Saturday 16 May 2015

The Art of Awareness Blog Hop


Today is a special day - it's the Art of Awareness blog hop, organised by Lori Anderson and Heather Millican. I expect most of you are familiar with both of these wonderful ladies - Lori of the infamous Bead Soup Blog Parties and Heather is the bead artist behind Swoondimples, some of my absolute favourite art beads to work with. More importantly, they are two of the sweetest people that I have the good fortune to know, and I'm so glad that the art bead world has allowed me to get to know both of them and call them my friends! 


This hop was definitely a blog hop with a twist. Everyone who signed up got to choose and purchase a very special bean bead from Heather, in the colour and with wording of their choice. Because this is the Art of Awareness blog hop though, each colour had certain significance, and would have a special ribbon stamp on the back. 

I've never made any awareness jewellery before - I don't think it's quite such a trend over here in the UK, in fact the only awareness colour I knew off the top of my head was pink for breast cancer awareness. But what some of you may not know is that my wife has MS, having being diagnosed back in 2010. She's very well with it the majority of the time, and although she has certain ongoing symptoms from previous attacks, for the most part she's - we've - been very fortunate. Other than the old having MS in the first place. That's still quite a bummer, it must be said! 

The MS awareness colour is orange, and as you can see...


....orange is what I went for. We have been through quite a lot recently - talking and accepting Helen's MS as part of our lives (and if you are the partner of someone with a chronic illness then believe me, I know how much of that specific journey is yours too!), getting a balance between self-care and not allowing our lives to be entirely dominated and determined by the MS. Not living in fear - nor living in denial. I won't say that those things aren't part of our lives still, but we are getting better, day by day.

I asked Heather for the words Be Here Now. I think for those reasons I described above. I have more tendencies towards living fearfully and Helen has more tendencies towards living in denial, but we both have found that we need to stop, take a breath, and be in the moment. 

Be.
Here.
Now.

Yes, Helen has MS. Yes, it is unfair and can be a big challenge to live with it as a not exactly welcome presence within our little family. Yes, MS could have terrible potential possibilities for our future. But these are not certain by any means. Nothing is set in stone. 

And whatever the future holds, that fact is that right now, Helen is well. Right now, that is our reality, and that is something to hold on to. To focus on. To fully embrace.


Neither daily panicking about the future, nor constantly trying to be superhuman to prove that MS isn't defining us is a good way to live. All we can do is stop, breath, and be here now. 

If you want to read about my actual design process, check out my post over on Art Bead Scene!

Thanks Lori and Heather for organising this great event. Quite a personal one for me! Now take a minute if you can to check out what some of the others created:

Lori
Heather
Anderson
Millican
www.PrettyThingsBlog.com (hostess)
www.facebook.com/swoondimples (bead artist)
CandidaCastleberrywww.spunsugarbeadworks.blogspot.com
mischelleandradehttps://micheladasmusings.blogspot.com
PaigeMaximhttp://delightfullittlegems.blogspot.com/
Laurie Vyselaar www.lefthandjewelry.wordpress.com
MarybethRichhttp://forestofjewels.blogspot.com/
AlicePetersonwww.alice-dreaming.blogspot.com
KimDworakhttp://www.cianciblue.blogspot.com/
AudreyBĂ©langerhttp://esperianterra.blogspot.ca/
Karenmitchellwww.overthemoon-design.com
JoanWilliamswww.lilrubyjewelry.com
JeanWellsjeanawells.blogspot.com
AnnSchroederwww.beadlove.wordpress.com
GailAccinellifacebook.com/oregonmadejewelry
TaniaSpiveywww.moobiegracedesigns.blogspot.com
Mallory Hoffmanhttp://rosebud101-fortheloveofbeads.blogspot.com/
Mary KMcGrawmkaymac.blogspot.com
ShaiWilliamswww.shaihasramblings.com/
BethEmerystoriesbyindigoheart.blogspot.com
CatieDomanhttp://drcatie.blogspot.com
LoreleiEurtoHttp://lorelei1141.blogspot.com
LeeKoopmanwww.stregajewellry.wordpress.com
TammyAdamswww.paisleylizard.com/blog/
KatieNelsonhttps://www.facebook.com/katiebead
PattyMillerhttp://pattymillerbeads.blogspot.com
ChrisEisenbergwww.wanderware.blogspot.com
CassiPaslickhttp://badatbeingmom.blogspot.com/
CharleeGriffithhttps://www.facebook.com/charlee.griffith
KelliNelsonwww.afamilyaffarekelli.blogspot.com
CatherineKinghttp://catherines-musings.blogspot.com
MelissaTrudingerbeadrecipes.wordpress.com
SusanBowiehttps://susanbowie.wordpress.com
JenniferJustmanwww.soulsfiredesigns.blogspot.com/
CassiPaslickhttp://badatbeingmom.blogspot.com/
KHutchinsonhttp://jumbledhutch.wordpress.com
VeralynneMalonewww.veradesigns.blogspot.com
Evie and BethMcCordhttp://ebbeadandmetalworks.blogspot.com/
MihaelaGeorgescuhttp://michellemaya2005.wordpress.com
RebeccaAndersonWww.songbeads.blogspot.com
Charlene Jackawww.clay-space.com
KimStevenswww.pickingpoppies.blogspot.com
SusanMcClellandMistheword12.wordpress.com


GinaHockettwww.freestyleelements.blogspot.com
MonaArnottbijouxgemsjoy.blogspot.ca
SandiVolpewww.sandivolpe.com
AndreaGlickhttp://zenithjade.blogspot.com/
JanineLucashttp://www.esfera.me/travel/blog/travel-stories
LoriBowring Michaudwww.artfullyornamental.blogspot.com
ChristieMurrowWww.charisdesignsjewelry.blogspot.com
B.R.Kuhlmanwww.mixedmayhemstudios.com
LupeMeterwww.gesmpccorner.blogspot.com
LucyBejaranowww.lucybejaranojewelry.blogspot.com/
StephaniePerrywww.mustardbeadbystephanieperry.blogspot.com
ElisabethAuldwww.beadsforbusygals.com
CarolynLawsonwww.carolynscreationswa.blogspot.com
HeatherPowerswww.humblebeads.blogspot.com
KatieHackerwww.katiehacker.blogspot.com
KepiRasmussenwww.kepirasmussen.blogspot.ca 
Gail Vanderster-Zwangwww.angelmoose.blogspot.com
ElizabethHodgeshttp://thewhisperingseas.blogspot.com/

Tuesday 12 May 2015

Me and Mr Rufus


Oh hello there! This is what the start of my day looks like every day just now, pretty much. Just me and Mr Rufus, chilling out. Look at his poor wee shaved ear! His fur is taking SO long to grow back there. Rufus and I send you all greetings from Edinburgh!

Friday 1 May 2015

Stacked Earring Challenge Take 3!

Hello all! It's time for a little transatlantic, trans-North Sea earring swap again. Malin started our little group back in January with these words:

"The idea is that I give each of us the same set of beads. Beads that I believe would be nice to use in earrings. Nothing exclusive, and no art beads. Just a group of different beads that I myself believe can be used in fun and interesting ways in earrings in a stacked style.

I am longing to see how we all use the same things but in different ways. I am thinking we could all make at least one pair of earrings, but hopefully more. And that we are free to add our own extra beads and/or other components, if we at least use three (3) of the beads from my set in each design."

This time around, the lovely Leah Curtis of Beady Eyed Bunny  sent us this a really delicious selection of beads, which you can see below in Malin's picture:


What you can't necessarily tell from this picture is just how beautiful weeny most of these beads are. For some sense of scale, the turquoise fire-polished beads in the bottom LH corner are 4mm, and the gold seed beads to the right are a small size 8. If that's too technical for you then trust me, these beads are on the wee side which for me is just *perfect*. Yes, I like the big fatties too but personally, small is almost always better when it comes in bead form! I think that's actually part of the reason I like beads in the first place. 

And you will see with the earrings that I created that I continued with the 'weeny' theme. Even within the selection of beads which Leah sent us, I really gravitated towards the weeniest of them - the largest beads I used were the long stick gemstones in the second pair. I tried to make the earrings themselves slightly longer by hanging them on short lengths of chain, which I am wont to do, but to no avail - they just looked better as they were. So here you go, my weeny collection of teeny earrings! 

DISCLAIMER - I must apologise for the slightly dodgy pictures (no, not like that - get your mind out of the gutter!). We've recently moved house and I HAVE NOT got the hang of the light in our new flat as yet. I'll get there but these are all blue-washed and slightly fuzzy to the max, despite my best efforts editing with iPhoto afterwards. Ah well! You get the idea! 







Now go and have a peek at what the others did with the same collection of lovelies! Thank you Leah for the gorgeous and inspiring bundle. 

Claire Lockwood - SomethingToDoWithYourHands - www.somethingtodowithyourhands.com

Leah Curtis - BeadyEyedBunny - www.beadyeyedbunny.blogspot.com

***Rebecca Anderson - Songbead - www.songbeads.blogspot.com*** You are here!

Heidi Post - ExPostFacto - www.expostfactojewelry.blogspot.com

Malin de Koning - BeadingByMalindeKoning - www.beadingbymalindekoning.blogspot.se

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