A Bit of Cross Posting - Day 1 at BayCon

I've been talking about showing my beaded lanyards on my other blog for a while now. Today was day one of the convention and the "live" public debut of my lanyard concept. I could just post the link to my other blog, but that would mean you'd have to click over there and I might lose you! So, here's what I wrote:

I loaded up a huge amount of stuff into my car today - much more than I really could have ever used, but I'm one of those people that would rather take stuff I don't use than need something and not have it. You should see how I pack for a weekend trip.

Once I had that done, I had to go to an office supply store for a cash box and the bank for change. Got to the convention hotel at 3-ish. The parking was jammed full, but I found a spot on the ground floor - it was almost as far away from the hotel entrance as you can get, but I really didn't want to take the elevator with all my stuff, so I was glad to have found it.

Getting all my stuff together for one trip was a bit of a logistics challenge. I have a large, black nylon covered, rolling "cube" case - it's intended to be a travelling office - inside it were all sorts of bins and things for file folders and office supplies. But because it's wide and not too tall, it's great for stacking other stuff on the top. It also has lots of great zippered pockets inside and out. I had it crammed full.

I also took my backpack for the camera and some miscellaneous beading supplies that didn't fit into the other containers and a messenger bag for my wallet, laptop and a book, a tote with all my beads and the wire carousels to display them, the bead buddy lap desk and the zippered bead container tote. Most of it fit in or on top of the rolling cube. The downside was that I think I was carrying and rolling about 80lbs of stuff and it was a long hike. Tomorrow I hope to get there early enough to get a closer parking spot and I'm definitely not taking in everything. If I decide I need something, I can just go to the car for it.

Was set up and ready to go by 4. It was fairly quiet on Artist's Alley for most of the time, but I did ok, broke even on the cost of registration and the table fee. I hadn't labeled my necklace lanyards, so part of the time I spent putting on price tags. One of my friends from Absolute Write Water Cooler was there helping a friend who has a booth in the dealer's room and she brought her (Melody Rondeau) over to my table. It was very nice to chat with them and I look forward to getting a chance to check out their booth sometime this weekend. Next time I do this, I'm shanghaiing a helper!

No pictures today, but I'll try to take some tomorrow. The theme of the convention is pirates and there are many wonderful costumes being displayed on the convention attendees. Definitely need pictures! Oh, and there was an artist's reception this evening, too, but I was pretty tired and just wanted to get home.

There was also a graduation happening at the venue as well, and a man in a very fancy robe - like you see on professors at college graduations - walked by with an older gentleman in a nice tweed jacket and dark slacks. He took one of my business cards as he walked by. It was one of those times I wished I could read minds - I'm so curious to know why he took a card!

I did work on, and finish, one more lanyard while I was there - one of the hexagon glass bead styles, this one in cobalt blue glass and silver seed beads. Not sure what I'll work on tomorrow - but I have plenty of supplies to choose from!

Sometimes I see a link in my gmail that I have to click. Today it was Nipple Cream is dangerous. A company put "contains ingredients chlorphenesin and phenoxyethanol that could cause respiratory distress or vomiting and diarrhea in infants, the FDA said," into their cream. What responsible company would put ingredients in a cream for nursing mothers that they weren't 10000000000000% sure was safe for the nursing infant?

This is one reason I can't get completely on board with tort reform. If they didn't know the danger, they should. If they didn't care to check, then company should be sued out of existence. The company also had to recall a product in 2007 "may be contaminated with the parasite cryptosporidium, which can cause intestinal infections and diarrhea.

The Food and Drug Administration found the cryptosporidium contamination.

The product, coded 26952V 10/08, was sold nationally through stores and also online. The company has sold 17,600 bottles since November 2006. "

There are enough things to worry about when you're a new mom, and products sold in your chain drugstores by a company that claims their products (and the nipple cream is still on their website under this claim) are "* Obstretician recommended.* All natural ingredients."

In other news:

• I sent my donation to support the Reno bid for the WorldCon in 2011.
• I have a new camera.
• My son comes home from leave in 36 days!