On synchronicity again

At the recommendation of a friend, I ordered a book called Life Lessons by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross.
I started reading it this afternoon and I am already halfway through it. It is a wonderful book, full of insights about life, love, death, all there is. It is not something new for me, as I have read several other great books basically telling the same things, by Wayne Dyer, Dick Sutphen, Rosemary Altea, or the wonderful Conversations with God by Neil Donald Walsch, of which I actually finished the first in the series of three yesterday. If there is anyone who has not read yet Elisabeth Kubler-Ross or Neil Donald Walsch's books, I highly recommend that you pick them up. In there you will find the greatest truths about life that you already knew but you didn't know you knew them.

But why did I pick this subject for my blog entry?
Today something - I could say - funny happened at work. The secretary was away for two weeks on holiday, so all the external calls were transfered to my phone. Today she was back, but the IT guys forgot to transfer the main line back to her, so I got a phone call from a woman with a funny accent. She was sort of confused, and didn't even know whom she was calling. Had no idea how she got our company's number, but there she was. She apologized profoundly for the call and asked if I knew a Hungarian musician in Cyprus (pianist I think).
I was totally surprised of her inquiry because there she was, a Hungarian calling the last minute I was still able to pick up the main line - me a Hungarian as well.
I told her I don't know any Hungarian musician in Cyprus, but funny enough, I am Hungarian myself. Now in Cyprus Hungarians are quite rare, it's not like you walk on the street and every third person is Hungarian. Anyway we got into talking and at some point the line got cut. I thought that was it, but then after a few minutes she called again and we continued talking. Even after she understood I could not help her, she called me back to talk with me more in Hungarian. We really connected for a few minutes. This encounter make a rather dull morning at work become something special.
I was totally puzzled by this particular occurance and as I know there are no coincidences in this life, I was wondering what was its meaning. Then I shrugged it off and went about my business as usual.
This afternoon, at home, while I was reading the Life Lessons book, I came upon a particular paragraph which I will cite here below:

"There's no such thing as an insignificant or accidental relationship. Every meeting, encounter, or exchange, with everyone from a spouse to an anonymous telephone operator, no matter how brief or profound, how positive, neutral, or painful, is meaningful. And in the grand scheme of things every relationship is potentially important, for even the most trivial encounter with a passing stranger can teach us a great deal about ourselves. Every person we encounter holds the possibility of sending us to happiness, to a loving place in the mind[...]."

I'd like to hope that those few minutes on the phone brought the woman just as much joy and few careless and loving minutes as they brought me today.

When these kinds of synchronicities are happening to me or around me - and lately they have slowly but surely increased in number - I believe that I am on my right path, and God or the universe or whatever you want to call it, is telling me to go on, on this path, that I am exactly where I am supposed to be in my spiritual journey and in my life.

My first book review for June

Here is my review for June's Bookmooch TBR club. Just fnished the book and it was great!
To give you a glimpse of what the book is about...

Sherry Moore is blind, beautiful and has a gift. She can see the deceased's last 18 seconds by touching their hand. And she uses this gift to help police solve various crimes...

Read the rest in my review.

Coral, Coral, and a New Computer!

Ahhh....I have a new computer! Hooray for me! The last computer basically melted down; we even had to reinstall Windows XP on it to get it to work! But a new computer also means more work because there are many bits of data that I want to organize differently and more efficiently on my new computer. So I've been busy, but I have had a bit of time to list some jewelry.

I love coral for summer! From the top bracelet, the simple pearl and peachy coral, to the bottom red coral necklace, I love almost every piece of coral jewelry that I make - and want to wear it

Coral is also a great mixer - another reason that I love it. It mixes well with all kinds and colours of gemstone beads as well as lampwork glass. It looks great with gold and with silver.

My favorite bracelet has to be the blue coral bracelet (the second bracelet from the top) that is mixed with sterling silver dendrite opal and a sparkling drusy! Little charms (sea themed, naturally) dangle from various places on the bracelet. I've also added some ocean jasper that is almost translucent and little keishe pearls in a dark silver.

I finally used some of the most gorgeous, big, etched lampwork beads in coral and a frost that I've ever had. I've been waiting for the right colour of coral and finally got it. Again, the sea themed sterling charms just for fun!

This bracelet is all 14 karat gold fill mixed with lampwork boro beads, ocean jasper, lapis, coral, turquoise, and smokey quartz. I would never have mixed those particular gemstone beads, but I was playing with designs for a commision and the customer requested these gemstones. She decided to go with the sterling, but by then, I decided to go ahead and make the bracelet since I liked it a lot.

Finally, lapis and lampwork once again with long branches of twiggy red coral in this coral necklace. The lampwork beads are from James Derrick Reeves (and you know how much I love his truly excellent beads).

Did I mention that one of the reasons I like coral is because it looks wonderful against summer skin - that is, bare skin, lightly tanned to dark. So very, very sexy with something strapless!

jewelry jewellery fashion accessories bracelet necklace handmade beaded jewelry beads coral coral jewelry jewelry blog

Edit-Me

New blog layout

So, after months of the 'good old layout' I've decided to change it. This when I saw the new blog of my friend, Alex.
I quite like the result. Much more 'me' than the old page.
Which wouldn't have been possible without Alex's great help and cute heading picture, done just for me!!

Zebra stripes

I started it yesterday and finished it this evening. Although it's a very basic stitch, for me it's something quite new as I haven't worked that much in flat peyote before. The idea of the two drops peyote and the toggle come from Bead Patterns magazine #4 (Crystal 2-Drop Bracelet). The design and mistakes are mine entirely. And oh boy can one see the mistakes when watching the enlarged picture :)
So number 3 is completed as well. Now just another 500 more to go *sigh*.

Bracelet added

I was looking for a bracelet pattern to complement the necklace, and I found it in Horace Goodhue's Indian Beadweaving Patterns, a very easy and quick one to do. Now I can also safely say I did two projects already from books I own.
Athough I shouldn't be that smug just yet, as doing easy pieces will NOT get me stretching my boundaries and learning new things *grins*.
I've taken another picture with the set, hope this is better than the previous (?).
The muted colours of the beads in this second picture are much truer to the real colours than in the previous pic.

New jewelry resolution

I have tons of jewelry books and magazines, so I've decided to make one jewelry item from each. It will be a long project, but this way I can learn lots more than I know now about jewelry making, I can stretch a little bit beyond my comfort zone and hope to improve.

The first is a netted necklace from Bead Patterns Magazine #1. It's called Crystals'n Lace necklace by Sandra Halpenny.
I'm not very good at taking pictures, that's another lesson I still have to learn, but for now, this is it. I'll update the picture with another one when I manage to take a better pic. I might make a matching bracelet as well, we'll see.