I'm currently working diligently on my entry for The Beaded Pony's bead contest. Above are some rather poor pics of the work in progress from my design wall.  It is going well but I'm having the usual dilemma about when to stop embellishing. I don't want to overdo the beading as I usually choose to "embellish" the fabric rather than "encrust" it with beading. I really appreciate the work of other artists who do this in their work, but in my work I like to let the fabric and quilting be strong parts of the piece. I do have to do a good amount of beading if I hope to place in the contest though---it is a BEAD contest after all! Last year I did not do enough beading on my piece so I'm hoping that this year's entry will do better.

I'm hoping to hang a couple of my other beaded pieces but they won't be in the contest, just for sale. They contain some beads that are not from the Beaded Pony so are ineligible for the competition. I'd say a large percentage of my bead inventory is from there, but naturally I do make occasional purchases elsewhere when I find something unusual.  

Tomorrow we are taking my son to the circus as we have done the past couple of years.  It is a fun family outing and he really enjoys it--as do I!