How long has this been going on?

Actually, not going on at all. Sitting in a cute little plastic box.

Anyone remember Daisy Kingdom? Adorable little store in NW Portland which then turned into an adorable bigger store in NW Portland. Some of it was actually a bit too adorable for my taste. In their larger store they taught a variety of classes. In fact, I took my first beading class there around 1990. It was for beaded earrings. Sometime after that I took a class to make beaded Christmas ornaments.The class was taught by Carol Perrenoud of Bead Cats. Beads Cats is a great source for beads. Their website is not so great - no pictures, no color samples, just words. But, they have a huge selection and are very helpful. Best way to interact with them is at a bead show.

Anyway, back to the 90s! The ornaments used round green glass bugle beads from Mill Hill, craft wire, ribbon and some accent beads. I had all of those in a plastic box with some beads from a Martha Stewart ornament kit. Some weeks this is like an archeology dig. Along with that was an almost finished pine bough. Seriously the only part not done was the top inch. The branches and pine cone were finished.                  

The truly miraculous thing was that in a beautiful Vera Bradley looseleaf notebook with a label on the spine that says "Ornaments" were the (not very fancy) directions. A true anomaly in my normal organizational style. But a very happy anomaly!

I remember finishing the wreath and giving it away as a gift. But I, of course, planned on making another for myself. And this week I did!

Carol provided some directions for round Czechoslovakian ornaments as well (carefully stored in the same lovely notebook - go figure!). They remind me of the ones I've made from blown glass but use 4mm pearls, pony beads, and seed beads. Perhaps they will show up in a few weeks.