The Sisterhood of the Traveling Bead Box

Quick!! You have 'til midnight tonight to go to The Bliss Guild's blog and leave a comment to possibly win the opportunity to have the bead box come to your house. Alice of The Bliss Guild has enjoyed having it at her home and has added some great treats to the box. I know I'd like it to come to mine!

The Traveling Bead Box was started by the amazing Heather Powers of Humblebeads. Click here for the original post about the box. Good luck!



Soup Is On!!

My Bead Soup package has been mailed to Marci (though I forgot to put her card in, so that's going to arrive separately). I hope she loves them! I'm anxiously awaiting Marci's beads to me!

When I found out Marci was my partner and went to her blog, I was struck by what we have in common. I think our lives are probably quite different, yet there are things that really struck me. I told Lori in an email that I had to close my laptop and walk away for a day before I could write to Marci. The last blog post Marci had written talked about her insecurities about joining the BSBP group (me too), her frustration with disorganization and being overwhelmed though she's a very organized person (me too), their dog (oy, me again), how her husband is her rock (me too), our age (youthful!). The similarities were striking, but that's not what's most striking.

Then there was Marci's post about memory beads, now that piqued my interest. You see, we lost our beautiful T.J. just over seven years ago. I've had the rose petals from his funeral in a bag all this time waiting to be made into rose petal beads. I also have my grandmother's rose petals from her funeral six and a half years ago for the same purpose. It was a shock, yet a pleasant one. It just seemed to me that it was meant that we were to be paired!

As I said to Lori, I don't know if it was Divine intervention, kismet, the divine bead goddess or what, but I do believe I was meant to participate in this project at this time in my life. It just feels right and I can't wait to jump in with both feet!

The Bead Soup Blog Party Is Here!

And I'm so excited! It's going to be a lot of fun to stretch myself creatively and emotionally too. I've been in a rut for quite a while. I work all day and come home emotionally drained, not wanting to really do anything. I started making conscious choices about a year ago to make changes in my life, drastic change is necessary (especially as I approach 50). It seems that I take a step forward and several back, but at least I'm moving right? I intend to move forward toward a more positive place and shovel the crap out as I go.

I have been paired with Marci Brooks of Moose Petals. I am so excited to get to know her (more on why in a later post)! I sent my introductory email to her last evening and await her reply. I'm pondering heavily what I'll be sending to her, I want the package to be special.

I especially want to thank Lori Anderson our party hostess (with the mostest!). Thank you Lori!! It is a herculean task that she has willingly and with an open heart taken on. There are 363 participants in this blog hop. THREE HUNDRED AND SIXTY THREE!! Lori does this all free of charge and has spent days and days and days (and days) looking at the participants blogs and doing her best to carefully match up participants. She's lost a lot of sleep over it (and she doesn't even charge us to participate!). I HEART HER!!

I'll post the beads I receive when I receive them & I'll post the beads I send to Marci once I know she's received them!

Fruits of the Season

Our town started a farmer's market on Thursday afternoon/evening a couple of weeks ago. Hazel (my husband - the reference is to the television show from the early/mid 60's with the live-in maid Hazel (played by Shirley Booth) - he cooks and cleans.) and I went for the first time last night. It was lovely.

beets & radishes from Alewives Brook Farm, Cape Elizabeth, ME

The neighboring city of Portland has had a very successful (and much larger) farmer's market on Saturday at Deering Oaks Park and on Wednesday at Monument Square (spring through fall). It is a wonderful experience with everything from seedlings and perennials, to eggs, fruits, flowers, veggies, organic meats, etc.

 flowers & basil, Alewives Brook Farm

We bought our first locally grown corn on the cob of the season (dinner tonight!), cherry tomatoes and high bush blueberries at Alewives. Alewives is a wonderful local farm run by the Jordan family. They have veggies, turkeys, lobster (yum-o!), and eggs.

Very tasty bread from Cambridge Coffee Bar & Bakehouse (yummy!), South Portland, ME. The baguette was so yummy broken into pieces and dipped into olive oil with kosher salt & cracked black pepper! Love their coffee in the morning!

I neglected to get the name of this farm, we bought organic eggs from them.

The market is held at Thomas Knight Park, which is a park that was created when the old Million Dollar Bridge was closed and the new Casco Bay Speedway Bridge was opened. The park overlooks the Fore River as it connects to Casco Bay. Love it. I'd love to show you pictures of the park but I didn't take any yesterday (and the beautiful pictures I took there last summer were lost when my laptop crashed in March, losing 6,000ish digital images. Can you say "back-up to external hard-drive regularly"? I didn't.)

All-in-all, a very successful first trip to the market and we'll be going back again! It was nice running into old friends, acquaintances and neighbors! Do you have a favorite farmer's market in your neck of the woods?

I Heart Collecting Hearts!

"Collecting is, of course, for most collectors just a reasonably absorbing and largely harmless pastime, looked upon by an uncomprehending world as a kind of gentle madness."

 - Stephen Calloway

I am a collector. I collect many things; beads, craft supplies (I haven't met one I didn't like), crafts (I'm a Jack of all trades, master of none) to name a few. My most favorite pastime is walking the beach, camera (and special stick - more on that another time) in hand searching for treasures. It doesn't matter if it's hot, cold, raining or snowing - I love the beach! I collect while I'm walking; sea glass, white rocks, shells, sand dollars. My FAVORITE treasures to collect are heart shapes.

I have lots of rocks,

 sea glass,

 shells (this one is a mussel shell),

(more sea glass),

and photos of items from nature that tickle my fancy;

rosa rugosa petal,

seaweed,

found on a walk at Crescent Beach State Park.

"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."

- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

They make my heart sing. What makes your sing?

Andrew Thornton's July Reader's Challenge

Hello! Welcome to my (not so bloggy) blog! I am happy as a clam to be participating in Andrew's first reader's challenge! It has been quite some time since I've made a piece of jewelry and this was just the opportunity for me to dive back in. Boy, do I admire the folks who produce many pieces day after day. I think I restrung this first necklace 6 or 7 times until I had it (mostly) how I'd like it to be. I love this necklace, the colors are some of my favorites and it can easily be worn year-round.

In this necklace I used a number of pieces from Andrew's design kit: the Keith O'Connor tube bead, oxidized natural brass chain, Czech glass from Raven's Journey, semi-precious stones, luxury bead blend, and Andrew's mystery component - the copper leaf pendant. I added African blue opal rondelles, amazonite rondelles, turquoise rounds, dyed mother of pearl "shark teeth" (for lack of a better description), copper jumprings, a hammered brass ring, brass chain links, a vintage glass bicone, and SoftFlex - all from The Beadin' Path; Vintaj natural brass rings and leaves, gunmetal bronze wire by Artistic Wire and brass jump rings from A.C. Moore; a mother of pearl tube bead, ceramic oval, and recycled, cut-glass round from Caravan Beads; a hook from Melinda Orr, and finally, sea glass chips I drilled as well as some sea glass and sea pottery shards I soldered.
This necklace screams summer (and beach, my favorite place on earth) to me:

I love lime green, turquoise and silver in the summer! The focal of this piece was included in the reader's challenge kit and is a beautiful spring green leaf pendant from Melanie Brooks of Earthenwood Studio. Also included in the design kit was the lime green lampworked sugar bead by Bernadette Fuentes. I added a piece of aqua sea glass that I soldered along with pressed glass coins, rondelles and basemetal chain I picked up at Caravan Beads along with a sterling silver clasp and jump rings from The Beadin' Path and the ring from an old toggle I had.

Blogger was not being kind to me with regard to hyperlinks today (4th time's the charm?), so these are a bit out of order. Enjoy the hop!

Andrew Thornton

Katie James, Sarajo Wentling and Margriet Schnabel's beauties are on Andrew's blog

Patty Gasparino

Mary K. McGraw

Melissa Meman

Norma Turvey

Anne Dixon

Jessica Nelson

Holly Baldwin

Paula Kramer

Karyn Bonfiglio

Sally Russick

You Might Be A Seaglunker…..

If you always have sand under the nails of your index finger and your thumb, you might be a seaglunker.

If your fingertips always taste like saltwater, you might be a seaglunker.

If you work full-time and wish that every major coastal storm hit on a Friday so you could be first to the beach on Saturday to collect, you might be a seaglunker.

If your eye catches the glint of cobalt blue, then you suck your breath in, do a silent scream, and do a five year old's happy dance when you uncover that perfectly tumbled piece, you might be a seaglunker.

If your dining room table perpetually looks like this:

or this, you might be a seaglunker:

If you say to your husband, "I'm going to the beach for an hour" and he rolls his eyes because he knows you'll be gone for four, you might be a seaglunker.

If you tell yourself you're only going to search the beach for an hour, but are there for four because you might miss that "perfect piece", you might be a seaglunker.

If your best friend tells you to step away from your addiction and go back to your car, you might be a seaglunker.

If you willingly plow through knee deep snow to get to said beach after said storm to be the first to collect, you might be a New England seaglunker.

If the hems of your jeans are perpetually wet because there was a "wicked good piece" that you had to wade into the 35 degree ocean to retrieve, you might be a New England seaglunker.

If your face is red and you're not sure if it's sunburn or windburn (or most likely both) because you've been out collecting on a 10 degree day, you might be a New England seaglunker.

If you consider 30 degrees and a slight wind to be balmy weather that doesn't require a hat or gloves, you might be a New England seaglunker.