My visit to IBead

Good Morning! Hope everyone had a good weekend :)

Saturday I drove across the state to Tampa and included a side trip to the IBead showroom. IBead's showroom is open to the public and, I gotta say, pretty darn spiffy! They are only open until 4pm on Saturdays so I had about an hour to drool & shop LOL but trust me, I did some damage!

An incredibly neat, clean and well organized store. Plenty of staff on-hand to help out, plus I observed more staff pulling orders. Everything was clearly marked with tags and signs. Swarovski crystals, lampwork beads, and some findings are behind glass in the center of the store. Again, very helpful staff was present to pull trays & mark purchases. The incredibly pleasant woman that helped me even pulled a different color bead mat for me so I can see colors more easily. (I was looking at Volcano which pulls all sorts of colors. A change to a lighter color mat really illustrated that.) Obviously I was quite impressed with the place :)

So...more importantly... what did I buy???? I spent less than $200 and came home with some very cool stuff! I realized I didn't bring the bag with me to work but what I can remember off the top of my head: Swarovski jet hematite beads in 2 sizes; several glass pendants in odd shapes; some larger shaped pieces in hematite, jasper and lapis; several different pieces from the Vintaj line (including some scarabs that look suspiciously like roaches LOL); as well as various strands of glass beads. Ya know, I had my camera with me but did I think to lay them out on my hotel bed & take a picture? noooo LOL

It wasn't until I was checking out that it occured to me that I should have brought a copy of my tax certificate - doh! I mentioned it to the gal checking me out and she kindly suggested I fax or email it when I get home for future purchases. I will certainly do that, and keep them in mind for my next trip over. How cool would it be to send them my order and then pick up when I'm there the following Saturday? very cool indeed :)