T is for Trollbeads on my Travels

Well I could hardly let T pass without choosing Trollbeads; after all I am The Trollbead Troll @TrollbeadBlog on Twitter.

The inspiration for the "on my travels" part happened quite by chance; thanks to a random Tweet on Twitter and finding myself with a spare 90 minutes in another country (Wales).

So what can one do with a spare 90 minutes?  Check Twitter & notice that Paul Gentile Jewellers in Cwmbran are holding a Trollbeads Event to launch the new collection.  Interesting things were being hinted at and somebody mentioned a goodie bag with purchase... always the curious one I set off in search of Trollbeads!

Trollbeads Counter Display at Paul Gentile Jewellers
in Cwmbran, South Wales

In another twist of fate I almost met one of my lovely readers who happened to be heading the same way at the same time; but alas slow facebook notifications meant it just wasn't meant to be (this time)!

Fantasy Necklace

Greeted with a glass of Bucks Fizz and a Chocolate Cake there was plenty of time to have a look at some of the new arrivals...

New Limited Edition Emerald Fantasy Necklace with Cherry Blossom Splitter Bead

...and chat to the staff about Trollbeads and all things jewellery!

Trollbeads on display

Paul Gentile staff recreating the People's Bead 2014 postcard - fun things to do in a Trollbeads Shop!

So my 90 mins was time well spent, and if you are ever passing Cwmbran the shop is well worth a visit.  It was only my second visit here but there always seems to be a warm welcome - although I'm not sure you can have chocolate cakes and bucks fizz every time!

The big question, given all my talk of budgets earlier on in the challenge, was did anything catch my eye?  Actually this time I was pretty strict with myself; I bought a small silver bead that was next on my list of beads to buy from the Spring Collection and as I was being good I put back another Glass Bead and a Moss Agate Stone and really did buy 1 bead ONLY.

 

I was also tempted by the Thomas Sabo Karma Beads as Abi had spotted my stack of the day...

...and thought they might appeal to me - she was right, but I am not going to start any new bracelet lines just yet as I attempt to reign in my spending a little bit.  *Puts them on the "list" for later*

And my Goodie Bag?  Was filled with red wine, chocolates, new product info, a bookmark and a polishing cloth - great use of 90 minutes!

I love when great timing allows you to participate in something you weren't expecting... any tales of co-incidence you have to share?  

Pretty in Pink IV - Silver with Garnets, 3 Raspberry OOAKs, Thor's Hammer & a new bracelet design

I love Twitter, you can find me as The Trollbead Troll @TrollbeadBlog if you're so inclined...

Why the sudden declaration for Twitter?  Well it led me onto my next 2 beads... courtesy of Paul Gentile Jewellers in South Wales tweeting about their store in Cwmbran and alerting me to their sale!  I received fabulous customer service when I popped in, and I will certainly be returning next time I'm in the area as the staff were so lovely; it's great to visit a store where the staff have such a passion for Trollbeads...

Top - Thor's Hammer
Bottom - Silver with Garnets

When I returned  home from my trip a few days later, there were 3 more beads waiting for me courtesy of another favourite retailer of mine, Goldmine...  If you like a bargain you really should check out their Trunk Show which starts today and runs until the 29th April.  4 beads for the price of 3, $40 off the Aurora Bangle Limited Edition Set, the usual free bracelet with a decorative lock and a free travel case with orders over $125!

So, Silver Bead with Garnets and Thor's Hammer, combined with 3 new OOAKs from Goldmine and all of those Retired Red Pink Prisms and a new bracelet was conceived.

L-R from Lock: stopper, Retired Red Pink Prism (RRPP), Thor's Hammer, RRPP,
Raspberry and Glitter Heart OOAK, Scorpio and Aries Birthstone Star, RRPP, Raspberry Glitter Python,
Silver with Garnets, Raspberry Glitter Fern, RRPP, Scorpio and Aries Birthstone Star, Raspberry OOAK,
RRPP, Viking, Raspberry Armadillo, stopper, Freya Knot Lock.

I hope everyone has a lovely weekend coming up, I will be keeping my fingers crossed for good weather for a wedding tomorrow - have a lovely day girls!  There are all the People's Bead finalists to vote for and I shall also be writing some more blog posts for the last weekend triple of April whilst trying not to spend a fortune with all these lovely tempting offers!  Have a great one folks!!

Triple Celebration

In Blindfold Bracelet Challenge I'd joked about my stars being too closely aligned (they got stuck to each other on my trial bracelet), and in Written in the Stars my first sentence was that I'd had an amazing week, and as good as winning Taurus in an Ebay auction was... it wasn't the only astounding thing that happened that week.

I sometimes enter the Facebook Friday competition run by Fable Trading (interesting timeline here of when Trollbeads came to the UK through Fable Trading).

On one such Monday I scanned the internet on my phone at lunchtime, as you do when you're munching on your sandwich... it was a very late lunch as it had been quite a busy day...  Cue much jumping up and down, and I fear some "sqeeing" (sic) when I discovered that I'd won!!!

That evening I poured over the glass beads in Price Group I trying to decide which bead to choose, it was much harder than I thought it would be given that I still have so many of these on my wish lists.  After much deliberation I chose Skyline from the Hong Kong World Tour, I already had one from this collection when I bought the Dragon and Phoenix bead.

Skyline swiftly arrived just as I was leaving for a work trip 2 days later, what a service!!  I admired it but had to put it safely in my bead box until I returned, it really is a beautiful bead.  You may well have to take my word for this as I had a great deal of trouble trying to photograph it to be able to show this; very tricky bead to capture on a phone camera!

The next thing to happen was a twitter exchange between myself and my fellow blogger Michael Nand who had just celebrated 1,000 page views on his new blog.  He suggested that I should buy myself a new bead when this blog hit it's first milestone, although technically I guess it's the second milestone... as for me the first milestone was that anyone other than myself read it!  

You would be very welcome to follow me on twitter @TrollbeadBlog if you like to tweet, I mostly talk about trollbeads or this blog, but I do sometimes tweet photos that don't make it into the blog.

www.curlingstonesforlegopeople.blogspot.co.uk recorded 1,000 page views exactly the following day, so, hardly needing any encouragement to buy even more beads, I treated myself to a preloved OOAK from another collector.  I haven't bought an OOAK for a while and I do enjoy them!  Again I had trouble photographing this one as well, not sure if I'm just having an "off" day with the camera!

 

So feeling mighty happy about things I continued on my week.

The third achievement of the triple celebration that the title refers to is a personal one, about a year ago I decided that I was carrying around a bit too much weight, nothing serious but something that had bothered me in a "my clothes don't fit me properly anymore" type of way.  As a result of doing something about this - I've been eating healthily for the last year and trying to mould my eating habits into healthy all the time, rather than most of the time, along with ensuring I get in some exercise - I hit my personal goal of a great BMI score on the Wednesday.  Rather pleased I celebrated ironically with a beer and a curry!

So I want to choose a bead to mark my achievement... but what to choose?

Silver Hare and Tortoise? This bead certainly sums up my approach to whole losing weight thing and I like Aesop's fables, it's one of the collection of stories that I like to dip into on my kindle.

Whirling Adventure? One from my wish list and that's certainly what the year has felt like, and much like it's description I certainly seized the moment when I started out.

Or to simply treat myself to something nice to mark the occasion?  I'm going to give this some more thought, (and let my bank balance recover a bit), before making a final decision.  Like the weight loss journey; there's no rush!