Merry Christmas to me!!

Aren't these wonderful?! The two bracelet pictures are of the same bracelet, I just wanted you to be able to see both sides of all of the caps. These came from a good friend of mine, Michelle. Some of her many artistic talents are creating beautiful bottlecap jewelry (& the dyed socks pictured below). We swap all different kinds of things from time to time. I sent her around 200-225 bottlecaps (I don't think I want to share with you how I acquired them, but I will just say that I've been collecting them since last summer). I just hated throwing away those little pieces of "art" but had no idea what to do with them, so when Michelle told me that she'd happily take them off my hands, I was happy to oblige. Aren't they just fabulous?!!!

Michelle & I recently joined a group called DyeHard_RunOff. This group is terrific. It's a great group for beginning dyers just starting off & also, I think for dyers, like me, who have been dyeing all kinds of fabrics for many years. It's a group, where each member in the swap will chose colors from Procion MX dyes & do color runs like make brown or gradations of purple, etc. We then create, what I call recipe cards & attach the swatches to each matching card. We send a set of them off to each member in the swap which then builds upon a little "recipe book" of dyes for each member. This is how I was taught many years ago when taking dye classes in college, so when Michelle told me about this group, I thought what a great group to join, maybe I could really learn a lot. The ladies in this group have also done dye runs of flour sack towels & socks like the ones Michelle sent me below. I just LOVE the colors!! I can't wait until spring when I can wear shorts and capris & show off my cool socks!!! (You can check out Michelle's site here to see some of the other cool socks she has dyed.)