Seeing spots!

I had the joy of a bead 'trunk show' a couple of weeks ago. One of my wholesalers sends around a big van, loaded with goodies, and I get to dig and dig and dig, to my heart's content. It's soooo much fun! I came away with a lot of new needle threader bead offerings, and here are a few of my favorites:

Lots of dots! The flower in the middle is a deep violet color. I wish I could get a backlit picture that could better show off the color, but it's beautiful. New designs will be coming out in a couple of weeks. There will be four new ones: one large reproduction style, one whimsical, and two inspirational. Keep an eye out for the next update!

This is usually the time of year when I'd be posting lots of yummy garden food updates, how the canning process is going, and what we're planning for winter seeds. A few weeks ago we had a bad storm come through, it had lots of hail and winds, and we sustained a lot of damage. If it was outside and green, it was shredded. The hail came down so hard that it went through the fruits and veggies, destroyed all of their leaves and vines, and left the grapes and berries looking like it was already December. It broke a skylight on the house, ruined some window screens, "textured" the aluminum trim on one side of the house, flooded the front and side of the property (including the hen house!), and worked down into one of the bathroom vents and made a wet mess. Our neighbor had hundreds of dents in his vehicle, and another one had the paint stripped off of his house! It is nothing compared to what some CO towns are experiencing, and they are all in our prayers. We still ache for the lost food, but I'm counting the blessing that God freed up a lot of my time this fall and I'm waiting to see what He is going to do with that time.