Evening froth

Gold clip

I attended a formal dance a while back and needed a hair accessory to go with up too much on the side. I commy dress. I went shopping for one and failed to find anything to buy (in my price range). I ended up making my own from a collection of ideas I've seen. The total price to make was R5. It consists of a hair clip from Ralo Cosmetics and a wire flower and tigertail fronds. I made a mistake with this one that I corrected on the one I made for a friend (in pink!). The fronds are too long and stick out on the side. I compensated by doing a hair style to the one side which actually worked quite well.

Flower clip

The second is a flower design on a hairclip make with seed beads and gut. This is much heavier than the gold clip, but is smaller easier to use. This design costs about the same amount to make, it just takes a bit longer to make. The flower should take about 15 minutes.

The FISH! Philosophy

I went to a meeting a while back and came across a corporate strategy philosohpy called FISH.

1. Play - Have a little fun at work.
2. Make their day - Go M.A.D. [Make a Difference], engage others. Make them part of the fun.
3. Be there - actually pay attention, to make sure you take care of the person in front of you right now!
4. Choose your attitude - Before you go to work in the morning, pick out an attitude, just like you choose your underwear.

Seems to be the a craze, but I like the philosophy. The people who thought up this crazy philosophy can be found at: (http://www.charthouse.com/content.aspx?name=home2)

A girl can never have enough earrings

I've come to the conclusion over the last few months that both my mom and I are bead addicts. We cannot go into a bead shop and not buy something. This produces a never ending need to buy more containers to store the stuff, a new shopping list to buy things to match the new purchase or searches for new designs to make. This had lead to search the web for 'free designs' and personal pages for eyecatching or fun design that intermediate to advanced beaders can create. I have found someone who shares my passion for dangly earrings Meganhor and CreationsJewellery. I have also discovered some cute xmas decorations. I'll post my attempts soon.

The wedding gift factory

To all those who have attended weddings and received 'thank you' gifts for attending, there is a new craze appearing: keychains. My cousin is getting married later this year and she wanted green keychains. Now this sounds very nice in theory. If you want unique gifts, they cost or you co-opt for family to make them for less. Hence the nice wedding gift factory set up during the xmas holidays to make all of them. My mother and I searched for ages for glass hearts and eventually found them, not at the bead stores, but at a trading house called Proto trading in Cape Town. Now that was a rare find. We actually ended up getting all the chain, most of the glass pearls and the hearts from there. It was cheaper than the wholesale bead stores in the Cape Town area. A few observations. Always have a variety of beads (shapes, colours, materials) around for inspiration. Work on a large surface so you can spread out and can hold all the containers necessary (my brother had to sacrifice a few games of tabletennis to the factory). If you have more than one person helping, you need a few sets of bead tools, not just one. And if you don't feel very inspired, make something else and go back to it a little bit later. Making so many keychains can be TEDIOUS!