Yep, it’s official, we’re open. 

And Carol, who made the Very First Purchase during the Very First Day of tubing, was the Very First Customer through the door!  And she brought gifts!!!  The framed commemorative receipt and everything!  It’s absolutely Fabulous!  You should see the picture!!! 

And the picture of the Very First Necklace made in the Artful Bead SC, of a wonderful young woman’s very first jewelry making attempt!  So dang CUTE!

Well, you could admire those adorable pictures,  if I had managed to bring the camera home.  Sorry.  If the planets align, they’ll be here tomorrow.

And I would like to thank everyone who worked so hard to get ready for the big day – Amy and Lynn who arranged everything on the walls and in the cases; Mary for her endless support and amazing direction; and most of all, my son Jack and my “rental” son Lucas, who worked endless hours on the remodeling, building tables, and doing every silly thing I asked, without crabbing or griping.  And my husband, who had the sense to get out of the country while I was in “Don’t Bother Me, I’m Having Hysterics” phase.

Thanks to all of you, I promise I’ll become human again, around the middle of August.  Really.

P.S. – I apologize for getting Carol’s name wrong, I called her Karen, mostly because I’m an airhead with few functioning brain cells at present.  Thank you eversomuch Carol! 

OK, I was overly optimistic when I thought we would have everything ready on Wednesday night or Thursday before noon at the latest.  I really wanted a night to rest up, so we’d be fresh, excited, and bushy-tailed Friday morning. 

“Overly optimistic” is a bit of an understatement.  “Wildly disconnected from reality” might be a bit more accurate.  At best, we’ll be excited.  Maybe a little punchy from being up too late too many nights in a row.  Definitely not bushy-tailed.

Thank heavens for Cafe Brazil, they’re keeping me vertical at this point.

Oh!  I forgot! 

As part of our Grand Opening Celebration, we’ll give everyone 20% off everything in the store except for sterling silver, gold and vermeil, and books. 

See you this weekend! 

After a truly herculean effort, all but 17 bags of seed beads have been put in tubes in only 4 days.  Thanks to all of our incredible volunteers, especially those of you that came all 4 days.  Especially Marilou and Chris, who stayed to the bitter end, only leaving when Mary said “Enough!  We’re done!” at 7:45 Sunday night.

You wonderful, amazing, FABULOUS women put beads into more than 10,000 tubes.  Nearly 1200 different colors and shapes.  That’s an awful lot of beads, people!!!

We can’t thank you enough, and for all you who are going no miss our Grand Opening Celebration to attend the Bead Retreat in Shreveport, be careful, have fun, and we promise to save some for you after you get back!

And for all of you who aren’t going to Shreveport, we’ll see you next weekend!! 

And to be perfectly honest, those remaining 17 bags are awfully boring colors.  Sad but true.  

Thanks!  A million times, Thanks!

We worked long and hard, both Saturday and Sunday.  We tubed all kinds and sizes of seed beads, including some of the fabulous new cuts and Aiko beads!

But don’t worry, there are still plenty of them left, and we’ll be back next weekend, doing it all again!

Thanks eversomuch to all the wonderful volunteers, we love ALL of you!

As Mary says – “Woo-Hoo!”

Well, I was planning to take a picture of the new store after we finished the floors and trim, all brand new and shiny, to compare to the “before” pictures of the space when we rented it.

I was going to take those pictures this afternoon.  Then Mary came over with endless boxes of tubes, wall pegs, and bins!  Really, vast amounts of this stuff!  Like 16 gynormous heavy boxes of wall pegs.  And 9 huge boxes of tubes for seed beads!  Soooooo many! 

It seemed a bit much to take a picture of a piled-up mess of mashed boxes, so I just skipped it.  At least we all know we’ll have plenty of beads to work on this weekend, and tubes to put them in.

There are still a few spots left, if anyone wants to help!

The new Artful Bead has floors now, so we’re willing to let out the address:

• Artful Bead  
• 2501 N. Josey Lane, Suite 116
• Carrollton, TX 75006
• Phone number 972-242-8949

It’s on the south-west corner of Josey Lane and Trinity Mills/George Bush Turnpike.  (There’s an exit for Josey on Geo. Bush, but you don’t have to use the tollway!) Catty-corner from the Target shopping center, and across Josey from Cafe Brazil.  When you see Shipley’s Donuts from Josey, turn in!  It says “Beads” above the door. 

Mapquest and Google maps are right about the address, but Microsoft’s seems to be a bit off. 

Now I have to get the back door painted and the bathroom floor cleaned up.  I’m running out of time! 

Updated Sunday 

Here’s who I have down so far.  Mornings are 9AM – 2PM, afternoons are 2 – 6 or 7PM, whenever we loose it.  Don’t worry if you come later and leave earlier or later, it’s not that organized.  If I’ve got you down for a time you can’t do, email info@artfulbead.com or leave a comment.

Saturday July 19th – Morning

• Marilou P
• Chris P
• Carol K
• Denise M
• Dianne D
• Patty C
• Shelly T
• Celeste H

Saturday July 19th – Afternoon

• Chris P
• Denise M
• Dianne D
• Carolyn H
• Patty C
• Shelley T
• Celeste H

Sunday July 20th – Morning

• Marilou P
• Chris P
• Carol K
• Dianne D
• Shelley T
• Celeste H
• Teresa S

Sunday July 20th – Afternoon

• Sandy T
• Dianne D
• Carolyn H
• Shelley T
• Celeste H
• Teresa S

Saturday July 26th – Morning

• Marilou P
• Chris P
• Carol K
• Denise M
• Dianne D
• Patty C
• Teresa S
• Celeste H

Saturday July 26th – Afternoon

• Chris P
• Denise M
• Dianne D
• Patty C
• Carolyn H
• Teresa S
• Jan V
• Celeste H

Sunday July 27th – Morning

• Marilou P
• Chris P
• Carol K
• Dianne D
• Patty C
• Teresa S
• Celeste H

Sunday July 27th – Afternoon

• Sandy T
• Dianne D
• Carolyn H
• Patty C
• Teresa S
• Jan V
• Celeste H

We can deal with 10 – 12 at a time, so we still have LOTS OF ROOM!!! 

Still no pictures to show you, but as of today, we have half the slatwall up, the bathroom finished, and all but 4 of the ceiling tiles replaced!  So we’re on track for our Grand Opening on August First and Second!!!  Brenda spent over 2 hours scraping paint, tape, and gum (?! gum?) off the windows, so they’re nice and shiny.  And we won’t try to figure out why anyone stuck gum on the window a long time ago. 

I’ll try to post the schedule for the tubing parties tomorrow night, now I have to update the class schedule.  Sorry!  Please feel free to say mean things about me, and about my general level of incompetence.  (It’s all true, I know it is.  I’m going to eat worms now.)

Sorry it’s been so long, but we’ve been BUSY – busier than should be possible for humans. 

For starters, Monday thru Wednesday this week we were shopping for stones, and what wonderful stones we got!  Fabulous stuff, great shapes, and much-much coolness.

Thursday the plumber came, then Friday Sheetrock Al came and made our arch and patched 74,643 holes.  (Or close to that many, there were a LOT of holes in the walls.)  Saturday and Sunday we painted our brains out, and put TWO coats of Kilz to cover up the pinky-ick on the walls.  Then we painted it all again, with the real white.  And this Tuesday the Electrician comes to put up some track lights and make sure all the other lights are working. 

So the target date for the Grand Opening is Friday August 1st!  Mark that calendar! 

But before that, we need a bit of help.  You see, Mary ordered seed beads for the new store, lots of seed beads, enough that she had to order around 30,000 tubes to put them in.  LOTS of seed beads.  And we need help getting them ready.  So we’re asking for volunteers to help us tube on July 19th and 20th, and 26th and 27th.  You will get a free lunch, drinks and snacks, and the “tail ends” of the beads you tube!  (Tail ends are the beads left over that aren’t enough to fill another tube.  How many there are depends on the size, finish, and shape of the beads.)

We will be tubing from 9AM till around 7PM all 4 days, and we’ll have room for 12 workers at a time.  Email me at info@artfulbead.com if you’re interested in joining us, tell me what day, and what hours.  You can sign up for a whole day, or part of a day.  I’ll try to arrange it so everybody that wants to gets a chance, but sign up early! 

We’ll look forward to hearing from you! 

OK, it’s official, the new Artful Bead has an address!  Drinks all ’round!  Oops, not so fast.  Now we have to WORK awfully hard to get it painted and slatted and wonderfulled.  (I don’t care if it’s not a word, that’s what we’ll be doing to it.)

We’ll let you know the date of the grand opening, some time later this summer, so be sure to sign up for the newsletter!  Now I have to go look at (white) paint chips.