So.. I got organising...

Some weeks ago the girls and I were talking about beads and I ended up digging out all of the beads I had that were scattered about the house and hidden in misc. projects. I was rather surprised at how much I had and also realised that there was no way I could really organise this to my liking the way it was. I knew I hated the craft boxes for beads as they are difficult to get out then. I asked the girls how they had their beads (tubes, baggies and stackable containers) and decided that how they did it was not for me. I looked around on the internet and found a thing called a bead tower but once I'd seen the video I decided that this wasn't for me either as it was too big to put away easily though I did like the flip top boxes the beads were put into.

While looking at a site I found that the manufacturer also made clear cases to put beads into and I rather liked the look of that so I ordered one case to see how much I could get into it and a bunch of flip top boxes as I knew I liked them. I found that I had rather more beads than I ever imagined as I had to order more flip top boxes - especially the smallest size. Sadly the shop only had 2 more cases while I wanted 8 so that I could have the colours separate. They did say they'd order more and get back to me.

Yesterday I checked the site of the shop on a whim and discovered they had just got the boxes in so I ordered the last 6 boxes I needed to organise it all. I also added yet another bag of the smallest size box as they seemed to go the fastest. Today they arrived and I was finally able to put all of the flip top boxes into the cases and have all my beads easily findable.

And this is what all my beads look like now - much tidier! I did have to put some of the green ones in with the white as I seem to have the most greens. Below you can see where I put all of the bigger beads and other bits and pieces that won't fit into the flip top boxes, for this size I don't mind craft boxes as the beads are big enough to get out without much trouble and can't get mixed up accidentally if the box gets knocked about a bit.

Of course none of this shows the beads that arrived today and needed adding to the bead collection. In the parcel of flip top boxes were not just the boxes and cases but also some "o" beads as a freebie - a lovely colour blue too! Not many but just enough to use as an accent somewhere.

The postman came later with 2 envelopes, I knew one was coming as I'd ordered some beads but the other was a complete surprise - and from China! Of course I opened it first and inside was a string of 70, 6x8mm Swarovski beads! The person responsible was none other than my bf who wanted to surprise me with some "diamond" beads for April's Ornament of the Month. I cannot really say how happy this made me that he'd thought of me and ordered them - just because.

The other envelope contained the beads I'd ordered, some Dragon beads for Wolf and some TOHO copper beads and TOHO gold crystal beads to audition on his cheek.

I also treated myself to a pack of TOHO mixed beads - the white ones you can see in the middle to the right. This shop is totally awesome - not only did they send me the beads to arrive the next day but they also included some treats.

The shop included a string of topaz coloured beads and the purple bag with the baggie of beads inside - more TOHO beads, also in copper but smaller than the ones I'd ordered - so thoughtful!

Having put these into flip top boxes I had to move the green beads that were in with the white beads to be with the black as I needed the space. The case of brown beads is now also completely full.