Whew, am I tired! Today was the first day of Gem Show for me. That meant shopping. Lots of shopping. We only hit the G&LW Gem Mall, but that was enough to wipe us all out.
We happened to walk in right next to the place that I always buy my crystals from. So the first order of business was to get crystal. I had a list of what I needed. I purchased everything on that list, and then a few other very cool colors. Swarovski is raising their prices in February, so I figured I might as well buy a little more than I was planning. Besides, all of the colors were so beautiful! I always say "I'm not going to buy so much crystal this year" and then I see that wall of sparklies, and I just can't help myself.
I actually did exercise a little more self-control when it came to Czech glass and vintage, though I did let Chris talk me into this really cool strand of slightly twisted green and black triangles. What will I do with them? I have NO clue. My other awesome vintage find was a bag of domed tortoise shell glass disks, with a hole at the top. They will make great dangles in something, but again, I'm not sure what.
Other purchases included some Thai hill tribe silver, not a lot but some really cute little dangles which I'll probably add to collars. Then there's my secret weakness, Chinese carvings. Not only did I get another crow seated on a skull, but I got a skull with two owls sitting on it. How wicked is that?!? Plus I got TINY wooden skull beads. I'm used to seeing the big ones, strung up all mala-style, but these are little 5mm guys. So sweet! And I got some really pretty Sterling chandelier findings, so as soon as I buy more headpins, there will be great new earrings.
My best purchase, however, was BELTS! There was this booth that had all of that tribal jewelry stuff, including lots of belts. I was admiring them, and they didn't have any prices, and I thought "They're going to be too expensive, I should just get a necklace or some bracelets." Then a lady asked the guy working there how much one style of belt was, and he said $20. I thought "Wow, those must just be the super-budget ones, surely this cool style that I like must cost $75-100." I was prepared to maybe spend a lot anyway, since I had, after all, saved my Christmas money for just this purpose. So I asked how much the belt I was holding up was. He said $30. Then I asked him about the other belt I was eyeing. He said that it was $25. So at that price I naturally decided that I had to have BOTH. I now have a silver-metal and blue glass belt with chains with little jingly hearts dangling them, and a cord belt with "amulets" hanging from it, including two mirrors. Nevermind that I already had two belts.
The blue belt is actually too long, but it should be easy to remove a segment or two, and then I can use that to make a necklace, or since I already have a necklace which will look awesome with that belt, maybe I can figure out a way to attach it to my turban, or I could sew it onto a bag, or make it into a necklace to sell. Either way, the extra piece will not go to waste.
By the time we were done at Gem Mall, we were all beat and starving, so we decided to forgo "Metaphysical Row" which is OK, because the main thing I was going to buy there was tribal jewelry, and I already got my belts, da ha! Now I am here at home, struggling to stay awake because I got almost no sleep last night. I just lay awake thinking about gem show.
Tomorrow is set up for the show I'm working at, and it's also when I'll be dancing for my friend/boss Lois. Should be fun!
No Cool Thing today, Gem Show is so cool that everything else pales in comparison!
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