Memphis Trip

I had an awesome time with my husband this weekend! He took me to the Intergalactic Bead Show in Memphis, TN. I was in heaven! Sooo many gorgeous beads! I could have easily spent a month's pay in a matter of hours. The bead artists were amazing and had the most beautiful, though most expensive, beads. They are so talented!

I have been to a few other shows and forgot how unladylike us women can get when fighting for beads!! Now I didn't do any pushing...well maybe a little elbowing, but some of those "ladies" are fiesty when you get in their way! There is not much table space so I figured out real quick once you get close to the table of beads you plant your feet firmly and don't let anyone push you out of the way until you get your beads and move to the next booth. What made things worse was the air conditioning went out and we were all sweating and starting to get grumpy! It was a lot of fun though and the nice ladies outnumbered the few pushy ones. I got some really good deals and will be posting my finds on my Etsy supply shop this week.

I found some absolutely gorgeous red faceted glass beads that look like velvet! I hadn't seen this type of bead before and neither had the other women who were at the booth. The beads are a deep Christmas red and look like velvet but they are glass! I tried to photograph them but it is impossible to get the true look of the bead in a picture. I bought a lot though to make some jewelry with and sell the rest.

After the bead show we went to the Victorian Village near downtown Memphis. There was one house open as a museum and we took a tour. My pictures at right don't enlarge so you can't see all the detail but the house was absolutely amazing! Such detail everywhere. The house was built in the late 1800's by Mr. Fontaine and his wife. They raised 8 children to adulthood in the house. What an amazing family home.

Yes, my husband got to have some fun! He dropped me off at the hotel later and he went to "Pull Apart" (a junk yard) to look for parts for the five older cars our five teenagers are driving! They are always needing a door handle or blinker or some such car stuff! It gave me time to look over my treasures from the bead show while he hunted for his "treasures."