I Have Rocks In My Head.....

Every year, right around my birthday, Tucson puts on a show just for me....Well maybe not just for me....It is the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show. Tomorrow will be the kick off for this year.

I think that the powers that be are just trying to help Walter out with his birthday shopping. It solves all of his problems. He simply coaxes me into the car. He makes sure that my seat belt is fastened and off we go.

I get to pick out something that I like and he doesn't have to figure out what to get for me.

Before we go, I always spend a couple of days pondering what I have purchased over the years and why, supply wise, it hasn't been put to use thus far.

Then I start to feel guilty and madly work on finishing a couple of pieces before I find something else at the show that I like even better.

For the past few years, Tessie gets involved in the sorting out process. She seems to think that, if she helps, she will get something from the show too....She won't tell us when her real birthday is and she has adopted mine. That way we will remember it. Sneaky....But not really helpful. Especially when she sits there with a thread bobbin on her head singing, "Diamonds are a girl's best friend"....Diamonds???

This morning she insisted that we go through the kumihimo thread supplies and pair up some of the finished cords with pendants. The theory being, that will free up space for new stuff....

Here are two of the pendants that we finished. The one on the left is a very old piece of Native American silver/turquoise that I picked up somewhere.

The other one is a bone pendant that I picked up at Walmart, of all places!

That's two long cords and large pendants finished. In all I finished four.

Here are the two boxes of cabochons...Real stone and cast resin. The one that Tessie is holding is cast resin. Yes, you have seen it before....No, I haven't finished it yet. I need to braid a cord or string it on beads or something....Sooner or later I will decide what to do with it...And all of the rest...

The point is....I don't really need more stones. I am just addicted to pretty stones. I even like plain old rocks.

April and Seth go on vacation and they know what to bring back. I always get a rock from wherever they went. That makes me a happy camper.

I did finish one other piece this morning. I bought this "stone" for myself a couple of years ago and a few months ago, when there was a bead show here, I found square wire with an antique bronze finish to wrap it with. All it needed was a chain. I hunted all over creation for chain to match and couldn't find it.

Would you believe that good old Walmart had a six strand, chain necklace in their jewelry department that was the exact match? I tore it apart this morning and used two of the chains for the pendant....Now about the stone....

It is a piece of a fosselized dinosaur bone, cut ground down, and polished.

I had Seth along to help me pick it out. He has a degree in geology. He's a handy man to have around when you want to know about stones. Thanks Seth!

Anyway, I cut down a bit of the inventory and now have a few nooks and crannies for new rocks. Now I have an excuse to stock up.

See you tomorrow after the rock fest!