3 days of bead shopping

Hi my lovely beading people!! :)

How are you today? Sometimes I really get a little nuts of having to shop for beads. Of course, I bead a lot and if you bead a lot you eventually run out of beads. And it is not that I don't like getting new beads, but it takes so much time out of my hands!

Shopping list:
4 Swarovski light rose rivoli's
48 4mm Swarovski light rose bicones
11/0 Matte Dusty orchid Miyuki seedbeads
15/0 Matte Dusty orchid Miyuki seedbeads
11/0 Pink lined Crystal AB Miyuki seedbeads
15/0 Pink lined Crystal AB Miyuki seedbeads
11/0 Galvanized Duracoat Dusty Orchid
11/0 Baby pink ceylon
15/ Baby pink ceylon
Pink superduos

Now that does not sound like a list that would take me 3 days to get together now doesn't it? Well actually it is not that simple! I do not know about other countries, but the color pink seems to be very hard to get my hands on. I am on a tight budget, so I can not afford to just shop anywhere as I have to make the most out of my money.


Day 1

The search for pink superduos;
If you think pink seedbeads are hard to find around here, you should try pink superduos! Every time again the same thing happens to me. *sigh* I look at the picture, it looks pink and when it gets here, it turn out to be purple. I think I already have bought at least 5 bags of superduos this way! And yes I could have returned them, but as I have to pay for the shipping cost myself so that would be just as expensive as the bag of superduos. No of course I can use the superduos, just not for the project I have in mind. So I have to go 'bead hunting' again.

After a very long search I found a shop that seemed to have them. As I did not know the shop, I had to check first if they where trust worthy. Luckely they where! So because I did not want to risk buying the wrong superduos again I emailed them a photo and asked if they where the same or at least close to the same superduos I used in this Zianna pendant:

Now before you think, why didn't you just go back to the store where you bought the same color of superduos, I did and they are sold out never to return. The lady said that the superduos where not the same but where not purple either, and that I could return them if they where not the color I am looking for. Good enough for me! So now the shipping cost at this shop are 3,50 euro when you order under 20 euro's. So I will order for 20 euro's,  but I will only put things in my cart for now, as here comes the problem I have with every single store here in the Netherlands. *sigh*

Shops in the Netherlands never seem to have everything I need. So this shop dit not carry Swarovski, the pink 15/0 seedbeads and the 15/0 dusty orchid seedbeads. That means I am forced to shop at one or more other shops to get my order together. At this moment I have to look at all my options. Most of the beadshops in the Netherlands do not carry Swarovski, so I will go to a special shop for that. But it seemed that the 15/0 pink lined seedbeads are nowhere to be found.


Day 2

So the search continuous. When I finally found a shop the next day that seemed to have the seedbeads I needed, I found out they have a minimum order amount of 25 euro's and they only sell seedbeads. *sigh* But on the top of there page it said that they have corresponding color numbers, so when I need 11/0 beads they also have those in 15/0. As I found that to be a good deal, as 11/0 with matching 15/0 beads are hard to find. I would just order some beads that are hard to come by also and so be it. So after I spend an hour on there site, getting all the colors together (so also the ones that I did not need), I found out that there statement was not true. So I spend 1 hour for absolutely nothing. *sigh*

Now I do not have many options left as all the other stores don't carry the 15/0 pink lined beads. So I have to get them from somewhere else. After a good long search I decided to go to my last resort, I looked on Ebay. Found a shop that said 'spend 25 dollars and get free shipping'. Well now thats a good deal! After another hour I filled my cart and was ready to check out. But my shopping cart still said: shipping cost 9,98 dollar... So I had to email the to ask how come. Well the free shipping was only for US people... *sigh*


Day 3

So after 2 days just looking through all the beads shops, I have to make a decision. I have to at least spend 20 euro or more to get my free shipping on my superduo order. The shop at Ebay has all the Swarovski and other things I need. However, I can only shop for 22 euro's as otherwise I have to pay 13 euro's of clearance cost, and they also charge me 10 dollars, which is about 8 euro's shipping cost. So I will have to see what I can put in my cart the best (as seedbeads are cheaper from other countries) so probebly I still have to get my rivoli's from another shop here in the Netherlands. Total cost? About 60 euro's, that is around 75 dollars. KATCHING! And what can I make with that? Well 4 Zianna pendants as showed above on the photo (or at least close to that one). And I will use some of the seedbeads for other projects.

Conclusion: beading is a time consuming and expensive hobby!

But I think most beaders already know that :) I hope you liked my little story, how do you do your bead shopping? Do you have a store where you can just but everything at the same place? Or do you need to go nuts and spend 3 days just searching and emailing for that one color, like me? Let me know in the comment section :)

Have a nice day!
HoneyBeads