Lately I've been seeing way too many sunrises for a confirmed Night Owl. Somehow I've gotten my wake/sleep cycle turned around. Maybe it's time to think about turning this and other perceived problems into opportunities. The turn of a new year always seems to generate those kind of thoughts ~ should I make a list - just to forget, ignore or lose it?
December 31, 2006
New Year ~ New Opportunities
December 18, 2006
Gilmer Getaway 12-06
We bead, eat, laugh, bead....
...and catch up on everyone's news.
We all pitch in and share the cooking - and every meal is a different adventure.
...and some of us pick up knitting as a change of pace...
This trip we were lucky to have a bead stash for sale. And it was well picked over.
We all worked on various projects
Beaded ATC's (Artist Trading Cards) were the primary project that we had agreed to work on. They show cased the diverse personalities of the gathering.
This Cave gathered six of us together
Bevvie from New Orleans
Libby from Tennessee
Jackie from Texas
Judith from NH & AZ
Mel from Tennessee
December 17, 2006
Tombstone Tourist Tour
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Running with the Big Rigs
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This year we broke the bead cave rule of "no men allowed". Dave and Bob suffered through several days with six crazy beading women, some wild conversations and much hysterical laughter.
As usual, the shared cooking produced memorable meals.
Leaving Gilmer TX, we headed out across the rest of the state. Two days of West Texas is..... well, just miles and miles of more of the same.......
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........ now who's confused?
We knew where we were going......
A side trip to Truth or Consequences NM gave me an insight into one of life's great pleasures - Hot Springs! We didn't know they were there and we took the opportunity to take a soak in one of the funky local bath houses. Heaven is buoyant, 109 degree water. I didn't want to get out and do more driving.
When we left T or C we continued through New Mexico on secondary roads and drove through the Gila National Forest - what beautiful views from above the snow line on roads that twisted back and forth on themselves. I'm sure glad I wasn't driving and could just look out over the scenery.
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We got into Tombstone Arizona late on December 6th, left everything in the car and put our feet up - glad that all of that driving was over for a short while. The next day the beads went into their winter home, I re-stocked the pantry and we enjoyed relaxing on my back porch.
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November 25, 2006
heading West
November 14, 2006
Bead Storage for Snowbirding
This is my New Hampshire studio - still unfinished after 5 years!
This is my nicely organized Arizona Studio.
I had a pair of cabinets like this built for both studios. They hold 48 #3700 Plano tackle boxes full of beads.
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All of my seed beads are packaged in flip-top containers and then into Plano #3600 or Plano #3700 translucent tackle boxes. By being translucent, I can see the overall color of the beads in each storage box.
By using only 2 sizes of the Plano boxes, it makes it easier to pack everything for travel.
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I then pack 6 to 7 Plano boxes into 2 sizes of L.L. Bean canvas totes. At the moment that adds up to 10 canvas bags of beads (about 250 lbs of beads). The canvas bags exactly fit the Plano boxes and pack well into my orange Honda Element. With the cabinets it's easy to pull the boxes out and put them into the canvas bags. On the other end of a trip, they come out of the bags and go into the cabinet in the same order.
Now, this system works well as long as I only replenish the beads that I use...... If I have to expand the quantity of Plano boxes, then I'll be in big trouble. I know that will happen as I've yet to see a bead that I didn't like!