Beaded Tree, Completed...

Ta -da!
Over 500 pins and beads later, it's done!
It wasn't a horrible project, by any stretch of the imagination - but having completed it, I do not feel the need to make it a little friend...

Especially since, as I already mentioned, it didn't turn out at all the way that I had intended it to. But that's OK, no beating myself up about it. Just going to appreciate it for what it did turn out as - a fun, silly little candy bobble tree.

It's living on the top of my dresser in the bedroom - a room which, to the best of my recollection, has never seen a Christmas decoration, so that's kind of nice...

I've got a collection of stuff which sits on the dresser, year round - a combination of things that I like to look at, and useful stuff - so I just plopped this into the mix. Not really formal at all, but it works for me!


Several of these items are catch-all jewelry boxes, but all are special to me...

• The large wooden box was a presenter's gift, given to me after I made a 90 minute presentation to 500+ lawyers about the Internet. (This was in the earlyish 90's - when it was still a fledgling technology. I remember that the many people came up after the presentation and made comments about how it seemed cool, but they didn't know if it would really affect the way they did their jobs...) I love it because it is gorgeous, but it also reminds me of a time when I, too, was considered to be a professional.
  
  
• The gorgeous stone pendant is from MollyCoddle and I just love it. I leave it sticking out of the jewelry box because it reminds me to wear it (I have a bad habit of sticking things in these boxes and forgetting to wear them) and because it's lovely.
  
  
• The little papier-mache box in front was the first Valentine's Day gift I got from Bubba...
  
  
• The little dishcloth bear that I made myself when I was falling apart (for no good reason.) He must have worked - no more bizarre crying jags have occurred. He gets to live on top of the dresser to continue to ward any more off...
  
  
• It's hard to see, but there is another small blue jewelry box on the right. A good friend of mine made it for me one Christmas. She was so apologetic about it - she was going through an extremely ugly divorce; her husband was tying up all the money so as to control her. She was so upset that she had to "make her gifts instead of buying people nice things"... (Her words, not mine!) I'm not sure that I managed to convince her that I loved this little box in a way that I could never love something she'd bought. It's up here because it reminds me of a few important things: how much gifts from the heart can touch the recipient, and that out of something ugly (in this case, her divorce) something amazing can be made...
  
  
• An old jar filled with quarters, etc. I have somewhat of a collection of old Ball/Mason/etc. jars - but this is the only one that is in this room. At the day's end, I troll my wallet and Bubba's pockets for quarters - and they all end up in this jar. I have a self-imposed rule that I am not allowed to spend quarters (and it pains me mightily when Bubba spends them in front of me...) I save them up for three months, and then at the end of the "fiscal quarter" I take them into the bank and deposit them. The proceeds all go to a 529 plan for Schecky. Don't worry - this isn't his only college savings vehicle, but I decided when he was a little tot that every little bit would help.
  
  And it does - I manage to save between $300 - $400 a year this way. A few years back, Schecky and I were actually in the newspaper in an article about "What do you do with your change?" I know it's not an overwhelming amount, but I am a firm believer in "EMILY" - Early Money Is Like Yeast. By socking away tiny bits now, it can grow for the next ten years and be a tiny bit more when the time for college comes. It's painless, and did I already say that every little bit counts?