A Long 2 Weeks

Sorry I've been so lax with my blog, but it's been a long couple of weeks. You can see that spring has finally spread across our county. The green grass is so lush and the sky is so blue. Baby animals are making their appearance as evidenced by the lambs among the sheep in this picture.

It started out when my guys came home from a cross country trip. The next couple of days, I managed to paticipate at the York Intergalactic Show as a vendor, tagging along with my friends, The Bead Ladies", Laura and Nolly. It was a great show and I think it convinced me I might be ready to do a table by myself.

On the way home from the show on Sunday, I got a call that our brother, John, was taking a turn for the worse and it looked like we would be making another trip to the hospital to check him in.

We managed to put it off for a few days, but he wound up in there anyway. He stayed for a week and a half and we spent a lot of time there trying to make sure the doctors were aware of the things we were. Somehow, their 5 minute visit in the AM didn't give them the same perspective we had! It all turned out okay though and he came home somewhat better.

I think he may not like having his picture taken, but after he was well on the mend, I snapped this one as he grimaced for the camers!

Somehow, during the time he was in the hospital, we still managed to get orders out and a few batches of soap made.

This past weekend, Tina and I were vendors at the Pennsylvania Herb Fair in York, PA. It was a lot of fun and a pleasant change from hospital duty.

The picture to the left shows our tables - that's Tina on the left!

Last evening, I finally sat down at the torch to replenish some of the "beadie" things I sold at the bead show and the herb show. The "Nebula" beads seemed to be in demand and so, I tried some new base colors to see what would happen:
First, the "Faded Denim Nebula". I can't remember the name of this oddlot gray/blue. I love it and was curious how it would turn out. I like it a lot and am pleased with the outcome.

Next, I tried Ladyslipper as a base and was again pleased with the result above. I tried making a few matching spacers, and they are okay, but very much on the gray side...

Finally, I grabbed some regular old pastel lapis and used a lot of silver to see what would happen. There are fine dots of silver all over the surface and the green reaction is something I really like about silver on blues...

These will make some really gorgeous bracelets for the next show at Landis Valley on Mothers' Day weekend.