The website is gorgeous!

We are making progress on the website. Well, Ami is actually.

Of late, our weekly meetings have been sporadic and mostly via email and phone calls as we are checking in with our little web master to see the progress. The colors and art seriously rival the jewelry the artists are creating. Gorgeous. Simply gorgeous.

As for the rest of us...

Amongst other creative endeavors, Kathleen is tapping her inner teenager by working on a school spirit charm bracelet fundraiser with a local high school and making Twilight jewelry for the serious junkies. Each piece is rather fetching and likely going to be the delight of many a teenage princess.

Lynn is fending off a potential FBI investigation by ignoring the request of a sketchy Nigerian who sent a convoluted email to her etsy account requesting to purchase six gold and lapis rings. Lynn suspected that sending anything of the sort in the mail to Nigeria is a serious "No, No" and this was confirmed by the very solicitous woman at the post office. So, there will be no headline about an American grandma in federal prison for illegally sending precious metal and gems to Nigeria.

Amy is creating some pretty fancy hair adornments but cannot seem to find the same cloth wrapped headbands that were once so readily available at Target. Darn recession. So, she's on a search throughout the Internet and sundry beauty supply stores to find the right product. So if you see anything of the sort (thin black cloth headbands) let us know. Our Amy Darling will be much obliged.

And I am trying to make amends for neglecting my blogging responsibilities.

We'll see how that goes.

Compromise anyone?

We are feeling the full force of our varied tastes and opinions as we try to reach consensus about things like background colors, fonts, patterns, etc. Ami has been on the fast track gaining abundant amounts of knowledge about web design and polling us regularly about those very important topics of color and text. Poor thing! She asks five different people for an opinion and gets five different answers.

I'm designing a little two-page brochure (nothing compared to Ami's mammoth assignment) to send to our good friend Val in Cornwall, England, so that she can have something to provide potential customers with information about us in our absence.

(But don't we all wish we could actually be there across the pond peddling our own stuff?..............oh yeah..............)

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Huh? Where was I?

Anyway, everyone keeps apologizing for giving me feedback on the brochure, which is so like my very polite and thoughtful friends. I do appreciate their comments as this is to represent them more than me...that's kind of the point really. But I also empathize with Ami as she regularly receives five very different answers to each question she poses.

It is not easy to keep everyone happy, but we all know this and are ready and willing to compromise on many things. Except the quality of our materials and handiwork. On this we will never bend.

So here's to color, text, feedback and compromise. We can feel the launch of the website approaching....GO AMI!!!!

2010

Lynnie predicts that 2010 is going to be a big year.

Below are some of our preparations for this new decade:

1. After much debate and email banter, the artists have each selected individual logos to represent their pieces*,
2. Kathleen decided on a name for her line: Per Lei,
3. Ami is continuing to build the website, making color selections and carefully piecing together each component,
4. Amy the T has bolstered her headband designing and is working up some darling creations,
5. Lynn has created some absolutely precious pieces for little girls, some that will even adorn baby princesses,
6. Kami is lining up parties and recrafting her sales expertise to match our goals,
7. And I, Jayne, am trying to remember to post things to the blog once in a while.

* There was a ridiculously lengthy conversation about what to call and what to do with a part of one of the proposed elements of the design for Sparkling Elegance: was it a doodah? a flourish? a swoopee? And does the logo look better with or without this little addition?

There was also a resounding commitment to the following statement:

"We don't use no stinkin' silver plate!"

Actually, no one said it quite that eloquently. Lynn reported that she met a designer who had some success at a consignment shop because she started using silver plate to decrease the cost of her creations. The collective response, which included Lynn's own opinion was, "Well, good for her, but we don't work like that."

So, it is evident that these artists are committed to quality.

"It's all silver or all gold or nothin', Baby!"

And one phrase that causes us to swoop down, capes and all, from tall buildings in single bounds to provide relief to friends and potential customers who come bearing their jewelry quandries is

"I need something to match this..."

Yeah, we can take care of that for you.

Happy New Year!

Boutiques and Birthdays

Kami, who is now heading up our sales efforts, has registered Beads Just for You in a lovely boutique this coming Saturday, December 12th in the Rural and Warner area of Tempe. If you missed our last party, this is a great opportunity to see some of our pieces. We have some spectacular holiday designs that make great gifts or will adorn any outfit for the holiday party scene. Check out the info at the link below. And do visit our website http://beadsjustforyou.com/. There are many pictures of our pieces now posted, so you can preview (or purchase!) what you might find on Saturday.

http://boutiqueinthebarn.blogspot.com/

In other, sillier news...this past Monday, we celebrated three belated birthdays for three friends in our Beads Just For You group: Amy T., Kathleen, and Kami.

Lynn orchestrated the bulk of the celebration making sure that we had food, cake, birthday hats and Edward and Jacob party plates (Yes, Edward and Jacob from the Twilight series...We might be closet die-hard fans or lunatics...or neither. No one amongst us has really figured this out yet, but it has continued to be a running joke).

Lynn's daughter Sarah made a scrumptious lunch of homemade vegetable soup and grilled cheese and ham sandwiches on sourdough bread. It was perfect for the rainy and cold Monday afternoon. Ami made a delicious chocolate (of course!) cake that we served on said alternating Edward and Jacob plates with mint chocolate chip or Neapolitan ice cream. Todd* brought his unsuspecting wife and our good British friend Val who is visiting (he obligingly brought them late, because the party planners were running late). Jayne set the table, cut some flowers, and used her good dishes that rarely emerge from the cabinets. Amy and Kami, two of the birthday girls, brought their smiles and goodwill. Lynn and then Val did the dishes while we had our meeting.

*The usually very prompt Todd killed time by making phone calls in a parking lot near home, feigning needed visits to the restroom once he got home, and engaging in aimless and unimportant endeavors while Kathleen expressed a bit of exasperation: "Todd, if we're going to go out to lunch we need to leave. I have my Beads meeting in an hour." Sorry Todd!

Kathleen is a founding mother, so she got to wear a plastic tiara.

Todd took this picture of the lot of us.

We express our holiday wishes to you all. And we hope to hear from you!

xoxo
The Beads Gals

We are busy making final plans for the party this Saturday at Jayne's from 5-7 p.m. (not 4-6 as we originally planned). Kathleen, Lynn, Ami & Amy have been hard at work designing beautiful things that they hope you will love.

Kathleen has some very cool silver pieces she created from scratch using precious metal clay; Lynn designed some gorgeous new jewelry especially for little girls along with some other beautifully intricate pieces for grown up princesses; Ami threw lots of color in her magnificent beading arrangements--some complicated, some simple, all gorgeous; and Amy has designed some very hip hair accessories as well as some stylish bracelets amongst other things.

Come and see what they've been working on if for no other reason but that you love beauty and art!

Ami is steadily working on the website creation and reported that her son Caleb has been sleeping for the night for three weeks. "I actually have a pulse in the morning," she said.

Lynn replied, "When you can dance around to 'Proud Mary' in the morning, then you know you're really doing well."

So, Sleep and "Proud Mary" have helped the website's launch move steadily closer. Be patient...it is coming!

And Lynn had an odd but inspiring dream: She was working on 12 necklaces in her three-graces design made from black 4 mm crystals and silver seed beads (though she thought in her dream that gold would look better). Off to the side, sort of in the dark, was a Marlon Brando as Godfather look-alike pacing while he smoked a cigar. Lynn kept working.

Then Marlon Brando barked, "What are you charging for those things?"

Without looking up, Lynn said, "Seventy-six dollars."

Brando stopped pacing, "You're a fool!"

Now Lynn looked up. "Why?"

"You should be charging $760."

Awake, Lynn's reflection was the following:

"Well, yeah, they'd have to be mafia to pay that much."

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More from Lynn in email:

"I want to try and make the child's three graces. I was also (not for now) thinking of making one with tiny pearls. I love pearls and DIAMONDS. See, the crystals are just holding me over until I get the real McCoys."

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In other news...

Kathleen and Lynn drove out to east Mesa to find a REAL Chicago hot dog just because.

Ami visited family in Texas and was really enjoying herself until she couldn't get her husband to answer his phone because forgot to plug it into his phone charger and he was sick in bed. She called Kathleen to make sure hubby was still alive and kicking. After a visit from the other husbands it was determined that he was just fine, but suffering from not eating well and missing his wife and son.

Amy has worked herself into a cold. Though, in spite of her sniffles, she still looks the epitome of polished style.

And I (Jayne) am still abstaining mostly from making jewelry so that I can do the other stuff for BJFY.

I did make a few pairs of very very simple earrings.

And then I stopped.


So, come to the party Saturday! Eat chocolate, play with jewelry, tell us what you think of our stuff and get free earrings! What else could you possibly want? (Well...a lot probably, but this is what we can offer.)

A holiday jewlery party

So, we've had a bit of a hiatus from blogging. Sorry...September was a busy month.

Here's an update:

Lynnie is back from her three week tour to the UK and currently searching for her muse (Lynn suspects she might have gotten lost in Scotland or something); Amy is neck-deep in the demands of her university courses and she's bound and determined to pass math; Ami is desperately trying to carve out time to set up our new fabulous website, which requires incredible focus, while keeping her baby happy and herself sane at the same time; Kathleen is tripping the circuit in her house by using both her kiln and hair dryer simultaneously in between playing with precious metal clay; and Jayne is battling morning sickness and trying to prepare for a university education course she's supposed to teach in November and for which she has done absolutely nothing.

AND... we're hosting a holiday party!

Yep. We're nuts.

So come be crazy with us on November 7th from 4-6 at Jayne's house. If you somehow aren't on our email list but you want to come (and we want you to come), check out the link below or comment on our blog and we'll send you the details. We are doing a bit more market research at this gathering, so if nothing else, come and comment and get a free pair of earrings!

http://www.mypunchbowl.com/parties/667712-beads-just-for-you-holiday-jewelry-party

Yay for lost muses, math, unfinished websites, tripped circuits, and uh...morning sickness that lasts all day...wait...

OK. Let's try that again...Yay for sparkly objects and friends who love to make jewelry!

Peace out.

Mondays and timers

We have changed our meeting days to Mondays to accommodate commitments we have made to important institutions like universities, husbands, and children.

Yesterday was the first meeting on a Monday and we met at Kathleen's. She fed us all lunch. (I usually offer water and stale popcorn at my house. I may need to step it up a bit.) And Kathleen had even totally cleared and organized her dining room table (her current beading work space; her family members generally eat their meals anywhere but at the dining room table) to make room for the beading guests that would be arriving an hour or so after our meeting. It was impressive.

So, at our meeting, I distributed the data that I compiled from the market research party. It took me 13 hours to pour through the 21 surveys and cross reference and record. I learned after I'd gone to all this trouble that there are many computer programs available, some on-line and free, that would crunch the data for me. I suspected this as I was color coding and fighting with Excell sheets. Next time, I'm using a program or I'm making up the data.

We also discussed several beading t-shirt ideas the contents of which I will not divulge because

A: one of our readers might steal the idea (though I think the only readers we have are ourselves)

and

B: they aren't done yet.

We have some polishing to do to make them funnier and not so wordy. Our friend Amy B...(Yes. It is an extremely popular name in our circle. In fact, you have to be named Amy in some form to join our group. Kathleen, Lynn and I barely skated by with a grandfather clause.) Anyway, Amy B. is a very talented t-shirt designer and silk screener* and she came yesterday to the meeting the throw around some ideas. She'll be helping us immensely.

*"screener" is technically not a word, I realize, but what are you going to do about it? You're not reading this anyway.

Kathleen and Ami Jo hosted the aforementioned after-lunch gathering for a friend of ours and some of her coworkers to have a team-building beading extravaganza. It looked like fun, so we are anticipating a detailed account of the goings on at this event.

As we were concluding, we all heard the microwave timer go off in Kathleen's kitchen.

Amy said to her aunt, "Hey there's your timer!"

Kathleen replied, "Oh yeah, it's reminding me to pay attention. Wait. I need some chocolate."

And so ended our Monday shenanigans.