I can breathe now…

Things have been running in fast-forward ever since I got back from Santa Fe Tuesday night. Usually when I get back from a big show like that I take a day or two off and laze around the house, sleeping and reading and being a big slug. Not so this time around since I had two home classes scheduled for Saturday that needed a bunch of prep time.

Silly Jilly thought she was going to get the opportunity to go buy seed beads for the class kit samples when she was in Santa Fe, finalize the color selections, and order the seed beads so they would be delivered to home by the time she got back there. Ah, illusions! Instead, I didn’t even get the chance to buy a SINGLE seed bead. I never even saw my friends, Jane & Robin of Jane’s Fiber and Beads, or Betcey and Mark of Beyond Beadery. They were at the convention center site, and I was at the hotel site, and never the two did meet in my world.

Instead, on Wednesday I had to pick color selections from the seed beads I already had here at home in mass quantities. It took pretty much all day to bead up samples, tweak the colors, and then finally send out photos of what the kit options would be to the students.

Thursday was spent running errands (my usual…post office, bank, grocery store) and starting to clean the house. Friday was finishing the sample, writing the instructions, figuring out how I wanted to approach teaching the project, and lots more cleaning. It’s amazing how beads inhabit every surface of my home. I don’t know how that happens…

And finally, Saturday dawned and 15 beady women invaded the house in two batches, much to the delight of Winston who greeted them all with kisses and demands to be petted. As I suspected would be the case, this class was a little more challenging than usual for everyone. It’s basic netting, but following a color pattern makes it harder and more exacting. They were having to read a chart for the colors and that required concentration, but of course, everyone also wants to talk and laugh and share, and next thing you know, you’ve lost your place again. In the end, I’m pretty sure they all got it, and we’ll be getting together next Saturday to put the finishing touches on our necklaces, so they’ve got another opportunity for help from me if they need it.

I was exhausted by the end of the day, and went to bed for a nap…that stretched into hours…

Now it’s Sunday and by golly, I’m declaring it a day off!! Mom and I are pondering a trip to go see Duplicity, and then dinner out. She’s only got a week left before she has to return to work and is starting to stress about it. I think she likes this preview of retirement!