craft: word bracelets as diy xmas presents

It all started with an email from my slow sewing meetup group. We're meeting this month for an evening of stitching and needlework, soup and salad, and a Dirty Santa ornament exchange. I decided I would get rid of the Victorian beaded ornament I had, but I would swap out the Pasko embossed brass plate for one that says Xmas instead. 

 

Mission accomplished.                

And I'm adding these three handmade ceramic ornaments I made last year.

In order to hammer the brass round, I had to dig out the hammer and my heavy steel block and steel letter dies to re-make it, which meant I had to take out all the contents of my three beading supply boxes to find them. Dear Lord! I'm so embarrassed at how many beads I bought. Patrick said I probably spent a thousand dollars on fucking beads and findings and tools. But I'm not gonna dwell on all that mindless shopping and spending and try to make some beautiful and thoughtful gifts this Christmas.       

I think making bracelets with plastic letter and glass beads on elastic cord is a good start to build my skill set.

I worked on my kitchen counter before making Sunday supper next to my two orchids: one was in bloom and the other (which I got in exchange for some miniature succulent planters I donated to the arboretum society)looks peaked after having bloomed a few months ago--its white blossoms were lovely and I can't let go of it yet. 

I managed to make one more bracelet for my niece and my nephew's wife, who both have two daughters and conceived of another bracelet for motherhood with sons.

I know I should have metal spacers in between some of these glass beads as they'll rub up against each other and make sand or for texture, but I'm partial to mala bracelets. As for the Girls Mom bracelet, I'm not liking it now and think the tinier letter beads would look better. I'll remake those large pink glass beads into a mala bracelet and braid the larger letters on favorite colors of embroidery thread with the grandnieces or beading cord--or just give the large beads to a teenaged girl I know who likes to craft. I seriously need to get rid of crafting supplies for which I really have no time for. At some point, I need to learn how to knot pearls in order to keep the beads from rubbing up against each other and to keep them from flying everywhere if the strand breaks in order to get rid of the glass beads or maybe contact the seller who made my last letter bracelet and give them to her.