We shopped all day yesterday, hit 3 shows, but not very hard.  Got the last really cool things, got whatevered by the singing bowl lady, and finished pricing on the sad side of 3AM.  Now we’re finishing the packing, then we’ll load the truck. 

Truck is going to be sad too.

And there are another 4 boxes, too.  And a suitcase full of glass.  And our exhausted selves.

The top one under the bag has pricing supplies and tape, so it really doesn’t count.  But the others are Wunnerful!!

See you soon…

So you can see these:  Electroplated leaves, in pinks, coppers, even blue and green!!!

And gunmetal (OK, they’re nearly black…) 

They are incredibly lacy, you can see through most of them.  But they’re sturdy, the vendor was bending them, and it takes quite a bit to actually bend it till it snaps.  We saw a lot of these leaves, these were the only ones we even looked at closer.

Today we bought pendants and other unique items.  More Tibetan beads, and some of the prettiest bone (I know, but I really LOVE these) we’ve seen.  Really.

Imagine a thin rectangle about 1 1/4 inches wide and 2 inches tall, with a teensy kimono painted on it, with flowers and border prints, in about 4 colors.  And the most adorable frogs with teeny green lines painted on them.  Why are you having to imagine them?  Well, that’s the possible tragedy.

It seems that putting a bottle of water into a leather tote bag without first tightening the lid is a serious problem.  It becomes even more of a problem when the digital camera is sitting in the bottom of the bag.

Did you know that leather can hold a lot of water an amazing length of time?  It can.  Right until it starts dripping into someone’s shoes.

Cesar spent 20 minutes shaking water out of the camera, and while it seems to kind of work, we’re letting it dry out over night and then asking it very nicely to continue functioning. 

We also bought some of the most amazing plated leaves on the planet, really.  We’ve seen lots of plated leaves, but these are UNBELIEVABLE!  Breathtaking, in fact. 

We got more great unusual stone, like delicious blue Madagascar chryscolla, and dyed aventurine.  The dyed aventurine?  It has this shimmery business just under the surface of rich browns, golds, greens and burgundys.  Amazing stuff, and not horribly expensive. 

I just counted.  Right now we have about 22 of those 28qt flat tubs full of beads and all.  And there are still 2 60 pound boxes of beads to pack up.  I hope the pickup springs are in good shape.  It looks like half the back seat will have boxes in it.

I’m going to bed now.  It’s already tomorrow.

Just so you don’t think it’s all fun and games in Tucson, here’s a typical day for us.  This is day three, we’ve settled into the groove.

I wake up with the sun peeking around the curtains in the hotel room.  Look at the clock, just before 7AM.  I pull the covers over my head and think about going back to sleep. 

Then I realize that if I do that, the hottest water will be used up.  Hate that.  Get up and get the shower first! 

By 9, we’re sitting down for a nice big breakfast.  Lots of coffee and protein, lunch is a long way off.  We go over the show floorplan, refining our attack.  More coffee. 

At 10 we walk into the first tent of the day.  These aren’t “tents” like the thing at the company picnic, these are huge honkin’ structures that could hold multiple 747’s.  They are nearly 3 football fields long and 1 1/2 football fields wide.  The ceilings are 18-20 feet high.  There are two of these tents at this show.  And they’re crammed with hundreds of booths of all sizes, selling beads, watches, carved trees, and velvet scarves.  Plus a lot more that we aren’t looking at.

We will walk around 5 miles today, dragging suitcases that get heavier as the day goes on.  We will spend most of the day leaning over tables grabbing hanks of stones, looking at each strand to pick the best ones of each.  Grab, look, throw back.  Grab, look, put on tray.  Lean farther to get that really cool one on the bottom at the back.  Look, lean, now straighten that back! Put strands in bucket, and repeat. We don’t browse or leisurely examine other booths, this is Power Shopping, and it qualifies as aerobic exercise.

At 3:00, we have to go empty the bags at the pickup (about a quarter mile from the entrance), they’re full.  While we’re out of the tent, we grab lunch from one of the food vendors around the entrance.  Lots of tea and water.  Hurry, it’s 3:30, only two and a half shopping hours left today!

At 6:30, we’re eating dinner, but no happy hour, because we still have a lot of work to do.  We go back to the room, pull out everything we bought today, and start pricing it.  We watch movies on TV and make fun of them.  Put the priced strands in a box with bubble-wrap.  Change the Therma-Care on my back.  Throw the pen in the trash, find another one, and write more pricetags.

Finish around 1:30.  Yes, that’d be AM.  Wash hands several times (stones have oils on them sometimes, smells nasty) and go to bed.  I’m asleep before my head hits the pillow.

I wake up with the sun peeking around the curtains in the hotel room.  Look at the clock, just before 7AM.  I pull the covers over my head.  It’s day four already?  I just went to bed…

We bought pearls – pounds of pearls.  Some so beautiful that you would be willing to go through a wedding just to get to wear them, and some inexpensive that you could buy 15 strands and wind them together in a magnificent choker.

And we bought amazing sterling clasps, unique and sturdy and even some “real girl” magnetic ones!

And vermeil and Hill Tribe, really different beads and even some that look like artichokes!  Glass hearts, hollow large ones and dichroic smaller ones.  Even lapis hearts!

And matte white-line onyx, words can’t describe it.

Fluorite in 5 colors per strand, or a heartbreaking blue.

Bling out the wazoo!! 

And if that isn’t enough, translucent dyed jade in colors that make your mouth water,  like a mango margarita or limeade or strawberry smoothee.  In all kinds of shapes and sizes!

OK, time to go now.  can’t spell anymorel.

But we found another Fabulous Roadside Sign on the way!

Yep, that really makes you want to wander around and check out the picnic tables!

Anyway, we made it on into town, hit one show and bought a lot of glass pearls (this is about 1/4 of them, or less) (ignore the cruddy background, we’re in a hurry here):

And really cool agate and jade:

and these:  Stalactite slices ringed with amethyst:

see, even with a bedsheet and tissue paper and cruddy photography, some of their fabulousness shows thru!!!!

And now I have to start pricing, Mary’s been doing it for about an hour while I’ve been doing this, and she’s getting a bit snippy.

So you can easily find last year’s posts on that trip, and compare the two.  Today we pass my favorite road signs in the world – Dust storms may exist. 

Also, I figured out how to set it up so the entry posts at a later time than when I hit Save, which is a bit cool!  More prize opportunities!

OK, it’s nearly 7AM now, really.  Are these people EVER going to get up?  There are BEADS TO BE BOUGHT TODAY, only 3 hours away!!!

The first time you post a comment in here, it goes into a holding area until someone can look at and verify that it’s not offering drugs or pornography – you’d be amazed how much spam we seem to get.  My past favorite was “May to want baig pipi for U!” which I think I get the gist of, but maybe not.

OK, rambling.  Anyway, your comments are held and it tracks the minute (and second) you posted it, they just might not show until I can OK them.  In most cases, after we clear one to post from your email address, all future ones will show up immediately.  And since it stores everything, I don’t have to remember who won the “comment prize” for each entry.

Also I decided to see if I can manage more than one a day, just to keep it confusing exciting! 

(The camera cord is lost somewhere in the back of the pickup, buried, so I took pictures but they’ll have to wait till tomorrow evening to be inserted.  Just imagine them today:)

For 11 hours today, this was my view:

And

And this is what I did:

And now we’re in Las Cruces NM, after passing several of the huge windmill farms, oil wells, El Paso, and trucks.  We ate fried jalapeno strips at a DQ, (quite tasty) ice cream sandwiches (also very nice) at the gas station, and fantastic raspberry lemonade. 

After very little discussion, we opted to pass on staying at the Worst Motel Room in the World in Van Horn.  (see last year’s Tucson blog, “Hazard Duty” for an edited description.  I removed the pictures from it last year, it seemed too mean.) 

We’ll be there tomorrow, shopping. 

Thanks for the comments!!!  Yay!!!  I’m not completely alone. 

Remember, the first person to respond in a comment wins a prize!  I’ll tell the winner of today’s prize in the comments.

Saturday morning, we’re loading up the pickup and heading west!  Everything is ready: lists are made and organized, dogs are boarded (sorry, Susie and Louie!), and Starbuckses are in the cupholders!  We are Starting the Adventure!

Unfortunately, Mary swats when someone starts singing “On the Road Again,” probably because the swatee can’t sing for doodle.  So I’ll just have to find some other way to irritate her.  And that isn’t really very hard for me to do.  After 3 hours in the car, everything irritates her. 

We start shopping on Sunday! 

Oh, since I tend to feel like nobody’s reading this, first person to make a comment on each blog entry wins a special prize!