Bead Shopping

One of my favorite things to do is to meet up with my BBF Christine and go bead shopping. We've done this many times at this point and we're just in a rhythm. 

We'll walk into the large room filled with tables, and tables of beads, rocks, fibers and all things that look like Christmas morning to a beader. 

She'll walk one way, I'll walk the other. Then periodically meet up and compare purchases. It is a perfect rhythm for me. 

Christine is an organized shopper. She likes to case the joint ... making a full circle through all the tables first before making a purchase. She needs to get an inventory of what's there and then decide what to buy based on what she's budgeted for our splurge. She is so disciplined! Yes, yes, I hear you. I could learn a few tricks from her.

But, I have a completely different way to shop. I actually don't shop all that often. My husband does most of the shopping for the household (lucky me). And when we do happen to go shopping together (a rare occasion) I am usually zooming through aisles, picking out things and rarely looking at prices. He on the other hand, will methodically go through the aisles, read each label, comparison shop, check off from a list. And he'll take a look at what I've put into the basket and quietly put things back ... O.M.G. it drives me bananas! It just takes all the fun out of it for me.

My bead shopping isn't much different. I love to stumble across a pendant that I instantly start to design around in my head. But the best part of bead shopping is that my husband NEVER comes with me. Yes, the best part. I can shop in peace. This pendant here is one of those pieces, but the lovely part of it is that Christine seems to know me well. She surprised me with this one (along with a few others) the last time we were at the Bead Expo in Fishkill, NY. Instantly I saw this looking Egyptian and I wanted it to have that Cleopatra-breastplate look to it. I love this pendant, loved creating with it, and love shopping with my BBF.