I have to start somewhere...

Most of the stuff you will see here is about books and beads.

Reading is my oldest hobby, I have practically read thousands of books since childhood and I still continue to do so at a staggering pace. In 2005 I have read 130 books and in 2006 my goal of 150 books has been achieved and surpased: finished 170 books, yayy to me!
My reading pleasures consist of romantic suspense, paranormal romance and a *subgengre* created by a group of book enthusiasts at the bookrelay.com forum, called 'sick shit'.
This mini-genre encompasses books about serial killers, psychos, descriptions with gruesome and gory details *grins*. The gorier, the better!

Some of the book pages I frequent are:
www.bookcrossing.com - the place where I've learned to let go of my collection of books *sigh* - my bookcrossing page is here: kislany.bookcrossing.com
www.bookmooch.com - THE best and most 'in' trading site over the net - it's geared towards the whole world. If you want to see the books I have available in my bookmooch inventory, just follow this link: http://bookmooch.com/m/inventory/kislany
www.titletrader.com - another international trading site, however bookmooch is, in my oppinion', way better!

Although reading is my main hobby, I've recently got also the beading bug. I'm particularly interested in seed beading, i.e. beadweaving with seed beads.

I started beading about 3 years ago, and after a while, I left it at that, still not quite sure why - I got bored, or sidetracked, or something else. After two years, however, here I am again, beading like there's nothing else around *lol*.

For all my jewelry pieces, visit my Webshots page at: community.webshots.com/user/marikasbeading03

Below are a couple of things I've done recently (since December, really).

This is a netting piece with dark seedbeads and wooden beads as accent. It was taken from a Russian beading book (of which I have quite a few at home - check out www.ozon.ru for books to buy directly from Russia - it ships all over the world).

This bracelet is called Sherazade Candy, after a pattern by www.serial-beader.com
It's a pretty popular stitch, particularly among the French beaders.
The necklace below, which I beaded yesterday, has a rather striking colour combination. Not by chance. It goes very well with an orange blouse I have (colour identical with the ligher orange in this necklace), and so far I didn't have any jewelry to go with it. Well, now I have.
And yes, I've got a bracelet or necklace to go with almost every outfit I have at home, *lol*. Sometimes I get the urge to buy a particular blouse just so it can match some jewelry I previously made!