Wowza!!! BEADS!!!

I preface this blog with a note about being sick... please, if you are sick, contagious, sneezing, coughing, sore throat... please don't go out, don't attend festivals, programs, concerts.... or if you have to go out... wear a mask... please!!!!
Sorry, my bad.
I've been sick you see. Man flu... or my girly version of it. My son and  best friend got sick and I swore I wouldn't catch it, but did. Now I am totally grumpy! I had hoped to make it through the school year without getting sick... ugh... sick...blah!

Bead Soup has been on my brain for several weeks now.   First with the announcements of partners, the pairing then unpairing... and subsequent repairing... no... yes? is that the right word? ...repair? I suppose so, I got a new partner, one that is quite wonderful!!! Skylar Bre'z is totally awesome and probably just the right person to pair me with... thank you Lori Anderson, you are like psychic or something!!!  Her blog is BrisingBeads Designs and she has an Etsy shop at BrisingBeadDesigns go by and give them both a look, her work is wonderful!

So I had packed a bead selection before I did the Scottish-Irish Faire in Midland, thinking that I would send it as soon as I got done with the weekend, but when I got around to really trying to get ahold of my partner, I found out that she had dropped out of the Blog Party. I was shocked and sad, but then when they paired me so quickly with Skylar, I knew that it had to be for a reason. I think we were meant to meet. So, I had the package, and thought I'd get it in the mail, but didn't, there were a series of crazy, catastrophic and totally normal events that happened. Sometimes it seems that best intentions just go astray. Skylar just had surgery and she still got my soup out! She was so gracious about me being late... I thank her profusely.

Skylar received her package today, so sorry for the delay... sigh... I made the two polymer clay cabochons, guilded them with copper leaf, and thought they were kind of neat.I found the domino with the face at the local bead shop, I don't know who did the work but I didn't like the way it was finished, so I guilded the sides with copper as well. There are two stone cabochons and a fused glass pendant and an assortment of stuff! The favorite thing I sent (my favorite!) was the four pieces of Venetian Glass that Mona Mitchell had brought back from Venice, she told me not to get too excited about them, they are made by young apprentices to practice their glass work,
by young, she said she meant really young kids. I loved them anyway, whether they were made by kids or not. I think they are pretty. I sent three colors of silk that I dyed, a couple of strands of lampwork beads, some crystal and some glass pearls and some copper and silver end caps and clasps. some stone rosettes, stone beads, mother of pearl beads and an abalone shell. I happen to love shells... I love working with them. Sooo... I had most of the stuff already picked out, I just added the two rock cabochons and.... when I found out that Skylar did felting, I added some curly roving and a skein of turquoise wool.

I received my package about a week ago, I was in the midst of family crisis and being sick and didn't get to look at the stash.... What Skylar sent to me was amazing!!!

I really love the colors and the beads that she chose. What a selection!!! there are the turquoise that I love but also this beautiful assortment of copper, lampwork, pearls, and glass... such pretty things!!!

... I am drooling still, thinking of all the things that I can make!!!!
I just  love, love, love the large glass bead. It is absolutely beautiful!!!

There are so many things in here that I don't know if I can list everything!!! There are several glass cabochons, a copper plated glass pendant, copper beads. turquoise and glass and ceramic and metal... and... and.... there are vintage beads as well, several clasps and chains.... and the Pièce de résistance... a skein of beautiful yarn!!! I am so excited to work with all this. I think I might have to pack it up and take it with me this weekend to Bead Fest Texas!!! I have some down time and I might need to do some creative stuff!! LOL! Seriously, I think I might take a few things. I am taking all my tools anyway, can't hurt to get started now!

In case I didn't get a good picture... LOOK at the beautiful skein of yarn that is just waiting to be fondled and drooled over....

I thank Skylar so much for sending me such wonderful items... in such a varied palate. I can't tell you how excited I am that we are getting to know each other... 

Disaster averted

Whew! Thank goodness!
I was anxiety ridden yesterday because the woman I was partnered with for the Bead Soup Blog Party had dropped out, me, being the ever so doubtful, thought she probably read my blog and decided that I was a lunatic and didn't want me as a partner....
But Lori Anderson, her husband Rick, and Lisa Liddy stepped in and found another match for me... which I believe was a totally better match in the first place!!!
My new partner's name is Skylar Brez and her blog is full of wonderful things. Brising Beads Designs is the blog, and it is full of women's history (She's working on her PhD in History) and she has pictures of some of the prettiest stones that she has to work into bead embroidery... her facebook page has some of her work, that is absolutely gorgeous! I can't wait to get to know her...
I forgot completely to take a picture of the soup that I put together... I can't imagine that, how do you forget that... I've been oohing and ahhhing over the pictures of soups that have already arrived at their destinations, and I didn't take a picture yet... sooooo... I'm carfully unwrapping and going to take a picture in a little while as the wind is up but should subside soon. Then off to the Post Office with the little package of sunshine!!!
I am so excited!!!

8th Annual Bead Soup Blog Party!!!

I have been so excited about the BSBP this year, I really enjoyed the party last year and was so excited to get to meet someone new this year. There are so many wonderful jewelry artists out there, and I haven't met many of them, I am kind of slow on the uptake on Blogger, I don't quite know how to find people on here. I have to find them somewhere else and then go to their blogs, so I am kind of lost when it comes to jewelry blogs, BSBP is a great way to find bloggers who have jewelry as their main interest.
I can't say that jewelry is my only interest, but it is a huge interest...

So I was so excited to get Lori Anderson's email stating that I had been accepted into the blog hop, and believe me, that was an ordeal in itself. I guess that using gmail isn't my forte either, I haven't understood how it works for a while now, since the changes that they made, I haven't been receiving my mail like I thought I should.... and low and behold, I started digging around and there were a ton of emails that I hadn't seen... I thought I hadn't been accepted, I thought maybe I did something wrong... I knew I made the deadline, but thought something else had to be done.... sigh

So, I was at the Midland Scottish-Irish Faire over the weekend, and I just left a message on the Bead Soup Cafe site for my partner, and friended her, and sent a message, and subscribed to her blog....and hadn't heard anything back, which is ok, it's just been a few days, and then today.... she messaged me that she dropped out...

 I am so sad.

So what do you do???

If all else fails, I will use the bead soup for her as my own, and have my own self as my partner? I can write myself little messages of encouragement? I can surprise myself with a package? sigh.... I can make something and post it.