Fabulous Friday vs Saturated Saturday

So who else has new collection news exhaustion?!

Bravo to all the "Hot Off the Press" Bloggers and Retailers alike as I was pretty much glued to my mobile and then my computer screen for most of yesterday... what a Friday!

Trollbeads Gold Love Art Collection and the People's Bead Winner "Perfect Balance"

Trollbeads Christmas Collection 2014

From Trollbeads we had the previews of the new Gold Love Art Collection, the announcement of the People's Bead Winner (Congrats Mirjam!) and previews of the Christmas Collection, all available to buy on the 1st, 10th and 17th October respectively.

Then came an unexpected preview of the new X by Trollbeads Christmas Collection entitled Glow X Amaze - available 5th November.  Initially when I read the title I thought there might be a glow in the dark link (my mind works in weird ways) but when I saw the new red Limited Edition links I got a little bit excited!  Black & Red, Red & Bronze, Silver & Red, Red & Silver & Bronze, oh my!!

X by Trollbeads Christmas 2014
Glow X Amaze

So, now, on Saturday, I'm sat with my coffee mulling over the choices... what on earth do I do next with my current budget - I am determined to try and make good my promise to myself to spend less on jewellery this year, as well as my "upgraded" New Year's Bead Resolution to have saved more than I spend on jewellery.  I am well on my way with the former and hoping to meet the latter with 3 months left ticking on the clock.

So back to the beads...  What are my top picks from the affordable?  I say affordable as whilst I am very taken with the Gold Love, Live and Forgive bead and the Silver and Gold dangle Lucky Love, these are way out of my league unless I have some unexpected dramatic change of fortune.

Trollbeads Gold Love, Live and Forgive and Silver and Gold Lucky Love Beads

X by Trollbeads Visible Path

There isn't a price point for Visible Path yet from the Christmas X release but I've not yet bought any of the X pendants and I'm assuming this one will also be unaffordable on my current budget.  I do see some X pendants in my future but not my immediate future!

Initial thoughts are again I favour a lot of the X links... I'm beginning to see a pattern here, not bad for a brand that are barely a year old!

X links Flash of Light and Single Lots of Love

Limited Edition Red Rubber X Links for Christmas!!

X double link Slide Ride and Bronze My Star

From the Trollbeads Christmas release I've been a lot more choosy, there aren't individual pictures of the glass yet and I know I don't want either of the two kits in full.  So they are very much a wait and see, and also a see in person for actual finish - I liked a lot of the glass last Christmas, but found the finished designs could be a lot less like their perfect stock photo examples.

Trollbeads Heart 4 You and Holly Bush

Trollbeads Snowballs

Just 3 of the silver, unusually for me I really like one of the heart offerings, definitely want to see the other side but from the "front" I do like this.  I'm also so glad to see Holly in silver, being a bit of a fan of Holly in a nice hedgerow!  Finally I've chosen Snowballs as a possible contender, I wasn't sure at first but the more I look at this bead the more it grows on me!

Finally the People's Bead was announced and again I like the simplicity of this glass bead, I'm not a fan of black and white beads normally, but I think this is nicely done and as long as the quality control is handled well I think it will work beautifully on a bangle for those of us who've never quite mastered those black and white combos!

People's Bead Winner 2014 - Perfect Balance from Mirjam Seling

Right I don't know about you folks but I need another cuppa and possibly a lie down after that little lot!

What do you think of the new previewed Collections?  Splurge or Save? 

How do you decide what to get first if your wishes exceed your budget?

Christmas "Galaxies"

The Christmas Collection from Trollbeads saw the usual two kits of 6 limited edition glass beads.  One red kit called Christmas Love which is a kit of true reds and one blue kit called Elegant Christmas.

Trollbeads Christmas Collection 2013: "Love Sparkle" and "Elegant Sparkle"

Once again, many retailers are selling these as individual beads and like many collectors I gravitated to what I think of as the 2 signature beads, a true red and a true blue galaxy/mercury bead that follow the very successful pattern seen in the much sought after small and beautiful collection of uniques.

New Christmas red bead shown with the
small & beautiful cream galaxy/mercury beads

I quite like these 2 beads worn on their own on a bangle, the design is strong enough for that to look quite spectacular, particularly when layered up with my usual Story and X by Trollbeads combo as the only pop of colour in an otherwise black and silver ensemble.  However as I always do this I thought I'd play around a bit more.

Interestingly I found I had a bit of difficulty matching these two up with other beads in my collection, as I seem to have a lot more transparent glass and even fewer blues.  Leaving the bangles to one side for a moment I decided to try my hand with these beads on a fantasy necklace for a bit of Christmas Sparkle!

The beads themselves vary quite a lot in both size of glass and silver patterns; I've seen several examples from very pretty and neat beads to lovely messy ones like mine!  I would recommend if you're after a particular size or pattern you choose your own where possible, whether in person, or by photo, or certainly give the shop an indication of your preference if you have one.

I was able to choose my blue bead personally based on a photo and for the red bead I requested "a messy pattern of silver, size of bead is unimportant but the more the silver runs into each other or spills from one dot to the other the better!"  I think the shop chose very well based on my description!

Given the scramble for the small and beautiful beads, there are still people who didn't get any of the most sought after patterns, so I'm especially pleased that Trollbeads have included 2 galaxy/mercury style beads in the Christmas Kits.  As most retailers are splitting the kits it means that everyone has a chance to acquire one of their own, with or without the rest of the kit.  Now that's a nice choice to have to make!

Bangle of the Week - Summer Swap Bangle

Time for a Summer Swap Event - think Secret Santa with beads!

With my parcel to my swap partner safely agonised over, goodies selected, deselected, reselected, bead chosen, discarded, changed, ordered and finally posted on it's merry way.  I then waited for mine and wondered who my swap partner would be and what exotic destination my parcel would come from?

My bead travelled all the way from Yorkshire (England, UK)... where I currently live!  The surprise was my friend had been given me as a swap partner so the parcel was hand delivered last Sunday, making it the biggest surprise ever!

The bead is from the Christmas 2012 Sweet Christmas Kit and I've always wondered about this as a Christmas bead, having just received one in late Summer I think it's a perfect Summer bead.  Paired simply with multiples of the retired zodiac star beads (Taurus) I've not taken this bangle off all week!

Christmas Collection 2012

Well you're probably wondering where my Christmas Collection blog post has got to given the release date was 2nd November, or maybe you're not, I have to admit I was curious myself as to why I hadn't got around to one...

It's not because I haven't been excited about the new Christmas Collection.  To start with it's technically my first one since I started collecting - I'm not really counting Christmas Collection 2011 as despite looking I hadn't bought any trollbeads at that point and since then I have only bought one preloved Limited Edition Christmas Bead from the blue kit.

 

Secondly in 2012, there are a few key pieces I've been very excited about, namely a new lock and a particular silver bead, and I've been rather curious to see the other pieces in the collection, as for me there are many beads that I need to see in real life (not just from stock or actual photos) to make a decision about any must haves, leave it for later or not on your nelly!

For non-UK readers of the blog, indeed for anyone who needs it here is a definition of not on your nelly, but I'm sure you got the gist without the need for any explanation!

Mainly the lack of a Christmas Collection blog post is because I was too busy being a Trollbead Fan Girl, I've been reading about, talking about, looking at, researching deals and generally just been experiencing it rather than writing about it.

My main source of reading blog pleasure about the Christmas Collection has come from Endangered Trolls, not only is Victoria usually the first to break the news but I really like the way she writes and presents her material (hmmm think I'm having a fan girl day today).  Her photos are crisply presented and her blog layout is a delight (told you I was having a day of it).  In the last 24 hours she has been collating lots of the many deals that are available to those collectors who are prepared to shop around, or looking to combine their Christmas Collection purchases with other items to get the best deal for them as an individual.  I'd actually started to do this for myself with online retailers, but it was really good to dip into the links provided by Endangered Trolls to have a nose at the ones I was yet to discover.

Other fellow bloggers have been writing on the subject so I haven't completely neglected Charms Addict, Tartooful, or Michael Nand who've all had something to contribute to my reading list.

Originally rather than reproduce all the photos I thought I would just point you in the direction of other sources such as Endangered Trolls post showing all the beads with details, and Trollbeads UK for further info.

However when I reread the published the piece earlier; I remembered the original reason I started the blog, to see pictures, so I pulled the piece to put in some stock images from Trollbeads UK.  Apologies to anyone who was confused by my "no pictures" "with pictures" indecision this morning.

All my links will open in other windows so if you wanted to make yourself a nice drink, pop open all the links and perhaps enjoy some Saturday reading?  If you fancy some Saturday shopping then I do recommend you read Endangered Trolls posts on the Christmas Collection, there are a lot of good deals out there for those who are prepared to wait for their packages.

Just one (or two) more... (Falling off the Wagon Part V)

I really thought with my recent bonanza of bead packages that the temptation had abated slightly, and actually it had... I was so pleased with my extra beads, bracelet and locks that I was feeling rather content.

Of course I always see beads that I desire, however I can reign it in when needs be (sometimes).  What I wasn't prepared for was when another collector had reduced their prices on some beads I'd liked... to the point where I was totally restrained, oh for all of about 2 minutes when I saw them.

2 quick mouse clicks later (and a short message just in case you thought I was using the mouse clicks as morse code) and pink bud and the limited edition Snow Swirls from the Christmas Kit were winging their way to me...  May just be the quickest transaction to date, posted about 90 minutes after the first message, so requested, paid, packed and posted in record time!

  

My final indulgence of the week was Baby's Breath as described here by Endangered Trolls, it's a spacer and much smaller than normal beads.  I've shown it next to a normal bead and a prism so you can see the size comparison with production beads.  I'd really like another one but I'm being good on the bead buying (at long last) as I'm waiting to spend my final indulgence of September on something special.

Baby's breath was not released in the UK; this was bought from another collector.  The trollbead community are very generous when there are limited releases in other countries; helping out those who don't live there, or who can't, or who are not yet comfortable buying internationally and quite a few of us have benefited from their kindness in getting hold of these to pass on.  To be honest it's probably more considerate to my bank balance if I don't yet buy from abroad as I've seen some stunning beads from other collectors around the globe!!!