3rd ANNUAL MISSOURI BEAD RETREAT (MOBR)...

I just realized that I haven't written about my little road trip to the 3rd Annual Missouri Bead Retreat in Lake Ozark, Missouri!!

My friend Deb (Deb Hopeful Journeys on LE) & I drove down to Missouri a week ago to go hang out w/ 50+ crazy women (& several very brave guys!) at this great little fishing resort on the Lake of the Ozarks. This was my 2nd year, Deb has been all 3 years. OMG, what a blast! Deb & I drive well together... great conversations.

First of all, our friend Jeannette was supposed to come down w/ us but ended up super sick the day we were leaving, so she didn't come (yeah, big bummer). Everyone really missed her.

Like I explained back in my GOIN' ON A ROAD TRIP post in February, most of us stayed in a 4 unit building that had an upper & lower deck that spanned the entire back of the building that you could literally fish right off of. The upper deck was decked out w/ torches for everyone to use & the lower deck was set up for workshops & hanging out.

It was wonderful to see so many friends from last year. Most of these people are from the St. Louis area... I wanna move to St. Louis, really only to hang out w/ them. LOL. There were also people from Kansas City & other parts of Missouri, as well as Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Iowa & us, the Minnesota chicks. :o) Plenty of new people, too... quick friends, for sure. I don't know what it is about these guys... I'm normally semi-introverted when it comes to being w/ a group I don't know, but even last year, I was instantly comfortable & chatty & felt like I just belonged.

There was torching... again, this year I was too busy to do much of that, LOL, I think I made 2 beads the last night we were there! (Oh... except for my very first boro implosion!! It was my first time doing anything in boro & anything off mandrel!! It was very cool. The colors are a little too subtle for my taste, but it was my first, I'm really proud of it!) Others, though, couldn't be pulled away from the torch. LOL. We participated in workshops...chainmaille, bead bending/watch making, fusing, PMC, kumihimo, dying silk cords, silver bead lining were the ones I participated in... I passed on the macrame' bracelets & Viking Knit classes since I learned those last year!

See the pictures here ...such crazy people!

Okay... this is such a huge post & I have more to say, so I'm going to break them up into individual posts...

to be continued...