30 Day Challenge For Craft Month - March 2012

You're Invited!

In celebration of National Craft Month, FusionBeads.com is hosting a 30-day Bead Challenge for the month of March to anyone who wants to participate! Give your beading skills a workout by challenging yourself to as many of the daily beading activities as you can! It's a fun and creative way to grow as a beader and get more involved with the beading community, and you are welcome to share your creations on their Facebook wall and/or your blog!

My Daughter's Etsy Shop!

I have a very creative daughter that you haven't met, and now I would like to introduce you to her. Rachel has been a blessing to us since she arrived 16 years ago. Watching her grow has been the highlight of our lives. She has a beautiful smile and a big, beautiful heart to match! She also sings, dances, and loves her sport of softball! She has another artistic side, too. She has loved to draw and paint since she was big enough to hold an instrument in her hands.  Yesterday, she finally listed two items in her Etsy shop! Yay! She will be working on painting and listing more soon!  I would love for you visit her shop and she would be thrilled!!

Please click the link below to get there:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/RachelCozetteArt?ref=ss_profile

She also has a blog that she would love for you to visit and/or follow: http://www.rachelsartcreations.blogspot.com/

I also have a post about her art on my other blog, Color My World, that you will find @  http://lisa-colormyworld.blogspot.com/2010/09/shes-been-very-busy.html.

Light at the End of the Tunnel!!

Well, I hope that's what I'm seeing anyway! Finally got to have the MRI done on my back last Thursday. That little pill they gave me to relax my fear of that closed-in space was a story within itself! I certainly gave my family a few good laughs for the afternoon! But, I made it through the test without crawling out of the machine and ticking everybody off! The nurse called today and I have bulging discs at L3 and 4 and L4 and 5 vertebrae, so off I go to see another doctor at the end of the month. Hopefully, I am getting closer to a conclusion for this pain I have endured since May! I am more than ready to be able to participate in life again!

BEAD SOUP REVEAL DAY

The time has come to reveal the fruits of our labor from the soup mix we received from our partners. My partner was Linda Murphy of Bonita Bead. I have a cousin with the same name, and immediately when I saw her name in the first list, I went to her blog to see if she was my cousin from CA. Well, it turned out she was not, but I have found another sweet friend through the Bead Soup Party. Thanks, Linda, for the beautiful soup mix you sent, and for becoming my friend. I pray we have a lifelong friendship! God Bless You!

Here is the soup mix that Linda sent:

And, here is what I created with that soup mix:

I love the toggle clasp she sent, and I just had to put it on the bracelet so I would be able to enjoy it every time I wore it!

Now, the focal bead she sent was very special. It is a gorgeous aromatherapy vessel. She had read my blog and found out I was having back trouble and thought I could use some healing scents like lavender oil, and this little vessel is the way to go!  I looked at a lot of these on different websites just to check them out, but I honestly don't think I saw any as beautiful as this one! I kind of went crazy with my pictures of it, but I did want you to see it from all angles.  It is a graceful glass swirl of color!

 

Linda was very generous with some other beautiful beads which are on the bead table waiting for me to put the many ideas I have into actual creations.  As I stated above, this continuous back pain is the reason why the rest of her beads are waiting for me. It is so painful to sit.  Have you ever tried making any kind of piece of jewelry flat of your back? It is difficult, believe me! So, when I have another good day or two, I will be at that table bringing to life the ideas in my head!

To visit the other 300+ participants, click on the link at the very top of my blog or right here:
http://lorianderson-beadsoupblogparty.blogspot.com/  

Bead Soup Mix from my partner, Linda Murphy!

My bead soup partner, Linda Murphy, Bonita Bead, sent me a beautiful mix of beads to work with. She and I both have had a lot of interruptions, but now we can get on with our playing and designing of each other's soup! Please take a look at the beautiful things she sent me!

It all started with this little brown box wrapped with the shiny, pink bow!

And it's like everyone has said before, "This is so exciting, it's like Christmas morning!"  Look at my goodies!

Gorgeous! Plus, a little mystery in a little blue box! You'll have to wait a bit to see it!

First, a lovely toggle clasp!

Some beautiful "Tahitian-look" Swarovski crystal pearls in two sizes

and, how do you like this string of ivory Czech glass beads? :)

Sparkle! I love sparkle! And, I got it with these Fuchsia Swarovski crystals!

Now, do you want to see what was in that little blue box?

Well, I have always heard that good things come in small packages!

This was no exception!

I was just blown-away when I opened that little box!

and

I think you will be, too!

Take a look!

WOW! Told ya, didn't I?

It is a beautiful lampwork vessel! An aromatherapy vessel!

Since I've had so much pain with my back this summer, Linda was so sweet and thoughtful and said lavender oil is supposed to help with pain. She had made an aromatherapy necklace for a friend of hers who has arthritis and she and her friend thought I would benefit from it, too! Isn't that just the sweetest sentiment?  I love it and know I will have so much fun working with all these pieces to my soup mix!

Got to show a couple of other views of this lampwork piece! It is so dimensional!

side view

and a back view, where you can see all that swirl of color!

One more little 'happy' she sent me was . . .

. . . this little notepad she made. I love it! It's where I've sketched some ideas for my design with the wonderful assortment of things Linda sent me!

Thanks, Linda, for making my first ever Bead Soup Blog Party so much fun!

Everyone, please visit Linda at her 'new' blog, yes she is new to blogland, so visit her at Bonita Bead and welcome her to a new and fun adventure!

Mr. Bead Soup's Wild Ride!!

Getting my bead soup partner's package to the post office to mail to her was a little adventure in itself! The following is an portion of my email to her about it. She said she loved it, and I shouldn't have risked my life just to get those beads mailed! Seems like lately everything we attempt around here turns into more than it should or just a big fiasco!! She also thought Lori, who is the organizer of this wonderful party, would love to know what some of us go through to get our packages in the mail. So, I hope you enjoy reading the tale of the bead soup ride! 

"I think you would laugh if you knew how I got to the post office and home. My 16 yr old daughter got her driver's license last week so this week she has had my car, even though I have heard so, so many times how she would never drive that old granny car to school. Freedom has it price, doesn't it? Ha! Well, my husband came home at lunch, and since his work has really made it known lately that he cannot carry me or Rachel anywhere in that work truck, we went to the post office in my mil's little yard truck. Well, it has probably driven it's last mile! The brakes, if you can call them that, kept locking up and Perry would put it in reverse to slow it down. Sounds terrible, but it was really kind of funny. We kind of slid into the post office parking space. When we left was the kicker! We were chugging along, with this horrible grinding noise, and all of a sudden we heard something fall onto the ground....klink, klink, klink....it bounced down the road and into the ditch. I asked what it was, Perry looked back saying, it was probably part of the rotor. We didn't go back. The grinding stopped, and we kind of floated back home, hoping at every stop sign that no one was coming down the street! You have to picture, we live in small-town USA! So, not many stop signs between our little post office and our house. Little Red, as we've always called that truck, is probably at it's final resting place in our driveway!!! BUT, it did get us to the PO to mail your beads!! Yay!!"

As much as I hated to post this picture of this ugly truck, here is Little Red, probably at it's final resting place! If this little truck could talk, it would have some tales to tell!  My children and all the cousins learned to drive by driving Little Red in the pasture, it has taken us and all supplies to the pond for picnics and fishing, and it has hauled many loads of firewood, broken limbs, and dirt for many years on my mother-in-law's place! It also took us to school several times, but we had to wait til everyone left before my children would be seen in it at school!!

Anyhoo! There's my story of Little Red and the Wild Ride to the post office, plus a tiny bit of Little Red history!

Bead Soup Party

I just have a minute, but did want to say I have received my bead soup mix and my bead partner should have hers. My bead soup partner is Linda Murphy of Bonita Bead. I am sure our pairing was 'meant to be' and I have thoroughly enjoyed the emails we have sent back and forth. With that said, she has been in New York with her daughter and family as they had a trip planned in the midst of hurricane Irene. Haven't heard from her since Saturday, but at that time, all was well! :)

As you have probably read on my blog, I have been dealing with a bad back. Well, not to complain, but I have since had to deal with an abscessed tooth! YUCK! I'm ready for the pain and back luck to 'vamoose' from my presence!!

I have a funny story to tell of how I finally got Linda's package to the post office, but for now I have to go help my daughter write an essay for her Honors History class.

Pictures of the bead soup mix that Linda sent me are in my camera just eager to get out and onto this blog, and I promise, they will be here soon! It is a beautiful soup mix, and I absolutely LOVE IT!