I mentioned in my last blog that I was working on a larger Christmas-themed project, and I gave a little sneak peek at it. Today I can share the whole thing! This is my brand new French Beaded Miniature Poinsettia Topiary, a different sort of Christmas tree.

It is 16 inches tall (not including the base) and about 5 1/2 inches wide. I had a difficult time photographing it due to it’s size. I did reassemble it one more time, but I decided to keep my topper as is. Is it crazy that I kinda want to make another one? Just maybe smaller. With a mix of flower colors. But I definitely don’t have time right now.

If you’d like to see a spinny video of the topiary, I currently have one posted on my Home page.

This is not the same mini poinsettia pattern that I’ve previously published. The first one was written for size 15 seed beads, and this one is written for size 11 seed beads.

If you would like to purchase the topiary pattern and instructions, it is available in my shop.

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In addition to the topiary, I also published my new Miniature Daffodil design. This is one that I’m teaching in the Facebook Group this month (starting tomorrow). But, after I announced the class on my Facebook and Instagram pages, I got a lot of messages asking if I would make the pattern available for those who did not wish to join the group. Originally I was going to wait until after the class was over to make the PDF available here, but enough people wanted it that I decided to go ahead and publish it now.

Buy PDF

I do hope that more will come over and join the group though. We have over 900 members so far! I love seeing so many people getting excited to learn French Beading. I’ll be teaching several classes there this year, as will Fen Li from Bead Flora, and possibly a guest designer.

Normally I like to do a reflections post at the end of a year and beginning of a new year. But I honestly didn’t know how to approach it this time. 2019 wasn’t pleasant (at least not for my family), and I feel like I never got to recover and everything just got so much worse. Last year was terrible. After how hard 2019 was, I started 2020 on a high. I made some lofty goals (even bought a planner! and made actual action plans and outlines to help me accomplish them), and I really did try my hardest. But I ended up disappointed that I didn’t get all of them done. I’d love to be able to blame just the fact that I was homeschooling my kids (which was utter chaos), but really it was a bunch of really crappy things happening. 2020 was an overall crapshoot of a year. I think most of us can agree on that. My anxiety shot through the roof and I couldn’t focus very well, so I ended up starting a lot of things and never finishing. I’ve had an anxiety disorder my whole life, and while I’ve developed ways to manage it, I was ill prepared to handle the level I’ve been dealing with lately. I’ve been doing a lot of inward reflection on how I can prevent the same thing from stopping my progress again, because so far 2021 doesn’t look great and I don’t want all these outward situations to prevent me from accomplishing my goals again. I want to do more teaching. I want to help make French Beading a more mainstream and appreciated form of art. That’s part of the goals of having the Facebook group.

So I’m taking it easier on myself this year and approaching with caution. In some ways. I’m just going to take things as they come. I got 2 books published last year, and I’m proud of that. I wanted to get 3 out, and I’m pretty dang sad that the third one didn’t happen… yet, because it’s going to be awesome! This year I’m going to shoot for 1, maybe 2 books if the first one goes well. I’d like to beef up my YouTube channel with more tutorial videos. I’d like to get some of the unfinished PDFs that are sitting on my computer and in unfinished object boxes done. I’d like to get my studio finished and do a little video tour. That’s it. Move forward, even through the fog. That’s my goal this year. Maybe not the clearest goal with set in stone numbers and dates and plans, but that’s what I’ve got so far, and something I think I can actually accomplish. I’ve got so many exciting things that I’m working on. Just need to get something done!

I appreciate every single of one you who has supported me through the years. Purchasing patterns and kits helps me expand and improve my efforts to teach the art, and I am grateful for every sale. All of my sales go to either my family to help support them, or back into my business. (And taxes. Always taxes.) I started out as a tiny little blog that no one read, just timidly writing about stuff I was making. Once people found me it started growing until I was able to make the website that I have now and all the resources I’ve been able to get out there. I appreciate everyone who has emailed me to let me know that the tutorials and videos I’ve published are helping them learn. Those kinds of emails give me a little boost to keep going, and they really mean so much to me!

Here’s to 2021! I hope we can all find a way to experience joy and focus on the positives, even when everything feels chaotic.

Happy beading to you all!