Anne Cutler WGNO News

4:18 p.m. CST, January 16, 2012
HARARAN, LA—

Step inside Beads by the Dozen and it looks a little bit like Mardi Gras exploded.  They have fairy beads, beer beads, bags of beads, you name it and this time of year the registers are working overtime! 

So are the people like Tammie Thibodeaux, behind this Mardi Gras magic.  "Everybody wants bigger and better and that’s what we try to accommodate people with is the bigger and better.  Whatever's coming up next, we'll have it."

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Beads by the Dozen prides itself in innovative throws such as their brand-new, light-weight printable frisbees.  They've also got footballs and you can't forget the foam swords.  But their most unique product might be their new drink holder. 

Thibodeaux explains, "It's a bead and the balls are about this big and you fill it with a liquid of your choice.  It has a straw that comes up the middle and you drink from it!"

All this fun however, doesn't come easy or cheap. 

Thibodeaux says, “I supervise the Muses float loading and I order all the Muses product and I load for them about 7,000 bags of product!" 

At 35 to 50 pounds a package, that's nearly 175 tons!  The price tag runs into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.  It's enough to keep Thibodeaux and the team working 7 days a week during carnival season. 

When I visited, it was relatively quiet, but if you stop by the store be prepared to wait!  As Fat Tuesday approaches it gets busier and busier, with lines winding all the way to the warehouse.

When those Mardi Gras lines finally do die down, there's no rest for the weary. Saint Patrick's Dayis right around the corner.