Being true to myself.

Yesterday there was a fabulous surprise in my mailbox from Laura Irenze: a very beautiful colorful flower. It is so beautiful with the opal-like stone in the center and the rainbow colors, I like it more than my own flowers. It adorns my summer hat already. Color becomes more and more vital in my life.

I also received beautiful cabochons and beads from Ruth Buffington. Boy am I spoiled. Look at those fabulous vintage cabs and seed beads!

Laura and Ruth's gifts are Pay It Forward gifts. I am so very grateful!!!

Fingers crossed

I finished my Battle of the Beadsmith 2013 piece. I am really happy with the result. It tells something; and exactly what I wanted it to tell... It will be a nightmare to make decent photos of it. Which is pretty often the case with pieces I make, especially when I use memory wire... I wish I could afford a professional shooting session and have it worn by a beautiful young model...

For the model I have an idea. Fingers crossed.

It might not seem to be a particularly difficult piece, (which is also the case of most of my difficult pieces), but I lost my temper several times when adding the chain. It's not because I don't take myself too seriously as a contestant, that I didn't get totally mad at the beads and chain and thread when things got really complicated...
Luckily more than 3/4 of the piece went really well.

But the last quarter has left me a bit exhausted.

Other projects are impatiently waiting for my hands and head to have time. I am in a beaded-flower-period. I need to write patterns. Continue the project I call 'Spoutnik' (probably too late for FMG's beading contest)... Update my Etsy shop to offer Instant Digital Download. Upload pictures of my last creations onto my website. Prepare gifts and PIFs and write lovely cards and letters and send them... I nearly feel stressed. I'm in some kind of grey zone between "I want to make/do this" and "I must make/do this", which could eventually lead to "I don't want to make/ do this." Gosh. Do I need a Holiday from my beads? Do I want too much? Because, yeah, I really want to do all this, but time seems to slip through my fingers faster than ever before.

Where does this feeling come from? Or is it a state of mind?

Image: Mirall Lifestyle on Facebook

Is the Mighty Mind taking the lead too much? Well, if it does, meditation should help with that. In addition, my feeling is that I need what Andy Puddicombe calls "Headspace". But then again, to get that (there), I also should meditate. 10 minutes per day are supposedly enough.

...

I seem to never find time to meditate.
Time...

I realized that I need a little help to step out of the viscious circle... and I think that I've found it.

Yesterday's first 10-minute session of Andy's free "Take 10" changed something in me. I can feel it already, because while writing this post, this happened in my little head:

"Too many things to do? Wait Mister Mind, I do what I can and... I have time! Don't stress me!"

Thank you Andy Puddicombe. I am looking forward to the next session and feeling better soon!

Beautiful artwork by Lori Portka on Etsy.

I found this pretty picture on Etsy and love the serenity coming out from it. It's not the picture that I want, though; I simply hope to be like the girl in the picture.