Bead and Button 2015 - In Progress

Every single bead show is the same: I start off with the best of intentions to photograph every class I teach and if I'm lucky I get the first one and then it's as though I don't own a camera.

 Yes, the classroom was pretty dark - thank goodness for portable personal lighting!

 I finally hit upon optimal (for me) kit displays in class - even better, with stuff I already owned - and it worked out pretty well. I was able to bring some of my newest kits to class and set them out relatively quietly. My wheeled thingie in which I hauled them was suboptimal for Milwaukee's wind though, as the lid blew off in the middle of an intersection and scrambling after lids while keeping an eye on contents threatening to scarper too is not my most favourite thing to do in the entire world, but luckily it wasn't extremely windy for too long.

I have no complaints about the classes so far (not that I'm anticipating a bad time) and I'm very grateful that none of the students signed up classes beyond their skill level: it stresses them when they can't keep up, requires a lot more attention from me which is problematic if the class is larger and other students feel neglected. I also feel awful if it's obvious to me that the student is no way, no how ever going to be able to complete the project, at least not in the near future.

But so far, so good!

 I brought kit samples to finish stitching.

Which I did.

And in between I even managed to noodle around with some ideas which will totally be discarded, but that's just fine too. I don't mind - I'm happy that I was in the right frame of mind to do it.

This evening is my last class (of four) followed by Meet The Teachers which makes for a long day but it's not as though I have to get up early tomorrow or anything, so it's not a problem.

Or it wouldn't be if I hadn't stayed up until two this morning watching episode after episode of Homeland because it was so FREAKING EXCITING.

The very best thing I did this year was to buy a portable printer because I'm tired of trekking to Office Depot to print out a few more things that it's possible (in y'know, Utopia) that I might need if sales at Meet The Teachers are better than they've ever been in the history of my universe (I'm not complaining, I'm just saying) for the cost of ten reams of paper (I'm actually not exaggerating) that turns out not to have been necessary after all.

I almost baulked at the price (the smaller, the more expensive) and finally reminded myself how annoyed I get, and I'm so glad I did. The printer is a couple of inches thick by about the size of a piece of paper (an 8x11-sized piece of paper, obv.) and weighs almost nothing and even though the print quality of the pictures isn't as good as my printer at home, it definitely does the job, and it'll have paid for itself in a year or two.

All I need now is a hotel room with a bigger desk. Between the printer and the laptop the space fr beading is a little cramped.