Day 2 of conference I didnt take a day class. I have learned PACING is very important! So I only took something in the evening. But what I did do was map out an afternoon of shopping. I come to Houston every year for the Quilt Festival in November. DO I ever venture anywhere else to shop or see things? NO! Well this day was a lesson in learning to appreciate any city your travel to!
So lets talk shopping first. I swung by Old Spring to the local bead store. (They also came to vendor night at Adorn me!). Picked up some wire and a couple strands of crystal AB. Then got back on the Hardy Toll road and headed to Rice Village. There was another bead store and an old fashioned 5 & 10. Both were interesting. The bead store had BOWLING BALLs for décor in the window. When you think about it, its pretty much a BIG BEAD. Cute. What I loved about this store is they had mega containers of loose beads so a person could really just walk in and put together earrings or a necklace without ending up with a lot of left over beads. I added pieces for the earring class (evening ) I had scheduled on Saturday with Emily. The 5 & 10 its just felt old fashioned. Got some kitschy stuff and was very happy!
Next I headed to the Heights got a bit lost on the way, but the whole trip was an adventure. Went from mansions (on pretty small lots) to Victorians what a treat. The Victorians are part of the Heights. Well worth the drive. So ended up on 19th Street and visited several stores, including a craft store focusing mainly on craft classes. Cute. I love that these are popping up all over the country. My sister actually the next day ended up signing up for their beginning crochet class that weekend and was very happy.
So then I visited antique store #1 bought a few more pieces based on Dianas class. Then went into another antique store and a Mexican art gallery. Both very nice also. Finally ended up finding ANOTHER BEAD store. Who knew? It was probably my favorite of the three.
After that I headed towards the Embassy Suites for my class that night FUNKY RINGS with Jane Salley. Great class. Taught me a bit about Janes style of teaching very laid back. She is always checking her students and moving around the classroom but she lets you design the ring, just reinforces your virew. That is actually a great teacher it helps a student develop their own style rather than duplicate the teachers. I wish I had photod this one ladies where she had made a ring with a square glass bead it was just definitely a FUNKY RING like the class title. Definitely an artist ring.
So here are my relatively simple bead rings it taught me how I can make rings and attach pieces, it was a great class. And we used the same screws and nuts in Janes class on Sunday so it was good practice. Another project (2 actually ) finished!
