Back After A Long Sabbatical Just in Time for Lori Anderson's Bead Soup Blog Party 2014

As some of you know, my father passed away in January of 2013.  After getting through his funeral and setting up an estate in the local probate court, I found myself unable to keep up with processing his estate, both in the legal arena and in the physical arena of going through his things, grandma's things (which he had inherited 10 years prior and had done nothing with), his house and grandma's house, meeting submission deadlines for publications, and designing new jewelry.  So, in June, after learning that I had just spent six weeks designing a layout for Bead Trends September, 2013 issue, only to learn that June would be their last publication before going out of business, I decided it was time for a break.  At the time, I had no idea it would be nine months, but I decided to take as much time as I needed to give myself time to grieve and to deal with some of the family work that I would have to deal with.

That process included a lot of work, both for me and my brothers and sisters as we had learned something that we had known all along, but had never had to really deal with since we didn't live with Dad.....He was a hoarder!  And, one of the worse kinds of hoarders.  He had every inch of property that he controlled full of steel, antique and vintage trailer parts, building materials and all kinds of collectibles and other things that had been grandmas.  My brother began the task of hauling off tons, and I do mean tons, of steel and I began the task of sorting through smaller things to make determinations on what could be kept and what needed to be trashed.

Of course, Dad's house needs a complete - down to the studs - remodel and grandma's house will have to be torn down and built from the ground up.  My five sisters, my brother and I have decided to form a company and to rebuild them.  Hopefully, construction will begin on Dad's house in the next few weeks, weather depending.

In the meantime, I wasn't completely absent from creating jewelry.  I continued to do custom requests and above is a bracelet that I made from a client's beads.  More about that project next post.

In the meantime, I am back home and excited and anxious to get back into the studio.  I have decided to take a further break from publication submissions and just to concentrate on getting my juices flowing again.

And, what better way to begin than to participate in Lori Anderson's 2014 Bead Soup Blog Party.  Sign ups have been completed and partners have been chosen.

I am so proud to announce that my partner this year is the super talented Ginger Davis Allman of The Blue Bottle Tree.  She produces tutorials on polymer clay art and also makes jewelry components.  Her work is amazing.  She can make polymer clay look like ancient Roman glass, and we all know how beautiful that is.  She can make it look as if it has a hologram on it and also other faux glass treatments and finishes. You can check her out on her blog at The Blue Bottle Tree.

Now, I begin the task of making the final choices on the bead soup that I will send her.  This is always the hardest part of the challenge for me so this year I am approaching it a little differently.  I hope she loves it.

Finally, I apologize for my absence, but I really needed it.  I couldn't even remember how to get into my blog!  LOL  But, now that I have figured it out, I am sure I will get back into the swing of things in no time.  I am looking forward to a productive and creative summer.