Believe me....

I really do have the 250# of beads in that little trailer for my personal use!

Coming back into the US from Canada we got stopped and searched by customs. They didn't understand why one person would have that many beads and not be a reseller. About an hour of unloading clothing and bead bags along with, "you don't sell them?" - "you don't do shows and sell beads?" - "Did you buy them in Canada for resale in the USA?" "Well, what do you do with that many beads?" I finally dug out a copy of my books and my train case of bead crochet samples and showed them just what I did do with all of those beads.... and they finally believed me.

Now I ask you, does a beader ever have too many beads and is a couple hundred pounds of beads unreasonable to have for personal use?

Anyhow, no photos to share right now, however we're in Butte MT for the night and plan on doing some sight seeing tomorrow. I guess I just have an affinity for Copper Mining Towns. Growing up as the daughter of an international copper mining engineer must have left the smell & taste of copper in my blood.

Northern USA

I'm in Idaho, about half way from AZ to NH. We've driven through AZ, NV, CA, OR, WA, and into ID... how's that for ABC's? Now it's time to start going East.....

We've traveled the winding cliffs of California's coast

Highway 1, driven down Lombard street in San Francisco,

through a huge redwood tree and down the

Columbia River gorge through a damp, mossy rain forest.

What beautiful, ever changing, scenery!

Heading East

It's time to pack the beads into the car and head to NH for the Summer. It's already hit 90degrees in Tombstone. This trip there will be a trailer following along behind my Honda. Some wags have said it looks like a mouse following behind a big orange toaster.

We're going to take the long way around and do some sight seeing. From AZ we're going to Los Angeles, up highway 1 to San Francisco, on to Portland Oregon and then across the Northern border with Canada before dropping down into NY and home to NH. Wireless connections willing, I'll try and post an update or two from the road. Otherwise I'll be back in touch around the second week of June.

Shutting down in Arizona, packing the vehicles and hitting the open road....

Challenge Beading

When a group of beaders get together, someone always seems to have an odd something or other that is offered up as a creative challenge. The bead cave in Payson last month was no different. I had found bamboo placemats in Marshall's and thought, "what neat long beads." I bought several and took them to the cave.


I used my portion to make a broad collar with small beads in between the long bamboo beads. It's always nice to have that many holes to work with. Several of the other gals said, "Wind Chimes!"

What might you have done with these placemat beads?

In return, our hostess had these copper scrubbies for all of us. She does like copper! Well, mine is in the process of becoming a "Domestic Goddess" necklace. I sawed off the handle and attached a bone face that I antiqued with rit dye. I have some white, drawstring cording that is going to go through the clothes pins to make it into a necklace. The parts are all done and gathered together, I just need some time to finish it once I get into my Summer Studio.