Give me an inch, I'll take a millimeter?

As soon as I got into this jewelry making whirlwind I realized I needed to measure stuff. I knew I had ruler somewhere in my house that was nicely stamped with my childhood chicken scratch. I finally found one, blew the dust off of it, and I was morphed back into a four foot nothing kid with light brown hair, and a true disdain for boys.

I stared down at the ruler thinking and probably said out loud, "Which ones millimeter?" I yelled for my husband and asked him. He was just as clueless as I was. We both drew our weapons of mass destruction out, our iPhones, and clicked on a measuring app. We came to the conclusion that one inch was exactly 25.4 millimeters, which of course I knew all along. He dug out before I could burden him with more jewelry talk.

As a kid in school, I always knew what a centimeter was, what an inch was, but somehow I guess millimeter slipped my growing mind. I think it could have been too many macaroni and glue projects, or being poisoned with the awful cafeteria food, or maybe it was one too many tether balls to the head. But what's funny is that in school I would always challenge the teachers with the one declarative question that I take back and swallow now.

"Why in the world am I going to need to know this when I'm an adult?" 

Anddd..... now I know. Duh.

Let the obsession begin

It all started on Valentine's Day of this year. My husband and I had planned a fun-filled day that ended up being the total opposite. We planned to watch a movie but soon realized that nothing of interest was currently playing. After being let down by Costco and their seafood or lack thereof, we decided to give up and get  pizza from local joint. While my husband stood in line and ordered our fancy schmancy dinner I ran into a bead store located across the mall to see if anything sparked my interest. That was when the heavens opened up and shined down on me. I was amazed by all this tiny shop had to offer. I was like a kid in a candy store. My mind started to overflow with creativity and I knew I had to dive in head first. But as my luck this Valentine's Day would have it the shops registers were down and they were going to be closing in a few minutes. Although I was a little bummed, I walked out of the store with a bounce in my step. I then proceeded to yak my husband's ear off about all the amazing things I've stumbled upon. And how I "needed" all of these tools, wires, beads, pendants, etc. and that I needed them ASAP!!! After falling asleep and letting that disappointing day wash away, I awoke the next morning and immediately started Google-ing anything and everything jewelry! I left my husband at home to do the laundry and headed back to the bead store. Armed with my mother in law and little to no knowledge on subject, I took the unknown head on. I knew I wanted to start off with one type of jewelry so I started with bracelets. I must have asked the employee about a million and two questions. Two hours and a bill of $140 later, I still walked out with a hunger for more, because apparently that's not enough. I was so excited. I drove home and couldn't wait to start imagining, designing, creating. That night I made my husband a black onyx bead bracelet with a sterling silver cross charm on it. He loved it and was amazed at how fast I caught on.

Since then I've been completely and utterly obsessed and in love. I now have six different bracelets in my mother's store hoping to find a home soon. Yes, I love that maybe soon I'll actually sell one, that would be so amazingly cool, but for me it's more than just that. It has reignited something in me. Something I've been itching to get out, and sometimes nothing feels quite as good as scratching an itch.

Here are a few more of my designs:

 "Black Swan" 

"Golden Hamsa"

"Bleu Lotus"