This weekend I got to spend a wonderful afternoon with my good friend Elizabeth, and explore an amazing place I'd never been before: Shipwreck Beads. All I can say is wow.
Imagine the size of a sprawling suburban supermarket. Now imagine that every aisle and every wall in that supermarket are filled with beads. Only beads. Well, throw in a little chain and wire and fasten-y things and a few tools, but other than that, only beads. My inner crow nearly exploded from the shimmery sparkliness.
Walls of beads.
No, really - stand back and look at the wall of beads. Floor to ceiling.
Fancy stone beads, silly plastic beads, and everything in between. From keep-in-a-locked-glass-case beads to throw-at-Mardi-Gras beads. Oh my.
Hung in strands and organized into tiny drawers.
Everything you could ever dream of. I mean, if you dreamed of beads.
You push around a large flat cart full of old-fashioned school-lunch trays to organize all your tiny pieces. Oh, the tiny pieces.
You need a couple hours to deal with the mesmirising overwhelmity of it all. We took that time, wandered, played, imagined, and did some serious shopping.
I learned that you overhear some of the most amusing conversations in a giant bead store. Cute things kids say, funny things creative partners discuss - really the audio entertainment almost rivals the visual feast at times.
A surprising number of those conversations included something to the effect of, "well, yes, Michaels does have those too, but they are cheaper here." which was sort of dangerous, because every time my brain processed the words "cheaper here" spoken by a stranger in my vicinity, my unconscious bargain reflex would cause my hand to spontaneously grab something off a shelf and throw it onto my cart. The result was - um - maybe buying a tiny bit more than anticipated (she muttered sheepishly).
The afternoon with a good friend was way overdue, and the creative excitement from the sparkly goodness - it all left me smiling all the way through to my core. Good stuff.
Um, guess what colors I like?
I plan on spending some quality time with these goodies when I go on vacation in a few weeks. I'll keep you posted!
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