Beading for a Cause

A few weeks ago I wrote about going to a "Spring Bling Fling" event where women learned about jewelry trends and how to repair/re-purpose jewelry. Little did I know that, on that night, I would meet a new friend!

Julie was so sweet. She knew I was going to be attending the event as the "professional" and, not wanting to step on my toes, she called me in advance to see if it would be alright if she brought along some of her tools also. Little did she know how non-territorial I am. Of course, my thought was "the more, the merrier"! She ended up being a life saver. I didn't know what would be necessary to repair the broken pieces and I couldn't very well bring along my entire studio since I don't own a semi-truck. So when one of the women needed something repaired with glue, I was thinking to myself "it sure would be nice to have some hypo cement". Later I happened to be looking for some jump rings in Julie's stash of findings, when lo and behold --- HYPO CEMENT! I was practically giddy because I could fix that woman's broken piece after all and she could leave with it fixed that night.

That night Julie and I ended up swapping Facebook contact info. Shortly after, we met for lunch to brainstorm some jewelry ideas. As always when doing something you love, time flew by and about four hours later when the servers were non-chalantly trying to scoot us out so they could finish setting for the dinner service, we made plans to get together in a couple weeks to bead for a good cause.

Julie hasn't lived in town long, but she has become a big part of the community. She has a huge heart for the homeless and hungry, so she volunteers at ACTS (Area Churches Together Serving). She has a deep, in-depth knowledge of vintage jewelry in addition to merchandising, so she's been helping the ACTS Resale Store with their jewelry.

Today we went to the resale store, set up a card table, and started making some jewelry to sell in the resale store. It gave us a chance to do something we love (bead!!), while we were also ministering to others by giving of our time and talents. I'm sure we'll do it again soon!