Winning & UGLY!

I found out Saturday night very very late that Rachel's Dream took runner up in the Land of Odds Earthen Mother Beaded Doll challenge. I was so happy. Rachel's Dream took up almost a year off and on with creating, sewing, beading, and then doing publicity. Now it is all over...whew! I'm exhausted. But like with all big projects, I am feeling a little lost right now. I have projects to occupy my time, but not anything like working with a huge component intense piece like Rachel. I use to feel this same way after working on those huge cross stitch samplers spending months blending DMC colors, sewing, and then embellishing them. I still have all of them framed and on the walls in our house. Most of them would take me from 4 to 6 months to work on, then I'd be done and emptiness would fill my heart. I'm feeling that emptiness right now too. Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled to have won 2nd place. Really delighted is more like it. I just need to find myself another big gigantic project to occupy this next year.

Speaking of...I got the jars out for the BJP 2010 & cleaned them all. I'm going to measure the jars & get some sort of idea on what size the cover of the box will be. All the jars will have beaded lids with a "secret treasure" inside. The cover of the box will have 12 individual parts depicting what the month's treasure is about. The cover will be my challenge of doing more of a fiber rich/bead embellished flat work. Then the 12 parts will be joined together to make the box lid. Then the jars will have a "home" where they can remain. I think I'm going to have to get Chris to help me with the measuring and the idea of the construction of the box. The jar lids will be easy, but that fabric box will give me a few trials.

One more thing today. It is gray & gloomy in Ohio which is a typical Winter weather. So whenever we can find humor, it is much appreciated. Last week, I got a copy of the Spring issue of Bead Unique Issue #24. I was paging through it looking at different projects and thinking if I could use this or that technique in doll making. It was also fun to see names and faces of people who I had met in Tahoe at their Retreat. Then I flipped to the back page as I love to read Pam's musing & there was the most ugly piece of jewelry I purposely made! It was with Kate's & B.J.'s ugly necklace from the "Ugly design challenge". Now I can't remember if I won the "I don't think so Ugly" or the "OMG Ugly", but all the winners/losers were so darn ugly. So there is one of my resolutions for the new year, but UGLY??? Now let me tell you about this UGLY UGLY UGLY necklace


It is called "My Hidden Passion for Ronald" as I am fond of the double cheeseburger Kid's Meals there. I also love their coffee! But anyway back to the story. One of my sister guild members found a beanie baby of Ronald McDonald at Alum Creek State Park. I can't remember if Gigi told me it was floating in water or not, but it was in pretty poor shape despite the fact that she washed it. Everyone knows I make things with beanie babies so Gigi gave it to me & laughing gave me a "challenge" to make something with it. So I took a necklace that I made in a Jean Bernard class & it was turned out sort of ugly. It was a locket, so I thought "why not?". I cut the head off the beanie baby & glued it into the locket. Then I took some orange fiber that I got from the "Free" table at AFIC. That was glued on & some beads that were just sitting on the table got added to it. So...GIGI! Not only did I make something with that beanie baby, but the ugly thing got published! LOL!


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