Saturday was one of my favorite days of the year. Once a year, the Santa Clara County Gem and Mineral Society hosts it’s yearly show. Their main focus is on, you guessed it, gems and minerals! It’s not a huge show, 50 or so vendors, plus lots of educational booths and demonstrations. The vendors are all from within the state of California, most are regional folks. The perfect size for my tastes!

Every year I start my visit at the booth of Mendicino Reflections. The family that owns it is based in Santa Cruz, and they’re some of the nicest people I’ve ever had the pleasure of doing business with. I’m sure I rambled on about them last year at this time. But, I’ll do it again. They stock a superb collection of stone beads, at amazing prices. Les is very particular about the stones he’ll sell, and their quality. The best way to shop with them? Ask him what new and wonderful things he’s found! His usual specialty is large, chunky cuts of stones. This year, I was surprised to see strands of tiny faceted gems! He was thrilled to tell me he had discovered a stonecutter in India, that finally met HIS standards. On top of super quality he boasts super prices. No overinflated prices in his booth, ever. In fact, you’ll wonder how he makes money with his prices, but he does.

Here’s my loot from this year. I went a little nuts with the Smoky Quartz. He had amazing large faceted nuggets for less than $10 a strand! That explains it, eh? Also in the mix, some great Chrysoprase nuggets, Carnelian, Red Agate, Apatite, Natural Blue Chalcedony, Malachite, Amethyst, Labradorite, Garnets, and Citrine.

Check out the color on these Apatite beads! They’re BIG, too, as far as apatite goes.

Some great Smoky Quartz roundels, again, beautiful color!

It was mostly a good day. I say mostly because it was my fist big outing since my knee surgery in November. I only used one crutch, and barely used it, but wanted to make sure I had it in case I needed it, since I would be up on a concrete floor for a few hours. Knee was no problem. Sweat was. I had taken a pain pill before we went in, just as a preemptive strike for any pain that was coming. Unfortunately, the pain pill makes me sweat profusely. On top of that, I’m recovering from a bad cold. I was beet read and my head was drenched. I looked like I had run a marathon. It was a bit embarrassing, I have to admit. I’m sure I was getting some concerned looks, but, my head was in bead land so I wasn’t concerned!

I was happy when I starting moving around this morning and wasn’t in excruciating pain from yesterday’s events. This means the RA meds are working, and my knee is healing well. Today I went out on my own, crutch free. First time since November!

Here’s to positive progress!

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