*Guess Who I Met*

The past couple of days have seemed like a blur.  Some much to do and so little time to do it in.  Dr. appts, eye appt, parent teacher conferences, book fair, bead show, Halloween, hair cut, planting 70 bulbs for spring time.  And this is just what I can remember.  Plus, I'm only on chapter two of a book for my book club and I have so many projects staring me in the face.  I'm ready to dedicate a few days to the blog.  I am so behind.

Ok, I'm so stoked.  I went to the Bead Mercantile Show here in Pittsburgh on Saturday and guess who I found there.  Andrew Thorton!  This was such a cool meeting.  I looked through the new Enchanted Adornments book by his sis Cynthia Thorton.  I usually won't tell people to go out and buy books but this one is a must.  It's not your average boring beading book.  Each design has it's own story and drawings to compliment it.  And Cynthia's drawings are so mystical, so sweet.  While I was checking out the book, Andrew pulled out Cynthia's original project for the book complete with the original drawings.  This was such a treat!  He explained to me how some projects basically stayed as they were originally created by Cynthia while others went through more drastic changes.  You could see the pride in Andrew's eyes as he talked about his sister's work and how he helped with some of the ideas for the book.  Oh, and as if this wasn't enough excitement, Andrew showed me a picture of baby Max born that morning.  You have to check out the pictures on his blog.  How is a baby born looking so perfect?

 Poor Andrew!  He was quite tired from traveling so many hours on the road and then sitting in on a bead show.  What a trooper!  You'd figure he would be cranky from lack of sleep but he was extremely nice and enlightening.  Oh, and it looks like he is now gracing the state of Pennsylvania with his presence on a full time basis.  I found out he's only about an hours drive away.  "Welcome to PA, Andrew!"

Ok, now I will give you a dose of Bead Porn.  Here's the goodies from the show complete with Green Girl Studios goodies.

And Little Miss Lauren was with me so she has her own stash of beads complete with glass ducks.  Here's her pretties!

I also received several art bead packages in the mail recently.  Can you guess who all of these are from? 

Hm, well I see some enameled ball beads so that's gotta be from Barbara Lewis at Painting with Fire, a sweet little sand dollar ceramic pendant from Erin at Every Heart Crafts, gorgeous floral and snowflake pendants from LeAnn at Summer Studios, and a white patina seahorse from Heather Michelle at Patina Queen.  Gotta love those art beads!  They are the best!

I also got my Thanksgiving Treasures Earring Exchange pretties in the mail and I absolutely adore them.  I won't give away any information just yet.  I don't want to spoil any surprises for those that haven't gotten theirs.  Night, night, blogging buddies!