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I certainly do. It's been a long while since I've posted on this journal and it's about time I did something about that. These last few months have had their ups and downs. Mostly ups, but still. Now, I know I've hacked this journal to pieces so there's no visible trace of any personal information left (which in all honesty is comforting as I've spilled my heart a little too much in the past) but the short version of recent occurrences in my life is as follows:
I moved to Sweden over a year ago to live with my boyfriend, who shall henceforth be known as Braxon. (The warlock demands it to be so!) It's been a great ride so far with him and the worst I can say about our time together is that Sweden is freaking cold and that summer lasts for a total of two weeks if you're lucky. (Random babblings of a southern hemisphere girl you say? Perhaps...) But it's beautiful up here and our relationship is better than ever. I get homesick often though. Well, it's more of a perpetual state of manageable homesickness (dampened by some warm loving from Braxon) with odd bouts of extreme longing now and then. So I was really happy when my parents and my younger brother came to visit us this past August. They stayed with us for a little over a month and it was easily one of the best vacations of my life. The only thing that would have made it better was if my older brother and sister and my two nephews could have made it too. What can I say? I'm a family person.
So that's enough of useless background info. Now onto the real reason I started this entry. During August my mother and I went into town to buy her some imported magazines. (Local magazines are of course Swedish and not really accessible for the common tourist.) So while she was browsing the gossip section I lazily strolled around looking from shelf to shelf. And that's when I saw the decidedly tiny section dedicated to beaded jewelry. I thought it looked pretty interesting so I bought one magazine and paged through it while waiting for my mom. After about a week I decided to go to a bead shop to try out one of the patterns. And what I thought would be a pretty cheap shopping spree after looking at supposedly reasonably priced beads, I walked out with a bag full of beads, tools and wire that amounted to a total sum of heart-stopping proportions. But heck, it was my first try at buying beads and it was fun, so no big loss. Just a big chunk out of the old savings.
I finished the first necklace the very same day I bought the beads and I was so delighted with the result that I knew this would be my next addiction. After making a matching pair of earrings I carefully wrapped it up and gave it to my mom to give to my sister for her birthday. Unfortunately I couldn't see her reaction when she got it (she being a continent away and all) but apparently she couldn't believe I made it. Now I'm not sure if that means the necklace was pretty or that I'm just artistically challenged but she seemed very happy with it, to my relief. ^_^
Over the last couple of months I've improved little by little and made myself a few pieces as well. Personally I prefer bracelets when wearing jewelry so I've focused more on bracelets than anything else. It's just incredibly satisfying to wear something you made yourself and being happy with the result. Given the proper attention it can be a little piece of art and you can make it to suit your own style.
So yep. That's what's been occupying a big portion of my free time. I'm thinking of adding these little beading projects to my journal but I guess that'll depend on whether I can take a decent picture of each new piece of jewelry. So I'll see about that. As far as icons go, I still get the urge to play around with them often enough. So I'll probably be making this journal a small outlet for all my creative little flings.
I moved to Sweden over a year ago to live with my boyfriend, who shall henceforth be known as Braxon. (The warlock demands it to be so!) It's been a great ride so far with him and the worst I can say about our time together is that Sweden is freaking cold and that summer lasts for a total of two weeks if you're lucky. (Random babblings of a southern hemisphere girl you say? Perhaps...) But it's beautiful up here and our relationship is better than ever. I get homesick often though. Well, it's more of a perpetual state of manageable homesickness (dampened by some warm loving from Braxon) with odd bouts of extreme longing now and then. So I was really happy when my parents and my younger brother came to visit us this past August. They stayed with us for a little over a month and it was easily one of the best vacations of my life. The only thing that would have made it better was if my older brother and sister and my two nephews could have made it too. What can I say? I'm a family person.
So that's enough of useless background info. Now onto the real reason I started this entry. During August my mother and I went into town to buy her some imported magazines. (Local magazines are of course Swedish and not really accessible for the common tourist.) So while she was browsing the gossip section I lazily strolled around looking from shelf to shelf. And that's when I saw the decidedly tiny section dedicated to beaded jewelry. I thought it looked pretty interesting so I bought one magazine and paged through it while waiting for my mom. After about a week I decided to go to a bead shop to try out one of the patterns. And what I thought would be a pretty cheap shopping spree after looking at supposedly reasonably priced beads, I walked out with a bag full of beads, tools and wire that amounted to a total sum of heart-stopping proportions. But heck, it was my first try at buying beads and it was fun, so no big loss. Just a big chunk out of the old savings.
I finished the first necklace the very same day I bought the beads and I was so delighted with the result that I knew this would be my next addiction. After making a matching pair of earrings I carefully wrapped it up and gave it to my mom to give to my sister for her birthday. Unfortunately I couldn't see her reaction when she got it (she being a continent away and all) but apparently she couldn't believe I made it. Now I'm not sure if that means the necklace was pretty or that I'm just artistically challenged but she seemed very happy with it, to my relief. ^_^
Over the last couple of months I've improved little by little and made myself a few pieces as well. Personally I prefer bracelets when wearing jewelry so I've focused more on bracelets than anything else. It's just incredibly satisfying to wear something you made yourself and being happy with the result. Given the proper attention it can be a little piece of art and you can make it to suit your own style.
So yep. That's what's been occupying a big portion of my free time. I'm thinking of adding these little beading projects to my journal but I guess that'll depend on whether I can take a decent picture of each new piece of jewelry. So I'll see about that. As far as icons go, I still get the urge to play around with them often enough. So I'll probably be making this journal a small outlet for all my creative little flings.
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