Levi Strauss, the man credited with the invention of blue jeans, was born on February 26th, 1829. 

I’m sure he never anticipated “fat jeans” and “skinny jeans” and the notion that young women would lie on their beds using pliers to zip their jeans surely never crossed his mind.  I wear jeans (although not usually Levis actual brand) an average of 352 days a year.  So does Mary. 

So to honor the inventor of half our wardrobes, we have put discount coupons in a bag, and every customer that is wearing (or carrying)  jeans today gets to draw one.  They range from 10% off to 50% off, and can be used any time between February 27th (that’s tomorrow) and March 20th.

It’s not as much fun as Jello Shot day, but then what would be?

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.

The weather certainly behaved itself on Wednesday for Fort Worth’s Preview Night, that was the best kind of Texas day, wasn’t it?

And now tomorrow is Carrollton’s turn! We’re closing Friday afternoon at 4:00 to get ready, opening again at 5:00 with all of Michell’s Wonderful Food (no hummus this time, though.) and the best beads east of I-35W.

We’ll see you there!

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!

Because the weather is so soggy, and we don’t want anyone to have to choose between being safe and beads, we have decided to postpone Preview Night until next Wednesday, the 17th of February.

As Mary said “You can’t fight Mother Nature” and we don’t want to.

If you are planning to come by either store today, please call and make sure we’re still open before you make the trip. We may close early if it gets worse.

Be careful out there! Texans aren’t used to dealing with this, and some people think you handle ice/slush on the road the same way you drive on washboard dirt roads – go fast enough that you don’t hit the groves! (PS – that is NOT a good plan, really.)

Be sure to mark your calendars and Be On Time!!!  The annual Tucson Preview Night party and First Look is only two days away! 

Yes, it’s Friday the 12th, starting at 5:00PM, and lasting till 9:00.  Come by for the wine and wonderful snacks, and the (better than ever) Amazing beads, clasps, chain, and pendants.

And next Friday (19th) it’s Carrollton’s turn!  (And we still have a strand of lovely sapphire carved leaves!!)

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.