Bead Soup/Buddies Forever

I have to admit, I have been lax about posting about my participation in the Bead Soup Party but on my behalf, I have to say it has been a very hectic and sad month with four losses of people and animals close to me. But on to Bead Soup. I found this little post on Art Bead Scene about the second Bead Soup Party and I thought it might be fun to participate. I signed up and the pairings came out and we were to email our bead soup partner and find out a little more about what they did and then pick out a selection of beads and a clasp to send them and they in return were to do the same for us. I never imagined that when I signed up, I would gain a friend for life. I emailed my partner and she emailed me and thus a friendship was born. Somehow, in the mix of things, I was paired with someone my own age who was a seed bead weaver like myself. I know Lori tried to pair us up according to types of work, but how she managed to find the perfect pairing for me, had to have had a hand from above in on it. My partner sent me a lovely selection of lampworked beads done by a friend of hers along with a lovely bead soup sead bead selection. My clasp was a lovely button that we discussed via email and she also included a beautiful bracelet that she made for me and it was done in just my colors. How she knew that is unreal. I sent her a wonderful selection of brightly colored gemstone nuggets, some colorful sead beeds, some large hole lampworked beads with frogs on them (i found out after the fact she loves frogs) and some buttons she wanted and all sorts of miscellaneous beads. She made a freeform bracelet from part of what I sent her and I am anxiously awaiting the reveal. In the meantime, we email every day and bounce ideas off each other on all sorts of things. She was asked to do a project of 200 bracelets/necklaces for a mission trip. My best friend lost her granddaughter (who was also in a sense my granddaughter) to a still birth. I was led to contribute to my partner's endeavor by helping provide the crosses to go on the necklaces as a memorial to the baby. It was meant to be!!!. My partner and I share our daily lives and beading journey every day and it is all because of Bead Soup. Lori, I am sure you never thought about the ramifications of the bead soup beyond beading, but my partner and I thank you so much for bringing us together and we will be "bead soup buddies" for a long long time. We are already planning our next exchange of bead's between one another. We are also dreaming of meeting in person at a future Bead and Button Show and we are figuring out how we can win the lottery so we can go on the next Bead Cruise. If Lori decides to do another bead soup in the near future, jump on the bandwagon, you never know what kind of journey it will take you on.