Take a deep breath, and please ignore the lousy photography:

Um… Note to self – Swarovski Rivolis are awfully dang sparkly – and don’t play too well with flashes.  But still – oh my, oh my…  We also have square-ish ones with rounded corners that were not photographable with my skills.

And the seed bead mixes came in, over 30 different mixes of color, shape, and size of beads! With colors named “Arabian Nights” and “Frost Flowers” and “Metallic Rain”.  Just LOOK!

These are Tourmaline, Rain Forest, and Peacock Garden.  wow…..  Sorry the pictures are a bit lacking, they’re really unbelieveable.

Come seem them soon, before they all go to their forever homes.

I am ever so sorry, the phone number on the home page for the Carrollton store was WRONG!!!  I crossed two phone numbers, resulting in a phone number that is not ours.  I apologize to the unlucky people who happened to have that phone number.  Really apologize and grovel.  A lot.

The number is now corrected, and is 972-242-8949. 

Sorry for the state of the Carrollton class calendar for October and beyond – the dates are fairly certain, but I haven’t had time to get the classes in the catalog so they can be viewed or purchased.

 I promise I’ll get it done as soon as possible.  Feel free to send raspberries or other noises to info at artfulbead dot com.

OK, guilt is nearly overwhelming, since Carol (Yes, First Customer Both Times Carol, THAT Carol) has now officially started working for us.  So that last post about looking for help is way out of date, because she’s been there a whole week, and I’m just now getting this posted.  Very slow freight indeed.

But some of the delay is because we got in more bugles (#3’s and twisted ones!) and some absolutely delicious Swarovski Rivolis, even square ones!  (too lazy to look up the official plural of Rivoli.  Sorry.  Tell me in the comments and make me happy.)  There will be pictures soon. 

Saturday was wonderful, we saw lots of friends, lots of new friends who saw our advertisements in the local newspapers, and several who saw our FRONT PAGE article in the Carrollton Leader last Wednesday.  The online verison of the article is at   http://www.planostar.com/articles/2008/09/03/carrollton_leader/news/46.txt  (I still don’t know how to make that be a link, so you’ll just have to paste it in your address bar, probably.)

And Chris?  Thanks for the “address not there” warning.  It’s there, just not very well organized.  I’m going to make the “directions” and “about us” pages a bit more two-store aware tonight.  Or tomorrow.  Maybe. 

In the lineup of firsts in our new store, we now have the First Job Opening!

We’re looking for a friendly energetic person to work Mondays, Wednesdays, and an occasional Friday or Saturday.  This is a part-time position, 18 – 27 hours per week.

Interested?  Send a hand-written cover letter with your resume to:

Artful Bead
2501 N Josey Ln, Ste 116
Carrollton, TX  75006
Attention Valarie

We’ll see you soon!

OK, for everyone who has asked for pictures, here they are:

First, the glass wall, with Czech glass

Then the stones

And the seed beads

Look at the stones case!

This is the view from the front door

 I am particularly fond of the classroom window.  It’s a very nice large classoom, and I think the porthole is just adroable!

So come on in and see us!  We’re waiting for you!

This is a picture of the very first necklace made in the new Artful Bead, and the lovely young lady that made it – the first piece of jewelry she ever made. 

And then she came back the next day (with her mother, aunt, and grandmother!) and they all made necklaces!  This is the second piece of jewelry she made!  Isn’t it wonderful?

We agree, totally wonderful!  (Sorry she’s a bit blurry, seems there was a fingerprint on the lens…)

 We’re working on the class schedule for the new store, and will have it ready soon!  Lots of new classes, plus some old favorites, so there’s something for everybody!

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!