Troll Date with friends - Cocktails, trollbeads and even more surprises!

Pauline had graciously decided to host a cocktail night Friday evening, originally planning just for Alison's stay, this soon evolved and expanded into something more as the time for her visit grew nearer!

Pauline takes up the story "The "girls" arrived for cocktails and my husband had prepared a vodka peach schnapps and fruit juice drink that seemed to go down well, and then I had been sent a cocktail mix from a friend in the US.  There was a zip lock plastic bag and 2 bags of a pink powder.  You mixed the powder with 6 cups of water and 2 cups of any alcohol (I used Vodka) and then froze it for 8 hours, the result being rather like a boozy slush puppy..."

Boozy slush puppy with random scattered beads and bracelets - Photo by Mars

Pauline continued "We had all the cocktail sticks, straws, fruit garnishes, you name it, we had it, and it adorned the glasses!  We sat around my dining room table talking trollbeads, playing with trollbeads, and oohing and aahing over everyone's bracelets and beads."

I arrived at Pauline's (without any bus detours as I got a lift this time) and was once more greeted by someone putting a drink into my hand, now this is the kind of treatment I could really get used to!!

Earlier that day I had by request worn my amber bracelets to show Pauline, but this evening, by request, I had worn my Red/pink double stacked combo for Alison who has embarked on her own Red/Pink Odyssey and wanted a peak at my multiple retired red pink prisms in all their glory.

I took a travel case with made up bracelets to show the girls and my Rocky Beach bracelet which led to a very late night, or early hours, tutorial on knotted and twisted leather bracelets - it was a very practical troll date!

What was so lovely about all of this, is we also got to see Pauline's very extensive collection, if you think her photos are good, her bracelets are even more stunning!

Everyone had a lot of troll on and bracelet and bangle combos were thrown together with astonishing speeds, this was one talented bunch of ladies I was drinking with.

Alison made good use of that 2nd Royal Orange bead she picked up at the meet!

After the Boozy Slush Puppy we tried my contribution to the evening, a nice warming glass of Bella Veroni Espresso Amaretto, not everyone's cup of tea if you'll excuse a pun!  For me it tastes like eating Christmas Cake with a cup of coffee all in one glass, I had to do a little taste test earlier in the week just to check, market research you understand?

Whilst all this was happening, we also gave Alison her surprises, as it had been her birthday recently, both Pauline and I had bought her trollbeads, and in a random, but slightly planned way they complimented each other.  Pauline had bought her a beautiful unique in white and orange, and I had chosen Coral Flowers, which looks so unlike it's stock photo I actually thought it was a unique!

Spot the Difference...

I could finally confess to Alison that I had almost spoilt the surprise many times, as I had put her bead on my rods as I was worried a trollbead box would get lost amongst my empty ones and I'd end up playing hunt the bead when she finally visited... however over the course of the last few months I've accidentally photographed it so many times when I've been taking photos for my blog that I've had to ditch a lot of perfectly good photographs because Alison's bead had been caught in the background.

One thing Pauline and I did learn during the course of the evening is Alison's generosity is unending... we knew this anyway from bead swaps and other events, but Pauline adds "I did not expect the wonderful gifts SHE had bought me, in particular the UK World Tour bead, Celtic Kilt.  Such a great silver and it went on my big butterfly bracelet immediately."

Pauline's Celtic WT Kilt on her Palma Violets Bracelet - Photo by Pauline

I wasn't surprised Alison had bought her host a gift, what did really surprise me is I got a bag of gifts too!!

I have a Haggis!!

I'm now the very proud owner of a Haggis, I've never tried Haggis before but I plan to have a go at cooking it on the weekend, so chuffed that I've received a Haggis from a Scottish person!  I couldn't wait to taste the shortbread so that is already rather depleted.  My bag of goodies also included a beer cooler as Alison thought I might  appreciate it the next time I go camping.

The star of my bag was the bead that Alison had given me as a gift, this one almost got me "some dust in my eye".  Back in December I indulged in silver beads in a crazy sale, you may remember that the shop sent me a wrong bead, but because it was a liquidation sale there wasn't an opportunity to correct this.  At the time I'd remarked to Alison that I was really disappointed to miss out on my missing bead as it was one I had really wanted.  Much like the Elephants she really loves, Alison never forgets either, 6 months later, I finally got my silver Turtles bead, now it had also come with love and an amazing reminder of good friendship and a lovely weekend.  Definitely going in my "special beads" category!

My Silver Turtles Bead from Alison

As Pauline did such a magnificent job in hosting a cocktail evening for the group, it falls to her to have the last word on the evening...  "The only fly in the ointment was that my blender had apparently broken, a Pina Colada was mixed by hand, and it was so bad, it went down the sink!  Time just flew by and oops it's 2am and an early start for some the next day"

Taxis all round and for those who had the stamina, who didn't have to work the next day, or need to lounge around recovering (yes I'm referring to myself here), they were off on the next Troll date with friends adventure - York!

P.S. there is more to come on the blender but that will have to wait for another post!