Bead Shop Hop 2012

This year we completed another Bead Shop Hop. What is this hop thing? It's numerous bead stores across Southern California participating together in an event for those who craft with beads. The hop has become an annual event put on by the Southern California Local Bead Store Association over 2 or 3 weekends in September. (It's similar to a quilt or scrapbooking run if you're familiar with those.)  This year's hop included 27 stores divided into 3 regions and happened over 3 weekends (Friday-Sunday). 

You participate on the hop by going to 1 or more stores and have the option to complete 1, 2, or even all 3 regions. Each participant keeps track of the progress made with a passport. You designate your home store on your passport (ours is Brea Bead Works) and the passport includes room for a stamp from each store. The stores have a token such as a small quantity of beads or a charm and you collect these as you go. Many stores have fun with the hop and offer demonstrations, make & takes, contests, and special deals. You are entered into a store prize drawing for each store you visit and a regional prize for each region you complete. There's also a chance to win big prizes if you finish the entire thing.

The 2012 hop map. Similar to last year's, but with a few variations. We live in region 2, a bit to the left from the C in Orange County. (Click on the picture to make it larger.)

This year the hop had a movie theme and each store offered a charm based on the movie of their choice. Many also had fun decorating their stores in the style of their movie. Some stores even went further with the theme and had employees dressed in costume and themed games or contests. The movies ranged from Audrey Hepburn classics (Roman Holiday, Breakfast at Tiffany's, My Fair Lady), to 80's movies (Back to the Future, The Goonies, Beetlejuice) to newer movies such as Avatar and the Twilight movies.

A very full (and heavy) bracelet with all the charms from the 2012 Bead Shop Hop. 

As with many things, the hop is what you choose to make of it. For us it's become an annual tradition because we enjoy the giant road trip and finishing the whole thing. Susan has completed it all 3 years and Mitch has completed the last 2 years. This year's hop covered 27 bead stores located in 6 counties across Southern California and made for just under 1,000 miles of driving.

So, what does all this hop stuff have to do with adoption?

At first Susan didn't want to go on the hop this year, but not because it wouldn't be fun. We had told ourselves in 2011 that there was no way we could do the hop in 2012 because we would have adopted and would be focused on parenting, not beads and road trips. When that didn't happen, Susan was disappointed and found it difficult to get excited about a trip that we didn't expect we could take. Luckily Mitch was determined we would go and persistent in making plans. It's a good thing he did. The hop was a welcome distraction from our wait both last year and this year. The change of scenery on the road and accomplishing our goal to finish the hop helped to refresh our outlook and keep us positive for the next part of our adoption journey.

This is also how part of how the hop relates to adoption. On both the hop and our adoption journey, we're in it together and our support for each other keeps us going through the tough times. Much like this year's hop, sometimes we find one of us is down, but the other keeps forging ahead and we keep going, stronger than ever. The hop has its share of difficulties, just as with our adoption journey. They are smaller challenges to be sure - traffic, limited parking, a store that closed early in 2011 (we'll keep the name to ourselves), etc. Sometimes our hop plan needed to be adjusted to overcome these obstacles, and this is true for our adoption plans too. The important thing is to stay on the road, and to enjoy the scenery whenever possible.

Yay! We did the whole thing, AGAIN! This year we finished at Bead Gallery in San Diego.

If you'd like more details about the Bead Shop Hop and our adventures with it, you can check out our longer post, "And The Bead Goes On".