Bead Soup on the Boil

While I was away, I saw some announcements online for the upcoming Bead Soup Blog party. I have been aware of this event for several years, and had often wished to be involved, but I never heard about it early enough to sign up. This year I did, but the sign up period was while I was in the air flying home from my trip! It's a conspiracy I swear :). Anyway, a friend organised my sign up while I was travelling, so this year, I'm involved. It was a real rush to get some new beads made and sent out in the short period between my return and the postal deadline, but I made it, and my beads are winging their way to the US as we speak. My exchange partner has also sent my bead soup mix, and I will post some pics as soon as it arrives. The basic premise of this exchange is to send a beautiful clasp, and a focal pendant-worthy bead, as well as some 'supporting' beads, that can all be put together to make a piece of jewellery, combined with extra pieces they might already have. So half the fun is the anticipation of not knowing what you are getting. My partner is a polymer clay artist I believe, so that will be new for me - Ive never made jewellery with polymer clay beads before.

Sharing the Love

This week my lovely, talented friend Lisa tagged me as the recipient of a blogging 'award'. Apparently now it is my turn to 'tag' another 7 or so worthy blogs. My taste in blogs, like my music, is quite eclectic, so they might be a random bunch! Here goes...

• Drape's Takes is a great blog by educational technologist Darren Draper, a teacher in North America. Always interesting, and often thought provoking, it's a blog I've been disappointed to be a bit behind in reading lately.

• Common Craft. Perhaps 1 in 10 posts in this blog are really relevant to me, but it's worth it to be the first to see their amazing instructional 'In Plain English' videos about Web 2.0. If any of your friends or family don't get the 'blogging thing', point them here.

• Gal Lori is one of several blogs written by talented beadmaker Lori Greenberg. I particularly love the gems of wisdom from her kids.

• Real Tart is written by a British ex-pat author now living in New South Wales. He hasn't been blogging for the last few months, but he is back again now, and his posts are always good for a chuckle.

• Otter's Odds 'n Ends. I guess some people will think this is a strange nomination to make, as Otter doesn't blog anymore. But the posts on this blog have frequently moved me to tears, so it is well worth scrolling back through and reading them, despite the time lapse.

• Jennie's Palette is the blog for my talented friend Jennie, who paints nudes, and recently had her first solo exhibition.

And two that definitely don't need a plug from me:

• Confession of a Pioneer Woman. A humorous glimpse into a world that couldn't be more different from mine....
• The Impatient Blogger, crafty woman extraordinaire, Margot Potter.

Here’s how it works:

1) Add the logo of the award to your blog

2) Add a link to the person who awarded it to you

3) Nominate at least 7 (more or less) other blogs

4) Add links to those blogs on your blog

5) Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs

I have 2 beautiful new sets up on Just Beads at the moment. I was playing with Bullseye glass for awhile instead of my usual Effetre. The colour palette's are quite different. So here is 'Cranberry Treasures' and 'Dewdrops'.

And as if I'm not already blogging enough (here, Let's Talk eLearning, Flaming Hot and Modern Savages) I have just joined another artisans collective blog, Collective Creatives. This new one has participants from various mediums, who will post articles once a month throughout the year. I'm looking forward to it - I have really enjoyed writing so often over the last few months. When I started this blog about a year ago to record my overseas trip, I never would have thought it would lead to this - so thanks for 'listening' folks.

Better Blogging

I have recently joined a couple of 'Ning' communities relating to education and blogging. Ning is a free site that allows users to set up their own online communities, with similar resources to those found on sites like My Space.Through one of these communities I have found a link to a post about a 31 day challenge to better blogging, so I will probably be working through some of those suggestions in the near future. One suggestion I noticed when skimming the site the other day, was to return the favour when your blog gets linked to or commented upon on another blog site. The Modern Savages collective I mentioned the other day was blogged about today by Michele on Blog about Crafts, so I wanted to return the favour. Looks like some interesting discussions and good advice on promoting craft work of various kinds.