ooo, sparkly...

I swear I must have been a magpie in a former life. I am so attracted to the sparkly, it's not funny. But only in the beads, it seems. I'm not a sparkly type of girl in my regular life. When I got married, there were comments from some family member about the lack or adornment on the dress. (Hey, they were lucky it was even in the white tones, as far as I was concerned...)

But these! These make me swoon!

I found this pattern in a magazine, and fell in love immediately. The pattern uses Swarovski crystals, but the one I'm making is a test piece using less expensive glass beads. It still looks pretty good, I think. But then, look at these: these are the Swarovskis. As nice as the glass beads are, I really think the crystals will be amazing. And yes, I've already found an online source for bulk crystals - way cheaper than what I pay in a store.
You can see the difference in the glass and crystals - the crystals have a much more defined facet and definitely sparkle more.

Just what I needed - another distraction... but I gotta say, this is FUN!