Same Song, Same Verse

From June: It seems like no matter how much we try, we can't seem to get ahead when getting ready for a big show. Originally we weren't going to do a show at Tucson this year - Jill was just going to shop. But at pretty much the last minute, we decided to do the Best Bead Show again. So Jill's been working long hours ordering beads and making kits for the last couple of weeks.

But it wasn't enough. It's never enough. We had our traditional Pre-Big Show Printer Meltdown, for one thing. And that's a whole other story. I'm still working, so my help was limited in getting ready - Jill was pretty much on her own. A last minute push, and Jill delaying her departure twice, got it done. I was up until 3 a.m. on Saturday night (Sunday morning?) and was up again at 7 a.m. Last night, bedtime was after midnight and we were both up well before 5 a.m.

In our business, Jill designs most of the complex, special works. I'm not as good a beader as Jill, and I design a lot of the beginner stuff. We always take great care with our instructions, and never is that more important than with instructions for a beginner. We want to make sure a new beader can succeed and be sucked into Bead World with the rest of us. Here are two new beginner kits that I've recently done. I don't have them on the website yet, because Jill has taken all the kits to Tucson, but I'll pull the trigger on that as soon as she gets home.

The first one is called Center Stage, and we have it in several colorways, including an orange/pink combination.

The one below is a wide bracelet - it's called Harmony. It comes with a fabulous button from Sonoran Beads. I'll do another colorway on this one, too. What do you think? Red/orange/pink?

Happy 2011!

You know, I was thinking last night, wasn't Y2K just a few years ago? How did we end up in the double digits of this century so fast??? It kind of makes my brain hurt!

You know what else makes my brain hurt? Preparing for all the new things happening here at Tapestry Beads this year! It's the time of year where we're finalizing a bunch of new kit designs, and picking colorways and making samples of them all. So I've got colors and supply orders on non-stop rotation through my brain. In addition to our regular kits, I'm also working on colorways for some of my national teaching projects, like the Pitaya Necklace, Rosetta Suite, and Evening Song Set. There will be kits available later for these, but for now I'm just scrambling to get colors picked. Luckily I have my beady minions to help me make samples, including my German co-Pitaya instructor, Martina Nagele!

And sometime in February you can expect to see my online video classes debuting with Beaducation.com! I am working out kit colorways for all three of those projects as well.

All together, I'm working on about 25 new colorways between them. AGH! No wonder I was just in bed, but not able to sleep! I decided to get up and work if I wasn't going to be snoozing. And I've missed talking to y'all!

My next blog post, I've got something to show you....It's 3:30am right now, so my photos wouldn't turn out great if I took them now. But in my best procrastinating way, I found it absolutely imperative to organize my entire Delica collection the other night....and tonight's dodging efforts centered on completely reorganizing my Swarovski stash. I know. I know. Believe me...Mom's already given me "that look." You know the one. But the good news is that they're organized! And it will make a huge difference over the long haul. I can't wait to show you my pretty new system.

I leave you tonight with this photo of Santa Jill. My elves were a little too interested in food and Play-doh to smile for the camera, but I guarantee you, there were lots and lots of smiles that day.