Spring-Cleaning and components for a Necklace

"The Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring-cleaning his little home. First with brooms, then with dusters; then on ladders and steps and chairs, with a brush and a pail of whitewash; till he had dust in his throat and eyes, and splashes of whitewash all over his black fur, and an aching back and weary arms. It was small wonder, then, that he suddenly flung down his brush on the floor, said 'Bother!' and 'O blow!' and also 'Hang spring-cleaning!' and bolted out of the house without even waiting to put on his coat."


Extract from The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame,
illustrated by Ernest H. Shepard


So guess what we've been doing! Dear Husband has been on annual leave for a few days and when I saw him standing at the open garage door with slumped shoulders, I knew the time had come to brave the big hairy spiders and get in there with the bin-bags! Surely we're not alone in having a collection of empty screen-wash bottles, rusty paint tins from years ago, and curtain tracks that won't get used again?

As we excavated, we found enough spare parts from our old Willys Jeep to make a new one, a crate of apples wrapped in 8 year-old newspaper, heaps of surveyor's chains that Might Come In Handy, a lobster pot and two silver-plated gravy boats. After several hours of choking on dust, stifling screams at spiders and many trips to the council recycling tip, we had turned the garage into a palace fit for a king. But, like Mole, I eventually declared 'hang spring-cleaning' and bolted out the door without waiting to put on my coat!

As an antidote to all that dirt and physical exercise, I treated myself to some fabric and felt bead-making. This was all inspired by some gorgeous ceramic beads from Karen at HodgePodgeArts. I bought a string of 18 beads, which I shall eke-out sparingly in some necklaces I'm planning to make. The one that sparked off this necklace is the 'raspberry ripple' one below. Karen is a very generous Etsy seller and included a couple of her divine ceramic heart-shaped buttons in my parcel - what joy! But they bring out the worst in me - I'll never be able to share them!

laid out in potential pattern for a necklace