What's on Your Bead Table or Building a Well Behaved Cat

Grateful Artist Lisa Lodge, of Pine Ridge Treasures, had a brilliant idea for a blog hop.  Take a bag of treasures from her bead table and create.

Her rules stated that you should not buy extra piece for your piece.  If you needed more beads, draw from your own bead table.  I have been banned from actually showing my bead table... which has more than enough for 50 or 60 pieces. but I didn't go there.  Instead I stuck to my Lisa bag, which was full of goodies, as you can see.

And while I could see one of y jam-packed charmed bracelets easily emerging from her treasures, I decided to pursue a different path.  The Road Not Taken, to quote Robert Frost.

(Works well with the bead colors, doesn't it?)

Two beads leaped out at me.  Those who know me can easily determine which those were.

Yep.  Two kitty heads.

A while back the talented Tanya Boden sent me a beaded skeleton that so inspired me that, of late I've been playing around making Frankenstein's Monster, and Pumpkin Headed Creatures, and Mummies, so I thought... why not make a cat?

I started with the head, which I set off with the rondelle shaped beadies.  Isn't she pretty?

I got kind of carried away with the neck, because there were so many fun beads to play with,  So Kitty ended up with a very long neck and some elegantly waving arms.

At this point, I decided she was the reincarnation of Audrey Hepburn... which got me humming "Moon River."

Next came Audrey's torso. A double-drilled bead works best for the torso, but those are hard to find... even on my overflowing bead table.  So I went with a single-drilled bead.  I chose this magnificently swirly bead.

Then of course I needed arms, with some Hepburn-appropriate paws. And some nice long legs...

And, of course, a divinely elegant (and twisty) tail.

 Voila!  Audrey Hepburn Kitty.

 

I was going to make a friend for her, but didn't have quite enough leftover beads for the job.  So she'll have to go somewhere where she'll get plenty of attention... like perhaps your home.

Audrey Hepburn Kitty is going free to a good home.  Would you like her?  She's litter-box trained and doesn't shed.  

To win her, all you have to do is leave a comment saying you want Audrey, and become a Follower on my blog.  If you're already a Follower, just say so in your comment.  And, of course, visit some stops along the Blog Hop.  You'll find the path below, and there will be all sorts of treasures to see... but probably no other Audrey Hepburn Kitties. 

All together now... "Moon River, wider than a mile... " ♪♫

The "My Bead Table Blog Hop"

Your Host: Lisa Lodge
 

Molly Alexander, Beautifully Broken Me

Audrey Belanger, Dreams of an Absolution

Ginger Bishop, lilmummy likes...

Tanya Boden, Fusion Muse

Lisa Boucher, Lisa’s Clay Happenings

Michelle Buettner, Mishel Designs

Eleanor Burian-Mohr, The Charmed Life (you are here)

Mikala Coates, Maybe Just Perhaps

Marlene Cupo, Amazing Designs

Kathleen Douglas, Washoe Kat's

Mary Anne Klinglesmith Flesch, Hand Crafted Serenity

Therese Frank, Therese's Treasures
Mary Govaars, MLH Jewelry Designs

Tanya Goodwin, A Work in Progress

Mary Hicks, Falling Into the Sky

Tina Holden, Polymer Clay Bytes!

Shelly Joyce, Au jour le jour

Carolyn Lawson, Carolyn's Creations

Kathy Lindemer, Bay Moon Design

Susan Lloyd, Designs by Susan

Cynthia Machata, Antiquity Travelers

Kashmira Patel, Sadafule .. always in bloom!

Inge von Roos, Inge's Blog

Kristen Stevens, My Bead Journey

Sonya Stille, Dreamin' of Beads

Christine Stonefield, Sweet Girl Design

Toltec Jewels, Jewel School Friends

Norma Turvey, Moonlit Fantaseas

Sandra Wollberg, City of Brass Stories

Skulls' Night Out

Six skulls were sitting around the graveyard one night, playing poker, and bemoaning the things they had neglected to do and be during their skull careers.


"I was never in a production of Hamlet," lamented one.  "I could have been a contender, instead of a dusty old poker playing skull, which is what I am."

"And I should have been a Grateful Dead skull," complained another.  "Talk about the good life...  Get yourself an old VW van, paint it with flowers, and follow the band around the country.  That's what I should have done."

"Not me," said the third.  "I should have gone in for the pirate's life.  Sure, I know all the lyrics to A Pirate's Life for Me, but, at the time,  it never occurred to me that I would eventually become a symbol for all things pirate.  I wasted the best years of my death!"

"You think you wasted your death?!" retorted the fourth.  "I should have been a biker tattoo for some guy on a big ol' Harley.  I could have hung out on his meaty forearm, defying death...even though I'm like, well... dead."

"Aw, you're all full of dust," remarked the fifth.  "If I had it to do all over again, I'd get on the Día de los Muertos bandwagon.  Be one of those skulls everyone wants  Hang out with all the other skulls.  Everyone brings your flowers and food and presents.

The sixth skull looked at the others through hollow eyes, and then weighed in. "The ultimate," the sixth skull stated, "would be to be the symbol on a poison bottle.  Think about it.  Universally understood, striking fear into the hearts of men everywhere.  A cameo part in It's a Wonderful Life.  Death doesn't get any better than that, my friends."

The skulls sighed, as one, each sure of wasting early years of skullishness.  The first skull absent-minded set down the poker cards and rubbed a nearby tombstone.  Suddenly, in a  flash of light, the Fair Godmother of Skulls appeared.  "I am your Fairy Godmother," she said, "And I am here to grant you one wish."

The skulls started to clamor:

"Keep on truckin'"

"Feliz Dia de los Muertos!"

" Feels like I'm knockin' on heaven's door!"

"Live to ride; ride to live!"

"We kidnap and ravage and don't give a hoot.  Drink up me 'earties, yo ho!"

"Alas, poor Yorick!"

"Do not induce vomiting!"

"Hold it right there," said the Fairy Godmother.  I didn't mean you each get a wish.  You get one wish for all of you."

The skulls started to confer, then argue, then argue heatedly.  It was only a matter of time before they began to bang heads.  The Fairy Godmother, having seen this behavior before, stepped between them, stopping them instantly.

"Surely there's something all of you wanted to do once upon a time."

They stopped, silenced by her words.  They thought and thought and thought.  But they'd been sitting around the graveyard so long, playing poker and acting tough, that they could no longer remember what they'd missed.  And so their Fairy Godmother decided for them.

"Sure, you could have been tattoos, or symbols... or even pieces of a shrine.  But, really, all that is highly overrated.  When's the last time you had a night out?"

The skulls looked puzzled.

"You know," she said. "Dressing up?  A nice dinner, a show, cocktails, dancing?  What do you say?"

It sounded like the most fun any of the skulls had ever had.  "Then that shall be your wish!" said the Fairy Godmother.  "Go polish your parietal plates and get out your BrightandShinyThings.  You're going out for a night on the town."

And so they found their pearls and their crystals and they sparkled and they glittered.  The skulls got all dolled up and, for one perfect night, they partied like skulls they'd only watched in old films.

And every night after that, when they played Texas Hold 'Em, they remembered that lovely night.  And then they went back to arguing about poison and Harleys and head banging.

And they all died happily ever after.

Day of the Dead on etsy

Day of the Dead on eBay

There are Three Things I Have Learned Never to Discuss with People:

religion

politics

and the Great Pumpkin.

~ Linus Van Pelt

Your very own Great Pumpkins

on etsy

on eBay

The Mummy Meets Frankenstein's Monster

It was a classic Mummy tale.  

An intrepid explorer, fascinated with reanimating...

 

...visited the pyramids.

Using an ancient spell passed down through centuries of beads, he performed an incantation and the mummy came to life!

Fortunately, the two hit it off quite well.  It's almost as if they shared DNA.  

So the intrepid archaeologist (named Frank, btw) invited the Mummy back to his castle in Transylvania.

There the two swapped stories of how they were made and brought to life...

... and perished and were brought back to life.

 

At night they would whip of feasts from their native lands and dine beneath the stars.

In the summer they would lie on the castle roof, gaze at the galaxies... 

...and marvel how the skies looked exactly the same as they had in former lives.

But when autumn rolled around, and a chill touched the air, they wondered about other reanimated creatures.

Did they face the stigmas of society?  Did they deal with post traumatic stress syndrome?

 And where did they go for spare parts?

To further their study, they put out an invitation to all the re-animees of the planet...

...inviting them to a symposium where they could discuss their issues...

...and divulge their suppliers.

 So great was the response that Frank created a commune for the Reanimated.  Next time you're in Transylvania, stop in.  

But hang onto your parts.

Available on etsy.

Venus of Willendorf on a Nearly Wordless Wednesday

Venus of Willendorf pendants and charms on etsy.