I had intended on crossing some Ohm beads off my wish list this month, but got unexpectedly steered in another direction instead.
When the Spring X by Trollbeads release, Bloom x Bite, came out at the end of February, the two that really caught my attention were Flow and Lucky. After seeing more stock pictures, I quickly (although somewhat reluctantly) crossed Lucky off my list since its larger size meant I would only be able to use it as a focal link, and I try to steer clear of beads (or, in this case, links) that can only be used in one spot on a bracelet. But Flow still intrigued me, and so I waited impatiently for my next visit to my favourite dealer so that I could check it out in person. Unfortunately, when I was finally able to go I discovered that they didn’t have the release in yet. A few weeks later, they still didn’t have it. In the meantime, I had pretty much crossed Flow off my wish list as well since I couldn’t get a decent sense of it from pictures online and my list is too long as it is to focus on things that I’m not sure about.
A week after my last visit, I learned the sad news that my favourite dealer was closing their doors. Although I’ve watched as several U.S. retailers have closed or dropped the Trollbeads lines over the last few months, many of them I had only heard of, or had limited dealings with. Although my favourite dealer wasn’t the closest one to me, they were by far my favourite due to their excellent customer service and great selection. I really looked forward to my visits, even if I was only able to make it there every few weeks. This week was my first visit since they had announced their closure and lo and behold, they had finally received both the Valentines Day and the Bloom x Bite releases! And after crossing Flow off my list, once I saw it in person it jumped back on.
And then it walked out the door with me.
Part of my initial hesitation around the link was that the photos that I found showed another side to the link that I didn’t think was as nice as the stock image, so I was concerned that perhaps it would more often flip over to the less attractive side as I wore it. Once I could see it in person, I realized that the opposite side, while perhaps not quite as attractive as the stock image, wasn’t as unattractive as I had thought it would be. And after wearing it on my bracelet, so far I haven’t found it to be overly “flippy”.
Not only is it a nicely designed link (and it goes well with the Lovers Bond link that I already had), it has the added bonus of reminding me that sometimes you have to just go with the flow to keep your sanity.