The Currency of Beads.....

Sometimes, to keep things fresh, you have to go in a different direction.   When Mark and I went to trade fairs over the last couple of months, I was under strict instructions to be 'on the lookout for the next big thing'...not sure what the next big thing was supposed to be or how I was supposed to know this big thing when I saw it (unless, indeed it was actually just a 'big thing') I mostly got on with happily perusing the current 'thing' of jewellery, beads, beads, jewellery and - well you get the drift.

Well, I guess I didn't really find any huge and amazing new things so I ended up investing in some gorgeous high-end finished jewellery in a style we don't stock at the moment (so that'll be a new website then, which will keep Mark happily gnashing his teeth and swearing for a few weeks) and I decided to buy more beads.   If we lived in New Guinea a couple of hundred years back we'd be millionaires.   I can assure you we are neither millionaires nor do we live in New Guinea though the sunshine sure would be nice right now. 

But trade fairs are very good at sucking you into stuff you never really knew you wanted to be sucked into.  I'm just about the biggest sucker in the world you can imagine for shiny sparkly beady stuff.  

You know how I own BeadAddict alongside SLC Designs (no?  well, yeah, actually I do....) -- actually BeadAddict is more or less a front for my own bead addiction.....I can't buy anything without taking a big scoop off the top for myself, telling Mark that I'm just taking it up to the studio for 'further studies' or 'safekeeping' or 'in case something bad' happens to his supply in the bead room where BeadAddict stock is supposed to live.  

I guess the something bad might be covered by him actually selling his bead stash and then turning to me and demanding the return of the 'study' pile.   Now, no mortal could get through the amount of beads up there in fifty lifetimes.  Yes, I am a magpie, and yes, I have been collecting for years and years and years, well before BeadAddict was born, but frankly, once its up there in the studio its over, honeys, its just not coming down unless it comes down as a nice new necklace or bracelet or whatever.   Sometimes Mark has to get down on his knees and beg because he's sold more than he thought he had.   Or maybe that's because I've taken more than he thought I had.  Whatever, sorry, its gone.

Then we get into the whole bargaining thing.   For instance it might well go like this - if you wash my car, muck out my horse, make a cup of tea and cut the lawn then maybe, just maybe I can go and see if I can find that red Murano heart that you sold to Mrs. Williams down the road who looks like she's going to be just a tad disappointed.....hmmmm???
Who said that beads couldn't be used as currency any more then????  Bartering seems to be alive and well in SLC Towers.