New Contest

Edited to add: The contest will be judged on June 26th at 9:30 SHARP. I can't keep a chicken in the store all day, folks! The rules? make a piece of jewelry that is wearable (by a human) and appeals to a chicken. The chicken will judge. I suggest a bracelet, maybe something shiny. Good luck!

Well, the Breakfast and Beads crowd was at it again this morning. They really want a new jewelry design contest. After much laughing and giggling and quite possibly too much caffeine they decided to have a Chicken Jewelry Contest. Specifically, a contest where entrants make jewelry for a chicken. My hen, Fifi, who has refined sensibilities for a chicken, will choose the winner. We decided to have the contest conclude on a Friday in June after school is out (date TBA) so that Susan can participate and watch the judging.

Conveniently, a chicken neck is about the size of a human wrist, so the designs will be able to serve as bracelets after their hen-pecking. There was much joking about jewelry designs that would be irresistible to a hen; beads made of corn, bugs in resin, etc. I think that bling is the way to go. I don't know if Fifi can resist a bit of sparkly Swarovski.

So you can watch this space for contest details but consider this a head's up...start thinking about Chicken Jewelry. For inspiration, come to the Henside the Beltline Tour de Coup on Saturday, May 16th in downtown Raleigh. There will be lots of hens to look over, plus some great gardens and chicken coops. Ignore the heavily caffeinated ladies that you see trying to get the hens to peck at their jewelry. I don't know those women.

What's IS Breakfast and Beads?
Breakfast and Beads is every Friday at Panopolie. There is a big pot of coffee and some breakfast goodies and we open at 8:30. Obviously, it gets a bit out of hand. I mean, really, chicken jewelry?

on the internets

We have a new feature at Ornamentea. We have added a wi-fi network so folks can surf the web whilst they bead. Actually, we added it so that I (and a few other staff members) could use our laptops at work but then we figured, what the heck, why not make it available to the public? Right now we are pretty quiet about it but we do intend to post some 'Internet Bead Cafe' signs around at some point. Since we occasionally have free coffee or wine in the evenings (just ask!) this is the next logical step, right?

While I don't imagine that our usual customer will be surfing while beading we often have a trailing friend or spouse on our couch, looking bored and perusing Car&Driver or InStyle. Now they have a choice; they can bring their own laptop and play World of Warcraft.

Since I can now bring my ancient laptop to work with me I think I may invest in a nice laptop cover. That would make my husband happy. He would like me to wrap it in bubble wrap before I throw it in my huge bag but I cannot do that for obvious reasons*. Maybe I will get this nice squirrely cover from the fine folks at Brokesy on etsy. A panic-y squirrel is just the totem animal for my computing times and I didn't find a single chicken laptop cover on etsy. Not a single one.

*because it looks bad, duh!