Reporting in from Santa Fe

If you haven't been to Love Fest Santa Fe, er, I mean BEAD Fest Santa Fe, you really should start thinking about a trip next year. I simply adore this show for so many reasons. Cool vendors, a gorgeous location, and lots of fun classes. The overall vibe is simply joy at this show for the second year in a row.

I've taught both my classes now - and what classes they were! SO much fun! On Thursday a group of us were working on Night at the Opera bracelets, and that's when this photo got snapped of me and one of my students, Fae Hamilton. See my new bangs? I really think I like them! The ladies in the class were super talented and basically needed me there to provide comic relief, I think.

And Friday night a HUGE group of us made Kumihimo with Beads bracelets. It's a bit of a challenge to get around to everyone when there's so many, but we laughed our way through it and by the end everyone had it down. I had many of them stop by the booth over the rest of the weekend and tell me what fun they had, as well as show off their new bracelets.

I started this post on Saturday, but then got distracted (probably by sleep) and now it's Tuesday and I'm finally ready to get back on the road to go home. We had a major (for me) snow storm in Santa Fe on Saturday night that left me driving the 5 miles from the convention center to my hotel in super snowy conditions. Mind you, I've never driven in snow before. It's true. I grew up in Wisconsin, but moved to Texas when I was 14. And when it snows in Austin it's not like THIS kind of snow. Besides, if it threatens to snow at all, the entire city shuts down. I'm not kidding. Everything closes and we all stay at home.

So! That was an exciting few miles, but I managed just fine. ish. And there were no cops around to notice that I was driving down the middle of two lanes. So there.

This is what it looked like outside my hotel the next morning. Pristine! Fluffy! Gorgeous! Alas, it was almost all gone by the end of the day. I'm really glad I got to see it though.

Overall, the show was a total blast. I got to see many of my favorite people in the whole world, I taught a few fun and silly classes where folks learned stuff, and I sold a kit or two. Good deal.

I'm back on the road for home now and will get to hang out there for about three weeks before I jet off to Miami for The Best Bead Show. The following weekend I get to pack an entirely different set of clothes for Denver and the Rocky Mountain Bead Society Show. So I need to get home and get prepared!!