When I signed up for the Bead Peeps Swap and Hop, things were going great. We'd made it through the holidays and were ready to get 2015 off to a great start. Life had other plans, though.
Our little boy has been having recurrent strep throat infections since January, he's had seven so far, plus one throat infection that was deemed a viral infection, which kept him out of school for two weeks. He has also had a secondary surgery, and is coming up for surgery again in June. Needless to say, I haven't gotten to sit down in my studio in so long it has made me want to cry.
First of all, I want to thank Linda Anderson (http://fromthebeadboard.blogspot.com/) for her hard work and diligence in pairing us up with partners that she thought we would mesh well with. I think she has done an outstanding job getting things together, and I have been honored to be part of this hop.
Linda paired me with a young lady from AUSTRALIA! I will admit that I have been SO thrilled to speak to Erin and learn a bit about her. She seems like a truly interesting and fun person, and I have immensely enjoyed our communications.
After looking over her blog, I went to the bead store that I work at sometimes, and spoke to my wonderful friends, Rachel and Laura about this hop. I told them that Erin, my partner, lived in Australia, and that I would really like to send her an over the top bead stash. Rachel's husband, Glenn, is an amazing jewelry designer, and he creates beautiful components for jewelry, so I picked out a couple of his pieces to send, as well as a beautiful toggle and polymer clay beads by Ms. "Polymer" Patty who showcases at the shop as well.
Here is a picture of the soup that I sent to Erin.
