Shell Beads and Seed Beads and Spring Break

Happy spring break!

Here are some new necklaces. I made a bunch of bracelets but right now I hate them all and I will probably take them apart. I like the idea of making sets with pieces that go well together but don't match perfectly. Time will tell if I accomplish this!

White Stripes

(click on White Stripes)

This is a video of Chris and Jesse playing Seven Nation Army by The White Stripes. Jesse recently quit drum lessons but he continues to drum on every surface...ALL THE TIME! He can also play his favourite songs by ear on the drums, much like his father can on the guitar. They often break out into impromptu jams in the studio. I usually run for the camera only to miss the best bits. This time I got it!

Recycling

Even though I have made a LOT of jewelery over these past months, I really haven't bought as many new beads as you might think.

Since I am a thrift store addict, I have simply added yet another item to my list of stuff I'm always looking for. Old necklaces (even ugly ones) often have at least few nice beads on them.

I have also been given a lot of beads. Old jewelery, unused beads etc. One of my favorite gifts has been a bag of old macrame beads of my mom's. Some of them are HUGE and challenging to string but most of them are just plain...awesome!

The necklace on the left was made for a friend who drew me a picture of what she wanted. She also requested that I use her pendant and that I come up with something to put on the other end. I ended up using yet another macrame bead to complete this piece! What will I do when I run out?

The second necklace is made mostly of macrame beads and seed beads. The big wooden bead in the middle is my favourite. I have another one....hmmm...what to do with it????

Weddings

As Chris enters his second summer of playing cello at weddings, we are starting to understand how the wedding planning process works.

Our own wedding plans consisted of calling a commissioner and locating 2 witnesses who happened to be free for an hour on a Thursday (?) afternoon at 2pm.

http://cbaillieguitarteacher.webs.com/

I remember that filling out the forms for our marriage licence caused us enough stress that Chris cracked inappropriate jokes (he asked me how to spell my name-right in front of the clerk!!!!) and I was sure someone was going to tell us we were distant relatives or something equally horrifying. We've often breathed a sigh of relief that we didn't embark on planning a big wedding. Just the thought of us getting through the vows or the really mushy, romantic bits sends us into hysterical laughter. We are certain that we would have laughed our heads off throughout the entire ceremony had we had a large audience to entertain.

So imagine our surprise all these years later to find ourselves becoming so well versed on the ins and outs of wedding planning. Chris knows the proper names for all the parts of the ceremony and understands which pieces work when and where! We are starting to see how the planning calender works too. We can already see a pattern developing.

The interesting thing is that Chris is loving this work. I love hearing about the different locations and how the couples personalise the ceremonies. It seems there are as many ways to get married as there are couples getting married.

In short, weddings have become an integral part of our lives. And had you asked us 13 years ago if we thought we'd be making a good portion of our living this way...well THAT would have sent us into GALES of hysterical laughter.

Granny Earrings

I made these earrings to contribute to a jewelery sale to benefit the Wolfville Granny Group

http://grannieweb.wordpress.com/

We have a group in our area but the Wolfville one is special to us because my mother inlaw is involved. People donate unwanted jewelery and the grannies sell it to raise money for a very worthy cause.(see website)

I enjoyed making these! I think I will try to come up with some more designs for earrings soon.

Black and white

So here is the best I can do so far at photographing this necklace. I used the camera on the manual setting and it came out really dark. Then I used my picture viewer thingy and brightened it. If I was a more patient person, I would let Chris shoot it on his slr....but wait for pics to be developed??? No thanks.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?pid=11542236&id=829610606

If this works, it should take you to the rest of my bead pictures on Facebook....let's see...

More beads

yahoo! Look at me! I figured out how to post more than one picture at a time.

All of these are sold. I am in the process of making/posting new ones.

I have a brand new necklace I am trying to photograph but it is black and white. I can't figure out how to light it so that the white beads can be seen. Any advice?

Beads

Krista's mom's necklace. Started out as one strand and upon request by the owner, I added 2 more. I think it is one of my faves.

I thought I could put a bunch of pics in one post but I can't seem to figure it out! I also wasn't expecting the new posts to appear above the old! sheesh. I guess I have more to learn than I thought.

Jesse and Edie want me to put all of their beaded projects up too. I hope I can figure this out soon!

Speaking of Jesse and Edie, I am thrilled that they are beading with me. It makes me laugh how they can make an argument out of ANYTHING. The quiet, beatific moments I am expecting as we all sit creating together turn into wars over tools and fights over space.
Its fun to listen to them dream about selling their finished projects! Jesse is all about the $$ of course or that's what he wants us to believe anyway. Edie I think just wants to spend time with us...no matter the activity. Nathan runs away when we invite him to join us.

It's great though when Nathan is curled up on the couch with his book, Chris is playing cello in the studio and the three of us are beading in the kitchen. Despite (or maybe BECAUSE of) the bickering between the youngest members of our family, it's bliss.

First

It just occurred to me today that a blog would be a good thing. I have never had one and (truthfully) I haven't read very many. But...life is so full and busy and I am looking for ways to document the daily (?) events that are shaping the people our children are becoming, not to mention the people Chris and I are becoming as we emerge from the haze of early parenthood and join the world again.

It was always our dream to raise our children in a household filled with music and art. We wanted to be models of living according to one's passion, finding purpose in life and most of all questioning, questioning, questioning.

We moved to NS thinking we needed to leave the hustle and bustle and live closer to the land in order to accomplish our goals for our family. Funny, that we find ourselves, 15 years later, living in the center of industry and consumerism living simply, following our passions and raising well adjusted, aware and most importantly HAPPY children. hmm.

So I guess I've started my first blog post with a ramble. Get used to it!