EXCITING NEWS

The cover of the 2013 Bead & Button Show Class Catalog

I got some great news today.  The Bead & Button Show chose an image of one of Gail and my projects as one of the pieces for the cover of the class catalog for 2013.  It's exciting to think of all of the many people who will see this catalog and study it and pore over it.  This is really special for me, because I was one of those people.  For many years I was an attendee at the Bead and Button Show.  I had been making jewelry years but really wanted to do it as my job.  I went to the show for just a weekend the first time and was amazed by the thousands of like-minded people at the show.  It was a game-changing weekend for me.  I learned a lot from all of the great teachers that I met there over the years and best of all, I found many of my best friends there too.  The show gave me the push I needed to do what I really wanted to do.  If you're a jewelry lover (buyer or doer) and you've never been there, you're really missing something.  Do yourself a favor and try to get there!  Maybe I'll even see you in a class :-)

THANKSGIVING

Happy Thanksgiving one and all!  I hope you are all happy and well with much to be thankful for.  I'm thankful for my wonderful family, those who are here with us and those who aren't.  I miss my parents so much this time of year (and always).  I have so many wonderful, happy holiday memories with them.  I'm thankful and lucky to have had them as parents.
I'm thankful for Paul and my sisters Cindi and Jamie, all three who I love so much.
I'm thankful for my fuzzy, sweet cat Lily who makes me laugh everyday.
I'm thankful to have had my sweet kitties, Max and Sophie, who I will always love and miss.
I'm thankful for all of my wonderful friends, scattered far and wide, many who are more like my family than friends.
I'm thankful that my hand is getting better every day and soon, hopefully, I'll be back to work. 
I'm thankful for warm, wonderful Iowa November days like today.
I'm thankful for snow, which I'm sure we'll have soon.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

AUTUMN

Early fall has come and gone.  Now it's November.  Hopefully, the cast will come off next week, if all looks well to the surgeon.  I'm more than ready for it to be gone, though I decorated it in a very awesome Hawkeye way!  Funny how the time passed.  I read a lot, sketched a lot, watched movies.  I wish I could say it was fun.  It should have been. After all, who doesn't wish for time to do nothing?  Instead it just felt like losing time.  I think a lot about time at this time of the year.  I always get reflective when the air gets cooler and the days grow shorter.  I think about all of the things that I want to do before I run out of time.  I suppose no one ever really finishes up their list.  It's not yet the New Year, but this year I'm making my resolutions early.  I want to spend my time more wisely.  I want to clear my spaces of stuff that I don't love or need.  I want to do all of this so that when I have time to sit around doing nothing, maybe my mind won't be so occupied by all of the things I should be doing.  As soon as this cast comes off........