On my desk today...

...is a new project! I have only just started to pull together the components but I like where it's headed. The polymer pieces and some of the seed beads were included in the wonderful bunch of goodies I got last week. Too bad I've got other work to do today 'cause I can't wait to get going on this one!

 

Morning Coffee Quotes

The Sunflower Maze at Kickapoo Orchard - 9/24/11

"Don't water your weeds."
- Harvey Mackay

"Failure is the line of least persistence."
- W. A. Clarke

"Skepticism is unbelief in cause and effect."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Life ain't fair. Fair is where you ride the merry go round and eat cotton candy."
- Unknown

"The safe and general antidote against sorrow is employment."
- Samuel Johnson

"Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment."
- Jim Rohn

"When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude."
- Gilbert Keith Chesterton

"What we must decide is how we are valuable rather than how valuable we are."
- Edgar Z. Friedenberg

"It is difficult to discriminate the voice of truth from amid the clamor raised by heated partisans."
- Friedrich Schiller

"Part of the $10 million I spent on gambling, part on booze and part on women. The rest I spent foolishly."
- George Raft

"He who awaits much can expect little."
- Gabriel Garcia Marquez

"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake."
- John Milton

"The greatest weakness of all is the great fear of appearing weak."
- Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet

"Cannot people realize how large an income is thrift?"
- Cicero

"When you know a thing, to hold that you know it, and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it: this is knowledge."
- Confucius

"The bitterness of poor quality remains long after low pricing is forgotten!"
- Leon M. Cautillo

"Someone who knows too much finds it hard not to lie."
- Ludwig Wittgenstein

"You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, and that's good enough."
- Laurence J. Peter

"Maturity begins to grow when you can sense your concern for others outweighing your concern for yourself."
- John MacNaughton

"It is not irritating to be where one is. It is only irritating to think one would like to be somewhere else."
- John Cage

Ta da!! :)

Well, she's finished! I have no idea what to call her - any suggestions would be much appreciated!

 

 

Making out like a banshee!! (aka. I love great gifts!)

A friend of mine once owned a bead shop but decided that being a shopkeeper was not her passion. She closed her brick and mortar store to open strictly online but then decided that wasn't really doing it for her either. Finally, one day she emailed me and said she was planning to have a garage sale. She was getting rid of ALL her beads and beading supplies.

I went to her sale but my purchases were limited by a strict budget I had put on myself. I went home very happy with the treasures acquired for a mere $20 but was not home an hour before the phone rang. She was on the line saying, "The sale is finished, come back over and I'll give you all of the beading and jewelry supplies I have left BUT you have to come RIGHT NOW or I'm taking it all to Goodwill!". Well, you can bet I hopped right back in the car and drove straight over to her house.

Now, all this comes on the heels of my decision to back away from beading a bit because of my misgivings regarding the origin and manufacture of the supplies needed. I had told myself that my artwork will ONLY use materials that I've found second-hand, salvaged from other sources or that have been gifted to me. These supplies definitely fit the "gifted" category!!

So here's a taste of what I got:
First... seed beads by the boatload!

What you are seeing in this photo are all of the seed beads, which I sorted by size into zip lock bags: 1 gallon of size 11/o, 1 gallon of size 8/o, 1 quart of Delicas, 1 quart of size 15/o, 1 sandwich baggie of size 6/o and 3 sandwich baggies of various fire-polished crystals, Swarovski bicones, cubes, niblets, bugles, drops, hex and triangle beads. Crazy....

Lots of thread - I love my Nymo and S-lon...

...and a large bin of findings and other treasures to numerous to name.

When you add in the 10 or so beading books, you could say it was a pretty darn good day!! My husband and I had a wedding to go to that night and it just about killed me to not stay home and dig into the booty. Oh, the sacrifice! :)

It's been a while since beads have been on my work table but, thanks to this incredibly generous gift, I am back in the saddle again!

I am notorious around here for tearing pretty pages from catalogs and magazines. This latest project is inspired by some of those pages. The article was about decorating and the use of color. I loved the combination of the lime green and cerulean blue.

I almost added purple but green and purple appear so often in my work that I decided to go with a fuchsia pink instead. Here are a few shots of my work-in-progress - I hope you will leave a note to let me know what you think :)