The Karma Award

I have finally managed to snatch enough time to post about The Karma Award, bestowed upon me by my gorgeous friend Sharon of Mana Moon Studios. Sharon is a beautiful person in every sense of the word, she has a warm and giving personality and has a knack for making everyone around her feel great! She is a talented artisan to boot who creates beautiful wirework and fiber jewellery. Thank you for the kudos dear friend, I just love the sentiment behind this award:

Karma Award

These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind of bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.

This award epitomises everything that I love about blogging. When I first started Bead Fetish, I had in mind that it would be nothing more than a convenient place to store and share photos of my work. I never imagined that I would *meet* so many wonderful, generous, talented, amazing people from all over the world. These new and dear friends have enriched my life and opened doors previously unimagined. We may never meet in person, but we share an understanding and respect for one another that transcends borders, languages, and cyberspace!

I would like to pass this award on to the following bloggers. I understand that many of you will not want to pass it on, nor post about it on your blog, but it's just my little way of thanking you for your friendship, connections, support and inspiration! :)

Bianca of Bianca Velder Creations

Karyn of Releases by Rudydoof

Steph of Atelier Aqualuna

Vicki of Dragonfly Creation Jewellery

Julie of Meanderings by Julz

Anna of Il Mondo di Redanny

Rachele of Rachele's Originals

Neglectful

Sometimes I'm convinced that my life exists in a time warp. How else can two weeks vanish in the blink of an eye? Time has never really been on my side, and that seems to be becoming ever more apparent as I grow older.

So what have I been up to in the last few weeks (aside from neglecting my blog)?

A little bit of boating...

Our 17 month old daughter, India, playing Skipper

And a little bit of beading...

An as yet unfinished and unnamed botanical experiment created with RAW (right angle weave)...perhaps "Belindaflora Bigbellyus" would be appropriate?

I finally got my lazy pregnant butt into gear and also started working on my piece for the Dutch Spiral challenge on the Beading Forum. In a moment of beading madness, I decided that it would be a good idea to bead a 3-dimensional tulip.

Have I ever made a 3-dimensional flower before? No.

Have I ever beaded a tulip before? No.

I know the point of a challenge IS to challenge oneself, but sheesh, why do I always set the bar so high?

A tulip is one of those deceptively simple shapes. I thought it was going to be a breeze, but I was kidding myself. Did you ever have to draw a dolphin at school? You think, "A dolphin is a simple shape, how hard can it be to draw?" The answer is HARD! Unless you get the lines and the proportions just so, you end up with a creature which looks more like a hotdog with fins than a dolphin.

I was having the same problem with my beaded tulip. I estimate that I spent more hours unpicking stitches than I did actually stitching them. After a number of prototypes, I think I'm finally on track. My 3D tulip is looking more like a tulip and less like a deflated umbrella having a crisis of identity.

I attempted my first sample of dutch spiral last night and, much to my surprise, I really like it. If it weren't for the challenge, it would no doubt be yet another stitch on my 'must try that one day' list.

In other news, my darling friend Sharon of Mana Moon Studios has bestowed a lovely new award upon me and I haven't had a chance to blog about it yet. I'm sorry Sharon, I haven't forgotten! There is a really nice sentiment behind this award so I will dedicate a whole post to it :)

A Fabulous Award

It is always humbling to think that a talented artist believes my blog is worthy of an award *blush*

This fabulous award was bestowed upon me by the lovely Anna of Il Mondo Di Redanny all the way from beautiful Italy! Anna is a multi-talented artist, who creates in many different mediums including polymer clay, paint, and fabric. Her polymer clay fairies and pixies are unbelievably life-like...I'm certain they come alive in the middle of the night, while the rest of the world is sleeping :-)

I now have the honour of passing on this award to five of my most deserving blog friends.

*drumroll please*

And the nominees are:

Sharon of Mana Moon Studios

Karyn of Releases by Rudydoof

Nicole of Beadwright

Julie of Meanderings by Julz; and

Julie of The Jewellery Goddess