Trip to Cousin Corporation Day 3

It seems like ages ago since I got back from visiting the headquarters of Cousin Corporation in Florida. {If you missed my first two recaps of the trip read them here and here!) I would totally be ok with going back to the beach and all of the beads pronto!!!! But since that won't be happening anytime soon I will just reminisce on my last day there I suppose :)

The last day that we were in Florida was pretty quick.  We were picked up at the hotel at 7:30AM and had to be all packed for the airport. It was lovely getting ready that last morning - as it got closer to 7 and the sun came up I left my balcony door open to hear the ocean better and feel the fresh air.  Such a glorious feeling!!

That morning at Cousin we had a variety of meetings learning more about their sister retail site Prima Bead (Cousin only sells beads wholesale to major suppliers like Walmart and Michaels and also to local bead shops, so Prima allows them to sell right to the public), how Cousin follows current trends, and more about the production process of getting the beads into the stores. I learned so much about the jewelry supplies biz during this trip! 

After all of our learning the last activity was the one I had been looking forward to for MONTHS before this trip - filling up a big box full of beads to take home!! We were given a priority mailing box:

 And then were led out to this big warehouse....

 And then we got closer...to...the...PROMISED LAND OF BEADS.

Two long hallways stocked full of discontinued beads that we were free to "shop" from and Cousin would package up and send home to us.

 We had about 20 minutes to stuff our box and it got pretty intense.  It was CRAZY humid this last day and the warehouse was not air conditioned, I started to work up a sweat from grabbing so many beads!!! (Hence the crazy hair in this photo)

My strategy was to hit up all of the chain first. I love using chain in my jewelry and wanted a bigger stash up it so I scooped up most of them in the beginning. Sorry other ambassadors!! Haha, we actually all have very different styles so we gravitated to different types of beads. Below you can see Dawn trying to stuff her box full and Allison and Shelly still picking a few items to top theirs off with!

I just got my box back in the mail this week and of course HAD to spread it all out to take a good look: 

Hello my pretties...

Cousin, you know how to make a bead hoarding/crafting/jewelry making girls dreams come true :)

Overall the trip was a BLAST and I'm so sad I have to just go back to virtually talking to all my beading friends! We all got along great and loved spending time learning and creating together. Cousin also welcomed all of us to stay on as ambassadors for another year so I am excited for more projects and beading news to share with you all! But for now...I have to find a home for all of my new beads!!!