Bead and Button Show, 2013

It was so nice to sleep in my own bed last night.  The past week went by so fast, but it was packed with a lot of work and fun.   The Bead and Button Show is the biggest retail bead show in the world.  It is held at the Delta Airlines Convention Center in downtown Milwaukee. 

We started the week off by teaching on Monday and Tuesday.  We taught pewter casting classes and the students made some really creative pieces.  Another class we taught was a metal earring class and a steel wire/beach stone project.  The women in class this year were very interesting.  Not only were they from all over this country, but we also had a Canadian and an Aussie!  Wednesday, we set up in the Grand Ballroom for the "Meet The Teachers" event.

This is a great way to see the creations of many fabulous teachers from all over the world.  After the sale Wednesday night, we tore down the booth and hauled it all up stairs to the third floor, where the market place opened on Thursday.  Thursday is always crazy because it is so crowded with the most serious shoppers.  (see below)

This crazy group of women from Ohio found a great way to locate each other.  That lime green Balloon was very easy to spot anywhere in the crowd.  Very Serious....

Friday is the most wonderful day for shoppers because it goes from 10am to 8pm.  Wonderful for them.....not so wonderful for our feet.  If you only had one day to come, this would be the day.  Saturday the show is done by 6pm, so we finally got a chance to enjoy downtown Milwaukee.



We had the pleasure of dining with our good friends Jon and Nate, from Da Beads in Chicago. We sat outside on the water and it actually felt like spring!  Imagine that..... After a great dinner, we wandered down Water Street and found an interesting bar. 

"Spin" is a ping pong bar, owned by Susan Sarandon, where you can rent a ping pong table by the hour.  There were a couple of guys playing like pros and a couple of women playing like....well.....like they never played the game before.  One poor guy had the job of retrieving the lost balls from all over the bar with a big fish net looking thing.  It was very interesting and a really fun concept we had never heard of.  The only problem was, we didn't realize how far we walked from our hotel.  That Hilton Hotel sign looked miles away.  And probably was.

One of my coolest purchases at the show was this awesome "blue bird sitting on a nest" ring!  It was made by Wayne Robbins of California.  Google him sometime.  So cool....  He makes the most funky beads and I usually buy one every year.  Previous purchases from him include a monkey bead smoking a cigar and a polka dotted frog.  I love his work!

I also picked up some new stone, beautiful silk ribbons, fresh water pearls and new crystal shapes.  Sunday, the last day of the show is always sad.  Its nice to see old friends that we don't get to see very often but its nice to get home, too.  Another successful show under our belts.

words for the day.....

Anyone who tells you money can't buy happiness

 doesn't know where to shop.

One Man's Junk is Another Man's Treasures

Dave and I had a great time in Ripon this past weekend.  We stumbled upon an auction there that consisted of four barns and numerous storage sheds on the property of an old Vet.  Being Memorial Day weekend, you might think I am talking about a Veteran, but I'm not.  This man was a veterinarian who had been collecting stuff his entire life.  And I have his books and syringes and receipts from 50 years to prove it.  The grounds had tables and tables of awesome, rusty junk in and all around the barns and out buildings.

I had a blast bidding on things I really didn't need, but found myself in somewhat of a bidding war with a woman sitting near me.  She had no concept of money and was getting on my nerves because she seemed to want everything I did.  I probably went home with a couple things I should have let go, but I could not stop my hand from going up.  The sad part about this is by the end of the day, when the auctioneer asked my number, the poor guy delivering the stuff, knew my number by heart and shouted it out before I could.  As fast as I bid, poor Dave had to run the boxes out to the truck.  There were too many people sitting around us and my pile was growing.

I saw the owner sitting on a stool in one of the sheds.  He looked to be in his 90's.  I asked him about his collection and he said he'd been a collector his whole life.  I told him he was my kind of man!  There was so much stuff,  they actually had 3 different auctions going on at the same time.  I had a hard time deciding which direction to look most times.  We were there over six hours and the weather was not the greatest.  It was cloudy and windy and freezing cold.  This worked to my advantage as the crowd seemed to thin out by mid-afternoon.  The auctioneer started holding up boxes and held up just an item or two from each and was selling them for a buck or two.  I had no idea what I was even bidding on, but hey....one dollar?  I'm in.  I found I bid on a lot of kitchen utensils.

This man must have had at least twenty five potato and corn planters.  I didn't even know what that was before but I bought two of them!  Lots of stuff was rusty, lots of stuff hadn't seen the light of day for many years. Edison Talking Machine records, bugs, brass binoculars, oil cans, ammunition boxes, bugs, metal boxes full of old tools, kitchen scales, old receipts, bugs, 1904 metal bread maker.  Cool stuff.  I have no idea what I will do with it all, but at least that lady sitting by me didn't get it!

words for the day.....

Whenever a bird poops on my car, I eat a plate of scrambled eggs on my front porch

 just to let them know what I'm capable of.



HEROS

Memorial Day means a lot of different things to a lot of different people.  To some, it is the first big weekend of the summer.  Time to have a cookout, celebrate with friends, and a day off of work.  To others, it is a day of reflection and sadness for the loss of a loved one who made the ultimate sacrifice.   So many of us forget that this is the real reason for the holiday.  I had an uncle who died in World War II.  His name was Flavian Schnese and he died in a battle just two days before the war was over. 

This is my uncle Flavian with my grandparents.  (I know you are probably wondering who would name their son Flavian.  Well, the same people who named another son Halarian.)  I remember my grandma riding in the Gold Star Mother's Car in the Memorial Day Parade.  I never really understood the sacrifice these mother's made.  Now that I have kids of my own, I cannot imagine their pain. Uncle Flavian is buried in France along with thousands of other soldiers.  Although he is far away, he will never be forgotten.

My Dad was also a soldier.  He, too served in WWII, stationed in New Guinea, Philippines, Hawaii and Japan.  He was in The 33rd Division, Anti Tank.  He served with three of his brothers.  The day the war ended, my dad took down a Japanese flag and all the men in his division signed it.  It was one of my father's most cherished souvenirs.  It hung on his wall for years and now it hangs on mine.   The freedoms these men provided us should never be taken for granted. We continue to enjoy these freedoms because of the men and women in the military who are still serving and protecting us to this day.

I hope we never forget to teach our children and grandchildren about the true meaning of this weekend.  Put out your American Flag. Take your kids to a parade.  Thank a Vet.  We would not have the country we live in, if it were not for them.

My Dad, John Vosters on 12-12-1943, stationed in Hawaii.  

(No clue about the dog.  Just found this picture and sadly, He's not here to ask)

words for the day.....

We can't all be Heroes because someone has to sit on the curb and clap as they go by. 

Dancing Bears

Nan Rozelle has been in the shop many times, her hands full of size 11 seed beads.  She feverishly scans the colors for just the right shades.  To say she has become pretty good at weaving with seed beads is an understatement.   Her father, Gib Miller made her a loom to create her little works of beauty.  Her latest project was the Dancing Bears.

Bead looms are based on a simple loom style.  Basically, just a frame with a method of keeping the strung warp threads a uniform distance from one another.  Nan says the hardest part (besides keeping it away from her cat) is to place the beads in a correct order.  She uses cross stitch patterns for the design and matches the beads to the DMC floss colors.  She also showed me another project that she is currently working on.  She sews a bead on the cross stitch fabric in each little square instead of a stitch.  That project looked fabulous also.  Maybe someday I will have to try this.  For now, I will just continue to admire her beautiful work!

words for the day...

If it scares you, it might be a good thing to try.

GNO - A Religious Holiday

Every third Tuesday of the month is Girl's Night Out.  It's like a religious holiday with my group of girlfriends.  Since we have known each other for over 50 years, that Tuesday night takes priority over everything.   Our group of best buds have been meeting for many years and we've gone through a lot of important milestones.  We've had our babies together.    We've watched each others kids get married.  We've sat through family funerals. We've weathered the good and the not so good.  Some of us have been through divorce and some of us are Grammas. 

It's like we're sisters, but by choice and not genetics. 

This group of women are some of the smartest and strongest women I know.   

Every third Tuesday night, the stories and the alcohol flow freely.  We fill each other in about what is new, who's kid did what, which boyfriend said what, "Oh no, he didn't"  blah blah blah.  Tonight we had a lot to celebrate.  One of us had her last radiation treatment for a brain tumor.  Another one of us had a daughter graduate, becoming a medical doctor and practicing at Harvard. Both are wonderful accomplishments.  Both make me proud to know  them.  I know we will all be friends forever.  We even have plans to live at the same retirement/nursing home when we need it.  It's that or the pact to push each other off a bridge. And I have a feeling, we will stick to that promise.  Life gets busy and life goes on.  All I know is I'm really lucky to have six best friends!

words for the day....

Friends pick us up when we fall down, and if they can't pick us up, they lie down by us and listen for a while.

Rusty Hinge Coolness

First and foremost, my heart goes out to all the people in Oklahoma tonight.  I cannot imagine the devastation and pain those people are going through.  My prayers go out to everyone involved, including the rescue workers. 

-------------------------------

Here is a little piece of Rusty Hinge Coolness!  Who would imagine seeing two things as simple as a rusty, old hinge,  nobody would want and an old bottle cap laying on the ground after a county fair, that with a little bit a work, you can create something SO cool!

This is a creation from Katalina Jewelry.  It really is fantastic, but the construction of this piece couldn't be easier.  With a little bit of wire and a few beads on a leather cord, she has used her vision to create a rusty piece of coolness!

words for the day....
When something bad happens, you have three choices.
You can either let it define you,
Let it destroy you,
Or, you can let it strengthen you.

A Great Day to Dye

It was a beautiful day today.  A great day to dye wool roving.  Not too hot, with a nice breeze to help dry the dripping wool.  It's quite a process, at least how I do it, anyway.  I start by getting my ketchup squirt bottles out and lots and lots of newspaper.

I use permanent acid dyes because I prefer the bright, beautiful colors.  There are so many colors to choose from. Sometimes I measure the powders precisely and sometimes I mix up my own colors, flying by the seat of my pants. 

I used to dye my roving in a kettle on the stove.  But after much trial and error, I have found the way I like best is the microwave technique.  You can control the color and patterns so much better using this method.

I start by soaking the roving in lukewarm, soapy water.  After gently squeezing the excess water out, I lay it on sheets of plastic wrap.

I carefully squeeze the dyes on the wet roving, letting it soak through to the bottom and gently roll the plastic wrap up almost like making a jelly roll.  I try to think about the color wheel when placing the colors but I get bored easily.  Sometime I pick a random number in my head, like a phone number, and that is the colors I use.  I have the bottles lined up on the table so I can pick from the 35 bottles/corresponding number.  I know...strange.  But sometimes I get really cool color combinations that Mr. Nelson, my old high school art teacher, would be proud of.

So, once the wet wool is rolled up, it is placed in a microwave dish and nuked for 12 to 15 minutes.  I usually dye anyway from 4 to 8 ounces at a time.  After it comes out, I let it cool and rinse any excess dye out until the warm water runs clear.

Next step, hang it out to dry!  You really should try not to squeeze it too much because the roving could start felting and then it's really hard to spin.  I love to see the lines of beautiful color, blowing in the wind.  One of the strangest things that happen, was once when I was dying roving at my cottage.  I had the wrought iron patio furniture on the deck and I was laying the wet wool over it.  I had made a deep red and pink batch and placed it outside to dry.  Not too long after, a big turkey vulture swooped down to pick up the red wool.  I'm sure he thought it was fresh road kill.  Ewwwwww.

Anyway, it really was a very successful day.  Now I just need to get my spinning wheel out!

word for the day.......
supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!