I left off yesterday in a state of shock (more on that later) and today brings new shocks. Kate has kindly lent me an iPad, and despite being a technobuffoon, I am actually enjoying playing with it. When I wake up this morning I lie in bed and read Kate's blog and discover the sad news that Bryan Ferry has got married. Well, to me it's not sad ( I had never entertained any romantic thoughts towards him) but I can feel Kate's mourning seeping through the house so I immediately get dressed in all the black clothes I can muster up and go to see what comfort I can offer her at this sad time.

Yesterdays shock was Kate showing me what she called her 'Modified Raw Bellyband'. When talking about this long-distance I was impressed by what I thought it was. It seemed a clever idea to me that would save you some time but beading it might be annoying (as RAW can be). But then when I was shown it in person... well I simply refused to believe it at first. To me it looked like Kate was xxxxing xxx but xxxxing it into xxxxxx xxxxxx at the same time.* (*actual words redacted so just what awesomeness she did, and how she did it, kept for people who purchase the book)

I was genuinely thrown by what she was doing and immediately set about trying to replicate it. But couldn't. When I checked with Kate it became obvious: I was making it much harder than it needed to be. Mainly because the technique is a lot, lot easier than I imagined it would be. That's because you're able to xxxx xxxx that the stitch xxxxxxx xxxx xxxxxxxx which makes it an awful lot easier to bead.

Once I had it in my brain, and actually believed it and beaded it myself, it's obvious that not only does it save A LOT of time, it actually eliminates the pain of those first few rows of peyote stitch twisting on you. That just doesn't happen with this method. I found that in the time it took me to bead one row of this I had created the height of at least 4 rows of peyote stitch. By adding one more row I had beaded the equivalent of 8 rows of peyote stitch in at most 1/3 - 1/4 of the time. As a self-declared lazy beader that is an immediate plus for me.

Sorry if that's annoying, but it kind of has to be seen to be believed and personally learning this has been worth my airfare alone. It's such a simple variation on a basic stitch/ stitches that it makes you want to slap your forehead and proclaim 'doh'. What a joy! How often do you get to see/ learn something new that makes you feel that way? I suppose I should have expected it, as Kate makes me feel that way about most things, but this one came at me from out of nowhere. Edited to add- just been told by Kate that this start is Dustin's idea. I had forgotten she said that- I was too excited about the beading.

By lunchtime I had practically finished my bangle and by the afternoon, when Kate's daughter Bri comes over, we headed off to 22nd St Antique Mall where I picked up a 1960s suitcase, a Polaroid photo album and some small serving trays made of Accalac by David Douglas- all very groovy. Unfortunately searching on the Internet brings up very little about the designer, or what on Earth Accalac is, but I did find this.

The evening was spent admiring all our treasures and me starting a new triangular bangle inspired by a piece by Kate.