Bead Therapy

I think I might have taken on a bit too much with working full time, blogging, writing (and messing around with the website) for Mum and Muslim Magazine, having interviews to deal with and general having my finger in every pie I come across because I cannot say no to an opportunity.

The last few days I was feeling the fatigue, conking out as soon as my head hit the pillow, and still feeling tired in the morning. I don't usually tire quickly and unfotunately when I do, I don't often listen to my body which isn't very sensible. So for the last two days I have been feeling exhausted and demotivated.

What has helped has been playing with my bead stash. Almost like a kind of therapy. When I was expecting Little Lady I used to come home from work and play with my beads to wind down. Up until now I have been picking up the beads, sorting them, colour co-ordinating them, sorting them by size, then mixing them again and then colour co-ordinating them again without managing to make very much. Sometimes though, you just need to let yourself play and your mind wander.

Alhamdulillah for bank holidays. The two day slow-down meant I woke up today feeling bright and more like myself. The two days of playing with my beads meant I was ready when the creative feeling hit.

This picture from Swanky Tables featuring jewellery from Stella and Dot certainly got me inspired:

Little Lady loves pink and this flower was from a necklace my mum bought her a few years ago and which got broken almost immediately. The back of the flower has a metal fixture with holes which I threaded clear beading elastic through and threaded with pearl beads and crystal rondelles (donut-shaped beads) in pink and clear.

I love long necklaces as they are one of the only types of jewellery which you can see falling out from under a big hijab.

Again I used rondelles in teal, 4mm wide for the necklace and 8mm wide for the larger beads on the sides of the crystal spaces. The rondelles were not enough to make the necklace really long and adding ribbon is very fashionable with jewellery at the moment. So I thread string through the top beads with a neele and swed it through the middle of the bow.

It looks long but was still only barely long enough to be seen under the hijab. (I did ask her to put her biscuit down but she was enjoying it too much).

I have been meaning to make something with my stash of purple beads for ages as I have a purple hijab which I like wearing but with which nothing goes - it does now.

I do like anklets with my ballet flats -Indian style so they are worn lower on the foot rather than up round the ankle where no-one will see them. This was probably the easiest project.

The inspiration for these strands came from a picture I saw ages ago of a lady with about 20 stranfs of small turqouise blue beads wrapped around her wrist. The simple repetition of the same bead was very striking (I could not for the life of me find the picture). These beads were sent to me by iMuslimah and didn't go with anything else, but looked so lovely by themself.

I think I'll wear one new creation each day this week...