The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

This is my full report on the Tahoe Mountain Bead Retreat, sans pictures because I don't feel like tearing my suitcase apart to find the USB cord for my camera. I'm going to break it down into The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, as stated above, and I'm going to be perfectly honest, which may not win me some friends, but I think that the bad is just as important as the good, because people should be informed of what to expect if they're in the market to go to a retreat.

The Good

-All of our teachers and classes were great. I already knew that Beki Haley was a good teacher, as I'd taken a class from her at the Vegas Retreat and used several of her on-line tutorials. I also expected to enjoy Sherry Serafini's class, because she's one of my bead idols and the book that she co-authored with Heidi Kumli really helped me become proficient with bead embroidery. I was less familiar with Marcia deCoster, but I found that she was a great, fun teacher as well. I made decent progress on all three of my projects and am looking forward to finishing them.

-Sherry gets extra props because she gave everyone a Halloween goodie bag with mini candy bars, silly rubber toys (I got a spider ring!), crystals and cabs. We teased the other teachers about it all week. "Well, SHERRI gave us chocolate!" I don't think they appreciated that much ;)

-The free classes on Thursday were fun, although far less challenging. I enjoyed the opportunity to play with some new techniques and materials, and everyone who was teaching or helping did a good job.

-Laura Timmons was just plain awesome. Fun, friendly, generous, and quick with a compliment.

-The hospitality suite was well-stocked with tea, soda, cookies, fresh fruit, and other refreshments that I'm less familiar with because I didn't partake of them.

-The other hospitality suite was a full-service Out on a Whim bead booth, stocked with all sorts of wonderful goodies for sale throughout the retreat. You could either purchase things right away, or have a tray that you threw things into until you were ready to check out.

-When lunch ran crazy-late one day, the Bead Unique staff delivered our afternoon fresh-baked cookies directly to our class rooms, so we didn't have to stop beading to run downstairs to the hospitality suite.

-Bead Unique editor Pamela Hawkins sat with various members of my group several times to discuss what we did and didn't like about the retreat and what we might like to see at future retreats.

-Food in the Village was mostly delcious, service was friendly at all restaurants, and the little shops were cute and also well-staffed by smiling, helpful people.

-The swag bags and raffles were full of great stuff.

-Beki made sure that all of us wild and crazy gals from my home bead forum were together in the same class, and that everyone else in our class could handle us when we got raunchy. It was so great to spend 3-4 days with old and new friends.

-Rooming with my friend Maia, who I've known for almost 10 years but only met in person twice before now, was perfect. We both had the same low tolerance for cold, love tea, and were happy to spend our evenings talking with each other or calling/IMing home.

-The room was pretty good, other than the over-zealous heating. We had a full-sized kitchen, a super-deep tub and high pressure shower, a fireplace, and my couch bed was very comfy. The view from the balcony was great, though I didn't spend more than a few minutes on it due to the temperature.

-Dancing for friends and strangers, in a mostly spur-of-the-moment way, in a costume cobbled out of things I'd brought, with a borrowed stereo, and not losing my lunch due to stage fright.

-Generous beaders gave me rides to and from the airport, so I didn't have to pay for an expensive shuttle.

-Sherry and I were on the same flight out of Reno, and my new friend Jamie was leaving at the same time on a different carrier, so we all shared a fun farewell lunch at the airport. It was so much nicer than eating by myself!

The Bad

-After being asked repeatedly what we needed to bring, Bead Unique told us that we didn't need to bring anything, everything we needed would be provided in our kits, we just needed scissors for Thursday's class. While everything we needed was in fact provided for the free Thursday classes, we arrived at Sherri's class Friday to be told that of course she didn't provide needles and thread, because everyone had their own preference. Marcia told us the same thing on Saturday. Beki was the only one who included needles and thread. I was lucky to be in a class full of beadweavers wiser than me, who had packed their own needles and thread and generously shared with me. I hope the other classes were equally lucky!

-Though the restaurants did their best to handle over 60 hungry beaders in a timely fashion, our lunch hours usually ended up running late. This was especially true when we had Saturday's lunch at Twenty-Two Bistro, which had opened especially for us (they were closed for the off-season). While it seems like a nice idea in concept, in reality, the kitchen staff seemed pretty overwhelmed and it took forever to get our food. One person at my table had been served, finished eating, and left the restaurant long before my lunch arrived.

-Snow. Ok, yes, it was pretty. Yes, everyone was right, the cold temperatures feel warmer at a high altitude than they do in Tucson. But it was still cold, I still wasn't quite appropriately dressed, and I still slipped down icy stairs, banged my knee, and sent my luggage flying everywhere.

-Thursday's Meet the Teachers Dessert Social. Yes, you could in fact briefly meet your teachers as you purchased your kits for the week's classes, but if you wanted to say more than five words to them, you'd be holding up the line of the other 50 beaders behind you who also wanted to buy kits. Then by the time you got out of line, your seat had been stolen.

-Did I mention the over-zealous heater? The hotel had awesome heating provided by hot-water pipes under the floor. This meant that you could step out of the shower onto toasty warm tiles. But despite the fact that we had the thermostat set to 70, it never shut off on Wednesday. I woke up at 5am and found the bathroom floor was almost too hot to walk on, and I was drenched in sweat, so I turned the heat off completely. When Maia got up at 8, she went to turn it off because it was still swelteringly hot in the room! We had to leave the balcony door open all day to let the heat out. For the rest of our stay, we had the heater off, but even the ambient heat of the building was sometimes too much. Oh yes, and all of my chocolate melted on that first day :(

-There was a huge discrepency in the quality of raffle prizes. Some were crazy-nice (worth $100 or more), some were very nice ($50 range), some were pretty nice ($10-20) and some were meh ($1-5). Some people won multiple very nice prizes and others won no prizes at all. One friend of mine who doesn't string won a small package of crimp tubes. Twice. I think it would have been better if it worked life past raffles I'd been in, where you could pick your prize. Maybe the big-ticket prizes could have been raffled seperately, and then all other winners could have their choice of the smaller prizes. Then no one would get a book they already had, or something they couldn't use, wouldn't consume, whatever. Alternatively, really small prizes could have been bundled together into goodie bags.

-We were told that there would be sparkling cider for the non-drinkers at the farewell champagne toast. Now, I think this is relatively important. There are people like me who don't drink because they don't like the taste. There are people who don't drink for moral/religious reasons. And there are people who can't drink for medical reasons. When I asked if there was sparkling cider, I was given a weird look and eventually handed a glass of apple juice from a can, as were the other non-drinkers. Someone else said that it seemed like there was *supposed* to be cider and someone dropped the ball on getting it... but even if that is the case, the correct response is "Oh, I'm sorry, we don't have any. Would you like apple juice instead?" (in which case I would have asked for water, because goodness do I hate plain apple juice) not a strange look.

-Did I mention the snow?

The Ugly

As I mentioned before, Cthuhlu took voter's choice for the "I Don't Think So" Ugly category in the Ugly Contest. After the contest was over, a couple of people tried to take their items, and were told that they weren't done with them yet. Everyone seemed to assume they would get them back at the end of the retreat.

On Sunday, they went around announcing when the farewell toast would be. They also said that they would be photographing the Uglies and getting them back to us. I took that to mean that they were photographing them that afternoon and we could retrieve them after the toast.

After the toast, I was returning to my room to get my evaluation form so I could turn it in, and I realized that they hadn't given Cthulhu back to me, nor had I seen anyone else getting their projects back. When I got back with my form minutes later, everyone had cleared out of the hospitality suite and the Bead Unique/All American Crafts staff were getting ready to tear things down. I could see the box full of uglies sitting right there.

I asked if I could take mine back, and I was told no, they still needed to photograph them. I said... when? Could I get him tomorrow before I left? I was then told that Pamela was taking them back with her and she was going to sleep for the first two days she was home (not that I can blame her on that count, I did far less work than her and I'm wiped out). I pointed out that I had spent *two months* working on mine, it was a major project, and I was not happy with their cavalier attitude as to when he would be returned to me. No one seemed to care.

My anger built up as I walked over to the Pub where a bunch of my friends were gathering for one last dinner together. I told them what happened, and I got a strong chorus of support and people telling me that I did not have to let them take Cthulhu. One friend confided in me that I had every right to feel uncomfortable about it, as they'd had one piece of hers for one year and another for two. So I said OK, I'm going back to get him! My friend Nikki came to be my moral support -- or maybe to make sure I didn't hit anyone ;)

When I got back, Pam was back, and I said "I'm taking my ugly." She said that they were going to take them home and photograph them and eventually mail them back. I pointed out that once again, this was 2 months of my life, my most major project ever, and furthermore, I had not signed anything giving them any rights to take him. I pulled him out of the box and left. She just stared at me and didn't respond.

The next day, several Bead Unique/All American Crafts staffers were also on the same flight as Sherry and I. They walked up to say Hi to us, and one of them (Russel I think) told me that I could have trusted Pam with my project. I said thank you, that's nice, but I did not want him out of my hands for any length of time, nor did I want to chance him being damaged by the USPS.

But the truth is, I was worried about a lot more than USPS damage. I was worried about not getting my project back for a year or more. Possibly never. And do you know why? Cthulhu was in the bottom of the box, under some neck displays, with no packaging. No label to say who he belonged to. He had been seperated from the bag of books I'd given for him to sit on (some trashy 1970s Lovecraft paperbacks). None of the items were labeled or wrapped up. I didn't see anyone taking any note on who he belonged to when I turned him in.

Honestly, after seeing that, I was supposed to expect that he'd arrive home undamaged and in a timely manner? I'd have been lucky to ever see him again.

Now generally, I try very hard to promote a good image to magazine editors, writers, and other staff, in case I ever wanted to submit a project or article. I like to have a good reputation within the bead industry -- and I think I've built a decent little one, through my work with BFAC and as a gem show vendor helper and that crazy girl dancing at the Swarovski party. But on Sunday night, I didn't give one whit whether Bead Unique and All American Crafts thought that I was a primadonna, a bitch, or any other appelation applied to a difficult woman. The fact of the matter is that they were the ones in the wrong, for never telling anyone that the Ugly Project entries would not be returned to their creators at the end of the show. That should have been spelled out from the very beginning.

And if anyone's made it through this entire post, I applaud your patience.

New York Ren Faire

Here's a picture of me vamping it up a bit at the NY Renaissance Faire in Tuxedo, NY. If I look just a little rumpled, it's because this pic was taken at the end of the day and that top sash had taken several dives into the muddy ground, including one where I thought I'd lost it for good. Luckily a vendor saw it in the path and hung it on her booth, and we walked by and saw it.

My costume is pleasantly cobbled together from items that I brought from home and items that I bought while in NY. Oh yes, and I'm wearing elf ears! I wasn't going to get them, since I don't do faerie costuming as much any more, but everyone thought that I should try them on and they looked perfect on me, so my MIL gifted me with a pair. She also bought a pair for herself, to go with the horns she bought last year. She looked so cute with her elven ears! The vendor even poked a hole in them for her cartilage piercing, making them look even more natural.

Over all, the Faire was muddy but awesome. There was an incredibly light misty rain off and on throughout the day, but otherwise the weather was perfect. Neither too hot nor too cold for my costume, and the clouds kept me from adding to my collection of sunburns. I was a bit disappointed that I had to layer my white choli over my green tie-dye top, but I think it looked OK.

The nice thing was that my brother-in-law Pete and his girlfriend Lisa were able to join us for the day. We wouldn't have been able to see them otherwise, as Pete is going to school a couple of hours away from home.

We caught quite a few shows throughout the day. I was excited to see that Wolgemut was performing that weekend, as I'd heard good things about their music but hadn't yet picked up any CDs. We spent a few minutes watching an impromptu jam session with them and another musician (one of the guys from Karpathos, I think), in an attempt to earn some free beer, and then we caught their 4pm show. Unfortunately, in the middle of their second song, their bagpipers pipe broke, a victim to the humidity. It was repairable, but not immediately so, so they apologized profusely and said they'd only be able to play one more song, which didn't involve the bagpipes. Then they said that everyone should clap along or dance, and of course, I chose the latter option. I was the only one who did so, and then to my utter amazement, they waved me up onto the stage.

So, without any warming up or preparation or anything, I improv-ed a dance to the song, using only a few moves because almost everything else that I knew totally fled my mind -- ha ha. But it was awesome! Possibly the coolest thing that has happened to me so far this year. After the song, they thanked me for my dancing, and Chris and his family told me how cool they thought it was, and of course, we bought CDs to make up for only getting a few minutes of music.

I was also able to get my shimmy on with the belly dancers later, when one of them caught me bouncing my hips along to the last song and pulled me out (they'd been pulling girls in throughout the show, but I was standing in the back avoiding notice... he he). It was a lot of fun, even if we were dancing in a muddy, grassy field (they were dancing in golashes!).

Anyway, my luggage finally arrived earlier (hence my ability to pull pictures off of my camera), so I should really go do some laundry and put away all of my purchases, so I can get the suitcases out of the living room.

What Fun I Had!

Before I talk about my trip, I have to do the marketing thing. This is Asrai, and it is the Daily Special on Etsy.

Now that we have that out of the way, let's get down to how awesome my mini-vacation was. First, we hit the Rings and Things show, where for just under $200, I left with a bag full of stone beads, Czech glass, and two focal beads that I bought on a whim, because they were cleverly placed next to the cash register. I whole-heartedly recommend these trunk shows to any of my beady friends who have a wholesale license. The beads are beautiful, the prices are awesome, the employees are friendly. You can check the show schedule to see when they'll be in your area.

After the show, we left Mesa and headed off to Scottsdale, where our hotel was located. I used Hotwire to book the room, which meant I didn't know where we were staying until after I paid. This could have been disastrous, but it turned out to be perfect. We ended up at the Scottsdale-Paradise Valley Doubletree Resort, which was pretty sweet. Nice room, quiet hotel, and a great pool and hot tub to relax in after dance class. Plus, it was really close to downtown Scottsdale, which as it turns out is just like a California beach town minus the beach. I'd happy visit there again. If you happen to find yourself in downtown Scottsdale, you should consider eating at the Stax Burger Bistro, which was delicious.

On Tuesday night I had my dance class at Plaza de Anaya which is basically one of the best places ever. It was my first time taking a real dance class and I enjoyed it immensely. I can't wait to be in the position to drive to Tempe weekly and take classes -- yes, it really is worth driving 1 1/2 hours each way, when you consider that no one is teaching American Tribal belly dance in Tucson, and they also have an amazing selection of dance clothes for good prices. Which reminds me: I finally have a 10-yard full circle skirt. Eeee! I can't wait to dance in that!

Then on Wednesday, it was over to the Bead Museum. Chris and I purchased a membership, then leisurely browsed through all of the exhibits. I had already seen most of it on a previous trip with my parents, but it was nice to see it all again, share it with Chris, and talk about it with him. Then I did my part to save the museum by doing a little shopping in their gift store, where I picked up a bunch of seed beads (including some metal size 11s) and some gorgeous cabs.

After that it was back home, where my cute little corgis and my awesome friend/dog sitter were waiting for us. I'm pleased to say that the girls were very good for their sitter, maybe because they learned that if they laid around being quiet she'd say "Aww! You guys are being so good!" and give them treats without them exerting any effort. My dogs are very treat motivated!

Now it's time to start putting all of my new beads into my inventory spread sheet, and maybe take some pictures of my haul to share tomorrow.

Flagstaff to Farmington to Home

Ok, finally the report on the rest of our trip! Blogger was giving me a lot of trouble earlier, and I don't feel like wrestling with it again, so if you want to see the other pictures, you'll have to click links.

Flagstaff was a lot of fun. After decompressing for an hour or so, we decided to head out for dinner. Rather than play it safe and go with a chain, I felt like trying someplace local. I looked in the Menu section of the phone book, and thought that Beaver Street Brewery sounded pretty good. Neither Chris nor I like beer, but the food sounded cool and sometimes those places also brew root beer or other tasty non-alcoholic drinks.

We got lost trying to find it, and had to go back to the hotel to look it up on Google maps, but on the way we found Animas Beads. This is a small but rather well-stocked bead store, with surprisingly good prices for a retail store in a touristy downtown area. The gal working there was really nice and helpful, the store was well-lit and fun to shop in, and they were playing Portishead, which was kind of cool. I bought a few cute focals. There were a lot of other cool shops that I would have loved to check out. Definitely have to go up to Flagstaff again sometime.

Beaver Street Brewery turned out to be very popular, so we had to wait forever for our table and there was a fiasco where they claimed they called us but we knew they didn't, but they sat us right away after that. Our waiter was good and the food was awesome, and while they don't make their own root beer, Chris got a really good bottled sarsparilla and I got a delicious kashmir chai latte, which hit the spot after we waited outside in the cool weather. Because Flagstaff is a big railroad town, they had the restaurant decorated with old-timey stuff, including a beautiful antique wood burning stove. Pity it was too dark in there to take pictures! Anyway, despite the seating issue and the long wait, I'd really recommend them as a place to eat if you're in town.

This pretty office shared the parking lot with the Brewery. If I lived in Flagstaff, I would want to have the money for Chris and I to run our businesses out of it. It would be such an inspiring place to bead in! Of course, I'll never live in Flagstaff, because their late Summer weather is too cold for me, forget Winter!

The next morning, we got up early and went to Barnes and Noble for breakfast and books. They had the next two Charles Stross books I wanted to read, so I snagged them right up. Then it was off to Art in the Park. It was a partially cloudy day, nice temps, and though the fair was small, it was nice. I saw one vendor who recognized me from gem show, and one who I recognized from our street fair. We bought some sauces and preserves from some very nice people who wisely gave samples out of anything you were interested in, which quickly convinced us that they were as good as they sounded. Raspberry cocoa preserves... mmmm.

Then it was off for New Mexico! As it turns out, we were taking Route 66, which I had never been on before. Talk about a road lined with tourist traps! There were tons of "Indian" stores dating back to the 50s or 60s (at my best guess), a meteor crater, and other attractions. Also lots of small towns, some picturesque, some sadly run-down. It was a cool drive, someday when we have a Hybrid or hydrogen cell car (hey, I can wish, can't I?), we'd like to do it again and actually stop at the meteor crater and go to the Grand Canyon and maybe photograph some of the cool abandoned service stations we passed (we're both fascinated with them, especially the really old ones).

I took this picture on the way back, actually, but here is an example of one of the tacky tourist trap shops, set against a cool cave. This is near the AZ/NM border.

20 miles into New Mexico, we hit Gallup and left Route 66 to travel north through the Navajo Nation. It's very rural through there, lots of cool rock formations and herds of sheep, cows, horses, and even a couple of llamas. Very few towns, and they're all very small.

This shot was also taken on the way home, but it's our favorite rock formation/hill that we saw in this long stretch. Well, the mesa ridge was very cool, too, but I didn't get any pictures of it. (it's the same picture as the top of the post)

Finally we reached Farmington. It's a rather small town, and sad to say, but the first thing you hit on the way in is two porn shops across from each other! Not the best impression. The downtown area was pretty cute, though, and our hotel was right next to a pretty river park. We stayed at the American Best Value, which was in fact a good value for a nice room that allowed dogs and had a very nice lady working at the front desk.

Once we checked in, I called Wendi, our doggies' foster "mother." She told me that she was another half hour outside of Farmington in a tiny town called Blanco, which was pretty much just a post office, fire house, church, and peoples' homes. So we set out, eager to go there before it got dark, and we managed to only almost get lost. Wendi and her husband Bill turned out to be two very nice, friendly people, and Wendi is a beader. She also introduced us to her four show corgis, which were Cardigans instead of Pembrokes, and they convinced me that Pembrokes really are the cutest ;) Sorry Cardigans!

After a nice visit, where we determined that we loved the girls and they loved us and we were all ready to go home together, we drove back to the hotel. Here's a picture of my two corgis, barely holding still for the camera. They're the reason I have no pictures of the river park. Ok, so maybe I left my camera in the room, but still, there's no way I could have photographed the park AND walked two hyper corgis!

Following our walk Tuesday morning, we hit the road for the loooong drive back to Tucson. Rather than go back through Flagstaff and Phoenix, we took the more rural route home. We passed through Show Low, which is surrounded by a beautiful national forest, and Globe, which is well, kind of there, and Winkleman, where we had gone to an SCA event once upon a time.

The road between Show Low and Globe goes through lots of mountains. It was very scenic, but also very hard on our poor Saturn! We might have been better off taking the same route we took on the way out, but we both really enjoyed all the mountains and trees we saw. Here's a shot of the mountainous road as we're driving on it, and a shot of part of an abandoned settlement of some sort.

And then finally, we were home! The dogs were very good and quiet on the trip, but very happy to finally get out of their crates at the end. It was a crazy trip to adopt dogs, and all of Chris's friends thought he was insane (or possibly whipped?) for doing it, but it was well worth it! Besides, we both agreed that not only was it great to get our dogs, but it was fun to see all these places we've never been. I don't think we would have done a trip like this otherwise, we tend to get lazy and homebound!

Today I went to a bead show, so tomorrow I'll have a report about that. It's a report-filled weekend!

Oh, hey, look... a blog!

I've been back since Wednesday night, and I am just now sitting down to blog. The past week has been busy, busy, busy! I had a great time dogsitting and a wonderful visit with family in CA. It was especially nice to reconnect with my aunt and uncle whom I hadn't seen in over 10 years. And weird to see my cousins, who are now all grown up with kids of their own. They're all older than me, so I don't think of them as kids, per se, but it's still weird when almost all of your cousins are parents. Better them than me!

On the way home from CA, we stopped at a bead store in Quartzite... It was disappointingly overpriced, so I didn't get any beady souvenirs of my trip. At least my Dad and little brother brought me back a plush dragon from Magic Mountain, so I'm not entirely souvenir-less.

Wednesday night was spent at our friend Alex's new place, playing Apples to Apples with our friends and his friends who were in town for the holidays. Good times all around -- we had so much fun that we went and bought our own box of Apples to Apples.

Yesterday was errands, and lots of them. Late holiday shopping, grocery shopping, that sort of thing. I indulged in my not-so-secret addiction... Wrapping supplies. I just love wrapping paper, ribbon, bows and tags. The artist in me delights in coming up with different combinations when I wrap. That's what I've been up to today! My family celebrates on New Year's Day, and we're hosting... So I figured I'd better do all the wrapping today so I could have time to clean up all the mess before Tuesday! Of course, I also have to wrap all the late Channukah/Christmas presents for Chris's family. I still have 7 gifties to wrap (and one more to buy and wrap for Chris!), but I desperately needed a break. Only so long I can bend over the table cutting paper.

Aside from the ornaments, I have barely beaded at all this past week... blah. Gotta remedy that this weekend!

Home again, home again

I'm back in Arizona! My last few days in NY were far too busy for me to find any time to blog, and my first two days home were far too sick for me to find energy for anything other than sleep and Dr. Who. I'd felt this sickness coming for days, and although it's annoying to be under the weather when I should be unpacking and getting back into the daily grind, I'm glad that I managed to stave it off until I left NY. I wouldn't have wanted to miss out on all the fun, and the time with my in-laws. Oh, and the delicious food. Mmmm, Exotic Mango Chicken.

On Thursday, we went into New York City. I simply love NYC. Yeah, it's crowded, and dirty, and some parts of it smell funny, but it's still an awesome city. I love window shopping. I love people watching. I love looking at all the cool old buildings, with their frescos and other architectural niftiness. I love glancing at the menus of the restaurants I pass by, knowing that I'll never, ever eat there. Oh, and I love Chinatown, which was our main destination for the day.

In all fairness, I most disclose a certain amount of hypocrisy. Chris's stepfather didn't want to go spend all day shopping with us in NYC, but he did have breakfast with us before we left. There was a TV in the diner playing news about the toy recall, so naturally our conversation turned towards China and its business practices. We complained about poor quality control, bad employee treatment, how they're driving other countries' industries under, and how our country blithely goes along with it... and then we took off to Chinatown, where we purchased cheap goods from China... *sigh* Well, ok, a lot of what I bought actually came from Japan, but I am still a freakin' hypocrite.

My problem, of course, is that I want to like China. I enjoy learning Mandarin. I love Chinese food (and while I realize it's highly Americanized, the inspiration had to come from somewhere, right?). I'm a martial arts movie junkie. Etc etc. It's hard to accept that all of these things that I enjoy come from a country whose policies and actions I can't really support.

Moral quandaries aside, I really did have a good time in the city. It was a pretty nice day, with just a little rain, so we walked the entire way from Penn Station to the store we love, Pearl River. I'm not sure exactly how far we walked, but I believe it was something like a zillion blocks. In fact, the only way I can justify all the food that I eat while I'm in NY is by pointing out how much I walk while I'm in NY! Anyway, Pearl River is the only place we shop in Chinatown, because it's the only place we need to shop. They seriously have everything there. Clothes, food, dishes, knick-knacks, musical instruments, furnishings, housewares, everything. And not just imports from China, but also a lot of stuff from Japan, and maybe a couple of other Asian countries. All of this is held in a clean, bright, well-organized store. We must have spent a couple of hours there, getting things for ourselves and presents for our friends.

All that walking and shopping built up some hearty appetites, so we made our way over to Singapore Cafe. If you read last year's NY trip report, you'll remember that we absolutely loved that place. It was just as good this year. Delicious food, food service, and incredibly fast for a sit-down dinner. If you go there, definitely get the lemonade iced tea to drink! It is delicious and refreshing.

After dinner, it was time to make our way towards the theater for the Blue Man Group show. We arrived there with over an hour to spare, so we went around the block to Barnes and Noble, where Chris and I picked up some reading material for the flight home, and I also got a cute plush dragon, made out of that soft chenille fur. We got done right in time for the show. I really enjoy Blue Man Group's music, so I kind of wish that the show had been more music and less... stuff, but it was still a lot of fun. By the time the show was done, we were all tired enough to take the subway back to Penn Station, then we took the train back to Long Island and were home somewhere close to midnight.

Well, this post is getting way too long, so let's do a quick rundown of other things I did while in NY: We saw my sister-in-law's band, The Good Luck Affair, play at a local club. I don't have the exact URL, but you can find them on Myspace. They're a rock kind of band, but Grace plays violin, cello, and sax on some songs, which changes things up a bit. We walked the Brooklyn Bridge, which was kind of cool, except I was exhausted so I kept wondering if I could close my eyes and walk on auto-pilot. We went into Little Italy and ate delicious dessert. Coincidentally, we were in Brooklyn right when the fire at the Deutsche Bank fire started, so we saw a lot of fire trucks going by. Luckily we were not anywhere near the fire itself.

In a way, I'm glad to be back home, with my kitties, and my beads at hand, and my friends nearby, and the ability to just laze around in quiet... But I also can't help but miss NY, with all of the fun things to do, the great people to do them with, and the delicious food to eat when we're done.

Close to Nature...

I am so tired tonight! Today we went to The Planting Fields, which is an old estate from the early 20th century. The grounds are full of lawns, trees, and gardens of all sorts, not to mention greenhouses. All the buildings were closed while we were there, but that's ok -- as much as I wanted to see the inside of the Tudor-style mansion, the outdoors were amazing. I love to walk beneath the shade of the trees, admire all sorts of plants that we never see in the desert, and watch huge butterflies flit from flower to flower.

There were many cool moments which I'm simply too sleepy to describe right now. Suffice it to say that I found myself feeling very inspired (it's a shame that my book doesn't really take place in a natural setting, but at least I can use the inspiration for leafy jewelry!), and we've vowed to dedicate an entire day to the place next visit.

That said, I'm going to sleep now. We're going into NYC tomorrow and I need my energy for that!

Another day in NY...

It's funny, but I seem to blog more when I'm on vacation than when I'm home. I guess it's because there's less to distract me. I'm not on AIM (though I could be), I don't have most of my bookmarks, I hate playing video games on the laptop, and I only have a limited selection of beads and books to distract me. When people are home, I tend to be off the computer socializing, but when I'm alone, it's easy to grab a few minutes and post.

Of course, it also helps that I'm doing more of interest than I do at home...

Yesterday and today have been pretty peaceful. Yesterday we went to the store that my brother-in-law works at and ate some pizza from the great place two doors down. The funny thing is that they're in two different towns. I guess that at some point on that walk, I was standing in two different towns. Maybe the little street between them is the border? Anyway, although I'm generally not a fan of NY pizza (having lived out West my entire life), this place makes a delicious Sicilian, and their garlic knots are to die for. After dinner, we went to The Simpsons Movie, which was just as silly and pointless as we expected it to be. The theatre we saw it at was disgusting, though, and I doubt any of us will ever go back there. They hadn't even cleaned it before our showing -- there were still cups in the holders at a couple of seats!

Today we haven't done anything yet. Chris is out doing errands with his mother, whereas I decided to stay home and get a little beading done. I've made two of the crystal bracelets that I packed beads for, and I think I'll start the spiral necklace. We're going out for dinner tonight, though -- kebabs, I think. Mmmm. I love Middle Eastern food, and it's not too common in Tucson.

Back to the beads I go!

Site status and more NY fun.

First things first: my web host package is still active, it was just my domain name that was down. I've just paid to renew it, but since they're not open on the weekend, it probably won't be processed until tomorrow. Hopefully they'll be quick about it, I always hate having my site down!

In more pleasant news, I'm still having a great time in NY. On Friday we went to Ace Handicraft, where I got some more great beads. They always have the coolest glass! In addition to glass beads, I picked up some carved horn, an almost dzi-style pendant, and a carved stone knotwork pendant. Chris also got a few clasps for his maille bracelets. The people working there were as nice and friendly as ever, and really admired Chris's work (the conundrum weave bracelet that he always wears has garnered a lot of attention so far this trip).

Yesterday we went to a Renaissance Faire in upstate NY. We didn't know about it until we got out here, but luckily I had packed some dance clothes, so between that and what I bought at the Indian import store, I was able to cobble together a decent costume which was appropriate for the 80 degree weather. Chris had no such luck, but he's not as obsessed with such things as I am anyway.

We had a really fun day... Little traffic on the drive, and there was a lot of beautiful scenery along the way. The weather was perfect, warm and sunny with a little breeze to keep it pleasant. The Faire itself wasn't quite as large as the one in Arizona, but it was still big enough to keep us entertained until almost closing time! Several of the vendors and at least one performer also do the AZ faire, but mostly it was different shows and shops. It was held in a forested area, which was so wonderful, a lot more appropriate than our desert setting, and also less dusty! Our faire is always either dusty or muddy.

One of the performances we saw was Dextre Tripp, who also performs at the AZ Faire. We love his show and had to share it with my mother-and-law, who really enjoyed it. We also saw some belly dancers (not as good as Syrene from AZ), a band called Karpathios, a pretty cheezy illusion show (the tricks were nice, but the spiel was lame), and a kind of cool knife throwing and whip trick show.

Shopping was great. I love shopping at these events, but after 9 years at the AZ faire with some of the vendors never changing their wares, it's not as exciting as it used to be. Seeing all these new-to-me vendors was a ton of fun. There were different weapons, different musical instruments for Chris to admire, and lots of different clothes for me to drool over. Plus various artwork and jewelry. The artwork was great, the jewelry not so much. I ended up with an amazing two-layer handkerchief hem skirt of hand-dyed silk, and a matching top of hand-dyed silk and hand-dyed handmade felt. It's simply gorgeous, with a flowing, faerie-like look and feel to it. I can't wait to dance in it. Chris got a blue-glazed porcelain ocarina and a cool woven African hat with an Asian look. He wanted to get one at our faire, but they were all sold out, so he was really happy to find one out here.

There were a lot of people out in costume yesterday, even several wearing full armor. It was also nice to see entire families dressed up. Oh, and there was one cool guy in a 17th century courtier outfit, very nicely put together. He was at the hand-dyed silk booth at the same time as me, so I overheard part of his conversation with the gals there about his costuming. I didn't catch any details, but his enthusiasm was apparent. It was cool to see something a little different from the usual medieval-style and fantasy/gothic costumes that are so prevalent at faires -- not that I mind those at all, it's what I usually wear!

I'm hoping to maybe even be able to swing a visit to that faire every year that we're out here, since it spans the time that we tend to visit. Only going to ours once a year is just not enough!

Well, I've babbled on enough. After I clean out my purse and find all the business cards, I'll share links to some of the vendors we bought from or admired.

It's raining on my parade!

We hit Long Island yesterday, and almost immediately set out for some bead shopping. I revisited Bead Market in Farmingdale, where I once again went wild on vintage. They had so many cool things that I just couldn't resist. I can't wait to get home and design with them!

Next we hit Beads and Stitches, which my mother-in-law thought was new, but I know that I have some beads at home with their label on it, so I think they'd just moved to a new spot. It was a pretty nice spot, in an older house. Very spacious, well-lit, and what looked like a pretty nice class room area. I was initially excited to see that they still had a good assortment of seed beads, but I ended up being enticed by their stone beads! I got some sardonyx, some wood or maybe petrified wood, some sort of purple stone, and also some glass briolettes. You may have noticed that I don't normally use stone beads, but these really spoke to me for my Fall line. It should be fun to see what I can create with them.

After that we took a quick trip to a nearby mall which had an Indian import store, which means lots of belly dance clothes! I got all kinds of cute skirts and tops that can be worn for dancing, Ren Faires, or just looking great. I was all excited to be able to wear some today, because yesterday was beautiful so naturally I imagined that today would be, too! Oh, how disappointed I was to wake up to cold, rainy skies! I'm going to have to wear pants, or at least a heavy skirt.

Today we're planning to hit Ace Handicraft, my favorite Long Island bead stop. I'll post about that trip this weekend.

More from NJ

Well, let's see... I've barely seen the sun all week. Apparently it's been pretty hot and humid out, but I've been inside until evening every day. The evenings themselves have been very pleasant, and last night there was a huge storm while I was sleeping (I'm a light sleeper, so I woke up a couple of times to the sound of rain against the window, highlighted by the rumble of thunder and the flash of lightning). The haze in the sky is a uniform grey, like a fuzzy blanket stretching from horizon to horizon. There's none of the depth and darkness of the monsoon clouds that are probably even now gathering over the mountains in my home city of Tucson.

All waxing poetic about the weather aside, last night I tried yoga for the first time. It was a pretty interesting experience and left me feeling loosened up and even a little tingly. This afternoon I have just a little ache in my abs and back, not too different from what I have the day after a good session of dancing. I don't know if yoga is something that I'll take up, but it's always nice to try something new.

My beads remain packed up, I'll probably break them out tomorrow when I return to my MIL's place. I think we'll have a little time until she gets home, and her kitchen table is always a good work spot for me, thanks to a nice overhead light. I think next time JoAnn's has a 50% off coupon, I'll go buy myself one of those super-compact Ott travel lights for occasions like this. At this rate I doubt I'll get to all half-dozen projects that I packed, but I never really expected to anyway.

My next post will be from the exciting land of Long Island.

I know I haven't shared any Cool Things lately, so here's an awesome one that Chris and I found this week. Check out the Elder Gods necklace by somk, and then be sure to browse the rest of her gallery. She has the most awesome Lovecraftian jewelry ever, as well as some equally awesome Celtic, Norse, and fantasy jewelry. We're hoping to save up and get ourselves Cthulhu wedding rings, maybe as a 10th anniversary present. Ia Fhtagn!

Bead Museum Trip!

Before I tell you about my fun trip to Phoenix today, I'd like to mention that my website is back up. Apparently there was a problem with it and it had to be transferred manually, so if I had e-mailed them sooner, it would have been up sooner. They were quite quick to fix the problem after I e-mailed them, so I'm happy now... Even though my mail was bouncing back while the site was down. Ugh!

Anyway, on with the trip! My parents and I went to the Phoenix Metrosprawl today, to visit the Bead Museum there. None of us had ever been, but they were having an exhibit by our favorite polymer clay artist, Christi Friesen. Well, as it turns out, the "exhibit" was only one small display case, but she still has some very nice things there. And between the museum's permanent contents, a huge exhibit on African ritual beadwork and the Trajectories exhibit from the ISGB, and the fact that the gift shop is of course a bead store, there was a lot to see. Not enough to really justify a trip to Phoenix, but we all agreed that it was just nice to be out of the house doing something different on a beautiful day.

Of course I had to wear my latest polymer dragon, Sky Dancer. You can see her above. She's a little coatl who likes to flirt. You can see it in the teasing way she glances over her shoulder and the saucy tilt of her wings. And of course she's adorned herself with green pearls, malachite, lapis, and cobalt glass. Making all of those individual feathers was a chore, but sooo worth it!

While we were in Phoenix we also ate In-N-Out burgers (mmmm) and visited a gigantic Bookmans. For those not from Arizona, Bookmans is a huge used bookstore, which like most book stores these days, also sells CDs, DVDs and other forms of entertainment. They are quite possibly my favorite non-bead store in the whole entire world.

Today's Cool Thing is this week's BFAC auctions! They're ending Sunday, so you'd better bid now :D Of course, there will be more beautiful items next week!