Focus on Life - Week 19 - Hope

Hope

I Love What I Find When I Clean!

The "Deep Cleaning Bug" has hit, again.

I seem to do a little bit here and a little bit there!

I was cleaning out a desk today.

I was amazed at what I found.

I don't know how many jump drives I've bought to replace these!

They were in the back of the drawer. 

Who would have thought to look there?

You don't know how many Happy Meals my kids had to eat so that I could get this creature.

It was in one of the promotions, and this is the one I wanted.

My kids would actually say, "Do we HAVE to go to McDonalds AGAIN?"

Yes, until I get my toy!!!

Finally, and were they ever glad!!!

Somehow, Hope, always manages to sneak in!

I smiled when I found this in the crevice of another drawer.

HOPE.

This is a card my cousin sent me EONS ago.

It was then I believed that the worst illness was a bad case of the flu.

Anyway, now I look at this card and say,

"Wow!  Look at all the beads on that card!"

I'm keeping this one.

Those are my hands and jewelry!

They were part of an article in the local newspaper about a bead store in town.

This was in my pre bead making days.

The memories flood in to my soul!

Of course, there's more, but that will be for another time.

I'm still looking for the photos that started this deep cleaning!

I sure hope I find them soon.  I'm tired!!!

Hope the Cancer Warrior Tutorial

I sell this tutorial in my Etsy store.  If you are interested, you can click HERE and I'll send it off to you ASAP!  All the monies raised from the sale of this tutorial go to Jenny to help her with her medical expenses. 

This is a quick and easy wire and bead piece to make.  I also sell kits.  One of them is Hope the Breast Cancer Warrior.  The other is Hope the Blood Cancer Warrior.  The funds from the sale of these kits will also go to Jenny to help with her medical expenses.

As always, I should learn never to put things away!  A lovely person on Etsy purchased one of these Hope tutorials.  She asked me what kind of beads I used to make them.  I replied that I used lampwork beads, but that I thought you could use any type of beads.  The important thing is to make sure that two widths of wire will fit through the hole.  This is very important!  So, I thought, why not show her what beads, other than lampwork, look like when making this project.  Just an FYI, you might have to use more wire if you use bigger beads.  I made some Hope warriors last night using plastic and stone beads.  Here's what they looked like.

I used a colored lentil stone for the body and a round plastic bead for Hope.

Because I used bigger plastic beads, Hope is longer than the other Hopes.  I love the faceted look of the plastic on Hope's body here!

For this Hope, I used a white plastic disc for her upper body and I used a flower disc over a cube of flowers from an old plastic necklace I found.  I love the colors here.

I hope to get these into my Etsy store soon!

Now, back to never putting things away...

I had to search a bit, but I finally found my Hope prototypes in a box I had put away so that when I decided to put these Hopes in my Etsy store, I'd be able to find them right away!

Wrong!

However, I did find them.  

Thank you, Lisa, for asking the question about the types of beads to use!!!

Here is my Hope menagerie in a collage.

Again, I hope to get them all in my Etsy store soon.

I will be selling them for $10, and all the funds from these sales will go to Jenny.

If you would like to purchase any before I list them, 

please email me at

101 rosebud at charter dot net

Just take out the spaces and add the appropriate symbols.

Let me know which Hope or Hopes you would like.

I'll be happy to send you a Pay Pal invoice.

Shipping will be on me.

Thanks!

Hope is something we all need!!

Wouldn't any of the Hopes make a wonderful ornament or pendant?

If Hope Were A Color, What Color Would it Be?

Last week, on Facebook, I asked,

"If Hope were a color, what color would it be?"
I received some wonderful answers to this question.

Rainbow colors, pink, baby blue, greens, but one of the most interesting ones was:

Golden yellow, like the color of the morning.

I really liked that answer, so I began to work on beads using this theme of colors.

Here's what I made as my first piece of Hope Jewelry.

I tried to use the suggested colors, mixing and matching them as I went.

I wore this necklace today, and I received many compliments on it.

I really do like it.

My first Hope necklace.

I had extra beads left over.  I made these Hope Earring with them.

These earrings, and I do think it's the color combinations,

made me smile.

I mean, I looked at them, and I really smiled.

Hope.

What a gift.

I do like this jewelry.

If you were to see Hope as a color,

what colors would you see?

On Being a Fairy Princess

Do you see that little girl?

When she was six,

or, 

maybe a little before,

she realized that she was a fairy princess!

She loved to dance,

and 

she loved to sing.

Isn't that what all fairy princesses do?

She ruled over a kingdom

where there was so much love and laughter

that she was never sad.

She was loved by her subjects beyond measure.

She loved them back.

When she grew up,

she knew that she would always be a 

fairy princess,

and so it is today.

Because of love,

Because of joy,

Because of hope,

She is a fairy princess!

Dreams do come true!

Are you a fairy princess, too?

Ginkgo - Hope, Peace, Resillience

When this leaf blew into my path last fall, I had no idea about the revered significance of the tree or the meaning it would have in my life.

For those of you who have been following this blog for a while, you might remember that my word for this year is HOPE. Hope for the future. Hope for today.

I think of the Japanese, who are suffering so much because of the earthquake and tsunami. After reading this article, I came to understand a bit more about the reverence in which they hold the tree and why. I hope that these trees survived and bring them much comfort in their time of trial.

I have always loved the Ginkgo tree. The leaves are beautiful. In truth, I didn't know that they could be grown in Minnesota because of the climate. Obviously, I was wrong. This little leaf that blew to my feet as I was walking Pixie proves me wrong and gives me hope. Hope for today. Hope for the future.

When The Ripples of Hope Begin to Flow

Hope! Does it spring eternal? Not always, at least, not with me. When it's your child, when it's cancer, hope is very difficult to feel.

Yesterday, hope finally lifted it's beautiful head and showed a smile and light. Jenny's M Spike, the major cancer marker for multiply myeloma, the cancer which invaded Jenny's body and was diagnosed in July, was .0--No cancer detected!!!!!! Six months into treatment, no cancer was detected!!!

Today, I feel hope!

Thank you, God!

Year End Review? Sure, and it can be said without a lot of words, or so I thought, until I wrote this blog.

All right. The reason I have this bead photo here is because I just needed a photo for that spot. I also happen to like this bead. It's in my Etsy store right now. You can see it here.

Now, on to the real blog.

If I had to sum up 2010 in one word, that word would be:


CHALLENGING.

In truth, that is an understatement.

However, things are going well, and, for that, I am grateful. I feel much older and so vulnerable. I do not want to relive this year. I am shaking the dust off my feet and moving on with my life.


I know that mountains are often placed in front of us to climb, but I'm tired. Climbing that same mountain again is not what I wanted to do this year, however, we must live what we are dealt.

So, looking to the future, my mantra for 2011 will be:

HOPE!

I have the HOPE that life will be better in 2011.
I have the HOPE that, no matter what, I will have the strength to endure and the courage to climb that blasted mountain.
I have the HOPE that there will be much JOY in life, again, along with the LAUGHTER that accompanies JOY, like two angels walking the road together.
I have the HOPE that even with the challenges we will face in our every day lives, we will bring something to the world that will endure when we are gone.
I have the HOPE that PEACE will flow through us to all those whom we love and to those we don't like.
I have the HOPE that LOVE will triumph in the end.

I feel very BLESSED because I have HOPE.

Two Powerful Words in Any Language

In November, we will be hearing these words a lot. I feel that they are two of the most powerful words in any language. They rank up there with "I love you" and "I'm sorry." Of course, you know what I mean. The words are "Thank you."

Since I make lampwork or flamework beads, I read the posts on two particular forums. The posts range from how to make your basic bead to things that happen in our everyday lives to what are HOT topics right now, "Copying" and "Contacting an artist about their work and how they made it."

The second topic of contacting an artist made me realize how much it means to say thank you to someone who has done something nice for you, whether it be answer your question or not answering your question, but taking the time to read your email. One frequest phrase that was used by artists who are contacted a lot with questions was, "When I sent them a reply, I never heard back from them. No one thanked me."

What does thank you do to the person thanked and for the person who thanks? Think about how you feel when someone genuinely thanks you for a kindness. I know that I feel good. Maybe it's the warm fuzzy kind of feeling or just a general feeling of "Wow! That was nice." I know a thank you, on any day, makes me feel good.

If you are the person doing the thanking, I feel it gives you a sense of how good things really are. In our world where things can become very frightening very quickly, saying thank you can remind a person, that there are still good things and good people in the world. There is hope for everyone when a kindness is acknowledged, and that hope is passed on to someone else with the words, "Thank you."

So, to all of my beading friends,
Thank you for being my friends, for standing there with me, for persevering and giving me hope when the economy is down. Thank you, I can't even express how much you all mean to me.
To all those who read my blog, even occassionally,
Thank you. I honestly do appreciate you taking the time to come here and read what I say, whether we agree or not.
To all those who so willingly share their knowledge of flameworked beads,
Thank you. Without your help, I would never have learned what I have learned.
To all those fabulous artists who show their work to the world,
Thank you. Our world needs the hope of your art. Please continue to inspire and lead us.
To all those who make us laugh,
Thank you, we need your sense of humor as the world turns. (Please pardon the pun.)
To all those whom I never thanked when I should have thanked you,
Thank you for your kindness and patience. I really do appreciate your help and many kindnesses.

A kindness is never wasted nor forgotten. Thank you.