Too Much Fun!!!

Can there ever be such a thing? I think not!! I was very fortunate to be able to dash down to Shelton, Washington on Friday with my very good friend Darlene on the weekend. We decided to go to the August Bash at Frantz Art Glass for some fun, some shopping and to catch a couple of beadmaking demos. We left my place at 3 on Friday afternoon, got to the border at oh, say 3:05, and didn’t get to the other side until 5pm! Two hours!! No wonder people complain about going across the line! But once we were over that border, it was smooth sailing. We chatted and giggled and laughed all through the two hour wait, and the three and a half hour dirve!!  We had a bit of a detour when we got to Shelton (which is located near Olympia in the southern part of the state). We took the wrong exit and ended up in ‘historic’ Shelton. This is the part of Shelton that I’d seen oh so many years ago when I went there in 1999. The Frantz warehouse was around there somewhere in the middle of no where! LOL That was a mouthful! Anyway, we drove around for a few minutes, then found our way back to the highway, found our proper exit, and ta da!! Found our hotel!! I didn’t know Shelton had a Walmart!! And it’s HUGE!!!!! And it’s open 24 hours a day! But we resisted the pull of the big box store and went to our hotel to check in then off to find dinner. We slept soundly in our hotel, and were up with the birds so we could get to Frantz at the beginning of the shindig!! Okay, stupid me – do I wear a hat? No. Do I bring sunscreen? No. Did I think to try to avoid the sun or heat? Um, no!!! Anyway, we wandered along the aisle of sellers. I’m sorry to say there were a few people trying to sell their beads. And I don’t know how well they were doing – of course, people like Jen Geldarde, Kimberly Affleck and Andrea Guarino will always sell their stuff, but those that are not known entities are probably barking up the wrong tree – trying to sell beads to bead makers. Not your best target market! Especially when there is a ton of glass on sale! Glass will always win out over beads every time! I admit, Darlene and I caved to the pressure and bought a lot of glass!! We bought four different bundles of Double Helix (really expensive!!!) glass and split the bundles so we each got lots of that to try. We then wandered into the demo hall. The first demo we saw was Andrea Guarino – she is a fabulous bead maker – and I know the minute I sit down at the torch, I will be able to make that bead. Woohoo!! Don’t worry, when I get around to sitting at the torch, you’ll see my experiments!! Then Darlene and I wandered over to the glass store and bought too much glass again! LOL Not that there is such a thing, but seriously, how can you not?!?!?! I did need a few colors that I have been lacking, and stocked up on those. Got a couple of tools I wanted (they were on sale for 50% off!!). The cool thing Frantz organized was that we could drop off our basket full of goodies and they would write up the invoice while we went off and did whatever we wanted to. We didn’t have to hang around while it was weighed up and invoiced. That was wonderful! So we wandered over to the demo area again and caught Kimberly Affleck’s demo. She was showing how to make her famous seahorse bead. The one she made involved so many layers of glass before she even got to the seahorse part!!! Watching her work was awesome. She is very sharing with her techniques and tips. I think I’d LOVE to take a class with her – I bet it would be one of hte best classes ever. Did you know she took one of my silversmithing classes a few years ago? Rubbing elbows with the lampworking elite – that’s me! 🙂

Anyway, after Kimberly’s demo, we needed to go find lunch. But after sitting for an hour and a half in a seriously undomfortable chair, I was not terribly comfortable myself! LOL Had a bit of a ghost headache (I call headaches that are just lingering on the outside of my conciousness ghost headaches – usually the go away – not this time!). We met my Wet Canvas online buddies Pam and Angela (and of course Pam’s adorable son Luke), just as we were heading for lunch. Hugs and hellos were exchanged, though they were headed to the next demo, so Darlene and I went for lunch. After a brief visit with another online buddy, Jo (congrats on the new job Jo! I’m so proud of you!), the headache became a pounder (too much sun, I think!), so Darlene and I reluctantly decided to head for home. I wasn’t looking forward to the 3 and a half hour drive with a headache, but better than staying in the sun and heat. So off we went, and it wasn’t long in the comfort of the air conditioned truck, my headache subsided quite a bit, but I was totally beat!!! We left Frantz at 2:30 and got home at about 6:00 – and only 5 minutes at the border this time! Thanks goodness, I would have been really whiny if the border had taken another two hours!!

So a great time was had, though I would have liked to have visited with Pam and Angela a bit more. I think we’ll probably go again next year. It was fun and it’s always wonderful to travel with Darlene – we get to giggle and laugh alot!!

now back to reality for me! Bead show poster is almost done, just a few final tweeks. I have to make a couple of custom jewelry pieces today as the gentleman is picking them up tomorrow. Then some time at the bead torch is in order (I hope!!). Have a great day and a great week!! Cheers!