Elaine, Mary Ann, and Jennifer, all members of The HHCC, hopped into the van with Gracie and I -- and off we went cruising down the highway on our way to Massachusetts. Ritu and her son joined us a bit later.
Gracie did all the driving (Thanks, Gracie!!) while we all chatted about my attempts of knitting (we determined that the "button hole" was done by my attempt to do the crochet technique known as "fudging" when there's a problem ... and we determined what happened to cause half of a missing row).
We were headed to Amherst, MA -- to the Fiber Arts Center -- to see the 2003 CGOA Juried Exhibit on it's last day of showing. The works in this collection have traveled all over the country being placed on exhibit, and today was it's last day of being a "collective."
As I walked around and looked at each piece, I reflected upon the 2003 Conference that was held in Chicago -- I recalled the pieces being great, but here in this center, the pieces seemed to have more life. It could have been that the lighting in this Art Center was much better than that offered at the hotel last year, or that I was just being nostalgic. Whatever the case may be, I really enjoyed seeing the works together again.
After the Art Center we were starving, so we headed to Pizza Hut and had a lively discussion of our favorite pieces we saw at the exhibit, and later let our conversation drift over to what it's like to shop at WEBs. Since we had "newbies" with us who've never experienced shopping there before, it was fun to describe the place and watch their eyes grow big like children awaking on Christmas morning to see that Santa was there ... oh the anticipation!! (LOL)
But before heading to WEBs we opted to visit my favorite bead shop ... Beader's Paradise in Northampton. They moved recently, so it took us a few minutes to locate the store ... and a bit longer to find parking.
We all had fun looking at the beautiful selections. I purchased many "findings" (jewelry connectors), and selected pretty beads for my daughter's upcoming project. I can't wait to share them with her tomorrow! I picked out a beautiful amethyst bead -- quite large in size, and an assortment of smaller ones for myself. I plan on crocheting myself another wire & fiber necklace!
While waiting for everyone to finish with their purchase, those of us that were done waited outside on the sidewalk and absorbed some of the town's atmosphere. "Hmmmm," we said to each other, "there's a tattoo parlor next door to the store. Do we tell our spouses that we opted to spend our money on beads, or on a new tattoo featuring a hook & a skein of yarn?" ... we laughed. Of course WE DID NOT get any tattoo's, but we did store this information in the back of our minds in the event we need to explain away any of our new "stash" items ...
Onward we went ... to WEBs.
WEBs has to be the largest yarn store I've ever been to. I'm sure it will be the largest yarn store you've ever been to too ... and if you haven't gone then I highly suggest that if you're ever in the neighborhood of the state of Massachusetts, that you go!!
So with this in mind, I observed that they're making the front of their store larger! Unbelievable! What's more unbelievable is that I contained myself! I got one bag of lavender colored yarn (a wool/acrylic blend) for a whopping $20, along with a few novelty yarns. Gracie cleared them out of cream colored alpaca that "was to die for;" Elaine packed her bag with novelty yarns of pinks, and blues, and ... well you get the picture. I'm not sure what Jennifer purchased, but I do know the color purple was involved. Ritu bought some thread.
Now Mary Ann was a different story. She was having a blast running back & forth, back & forth ... and nearly bought the entire lock, stock & barrel. (Don't fear, I think she may have left a skein or two behind! ) ... A slight exaggeration -- yes. She came home with bargain priced treasures galore!!
On the way home, when we made the audio entry for 
What a great field trip!
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