We're Still Here...

Hello, sorry for the long silence! We are busy getting ready for the crazy show schedule rapidly approching in June. Chris will be doing lampworking demos at the Plein Air Art Event, this Sunday, May 31st. You can find out more here http://www.prairieloft.org/Prairie_Loft/Plein_Air_Art_Event.html . Tomorrow, we are road tripping to Fremont to check out Main Street Bead Studio, where Chris has beads for sale find out more here http://www.mainstbeadstudio.com/ , and then a trip into Omaha to go to Penzey's Spice Store and a visit to a fun pet store we found recently. We usually order spices on line from Penzey's but a trip to the store is fun. We visited the one in Overland Park, KS last summer, and wow what a smell-rific place! Find out more about them at http://www.penzeys.com/ . So new pictures coming soon, big, bold focal beads from Chris and funky, fun summer jewelry from Steph.

Fun New Game

One of the blogs I read regularly, the Maria Grimes~Garden Path Beads link on my list, is running a game on her website. It is played like the Where in the World is Matt Lauer game from the Today show. You check out her landmark pic and if you can identify it the contact info is listed and there are prizes too! I managed to get a prize ticket for one of the pics! Want to play, here's the link http://www.gardenpathbeads.com/pages/Game.htm , Good Luck!

New Bead Sets

Chris has been working with frits. These beads are some of what he has made. I believe the purple set has sold. That makes the 3rd or 4th set of those that have sold in the past month or so. Very popular color combination! I like the pair with the reds and oranges. I think the frit on those is the same as the green bead. Just a different base color makes it look completely different.

Another New Design

Chris loves to make mushrooms. I love fairies and all things related to them. This is a fairy fungus house. It is another new design we are working on.

New Bead Design

One of the gals Chris knows through work, owns and shows goats. She asked Chris to try his hand at making goat beads. Here is the result. We are getting some ready for selling!

Tatterpillers

Chris made new tatterpillers to sell for spring time. Before long Mina will be picking the real thing off the dill plants and watching them cocoon and become beautiful butterflies!

Earth Day Fishing Results

Last week I posted that we spent Earth Day evening having a picnic at Heartwell Park in Hastings. Chris and Mina brought along their fishing tackle, and I brought along the Janet Evanovich novel I was reading (my idea of fishing).
Here Chris displays his one and only catch.
Mina did much better.

She loves out-fishing men!

Pansies!

Pansies are one of my favorite spring flowers. These are even more beautiful now. I will try to get a picture of what they look like now. This picture was about 10 days ago. My other favorite spring flowers: tulips, daffodils, lilacs, and peonies.

Blue Bird of Happiness

Mina was out climbing our oak tree in front of our house and wanted me to take her picture. I like the picture, just not the fact that she is in new school clothes and climbing a tree! Sometimes those "mother" things get the best of me!

One Last Easter Photo

Here is the final Easter photo that I wanted to share. The kids always have so much fun hiking around in the woods (exhausting the adults), and I thought this was a cool picture. They are all cousins, and for the most part get along great.

Laughter is the Best Medicine

Last night, I was invited by my good friend, Leslie, to an evening event at her church. It was a ladies salad supper with an very funny speaker afterwards. The gal that spoke is Sue Brown, who used to work for the extension service but now does motivational/entertaining speeches. The theme was laughter and health. She says that we need to laugh and smile at least 40 times each day. Sue said that we should keep a humor journal jotting down the things that make us smile, because we will forget them otherwise. She also talked about whether you are a 90/10 person or a 10/90 person, finding good 90% of the time or only finding it 10% of the time. We all know those 10/90 people! Her grandfather told her that it was our choice whether each day would be a great day or a lousy day. I came home after laughing hard for a half hour, and I was giddy. Chris and Mina were wondering what we drank at this supper because I was downright goofy! I made Mina laugh so hard about a squirrel that made a poor judgement call and ended up with his tail waving in the breeze, that she was crying. I got up this morning with the determination that it was going to be a GREAT day! Guess what? I made the sun shine today! Me all by myself! Yes, delusion does live in me, but I am going with it! My favorite quote from last night~“A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked.” Have you smiled at any of this? My work here is done.

Pretty Ponies

Thought I would give you a break from the Easter pics and show you some of the pretty horses Chris has been making. We have had good feed back on his colored horses (in the form of sales!), so he has broadened his color palette. We are getting them ready for the Cottonwood Festival and Flatwater Festival coming in June to Hastings, Nebraska.

More Nature

This is also in the woods at Aunt Janet and Uncle Les's place. The guy behind Mina is her cousin Nick. He's a band geek (his words) and a freshman. Not sure who the one in the front is, so many people visit and it is hard to tell who it is from the back.

Nature Girl

Mina. Loves. Nature. Here she is enjoying it at Easter in the woods, where she can hike, swing in crazy tree swings with her cousins, climb trees, fish, and canoe. They also hunted eggs in the woods and found "moonbeams" (flat marbles) in the dark on a night hike. This was also at Chris's aunt and uncle's place where we stayed at Easter time.

Memorial Tree Planting

This is part of Chris's family. They are doing a memorial tree planting in honor of Chris's Uncle Mike Gufford, who passed away in January after a long battle with cancer. The tree was planted at Dancing Leaf Lodge, near Wellfleet, Nebraska.

Earth Lodge

This is a Native American Earth Lodge. It can be found at Dancing Leaf Lodge near Wellfleet, Nebraska. It is part of a Cultural Learning Center on Native Americans. It is owned and operated by Chris's aunt and uncle, and we spend Easter and Thanksgiving there each year.