Working on a Few Somethings

Ever have one of those projects that you can picture so clearly in your mind, but you twist, and bend and just plain manhandle the wire over and over to finally get it at least close?  It creates a mini-logjam in your creative thinking until you can GET IT DONE.  Phew.  So that's the story on this necklace and earrings.  I bought the beads on two separate occasions from Jules.  Her beads are like the open can of frosting in your fridge - you can't help getting a little more every time you look.  What's funny is that although bought separately, the focal and these disk beads kind of match.  I owe Deryn Mentock and Kerry Bogert a huge thanks for teaching me some of the stuff to make it finally work.  Wire from Parawire, ribbon from JamnGlass.  The string with tiny Swarovski crystals I bought a couple years ago for a completely different project and now finally found a good use for it - gives it a little more sparkle.  (The pictures aren't the best - can't seem to be home during daylight these days)

The set is a Christmas gift for my Aunt Suzanne.  She is an amazing gal.  She is my Dad's only sibling and I love that having her in my life is a little bit of my Dad when I am missing him.  She's my hero when it comes to living life the way you want to.  But I wouldn't call her unconventional, she is just awesome at exploring.  She's owned a clothing boutique (and makes the most amazing clothes), worked as a PBS station producer, decided to go back to school in her 40s and got an engineering degree from the Colorado School of Mines and now works for a company that is cleaning up environmental messes.  Last year she called and asked if I wanted to do one of the Susan Komen 3-Day Walks for the Cure - it's walking 60 miles over three days.  I never would have signed up on my own, and we had a blast doing it - this picture was taken when we had one mile to go.