Belly up to the table, soup's on!

I just love this part.  All the gut-wrenching moments of self doubt go out the window, and the euphoria of a completed project settles in. Click here for my ingredients.

My generous partner is BeeTree by m.e. She makes polymer clay beads and toggles; her love of nature comes shining through in all of her pieces.  Check out her Etsy store!

We can submit our Bead Soup creations to be judged by an impartial panel.  *crunch* That's the sound of my brain grinding to a halt as a result of some self-imposed pressure.  Never a good thing; but I do it far, far too often.  So I stayed off the internet (ok, not Facebook).  I stayed away from Mary's site.  I stayed away from much of Pinterest.  I barely glanced at others' creations.  I did all this in hopes of coming up with some spectacular designs.  ...and nope.  Nada. Nothing.  Not a damn idea.  (Shocking, I know.)

After beating myself up for a couple of days, I noticed the card she sent me.  It has a beautiful picture of the sun's reflection in the shape of a heart.  Her note reads, "I chose this coral because it symbolizes joy and happiness, it enables the wearer to enjoy life. May you always bead happy." Well duh.  This one is mine.  No working outside my comfort zone, no "Hey, I've never tried this before." like I've done with my other soups.  This one is all for me, plain and simple.

I'm in a rather eclectic, bohemian mood lately.  I'm starting to fill my new (to me) house with bright colors, and I am developing a mismatched and relaxed atmosphere.  So I made jewelry in a style I would wear a lot.

I made a simple pendant out of the focal and some swingy earrings (That's right, swingy.  Not only do I make jewelry, I make new words.)

I'm a big fan of chunky, noisy bracelets.  So that's what I made.

I used the toggle, the coral beads, and the fabric strips in the bracelets. I also added a ceramic Peace bead from my friend Diane Hawkey, and added some copper bells for noise and shiny blue beads for a pop of color. I made 5 separate bracelets for those rare occasions I feel like wearing a simple strand or two, and not the whole kit-n-caboodle.

I believe we cannot move forward without remembering who we've been. We have to accept where we've gone and who we've been.  I rummaged through my keepsake box and I dangled an old key that used to open a porcelain bank from my childhood, and I turned one of my old stick pins into a charm.

Thanks for stopping by.  Please check out all of this round's bloggers on Lori's site.