Remember me? I'm Heather DeSimone & I co-own The Beadin' Path. If you frequent the store you might remember me from working my 70 hour weeks years back. 'The store' was my 2nd home and in a couple of locations as we moved to find our place in the world, where we currently reside at 15 Main Street in Freeport. Well, I haven't seen you in a while! You've been in, but probably thought I sold the place! Where have I been you might ask?  I've been the busy Mom of 2 boys and have opted to work from home as much as I possibly can and leave much of the running of the store to my amazingly capable staff of 18-22 lovely ladies (only because no male has ever applied: we're fully equal-opportunity!). When Max, (my 'Four-and-three-quarter-year-old' as he calls himself) was born, my staff wasn't as large and I did my best to get back to work by the time he was 3 months old. God love the little guy:  he didn't take a bottle and would only fall asleep in a swing in front of a Baby Einstein video.  But we made it work. I was lucky enough that my best friend baby-sat for him as she had a little boy the exact same age. Two little 3-month olds and her 18 month old daughter: I don't know how she did it. So, I'd work very short shifts to be sure I could be back for Max's next feeding and then head home to do some ordering from my laptap.

When Alex was born, I had the same plan in mind. But when he turned 12 weeks, it seemed like he could only possibly be 12 days old! It went so fast. So here I am: Alex is now 6.5 mos old and I'm still doing what I can to get my work done from home and make my staff feel like I haven't totally abandoned them. But I LOVE it! I honestly get the best of both worlds. I can head to a playdate with the little guys in the morning, and by afternoon come home and confirm an overseas shipment, order the designer folders, call and check in with the mail order dept, update the sold outs on the website and THEN get dinner, do the kids tubbies, read them 2 books, get them off to sleep and hopefully have time to put my feet up, exchange a few words with my hubby and sip a glass of wine, all while placing an order for Czech glass.  Being busy is not a problem for me when I'm surrounded by beads and my boys.

One of the benefits of being able to make my own schedule is that in the Summer months (the whole 8 weeks of beautiful weather we get here in Maine.  Sorry if I sound bitter, it's currently raining.)  I am able to take some free time to stay on 'the island': my husband's familys' camp on Long Island in Casco Bay. It's right on the ocean-side of the coast (meaning it faces the open water and not another coast) and there is a perfect little rocky beach down front. Max's favorite thing to do in the entire world is to spend time on that beach 'plopping rocks' as he used to call it when he was 2. He's also discovered hunting for crabs. While he crab hunts and plops rocks, I usually comb the beach for 'sea glass'. Maine's rocky coasts are prime for tumbling the smoothest pieces of glass and granite. We collect buckets and buckets of these treasures every Summer. Some day I'm even going to drill them.

Anyway, I thought I'd share my 'sea glass' necklace and Max's as well. We used the new Chinese Sea Glass beads as well as some vintage Lucite beads and some Lucite flowers. Max was a purist and stuck to the 'not real' Sea Glass with a few 'sparklies' (aka Swarosvki crystals) thrown in.