Back from the gem show!

This Friday I went to the International Gem & Jewelry Show that comes to Chantilly two or three times a year, which is the place to be to buy gemstone BEADS!
Recently I've been blessed with enough shop traffic to justify more than just looking at all the pretties, and this show was my first as a registered wholesale buyer.

I spent at least half my time in the wholesale-only section, which made up maybe 1/4 of the show floor total. Note to other new wholesale buyers--most of these booths have credit card minimums, even though I'm pretty sure that's illegal to enforce.
But that shopping list I'd made before leaving home really saved me, because when I got out of the wholesale section and saw the 3/4 of the show floor left to cover (I really prefer to see the whole show floor at each bead show--hey, I'm paying to get in, after all), I kicked into high gear, and instated a ruthless plan of passing all the bead booths with a cursory look to see if they had anything on my list. It worked too!