Today’s sale is:  (hold your breath and wait…)

Everything that isn’t a book or made of silver or gold! 

Wait, that sounds peculiar.  How about “everything is on sale except for books, and sterling, Hill Tribe, vermeil, or gold filled.”  That still sounds peculiar.  Oh heck.

And we have refreshments, so be sure to come by!

Well, we’ve been hearing all about different stores and how early they are opening AGAIN on the Friday after Thanksgiving.  And once again, we are… well, perhaps “reluctant” is a good word, to join the crowd. 

Eat a holiday feast and then be somewhere pressed, dressed, and vertical at 5AM the next day?  Even 7AM seems awfully radical and extreme.  Actually, “brutal” was the word several employees tossed out.  Along with several more colorful words about “crazy management” expecting, having the nerve to even bring up such a ridiculous plan in the first place.  (The most polite phrase was “you are out of your freakin’ mind!” followed by “you have fun with that, OK?”)

So here’s what we’re going to do.  We will arrive at The Artful Bead sometime between 9:30 and 10:00 AM Friday after Thanksgiving.  If you have a TRUE bead emergency, we’ll let you in before 10.  (Good stories help, especially if they’re funny.)  And we’ll have juice, hot chocolate, tea, and pastries or muffins available so you can build up your strength while you shop.  Think of it as Second Breakfast, or Elevenses – just enough to keep you going till you can stop for a nice lunch.  And we’ll have SOMETHING on sale for a nice whopping 25% off!

And we’re doing our Gift Certificate Add-Ons this year too – buy a $50 gift certificate, get a $10 additional gift certificate for free.  Buy a $100 gift certificate and get a $20 one for free.  Heck, you can even buy several smaller gift certificates that add up to $100 and we’ll do the free $20 one too!

You should’ve seen the beads!!!  OK, a lot of you DID see the fabulous handmade art from Ginnovations, and more of you will see it next Saturday in Fort Worth, but I just wanted to share a bit…

See these?  They’re mine.  HA!  Mine-mine-mine!  And they’re even prettier in person!

So go to Fort Worth next Saturday for your chance to get some!

The Dallas Area Fiber Artists Annual Show is being held in the Art Centre of Plano starting November 5th and going on till the 27th.  Be sure to stop by and admire and be inspired. 

Click for the DAFA events calendar.  Check out the Gallery for fabulous pictures of previous events and shows.  Click here for the Art Centre of Plano.  (They have moved to a new location, just in case you’ve been there in the past.)

We love lampwork beads.  We know everybody loves lampwork beads.  And so we made some plans and arrangements.  Check these babies out:

  Fabulous, no???  And there are so many more amazing beads made by Ginny Hampton Schmidt!  Click here to see more!

And she is going to be at The Artful Bead on Carrollton all day on Saturday November 13th, and then in the Fort Worth Artful Bead on the next Saturday, November 20th!  Two chances to meet Ginny and fondle her beautiful beads!  And buy them!!! 

So mark your calendars, and don’t forget!

For instance: Both stores are having a celebration of silver climbing toward $25 an ounce by putting all base metal beads, findings, and chain on sale this weekend for 25% off, and we have got in a ginormous load of new beads and findings just in time.

Our very own Amy Jewell has been featured on the Art Jewelry Forum blog about the UNT program, with pictures of her very amazing metal smithing work!  (http://www.artjewelryforum.org/blog/about/university-of-north-texas/)  The picture below is my very favorite piece of Amy’s work: 

 Lindsay (Carrollton store) has a booth at the Carrollton Festival at the Switchyard (http://www.cityofcarrollton.com/index.aspx?page=27&recordid=489&returnURL=%2findex.aspx) selling her wonderful jewelry for pets and people.  Other Artful Bead employees will be “helping” her there.   The festival should be a ton of fun. 

We have an amazing lampwork artist coming to both stores in November (2nd and 3rd weekends) for trunk shows!  (More about that later, she deserves her own writeup.)

And tomorrow is a full moon, and Halloween is next week! 

And a cat has just sneezed on my keyboard.  ick.  sorry.  gbygyhfgjgvhb  never mind it doesn’t wipe off that easily.

Yes indeedie! That mighty roar you heard around noon on Wednesday September 22nd was the official launch of… (insert drumroll, majestic music, and a crash of cymbals here)

The Artful Bead iPhone app!

You can check seed bead sizes by stringing them on a needle and checking them against the screen! It has handy conversion tables! If you tap four fingers on the corners of the “about” screen in the correct sequence, a piece of chocolate falls out the bottom!! (Well, maybe not the part about the chocolate. Evidently that’s against the rules of both Physics and Apple )

And this is just the beginning!

Next week we will have a limited number of free download codes to give away. If you want in on that, email Val at artfulbead dot com and say so.

Now I’ve got to get to work on version 2.0. (sigh)

Oh, forgot to tell you. In the app store, just search for Artful Bead, you’ll see us there, it’s a pretty short list!

Yes, once again we simply Failed to Remember one of our favorite holidays. Today was International Chocolate Day! Early plans involved Swiss chocolate, pretty trays with them artfully arranged, and plenty of leftovers.

And what did we do? FAILED, that’s what.

So to make up for blowing that one, we’re working on NOT messing up the next one.

Which is … (this is us building suspense) INTERNATIONAL TALK LIKE A PIRATE DAY!!!! On September 19th, which is this weekend so you don’t have a lot of time to get ready!!!

So practice your “Yarrr!” and “Avast!!” and read up on the world-wide celebration!

We want to thank writer, Joy Tipping,  for our feature in this month’s Dallas Morning News.  The article, featured in The Guide, contained a plethora of ideas on where to take your out of town guests for the Superbowl or this coming holiday season.  These ideas were obtained from The Source, you know, real people talking about real places they’ve been.  When asked how they would play tour guide to show off the hidden jewel that Dallas is, there were a few spots that came up as favorites.  Among them, The Artful Bead!