Bead & Button 2013

  I started my journey on Tuesday by driving to my mom's place and staying overnight.  Then we (Mom and I) left from Minneapolis on our way to Milwaukee on Wednesday.  It was an uneventful 5 hour drive there filled with excellent music and snacks.  Got checked into our hotel room on the 12th floor and this was our view:

Went to do our registration for the show and check out all the Bead Dreams pieces.  I saw this one for a great friend of mine that's getting married and has sunflowers as her accent color:

and then I fell in love with this piece because it is just so dang cool:

We went out for a bite to eat before Meet the Teachers and Mom had a Tiny Beer as I have decided to name it.  She was actually taste testing one before ordering it, but it was so cute I couldn't help it!

and then our delicious food arrived, and it was delicious as we had no leftovers to take back to the room:

Then it was finally time for Meet The Teachers where I finally got to meet Jill Wiseman IN PERSON:

She was SO ridiculously friendly/nice/all other good things.  It was fantastic to meet her and a pleasure to journey through her book and take her class!  If you've been keeping up with my journey, you know I've made every single project in her book Beautiful Beaded Ropes which you can find here.

Thursday began with an all day class for me.  I took June Huber's Arabesque Cube and this is a half day of progress for me:

I did eventually finish, but not until I was home from Bead & Button and had worked on it for quite a bit longer!

And here I am with June, who was kind enough to take a picture with me after class:

 Mom's class was also an all day one with Dianne Dennis, Wildfire, and here is her progress after class all day:

We did a bit of shopping, here is my haul:

and Mom's:

 and then ate at the Italian place across the street from the hotel for dinner (which I have no pictures of) and then set up in the Gathering Place to bead for a while in the evening.  Where I met another beading idol of mine, Mikki Ferrugiaro!!!

She was incredibly delightful to talk to and we had such a great time that we stayed in the Gathering Place until 1am! It was almost too much fun :)

Friday was my birthday and I had only one class: Light My Fire in the evening with Jill Wiseman.  So Mom and I spent the day in the Gathering Place beading where we took up quite a bit of space:

We took a break for lunch and went to Rock Bottom Brewery where it was nice enough to eat outside.  This is Mom and Domino who comes with me on all my trips now:

Then we went for an extended walk back to the hotel so we could walk across the river:

And saw some cool stuff, like this painted building reflection on the side of another building:

Then it was time for class with Jill, which was so immensely fun!  I finished my bracelet in class ( I have earned my nickname: Miss Speedy Gonzales ) and then we had fun looking at all of my projects from Jill's book.  As requested, here is a shot of me, Jill, and all the projects!

After class with Jill we went out for a quick birthday dessert, which was mouth-watering:

Then came Saturday and it was time to start the journey home.  We went antique shopping on our way and I found some very cool BakeLite Mahjong tiles that will be some new earrings for me very soon:

We took the scenic drive along the river on the way so this was my view across the river:

And Mom's view of the cute houses and the hills:

I stayed overnight at Mom's place and headed home on Sunday.  It was a complete whirlwind of a trip and it felt much too short, but here I am, back at home sweet home:

Until next time,
TTFN