How I became addicted

In conjunction with the latest iteration of the Bead Soup Blog Party, Lori Anderson, Blog Mom extraordinaire, has asked us to write how we got started beading.  I guess I have to drag up ancient history, because my mom started me on crafts in general.  I remember being very small and helping her with Christmas crafts, making angels out of Reader's Digest, making soldiers from wood clothespins to hold Christmas cards, making a plaque out of aluminum foil and tempera paint, sewing aprons, knitting a coat.  So, I got the bug really early on.

Later, in the 60's, when I was a hippie girl, of course, I had the requisite beads that I gleefully strung and wore.  My favorites were a strand of whole allspice that I had soaked and strung from a pattern in a hippie book.  They smelled SOOOOOOO good, and so did I when I wore them!  I saw a daisy chain necklace that I wanted to make, it belonged to my best friend, Tree Eagle, and I asked her how it was done.  She told me to figure it out.  (She wasn't one to share Ute secrets with the likes of me.)  But I couldn't figure it out, although the seed bead was planted.

Fast forward to the 90's, and I saw a magazine called Bead & Button, and it was being sold through Publisher's Clearing House, of all places.  On the cover of the first issue I saw, there was the pattern for the long coveted daisy chain.  I about fainted, and ordered the magazine right away.

So, many daisy chains and other amazing patterns later, here I am, designing my own patterns, participating in blog hops, and just generally enjoying what has become my obsession.  For those of you who read my blog, you have seen the bead shrine from Brenda Sue's Messy Workshop Blog Hop.  For those who haven't, here it is again.  

All I need now is my Bead Soup.  My partner is Michelle Hardy, and I can hardly wait to see what she sends, and I am sending hers out on Monday!  Woo hoo!  Here we go again!