Thought for the day

I'm not a big fan of chain letters and generally just delete them without reading them. Some how I opened this one and liked this part of it -- it just takes faith. Faith isn't always easy to come by when things aren't turning out quite like you expected but if you can hang in there hopefully a window opens:

To get something you never had, you have to do something you never did.

When God takes something from your grasp, He's not punishing you, but merely opening your hands to receive something better.

The "will" of God will never take you where the "grace" of God will not protect you.

Just food for thought....

Beads, Beads and more Beads!

I can't help it - it's definitely an affliction. If I'm not beading, I'm thinking about beading, reading about beading or researching beading. I love seed beads. There is something about taking a couple of thousand little pieces of glass and turning them into a work of art. Of course with a couple of exceptions, I've given them all away - and didn't take photos! Oh well, maybe I should add that to my resolutions - I resolve to take pictures of my work before I give them away. There. Done.

I started weaving on a loom and fell in love with it. I still want my dream loom but until then I work on a small wood loom I purchased from my first instructor's shop. I've since branched out to off-loom techniques because they are just more portable and don't take the same time investment as a tapestry. I simply can't get enough - beads, time and focus - so that's my goal for this year. I'd like to make a piece every two weeks. Ha! Guess we'll see how that goes...

Here is one of my pieces that I fell in love with after making it in ruby red for a friend.

What are little boys made of?

What are little boys made of?
What are little boys made of?
Snips and snails and puppy dog's tails,
That's what little boys are made of.

I see this more and more with my two boys. They go out exploring and drag home all sorts of interesting things to "share" and want to store them in the garage, make something out of them or just "have" them because they are "too cool". Today in the space of a 1/2 hour they brought home 3 bamboo sticks (one at a time), a sandstone rock smoothly shaped like a plate and who knows what else in their pockets - sometimes it is safer not to ask. Of course if it's alive, you may want to know for when you are doing laundry and pulling the pockets out, I suppose. Fortunately for me, the collection of things coming from the laundry/dryer have been fairly tame:

• money (that automatically goes to the person doing laundry - that's me!)
• rocks (in their words - valuable crystals)
• paperclips
• rubberbands
• straws
• various small plastic figures
  
• screws/nails/found hardware
• candy wrappers
• crayons
• pencil nubs
• erasers
• silly putty
• beads (I taught them early)
• sand
• folded up pieces of artwork

That about scratches the surface. They are regular McGyvers! At least they are not parked in front of the computer/tv/game console. They are out getting fresh air and using their imaginations. I'll gladly take the trade off!

FYI: The poem is actually called "What are people made of" and there are many verses. That was news to me - here's a link to the full poem.