"NO SOUP FOR YOU"...

Not yet, anyway.  Things are simmering nicely.  I have two pieces done that I really LOVE.  Thanks to the generosity of my partner Rochelle , I have plenty more ingredients to play with, so things are moving along.

Not so on the job front.  There are only 8 of us in my little department and we found out last Monday that they are indeed fazing us out.  What I thought was going to be my forever job, isn't.  That, my friends, is the changing face of health care.  So, on the job hunt I go.  It will be okay, though.  I've made up my mind that things are going to be just fine, no matter what happens.  This is not a personal reflection on me or my abilities, it just is.  I caught a re-run of a favorite movie the other day, Serenity, and there is a quote that I have always loved, "I am a leaf on the wind...watch how I soar".  For those of you that know the movie, you know what happens after that line is spoken; just forget that part.  The important thing is that in the face of adversity, you (and your spaceship) must ride the winds of change and be mindful of the of the ups and the downs.  I am choosing to live the ups and endure the downs, without dwelling in the downs.

One of the things that I have going for me is that this has not stifled my creativity.  I still have the overwhelming  urge to root through my stash to find inspiration and then play, play, play.  This is what happened yesterday, just because I was noodling around.

It is a necklace somewhere in the neighborhood of 45-50 inches long with an oversize antiqued bronze lobster clasp and an ordinary pendant that I antiqued using black and verdigris Gilders Paste on.  I then sealed it with Renaissance Wax.  The phone camera doesn't do it justice.  This is one of those pieces that I want to keep for myself, but I won't.  It is great doubled up and the colors are really magnificent and fallish.  I'm very happy with this piece.

So, this coming Saturday, is the first third of the Bead Soup re-veils, and I will be there peeping on what the first group has put together.  That is going to be an all day project.  I am in the second group on August 11 and it is very quickly approaching.  Much work is yet to be done and I'm thinking there might be some earrings in my future....

Stay up, up, up, little leaves, and Happy Creating....

LISA