With a new year upon us, I figured that it was time to review how I did with my two 2016 half-year resolutions. I’m happy to say that I did well (and probably a little too well with the last one)!
Make at least one necklace combination a month
I don’t have pictures of all of the combinations that I made, but I did regularly create new combinations and – even better – I actually wore most of them!
I used to wear necklaces all of the time. Never bracelets. Occasionally rings. Always necklaces. Until I had my first child and I had to stop wearing them; her tiny hands found the chain so easily, but released their grip so reluctantly. It was my inability to wear necklaces that really pushed me into the world of changeable beads! So, I wanted to try and bring the two together a bit.
I started with a Trollbeads brochure that I thought showed a few different ways to string longer necklaces, but quickly realized that it really focused on how to use their various fantasy beads (like the Big Cross and other splitters). I had no intention of buying new splitters, so I started looking for other ideas. One idea that I came across was to use stoppers to create the impression of floating beads. My first experiment was only mildly successful, but the second, with only one floating bead, got quite a bit of use. In fact, the long length and pearls soon became my favourite combination. I swapped up the silvers, but kept the basic idea of one small floating bead with some chunky ones on the bottom.
Things were going well until September, when I caught the necklace on something and snapped it. I fixed it, but within days had snapped it again. Begrudgingly, I shortened the necklace. Unfortunately, that took away one of my favourite ways of wearing it: adding a few beads over the end and then looping the chain around itself with a stopper to keep it all in place.
October brought a new solution, my dark necklace, which got way more wear than I had expected even though it is harder to swap around beads on it. But it pretty much carried me through the rest of the year, with a few combinations on my Trollbeads leather necklace and what turned out to be a very tricky combination with my Julbock!
Indulge in Karma beads
Before the middle of August, I didn’t own a single Karma bead. I knew that I’d end up getting more than one, but I really didn’t expect to need a separate jewellery case for them! To be fair, only six (the ones on the left) are Karma beads; the others are stones that I picked up from a local beading store and drilled to fit my Karma bracelet.
I didn’t set out to drill that many stones. Thomas Sabo actually have an incredible line of stones, and reasonably priced. But, when I walked into the beading store, I was overcome by all of the beautiful colours and just couldn’t resist adding these to my stash! The only downside to doing my own stones is that most of the ones that I’ve loved have been high on the hardness scale. So, I’ve really tried to limit myself to colours that Karma doesn’t already have so that I’m not wasting my drill bits.
One thing that surprised me about this resolution was my desire to have duplicates of the beads. With the exception of beads that have lots of variation, like the Trollbeads Blue Deserts, I’ve always preferred not to have more than one of any bead. But, when I started collecting the Thomas Sabo Karma beads, I found that I really preferred to have the symmetry. As you can see, while I’ve managed duplicates of my self-drilled stones, I don’t have duplicates (yet!) of most of my Karma beads. But they are on my wish list. And, since they are so reasonably priced, hopefully it won’t be too hard on my wallet!
All in all, my final two 2016 resolutions were a success! Now I just have to nail down my first 2017 resolutions ;)
Ooh I’d forgotten all about your drilled stones!
That’s a rather successful list you have there for this year :)
Will you be alphabeting this year? I can’t decide… I think if I do I’ll have to prewrite as I can’t do another year on the cuff, as much as I enjoy it – it’s not very good for me – but I also can’t be arsed writing 26 posts right now either! Will have to see if I have enough “intent” to do it!
Mars xx
I am still undecided about the A to Z challenge. After doing it last year, I really thought that I would continue it this year. I’ve started a list of topic ideas, but if I can’t think of something for all of the letters, I won’t go ahead. Even if I can, I might not go ahead as it was a lot of work! :D But it was fun so a little part of me is still thinking about it.
Yes I know how that feels, I think we are coming at the AtoZ from the same angle!
Mars xx