Happy October!

Hello! It is hard to believe it is October already!!! I have lined up 3 craft shows for the holiday season, and I am already filing out applications for spring shows! If you are in the general Detroit area, please feel free to stop in and say hi (and bring a coupon!) :)

What have I been up to for the last couple weeks? After getting a lentil press for my birthday, I've been making tons and tons of lentil-shaped beads, they are so neat and I'm really getting the hang of how to make them just the right shape. My favorites so far have been my Winter Wonderland snowman lentils, they are just too cute!! I also totally love the Chocolate Shimmer auction I have on Ebay right now, these are just beautiful in person!! It is hard to adequately capture the sparkle in the pictures. I need to make a few more beads to finish another Christmas set I am working on, and also more Topaz Raku beads, so stay tuned for those in the next week or so! I need to get in gear for my first holiday craft show, which is less than a month away now so I really need to start going through my inventory and seeing what I need to make yet. Oh! Here is a really pretty necklace I just finished - a custom order for a new customer. It turned out so nice, I just might make more necklaces similar to this one!!

I have also been keeping busy with Reader Training at my church (we get a lot of new readers every September because we are a student parish at UM, and I am one of 3 Reader Coordinators). MYLead is also keeping me busy - we just sent out nomination packets to all the high schools across Michigan, so now it is almost time to start calling the schools and seeing if they have any questions, etc. We also had a Texas Hold-em Poker Tournament last Friday and raised a good amount of money, so that was fun to help with (not that I know how to play the game, I just helped keep an eye on the cash box!!) My good friends Dawn and Dan got married on September 8th, so that was also tons of fun!! I was a bridesmaid, and David was the official wedding photographer, so I've been busy printing proofs and doing lots of photo editing for the past couple weeks!! It would be so much fun to start some type of "one stop wedding shop" business one day - I can already do jewelry, flowers, pictures, invitations, and decorations, and I just love all of it!!! :) Sometime soon I need to create a "wedding jewelry" page on my website, because I love making wedding jewelry!

This weekend is the Huron Township Applefest, the big festival in my hometown of New Boston. It is always fun! Plus this weekend is the MYLead gala, which is a big awards banquet, so that will also be fun! I am hoping to squeeze in some bead-making time, and also clean bathrooms and do some much-needed vacuuming! :)

Wow, I think I might have set a new record for the number of hyperlinks included in this post! :)