Spectacular mail days! (Part 3 - Trollfairy in the Stars)

Like most people I love receiving packages in the mail, and as I buy many beads from overseas (as well as the UK), I never quite know when they're going to arrive, and in what order... it becomes a bit of a lottery as to what will arrive first and I love surprises.

This is the third post of three that spanned only 2 days and what made it spectacular wasn't just the beads (although they are ALL stunners) but all the surprise extra bits and pieces that were included in with the beads.  How to turn a great package into a spectacular one!

I've saved the best for the last of this series of posts.

As regular readers know I'm a BIG fan of the retired silver birthstone zodiac stars, I go slightly nutty over them and have been heard to say that if I could only have one collection of silver trollbeads it would be these.

I was so excited when I completed my collection of stars last September that when I was writing and thinking about my New Year's Bead Resolutions for 2013 my No. 2 resolution was to start to pick up some multiples of these before they disappear completely.  It's fab having the full collection but sometimes it would be nice to have 2 of the same stone to use on a bracelet...

(Hands up how many of you noticed the multiples of the Cancer and Pisces 

Zodiac Birthstone Star in the Valentine's Day Bracelet post?!)

Enter my Trollfairy from Australia... not only did she tell me about a lost treasure trove of zodiac birthstone stars (and other beads) in her Local Dealers, but waited until there was a massive sale that included retired beads, and went to the shop several times to photograph their entire stock, and reserve items, and come back and show photos, and go back to the shop to handpick out certain stars, and then send photos of the final choices... Then to pay and pick them up and send them (along with Angles Tip, another silver bead I've been searching for) all the way to the UK, with extra bits from Australia.  And, as if this couldn't get any sweeter, she did the same for several of us all at the same time!!  Halfway through this process we decided she needed to be promoted to a Trollangel because as fabulous as fairies are, this was way above and beyond the already excellent standard of Trollfairy.

As much I desired it, I couldn't stretch to the full set in one go (stretching to 7 was hard enough),
so I had to make a choice as to which 2 would get left behind this time.
I finally made a decision based on the current colours of the beads in my collection.

Not only did I get a great set of beads, but the wrapping was superb, an Australian flag napkin which also revealed other goodies...

There was a limited edition Australian Afternoon Tea and a coaster on which to rest my mug of tea!

I was delighted with the whole package and couldn't believe how she'd managed to fit so much into such a small package!

As you can see it was less than the width of 3 trollbead pouches, best use of space I've seen in a packet!

I will leave you with a few more choice shots of the beads, as after all, these were what all the fuss was about.

Retired Silver Mexican Lock

I love this lock and have always kept an eye out for one at a great preloved price, so was really surprised to stumble across a new one in the sales!  I say stumble because the web site was rather clunky to use and I hadn't really seen that many new ones for sale online... perhaps I've not been looking in the right places?!

Most Mexican Locks I've seen have different coloured glass and lots of colours, mine has green on both sides which I rather like.  Although this lock is retired, the gold version is still available in the current collection.

I wasted no time at all in ordering this, I still can't believe I was able to aquire a new one at a sale price, and to the lock's credit my live-in geek even expressed how nice this was... the highest praise indeed - reserved for only the most special of pieces!

No pinks - PINKS!

I hope you all had a lovely week or two whilst I was away sunning myself on a tiny Greek Island!

I particularly hope you had fun with the Halloween release during this time.  I confess I did pop into the Trafford Centre Beaverbrooks on the way back from the airport... but sadly they didn't have their Halloween stock in yet, so no glowing beads for me right now - although I feel honour bound to say we'd actually stopped for some food to avoid rush hour traffic... not especially to hunt for halloween beads.

For now though I want to tell you about my recent PINKS!

My first foray into pink beads started with a retired pink bud, an impulse purchase based on a good price that was just too good to resist.

So it was no surprise when my next SIX pink beads arrived in much the same fashion...

I love the agate beads and when 5 striped pink agate beads were suddenly offered at such a low price for all 5, I couldn't resist, then to make the deal even sweeter the lovely seller offered to throw in a 6th for free.  She hadn't put it up for sale because it had a tiny chip near the core, which is quite hard to see even when you're looking for it.  That's just one of the things I love about all the people I've bought from so far; the care and attention to detail they take over their beads and making sure you're happy with buying them.

So I now have 7 pink beads in total... I didn't fancy going pink all the way on my next combo, besides I was still too excited about my stars.  I combined my love of the agates and the zodiac stars and topped it all off with a nice plump 'dillo!

(This bracelet reminds me of children's sweets as it has a sugary candy like appearance)

Written in the Stars (a continuation of Falling off the Wagon - Part III)

Well what an amazing week I've had!

In my previous post I reflected on the joys and processes of blogging, the trollbead community and shared that I'd finally spent some of my holiday fund, actually on a holiday, rather than on trollbeads.

Some of the thoughts and ideas behind that piece was to expand on the short My Blog piece that sits along the right hand side of any posts you might be reading, to explain how my blog process happens and why I write a blog in the first place and finally to give some background on the lack of posts for the week given how many packages were popping through my letterbox (and still are... a'hem).

Today I want to get back to telling you all about some of my new beads and return to a theme I've talked about before.

Silver Zodiac Birthstone Stars
The first bead to pop through the letterbox was another retired silver birthstone zodiac star, Gemini.  As blogged, I love this collection but it was retired before I started collecting.  I've only ever seen 4 beads for sale since I discovered them out of the total collection of 9.  (For those wondering several of the star signs are doubled up so it's not a collection of 12 like other zodiac collections).  My Virgo bead, which I bought as a reminder of my Dad and was the first in my bead box, was shortly followed by Leo as my second bead from this collection.

By a process of simple logic Gemini was my third, this bead was purchased online via a retired beads sale so I got this at a bargain price.  When I bought this bead I suddenly started to get the fear that if I didn't buy the other one that is still available I'd miss out on the chance of it.

The fourth silver zodiac bead that I'd seen on sale was Taurus, I was just about to order this at full price from another online retailer when I spotted it on Ebay.

I buy and sell on Ebay but had never done this for Trollbeads before; online I do buy from other collectors but that is on a more personal level through the trollbead community. I wanted Taurus so much, but I was sensible enough to not want to pay over the odds for a preloved bead when I could buy new from a retailer.  With my bidding plan decided, I bid, I won, I *love* my new bead and it's been on my leather constantly since as shown in my last post!

I played around with with my two new zodiac stars to make a new combination without breaking up my current combinations and this is what I came up with.

Obviously I couldn't do this piece without showing you my favourite Virgo bead below ;)

So what are the rest of the beads in the collection?

Aquarius - this has a gorgeous turquoise bead which would work brilliantly with my agate beads on a bracelet and is also my live-in geek's star sign.

Libra and Sagittarius - not only do I want this bead because I'm Sagittarius myself; but I think the deeper blue would look great with a lot of my beads, as I have a high proportion of blue and purple beads in my collection.

Capricorn - this bead has onyx as it's stone, I've mentioned before that I have a fondness for the stones!

Scorpio and Aries - I adore the red colour on this bead and have recently started to increase the red colour in my collection, my first bead with any red in it was featured on my first finished bracelet.

Cancer and Pisces - this star has a pearl on it, I recently saw a photo of a leather bracelet that contained 2 of these, the bead looks very pretty on a cream combination.  Obviously those who know me, know that I'm unlikely to ever have a cream/white combination but I'm sure I can think of a few different uses for this bead ;)

So finding those 5 beads would make up my first full collection of a particular release and render my Zodiac Wishlist obsolete; I've not yet done the research to find out what my chances are of collecting the final five!

No new additions until I get paid in September (yeah right!)

After setting myself a "no new additions until I get paid in September" rule, admittedly one I *thought* I might break before the month was up, I really didn't expect to break this rule so soon... I lasted 2 days.

In my defence, my first infringement of my self imposed rule was a "preloved" (aka secondhand) 17cm silver bracelet.  

As previously blogged my collection is growing and I am enjoying my current purple/blue, green and silver bracelet so much so that I'm not keen to break it up at the moment.  It has some of my favourite beads that get used over and over again, milky way, lake eye, silver cells and more recently silver virgo; leaving these beads on this bracelet will challenge me to not rely on my favourites! 

Back to my (rather flimsy) defence... This bracelet was at a very good price so I decided to dive straight on in, still hopelessly believing that I'd climb right back out again... ahem.

My thoughts were I could have fun making up this second bracelet with my other beads and challenging myself to make combinations without relying on my trusty four.

It was a good plan.

But not quite good enough...

Before going on holiday I'd communicated with a lady in Wales who was selling her collection of beads and I'd expressed an interest in buying some from her.  However holiday adventures meant that not only did I not get around to sorting this out as promised, but my unexpected side trip to Bristol meant I'd bought 3 new beads there, so in my head I'd spent my troll fund allocation for that month.

However fate was to have a hand, as I came across this same collection of beads via another source. Fate I decreed!  (See I am really good at bending my own rules).  So I got back in touch and added to my preloved collection with bright red prism, red prism and 2 silver stoppers for my new bracelet.

Did I leave it at that? Oh no, half an hour after this I discover one of my favourite online retailers have a retired beads sale on, having just bought some red beads I ordered the retired silver Leo bead as it has an orangy red bead (from the same collection as my silver Virgo).  I really want to add as much of this retired collection to my beads as I can; I love the silver star designs!  Unfortunately I've not seen that many available and it's always the same few types.  I'm making plans to add Taurus and Gemini whilst they're still available and then will try and slowly hunt down any of the others that I might have the fortune to find.  But enough about this tangent; let me get back to the current story!

Last Friday I was going out and wearing a lot of red so it was the perfect chance to wear my new prism beads, they go really well with my RAFBF bead and I've not worn my new dragon much so here is what I chose.

Then on Saturday whilst waiting for (recorded) delivery No.4 (I know I know, I fell off the wagon so hard my backside is positively black and blue) I decided to make something with my preloved silver bracelet and my new retired silver Leo.  Now I'd played around a bit when I first got it (who can't resist doing this with new beads - unless of course you are on holiday and just carry them around for 2 weeks!) but today I decided to make something a bit away from my normal style.

The result is a very summery bracelet (lol made on the first day of Autumn, I am always late to the party) and whilst I love the look of the bracelet I can't see me wearing this one much myself at the moment.  Well not unless someone is going to pay for me to jet off somewhere with summery weather and a wardrobe of pretty dresses to match.

 

Delivery No. 4 arrived whilst I was typing... Deliveries No. 5 and No. 6 are due next week! 

(No. 6 was ordered whilst I was finishing this piece; when I fell off this wagon I decided to do a somersault on the way down just for fun)

Purple Flower Mosaic

"Every single bead has its own character.  Each one a separate piece of an exquisite Persian flower mosiac cast in purple with a shiny shadow of diachronic glass" is how this bead is described officially.

It's certainly an unusual bead; it has what almost looks like 3 gaps in the pattern which shimmer in different colours, mine has pinky/purple, gold and yellow/green in each of the 3 sparkly bits - you can see 2 of these 3 in the following photos.

When it arrived I was a little unsure, I was still contemplating it some time later when I started trying it out with other beads... that's when it all made sense.  It plays nicely with my green ooak and compliments my purple prism just right.

Fresh with the arrival of my bargain beads (see previous post) I decided to break up my current bracelet and try a more colourful combination.  I'm rather pleased with the results and I've been able to use some of my favourite silvers with a greater splash of colour today.

Clockwise from Lock: silver stopper, golden cave, ooak, baltic gold, bead of fortune, purple armadillo,
purple prism, purple flower mosaic, lucky dragon, ooak, lilac edge, lake eye, virgo, red symmetry,
lithuania bead, pumpkin, silver stopper, lace lock.

Bead of Fortune in more detail

Hunting for bargains

One of things I get excited about is the opportunity to add to my collection at a bargain price and thereby increase my options on finished bracelets; previously I told you all about my excitement when Agate Bead Sets were officially reduced by 40% - still my greatest bargain to date!

Read about my Agate Bead Bargain

I also always make use of loyalty points, online discounts (usually 5-10%) and anything else that helps me grow my collection.

Recently I've been having a bit of a run with the bargains and have added another 8 beads... with discounts between 25 - 30% off and I've bagged myself a few retired/limited stock beads in the process.  Happy Mars!

First came an online bargain, 4 beads with 30% off

Top left: Lilac Edge, Top right: Pumpkin, Bottom Left: Virgo, Bottom Right: Red Symmetry

I love how some beads are different to how you expect.  I'd originally chosen Red Symmetry because I wanted to add to my red beads, whereas in reality it's a lovely but more orangy/red bead, Pumpkin I chose because of it's lovely orangy brown tones yet in reality it has some beautiful deep reds too.  With Lilac Edge I wanted a bead that would span both purple and red, whereas it has an almost oil painting like quality with added orange in the palette.

Virgo I'd had my eye on for a while, as well as a beautiful silver bead with a bead mounted on it, my Dad is a Virgo and I wanted a Dad bead to go with my "Father-in-Law" bead.

My Father-in-Law Bead

Again in the online bargains came a long time favourite from my wish list, 25% off this time, Clear Blue Bubbles!

The final 3 beads (for now... their sale goes on throughout August) were purchased today.  Whilst on a rare visit to town for a festival at the weekend, I was walking through one of the little arcades and spotted a handwritten small sign saying Trollbeads - 25% off!  I didn't even know the shop was there!!  It took me less than 3 days to visit to check it out... it would have been sooner but I've been working away from home for 2 days and they don't open on a Sunday ;)

L-R: Brown Desert, Purple Stripes, Blue Goldstone 

I've told my friends about my bargains and 2 beads have been purchased by others, and I've just received a Wish List from a friend with priorities and a budget so I'm off back to shop on her behalf as she doesn't live up this end of the country.

Hmmm now if only someone would pay me to become a personal bead shopper!

Spurred on to get more silver beads

So my last finished bracelet gave me a dilemma, I didn't have the ambers and didn't want to put other glass beads in with my Agate kits, there was no option in my trollbead crazed mind... I needed more silvers!

Brew of the Moor and Silver Angle, Triangles followed and completed my Agate bracelet just in time for me to wear out for my wedding anniversary.  I don't have any photos of that combination but here are two of the silvers instead.

Brew of the Moor

Angle, Triangles

I had had Brew of the Moor on my wish list for a while and Angle, Triangles had just been recently retired so I decided to get it whilst it was still available.

6 days later

So I had the beginnings of my bracelet and was really pleased with my 5 beads.

Then there was that 10% off offer from the online jewellers, along with the £9 loyalty voucher from my first order with them...

Say hello to Silver Mountain and Black Squirrel (a "recently retired" bead)

L-R: Silver stopper, Midnight Flower, Silver Mountain, Milky Way, Lucky Dragon,
Lake Eye, Black Squirrel, Forest Flowers, (unseen) Silver stopper, safety chain, Lace Lock.

Black Squirrel in more detail, now I tend to wear this the other way round with the V shape pointing down.

Silver Mountain in more detail, this is one of 3 beads in similar style.
The others are Golden Cave (to come) and Earth (yet to buy)