Birth bead swap, anyone! « Back to Group Discussions

[kimble]

Now that we have reached the halfway point, it won't be long until we are in labor! I feel blessed to have a community of mamas to walk this journey together, and think it would be nice to have a link to this connection and support while we are in the throes of childbirth.

Is anyone else interested in a bead swap? The basic idea is everyone would get a set of beads (could be anything you want, nice if it has a special meaning in the color/material/design etc) and send them to a coordinator, who puts one of each bead back in the mail to each participant. If you want to include a note for encouragement, reflection, or wisdom that goes with the bead you could. Then we put the beads from everyone on a string and have it as a reminder of our communal strength and spirit.

Maybe I'm going kookie from hormones and Birthing from Within, but this sounds pretty awesome to me right now. Let me know if you're interested too - we have plenty of time to organize. Costs would be about $10 or less for shipping (US mail in US) plus a few bucks for beads as you choose.

[lisathena]

I would love to! Count me in I noticed the march ddc had one and I thought it looked like alot of fun! And special

[FarmerMomma]

That sounds cool. Makes this group a little more concrete for me.

[Quinalla]

I like this, sounds like it would be something nice to see and touch, especially once I have two newborns and a toddler and I'll need some positives thoughts! Do you have any suggestions for getting beads, just craft stores or any cool places online you know?

[FarmerMomma]

There are a few independent bead shops around here. Also lots of ways to make your own. Sculpee or find something cool you could drill a hole through. Lets find out how many want to participate so we know the scope of this project.

[kimble]

Originally Posted by Quinalla 

Do you have any suggestions for getting beads, just craft stores or any cool places online you know?

Any craft store would do in a pinch, and it's the type of item that is available relatively cheap online since they are light weight. I used google maps to search for local bead shops near us and easily found 3 which look interesting.

Going the home made route would take some more planning but add a very personal touch! I was thinking of using a fallen branch from one of our many oak trees, but that might be a bit too much effort :)

[scary biscuits]

Wow, what a cool idea! I would totally love to join in. It would be fantastic to have something tangible to remember this journey that I am sharing with you wonderful ladies:-)

[timesway]

Damn living in the uk.. Is a lovely idea tho x

[jacquelinej]

Love to do this, count me in as long as the date to send in beads isn't in the next 4 weeks!

[eepeepee]

I'd be up for this too!

[Mama4life14]

Sounds fun to me!!

[kimble]

I'm glad it seems we will have enough interest in this to make it worthwhile! Would be kind of lame if it was only 3 of us . I know we have a few Canadian and EU members - you're welcome to join too but of course the shipping will be a little more.

we can keep this on the back burner for now, but in a month or so start organizing more with an official sign up and decide who will be in charge of collecting and distributing the beads. Working backwards from early April (in case some of us go early, esp. multiples) we should probably start mailing in early March with a 2-week window to turn the collected beads around and give everyone time to assemble necklaces.

[Quinalla]

Sounds good, I'll see if I can hunt down some local bead shops here!

[timesway]

If people don't mind the cost of mailing to uk.. I don't mind sending to us.. Could be a nice thing to do and am happy to bulk the numbers of a bit but don't wanna put everyone out by makin it expensive!

[lisedea]

I'm in! It will give me something to do.

[OtherMother]

Oh, I would love to! You may have to give me more specific purchasing instructions though  :)  Like how many and what types.

[moriahmoonstar]

I want to do it too! Great idea.

[cadybh]

This sounds great!  Please count me in!

[Trisha Kalous]

Im in too!

[kimble]

It's great to see so many of you interested! I think this will be a wonderful reminder of our support group while we are preparing for and experiencing labor.

Now that we have entered February, it's time to start organizing this process. There's still plenty of time to get beads and decide if you want to participate, but we need someone to act as the mailing point. It looks like other DDCs have an official sign up (so we know how many beads to get) and someone to act as distributor - we all mail the beads to this person, along with a few bucks to cover return postage, and they distribute the beads into packs for each mama and mail them back out.

Is anyone interested in taking on this responsibility and connecting our group? I will do it if no one else offers, but work full time and live on the east coast, which may affect mailing times to some of you :)