Thank you, dear readers, for your congratulatory comments! And thank you (WBS), for the bottles of champagne! We’re all celebrating the achievement of a goal! I couldn’t have done it without you, reading and commenting. I received 326 of your encouraging comments over last year! Thank you, thank you!
I couldn’t resist doing some analysis. The most popular week was #11 (amber glass) with 11 comments; followed by week 17 (dark green) and week 38 (chrysoprase) with 9 comments; and week 25 (iridescent), with 8 comments. Then I checked he lower end: the peach necklace of week 15 got one comment, as did weeks 9 and 24 (brown and black with other colors).
What was easy? Writing each blog flowed like a charm; not once did I experience writer’s block. Two things helped: lots of research so my head was full of interesting tidbits and I like to write.
What was hard? The technical stuff–especially adding more than one image and having it land where I wanted it. I chatted with WordPress so many times on that subject that they finally asked me what operating system I was using. They told me it was too old (as did my webmaster and others. So I did the cyber Monday thing and bought a new PC, to be installed soon!)
The other difficult challenge was to get rid of the blue background in most of my pictures. Not possible until I realized my kitchen window was UV-tinted, so I moved my photo area to a north-facing un-tinted window.
I intended to rejuvenate my bead artistry as I turned 75. It turned out that meant I must create a spectacular necklace once a week for 52 weeks: that realization hit me early on; it became a point of pride and the true challenge. Twenty-nine necklaces sold. I am humbled and gratified.
One existing collector (MBL) bought 5; a new collector (DS) also bought 5: to you both, a belated but heartfelt tip of the NYEve champagne glass! Another existing collector (SL) bought 2 and a long term friend (SG) bought 2! New friends, local friends, plus California friends took this year over the top for me! Thank you!
More than one person has asked me to put this together in book form. That thought is a little overpowering right now.
Over 52 weeks, my thoughts have delved more and more frequently into the ageing process. Having fun, making moments count, valuing relationships, letting the unimportant slip away, leaning into quality workmanship, keeping promises (to post every Wednesday come hell or high water!)—- this is what I learned this year. And how lucky I was that Rochelle Ford’s centerpiece and philosophy were the grand finale!
One unintended consequence yielded a great benefit: I will donate four boxes of beads I no longer want after going through 52 drawers of beads acquired over 23-years, to Rosie’s Place, a non-profit in Boston, founded in 1974, which serves more than 12,000 poor and homeless women a year. Their Craft Cooperative teaches women to make bead jewelry and learn a new skill.
Thanks for hanging in there with me. I’m taking the rest of January off. I shall present a new program on February 1, 2018. Thank you all. See you soon. Be well.
Priscilla Beadle 