A girl has to have a sense of humor

Remember the rosepetal beads? They are still in process. Normally I just put them in the oven to speed the drying, but this time the kids and I are trying something silly. I had an idea. Always a dangerous thing. Here's a tour through the thought process. (This is what happens when I'm both sleep deprived and have too much of my day spent holding babies and randomly surfing since I can't do anything else with my hands.)

I was making rosepetal beads. I've done that before. They come out sort of crumbly, but smell lovely and are kinda pretty in an ugly duckling sort of way. My 3 year old was helping me, despite having pointed out the fact that the mass of rose mash looked an awful lot like poop. Then I remembered that the Mythbusters once shined poo. How cool would shiny rosepetal beads be? I went looking for instructions on the art of Dorodango. I found this really interesting analysis of children's play and the creation of something from nothing. In reading up a little more it appeared that rose petals probably won't develop a shine quite as well as dirt since they aren't powdery. But wait! I could dry and crush them. The kids were certainly game to give it a shot. So, we started re-rubbing the beads as they dried.

It is at this point that reality asserts itself. There are a few problems with my brilliant plan. A) The kids don't really roll things round. B) There are a LOT of these things. C) Umm, I need these to have holes in them. So, the rose dorodango project just isn't going to work. But we had fun. The kids liked playing with the rose clay. I really was intrigued with the information on dorodango and play and it gave me something interesting to think about for a day or two. The beads are still beads and will still be nice for the rosary, with added sentiment because my kids helped make them and we added my Mother's Day roses. Not to mention the fact that they sure do smell good no matter how much they look like poo. The kids are determined to keep rolling them while they dry, shiny or not. Since they have already put so much time into them I can't tell them no. I figure with the addition of beadcaps and pearls the whole project will turn out fine somehow or another. If nothing else it gave me back my sense of humor in a week where everything seems to be going poorly with the project and looking at the updates of other people doing the challenge has me intimidated and feeling like I have no skill whatsoever.

The lace is almost done for the stockings and I have sketched up a couple of designs for the gold couching, just need to decide which to do. I really will show those tomorrow, I just needed to take a mental health tangent today.