Yesterday was a day off so we wandered local shops and went to the opening of the Beads on the Vine retreat and today it all really kicks off - and in such a beautiful way!

Our venue for the classes (sadly this is the last year this is the venue) is the Niner Winery and I can't begin to tell you how beautiful it all is.

Today's class is with the lovely & talented Melissa Grakowsky Shippee and again I have a lovely day beading & laughing with friends beading her Gemma Foliata necklace.

I'm desperate to not take home too many things to add to my 'unfinished-and-probably-will-never-be-finished' pile so focused on beading the centrepiece to wear as a pendant and used components from the necklace to make matching earrings. By the end of class I just needed to add a beaded loop to hang it from... which means it will probably go onto that pile for a few years until I manage to do that...

You can see more photos and a video I took today here.