My second Bohemian Lace Lariat designed by the late Melanie Doerman

I am working on a necklace (in my signature earthy colors) for a dear friend who has always been there for me in times of need for as long as I can remember. She's a smart, foxy red-head who is going to rock this necklace.  My only regret is that with the numbness in my fingers I cannot make it faster.  Well there's another regret...that I didn't get to spend more time with its creator, Bead Artist Melanie Doerman, who taught some classes at the CCBS a few years back and has since passed.  Ask anyone who met her - she was a special lady, an amazing artist, a fellow motorcycle mama who I wish she could be here creating more beautiful pieces and touching more aspiring bead artists, like she did me, with her big heart and endless ideas for bead patterns.  Her pieces had a very personal quality to them.   Published posthumously is her book: The Art Of Forgotten Things: Creating Jewelry From Objects With A Past - published by Interweave Press...available at Interweavestore.com or check out Amazon.com for lots of great deals on all the bead books we have to have!  Anyway I currently have 3 of her kits in the works.  They are a challenge but really fun and you learn alot.
Here are a few little components that when all beaded (there are many more to do) and sewn together, they will make a gorgeous, blinged-out necklace.  I made one in matte light gray and lavendar and gifted it to a friend of my Mom.  I'll have to get the picture of her wearing it off my cell phone and upload it on here. Some pieces take a long time.  This one does get tedious and I find I have to put it down in order to make something quicker for some instant gratification but I always find my way back and one day it's going to be on here all finished and FABULOUS!.  Thank you Melanie. Your spirit and talent lives on. I wonder if you are up in heaven just beading up a storm?! I hope so.  You never have to get a back ache and there is no doubt an endless supply of little chocolate goodies!!!

Some older pieces

What do I do with you?

Beach blues
Medical ID Bracelet

Some of my older pieces.

Silver Dragonfly

In the Mood

Isabel, my muse

Beaded palmwood cab

The colors in this cab just called to me, so warm. And the spiral strap was so easy to make.

Thanksgiving 2011

Hey there, I'm back. I had a very nice Thanksgiving with both my sons - Kody came home from college for two days and his girlfriend Lacey joined us as well from Santa Barbara U., my Mom - who made the most delicious dinner ever, and of course dogs and cats all underneath the table drooling and waiting for a scrap. It was a pretty day outside and has been a gorgeous weekend. The window in my room is open and the sun is shining. The evening of Thanksgiving I started feeling worse than usual and that night came down with the flu. Stomach, fever, achy all over. Jeez! I recovered enough by Saturday to get back to work on a bracelet I'm making for a friend. I actually have to finish two bracelets, a necklace and a secret pal gift before Christmas..... without going nuts! Uh Huh. I'm not panicking.

If I could ask Santa for one gift this year it would be a more comfortable chair to sit and bead in. I like the office type that swivels since I have my workspace set up like an "L" shape. It's not long before my butt's totally numb and my back is jacked. There has to be the perfect chair out there somewhere...just sayin' Santa!

I'm listening to "Any Other Day" by Wyclef Jean feat. Norah Jones. Such a pretty song. Well it's back to work. I hope everyone had a happy and healthy Thanksgiving and took the time to reflect on all that we have to be so thankful for.

I KNOW WHERE ALL THE LOST SOCKS GO...

...Because I have been there.  It's a very lonely place but I found my way back.  I'm amazed I could fit in the dryer!  That's the only excuse I can offer at this time.  I wish I had a better one but the truth is always more boring and not worth hashing out.  I have begun to get my muse back.  Little by little.  I've been doing more stringing than bead embroidery the past year and I have even become more interested in metals and gemstones.  Of course they all require $$$$.  So on a budget I have been dabbling.  I want to re-reach out to my friends who I have lost touch with this year.  There are some truly wonderful people who have touched my life in the last few years and I let my illnesses, my tendency to isolate along with my frustration and physical pain cut me off from them.  I saw life passing me by and I couldn't keep up based on my personal physical restrictions and I guess I just turned away from it when it became too much.  I mean here is this laptop on my bead table and did I open it and talk to the people I love?  No I chose to wallow in self-pity when things got too tough.  It's easy to do when battling multiple illnesses but definitely NO EXCUSE! I miss going to bead meetings, the very thing that breathed life back into me.  I miss hugs from my most loving friend, Arline,  and talking to other members.  Never mind all the inspiration they provide.  I know that because I am a type A with control issues I have to learn to accept my limitations and more important let people in and let people help when I need it.  That said I pray that I can be welcomed back into the fold with the understanding that I am only human and trying very hard to adjust to my current set of circumstances.  You'd think after almost 5 years I would have it sorted out but I don't.  I found beading and I found CCBS and Arline and BJ and Becki and all the women I love and appreciate for a reason.  I need to remember how precious those gifts are every %$#$#@$%$^ day!!!!!  I'm not alone unless I make it that way.  Please forgive me and let's get back to beading and living, O.K.?
My son, Kody was home from college this past weekend for a little visit. He works at Ambercrombie and Fitch which I don't know how to spell but he likes it.  He is about 6 ft. 3 in. or maybe taller and all muscle.  He and his girlfriend Lacey made peanut butter choc. chip cookies.  He should come home more often!  Unfortunately he had a bout of the stomach bug for the first two days and I lived in fear for the rest of the time that I was next but it missed me!!!!! Yeah!!!!!  They left a few hours ago.  He's driving his g.f. back to Santa Barbara State U. and then he will drive back to college in San Luis Obispo.  Ahhhh to be young again!  He's doing fantastic in school and his g.f. is very smart, funny, cool and we love her.  Kody was lucky to find such an amazing and beautiful young lady.  They are best friends and that is a great foundation for love.
I made 3 new original necklaces last month and I wish I could always remember to get a photo before they go.  I love the necklace I made and traded in order to turn my hair back to blonde again.  It was a lariat using a polymer clay focal and little PMC feathers from Klewexpressions and used lots of stones and chips and wire and even braided the  leather rope it hung on.  I am proud of that one.  If I get a picture of the lady wearing it I will post it.  I will stalk her if I have to.  Just kidding.  The other 2 are still here waiting to find homes. One is a lariat with  gunmetal colored chain and 3 metal rings that were made off center and really cool looking.   I then embellished the end of the chain that I threaded through them with the beautiful agate teardrops I purchased a long time ago on one of my trips to the coast with Arline.  Then I made a big chunky necklace using large agate nuggets -black - dyed aqua blue, some of my old, dwindling, Bali silver stash beads and some man-made turquoise large chips, some wood beads and a glass focal.  I strung some brown iris CFP rounds on a piece of ring size memory wire and encircled the focal with it.
I'm working on my second Bohemian Lace Necklace in my fav. colors -(earthy tones with some gold and silver to make it pop) for a good friend.  I made the first one in lavendar and silver/gray and got burnt out so this one is taking some time!!  You can see the original design at themagpie.com along with many other gorgeous jewelry she makes.  It's time consuming but worth the effort.  

earrings I made for  secret pal

Schmuel making off with a tube of beads

Caught Chewie trying to use ebay. Hmmm...

I'm tired and my dogs are telling me it's dinner time.  Already???? Did you remember to set your clocks back an hour last night?  I didn't but my pugs did.  I'll try to get a couple pictures up to commemorate this occasion... my return from the place where lost socks go.

Need to bead freely now.

This was a cuff I made last year using a raku button as the focal bead. I was really beading free when I made this one and it felt so awesome as it came together. It's probably my favorite piece I made. It's a reminder to me that I do have it within me to let go.

Well January is almost over and I haven't started my first BJP. I was afraid this would happen. I'm trying to relax about it. It's been such a busy month filled with mounds of paperwork which I cannot stand anymore. (And I used to be a bookkeeper!) I just checked out Arline's blog and Whoa girl! She is on fire. Already starting March's page. I'm happy for her because I know she must feel really good creating something so beautiful. She is amazing. It's pretty neat when you can look at a beaded page and actually feel the cold outside. January's page is one of those. That's art. Art inspires feelings/reactions in you. Good or bad, uncomfortable or warm and fuzzy or even repulsive. As long as it makes you feel something it is art. Start with a blank piece of felt and start sewing on one bead at a time and before long you have an emotion or a story and that's incredible. Of all the art mediums I have tried on, beading is the most challenging and rewarding.

I thought I should have something important or really introspective to say with my January BJP because it's my first one and this has me hung up. I need to just get out of my head. I might just bead something that is just fun and it's only meaning is to let me feel free. I have so many fires to put out right now, so much weighing on me in my personal life. I think this month shouldn't be a "heavy"! So with that in mind I should probably get beading and let this blog go for a bit. I am new to this but I am learning. Learning to be gentle with myself, thank you Robin.

Have you ever experienced this beadblock and if so what have you done to remedy the situation? Let me know!

* Time to bead freely, no matter what it looks like, it's a part of me.

Coming Up: I just finished a new necklace and my friends tell me that the rope looks like a hair scrunchy. Need to take the picture! And I will be posting my first BJP next time I log on!