Bead Soup

Likely, most of you know what 'bead soup' is, but for those who don't here's a quick explanation.

Bead Soup is a mixture of small beads either in a single color way, for instance pale pink to dark red, or a collection of small beads in complimentary colors. Bead Soup is used for creating free form items. It's also a great way to occupy younger fingers that want to help. Just hand them the soup and ask them to sort.

I think that's how I got my start loving things small, and pierced. My grandmother would hand me a pill bottle full of seed beads. The beads she gave me had belonged to my great grandmother, and they were extremely soupy. She'd give me a place to work at the table while she and my mom created their latest craft.

I can remember sorting seed beads by the hour as they glued dried beans to a board cut out to resemble a rooster, or mix resin to make trivets (and everyone within a 20' radius high from the fumes). It delighted me to be able to sit at the table with them doing such an important task.

Every time a new craft would come out, I'd be offered a pill bottle of beads to sort. It wasn't until I was in my 30's that I realized just what a clever woman my grandmother was. The bottomless bowl of Bead Soup she gave me to sort were actually the same beads. She'd wait until I went to bed, or school, or outside to play, and she'd mix them together again.

I have those beads in my collection, and all the hanks of beads my great grandmother used in her business.

Yep, the bead business seems to run in the family, but that's a story for another day!

*bead soup image found here. Go check it out, it was a very lucky find!

Funday

...or day three of the NaBloPoMo challenge.

Is there really any day of the week that's nicer? No really, think about it. You've worked hard all week, you've gotten chores done, and errands taken care of, and now it's Sunday. I don't know about you, but this is the best day of the week for me. I kick back, relax, and find something fun to do... like write a post, and share some thoughts.

Yesterday, my dear friend Theresa spent the afternoon with me at the shop. Her husband, and son had surprised her (kinda) on her birthday by giving her an amazing ivory and black dragonfly lampwork bead by Kim Wertz. They thoughtfully included two accent beads.

Theresa came in for some "inspiration" as she put it. I was only too happy to play with her, and toss in my 2¢ now and then. She made an amazingly sweet and feminine necklace and a pair of wonderful earrings.

We agreed, the copper was just the ticket to bring out the warmer tones in the lampworked beads, and the little touches of ivory organza ribbon were like gossamer wings. She designed the necklace to be assymetrical, a touch that really added to the piece's charm.

While Theresa played, I sat at the table relabeling tubes of seed beads found in yet another box. My task went so much faster with a companion.

Today is turning into a lovely one. Jeff and I are going to take a drive into the mountains so I can take some pictures of autumn leaves. The leaves are changing here in the valley, so I'm sure the dogwoods and vine maples at a higher elevation are likely ablaze. My battery is charging, and I've rounded up all my cards.

So, what are you doing today?

Boxes

Despite my best efforts before opening, I'm still going through boxes, and boxes, and boxes, and... I'm sure you get the idea. There's a whole lotta stuff left to do, and put into the shop.

When I opened the box that contained the sterling charms I'd purchased several years ago, I was delighted. Immediately, I was off to find my tools, and grab some wire.

The earrings perfectly describe how much I love my kitty. Rikki has been my best cat friend for 12 years. He's full of personality, and is one of the bright spots in my day. I don't kiss him on the lips, despite what the charms say. He's far too successful a hunter for me to even think about it. Lizards, rats, birds, big bugs... ewsh... could explain the breath.

Anyway, he's a Tuxedo Cat, so the black and white paw print lampwork beads were perfect. I added 4mm Olivine Swarovski crystals because the color reminded me of his amazing eyes. Inverted sterling silver bead caps added a decorative touch, and stabilized the lampwork beads on the wire.

Then I had to make a pendant from the other two charms. I stacked one on top of the other.  The top one reads "Fly High!"  The bottom one says "The Sky is the Limit."  The way I've been feeling lately, I think it should say "the stars are the limit."

I tried wearing it on a neckwire, but it was a bit too much with the earrings, so it's now on the keyring for the register keys.  It won't always live there, but it seemed like a good place for it.

Taking the pictures was fun!  There are grapevines behind the classroom, and they're just loaded with grapes.  I got a nice picture, and I got to eat some yummy grapes.

Well, so much for playing with things I've found in boxes.  There are oodles of tubed seed beads to re-tag, but I can't help wondering what I'm going to find next.

Manifesting

Yesterday morning, I declared to whatever is out there listening, that I needed a quiet day because it was high time for me to get the last cabinet filled. There was also an order of findings that had floated around for a month that kept dribbling headpins all over the place.

I got what I asked for... a very quiet day. There were three sales, all of them occurred before 1:30. Not a huge day monetarily, but certainly a successful day of manifesting, and getting things done. It was so much fun (no, I'm not being sarcastic) that I worked until 9:30 just to finish as much as possible.

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Now that it's October, it really feels like autumn to me. This morning I had an email from NaBloPoMo. It's a social network on NING for people willing to blog every day for a month. I've taken the challenge a couple of times, and I've decided to take the challenge again this month.

Every month has a theme, and this month's theme appealed to me because it's pretty true to the way life has been going lately. The theme for October is "Play."

I hope you'll join me as I play my way through this month... it should be fun!