New Friends - New Hope

In 2003 the economic troubles of the world were far, far away. In fact, it was an economic boom time for most of the US and the world. In the fall of that year, a happy and friendly red-haired face came through my door asking for employment. Even though I turned her down initially, she was back the next day, and she showed some tenacity and an inner spark that really intrigued me. I hired her, and Meghan became a part of our little family. Since that time, she has had an active life, and fell in love with a very attractive young man in southern Peru. She moved back to the US in the fall, last year, along with the wonderful news that she was pregnant. Last week she gave birth, and here is one of the pictures of her new cutie. Welcome to the world, Sebastian Ray. You're a total cutie and my heart is completely won over.

And, while thinking about the future, I'm also concentrating on my more immediate future - the two conferences that I am planning to attend this year. Bead & Button Show takes place in early June, and Metal Clay World takes place in July. I have my friend "Poo" (Pam) as my roomie again for Bead & Button Show. We've been rooming at these bead shows for more than 10 years now and have become firm friends. Our personal schedules work well with each other - for example, she's an evening shower person, I'm a morning shower person. And we're both married to guys named Jim; one more coincidence :-) I have a new roomie for Metal Clay World - Shruti lives near New Dehli in India. I met her last year at the PMC Conference in Indiana. I'm really looking forward to spending more time with her - she was very fun and is involved in many of the same types of artwork that I am - beading, enamelwork and metal clay. After these two conferences, I'll be totally broke for a while . But it will be worth it to travel and learn new things.