Bead Soup Blog Party

Yes, I'm at it again: I signed up and am participating in the latest Bead Soup Blog Party! I got my beads from my partner the other day, and this is what she sent me:

My wonderful swap partner sent me this amazing mix of gemstone and natural shell beads, a toggle clasp, some fun brass filigree findings, a brass dragonfly (which Colden immediately fell in love with) and one of her handmade enamel rings! It's such a cool assortment, I don't know where to start! So many ideas, so little time... But the reveal is still a few weeks away, so I have a few weekends to get something made with this lovely stuff.

My beading projects seem to have gotten completely out of control lately. I realized at the beginning of this week that my Beading For a Cure project is due on MONDAY, so that means some serious bead-haulin' butt this weekend. And of course, I ran out of green Wildfire...

Lately I feel as though my head is about to pop. I can only take so much with all the crazy stories in the news and what's going on in Washington with all of our elected representatives acting like a bunch of immature, selfish children. There are things that I'd like to say here, but I'll refrain out of fear that my rants may become overly venomous. Instead, I've been turning my attention towards my blogging for Beading Daily and my beading projects and trying to spread some positive vibes and creative joy in the world. I'll leave the venom for another day.

This should be a good weekend to get caught up on beading. Some of those computer models show hurricane Irene passing directly over the Adirondacks. The National Weather Service is warning people to take their boats out of Lake Champlain this weekend ahead of the predicted 70 mph winds and heavy rain and flooding. Like we need more flooding...

Meeting the Universe Halfway

So, I'm going to steal this one from my sister:

There was a devout man who prayed to God every day to let him win the lottery. Every day, he prayed, "Please, God, let me win the lottery this week." And the weeks passed, and still the man didn't win the lottery. Finally, one day, while he was praying, he heard a voice: "This is God. I hear you. But meet me halfway on this one - buy a lottery ticket!"

I sort of got one of those "meet me halfway" messages a couple of weeks ago, just a few days after reading my sister's blog post with this little story. It kind of hit me on the head, and I thought, okay, the Universe is trying to tell me something. So off I go!

The result of me trying to meet the Universe halfway on this one was a set of amazing photographs of some of my favorite pieces of beaded jewelry that I've made over the last six years. As I was looking through my collection to see which pieces I wanted to have photographed, I realized that I don't have any really spectacular knock-out pieces of beadwork for myself anymore! It seems that I've sold pretty much every beautiful piece of beaded jewelry that I've made in the last five years. I've decided from now on, I won't be automatically selling every single piece of beadwork that I make. I need to keep something for myself, don't I?

That said, the photograph above was taken by Sherwood Lake, husband of the fabulous Nancy Dale of NEDBeads. She and her husband kindly offered their professional photography services to help me meet the Universe halfway on this one, and I couldn't have been more pleased with the results!

I'm feeling strangely motivated this weekend. While we're going to be doing lots of family stuff - farmer's market and playground - I'm taking a few minutes this morning to get a jump on my week. Something about meeting the Universe halfway...