She’s Back!
Stretch Wrap Zoe made with the beads we found at BeadCache. (Stay tuned to find out where it’s heading!)
The Bracelet Maker is back in town!!
Zoe came home from camp last Sunday and by mid-morning on Monday, she was ready to make up for lost time. She seemed to be on a mission when she first sat down in the bracelet-making space with her first priority being to make new versions of several of the bracelets she wears on a daily basis - for herself. In some cases, she replaced the old one; in others, she simply added the new one to her increasingly crowded wrist and forearm. Truthfully, the existing ones all looked to be in perfectly good condition, but it's not for me to question the artist.
After that, Zoe knocked out a bunch of freestyle ones in her favorite color combinations; unclear whether these were spontaneous designs or ones she’d been thinking up while she was away but there was no keeping her way from the red and pink clay disk beads for a good 2 hours. I finally convinced her to add most of these to her inventory for the NHS Craft Fair coming up at the end of October, rather than to her own wrist. A dozen or so bracelets later, she was finally ready to start tackling the orders that came in while she was away.
For one of these orders, we needed particular beads that we hadn’t been able to find from our usual sources. So with a few free days before school starts, Zoe and I decided to take our first-ever trip to an actual Bead Shop. I’d been looking for one for awhile (sadly, it seems COVID drove many out of business) and finally discovered BeadCache in Mansfield, MA - an easy 30 minute drive away.
We had to write about our experience at BeadCache. As we have said many times, Zo Much More is all about focusing on Zoe’s strengths and one of those strengths is finding people and places who get her. From the minute we walked into BeadCache, I had the sense that this was going to be one of those places. We received a friendly greeting and the freedom to look around on our own. Eventually, we started to talk to the people running the store, Natalie & Alison. They took an immediate interest in Zoe, engaging her and putting meaningful effort into trying to decipher some her responses. They asked Zoe about the bracelets she wears and as soon we mentioned Zo Much More, they excitedly looked up the website. Natalie immediately told us that our connection to charities would mean an automatic 10% discount. We spent a delightful half hour or so in the store, connecting on many different levels, and ultimately walked out of the store with exactly what we needed for this order - and a sense that we had found a place and some people we will return to many times in the future. Thanks ZO much!!