Now, I am not into beading. At least, not until last Wednesday. Now I am "hooked."
"No!" I protested. "Beading would just cut into my stitching and knitting time. I don't have enough hours in the day as it is."
But that was before my good friend, Barb, came to Arizona to spend a week with her cousin, Judy.
Judy is a first-class jewelry maker. She has even made her own exquisite glass stones.
Equipped with all their tools, beads, the proper beading lingo, and wearing beautiful evidence of their work, the two came for a visit with my friend, Mary Kay. We wanted to know a little more about it, I had told them in advance.
A wonderful afternoon was spent on Mary Kay's screen porch in Mesa, visiting and learning how to bead. Judy was the perfect teacher: patient, kind, praising our every move, starting with the design and finishing by affixing the magnetic clasp.
By the end of the afternoon, Mary Kay and I were inquiring about beading stores in the area, and planning a visit to buy some of the Czech beads Barb had bought there. We were hooked. Gone-ers. We completed succumbed to the craft.
And I had actually designed and finished a necklace!
It's never too late to embark on a new craft or project. We all have creative instincts that just need a little prodding (or jolt, in my case) to come alive. A bonus is having a friend to teach you.And I think using your time and energy to create something of beauty is time well spent.
If you can do it with friends, how much better can life get?
