Beading Frenzy

I've been on a purging and organizing kick for months now (almost finished) and I came across 2 boxes of colorful wooden beads.

I don't even remember why I bought them, but I decided to use them for a garland for the guest room bed.

As you can see, they didn't end up on the headboard - metal stars won out!

After the garland, I still had lots of beads left so I went a little crazy stringing more - I see them on IG and they seem to be labeled as "jewelry for your home".

This is all I have left after stringing up 6 pieces of "jewelry" and the garland.

2 have been mailed off to friends, 1 is claimed and I have no idea what I'm going to do with the rest.

I was having such fun stringing beads while we watched movies at night (I have to do something with my hands or I fall asleep) so I ordered large wooden beads to go along with small beads I already had.

This is the end result.

Now I was really on a roll using up any beads I could find in my craft space - who knew I had so many!

No, they are not all on display in the house at the same time,

but I had fun taking pictures and now I have things to grab when I want to add just a little touch to vignettes.

These beads were all from a French General Notions Kit my sister bought me years ago (they have been in several different locations since then) and this garland has been mailed off to a friend.

This string of beads will probably be draped over various items from Memorial Day through Labor Day.

Beads like these were my original inspiration and I had everything on hand to create them.

I love these blue and white beads and need to find more to make a longer strand.

These are my favorite - you saw "Little Man" in my last post, but now the vignette is finished off with fun wooden and clay beads.

I didn't make the beaded heart on wire, but I might have to create my own.

I haven't strung beads for at least 20 years when I found these fun block beads and spelled out my teaching nickname (you can find me on Words With Friends as Mscookie16), but it's relaxing, easy and doesn't bother my hands.

I guess the "beading frenzy" will continue - when I looked up the name of the French General kit, I came across this fun outing and I'm signing up for it - anyone want to join me?

If you read this post earlier, I told people to let me know if they were interested in the colorful beaded "jewelry", but I had to delete that sentence because they were quickly snapped up and will be headed soon to new homes.

Just to show you that I haven't gone completely nuts with beads,

these are my last 3 posts on Instagram and there isn't a bead in sight!

So, what has you in a frenzy these days?

Breaking the rules . . .

I have been purging for months, am not even close to being finished and have made a vow to not add to my "stuff" until I am done purging.

But, if I can't get an item out of my head, I usually give in and break my own rules.

I saw these striped table runners a few months ago and couldn't forget them so last week I headed to the shop to buy one.

At the last minute, I thought about how Steve tends to spill red wine on everything I put on the table and sometimes candles melt onto a runner, so I left the striped runners in the shop and went home to make my own version.

Quickly painted stripes transform a remnant of drop cloth into a runner that looks nice on the table, but I will not be upset if wine and wax drop onto it.

In my purging, I came across a bunch of wooden bead necklaces and bracelets that are no longer worn, but I just didn't want to toss them out.

So, the beads have been restrung and I am probably going into bead overkill in my vignettes, but I don't care.

I like the colors in this cloth bead necklace my sister bought me in Prague a few years ago.

The centerpiece on the dining room table is perked up with beads from 3 different bracelets -

red, black and gold wooden beads work beautifully with a bag of gourds I bought at the grocery store.

What I didn't mention when I showed great restraint in not buying the table runners was this metal basket that refused to be left at the shop.

Actually, it was a "think about it" purchase and I waited a whole week before heading back to the shop .

Right now, it's holding hydrangeas, but I can't wait to see it filled with Christmas ornaments in December.

I really didn't need the metal basket, but sometimes rules need to be broken.