Avoiding That 'Bead Disaster'

We have cats.

 

We have at least two cats who like to springboard off the couch cushions. 

 

Imagine sitting on the couch, a bowl of beads next to you as you patiently use an ultra thin needle to hand sew individual beads onto a project. Your cat saunters up, sits by you quietly for long enough to ignore him, then *WHAM* decides to jump to the top of the couch and your entire bowl of beads goes up like a fountain of glitter. 

 

BEADS EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!!!!  Tiny ones, bouncing across the wood floor, embedding themselves into the rug......  You sit there swearing at the cat who ignores you and flops down on top the cushions.

 

Yes, you could have a heart attack, get down on your knees and try to corral all those tiny pieces one by one.  I have done that in the past (take it from me, it's not fun).  But this time I used a tip I found online a few years back and it works great.  Get your vacuum cleaner. Get an old pair of nylon hose (knee highs or pantyhose), and a rubber band and put the hose over the end of the vacuum tube.  Dimple it down a little, use the rubber band to hold it in place. 

 

All you do is lightly vacuum, the hose catches all the beads, holds them there for you and you turn off the vacuum over the bowl to get them back where they belong.  It even works on tiny seed beads.  You can still swear at the cat though.