a similar look and feel with different applications depending on the tool being showcased.
The videos served to tell the SF Tools story while educating customers and showcasing the product in action. This series was based on the application of devices SF Tools manufactures. The location and on-screen elements were selected based on the application of each of the tools and who the target audience was.
The first one had a marina setting showcasing the ability to quickly and safely shrink-wrap a boat. It featured a highly qualified expert demonstrating the product. After the scripts and storyboards were approved to ensure technical accuracy, the footage was shot both in the field and in the studio. Additional assets were provided by 3 Ton Group based in Chicago. The footage demonstrated the powerful capability of the product. Voiceover and on-screen graphics shared the technical and safety information. Finally, a call-to-action led people to distributors for more information. GRS used the collected footage to produce a high-energy 1-2 minute piece using visuals, text, voice-over talent, and music.
Contact Granite River Studios for your next project today.We thank Tom Thompson, Deputy Regional Forester, Rocky
Mountain Region, for providing a copy of the trails section from this
historic document.
There is need of more and better trails on most of the National Forests. They are of capital importance, because they are not only the best insurance against fire, but one of the chief means by which the Forests can be seen and used.
A general system or scheme of trails for the whole Forest should first be carefully thought out and decided upon, and those of the greatest immediate importance for protection and patrol should be built first. Trails urgently needed may be made good enough for ordinary saddle-horse or pack-train travel at once, with a view to improvement and permanence later on.
The most important part of trail work, and that for which the supervisor will be held directly responsible, is the preliminary location of the line and grade. Construction work should not begin until he is satisfied that the best route has been selected.
The maximum grade of all Forest trails should be 20 per cent, unless the expense of keeping within this limit is absolutely prohibitive. When