Making friends!

That is one of the best things about this job. Really, the nice folks I meet every day in the store just amaze me. This is a picture of Robin. She's from Canada but used to live here in North Carolina. She still visits periodically; she's a big Hurricane's fan and she has lots of friends here, too. She also comes to our stores. That fabulous bag she is holding? She made that from felt sheets after seeing my tote bag tutorial. She needled felted the logo on the front. Her nickname is Raleighgirl and she put the Hurricane's logo on the bag. We were all amazed at her needle felting detail, if you saw this in person you'd be amazed at the precise nature of the writing. She also felted a cool logo on the other side that she made up...she really should be a type face designer!

I have met so many fabulous folks over the years through the store; Dicky and Nancy, Becky, Kelly and Lee, Baba and Ursula and Merideth and Laurel and Denita. My good friends Nancy, and Anne and Carol, too. That doesn't even include the fabulously talented staff members here that I am lucky to know. Really, there are too many people to name. Probably I should have you on this list, too, huh?

When folks ask me for advice on opening their own bead store, I always tell them about how it can wear you out, creatively, to work with others on their designs all the time. I warn them that if you own your own store you probably won't spend a lot of time beading (ha!) but I need to remember to tell folks about how many creative friends you will make. Folks you would have never known at all. That part can be recharging, really, seeing folks you know have creative triumphs and sometimes helping them get there.

Meeting Robin reminded me of all this, she was so nice and even wrote me a note later thanking me for what we do at the stores. I printed that out and will be putting it up by our break table where I can look at it when I have a vexing day. Her bag? It is very nicely made with a pocket inside and she used flexible plumbing tubing inside the handles to make them sturdy. We have more pictures of it on the website with a shot of her amazing lettering on the back of the bag.

NOTE: as of 12/20/2008 we no longer sell these felt sheets. Sorry, they were swell but we had to import them in giant quantities from the Kingdom of Nepal and they just didn't sell very well. We no longer have any in stock. Try sheet felt from high-quality upholstery stores.