Luna's Baublebilities

Splendid Caterpillar bracelet in Turquoise Luster

(Coupon Info at the bottom of this post!)

We are leaving in 11 days for a cross-country road trip.  I'm both excited and terrified.  Financially, this trip make NO sense but it is Molly's last summer at home and Maxx is old enough now that he is excited about seeing new things (like Mt. Rushmore and the Grand Canyon) We've been putting it off for far too long and it is just time to GO.

large acanthus filigree motif

I'm nervous about a lot of things - you know, getting in a wreck, having our money run out too fast, one of the kids disappearing - but realistically, those things could happen here at home.  In fact, the money running out too fast happens all the time around here and I just deal with it!  :)


But one thing I am really concerned about is living without my beads for 4 weeks.  EEEK!   I'm having SO much fun with Right Angle Weave making Splendid Caterpillar Bracelets.

The Jeep is pretty big but I really can't justify taking everything I want to have.  Plus I'm not sure how much work time I will actually have.

Green Twisted Drop Beads

I am putting together a small batch of beads, threads, pre-pieced crazy quilt fabrics and hand dyed stuff to work with on the trip.  I'll post photos of my travel palette before I pack them in the Jeep.

I bought a beadalon tacky mat from Shipwreck beads.   It looks pretty nifty - they are made of the  same sticky stuff as those gum-dispenser toys that you throw against the window and watch them slowly "crawl" down.

They are tacky without being sticky and are supposed to hold a layer of beads in place without getting adhesive on them.  They are also supposed to be "rechargable" by washing with water.  We'll see how well it works on the trip!

beadalon tacky mat

lavender opal 4mm firepolished rounds

I've gotten a bit behind on listing new inventory in my shops.  Things got piled up this winter and I'm just now starting to get stuff sorted out.   I am planning to re-vamp GoblinsMarket over at ArtFire when we return to accommodate traffic from GoblinsMarket.org.  Yes - I plan to actually put that url to use in 2012 - finally!    

Anyway - what you're really looking for is coupon info, right?  (I hope so!  I want to send out a few more sparklies to be well loved this summer before I put them all away for a month.)




So here's the deal.  I will be closing all of my ArtFire and Etsy shops for the month of July starting Monday or Tuesday next week so the coupons are good for this weekend. 


Over at ArtFire, use the coupon code ROADTRIP for 20% off orders over $30.00.  (Don't forget to sign in and comment on items to get additional discounts!)


At Etsy, use the coupon code ROADTRIP2012 for a 10% discount on your total order, regardless of the amount spent.   


Neither of the shops is fully loaded so if you see something in one that isn't in the other that you would like to purchase, let me know and I will set it up for you.   But hurry!  After this weekend, My whole will be bent towards getting us out of the house and on the road on time.

Molly will be blogging the trip over at the Beorningstead blog and I will try to keep you updated about how creation on the road is going now and then.  Have a gorgeous summer!

I'm almost sad to see it go.  Bry had to go back to school today - even though only one district is in session and he will only have two students today - if they don't decide to skip.  The kids are home for another day and back to school tomorrow.  (I wish I could have sent the kids today and kept Bry home another day.  I'm sorta Maxxed out.)

We did have a nice break, though.  Bry got some time to work at the Beorningstead (more on that later this week) and we had a short Spring Holiday over there with my sister and my nephew, Derek.  Bry & I visited the Edward Burne-Jones exhibit in Ottawa (hurry - it closes this Saturday) and we made a quick trip to visit my sister in conjunction with a Youth Temple Trip to Palmyra. 

I did not get pictures of any of this - my first purchase with the tax return will be a new family camera.

 Anyway- we did lots of fun stuff all in one week and none of it was very expensive. 

However.

It turns out that Maxx is NOT a good little traveler.  Molly has always been great.  When she was small, she would happily climb in the car and amuse herself by coloring in a book, reading and singing along to music.  For hours.  She sleeps a lot in the car.  She would occasionally ask the classic "Are we there yet?" question - not out of boredom, but out of excitement to arrive.   Now that she's older, she may ask once or twice how much further we have to go but she's more likely to repeatedly ask if we can gag and hog-tie her brother for the rest of the trip.

Maxx begins whining after about 20 minutes in the car.  He wriggles out of his seatbelt.  He tries to open the door or windows and complains about the child safety lock and power window lock.  He picks fights with his sister.  He throws things.  He would throw things out of the window if he could open it.  He complains that he can't throw things out of the car because he can't open the window.  He wants to carry on endless, inane, repetitive conversations in a muted whiny tone of voice that can't be heard over the road noise.  He does not sleep until approximately 3 minutes before we arrive at a destination or a pit stop.  He wakes up as soon as the speed or direction of the car changes, whining and demanding to know whether we're there yet and adamantly refusing to admit that he needs to pee.

Last night I made up a new family rule for travel.  After 9pm children in the car must be SILENT.   I'm also wondering if we will need to invest in a travel DVD player for him.  I hate the idea of TV in the car but the three older family members LOVE to travel together.  Maxx is just plain unpleasant in the car without (and even sometimes with) constant distraction and interaction and that takes all the joy out of a road trip.  We have lots of family we want to visit - they may just have to move closer.  4 hours seems to be my limit with Maxx.