Beads Are Good Medicine

Life brought me a few unexpected days at home this week - in the form of a nasty bug. But while sitting on the sofa looking and feeling fairly miserable, a tray of beads and findings that I've gotten through a monthly subscription to Bargain Bead Box spoke to me. Okay, maybe that was a fever hallucination. Whatever.

Apparently, a low-grade fever can also be a creativity spark, because a couple of necklaces almost made themselves as I sorted through the beads.  The first thing that caught my eye was some lovely light blue faceted beads with a slight iridescence, which were a match for some beads I'd been hoarding, waiting for the perfect pairing. 

See the cream/blue/brown beads there? Those were the ones I had been hoarding. They are so pretty.

Paired with some transparent light brown crystals with the same iridescence, and a few dozen knots later, I had a lovely long necklace.

Then another combination jumped out -- this time in deeper teal/turquoise. The findings that had come with one of the Bead Box selections included a packet of eyepins, so this necklace was more of a rosary style.  

When I laid the two side by side, a sickroom miracle occurred -- they actually went together nicely! They are both very simple, but simple was what I needed. And everything doesn't have to be at a triple-back-flip-with-a-double-twist level of difficulty, right?

And yes, I did choose a work outfit specifically to wear these necklaces together when I went back to the office.

The beads were very therapeutic. Now, if I could only figure out a way to have the doctor prescribe a nice visit to the bead store - do you think the insurance company would go for that?

Getting Ready To Swap

I just signed up for a new (to me) bead swap and blog hop.  I look forward to taking part in this, to meeting a new beady friend, and to being challenged by a palette chosen by another artist.

And of course, I always enjoy the opportunity to obsessively check on my mail, awaiting new beads! Perhaps I should warn my mailman that the crazy bead lady is in his future.....

Wherein The Waldo Bead is Located and A Studio Begins To Move

The other night, when I was working at the bead table much later than I should have, I dropped a bead that was crucial to finishing the second earring in a half-completed pair onto the Oriental carpet in my studio.


It was too late, too dark, and too tiny a bead for me to worry about at that moment (although you will note that I took time to document my klutziness here).  I nicknamed the wayward bead "Waldo" because it was impossible to spot, and went to bed.


However, the sun rose, I arose, and Waldo Bead was located.  The earrings were completed, and as promised, here they are:

Can't get the photo to rotate the right way.  Imagine this 90 degrees to the left....

Coincidentally, as part of our plans to get our house ready to put on the market (time to downsize), I'm moving my studio to another room in the house.  Because our daughter is now nearly done with graduate school and only comes home for visits, I've appropriated half of her room.  Great light, and look at that carpet -- SO much easier to spot the wayward escaping beads!

The move is nowhere near complete, but it's getting there!