I've Been Dabbling…
…in a brand new hobby (for me anyway). I’ve long been admiring and drooling over all the the lovely beading and jewelry that many of the bloggers that I drop ECs on every day make. If you have never seen some of the lovely jewelry that people can make these days, you really don’t know what you are missing!
Anyway…I’m nowhere near that ability…but Sarah got some beading books for her birthday and I happened to open a few of them after she received them…and WOW! I became very intrigued by what I saw and read. That was all it took, of course. Now, several weeks later Sarah and I are both deep into beading and jewelry making and it.is.fun!
This will not only be great for gift-giving, but I can see my own jewelry inventory exploding exponentially! 
Oooh, that’s a VERY expensive hobby, especially considering you are not far from where there are LOTS of really good bead stores. I can remember (years ago, when John and I first started dating) going to the bead stores and spending lots of money on beads. I still have most of them too, lost interest in the seed bead necklaces and got into making nursing necklaces (which will now probably go out the door with that stupid law coming into play in February, grr). But yeah, it’s very addictive and VERY relaxing…that is, if you can actually SEE the beads. Let me know if you have any questions though, I got into this back when I was 14 so while I’m not an expert at anything REALLY complicated, I can answer questions regarding things like the type of wire to use, tools you may need, crimping beads, etc. For the most part, I have stuck with simple necklaces and earrings but it helps to know how what to get and all of that and even storage is good to know.
Janeen’s last blog post..May I also mention?