Farewell to 2010

This has been a year of mixed blessings. Happiness and sorrow, plans made and changed... things never quite turn out the way we think they might when we begin a new year, do they? There are parts of 2010 that I'd love to be able to go back and change, but I know that's not possible. So onward into 2011 with hope that it'll be a good year.

I do have some things to look forward to in 2011... I have a whole new bunch of family members to get to know; with any luck at all, we'll start building a new house in the spring; and we may even work in a vacation or two this year (I'm planning to attend the Bead and Button show this year in Milwaukee, so that's a major vacation).

Since I spend so much of my time beading, I thought I'd put together a little mosaic that shows a piece of my beadwork done in each month of 2010 (I keep track of my creations in a spreadsheet, of course - doesn't everyone?).


Even though I keep a spreadsheet to track my creations, beads used, prices, etc., I'm not always diligent about recording everything I make. There are a bunch of UFOs (UnFinished Objects) which haven't been recorded. And there are a few pieces that ARE finished that haven't been photographed yet and haven't been recorded. But by my estimation, I've created more than 200 new pieces this year. Not bad, I think.

This year ends with me working on a custom bead crochet rope. At this point it's about halfway finished, which means I have almost 30" of it done. The beads in this one are some gorgeous metallic sage green/gray size 11s and some transparent cola colored 11s. They're all vintage, so they're irregular in size and shape, resulting in a rope that has a really organic look to it. The rope will have a few different patterns in it, and I'm stringing each section separately so I don't wind up with yards and yards of strung beads to keep untangled.


And with that, I say farewell to 2010. And Happy New Year to everyone. I hope you all have a wonderful year.