I had a beadiful time in the city this past weekend with friends
Lorelei,
Nancy and
Kelley! These ladies are the BEST friends a girl could ask for and so much fun to hang out with! We all met up in New York City on a serious mission for BEADS! (This is a looong post with lots of pictures, so grab a cup of something yummy and join me!)
Lorelei and Kelley in the middle of Times Square!
Nancy flippin' in Times Square!
Nancy took a few Flip videos during the trip. I can't wait to see how those turned out!
Kelley in Times Square.
Kelley is an excellent photographer! She took a lot of great photos during the weekend. You can see her pics from the trip in
Kelley's Album on Flickr!
Kelley, Nancy and Me in Times Square!
I absolutely ADORE this photo that Lorelei took of the three of us! I want to frame this one and keep it on my desk. The only thing keeping it from being perfect is that Lori isn't in it!
I'm sorry to say that my picture-taking for the trip was sad, sad, sad, I'm afraid. Most of my pictures are all from the very beginning of our trip when we first arrived. After about 5 minutes of those fridged New York temperatures, the enthusiasm for pictures was quickly lost! Check out
Lori,
Kelley and
Nancy on their blogs for more details on our trip and PICTURES! When we were in the bead shops, I was pretty focused on the BEADS, what I was going to get and how much I was spending, so sorry, no pictures of the bead shops either, but at least I can show you what I came home with and that's all that really matters anyway, right? Right!
So, without further ado, here's the tour of the NY bead stash!
Our first stop was
Tinsel Trading Company! This shop was beautiful! It was filled with many vintage treasures and stocked from floor to ceiling with a vast array of trims and ribbons! It seems very strange that I didn't get any ribbon there, but I think I was just overwhelmed with the selection!
Lorelei shopping at Tinsel Trading Company.
Here's what I did get there. Some vintage metal sequins and a vintage metal button.
Next stop,
Phoenix Stone & Beads Imports, Inc. Probably the best deals on stones at this bead store! Very nice people. It's wholesale, but if you pay cash they will let anyone shop.
Strands of metallic pearls, dyed agate, florite, turquoise, blue crazy lace agate and not sure what stone the purple teardrops are.
Next, was
City Beads! This store had an amazing selection of Czech glass beads and seed beads! Very nice and helpful staff.
Some great quality wood beads and a selection of Czech glass.
Next,
Toho Shoji! A Japanese bead shop! I love experiencing foreign ideas and concepts. It's especially exciting to see what's going on in the jewelry world outside the US. I really enjoyed this store. They had all kinds of different beads.
I ended up buying this book on wire mesh ribbon lace. It's all in Japanese! I can't read a word, lol! It's full of pictures of jewelry, though and that's enough! I've been wanting to try the wire mesh ribbon lace for quite a while now. It's on my list of materials to try and this book will help provide some inspiration!
Last stop on Saturday was
M&J Trimmings! It was at the end of the day by the time we made it to this shop. We were pretty tired, so we didn't do much shopping. We barely made it through half the store! It was HUGE! Floor to ceiling, buttons, findings, leather, cords, ribbons and trims of all kinds!
I picked up these cool metal findings! I thought they'd make great earring components!
On Sunday, we went back to M&J Trimmings for another spin since we really didn't get through the whole shop the day before.
I'm sooo excited about these! I got these awesome faux leather flowers! I love the colors and finish they came in. I'm sure they are supposed to be appliques for embellishing a bag or hat, but I'm going to make them into pendants! L.O.V.E!
And last but certainly not least,
Bead City New York Bead Center! This was a great, well-stocked shop! We spent a while in here. They had just about everything and a nice selection of EVERYTHING!
Wood beads, silk beading cord, copper beads, copper flower pendant, turquoise donut and Japanese seed beads.
And there you have it! I hope you enjoyed the pics and the tour of the bead stash! Thanks for joining me! :) I had a great time with my beady friends. Couldn't have asked for a better trip and I can't wait for the next adventure!
