Gem and Mineral show

Every year, Tucson has a giant Gem and Mineral show.  Giant white tents take over the city and hotel rooms are filled with temporary shops.

We haven't been in several years and since we were due some Family Fun Time, I suggested we go.

Katrina looks really guilty in this picture, doesn't she? It looks like she's stealing something but I found out later that she had a stash of animal crackers in her pocket.

Inside the tents are PILES and PILES of sparkling gems, cheap jewelry and expensive jewelry. There are knives, supplies to make jewelry and lots of lots of people.

You just start digging and pull strands of what you want. The price ranges start at $.25 a strand and go up. I didn't go over $2.00 a strand except for the strand of giant skull beads I bought that were $6.00.

 

One thing I love to do is run my hands over the stones. They're so cold and smooth. It reminds me of the scene in Amelie where she states one of her favorite things is to stick her hand in a sack of grains:

 

and btw, if you haven't seen this movie, you should. I also agree with the cracking of the creme brulee top.

But back on track...

I asked Trent to stick his hand in this giant pile of bracelets and see if he could get to the bottom. Once he saw I was taking pictures, he got shy and wouldn't do it.

 

 

Outside is where they have the "real stuff". The giant pieces of fossils, the giant agates, meteorites or tons of petrified wood. I wish I could have found dinosaur poop. I'm still disappointed by that. I'm sure there is some elsewhere in the city but we walked around for a couple hours and I was tired.

Here is my stash. I think I spent about $40.00 on everything. I was obviously into the skulls this year as there are at least 4 strands. Erik must have had Valentine's on the brain because he kept pointing out heart shaped items. I don't want hearts...skulls, please.

Do you see the orange strand? That one is my favorite find of the day. It's a strand of amber chips I found for $2.00. I LOVE amber, especially when there's a dead bug or something in it. I started out buying things for scrapbooking but was soon distracted by all the other stones and such.

I even found this cool treasure box to hold my skulls in. Well, actually Kat put my skull beads in there. I wanted to put the skulls in a little bowl and offer them to people when they came over.

"Would you like to have a piece of candy?" and then I'd shove the bowl of skulls their way.