This week's ramblings

This necklace for my daughter took me so unbelievably  long to complete!  It was a triple spiral rope of hematite, sodalite, obsidian, Swarovski and seeds with beaded end caps.  The problem came in when I decided to use faceted obsidian for the core bead!  There was no play between the beads making it very difficult to bet the needle in.   I broke about 12 needles in this process, not to mention how many finger piercings I ended up with!  

This is the bead soup I sent to my partner in England. There are some beautiful Chinese Crystals, pink freshwater pearls, a lovely enameled clasp from  Rock Candy, lots of Czech glass beads of all different shapes and sizes, seed beads, glass beads, metal findings, an ocean jasper donut focal and of course some Hello Kitty charms.  I can't wait to see what Dee comes up with!

 We have Hello Kitty in common, hence the packaging!  

I drove to my daughter's this weekend.  I thought it was pretty funny to see this sign just before getting to the Tappan Zee Bridge.  What should have been about a 20 minute drive from the Palisades Mall to this point took over an hour.  You can see everyone's brake lights are on, so we are not really moving.  So, seriously,  expect delays?  Ya think?

I love it when my daughter takes my camera, I get the loveliest pictures!

Lilibelle finding a cool spot in the heat!

 

Thought I'd help Angel keep cool by getting rid of some of that hair!

Breakfast with the family.

The doors at Ridgefield Hardware!  

On the way home I plugged in the address of a bead shop, Bead Mosaic.  I had no idea it was going to take me down to Route 59, around the corner from where I lived for a little bit as a child.  It ended up being right across from the Nanuet Mall that my dad worked on when it was built.  It opened in 1969, the same year he died.

The woman at the bead shop told me it was being knocked down and rebuilt.  I stood a while and thought about my dad and my life.  I have such happy memories from that time.  I guess someone wanted me to see it one last time.  It was such a gift.

I felt blessed.

My Bead Soup Arrived!

I received my Bead Soup from Dee Torcherer Elgie today and it is wonderful! My mind is swirling already with the possibilities! Thank you so much! 

What I sent is so different from what I received ..... I hope she receives mine soon and finds it as worthy ..... crossing fingers and holding my breath .....



Now ... on to what to do with all these goodies!

6th Bead Soup Party!

This will be my second time participating in this swap and for this round Lori Anderson of Pretty Things has paired me up with Dee Elgie of Cherry Obsidia!  Dee lives in England and is primarily a lampworker.  You can see some of her creations here on her facebook page.  I went completely nuts with the like button!   She's got a fanciful dark side that I LOVE  - take a peek at her lampwork doll!  I also love her sense of whimsy and her use of color!

Speaking of color, I asked Dee to tell me what colors she likes and she told me to think of the rainbow.  I should have guessed that would have been her answer after viewing her work!

I went out to the store thinking rainbows, rainbows and got drawn in a completely different direction, I saw these sparkly vintage "things" (that's a tease for you Dee!) and then they started speaking to me and jumped right in my hand!   When I got home I looked at my purchases and thought, there's no rainbow.  I hopped on Etsy to try and find some more pieces to add to her soup to make a rainbow and, squirrel.......

Well, I adore everything I have sent for, but I'm once again not seeing a rainbow!  I will continue to go through my personal stash to pull fun bits and bobs until all the other packages arrive in the mail, hopefully today!  I'll take some pictures and then get the soup on it's way.

Did I mention that at the store and on Etsy I purchased one for me and one for Dee?    Let the creative juices flow, happy beading y'all!