Preview Nights are over, and now we’re busily arranging what’s left. It takes a bit of creativity to find places to put all those new acrylic flowers, and the adorable “critter” beads.   The fabulous new (only 25 or so new styles, so Michell hasn’t smacked me for it) Czech glass is on the wall too.

The chain was pretty easy.  And the turquoise is still on the table, waiting for space in the case. The beautiful coin pearls are on the wall, and all the beautiful Tibetan pendants and beads are resting in their velvet tray.  

Come in and visit them soon, before they’re gone.

Don’t forget, the Tucson Preview Night in Fort Worth will be this Wednesday, the 17th, from 5:00PM till 9:00PM.  The weather has PROMISED to behave, and all the pretties will be waiting for you!

And Carrollton’s Tucson Preview Night is Friday, the 19th.  So you totally need to get out at least one night this week and buy beads!

So we are back from Tucson, and we have some truly amazing stuff. Watching the rest of our staff members go through the boxes is better than Christmas, really. At least it’s louder. And it is a lot of fun, and after an entire week we have sort of forgotten what we actually bought, so it is almost as exciting for us to discover all of this fabulous stuff as it is for everybody else.

If you hear squeals, or if your dogs start barking for no reason, it’s the beads.

Those wonderful fabulous beads.

I was so tired yesterday that it was impossible to type after the show.  Really.

We finally finished show 2 and then flew through show #3.  Friday was Pendant day, and Funky Clasp day.  We got some killer pendants, including some wonderful multi-stone ones that had us squealing when we picked up a particularly fabbu one.  And we got sterling geckos  (Chris, please tell me how to spell that.  This dictionary doesn’t seem to have it.)  adrdoable fat-toed lizard pendants.  We got Hill Tribe and Sterling beads in wonderful styles. 

We got pearls, we went nuts on the coin pearls.  See?  (sorry about the flash)

Today we’re looking for more chain and another surprise.

Our hands look like goats chew on them at night, our feet are swollen, and whenever we lean over we make noises like my grampa.  Or Marys grampa. 

We saw purple cactus again.  They look like this:

No, really, they are that color.  This one is a bit pale, but it was the only one I could get close enough to. 

In a few minutes we start loading the car, because we have to check out of the room, and there isn’t any other safe place for 13 boxes of rather expensive rocks and metal.  Then we’ll eat our Breakfast at our favorite place, shop one last show, (although a show’s first day on a Saturday is NOT a fun thing to do) and then head back.

We have reached the “Dang I’m Tired” phase, where everything hurts and you keep trying to remember what you have already bought.  And not remembering very well.

We found some more glorious faceted stones, including a double strand of London Blue topaz that causes jaw-drop.  And we got more Tibetan prayer boxes.  And yet MORE turquoise, inlcuding some adorable hearts.

And we ate dinner with Loretta from the Alouette bead stores in Oklahoma.  And got back much later than we had expected due to a side trip looking for a Target that makes me think the Garmin has it in for us.  So last night we didn’t finish pricing till after 2AM, and I was just too freakin’ tired to take pictures. 

And we woke up late, and now have to go eat quick breakfast and go Shopping Again! 

PS – my feet hurt.  My back hurts.  Mary’s feet hurt.  Her back hurts.  That will be all.

Anyway, see those up in the center, the loop?  Those are the leaves.  Surrounded by tourmaline, beer quartz and smoky quartz.  And the magnificent greens on the right?  Chrome dyposide.  Yeah, really cool.

And turquoise, both Chinese and American.  In fact, we got some wonderful Sleeping Beauty, Bisbee, and Campo Frio strands.  

And then we got some new chain, in gunmetal, brass, and even a lovely rose gold!  And some torched copper and brass clasps and jump rings. 

And Michell, we got some glass.  JUST A FEW!!  Only one bag, really.  That will be split between the two Artful Bead stores, so you CAN NOT break my legs.  Mary admitted that it was mostly her fault that we bought some.  (Note:  Whispering “we need new glass…  we need new really cool glass!” all night long really worked.  She woke up this morning thinking she had slept badly, but willing to buy Czech glass beads!)

And because one vendor we specifically want to see isn’t going to be here until Saturday, we have to stay one more day.  I never thought I would be glad the hotel I stayed at had a laundry center for guests.  Otherwise it could be unpleasant. 

Tomorrow we go back  again to the same show, we only got half of one tent done, and there are two tents.  We’d better manage to go faster this time.  And breakfast will be at the Rap-chef Waffle House, where the cook came out last year and sang us a rap about “Momma’s in the kitchen eatin’ Jenny Craig.  I’m at the Wuffle House ” something something something.  Sorry, bad memory, we were laughing so hard we didn’t hear it all.

Wonderful resin flowers!  Great shapes, and colors, just look at a small sampling:

Lovely Resin Flowers

And we got some marvellous lampwork – like:

Amazing lampwork beads - ooo

And clasps like these:

Just a few of the new clasps

And pendants made from fabric and beads like: 

Made with fabrics, ribbons, and beads

And now it’s nearly 11, and we had sushi for dinner, and priced, and now Mary is watching something with ghosts and making fun of me.  harumph.

We arrived just after noon, checked into the hotel, and then hit the first show.  We got enameled charms and toggles like:

 Which are entirely adorable.  We also got some other shapes and teeny keys!  And gears!

And  stainless steel pendants!

And some really cool Tibetan beads like these:

and these:

And to make up for the Truly Awful dinner last night, we had a Truly Spectacular one tonight.  Really.  Best. Dinner. Ever.  (so far, anyway.)  And now I have to update the rest of the stuff and figure out what we spent.  Whee, huh?

And Lindsay?  I couldn’t find a single scarab.  Really.  Sorry.

If you followed the tweets, you know that lunch was sausage on a stick. And that we were looking for dinner. Well, whatever it was that we ate in Van Horn was NOT dinner. Not even close. Maybe not even food. Just some food-like substances that we overpaid for.

So now we are in El Paso collapsing and looking for snacks. More tomorrow.

While getting ready for Tucson, having my usual multiple panic attack-y spin-in-circles-and-squeal-while-throwing-stuff-at-suitcases spasms, I figured out my problem.  (OK, maybe it’s not really The Only Problem, but it’s a pretty significant one.) 

I don’t mind being in new places, but actually travelling to them makes my head ache and turns me crabby.  It’s goingfrom one place to another that causes problems – the state of transition.  In car trips, I can convince myself that the car is actually a destination, so being in the car going from point A to point T (or somewhere in between) is tolerable.  I have books, knitting, beadwork, music, and a pillow for naps.  I’m not changing anything but outside scenery.

But plane trips require Xanax and 2 Bloody Marys per hour for the duration, and knitting, beadwork, and books.  An airplane can’t be the destination, (nobody in their right mind thinks sitting on an airliner is fun after the first 12 minutes) so the entire thing is a state of transition from one place to another.  And it doesn’t matter if it’s to Houston or Japan.  If I have to sit there listening to the engines whine without something to throw my brain out of gear, it takes 4 Bloody Marys per hour just to keep my rear in the seat and not clawing at the door.   I avoid long plane trips like the plague.  My husband travels for work, he collects millions of airmiles and I could go with him to any exotic place on the planet.  I went to Europe once over 20 years ago, and to Alaska in 2005.  (Alaksa was really a bit of a cheat, though.  We flew to Juneau and took a small ship cruise around the Inside Passage for two weeks.  Turns out that small ships are the same as cars – a destination of it’s own, with changing scenery.)  Coming home, my younger son and I both considered trying to find another way back to Texas that didn’t involve air travel.  That doesn’t work coming from Juneau, unfortunately.

Tomorrow morning we’re driving to Tucson as always.  The only states of transition are from my house to the car we’re driving, from the car to the hotel room in Tucson, and the reverse when we come home.  That should be doable, even at my most dithery. (I’m not sure if that’s a word, but it should be.)  And we’ll be there buying wonderful beads and stones and pendants and anything else Fabulous we can get our hands on.  And staying up late and laughing till we can’t catch our breath while pricing that day’s finds.  

And then we transition from Silly to Asleep. 

Later, peeps!