Nicole's Notes

Jess and I had way too much fun at the gem show. Surprisingly, there seemed to be a lot of beading supplies (and beading enthusiasts) at the show, and not many with supplies for making jewelry. I really wanted some basket settings for my earrings, and there was only one guy who had anything like that, and he was willing to sell them to me... for $50+. Um, no. Wait... no.

So instead, I bought myself a new pair of mystic fire topaz earrings for $12.50. I think I got the better deal.

Maybe the actually jewelry creation supplies were in the "dealers-only" area. Phooey. I would have been interested to see the machines that are used to make faceted stones (industrial dremels!) and the various settings. It seemed to be really geared towards the consumer, and here I thought I was at a trade show!

Maine was a riot. Mark and Marcie are professional photographers, and this time of year their big gig is graduations. I come along as a nanny to Rhiannon, their two-year-old prodigy. So while Mark and Marcie did their photographic thing, Rhiannon and I went to the Children's Museum, where she exhausted me. I tried to prevent her from napping until we hit the road home, and as a result, she didn't nap. At all. And remained remarkably cheerful, even when all the adults were ready to fall over.

We stopped on the way to Bangor at the Outlets in Kittery, Maine. Looked like fun, but we didn't have long to stay, so we just went to the Hanna Andersson outlet where Rhiannon got new shoes! Oooo! Shopping for kids is way more interesting than shopping for me.

I've got to get to bed early tonight if I'm going to be able to function at work tomorrow!