Monday we drove up to NH for a few days of lakeside beading, day trips into Maine and daily doses of seafood. Upon arrival and unpacking we headed right to Jake's Seafood Restaurant (where we actually ate 3 evenings in a row!) for lobster and steamers. Tuesday we beaded all morning and afternoon and decided to take a quick excursion into Center Harbor NH to Patternworks and Bella Beads.
At Patternworks I purchased some bamboo yarns from South West Trading Company. SWTC INC was the first to bring us amazing fiber from annually renewable resources like corn, soy, milk, and bamboo. In 2006, they introduced Chitin fiber from Shrimp and crab shells. Imagine. Last year I met the owners, Jonelle and Jonette Beck, at TNNA. They gave me a skein of their wonderful soy-blend sock yarn, called Tofutsie :), expecting me to work up a bead crochet project with a recipe that they could share with their readers. I dropped the ball on that until just recently. Maybe they will forgive my dragging my heels all this time.
Then we walked across the parking lot to a sweet little bead shop called Bella Beads. Front and center is an impressive and welcoming big beautiful table where a couple beaders were at "work". Oops, I just caught a bit of Anita-Bonita's arm on the right. And to the left, out of view, is a beader visiting from Turkey. And speaking with the owner, Sue (standing) is Terry (yes, you recognize her from blog posts about Beadzo, where she beads and works). Sue was telling them that beadmaker Stephanie Sersich is scheduled to come teach her spiney bracelet workshop. I piped in, "Oh, do you regularly invite guest teachers to come teach workshops here?" Sue replied that she does. I asked "would you like Carol Cypher to come teach?" She replied that she would, to which I replied, "If you aske me, I will come". She dashed off to grab a flyer about a program that she and 2 others designed for Plymouth University. It is a three tier beading education, offering certification in beadwork. They use MASTERING BEADWORK as the textbook! I am delighted. Sue was as tickled as I was at our chance meeting.
We discussed briefly the possibility of my teaching there in October, but, we'll discuss this later this week. It may happen that after teaching at Bead Gallery Inc in Salem NH over the Columbus holiday weekend (Friday, Saturday, Sunday AND Monday) that I will head north for a couple days of holiday to then teach for the 3rd weekend of October here. We'll see.

Sue presented me with a silver bead for my hair while we buzzed and enthused. Anne and Terry stockpiled their stash of lentil beads, among other beads, which were plentiful here. We hadn't noticed until we checked out that we'd kept Sue an hour or so after "closing". While we visited she told us about the Plum Blossom program. She and Deb Martin and their volunteers provide workshops "offering the opportunity for healing through the art of beading".

Hey, back to Bead Gallery Inc. for a moment. You should get up to Salem NH as soon as possible to take full advantage of Genevieve's enormous sale in the Salem store in preparation for re-opening in Melrose MA in August. When she announced this news on Facebook a few days ago you should have seen the number of comments from excited Boston area beaders who anticipate the arrival of Bead Gallery with great joy. Known for their emphasis on classes, offering 300 a year, I have the pleasure of teaching for a long weekend there every 6 months.

On our way "home" from Center Harbor we had to pull over just to capture this beautiful vista. Beautiful area. And tomorrow we will head into Maine on further bead and seafood quests.