Beaded Bead Holiday Earrings

These started with some large (24 mm) silver colored filigree beads - I had purchased these for enameling, but I have hundreds of them! Hundreds! I'll never enamel them all - so I started to think ... what ELSE can I do with these beads?

I grabbed some Fireline, and doubled it, worried that the sharp edges of the holes on these metal beads would cut the thread.

I grabbed some seed beads, and started playing, weaving in and out of the holes.

It took several tries before I found a pattern I liked:

They were supposed to look like peppermints, but by the time I finished, and added a Swarovski crystal dangle at the bottom, they look like Christmas tops!

I gave these to Sonya this morning as her Christmas gift - I think she likes them!

What's blooming today

Spring is always pretty here, but this Spring I found a few surprises in my yard.

Like this gigantic magnolia tree blooming in the woods in my backyard - the tree is probably 30-40 feet tall, and I have never seen in bloom before.

And yes, I do remember planting it about 16-17 years ago.





And the blooms are HUGE - probably 15 or so inches across.

And they have a very nice, faint, sweet scent.










I do not do ANY work in my yard - no feeding, watering, pruning, spraying, no nothing. So I am surprised every year when this 17-year old neglected rose bush blooms at all - and this year it is just going crazy!









This close-up shows the beautiful red, white, and pink colors in this rose.

And evidently it rained at my house while I was at work today (where it didn't rain a drop!) - the only way I could tell, was when I started to edit these photos, and noticed the raindrops on the petals.








This is an ancient clematis vine I planted on this fence years and years and years ago - and it gets bigger and prettier every year.

This is the view visitors see from the street.












Close up of the clematis bloom - it is about 10-12 inches across.














This is a Scotch broom blooming in my front yard - a true tale of survivorship. I planted this bush, along with 2 gorgeous oranges ones (one on either side of it) about 15 years ago.

Then about 10 years ago, the truck driven by the guys digging my well just backed right over them, killing them deader than dirt. I left them, hoping something underground would survive, but they just turned browner and deader, so after about 6 months I dug up everything and left the area bare.

Suddenly, this year, the yellow one springs back, and it's huge!

Maybe there is still hope for the orange ones.

Wikipedia defines this plant as a horribly invasive weed. Oh well - one woman's weed is another woman's gorgeous shrub!


This is a late-blooming native azalea in my backyard. I don't know all that much about horticulture, and it has been over 25 years since I took botany (seriously - how can it be more than 25 years since I graduated college??) - but the only thing I know about native azaleas is that they have longer stamens than the other azaleas - so they have a fluffier look to them. At least, I think that's the stamen - but I could be wrong.

I planted a bunch of native azaleas when I moved into this house, and just neglect them like everything else - and like most of my plants, they seem to thrive.