The Great Bead Mothership Has Landed

"I can’t stress this enough: Do what you love…in between work commitments, and family commitments, and commitments that tend to pop up and take immediate precedence over doing the thing you love. Because the bottom line is that life is short, and you owe it to yourself to spend the majority of it giving yourself wholly and completely to something you absolutely hate, and 20 minutes here and there doing what you feel you were put on this earth to do."

 from Find The Thing You're Most Passionate About, Then Do It On Nights and Weekends For The Rest of Your Life ~ The Onion

I am leaving tomorrow today for Milwaukee. I can't wait! I get to visit - however briefly - with my sister and her family, but more importantly I get to commune with people who get me like no one else does. The Great Bead Mothership has landed and I am ready to hop on board! It is always so exciting to get there and meet up with old friends and also to know that when I leave I will have some new friends. I hope that if you are reading this and you will be there, you will seek me out. I would love to meet you!

I get to hang out with Heather Powers at Humblebeads in booth #1212 and her Aunt Rosanne. The aisle that we are in is in the heart of the Art Bead side of the show. It is the place that I can't wait to visit as I am always blown away by the talent of so many.

My bead budget will be considerably smaller than in years past - mostly because I found the box with the beads that I bought last year and the vast majority of them are untouched - but more so because I have a new venture that I am focusing on that is causing me to branch out my creativity while helping causes that I care about. All of my available capitol right now is being funneled into setting all of this up. When I have a clearer picture of how this will work, I will be sure to share.

On Saturday night, the Art Bead Scene will be hosting a little meet and greet of art bead artists and enthusiasts. I look forward to kicking back with my bead peeps and swapping a few art beads. I am sure that my art bead museum can make room for a few more entries!

So since I have a veritable dragons' hoard of beads - including a museum full of art beads that I apparently buy and then allow to collect dust - I decided to whip up a few necklaces to show off some of the friends that I will be seeing at the Bead & Button with pieces that I scored from them in the last year...or so. Sort of my salute to Art Bead artists.

Home to Roost
 Featuring MoreSkyeJewels nest tile, polymer clay egg from Second Surf, peridot carved leaves, Vintaj brass branch, wood slices, Czech glass

Earth Laughs in F;owers

Featuring Humblebeads and my own Simple Truths along with brass and Czech glass

  

O, Happy Day

Featuring components from Michaels by Jangles and Czech glass

No Small Thing, Courage
Featuring glass from imakebeads, word bead from Diane Hawkey, one of my own enameled beads, copper leaf fringe chain, my own patinaed bead cap, Czech glass

 
Lasso Me A Lovely
Featuring a flower from Lisa Peters Art, an iron flower from The Lipstick Ranch, leather cord and a big hole pearl from TA Pearls

Outta Time

Faux lariat featuring a ceramic toggle from Earthenwood Studio, lampwork glass from Sea of Glass, chain and beads

And with that, I am officially Outta Time! I need to get myself down to Milwaukee before all the beads are taken and the Great Bead Mothership takes off without me! ;-)

See you next week!