Bead&Gem Show

Ok.. let's face it. I never take enough money to these shows with me and usually end up blowing the majority of my budget at the first few stalls. This is what happened to me on Saturday in any case..

The Bead&Gem Show was on this weekend in Sydney and I went with my room mate, Ellisha, her fiance and his mum. There weren't very many stalls there - maybe about 20 or so? - and I went straight to the one where I knew they had what I originally went there for in the first place.. Those new czech glass spike beads. This particular store also had a wide variety of seed beads, so I was already treading in dangerous territory..
Come time for me to pay after picking my goodies (and desperately trying to hold back on getting more stuff) and then I realised I had spent about 80% os my budget at the one stall.. Oops!

We continued down the stalls - me and Ellisha carefully picking out what we wanted while constantly getting cracks from the other two about 'OMG! They have moved 2 stalls in the last half hour!' shock horror! - Lol. Alot of the stall holders recognised me from the last show that I went to because I was wearing the same shoes =P My shoes that are literally COVERED in metal spikes (they are amazing). We watched a demonstration about working with apoxy clay and using this paste that colours metal settings and the like.

Long story short, here is the stash that I came home with!


Clockwise from top left corner: 8x tubes 11/0 seed beads, 3x tubes 15/0 seed beads, 3x baggies of czech glass spike beads (black, nickel, hematite), Diamond glaze glue with round and oval clear cabochons and 6x patterns of rice paper, filigree findings, some of the colouring paste in silver, gold key charm, 2x cabochons (red and blue iris), 4x pear shaped swarivski crystals and 3x Montana ractangle swarovski crystals, flat backed swarovski hotfix beads silver, 2mm round swarovski crystal beads light siam and 3x tubes of 11/0 seed beads 



 So, I think we came home with a prety good haul this year :) the 3x tubes of seed beads in the bottom right are Ellisha's as is the gold key charm, some of the filigree settings and we are sharing the clear cabs with the different patterned papers.

I can't wait to start playing with it all!
Emma
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Quilt and Craft show

Good evening everybody!!

Thought that I would let you know what's been going on in my life lately.. Which is work, work and a lil more work =P lol. The Quilt and Craft show was on in Sydney this weekend and I saved as many pennies as I could so that I could splurge on beads! I got up at 7.00 on Saturday morning and got the bus into the city.. in the rain.. with no umbrella.. and as I was walking through Darling Harbour, I learnt a few things:

1. Wearing a leather jacket when it's raining MAY seem like a good idea in hindsight while you're at home, but you soon find that it gets very muggy very quickly.

2. Next time you look outside and the sky is pitch black and is very much threatening rain.. the moment you thinnk 'meh, I won't need an umbrella', the universe is going to smack you in the face and make it rain the second you step off the bus.

3. My Nightwalk shoes may look fabulous but they are NOT made for wet weather! But aren't they amazing?!?! Totally worth me nearly breaking my ankle in public because these shoes have BUGGER ALL grip on the bottom of them!

Really, I was walking on the wet bricks and looked like I had a pole stuck up my backside when I was walking around the harbour. Awkies!

But I digress..

I got to the exhibition centre and bought my entry ticket and then decided to grab a chai latte before I went in. There's me, standing in the middle of the foyer, waiting for my drink, casually bopping along to the macarena that was blasting from the speakers and the looks that I was getting from people!! Twas quite amusing.. lol.

The show was great, I realised the moment I stepped in though that I didn't have enough money and that I was going to be in ALOT of trouble.. I told myself that I was going to do one round of just 'looking' and then go around and buy stuff.. needless to say, that play didn't last too long..

One of the whole reasons why I went to the show to begin with is because I wanted to get some tila beads for one of our Beading Babes projects. Finally found a stall (in the end, it was the only stall that had them) and then I realised something.. I didn't bring the pattern with me and didn't know how many I needed. I frantically pulled out my phone - less than 20% battery - and went onto facebook and desperately posted on the Beading Babes page how many I needed. THANKFULLY, Christine was online and was able to tell me how many I needed!

I spent quite a bit of money on 3 cross stitch patterns (between $15-$25 each) and then the very last stall that I looked at in the very last aisle.. had them for $1 each. But there was some little old bitty guarding the tub with her life and going through them taking ALL of the gorgeous gothic ones! I was looking over her shoulder thinking "Please don't take that one.. NOOOO" every time she picked one up. By the time I got to the container, there were hardly any left, but I did get 4 nice ones.

I have decided that I want to learn how to make resin pendents.. The ones where you glue the paper to the back of the clear cabs. I bought one already made, but I want to learn how to make them! I also ran into my old boss from the bead shop I worked at, so it was good to catch up with her :)

AND FINALLY! - I just realised that I have been crapping on again, life for me always turns into an epic tale! Haha! - Here are some pictures of the goodies I got (again, the pictures aren't that great):


Clockwise from top:

- 2x silver hairslides
- Baggie of polymer clay roses in white, pink and a browny colour
- 10x little silver square thingos
- 2x sliders (green and blue, red and purple)
- Peach acrylic rose
- A green glass/resin cab
- 8x cabochons with skulls embedded on them (red, white, grey and pueple)
- 4x swarovski crystal rivolis
- 1x swarovski shell
- 10x swarovski beads
- 4x tubes 15/0 seeds (4 left tubes)
- 1x tube magmata beads (far right tube)
- 2x packets tila beads, bronze

Here are the 7 cross stitch patterns that I bought. I'm kind of kicking myself that I didn't take photos of each individual pattern, but at the moment, I'm too tired.. lol.

You can see the one on the top (which I looooove and can't WAIT until I get my bead loom to do this project) The 4 mystic stitch brand cross stitch patterns are the ones that were $1 each. Worth it!

So that is my epic adventure for this week, I'm sure that the rest of my week is going to be filled with boredom and such but if anything else happens I shall keep you all posted ;)

Emma

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