The Bead Soup Blog Party!

And of course, here I am, late to the party as always...

My partner, Kim Hora, sent me this:

I was totally in love with these gorgeous handmade enamel rings that she sent. Kim even sent me an extra ring to play with later! I had no idea what to do with any of them, and they were certainly out of my comfort zone, even though I loved the colors. I just don't do that much with metals!

A trip to my local Michael's craft store and some new brass chain was what I needed. I came home, sat down with the chain and my headpins, and created this:

Totally NOT what I usually do, but it's still my style! I think I'm going to get a lot of wear out of this necklace - in fact, I'm wearing it right now!

I loved playing with different combinations of beads and those filigree bead caps on the headpins. That brass flower was going to get used, no matter what, I decided. I decided to save the dragonfly for another project - and besides, Colden likes to come up to my work pad (where the dragonfly currently lives), gently lift it up and make it "fly" away across the house for a little while.

Thanks so much to Lori for making this all happen! I can't imagine what kind of work goes into pulling off something like this. This is my third Bead Soup Blog Party, and I can't wait to sign up for the next one!

If you want to see all of the gorgeous designs that were made around the world in this Bead Soup Blog Party, you can find the whole list here. And make sure you drop by Lori's blog and take a look at her Bead Soup pieces - absolutely gorgeous!

And now, I go take a rest. Tom and his friend have been on the roof all day, tearing off shingles and putting on paper, and it sounds like they are starting to hammer down another layer of something. Colden and I went to Plattsburgh and ran errands, then I came home and put away all the groceries, made lunch, did the dishes, and ran to get sandwiches for the guys and the kids. And of course, I discovered that we had no frozen peas and no more sliced almonds in the freezer for tonight's dinner. Figures. So, a little rest for me before I have to get back in the car and go up to AuSable Forks and get stuff for dinner.