Earlier this month, I flew to California for the Spring Fling Henna Conference. I always look forward to teaching at Neeta Sharma‘s excellent, cozy, and friendly conference.

My mini western henna tour had the following stops scheduled:

  • Boulder, CO – Book release for Dushanbe at the Dushanbe Tea House itself!
    & Meeting up with lovely local henna artists Anita, SarahKate, Abbie, Meyuri, and ___  before and during the release.
  • Colorado Springs, CO – Teach budding young artists, one of whom did this the first time she picked up a cone!
  • Sacramento, CA – Meet up with Sarah of Henna Pulse, and of course do epic henna on her as a thanks for hosting me!
  • Patterson, CA – Teach at the Spring Fling!!! (This was the real reason for the whole trip!!!!)

Stops 1-3 went mostly according to plan!
But when Sarah and I were visiting San Francisco and she was showing me all the touristy awesome things (Muir Woods! Pier 39! Japanese Tea Garden @ Golden Gate Park! Cable cars!), I got some very sad news. My husband’s aunt, who had lived with them the entire time he was growing up and was therefore almost a parental figure for him, passed away. After searching my heart and asking for lots of guidance and advice, I decided it really was very important to be there for my grieving family and say my final farewells to Aunt Bettie. I made the hard decision to reach out to Neeta and other Spring Fling staff and let them know I would not be able to make it there after all.

So, all that was going to the Spring Fling were my handouts and PowerPoint presentations for my classes (which other instructors took the reigns with and taught in my absence) and the henna I had managed to do on Sarah’s foot. This was so sad, but the best I could do given the circumstances.

I was tickled pink to see that Melanie of Blue Lotus Henna decided to mirror the design on Sarah’s other foot! They sent me photos right away.

Then, just moments ago, Neeta shared a photo of her local newspaper, where her awesome conference made the FRONT PAGE! And which henna is featured huge on that front page? Yup, that would be Sarah’s feet 🙂 This is a very nice followup to a tough time. Thank you so much to all who made it possible, and were so understanding that family comes first. I’m glad a little bit of me was still there with you, in my handouts and presentations and on Sarah’s feet 🙂