Finding More Fun

Gretchen Rubin, in her excellent book, The Happiness Project Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun, encourages us to Be Serious about Play. Don’t know how to tap into your inner child? Rubin was having the same problem, until a friend asked her this question: “What did you like to do when you were a child? What you enjoyed as a ten-year-old is probably something you’d enjoy now.”

I recall with relish playing marbles with my little brother. Although I enjoyed the actual game of marbles and capturing all of James’ alleys (he was 5 years younger, and we never played for keeps!), what I really liked was rolling those cat’s eyes in my hands and examining the swirling colored glass that was injected inside.

So I set off to replicate that experience this weekend. The marbles were jasper, the swirls of color were on the outside, and I captured them with seed beads. A great week-end of work, but work that was fun!



The necklace is Carole Ohl's Earthly Hues design from the current issue of Beadwork magazine.

When’s the last time you knuckled down to a day at play?

The Good Sister

Growing up, my sister was a near-perfect child. Blonde, poised, smart, accomplished. An overachiever, appearing at the dinner table with face shining, hair brushed, and perfect grammar. I was, well, none of those things. Our mother and the bevy of nuns at St. Barnabas School who watched us grow up would have concurred that, of the O’Connor girls, Janet was the good sister and I was…a challenge. Today is her birthday, and I wanted to make something really special to celebrate it, especially given the fantastic scarf she has already gifted to me.

I knew I wanted to use this delicious color palette from Margie Deeb’s Fall Color Report. After collecting delicas and seed beads in the rich chocolate browns and slightly pink, slightly orange coral tones, I found the perfect necklace on Atlanta Bead Market’s class schedule: Jimmie Boatright’s Links, Rings and Things. There are not many things that I would spend 90 minutes in drive-time traffic for, but taking a class from Jimmie is at the top of that list!


My first stop was at Rodney Andrew’s Art Glass studio for these focal beads which worked perfectly with my browns and corals. The pointed oval links are from Diane Fitzgerald’s Shaped Beadwork. The chocolate truffle-toned delicas were so creamy I felt like I was weaving an elegant confection! They were so much fun to stitch and zip up that I’ll definitely be trying out more of Diane’s geometric shapes. The two-layered rings and bezeled discs brought lots of color and texture to the necklace. A bit of fringe completed the design. (I’m lucky to have learned this design directly from Jimmie. If you don’t live in the Atlanta area, look for the necklace to appear in a future issue of Bead and Button magazine.)

Estheticians say that the color coral is a veritable fountain of youth, and when worn on or near the face, brightens and rejuvenates.

A gift that’s both chocolaty and age-defying? Who’s the good sister now?

A Little Patch of Cool

Yesterday was loaded with activity – all those last-minute errands when one child is graduating from and the other is returning to college. Late in the 100° afternoon, I turned the car toward my favorite tomato stand. As I rounded the curve, I didn’t see the wooden chair that signaled the small stand was open. But, no, there it was, tucked a little further back into the surrounding trees. As I got out to buy one of the two remaining baskets, I noticed it was at least 20° cooler here in the shade. And quiet, almost serene. Birds were chirping (chirping!) and through the trees, I saw a woman in a housedress soundlessly shaking out a rag from a corner of her porch. I felt like I’d been transported back to the 1950’s! For a moment, the galloping concerns of the day stood still. I turned back to the road and blinked. The bank with its crowded ATM’s was still on the corner. The four lanes of traffic were still whizzing by. The tomato seller smiled as if he’d seen this reaction before and told me I’d just stepped into his “little patch of cool.” It was a moment that stayed with me the rest of the day.

This afternoon, when I finally got a chance to sit down at my bead tray, I realized I’d just entered my own little patch of cool. Where’s yours? Visited lately?

Mad Men tonight

I’m in a pearl state of mind as I wait for the season premiere of Mad Men tonight. I found these classic earrings in the newest “Best of” edition of Step by Step Beads. They reminded designer Terri Wlaschin of some her mother owned back in the Mad Men-era of clip-ons, so she redesigned them as dangles for a modern touch.

Katie and I each worked on a pair this afternoon. Katie's pair is elegantly crafted in the original crystal AB design, and I opted to anchor mine in light siam.
Mad Men’s Betty "As long as men look at me that way, I’m earning my keep" Draper might have worn them to a Sterling Cooper holiday party. Joan “No dull moments or dull men” Harris would wear them anytime!

Baby It's Hot Outside

It’s over 100° in ATL today, so I decided to spend this sultry afternoon indoors – not at my beading table, but at Beadworks Atlanta’s warehouse sale. We shoppers got the chance to step beyond the retail showroom into the warehouse itself to browse the stacks of beads, findings and components offered at lower-than-wholesale pricing.

My favorite purchase was this pendant and string of black rutilated quartz teardrops. After some intense days of beadweaving, I’m in the mood to do some stringing.

A great afternoon to browse the selections and chat with fellow beaders about their current projects. And since I only exceeded my budget by $4.95, it proved to be a no-sweat way to cool off!

To Infinity and Beyond

Infinity has many faces. It’s one thing to the mathematician and quite another to the scientist. To the artist, I suppose it is imagination given free reign. That’s what I discovered when I found Gill Slone’s blog, Beadography, last year, when I threaded up a needle and opened my first tube of seed beads. Gill’s was the first beading blog I read, and after a few visits, she seemed like an old friend. I felt like I knew her Scottie dog, her garden, her dreams. She joked about hiding a few beads in her luggage when she left for a motor bike tour around Europe with her husband, a trip that, tragically, ended her life. I still find inspiration from her blog entries, and knew when her design, Galaxy Bead, was published posthumously in the February issue of Bead and Button that I had to make this piece. When I discovered a cache of Swarovski Peridot Sahara bicones at Crystal Creations in West Palm Beach, I finally had my beads.


Fastening it around my neck, a line from Gill’s first post came to mind – sometimes happiness is bead shaped!

A Pearl of a Gray

I just downloaded Margie Deeb's Fall 2010 Color Report, and what a treat for the eyes! If you're a green lover like I am, there's a healthy dose of that color, from the yellow-green of crisp Endive to the forest green of Woodbine. But while I was searching out the green page, I was caught up by a new color, Oyster Gray, and this piece from SaraBeth Cullinan. Isn't this a gorgeous neutral? Can't you just imagine it paired with a deep navy blue? Now, where's my bead stash...