We had a wonderful time in San Francisco! The show was great and we had a lot of fun. Both my husband and I thought my booth looked better than ever.

I was happy to meet a customer who I've only spoke to briefly on the phone and through e mails. She was kind enough to bring necklaces that she has made with my beads and her pmc silver work. I always love to see what people do with my babies!
I took the last week off to relax before summer is over and the kids go back to school. Today I was planning on getting back to bead making. That didn't exactly work out!

This morning my husband asked our 7 year old to help with some chores. He was grumpily walking downstairs when he fell down them and hurt his arm. I guess that's one way to get out of chores! Luckily he's ok and back to his normal wrestling with his brother self.

From his wailing we were sure his arm must be broken and were ready to rush him to the ER. Lucky for me my husband is a lot calmer than I am in emergency situations. He's training for the ski patrol and used some of his new skills to assess him. Of course I went upstairs and burst into tears. I don't know if it was because I was worried for our son, or because we don't have health insurance. Probably a combination of both.

So instead of bead making today, I filled out the application for our kids to have health coverage. It's been sitting on my desk for way too long now. Ok, it's been at least 9 months. I needed to do months of accounting before I could finish it, so of course I've been putting it off. But I did it and it feels so good to be done with it. It's in the mail and I'm so relieved!

I managed to squeeze in a play day after we returned from the Puget Sound Bead Festival. It was really fun and satisfying to try some new ideas that have been bugging me to try them. It's funny though. My favorite idea that I was so excited about did not work at all. The idea that I was not as excited about, and almost didn't try, lead to a new earring and pendant design that I'm really happy with. I made the first set as a birthday present for myself and have been wearing them ever since. I'm planning to make a few more sets to bring with me to my next two shows.

The first show is this weekend, August 7th and 8th. It is close to home which is soooooo very nice. It is the 7th annual Bead Stampede in Sisters, OR. It is being held at Barkley Park. Artists will be selling handmade one-of-a-kind beads and jewelry from beads and buttons. The hours are 10-4 both days.

The second show is The American Craft Show in San Francisco. This one is August 13-15th at Fort Mason. The whole family is road tripping to this one. They are going to help me set up, take down and do lots of fun stuff while I'm working the show. I've been doing so many shows on my own lately. It will be really nice to have some company and a little help. I'm really excited to eat some yummy San Francisco food too.

I also made my new Aloha Earrings in every color. I'm still pondering which ones I will keep for myself. I just can't decide on the color. I like them all.

I listed them all on Etsy, except for these ones in Red Orange. For some reason the pictures wouldn't upload. So if you would like this color let me know