Anticipation

It's been almost four years since that night on the beach when, with ring in hand, he asked, "Will you..?" and I said I would.

Starfish Pendant by Humblebeads

I had a plan. My life would be predictable. Job would follow college, marriage would follow job, kids would follow marriage. There would be no surprises and life would throw me no curve balls. That's me. I like a plan.

Boys Baseball Locket by Surfing Silver

But I have found that there are things more important in life than the houses we build and the plans we make. Sometimes when it comes to our lives, someone else has need of them and a dream fulfilled can sometimes become a dream deferred.
And so the first year was spent apart while degree and university dictated the plan.

Alabama by bethtastic

The second was spent creating a home for my sister here, close to our hearts where we've welcomed my niece and nephews.

You Are My Home by Mamacita Beadworks

The third year was spent learning to fill in the gaps that were left when my father set sail for a new place and a different part of the world.

Desert Heart by Gardanne Beads

And this year I have spent too many days at a hospital, welcoming a new heart into my world and caring for one that has spent itself caring for me.

Damask Bronze Heart Pendant by dreamgirlbeads

I've come to realize that I don't notice the anticipation so much anymore. Oh, it hasn't gone away. It's still at the back of my mind or maybe my heart, but I am learning that there is also something good in the waiting. Something to be learned that cannot be learned in instant gratification.

Tree of Life Pendant by sweetrockcandybeads
That is that life does not begin to be lived in that moment over there, rather it has already begun to be lived in this moment here. If I wait until the moment when our lives were supposed to have begun, I will have missed all the moments of beginning that were found somewhere in between. Moments that will never come again.

And so I wait, with joy and anticipation, the beginning of a new thing and the fulfillment of that dream. I do not know what the next year will bring, but I am positive that the time in between is not wasted. I am positive that when the waiting is over, I will step into that part of my life having learned a lesson that could only have been learned in the anticipation.

Back from Athens

Me and my sisters and the view from the Acropolis

We just got back from Athens last night and we had a wonderful time. I will admit the first day that we got there I was very disappointed. The city is covered in graffiti and dark and dingy and my first impression was not a favorable one.

Temple of Hyphaestrus

Okay, fast forward a couple of days and after finding where all the nice parts were in the city and realizing that we were able to walk to every major monument and museum that we wanted to see, I finally started to really enjoy it. The ruins were incredible, the food was delicious and we walked probably a total of 30 miles during the entire trip.
We also visited three Greek Islands, Hydra, Poros and Aegina. This is what you picture when you think of Greece, no one puts photos of graffiti-painted crumbling apartment buildings in tour guides and it was nice to see the islands. This is Hydra where no cars are allowed. Very quite and picturesque...until the throng of tourists from the cruise ship descended on the port to spend money on cheesy souvenirs and bug the locals. Oh well, at least I got a good picture!
This is the view of the Acropolis from our hotel rooftop. (I zoomed in A LOT...we weren't really staying that close, it's just that because of earthquakes all the buildings are pretty much the same size you have an unobstructed view.) They light the whole thing up at night, just like the Ancient Greeks...oh, wait...
And, of course, because this is a jewelry blog, I couldn't leave you without some great pictures of some great jewelry. Athens is a jewelry lovers dream. If I go again, I plan on skipping the hotel, and using the money to buy jewelry, okay, maybe not, but that's what I wanted to do.
I hope you enjoy the photos. I've got 457 more. But, I think I'll spare you ALL the details. I'm looking forward to getting home soon! I miss my family. I hope you guys are doing well, and that you're enjoying the weather wherever you're at. We're still in Abu Dhabi and it is HOT, HOT, HOT. See ya' soon.

Abu Dhabi Pottery

We spent the morning at Abu Dhabi Pottery with two of the sweetest ladies I've ever met and we made some cool pinch pots and mugs. They're gonna fire them for us after we leave so hopefully in a couple of months when my Dad gets back, we'll be able to enjoy the fruits of our labor.
Here's my mug. It's rough, but I worked so hard on the handle that I didn't have time to do any fancy stamping or design.

This is Zoraida, very patient and she was so helpful.

This is my little sister's pinch pot.

And my other little sister's pinch pot.

We had a great time and it was so relaxing to just stick your fingers in some clay and work away.

Du-du-dubai...and some bling...

This is me and my two sisters in Abu Dhabi. This is us in front of the skyline and a traditional fishing boat.
This is the Burj Khalifa, tallest building in the world and it is BIG.

This is some bling from way back in the day. It's traditional Arab jewelry and it was large and heavy, made of silver if I'm right.

More pictures coming soon. In the meantime, I'm trying to stay ahead of jet lag!

Out of Towners

Yep, that will be me and my sisses in about four hours! We'll be visiting my dad and hittin' up Europe a little while we're at it. I'll post some pics. In the meantime, I'm keeping my store open and if you want something, grab it, and I'll pop it in the mail box when I get back into town on April 3rd. Enjoy the rest of the month y'all, the weather is beginning to become beautiful!

ABS and I still hate orange...

I didn't enter the ABS Challenge last month so... come what may, I was determined to get my entry in this month, and for the first time, I made my own art bead, um, pendant. Here's the necklace. It features my pendant made with resin and then I created some wireworked flowers for the chain.

Here's an up-close of the flowers. They are a modified version of the ones that Maggie Ruggiero created for Bead Star. I used her basic idea, but had to do some modifications because the wire in front of the stones completely hid their good-lookin'ness.

Okay, now for my arch-nemesis. I got to thinkin' about the color orange, and I thought...ya' know, I really do hate it, but I'm going to do my best to find something to inspire me in this color. So, I took a camera and a la Project Runway, took pictures of everything orange in my house. Shall we begin??
First up, laundry...um...nope, not inspiring.

Books. These are the only bright orange books in my house. Funny they're in Spanish. Still not inspired. At least, not by the books, I'm sure a trip to Mexico would get the creativity flowing...any takers?

Scissors. Useful...but not inspiring.

Honey Nut Cheerios box, extremely delicious but not inspiring.

Sweet Potato Fries, even more delicious than Cheerios, but still uninspiring.

There, I rest my case, I am totally and completely uninspired by the color orange. Now, you might ask..."Marcie, why didn't you go looking for jewelry with orange?" Simple, because they don't let them look at other designer's work on Project Runway. Now, someone prove me wrong about orange......or, just tell me what color you love to hate.

I've had a cold...

So, I've been in the house doing a lot of creating. Here's some of the new stuff. I'm not putting any of it in my store just yet because I'm getting ready to visit my Dad again and I'll be gone the rest of March. However, if you see something you like and absolutely must have, let me know, I'll list it for you and I can ship it out. I'll be leaving on Thursday, so let me know by Wednesday if you see something.

Rose Pendant
(Paper flowers forever preserved in resin.)

Honeybeads.

Oscar Beads.
(Black always makes me think of the Academy Awards.)

Aquamarine Loop Pendant
(Reversible. One side is silver transparent seed beads, and the other is aqua transparent seed beads.)

Swirly Girl Ring
(Seed beaded swirl encased in resin. This ring is adjustable.)

I'm still not feeling so hot, so I'm gonna take it easy today. Have a great Monday.
P.S. The offer from my last post still stands!

Bead Cleaning

I did some cleaning out of my workspace yesterday and look what I found. Two little stray beaded beads that had crawled under my bead mat. So, I'm makin' ya' a deal today! If you purchase either my Deep Sea Beaded Beads or my Bumpy Blue Beaded Beads, I'll throw ya' in an extra bead. That means four for the price of three! Which means you'd have enough beads for some earrings...hhhmm...or maybe a bracelet....

I hope you enjoy the last day of the weekend!

Lemme, lemme upgrade ya'!

Trying some new photo backgrounds and I want your input!!! Whadda ya' think??? More pics if you click on the link. Pretty please! I'm trying to upgrade my picture taking.

Two Sisters Ring

Red Eye Ring

She get it from her mama....part 2

Last year, I showed you a picture of my super-talented mother's take at a tile mosaic table. I thought I'd share some more mama's work wit' ya'. On today's agenda...flower arrangements. She likes to do these...no, she likes to do a lot of these. Hasn't been as common lately, but I still have fond childhood memories of a dining room table buried in dried flowers and hot glue gun strings that stretched the length of the dining room. This is the flower arrangment on the mantle.

I like this set up and as I look at it, I realize how cheaply we put it together. The plates were cheapies bought from Homegoods, the candlesticks too, and we got the flowers and the planter at Old Time Pottery.

Here's the up-close with some better lighting. It's very earthy and I actually like the orange. (I normally HATE orange)
In other news, I tried a new resin project last night that I was so excited about and woke up this morning to find that the resin had leaked out of the edges that I had carefully covered with tape following manufacturer's suggestions. Argh. So, I'm gonna pick myself up and find a way to salvage this. Argh. Start over from step one and try not to get too angry. Argh. Clean up my mess and squash my desire to throw the whole thing in the trash. Argh. Oh, did I mention, argh?

Spring!

Yesterday was the first true Spring day that we've had around here and it was lovely! I wasn't able to get outside as much as I would have wanted to, but today I'm planning on spending a little time outdoors with my nephew. We spent the weekend in Columbia, SC and had a great time. The weather cooperated and I couldn't have asked for a better weekend!



Here's what I accomplished while in the car this weekend! I call it Lavender Blossom Bracelet.

It's just this beautiful bright purple beaded blossom in the center with this gorgeous set of leaves flanking the blossom on either side. It's so springy and I love the textures. It's not flat at all, the bloom is raised and the leaves are stacked on top of each other. It's very reminiscent of a corsage.

I love making these leaves, I could make leaves all day...but, I'm not going to, I'm going to go outdoors and enjoy the weather and drive by Port City Java later for a latte. Have a great day!

The Resinator

My sister came up with the term yesterday while we were cuttin' and pastin' and gluin' and beadin' and huntin' up things to put in these brand new bezels which arrived two days ago. (A special thanks to the United States Postal Service!) Okay, here's the goods in no particular order....
First up, a cut out of scrapbook paper with a clear bezeled top. (They accidently shipped us one that fit perfectly in the pendant so we decided to use it. )
Secondly, a little round pendant with a tiny turquoise round which I did up with seed beads to match the pattern of the scrapbook paper. This was Emily's design, I just did the brick stitch for her.

Then a little seashell planted on top of some complimentary origami paper from an origami kit we received years ago. (Emily's design)

Next up, more scrapbook paper with a tiny little "flower" made from seed beads and more glittery scrapbook paper. (This one was my design).

Then, a tiny seed bead leaf embellishing more glittery scrapbook paper! (I learned a valuable lesson here. The dark thread becomes doubly obvious under resin. Note to self: Use white thread or fireline.)

And then, finally, I did two rings. The first has no embellishment whatsoever. It's just a perfect cut-out of scrapbook paper. I originally thought that it was going to be boring, but now that it's dry. I really like it.

This last one is a tiny little bird flying over a Monet-esque naturescape.

I must say that I think the experiment was pretty successful and I can't wait to get home today and cut and paste some more. Here are some tips that I found while using the resin.
First of all, I used ICE resin and the instructions suggest pouring a full ounce which ends up being a lot, so get together a good pile of stuff that you want to resinate (I know, I made that up too) before you start so you won't waste the resin.
Secondly, glue down everything that you want so that you have a lot less problems with bubbles, and the resin doesn't get under the paper. I think the resin seeped under some of the scrapbook papers and dulled the colors a little.

Last, I didn't add anything to the resin, but I liked the look of glitter which I acheived using glittered scrapbook paper. It also has the cool effect of making the glitter look like it was placed in certain spots.

Hope y'all have a good day and that you enjoyed my resin experiment!

Settin' goals and seein' leaves...

Here's my newest piece. I've had this in my head for a while. Ever since I completed my Spring Leaves necklace, I've been wanting to explore this leaf making thing with some different colors and textures. So...here's the result. I call it Band of Leaves and me gusta mucho, I like it a lot. This one is very dainty and feminine. I've got it in my head to do another one down the road that's a lot thicker with more leaves...we'll see.

Okay, last week, I got kinda frustrated because every time I sat down to make something I couldn't get my head into a frame of mind where I had some direction, where I knew what I wanted to make or where I wanted to go and how to get there. So, I did something I hardly ever do...I set some goals. I wanted to create at least 6 new things by Wednesday of this week (tomorrow). Well, as you can see, I've got 5 of the things that I wanted to make marked off the list and I'm pretty sure that by tomorrow I can get six. (I'm working on numbers 8 and 10 right now!)

It was weird having a "list", but very satisfying to cross something out and feel like I'd accomplished it! It worked really well for me and I'll definitely keep doing it in the future. How about you? What do you do to stay motivated and focused?

I hope you enjoy your Tuesday!
(I know I will, Tuesday means Salsa lessons!! Hehe!)

Welcome to Moe's!

Because that's probably where I will be eating tonight....

Welcome Spring!!

Because that's what this necklace says to me...
(Yes, one day I will stop making beaded beads. Until then, well...you will see more beaded beads.)
Bird's Nest Necklace. It's in my shop.