Happy (belated) Mother's Day!

In many ways I owe my creative streak to my mother. We both love to create beautiful things. We both also love jewelry. The funny thing is we each have our favorite craft/art (Jewelry for me and cross-stitch for mom), but haven't mastered each others' chosen crafts. I can't cross-stitch to save my soul, and as much as mom would like to make jewelry she just can't get away from stitching long enough to learn. To be honest I'm not sure where her creativity came from because my grandmother's biggest hobby is gardening. Outside of darning socks or sewing on buttons, the woman can't stand to sew or craft in general! I guess there was the year grandma got into scratch art, but she only did that while she and my grandfather were wintering in Arizona.

Over the years I think my mom has tried almost every craft know to man or woman rather. She has an office full of sewing notions and machines, a storage room full of scrap booking and other random craft supplies, and her cross-stitching graces the living room walls and hides inside her storage foot rest. As the only girl in the family I often participated in her new craft endeavors. I can't tell you how many rubber stamp/card making parties I've attended! Hobby Lobby and Michael's are two places we get into trouble going to together. We enable each other something awful! Regardless of her many forays into the world of crafting, my mom's true crafting passion is cross-stitching. She has tried time and time again to teach me counted cross-stitching, but to no avail! What can I say? I was never good at math. I think I'll stick to jewelry, thank you very much!

I also owe my penchant for perfection and procrastination to my mom. What a horrible combination! I swear, two of the biggest procrastinators of all time begot me! My mother and I are the kind of people who started their term papers the night before they were due, and expected nothing less than an A+ for our 'efforts'. Of course I have no one to blame really except maybe my birth order (oldest/only girl) for the perfectionism. I've been told it's a first born thing, not to mention those two little brothers of mine...They make looking perfect easy! (Just kidding boys!) I better be nice because even though they're younger, they're bigger than me.

And now for your enjoyment, and my humiliation...A retrospective of the jewelry I've made for my mom over the years!

The first pair of earrings I ever made & a wire-work bracelet I made in high school jewelry class.

A poinsetta pin I made for Chirstmas, and Mom's favorite stone with a bee pendant.

A lapis necklace I made long ago, and a lamp-worked frog bead on a necklace.

Hand-knotted brown and green Swarovski pearls, and Mom's new favorite stone in a set.

A pair of earrings I made for myself but let little brother give to her, and the bracelet I made for Mom to wear at my wedding. Last but not least...This year's Mother's Day gift! A carnelian necklace.

Happy Beading & Happy Mother's Day! -Jessica