Beads in the Mail!!!

The best days are when I come home from a long day of work...and traffic...to a mailbox crammed full of little beady packages.  That was this week for me, as last week I made several orders with my Christmas funds.  Today I'll be showing you a bit of eye candy...because I know you don't mind!

First off, I needed to use up a gift card from Keven's parents...at Shipwreck beads!  If any of you ever get to Washington state, make sure to mark off a day to spend at Shipwreck.  Seriously.  Anyway, they had a seed bead sale going on after Christmas, so I stocked up!  To the tune of 6 hanks each of black and matte black 11/0's.  I've also been obsessed with striped seed beads lately.  In fact, I got four variations of crystal striped with black, and some awesome black and white striped brown with an AB finish.  I already have some of those beads, but I've used so many of them I figured it was a good idea to get more.  I got a couple of random things too...my favorite bright mix of XL peanuts, mix of interesting tube shaped and XL striped beads, 11/0 crystal silver lined charlottes, and white pearl 8/0 drops.  And I stocked up on 5 different mixes of twins!  Those should be fun to play with!

But seed beads are not all I got!  Shipwreck also has a fantastic selection of standard and unusual Czech glass beads.  I can't wait to dive into all these, especially the flat topped XL 2-hole beads.  I've already been wearing the square drops on my hoops too!  Gotta love a bead you can just throw on a simple wire hoop!

I also had an Etsy gift card from my best PIB, Kelly.  I waffled around for weeks on what to buy with it.  When people give you money to spend on yourself, I think it's important to buy things that you wouldn't normally buy...those things that you've ogled for ages, but always tell yourself "maybe next time".  So I bought art beads (I had some extra $ in my PayPal account too).  

Top row:  Bronze clay sperm whale by InLoveWithSaturday, porcelain fish by SlinginMud, and a lampwork cab by InLoveWithSaturday (an extra goodie!).  Bottom row:  Seaweed component by SlinginMud, "steampunk" lady face pendant by SlinginMud, big eyed lampwork fish Warren by AardvarkArtGlass, and a "steampunk" bird pendant by SlinginMud.  OMG, I love that whale!  Apparently I've started collecting whale components for some reason.  Also, Sheri Mallery's porcelain components (SlinginMud) are just fabulous!  And man, I've wanted a fish from Aardvark for a LONG time.  Finally the $ and stars aligned, and Warren came to me!

And just a teaser of the progress I've made this week for our upcoming Beading Back in Time blog hop challenge.  This is the last progress post I'll be making, so make sure you tune in at the end of the month for the big reveal!  I can't wait to see how everyone else was inspired!

Please keep watching my Facebook page for inspiration and updates.  Don't forget to check out my Etsy shop too!  And, as always, thanks for looking!