Moving On

I did my last post 6 months ago today. The weather was fiercely cold, snowy, windy. And my Dad had just died....my number 1 fan. Many of you know that my parents were the world to me, so losing Dad was exceptionally hard for me to deal with.

To my family and friends - I want to say "thank you" for the overwhelming love, support, caring and concern that I have received over the past 6 months (and am continuing to receive). You have all made me feel so loved, so welcome in your lives, your homes, your families. Whether you are a long-lost childhood friend - or someone I know merely "on-line" please know that I take every kindness to heart where it will stay with me for the rest of my life.

Fast forward to today. Beautiful, sunny and warm - a truly perfect day. I have shed many tears over the last few months - and although the grieving process continues, I have decided that it has time to move on - and try to get back to some normalcy in my life.

That being said, I have still been doing some beading in the recent months as it takes my mind off what is missing in my life. I have some new pieces to show - and needed to get pictures taken of some of the older items in my collection that either had not so great pictures - or just never had pictures taken to begin with which leads me to today...

I spent a simply lovely day with my cousin Cheryl - and her 2 beautiful daughters. Caylee - who is 6 - talked my ear off. (I think she and I will be good friends.) Mia - who is 3 - spent the day trying to get over her shyness - however I did get her approval to come back for another visit so I will give that "2 big thumbs up."

I discovered that Cheryl inherited our grandpa's love of photography. Really - she comes by it naturally. One of my memories of him was that he always had that camera close at hand - just in case there was a flower, sunset, or fruit that needed it's picture taken. This discovery thrilled me to no end - because unlike Cheryl and Grandpa - I *hate* taking pictures of my jewelery. Really - I despise it - loathe it even. It is the bane of my jewelery-making existence. Cheryl, however, got rather geeked about it - and proceeded to spend the vast majority of the afternoon and evening shooting pictures. (YAY for both of us!!!) Soooo - without further ado here are some pictures of what I have been making.

Stay tuned - much more to come. I have quite a few projects in progress right now - including an entirely new adventure with a dear friend of mine that I hope will do well. (It is something that I am fairly sure most of you have not seen before.)