What Inspires You?

Artbeads.com provided a beading contest entitled "What Inspires You?"  Voting opened today, November 23 and ends Wednesday, December 8. Winners will be announced Thursday, December 16, 2010.

There are two categories - a Necklace Category and a General Category and you can vote for your favorite in each one.  Click on the first name in the group and it will show you the original inspiration and the creation it inspired.  From there you can click on the "next" tab and see all of the beautiful entries in each category.

Congratulations to everyone who entered and good luck!  The prizes are fabulous!

How Joy Gets Spread Throughout the World

Today I received a surprise gift from a Facebook friend.  I have not met this friend in person yet, but I'm excited that in just a few short weeks I will.  She is a reminder to me that we can all make the world a better place by being thoughtful of others.  Here's the beautiful pendant created by ViSart on Etsy that my friend purchased and mailed to me.

My friend bought the pendant for me simply because I had posted a link to it on Facebook and had said that I loved it.  I originally saw the pendant on Polymer Clay Daily.

A short while after she purchased it from ViSart, I introduced my new line of DichroCentrics - a layered glass cabochon with a hole in the middle (dare I call it a bead?).  I'm sure you can tell that the pendant by ViSart was the inspiration for my new line.  I called this necklace "Lizard Tango" and entered it in the BeadStar contest.

I call this one Rhubarb Pie:

And this one I named Tangerine Dacquiri:

You can see more of my DichroCentrics and other dichroic glass cabochons, buttons and pendants in my Etsy shop.

So the world was made happier today by the thoughtfulness of a friend.  I hope we will all pass on this spirit of joy to brighten the world even more.