Well, THAT Was Unexpected!

You know how you can start out thinking you're going to accomplish one thing, and the end result is something COMPLETELY different?

Like when you tell yourself you're going to have the healthy kale salad for lunch, but end up getting swept away by the temptation of a juicy burger and fries, followed by a scoop of luscious ice cream? (Or is that just me?)

Or when you run into the store for one thing and walk out with six bags of stuff? (Remind me to tell you someday about the time I ran into Target for a bottle of glue for a child's school project and came out with $200 of stuff.  And forgot the glue.)

Above is part of a selection of beads I pulled out a couple of weeks ago, intending them to be the freeform portion of a bead bezeled cabochon necklace. But when I started on the freeform, it just wasn't working.  So the cabochon is sitting on the worktable, still awaiting its mate.

And here's what the beads ended up as:

It certainly isn't freeform peyote, and the cabochon is nowhere to be seen.  But it is slinky and colorful and great fun to wear.

So sometimes unexpected is good -- and the necklace is much better for my waistline than a scoop of ice cream!

A Surprise Behind The Door

There's a little hole-in-the-wall shop near my office that has an unassuming little sign out front saying, "FABRIC".

I needed a new pair of embroidery scissors for my new soutache adventures (ok, who am I kidding -- any excuse for a new tool!), so I dropped in, hoping to find something.

Behind the unassuming door to the narrow little hole in the wall shop, this is what I saw:

This was half of the store. The other half of the store is REALLY full.  And you should see
the back wall (actually, there's no way to see it -- you just have to assume it's there behind the trims)!

Holy cats, I found fabric heaven.  The whole place was packed - PACKED - with fabric from floor to ceiling, front to back, with only the narrowest of paths between the three towers of bolts of awesomeness. It was amazing!

As in "The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe", where the children open the door of a wardrobe and discover a fantastic new world, I felt like I'd fallen into a magical place. It's a good thing I don't sew anymore, because I'd have rented a UHaul and backed it right up to that unassuming little door and cleared the place out.  Some lunch hour soon, I'll be back over there, digging through the stacks in search of the treasures you know must be there.

Oh, and the scissors? Yep, I got some.  They look like a tie dyed rainbow stork, they're just the size I wanted, and they're weird unique enough that no one will walk off with them by mistake!

Bead Soup 7 Sneak Peek

Here's a sneak peek, disguised because it's travelling incognito, of the bead soup I mailed off today to my partner, Nancy Dale.

Hope she has fun with it!

For My Biggest Cheerleader

Who's your biggest cheerleader?  Your spouse?  Your sibling? Your best friend?

In my life, I've been so lucky to have lots of people cheering me on.  But for sheer force of longevity of the enthusiasm, Mom is #1.

Okay, even though she isn't online and wouldn't know what a blog was if you asked, I didn't want to show this picture of what I made for Mom ahead of Christmas.  Somewhere in the back of my head, I knew that if I did, it would be the guarantee that she would become instantly online literate and the photo would the first thing she'd find.

So anyway, since the date has passed, the packages have been unwrapped, and the threat of my mother becoming an internet whiz is over, here's what she found under the tree...

It was a hit.  And now my sister wants one, too - birthday gift selection, check!

Oddly enough, I don't usually make jewelry gifts for my family.  Do you?

Mailbox Surprise!

You know how it is. You have a long day, the weather turns icky, the laundry's piled up like your own personal Alpine range. And then, something comes along to make things look a little brighter. Look what was in my mailbox to brighten my day!!


Deci from Gem Trails made these lovely earrings for me as part of the Pay It Forward exchange. Aren't they fun? I love the girly sparkle and the tough edge of the metal.

Thanks, Deci! Can't wait to rock these!