In Spring, a Young Man's Fancy Turns to Thoughts of...Autumn?!?

We've finally had a break in the weather here. It's been mid-50s and sunny for the past two days (maybe that's not warm to some of you, but we'll take what we can get here), and the SO and I just returned from a jaunt to our local park/playground. What a relief it is to have all that space to run around in! Now I'm looking forward to shedding a few more layers of clothes and wearing short sleeves again.

We happened to be having lunch across the street from one of my favorite local bead stores over the weekend. I told the Husband that I wanted five minutes to "just look around", as I hadn't had a chance to see what they had brought back from Tuscon this year. Erm, about fifteen minutes later I walked out with the above strands of seed pods, as well as a variety of deep brown, rust and green tone beads. (Whom was I kidding? I wonder if H. believed me? I think I did pretty well to wrap up in fifteen minutes, actually...)

So, yes, with spring finally on the way, we've been thinking about autumn in this house. At least as far as jewelry design is concerned. I really love this strand of seed pods - the textures, the colors, and the shapes are all completely appealing. Every now and then I see beads that look so good in the strand that I'm reluctant to cut the them open, and I think this set definitely qualifies. Can't you just imagine a forest sprite wearing something like this around her neck?

In the end, I did cut the strand open and used a few of the beads last night, but I took this photo first, for reference. They're so tactile, it's hard to resist running them through my fingers. And the eucalyptus pod is still slightly fragrant, but not overwhelmingly so. Here's a sneak peek at what I did with them:




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