Pretty in Pink?

I have never thought of myself as particularly feminine. As a child my idea of fun was climbing trees and playing with my brother's Mechano set. I hated my teenage years. I was very thin and gawky and I never seemed to fit in. I went to an old fashioned, all girls, grammar school and felt like a real outsider. While other girls were gossiping about makeup, clothes and boys I was sitting in the corner with my nose stuck in a book or working out my next sewing/knitting project. Sewing with my Mum or helping my Dad with his woodwork was far more appealing than shopping for clothes or worrying about the latest shade of eyeshadow. By now you will have realised that I am not a 'girly' girl! It has taken me a long time to come to terms with who I am and how I look. I now realise that I am not going to wake up one day to find that I have grown 5 inches and become tall and elegant. Nor am I going to look in the mirror and discover that my face has miraculously changed overnight. In my experience increasing age brings acceptance - this is me - take me or leave me. Luckily for me my friends, family and Other Half seem to like me as I am.





Where is this leading I hear you ask and what has it got to do with beading? Well, I am coming to that. I was sorting through my beads the other day and came across some of the necklaces I made for my previous City & Guilds beadwork course. I was looking at one particular necklace, based on flowers. By now you will have gathered that I love flowers. Well, this particular piece of jewellery is a bit different from my normal style. For one thing it is pink. Trust me, I don't do pink. Or so I thought! My tutor Jane had discussed the project with me when it was still at the planning stage. She wanted me to try something different instead of reaching for my usual blue, green and purple beads. "Why not try using pink?" she said and I looked at her as if she was mad! But then I started thinking. Hadn't I come on this course to stretch and challenge myself? So, I gritted my teeth, bought some pink beads and started beading. You can see the results for yourself below. I can still never see myself wearing pink clothes but the occasional piece of pink jewellery might be quite nice. (I never thought that I would ever say that!) The jury is still out on whether I actually like this necklace. However it did teach me an important lesson - it does you good to try something different from time to time. Who knows, you might even like it!