Beads, Beads, Beads!

I've always loved shopping for beads. Much like organization stores, bead stored provide an endless amount of entertainment for me. All the possibilities. Pink beads, red beads, yellow beads, purple beads, rainbow beads. Beads that sparkle, beads that shine. Wooden beads, glass beads, ceramic beads. Beads galore! Over the years my stash of beads has grown. I now need a special container just to hold them all. It's glorious. Oh the plans I have! I always envision myself making beautiful pieces of jewelry like this:


My love for beads and desire to buy and store them is exactly where the glory ends. The few time I have actually completed a beading project, I have always been grossly disappointed. The "necklaces" always look like the work of a Kindergartner. A simple string of small beads in some sort of pathetic pattern to liven it up and that's it. The project ultimately ends up being tossed aside and never looked at again. This is why, when my mom asked if I wanted to go to a craft day at a friends house to learn to do beading I jumped at the chance to finally learn how to do something a little more complex than a simple string of beads. And, it's an activity I can do while staying seated! Yay! Something to do while on bed rest!

Since I am on modified bed rest my mom came and picked me up. Once we arrived we both tore open our new beading project boxes (a set of beads sold together to make specific projects- what a novel idea!). The actual tearing into the boxes took us both a while as the packages had been sealed so tightly that when you attempted to open it with any amount of force the tiny beads would go flying across the room. Finally we released our beds from their captors and began our respective projects. I chose a relatively simple necklace design that looks far more complicated than it actually is. About half way through the project my energy plummeted and my contractions started up again, but I was determined to finish. Finally after what felt like forever, I ended up with this:

Not too shabby! I think I'll actually wear this one. It may not be as fancy as the stuff I always imagined myself making, but it's a start. My mom also made two very pretty pairs of earring. I was impressed with both of our completed projects.

After quite the beading extravaganza I have since retired to my new-to-me reclining bed rest chair. (Thanks Mom and Dad!) It's oh so comfy and just what I needed after a long day of hardcore beading.