Wherein We Recuperate from Bead and Button Shopping

Holy cow.  Y'all, I have been to some big bead shows in my day, but nothing quite prepared me for the wonder, the spectacle, the complete eye candy overload that was the marketplace of the Bead and Button Show.

Now, I used to live in Milwaukee, a mere hop and skip from where the Bead and Button show is held. But the annual show wasn't started until a few years after I moved away.  (I've always taken that a little personally.)  And I've always had it on my bucket list to go. When I moved to Chicago this year, it became a much more likely possibility.

So Sunday, I headed up the road. Got to the Wisconsin Center right as the show opened.  I was ready. Or so I thought. After two hours, I had only made my way through two rows of about seven or eight. And I had only four hours left. That's when I kicked it into high gear and power shopped.

Knowing that it would be WAY too easy to spend too much, I had decided that I would only shop for things I couldn't find at home or at regular bead shows.  So I concentrated on art beads, special findings, and things that I knew I'd kick myself the next day for not buying.  No seed beads (gasp!!), no Czech glass, no gemstone beads.  Ready?  Here goes:

First, the gemstone cabs:

Isn't this delicious? It's copper mosaic turquoise (that I grabbed the instant the woman next to me put it down)

(l to r, top row: ruby in zoisite, rhyolite, lapis. Bottom: crazy lace agate)

Two jaspers, just begging to be bezeled

And the art beads:

I've been lusting after Golem Beads for a long time.  I finally got some!

BeadyGirl Beads - fun!

Diane Hawkey - sublime

Beautiful paisley beads from Dyed in the Fire

Not technically all beads, but two Czech buttons and some new Czech shapes from Lisa Kan

Sharon Peters - not some of her great, whimsical creatures, but these beads will always
remind me of the hysterically funny conversation I had with this joyful lady

Time for the true confession - there were also some less visually exciting purchases, like lots of chain, some gold filled wire (now that the price has come down to nearly human levels), and some ultrasuede for backing.

If you ever have the chance to go to Bead and Button, you should go.  One of these days my schedule will allow me to go for some classes as well, but for now, I've got this one crossed off the bucket list. And I'm already planning for next year's journey!

A Surprise Behind The Door

There's a little hole-in-the-wall shop near my office that has an unassuming little sign out front saying, "FABRIC".

I needed a new pair of embroidery scissors for my new soutache adventures (ok, who am I kidding -- any excuse for a new tool!), so I dropped in, hoping to find something.

Behind the unassuming door to the narrow little hole in the wall shop, this is what I saw:

This was half of the store. The other half of the store is REALLY full.  And you should see
the back wall (actually, there's no way to see it -- you just have to assume it's there behind the trims)!

Holy cats, I found fabric heaven.  The whole place was packed - PACKED - with fabric from floor to ceiling, front to back, with only the narrowest of paths between the three towers of bolts of awesomeness. It was amazing!

As in "The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe", where the children open the door of a wardrobe and discover a fantastic new world, I felt like I'd fallen into a magical place. It's a good thing I don't sew anymore, because I'd have rented a UHaul and backed it right up to that unassuming little door and cleared the place out.  Some lunch hour soon, I'll be back over there, digging through the stacks in search of the treasures you know must be there.

Oh, and the scissors? Yep, I got some.  They look like a tie dyed rainbow stork, they're just the size I wanted, and they're weird unique enough that no one will walk off with them by mistake!

Shoulda, Coulda, Woulda, Resolved!

Ever have one of those "coulda, shoulda, woulda" moments?  You know, a minor, nagging regret over something you might have done but, for one reason or another, it just didn't happen?

For a long time, I've thought I'd love to add a printer's tray to my display.   Used to be that I'd see them all the time when I went to antique places, but I couldn't figure out how to fit them into my display style, especially the big trays I was seeing.  When I finally figured out a way to make them work in my display setup, for the life of me I couldn't find any.  Despite haunting the antique malls where I'd seen them in the past, there just weren't any for sale.

Coulda bought them when I found them - they weren't outrageously expensive when I saw them.  Shoulda bought them, because, hey, there they were, begging to go home with me.  Woulda bought them if I'd just trusted that the inspiration for how to use them would come to me.

My dilemma was resolved this past weekend.  Look what came home with me!

It's 10 1/2" x 17".  My vision is that rings will go in the smallest spaces, and pendants or pins will go it the others.

But first, I have to get it cleaned up a little bit (any suggestions other than Endust and lots of dust rags?  Maybe Murphy's Oil Soap?) and get some hooks put in....

The hunt may continue for more trays, but at least I've bagged my first one!