Bead Shopping Extravaganza!

Alright, so, it's been a while. I did find my Mojo, but then got busy with, well, life. ;)

Early Thursday morning, I got a phone call from Kirsten, asking me if I was ready for a little trip to Toronto. And boy, was I ever! I haven't gone for a good bead shopping spree since, well, I can't remember when actually. September I think? Yeah, that's it, that's when I placed those large orders at Bamyan and Czechbeads.

Anyways, we were going to go to John Bead, but I didn't think we'd make it back on time for Mimi's arrival from school. So, we went to Queen Street, where all the best little bead shops are. Actually, there are so many bead stores within the same vicinity, that they're all in a bit of a battle of the prices. So, we go from shop to shop, do a little comparison, and go from there. Of course, the actual buying started at Arton's, and boy, did I ever make a dent in my piggy bank there! Eek! And here I wanted to save my pennies for a rainy day. Oh, wait, it WAS raining on Thursday! Whoot! :P

I spent a bundle on pressed glass beads, semi-precious stones, silver, bone, and nuts. Yes, nuts! I am going to bead with NUTS! I don't know what kind of nut they're made of, but I'm going to have fun beading with them, I'm sure. It took us about an hour's total to spend about $100 each on our first stop, then we crossed the street to Bling Bling, where I loaded up on thread.

Le Loot

Tiger Eye.
Sadly, the camera can't quite capture the iridescence of the stones.

Anyone have any idea what kind of nuts these might be?
I can't wait to use them. They're so light!

Yee Haw! I found my Rondelles!
This means I can finally finish my pearl ropes. Can't wait to show those off.

Pressed glass flowers. Very small and delicate.
I haven't quite figured out how I'm going to use them yet, but there were only 4 strands of them left, and I wasn't about to leave the store without them! Hah!
;)

Bling Bling had this awesome sale on semi-precious stones. They had a huge table, covered in a multitude of stones, 3 strands of $20! I couldn't believe it. I snagged a strand each of Carnelian, Turquoise nuggets, and Jade. I'm not sure how I'm going to use those either, but boy oh boy, am I ever going to have a blast playing with them!

When you crochet or knit with beads, your thread gets eaten up very very fast. And, depending on the size of the project, and the size of your spool, you may have to attach new thread every so often. Which isn't my favorite thing to do. And I've yet to find my favorite thread in large spools.
Well boy, did I ever luck out: Look at the size of that spool! I put my regular thread next to it for comparison. Now, I don't know what the yardage is on the large spool, but the little one only has 33 yards.

The regular price of the small spool is $1.75. The large one was %50 off of $4.95. Methinks I got a really good deal here. LoL! So I got 10 SPOOLS!!! LMAO!!! I'm going to have enough thread to last me for a few years, I'm sure.

Can anyone help me figure out the 210 D? I know that the little 3 on the right means it's 3-ply, but that's it. I'm not sure what the writing is, but it looks Korean to me.

I loved the thread so much, that I went and knit two little sweetheart bags, lickity split!
(I always wanted to make an orange bag, and now I've got TWO!)
Aren't they just delicious looking? Like little tangerine slices.

Cat's Eye. Liked these so much, I made a few Japanese Plum Blossoms

And here they are!

So, what can I make for ya?
;)

I hope you like the pictures of my new toys... Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got some beading to do! Gotta go! Buh-bye!

Mouah!

Moi!