Sweet Surprises

Over the weekend we headed to the western part of Nebraska to visit Chris's extended family, which we do at Easter and Thanksgiving.  We usually head out on Thursday when Mina gets out of school, and come home after breakfast on Sunday.  Mina hangs out with her cousins, roams the hills, and swings on the tree swing that goes into the tree tops!  Chris takes his fishing pole, hikes with family members (usually ends up as a designated child carrier), and sometimes paddles canoes as needed.  I take beading, beading magazines, and U.F.O.'s (unfinished objects).  When we went to get Mina at school Thursday, Chris went in before school was out to talk to the art teacher, Christine Brown, about coming into school a day this month to show the kids how he makes beads.  I sat in the car for about 20 minutes, and after moving the car further up the carpool lane, went in to see what was taking so long.  We were there about 40 minutes more just talking beads and art with Mrs. Brown!  Fun.  So we headed west about an hour later than normal, but that wasn't a big deal since we had all of our food gathering done for the trip.  On Friday, Chris and I headed from Wellfleet (where his family runs a Native American cultural education center ~ Dancing Leaf Lodge) to North Platte to visit a new bead store that Aunt Janet told us about.  The store just opened last month and it is called Strung Out (catchy huh?!).  What a lovely little bead store!  Great selection for all sorts of beads and beading supplies and the owners were very nice!  So after spending awhile shopping for beads (like an hour and a half!), I paid for my purchases and Chris got paid for the beads that they bought from us!  He sold 5 or 6 beads to the owner and she placed an order for bunnies and birdies that will be sent after we do the Omaha show this Saturday!  If you are in the North Platte, NE area be sure to check out Strung Out, they are a great bead store and they also have a lovely selection of "artist" lampwork beads (including Chris's now!)~my favorite was a cactus pad with a flower blooming on it made by a gal from New Mexico.