Beads!

I received my order from Fire Mountain Gems on Friday (Yes, I'm a little slow. . .)  Lots of seed beads and Swarovski crystals.  I'm not really that big on using crystals, but when you need sparkle, Swarovskis are perfect for the job.  I feel some freeform peyote coming on!  Or perhaps some bead embroidery!

Okay a little confession.  I have yet to conquer crimp beads. They fail spectacularly for me.  After watching several You-Tube videos, I'm going to attempt them again.  I ordered sterling silver crimp tubes that are the right size (I think) for my beading wire.   I hadn't ordered sterling silver anything in a long while - $9.43 for 100 crimp tubes!!! Good grief!  Hopefully I'll get over the sticker shock in a few days and attempts some stringing and crimping.

In the meantime, I have been working on redoing my banner.  Here is a photo of what I have so far.  It looks much better without the distracting flourishes.  And it will look so even better when I scan it in (I think).