In Appreciation

A little while ago it started to get a bit cooler (finally!) and I got out some of my lighter weight sweaters. I have this one in yellow with a light green and white argyle pattern on it. I have a nice peridot lanyard and some peridot jewelry that goes with it, but as I was getting my outfit together to wear to work I decided I wanted a matching bracelet.

So I got out some diagonally drilled olivine glass cubes in two different sizes and the 6mm citrine Swarovski bicones I'd ordered during the big Artbeads Swarovski sale and quickly strung up a bracelet. When I got home I decided I'd love to have a bolder version, so I snipped apart the one I'd made and re-strung it along with two new strands. The middle strand in the picture was the original bracelet, by the way. I'm now just waiting for my gold filled, three hole slide lock fastener from FusionBeads to arrive to finish it.

I'd like to finish up by saying thank you for coming by today, I can hardly express how much appreciate all my visitors. I want you to know that you're very important to me. That's why I try to share something every day to show it, no matter how tired I get and how little I feel I have to share.

I always want to encourage you in your work by sharing mine. There are times that I get discouraged, but the comments I get here are always wonderful, so I keep plugging along. I keep working to improve my techniques, refine my eye for design and color and learn new things. Following other blogs helps alot. That's why I have a long list of blogs in my reader.

Then there are people like Steve and Duchess at Artbeads, Dave at Rings & Things and Heather at The Beadin' Path. Sure, they represent or own businesses that want to sell us our materials and tools. But their businesses aren't huge soulless corporations as far as I can tell. Yes, they're looking to maximize their exposure to their customer base, but they do it by reaching out to their customers in a direct and helpful way on places like Twitter and Facebook. They share our designs and ideas on their sites as well.

Being a design/blogging partner with them has given me a lot of confidence in what I do and that's priceless to me. If I can point people in their direction in return, I'm happy to and it's not just because every now and then I get some goodies to play with. I started sharing links to their sites long before I was asked to be a blog partner for them and if they stopped their promotional programs tomorrow, I'd still do it. I also mention many other sites and suppliers that don't provide materials or other considerations. If I use their materials, they get a mention - like Fusion Beads did above. I think my Saturday and Sunday posts are pretty good evidence of that attitude, as well - I do Supplier Sales Saturday and Sunday's Wandering Around the Beadosphere because I think it's one small way I can give back.

So, in closing - thank you all, again, for being my community. Thank you for helping me every day with your comments, with your interesting, informative, beautiful and fun blogs.