It has almost been a month since my last post. I hardly know where to begin! We spent a lot of time in the garden, and things were just blasting out of the ground! Nature is quite remarkable and just continues to amaze me. The flower above was the only blossom on a tree peony that we aquired last summer. It was beyond beautiful! There is so much up now, and still weeding, digging, mulching, watering, avoiding the poison ivy, planting....the pond is alive with the fish that survived the last visit from the malard duck, and their babies are about the legth of a finger nail! The frogs are lounging and there are water bugs of many sorts making themselves very busy!

We were busy last month getting ready for our first adventure at the Bead and Button Show in Milwaukee. Trying to decide what and how much to take of everything. I was very excited when our shipment of new wool felt beads arrived! We now have larger (3m) and smaller sizes and they are great! They are not up on the website yet but they will be very soon! We had them at the show, so some of them are out there in the world! My first try with the big beads was a tomatoe pin cushion...more to come! I'm thinking pumpkins, pea pods and snow people!!
I worked on some samples for Bead and Button and put this two level necklace together. I embellished a group of 1cm felt beads with seed beads, sequins and embroidery stitches and put them together for the top row. The longer string is a combination of 2cm embellished wool beads, charms, misc beads from our stash and shrink plastic pieces made with our rubber stamps. I must say that it is quite festive and fun to wear!

It was my first trip to Milwaukee. We flew into Chicgao, rented a van and with the hope of saving cash on shipping, filled it with bags stuffed with our goodies. We also had our new cash register that was padded with charms, and beads! We drove to Milwaukee, enjoying the lovely summer air, the green fields, ads for cheese and fireworks! The architecture around the city was beautiful and the waterfront was lovely. The biggest challenge was finding food. We had delicious Thai food at the King and I!


The show was overloaded with rock star bead makers and volume of over the top jewelry that was walking around was amazing. The shopping scene was overwhelming. I could hardly concentrate on anything long enough to care! We did manage to find a few goodies to bring back to the studio!! And most importantly, we met some new best friends...Paula Best...with a line of rubber stamps and sterling charms...the first thing we had to do was chat about hair dye...and Heidi Viau the heart and hands behind Lillypilly Designs. They both had lovely partners in crime that we enjoyed very much!

Spent yesterday filling out and organizing contracts and proposals for teaching and selling at Quilt Festival and Markets for Houston '07 and Chicago '08, Long Beach '08...and sending off a book proposal to Lark. We also just found out that we passed the test to be part of the Bernina Professional Loan Program, and will be receiving an "aurora 440" to use for a year! Thanks Bernina!!

When I last saw my sis yesterday, she was seriously miserable trying to consume the special tank of liquid for her colonoscopy. Those of you that have been down that road will surely share a shiver....Should be just about over by now...

Off to help our buddy Patrick at the Umbrella Factory Gardens sell plants and pots for the next couple of days...hope to be back soon!