SFE Jewelry

Teaming with Walk to End Alzheimers

2011-07-28T08:07:00.000-07:00

We're in the thick of it! Yeah!

We're making Amethyst bracelets that will be sold at the Walk to End Alzheimer's events. Kyla designed several bracelets, and the Alzheimer's Association Great Plains Chapter picked a design to be sold at their Walk to End Alzheimer's event.

Each bracelet will sell for $21.40 with 50% of the proceeds going to the Chapter. We hope this spreads across the U.S. - a wonderful project for us and helping to fight Alzheimer's too!

Another really great event was Kyla's interview on NTV's the Good Life, Monday July 25th. What a great piece; good information given on Community Action Partnership of Mid-Nebraska, the Walk to End Alzheimer's and what happening with this project. To see the interview go to

http://www.nebraska.tv/story/15141155/beads-in-a-box

And the blessings keep on coming! About an hour or two after Kyla's interview we had a surprise visitor at our administration building. Marilee, a new resident of Kearney, happened to watch the NTV interview and dropped by to see if she could volunteer to help make bracelets. Her father has been affected by Alzheimer's and she felt this was a good project to contribute her time to - it would both help us in our mission and help in the fight of Alzheimer's disease.

On the home front, we are gearing up for the fall/winter season. We have several conferences scheduled that we will attend as vendors. This allows us to raise money and to share our mission statement and raise awareness of Community Action and all of what our programs achieve.

We will have our fall show, the Holiday Splendor Craft and Trade show on November 12th. This will be an exciting time for us. Our plan is to have a bead trunk show and 3 to 4 classes to teach beading. We are actively looking for instructors to help make this a success.

This is all from the home front for now -

Stay tuned -

Janice

2011-07-18T12:18:00.000-07:00

Great news for Beads in a Box and Something For Everyone Jewelry! Alexandra Dillon, Associate Director for the Alzheimer’s Association of the Great Plains Chapter contacted Beads in a Box about creating a signature bracelet for their Walk to End Alzheimer’s coming up in Grand Island and Kearney. Kyla was given the task to create some sample bracelets, business cards and figure out packaging. She was shown a previous bracelet with beads and a forget-me-not flower charm on it. Purple is the signature color for Alzheimer’s. Other than the color purple, Kyla was given free rein with the design and price range.
After some research she decided to design these sample bracelets with the gemstone, Amethyst. Amethyst is a stone of the mind; it brings calmness and clarity; it helps you to get in touch with your intuition, your feelings, your spirituality and your values and dreams. It’s a healing stone that brings peace and happiness – all of these qualities and effects are sought after by the person afflicted with Alzheimer’s.
Completing the review and selection process, the bracelet selected will be Amethyst chips on memory wire with a forget-me-not flower charm. Supplies are ordered and the process has begun. Stacy Glock, team leader from Grand Island, already stopped by and picked up 20 bracelets last week and excitedly shared she has many more sold. These bracelets will be sold for $21.40 with tax included.
The first Walk to End Alzheimer’s in Nebraska will be in Grand Island on August 4th. At this walk, it is requested to have 100 bracelets available to sell. If our volunteers are unable to complete enough in time, the personnel will take orders. Beads in a Box will also be providing a signature, one-of-a-kind gemstone set to be raffled off at this event, too.
The second Walk to End Alzheimer’s in Nebraska will be in Kearney on September 8th. We are shooting for the same numbers to be completed and will also provide a raffle piece.
We are excited to see how these bracelets go over. If they are successful, plans are underway to offer them in other states besides Nebraska! Now the task at hand is to rally the volunteers and have a beading party in honor of the Alzheimer’s Association. If you’d like to join us for our stringing party, give us a call at 308-440-0153!

Toodles for now!
Kyla

April Showers & A New Concept

2011-05-02T12:25:00.000-07:00

As I think about growing up and hearing that April showers bring the May flowers, I remember waiting for the flowers to bloom. It meant I could be outside longer in the evenings, go without a coat, and play with the kids in the neighborhood. Now, I am looking out on the "April rain" and overcast skies wishing for sunshine to brighten our day and lift our spirits.

"Hooked on Words"

When we need to remain inside we think and dream about so many things. What I seem to do is dream about creating jewelry that is unique and women want to wear. So, my pondering lead us to what we are calling "bazangles." Bazangles is our name for our new line of hand-created jewelry.

"Old Ivory" Pin

Of course if it is creative I wonder how to make it into jewelry. Thus, the idea to create limited additions and one-of-a-kind small pieces of wearable art. As you may know Beads in a Box and SFE Jewelry are discretionary programs for Community Action Partnership of Mid-Nebraska. A non-profit community based agency helping people and changing lives. Check us out at http://www.communityactionmidne.com/

Most of what we have created thus far is OOAK pins. Kyla, Megan (my granddaughter), Karen (my SIL) and myself have enjoyed designing. We continue to develop our individual styles as we practice and learn. We plan to share with small businesses, museum gift and specialty stores to see if they be interested in our new jewelry concept.

We will share more as we move along. Thank you for your support and interest.

Until later ~

Karen

Treasures and Time

2011-03-07T08:02:00.000-08:00

We have organized & found places for our new "treasures" from the Tucson Gem & Mineral Show -- I call it treasure because that's what it feels like when you look at the piles of wonderful stones we now have to create with. Remember when you were a little girl sneaking a peak in your mom's jewelry box - it feels like that, full of wonder and possibilities.

Now, trying to find the time to sit and create with this "treasure" while keeping up with your normal work schedule and personal life is a challenge. Thank goodness we have a wonderful volunteer, Deb - what a blessing.

She joined us several weeks ago and, in addition to enjoying the creative process of making jewelry, she is very excited about our mission. We are doubly blessed in that she has a very good eye for color & proportions and has created some very lovely pieces for us.

We will attend the Equine Expo in the Lancaster Event Center in Lincoln, NE this next weekend, the 11th, 12th & 13th of March. We have been stockpiling horse-themed jewelry and plan on having a great 3 days. This will be a new event for us and we hope to make it an annual one.

In addition to a few other events, our Signs of Spring Craft Show is on April 2nd. We will be the first craft show to christen the building and we plan on this being a huge event for us. It's hard to contain our excitement!

We have so many new and exciting projects coming up this year - it's more than I can express to be associated with this group of passionate, creative women!

Keep tuned -

Janice

And Here We Stay

2011-02-10T07:40:00.000-08:00

We spent Friday night packing up the goods, organizing the car and picking up the house. Out the door at 6:00 a.m. My flight didn't leave until 1:00 P.M. which meant I was going to have to sit in the airport for five hours so Karen insisted that I ride home with her and Janice. We were also concerned about the weather in Denver. I was able to see territory that astounded me. The desert can be quite beautiful even in the dead of winter. It was disturbing to me to see so many mountains with no snow on them; THAT changed in Trinidad. Heading east on Interstate 10 to Deming, NM. Then north to Truth or Consequences, Socorro and Albuquerque. I never really thought about it before but it is all mountains. I thought we'd never get out of them and at the time of this posting, we still haven't. The last hour and half we fought snow as we made the trek to Raton Pass to make camp in Trinidad, CO.

Our hotel personnel let us know they were expecting three inches of snow during the night. We made plans to meet for breakfast at 7:00 a.m. and then take off. Karen and I packed all our goods and headed out. We were stopped dead in our tracks with the overwelming realization that we were in a full out blizzard. At least a foot of snow was on the ground and visability was pretty much nil. Travelers came to a halt and so did we.

Karen, our hero, geared up and trekked out to the car to get our beads. Might as well make lemonade out of the lemons we were dealt. We made camp in the motel restaurant pulling a table up to a booth and spread out the beads. We stayed there for eight hours beading and creating new pieces for Beads in a Box. It was fun showing all the curious snowbound travelers what we were doing. They were quite interested in our story. I adopted a little friend right off the bat. Ten year-old, Asia, daughter of the owners, was quite taken with the beads and ended up joining us for the whole day. I was missing my daughters and got my daughter fix by teaching her how to string. She had been snowed in all week and missed school. Boredom had taken over and the chance to do something different really excited her.

I guess tonight was the Super Bowl. Silly me, could have cared less. I finished my book and took the time to blog. Our new plan is to try again in the morning. If we don't get out in the morning, another front is coming in on Tuesday and the next chance for us to return will be on Wednesday. Can't do it folks. Need my family!

One thing for sure that we'll all agree on is the excellent service we've received from the Quality Inn here in Trinidad, CO. Harry, Nemi and their kids Asia and Rog run a great family-owned business with loyal, hardworking staff. Gary (a.k.a. The Hero) was the desk clerk when we arrived on Friday night, worked until 1:00 a.m. and was back at it early this morning. Greeting all the snowed in travelers, running the front desk and serving the guests in the restaurant, he was tireless. Then to top it off when he finally did get to go home, he made a special trip to the pharmacy across town to pick up my much needed meds and delivered them back to me. Kindness comes in all kinds of packages and it reaffirms that there still are great people out there in this crazy world. We greatly appreciate the hospitality given to us and hope you will stop here if you get a chance.

Tootles for now, Kyla

Defenseless against beautiful beads

2011-02-10T07:31:00.000-08:00

Defenseless, sensory overload, pure bliss are just a few words to explain attending the Tucson Bead and Gem Show. To begin to explain one might say that it is a world of its own. Picture the largest tent you've ever seen filled with vendors. Each vendor has around 20 8-ft conference tables heaping with strands of stones, pearls, crystals, lamp work beads, silver beads, findings and so much more. Beads hanging from displays, equipment, anything you can imagine in the Bead and Gem Show world.

Now picture over twenty tents or more like this and large various hotels hosting this type of show throughout this large city. Reading a small telephone book of advertisements to try and figure out what shows to actually go to is another challenge we face. Over the several years we've been doing this together, we've found our favorite shows and vendors to patronize.

You see hobbyists learning as they go, to experts buying in huge quantities. I think we'd fall somewhere in the middle. It feels good to be able to tell a fellow buyer the name of the stone they are fawning over when the vendor is clueless. Although in this world, I've found that there are many names for the same stone depending where it was mined, exported and the experience of the seller. Basically, we go by our gut feeling- if we love it, maybe our customers will too. The biggest barrier to get over in the gemstone world is to get beyond what we personally like.Think outside our box to buy what other people might like even though we may not.

Karen and I have developed a shopping system which sometimes can be quite comical. I'm systematic and she's all over the place. I don't want to miss a thing and go from booth to booth in a pattern careful not to miss a thing. Of course, that's not possible with the bazillions out there to see. Karen could easily jig jag around and be totally happy. If she spots something we might interest us, she hollers and I come a runnin'. It's my job to do quality-control. I feel the beads and check for any bad beads in the strand. This is also a true test of our stamina. We spend countless hours on our feet pulling our wheeled-suitcase filled with the goods, water, and snacks. Our hands get awfully dirty because, of course, one must touch all that is pretty! We take turns taking our "haul" out to the car to lessen our load. This year the weather deterred us from eating outside in the food court. Freezing winds drove us to sit in the car and eat our lunch, rejuvenate and hit the bricks again until we couldn't stand any more.

It took us three days to complete one show in this fashion but DID WE FIND THE TREASURES!!! Red Creek Jasper and dyed agates were the big thing this year. We are excited to show our customers our big-holed beads. We will create Community Action's version of the Pandora bracelet and the price will reflect it . We found some exceptional chains in many designs. Gun metal is new in the metals this year. It's been making a small appearance in the past but this year made its grand debut. Sterling silver has become outrageous high priced and even the largest businesses are looking for ways to substitute its use.

A couple of nights we had enough energy to eat out, other nights we'd drag our sorry backsides back to the house with take out. Our evenings were spent sorting and putting our goods in containers so they would be easier to bring home in Karen's car. Janice was made several "Matchables" which we'll need for the upcoming Horse Expo in March. Friday was set aside as our creating day.

After we returned from a hard days work Thursday night, Janice discovered that we didn't have water in the house. The frigid cold temps were very noticeable and frozen pipes were topics of discussion during the day but it never occurred to us that it might happen in the home of which we were staying. Karen took to the phones calling for help. With the panic of not being able to "flush," Karen and I took off for the closest grocery store to get water. While we were tracking down water, Janice received a call from the neighbor on the west. Apparently he noticed water gushing from the side of the house and came over to shut it off. We had broken pipes. The 23 degree temps are a stranger to Tucson and the town seemed to be in a small panic. The broken water pipes were wide-spread and the plumbers along with the city employees were working around the clock. Hundreds and hundreds of people without water soon sold out the water in the area stores. We were lucky to get what we did. Although the gallons were out we were able to make it thru the night pretending like we were "camping." (I'm forbidden to go into the gory details, but being a plumber's daughter did come in handy.) We spent the day creating to keep our minds off the bathroom and finally the plumber arrived at noon. His vehicle wouldn't start in this temp and he needed another battery. He needed more pipe wrap but the whole city was sold out, so he improvised by using cardboard and a bathroom towel. It worked we had water Saturday morning after temps in the low 20's.

Time to call it a night, get out the snore spray and dream about beads.

Tootles for now,
Kyla

Happy to be in Tucson

2011-02-04T13:06:00.000-08:00

After an uneventful flight to Tucson on Sunday morning, I was tickled to see Janice and Karen drive up at the airport. It was unusual that everything went on time. Their two-day drive went well. Being the optimist that I am, I left my winter coat in the car in the airport parking lot in Nebraska as I dreamed of the sunny warmth of Tucson. Trips past, I'd always overdressed. This year I made sure to bring capris and sandles. Boy, have I been surprised with the weather with the highest temps in the 40s.

We are enjoying our adobe home in the foothills of the mountains in eastern Tucson. Finding the right home was an event worth reiterating. "Margaret" as we call our navigation system took us to the wrong house in the dark, no less. Janice and Karen just got done investigating the back area in the driveway but it didn't seem right. Karen told me that there was a very big doggie door in the back. Sure that we found the correct house, Karen told me to grow a pair and decided to sacrifice the young tender one; she sent me to the front door of the "correct house." So I carefully walked up the front step, unhinged the first iron gate to proceed four more feet. The front door was all barred as I noticed signs that made the hair on my arms stand up. Dobbermans-Can you clear the fence in three seconds? We can! Cripes, I'm not going any further. I'll sleep outside in the locked car tonight, thank you!

After many minutes of frustration, Janice and I partnered as we walked up the steps of the neighbors' house to ask for directions. They were so nice and kindly told us that the house we were looking for was behind them. We were trying to get into someone else's house with Dobberman's no less!!! It's a wonder the police didn't come.

The magnificent view out to the north included the beautiful mountains. Monday morning Karen told me to listen to the morning doves cooing. I told her that my Grampa Tommy taught me to call them rain doves. When they cooed, it meant rain was on the way. Within two minutes of our conversation, it started raining. "Your grampa was a smart man," Karen said.

It rained on and off all day during our first shopping excursion. We made it to Cherry Tree Beads at the Double Tree to see Bill and Adriana. They took great care of us escorting us around their booth showing us what was new for this year. It's always exciting to be recognized year after year being so far away from home. We will be working with them this summer to have our first bead trunk show at our Christmas in July Expo.

While I was salivating over the metals at You and Me Findings, Karen went to visit our friends at Guatemala Creations. Robert and Bobbi Lee spend nine months a year living in Guatemala running their exporting/wholesaling/retailing business. They employee women there at a livable wage to create beautiful beaded fashions. They are very insistant on fairness in this trade which makes adding their products to our mission even more heartwarming. Make sure to check out these masterpieces next time you shop with us.

Tootles for now, Kyla

New Ideas, Opportunities, and Challenges

2011-01-20T03:36:00.000-08:00

Rough cut Citrine

As we begin 2011, Kyla, Janice, and I continue to discuss what path or direction do we need to move? We decide that we needed to have different voices and views to help clarify what we do next. It will require us to find 3 - 5 women who have the time and energy to listen to our story, hear about our dreams, and provide their thoughts and ideas to help take Beads in a Box, SFE Jewelry, and Untapped Potential to the next level. It is exciting to dream, plan for and implement new concepts. The difficulty is in the lack of people to take on a part of the dream and make it a reality.

Linda, our special volunteer, followed her heart and is in California with her guy, Gene. We miss her and all she did for us. We want to thank her for her hard work, dedication, and desire to help us reach our goals. Volunteers are vital to the work we do in Community Action and we have many opportunities for people to become involved in the work we do!

Kyla, Janice, and I will have time to visit, dream, and plan next steps as we make our annual buying trip to Tucson. We will have a week to hunt for new stones, new cuts, and findings to create one of a kind jewelry for Beads in a Box. We will be on the hunt for new styles in hand picked jewelry for our SFE Jewelry line. We will also spend time discussing the business; we find that this time with little interruptions is a gift that helps us to focus on beads! When we are in the office or a show there is a constant flow of people, problems, and changes that dictate what we do. It expands what Kyla calls my "popcorn" approach" which is I jump from one topic to another without warning. Kyla has become a master at "jumping with me." *smile*

Semi Rough Amethyst

What I know each day is I am blessed to have many people that care about the work we do at the agency and what we are doing with Beads in a Box. It is humbling to see the deep commitment and desire to make our vision and mission a reality. I know that the opportunities are endless, the challenges bring new ideas, and the future is what we make of it. I often share the following: "whether you think you can or you think you can't ~ either way you are right." I try to live my life by thinking I can, I know with the help of those who share our vision, our dream, we can continue to build Beads in a Box. 'til later, Karen

Off to Miami & Other Thoughts

2011-01-01T06:01:00.000-08:00

Kyla and I will be leaving Sunday for the National Community Action Partnership Winter Conference in Miami. I will have committee and board meetings to attend as well as the conference. Kyla will set up tables with our jewelry. We have enjoyed support from our Community Action family, who stop by to check our jewelry and find a few things for themselves, family, and friends. We appreciate the support of our network as we continue to build our jewelry business.

2010 was a good year for Beads in a Box and SFE Jewelry. We increased our sales, traveled to more conventions and conferences, and met so many people to tell our story. We were able to hire two staff to help with our jewelry business. Janice remains with us and has created two incredible websites; www.beadsinbox.com and www.sfejewelry.com We hope that our websites will grow with increased sales this year; while we continue to discuss ways to promote and expand.

One of the decisions this year came and went within a few months. We decided to purchase handbags to add to our product line. It gave us another venue to expand our business. After a few months we realized that we did not have the space to display or store a large variety of handbags; so we decided to no longer carry an inventory. We may consider purchasing small number of handbags for special events in the future.

2011 is filled with opportunities and challenges. We leave for the Tucson Gem & Mineral Show in late January to discover new stones and shapes to create one-of-a-kind heirloom quality pieces for Beads in a Box. We will also check out new vendors for our Something for Everyone (sfejewelry) jewelry. We plan to establish an advisory group to provide guidance, support, and opportunities for our jewelry.

We want to thank all those who seek out and wear our jewelry. Your purchases help us move forward in our plans to expand to include a wholesale business that will train and hire single heads of households working two or more jobs to support their families. We are looking forward to developing our Untapped Potential line of jewelry; that will be sold to gift stores, museums, and small businesses.

As we continue our journey we hope that you continue to support us through your purchases of our jewelry, your promotion to others, and your suggestions for new venues to showcase our jewelry.

Wishing you all a Happy 2011,
For Now,
Karen

‘Tis the Season

2010-12-15T11:54:00.000-08:00

I love being one of Santa’s helpers!

Here at Beads in a Box we are definitely feeling the Christmas spirit. One of our newest creations is called Matchables. We are creating a generic necklace with an array of different colors and stones. If our customers purchase one of these treasures, they can choose a magnetic pendant for ½ price. This is an amazing set. Since the pendant is magnetic, our customers can interchange them and create a whole new look. Today, I just put five sets of Matchables in the mail. They are going to Blair, NE. Becky found us at River City Rodeo in Omaha this fall and fell in love with this concept. She’s been very patient with me as I’ve created five different looks for her to give for Christmas gifts.

I love it when a customer realizes how our mission is working with volunteers creating in their spare time. Besides running a business, working our regular jobs, and having families, we seem to find time to work in the extra creations. These Matchable creations have been on my living room floor for quite some time waiting to get finished. It finally happened and I’m excited for the recipients.

Are you looking for just the right necklace to go with that outfit? Haven’t found the perfect look yet? Well, come in and see us! We can create the look you are going for with our Matchables! Please call for an appointment at 308-440-0153 and we’d be happy to oblige.

Merry Christmas to you and I hope you are enjoying assisting Santa and Jesus in creating Christmas miracles.
Tootles for now,
Kyla

Winding Down?

2010-12-13T14:36:00.000-08:00

I think not! We are gearing up for more exciting things in 2011.

In early February we are taking our annual trip to Tucson, Arizona for the international Gem and Mineral Show. It is an amazing event that takes all of Tucson over for a week plus, and while it's necessary to our business, we love to go. This is one of the times in the year when our creative juices overflow.

Our next big new venture for 2011 will be our Christmas in July - in conjunction with a craft show, we plan to have a bead show also. We will have strands of beads available for purchase and the things necessary to make small projects (a necklace or bracelet). Also, our goal is to have classes that are designed to help people learn the basics of jewelry construction and design. You talk about exciting! What an amazing way to share our mission and our love of creating at the same time.

What a nice way to end our show season - looking forward to a new, exciting venture in the new year. Stay tuned - we'll keep you informed of our progress.

Janice

Keep On Keepin' On

2010-11-06T17:57:00.000-07:00

It's' me, Kyla. Been a long while since I blogged. I just finally read Karen's last blog. I'm humbled. She's got it right, this is about all our bodies can handle and then we get up and do it again. We really couldn't do this if we weren't driven by our mission. If we didn't believe in what we were doing, why in the world would we be doing this? I'm writing from our hotel room in North Platte after a mediocre day of sales at the Cowboy Christmas. I was able to walk around and make a lot of contacts for our own craft show next weekend in Kearney called the Holiday Splendor Craft Show and Mid's Product Premiere Tradeshow. This is the first time we've done an out-of-town show the weekend before our own show. Don't know if it was a smart decision or not. Last night Karen, Linda, and I put in a hard night of coughing. I pray with God's help and a whole lot of drive, that I'll be clicking on all cylinders next weekend. Two days on concrete takes it out of you.

Thank God all this isn't up to one person. I'm blessed to have so many stars on my team. While we are on the road, Janice is keeping the office fires burning answering the craft show phone, working on our websites and facebook accounts, taking orders for Beads in a Box and of course, always finding something that needs fixed or organized. I have no worries when she's there. It will be taken care of. Thanks Janice!

We have several who volunteer regularly for us. Putting in the most hours lately is Linda. She's up and at it every morning making a difference in the bead room. I don't need to watch over her and tell her step by step what needs done. She can see it! Thank God. There is enough work here to keep four more Lindas going. Instead of feeling overwhelmed by it all, she keeps her head down and keeps on trucking! Thanks Linda for your great sense of humor when we are traveling. You are such a joy to have along.

Mary is gearing up to be in charge of our "sales table" at our craft show next weekend. She comes out after work on Friday to set up "her" table the way she wants it. If you watch her, she won't leave her table all day with the goal to sell as much as she can. She does it with such a quiet spirit and when you thank her, she gets teary-eyed. She so believes in what we are trying to do that she marvels in our progress.

The weather has been so beautiful this fall. On the downside of that is it's been so dry. The air needs cleaned out causing so many to have colds and the such. We've been passing one around in the office. It is my prayer that we'll all have enough energy to make it thru the next several weeks. The weekend after our craft show, Karen, Linda and I travel to Lincoln for a three day show for the Nebraska Music Educators Assoc. Conference. We also have the Governor's conference in Kearney while we're gone in which our volunteers will cover. During the first week in December we have three shows.

The show I'm really looking forward to is the Kearney Women's Club Christmas Open House on December 3rd from 3:00-7:00. We have a huge invitation list and I can't wait to meet some of these ladies. The public is welcome and what a great opportunity to see this wonderful house. This is a fundraiser for them to use towards renovations.

Well, its official. Karen and Linda's wish came true....I lost my voice. HA! HA! Good thing I can still type!!! Good night all. Tootles for now, Kyla

Still Growing, Planning, Believing

2010-11-02T04:25:00.000-07:00

It has been awhile since I've blogged. Life gets in the way of the things we care deeply about and want to ensure continues to move down the path we've established. This year has been a difficult one for many of those who care about and expend energy keeping our dream alive. The dream of creating a jewelry business that includes one-of-a-kind heirloom quality pieces and carefully selected fashion jewelry. We continue to move towards our dream as it evolves and changes to meet today's realities.

We are blessed with a full-time very special volunteer, Linda. She comes to work everyday to organize, mark in new inventory, and attend sales events. Linda helps wherever she can to help us continue our dream/vision. Volunteers make the difference and we plan to establish an advisory team to help move our business forward. We will bring together a few women to share our vision/dream and ask for their ideas and suggestions to expand and grow our business. Our ultimate goal is to support staff for our business and donate profits to Community Action Partnership of Mid-Nebraska.

Linda was part of our small group as we discussed how to open the market for hand-designed and hand-crafted jewelry. Our vision is to become part of a large wholesale market selling to boutiques, museums, and gift stores. This would allow us to hire women working more than one job to support their families. They could create the jewelry at home to fill our orders. This would allow them to be at home in the evenings with their families. This is the dream that keeps us moving forward when our bodies are worn and tired after standing for long hours sharing our story and selling our jewelry. When at the end of the day long event we drive through a fast food joint; take our meal to the hotel, get on our pj's and eat sitting on our beds. Then we crawl into bed, shut off the light, sleep fast before we get up and start all over again. We do this because we believe in our dream. It is above and beyond our daily lives of work, family, and friends.

We are blessed to have these few women who believe and care about our dream. More later, Karen

A Milestone -- A wonderful segment on our local Channel 13 - NTV

2010-10-18T09:00:00.000-07:00

We so enjoyed the experience of Zach Richie - he was thoughtful in his questions and really cared about our mission --
watch the segment and actually see just some of what we do.

Keep tuned ! !
Janice

Bill - -

2010-08-09T11:49:00.000-07:00

It’s with a heavy heart that I tell you we lost a Beads in a Box warrior yesterday. Bill Lueck, Karen’s husband of almost 35 years, lost his battle with leukemia on August 8th. He’d been fighting this ugly disease for 17 months. Ever since the birth of Beads in a Box in August of 2004, Bill has been a great supporter of what we were trying to accomplish with this program. Matter of fact, we incorporated several of his ideas. I have memories of traveling in Tucson, Arizona, with Bill and Karen, my first time to experience the world’s largest bead and gem show. Bill and I liked a lot of the same colors of stones, Purple Crazy Lace to be precise. Just the gesture of spending time with Karen and I while we shopped for the business told me that he was very supportive of what we were doing. He took pride in being our pack horse, carrying all our treasures.

When Karen would bring her creations to the office, she’d always let me know if Bill liked them or not. Sometimes she would incorporate his views and sometimes not. I was always amazed that he’d have an opinion. Most husbands tell us what we want to hear - “It’s OK.”

In my beginning beading adventures, I made at least four dozen bracelets wrong. When I found out that I finished them wrong, I was more than willing to take them all apart and redo them. Bill was adamant that I didn’t do that. Karen ordered a soldering iron and Bill soldered each and every one of those bracelets.

I was one of the few people Bill enjoyed having in his home and I frequented there quite a bit. Many times were to sit at Karen’s dining room table to work on inventory. Other times were to spend the night on craft show nights instead of traveling home. Whatever the reason I was there, I’d always greet Bill with a, “Honey, I’m home.” He’d always respond with, “How’s Spike.” He nicknamed me Spike because of my spiky hair. He let me know that he didn’t care for it and when I grew it out, he let me know he really liked it.

Karen and I travel on our beading adventures a lot. Each night she’d check in with Bill and give him the low-down on how our sales were going. He always showed an interest and for that I’m very grateful.

It was a blessing that Bill traveled to Heaven peacefully. Karen now begins another new chapter of her life. It will be filled with all kinds of mixed emotions. Knowing her like I do, Karen will find respite in creating with her polymer clay during her healing time. I can confidently say that Bill will be looking down on her smiling as she creates something beautiful. It’s his turn to tell her, “Honey, I’m home.”

Kyla Martin

KEEPIN' IT FRESH

2010-07-29T08:53:00.000-07:00

"Blog away!" Janice tells me as we sit here together at the Holiday Inn today for the NE Council of School Administrators Conference. There are over 1,000 participants and hopefully we'll try jewelry on all of them!! Doesn't hurt to think positively!!

Leeann Clouse

Our agency is recovering from the loss
of a staff member and friend,
Leeann Clouse.
That makes each step moving forward that much
harder but we have to remember to
keep on keepin' on.

With that in mind, keeping our business fresh all of the time is a continuous challenge. Stay away from the 'same ole, same ole.' What can we do to change it up?

Currently Janice is working on some great additions to our line. We are going to call them the "Matchables." We sell magnetic pendants with matching earrings. Normally, I use them as part of a creation and will continue to do that. Our different idea this time is to create generic necklaces to display next to the pendants and have our customers match them up. While she's cranking them out, I'm working on the marketing end creating the display cards and researching the stone properties. We are a great team together!!

Also Janice has inspired our new line of Beaded Hair Bling. She's been creating hair barrettes and combs. Janice taught our friend and volunteer, Linda, to make some, too. Karen was inspired to create some with polymer clay. She created all different colors of layered hands which are totally darling. They make me think of Head Start teachers right away!

Of course, I'd be amiss if I didn't tell you about our new line of pet jewelry. Karen has been busy creating precious bling to clip onto pet collars. Our business manager, Ed, has been after us to do this for six years. Bling for Pets will be making its grand debut soon.

I'd be the 'odd ball out' if I didn't create something to go with the beaded bling theme so this weekend I threw together some wonderful key chains or purse bling. These were inspired by the use of my 'chunky box.' Whenever BIAB gets new stones, I'll throw a few of them in this box to create with. Do you have a collection of specialty beads that inspires you to create differently? We have a large order of purses coming in to get ready for our national conference in Boston for Community Action. I used those colors to draw from in the color palette . All they need to be finished is the clamp end.

Keep on keepin' on sometimes is a challenge everyday but we have to keep lookin' up.

Tootles for now,
Kyla

Making things easier!?!?

2010-06-29T12:17:00.000-07:00

Aren't growing pains wonderful?
In addition to expanding our physical space and attending new venues - we are altering our sites to make it easier to reach us, easier to shop and to better explain what drives us to do what we do.

Yes, we LOVE jewelry! But behind it all is our is our goal to fight poverty.
Join us - visit our sites and tell us what you think. Remember us when you have that special occasion or holiday coming up.

Let us know - did we make it easy to see our stunning jewelry & purses? Did you get around our sites and find things you like? If not, what would you like to see? We love to stay current and would love to hear from you.

www.BeadsinaBox.com for our Hand Designed line of jewelry

www.SFEJewelry.com for our Hand Selected line of jewelry

www.mnca.net to visit our organizations site

See you soon! Janice

Exhausted - But Happy!

2010-06-14T11:36:00.000-07:00

In keeping with "No Time To Blog", we have just been through a busy but fulfilling time - we were very happy to participate June 5th in the event Give Cancer The Boot. This event raises money for cancer research and funds raised stay in Nebraska - most goes to the Eppley Cancer Center in Omaha, but a nice percentage will go to the many cancer centers across our state. Kyla, her daughter Sadie and her husband Tim, Julie, myself and my husband Marvin all helped that day to make our part of this effort a success.
This last week we participated in the Home and Ranch show here in Kearney. It was a well planned and executed event and we met many wonderful people.
We also attended the NCE Conference held at the Holiday Inn here in Kearney. We made a lot of women very happy with our wonderful jewelry :-) They were a great group of people and I know many of them we interested in our mission to raise funds for our many programs here at Community Action Partnership of Mid-Nebraska.
We have a brief lull - but then many more events planned.
Keep checking our web site for new items and our blog for more updates.

See you soon! Janice

Remembering Those Who Serve & Other Stuff

2010-06-14T11:24:00.000-07:00

Today is Memorial Day! We have two Navy men in the household; one who served 30+ years including Vietnam and Desert Storm. Also, my husband who served in the the 60's on a submarine called the SSA 420 Triante. It brings to mind all those who served our Country and made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. Plus, those men and women serving today around the World. We enjoy our freedom because of them. As Americans we need to remember and honor these men and women who leave their families and friends to protect our way of life. Please say a prayer for them today and everyday.

We have been busy attending several events to showcase our jewelry and now we have added purses. Our purses were a big hit at the Region VII Head Start conference in Kansas City. As a woman who carries one purse until it looks old and tired I learned that many women LOVE purses. It is interesting to see what the ladies pick out and why. Purses like jewelry feed our spirit and make us feel great! Finding just the right one to go with a specific outfit is like a treasure hunt; it is something to enjoy and celebrate when you have it on your shoulder.

Kyla and Janice are busy handling the "Cattleman's Ball General Store." They have their vendors and are finishing the logistics for the huge event June 5th. The Ball had 4,000 tickets to sell and they are all gone! It will be a fun-filled day with many folks enjoying all the activities. We are trying to get several new sets done for this event.
More later, Karen

TOO BUSY TO BLOG

2010-04-26T12:43:00.000-07:00

Yes, I'm at fault; it's been crazy busy here with the development programs. Karen wrote a nice blog about our Signs of Spring Craft Show. We made it through without incident. That's great. I usually spend the afternoon doing walk-arounds checking on the vendors. This time the Beads in a Box booth was just hopping and I couldn't get away. It looked like the stock market at times. The ladies just loved our rings. Pictured is my youngest, Sage, going over-the-top with the flower rings. Another customer just had to have the large cross rings because that's what the attendees wore at the Taylor Swift concert. The tear down went smoothly with help from the gentlemen at the Youth Rehabilitation and Treatment Center (YRTC). They enjoy doing it and love the pizza we give them even more!

OMAHA HEALTH & WELLNESS EXPO

2010-04-26T12:32:00.000-07:00

I don't know if we are any healthier but we survived it! We just spent the weekend at the Omaha Civic Auditorium. It's huge! I'm glad I don't live in a big city. If it were up to me, I wouldn't end up going anywhere because parking is always an issue. And, this girl gets really confused on one-way streets! This show had 300 vendors and we were the only act in town like ours. We had retail therapy to offer. Our jewelry and purses went well. The ladies particularly enjoyed our rings. The bigger the better and they flew off the tables. Our booth neighbor didn't show up so we received permission to expand. We took up three spaces. It's hard to tell from this picture but we had quite the display. Julie Weir helped Karen and I out both days. She was such a joy. We love people watching and we saw some interesting sites!! This show even had a mystic fair which is something I'd never experienced. We saw everything from cookware to Watkins, from Egyptian Cotton sheet sets to incense, from energy bars to weightloss products but the tarot cards really intrigued me. Some people left those booths crying so I wasn't willing to take the chance. We loaded up quickly and appreciated the show providing help. It decreased our tear down and load up time immensely.

We have a couple of weeks before we need to prepare for another show. We are missing Janice, that's for sure. She had her knee replaced on April 19th and will be out of the office for a while. Janice: If you are reading this, hurry and get well. We need you!!!!

Tootles for now, Kyla

The Cattlemen's Ball

2010-04-16T08:57:00.000-07:00

Hi to Everyone!

We are now looking forward to The Cattlemen's Ball in June. For those of you who haven't heard of it, this is an amazing event held to raise money to fight cancer. Those who attend will be entertained by airboat rides, golf, a silent auction, a General Store and Randy Travis!!

We invite you to come and enjoy all these delights, or get involved and volunteer to help.

Proceeds stay right here in Nebraska and go to the UNMC Eppley Cancer Center and other local health institutions. Beads in a Box & Something for Everyone will be in the General Store with all of our lovely things. Visit us!

For more information go to http://www.cattlemensball.com/index.php

See you soon! Janice

A Busy April for SFE and Beads in a Box

2010-04-07T04:01:00.000-07:00

New beaded jewelry from Guatemala.

This weekend is our "Signs of Spring" Craft Show at the Buffalo County Fairgrounds (Kearney, NE) and it is more than a craft show. We will have special items including hand-designed jewelry, purses including faith, western and fashion. There are booths with delicious food items, Mexican ironworks, handcrafted candles, and much more. If you are in the area stop by and spend time checking out our vendors.

Kyla and her family take on the major work load for the "Signs of Spring" show. Ryan spends the night providing security for the booths already set up and letting in vendors who arrive in the middle of the night to set up their booths. Sydney painted the new craft show signs, that we locate announcing the show and date. Sadie, Sydney, and Sage help their mom run the show. Tim, Kyla's guy, is there to help when we need him. We are blessed having the whole Martin family a part of our development endeavors.

After the clean-up Saturday night we will have a few hours to rest and recuperate than we unpack from the show and repack for the Nebraska Realtor Annual Conference (over 500 attendees) held in Omaha. It is a three day event beginning early Monday and ending late Wednesday. We will drive in Sunday afternoon and back home Thursday morning. Kyla, Misti, and I will handle our jewelry booth for this conference. While I was thinking about the long hours I realized that our team has an age span of 38 years. Misti being the youngest, Kyla in the middle, and myself being the most seasoned of the trio. *grin* This will be the first large conference for Misti; we know she will bring a new and unique style to meeting and greeting potential customers. Her energy and enthusiasm is a welcomed addition to our team. Conferences are incredible opportunities to tell our story and sell our handcrafted and hand chosen jewelry. I will take photos to share so you can see what it takes to set up our jewelry booth within the space/booth size we can afford to purchase. Many events provide a non-profit rate or make special accommodations because of our mission of ending poverty one bead at a time!

More later~have a creative day, Karen

Growing!

2010-04-05T07:55:00.000-07:00

We are growing! The space for our jewelry room has just more than doubled and we are very excited.

Not only do we have room to spread out our current pieces, we created an area to display our new line, the UP Line (Untapped Potential). Yet another stride down the path toward one of our original goals, to help employ lower income women.

Visit our sites and our blog to watch us grow -- join in and help fight poverty!

Do you have a conference or event we could be a vendor at? Let us know - we'll share our message and our beautiful jewelry with you.

If you are near the Kearney area, visit us April 10th at the Signs of Spring Craft Show. Come to the Buffalo County Fairgrounds main exhibit hall from 9 til 4. There will be hand-crafted items, informational booths and lots of yummy food - all for no admission fee.

see you soon!

Janice

Making Progress & Experiencing Growing Pains

2010-03-23T14:40:00.000-07:00

Every planner I've owned for the last decade shows April as a blooming month - overflowing with activities. This year is no exception. Our Signs of Spring Craft Show is on April 10th. Last summer I asked a college art student to create these signs for me as a summer job. When it wasn't accomplished by fall, I "assumed" that it wasn't going to happen. My son, Ryan, has quite the saying about "assuming" in which I won't repeat. In the meantime I asked my daughter, Sydney, to design and paint these signs. She's shown here putting on the finishing touches. Last week I received a phone call from that college student. Unbeknownst to me, she was home on spring break painting away. Now I have ample signage. Sadie, my oldest, reminded me that my communication skills haven't been up to par lately. People can't read my mind? Darn it anyway!

Experiencing growing pains with my kids, I know that they can be very painful. Beads in a Box is experiencing growing pains of the good kind. It's a sure sign of springtime as Mid is spring cleaning. We are giving promotions, moving offices and rearranging everything. You guessed it; the Beads in a Box office is expanding to double the size. Besides being our storeroom, asking Janice to make it her office to boot was walking a fine line of pure craziness. Good thing she can work in tight spaces. She only had room to make it to her chair and turn her chair around. Karen came up with some awesome office designing ideas and pictured here are our heroes, Ryan and Lonnie constructing our pegboard in the new office. We now will have double the hanging space. My favorite part of spring cleaning is the organizing. It doesn't get any better for me when things are organized, fresh and clean. We had a bead brigade transporting our pegs of necklaces to the new office. Since Karen is extremely tall (compared to the rest of us), her help dismantling the top pegs was essential. Misti got the fun job of reinstalling all the loaded pegs and organizing them. Look how much fun she's having. Do you like organizing things? What are your tips for creating less chaos in your work space? I'd love to hear from you. I'm a container person and have trouble throwing cute containers away. I love finding creative new ways to use them for storage. Do you have any containers that you just can't part with? Tell me about them and ways you have found to re-use them.

Before we fill our new room up with all our display items, we are having our first wholesale show for local businesses on Wednesday, March 31. We have some great new spring designs and will be giving a glimpse of the Untapped Potential line. I've been creating UP line designs to have Misti reproduce and Janice has been taking pictures of them. Janice is also working on our new logo and the third new website to be called http://www.theuntappedpotential.com/. I'm excited to see it born.

Time to hit the bricks as the next week is going to be pretty hectic!

Tootles for now, Kyla

New Inventory

2010-03-20T04:13:00.000-07:00

One of the awesome things I do is select our Something For Everyone (www.sfejewelry.com). We have several vendors that we work with to find something that speaks to our customers. Last week, Kyla and I reviewed several orders and finally clicked purchase. This week the boxes began arriving. While this is exciting to open, see, and touch our new inventory; it brings a lot of work as we check in, tag, price, and store our new items. Our new helper, Misty, was busy this week working on the new inventory. She prefers to check in inventory when someone else helps too.

Over the last couple of years we have had many requests for purses; the interest was purses with crosses and western motifs. Well, we took that major step and now have a variety of awesome purses in our inventory. The purses will be available at the Spring Craft Show, April 10th, at the Buffalo County Fairgrounds. We also have them at the Cattleman's Ball, June 5th.

We planned an event that will showcase SFE, Beads in a Box, and Untapped Potential (UP Line) jewelry. We invited local businesses that sell jewelry to come and view the three lines of jewelry and hopefully become a vendor for us.

We continue to expand our selling and marketing horizons. Our vision is to have a business that supports mothers that work several jobs and by paying a living wage they will be able to work one job and be home with their children in the evenings. Our Untapped Potential Line (UP Line) will allow women to create in the evenings after their children are in bed. Kyla is creating jewelry for the UP Line that she will teach Misty to make. When we have orders for the UP Line; they will work with other women to create the jewelry to fill our orders. It is an exciting time for us and we hope that you will check out our websites. Remember to visit www.beadsinabox.,com and www.sfejewelry.com when you need a special gift. Have a creative weekend, Karen

More on Polymer Clay Creations

2010-03-07T05:41:00.000-08:00

This weekend I decided to create another Mokume Gane cane. I decided to start with purple, sea green, turquoise, pearl, and silver. Knowing that I wanted to blend the colors with pearl so my mokume gane slices would shimmer. I began running the polymer clay through the pasta machine. Thank goodness I have a motor for it as it takes many times through the pasta machine to blend and align the mica particles. Finally I was ready to stack the colors and add silver leaf. I impressed several items into the clay to shift the colors and create interesting patterns.

This photo shows the patterns created using adding machine tape holder, chair coaster, and phillips head screwdriver. I will be able to make several items using this cane.

Using a full block of clay I am able to impress different items to change the patterns. These photos show my other cane and the pendant,beads, and pin made using it.

I will share photos when I create jewelry with the pendant and beads. The square is a pin and will have matching earrings.

Have a create day, until later, Karen

Taste of Home Cooking Expo

2010-03-05T11:26:00.000-08:00

What an awesome day! Beads in a Box set up at the Taste of Home Cooking Expo in Kearney out at the Buffalo County Fairgrounds. It was the first show for our new employee to attend. Meet Misti Moreau. She’s pictured her in the middle helping Mary Kampfe at the show. Janice is on the left. Misti’s been on board a week or so now and we are excited to have her on the BIAB team. She’s going to assist us in creating the new wholesale line I’ve been alluding to earlier called Untapped Potential. Ladies were attracted to springtime colors and it was exciting to see them out and about after a tough winter. To top it off, our booth was next to SunMart so we enjoyed tasting BBQ beef, chicken salad and strawberry shortcake. The only thing better was having Mary Aupperle join the selling team at 5:30. Mary is our number one BIAB cheerleader! She’s believed in our mission from day one and gets choked up every time we take a stroll down memory lane. Can you believe we’ve been in business for 5 ½ years? It always surprises me to find out that people live in our hometown and haven’t heard of us. We are Kearney’s best kept secret but we are moving on up!

Tootles for now, Kyla

LET’S TALK SOCIAL NETWORKING

2010-03-05T10:31:00.000-08:00

A year ago it was just a term to me written on notes from my GROW Nebraska meeting. It was top on the TO DO LIST of things we needed to get done. But how? Karen and I didn’t have any more time to spare but knew it was an avenue that we needed to go down. This last fall we were blessed to hire Janice Cash. A Doctor of Veterinary Medicine by day and an avid beader by night. Janice owns her own side businesses called Of This Earth Jewelry and Kelpie Graphics & Design. Karen and I have traveled and shopped with Janice in Tucson, AZ, at the world’s largest bead and gem show. We love her style and her creative abilities. We were blessed when she agreed to become a part of our team. Lucky for us, she’s also talented on the computer. We are learning this term “SOCIAL NETWORKING” together. Janice has me blogging now. I never even knew what the term meant until I watched the movie, Julie and Julia.

Now I’m blogging about the jewelry business! Janice has us going crazy on Facebook, My Space and our websites look wonderful. The pictures of these ladies shopping around our tables at shows is my mental picture of social networking on the web. It’s quite a buzz!

Tootles for now, Kyla

The gift that keeps on giving

2010-03-03T11:19:00.000-08:00

Sorry it's been a while since I've blogged. It's a crazy madhouse as usual. I delivered some special jewelry to a customer today and had a nice visit with her. She shared a special story with me not realizing that I was a part of it until she finished. Just before Christmas, a BIAB customer, Janie, asked me to create something for her daughter, Sophie, using some jewelry that originally belonged to Grandmother Sophie. (Follow me here :-> ) Janie has a lot of siblings, like 8 or so - she contacted them all requesting a special memory they had of their Grandmother Sophie. Janie compiled all these little memories after taking a walk down memory lane herself, and included them with the jewelry that I had created for her. This now became Janie's daughter, Sophie's, Christmas present which is a memorial to Grandmother Sophie. What makes this incredibly special is that Sophie was named after Grandmother Sophie but who she never had the opportunity to meet. But now with this special jewelry and time capsule of memories from her aunts and uncles, Sophie will always have a piece of Grandmother Sophie.

This is an incredibly special way to preserve special jewelry handed down from generation to generation.

Do you have some special jewelry at home taking up residency in your jewelry box, maybe gathering dust? Why not ask the Beads in a Box designers to create several pieces from the original to share with daughters, grandaughters, etc.? We'd be happy to do it.

Seize the moment! What a special momento to share with the women in your family. This is a great idea when there are multiple females in a family.

Tootles for now, Kyla

IT’S A FAMILY AFFAIR

2010-02-25T07:49:00.000-08:00

Quite honestly, I don’t think I could accomplish what I do without the help from my wonderful family. I hired a college girl last summer from the art department to paint six plywood signs for our spring craft show (The Signs of Spring Craft Show April 10th at the Buffalo County Fairgrounds.) Yes, that’s another fun thing I do. Here it is almost time to put the advertising signs up and she never came through. Now, it’s up to the Martin clan to make it happen, captain. I sweet talked all of them. Tim lined up heat & saw horses and arranged a place to work out in our old trailer house we use for storage. There is no electricity out there either so everything has to happen in the daylight. Saturday morning my daughter, Sydney, Tim and I worked to get one coat of primer on six boards. We went in for warm soup, gave them time to dry and headed out for the back coat. After church, Syd and I picked out paint colors and headed for home. In the afternoon, Tim, Sydney and Sage went out to give each board a fresh coat of yellow so I could stay inside and work on the Untapped Potential designs. Now the fun begins. I’ve printed off letters on my computer, laminated them and cut them out. We’ll start measuring out the signs and tracing the stencils. In between Singing Around Nebraska and a junior high basketball tournament this weekend, maybe we’ll be able to get started. They help because they love me; they are learning skills to help them in their adult lives and all in all they are helping people and changing lives!

Tootles for now,

Kyla

VALENTINE’S DAY PAID OFF

2010-02-25T07:41:00.000-08:00

I was whining to my husband about not getting extravagant gifts for Valentine’s Day. His response is that he doesn’t need to buy my love with things. DANG! I’d sure like it if he tried once in a while. Don’t get me wrong. No hubby bashing here. He’s the best! After getting back from Tucson with all our treasures, I’ve been sorting and organizing. My eyes just kept getting bigger with the number of containers I’m filling. I’m perplexed with what I’m going to do with this all to keep it organized. Contrary to what my office looks like on any given day, I do like things organized and think better when it is. So I proposed an idea to my sweetheart, my son and his roommates. I’d cook enough barbecued ribs and funeral potatoes for all of them if they’d come to my craft room and hang shelves for me. I got the ribs cooking slowly in the morning and Tim took time out of his day to head to the hardware store to pick out the best deal with me. Okay, the ribs are cooked, there’s 5lbs of funeral potatoes in the oven, dessert is made and no boys! What the heck? While we were forever waiting for the two car loads of college boys (8 in all) to show up, Tim and I had the shelving figured out and mostly done. After they all ate, they weren’t any good for anything physical anyway so it was great the Tim got it done for me. When he was done, he asked me if this was better than roses and chocolate. I’d have to say, “Heck Yes!” Happy Valentine’s Day to me! I got to spend time with my family, their friends, and organized my craft room! Does it get any better than that? (Maybe a little chocolate could make it even sweeter!) Do you ever bribe your family with food? When they are starving college kids, it works for me. Love it when they all come out. I’m blessed that my children are comfortable enough to want to bring their friends home. Do you have a place to craft? Where is it and is it your haven? Let me know!

Tootles for now,

Kyla

A New Line ~ New Possibilities

2010-02-20T08:22:00.000-08:00

We have began to develop a new line called "Untapped Potential" or "UPLine" that will allow us to hire two people to help create a new line based on the healing properties of stones. Kyla has taken the lead on developing our new endeavor. She is in the process of designing jewelry that our new team members will recreate in several different stones based on their healing or spiritual lore.

We will offer our new line on our Beads in a Box website and have it available at the events we showcase our jewelry. We are very excited about our new line.

>>>> Have a creative day - Hugs, Karen

Rambling Thoughts

2010-02-20T05:24:00.000-08:00

When you begin a new venture and map out the path to arrive at your destination what you discover is so many ways and directions that you can take. As with all things; as you move down the path towards your vision you have many opportunities and bumps along the way. I believe that the journey is what one needs to embrace and enjoy; one never knows what is around the bend and how that will shape your next steps. It is what makes life so amazing. We are loving the journey and plan to improve what we do and how we react as we make our away along the path! Come join us; be a part of our journey.

One thing we have discovered and haven't found a solution for is there isn't enough time to make everything happen. Life and work can change what you hope to accomplish in any given hour; so we do what we can; we continue to expect more of ourselves, and we celebrate the small steps we take. Kyla and I have learned that we have more ideas, dreams, and hopes than the two of us can make happen. So, what to do; find someone who shares your dreams and wants to be a part of making a difference. We found a partner, team member, believer in Janice. She brings an array of talent and skills that have moved us forward in our desire to have web presence. She understands the pull of working with stones and creating beautiful one-of-a-kind heirloom quality pieces of jewelry. She speaks the language, walks the walk, and is a valued member of the team/family.

Check out both our website www.beadsinabox.com and www.sfejewelry.com we will have new pieces to showcase from our trip to Tucson. We hope as you read and get to know us you will send messages with ideas, suggestions, and sources we can use as we journey along our path. I know that I will have more rambling thoughts as we continue along our path to create a lasting legacy that will help provide discretionary dollars to support our programs and services.

Have a creative day, Hugs, Karen

More on Tucson Market Trip

2010-02-20T05:12:00.001-08:00

Kyla and I had an amazing time checking what is new in stones, how they have changed the cuts of stones, and how it will look with silver, gold or copper beads. It is an interesting process to find a stone with a unique shape/cut and pair it with metal beads/spacers. The creative process kicks in and our ideas for creating a unique one-of-a-kind piece for Beads in a Box is born. Then to find a vendor who has a variety of stone bracelets in a new and difference cut called fingernail and we were "off to the races". We picked bracelets made of rose quartz, turquoise, onyx, picture jasper, moss agate, to name a few. These bracelets are heirloom quality and will make a fashion statement for decades. Love them! We will share a photo or two.

The trip allows time to discuss what we are doing; what we need to do; what can change; and where do we want to be this time next year. Our ideas and plans drive what we look for and purchase. Over the last couple of years we have developed a line called "Something For Everyone" or www.sfejewelry.com. We developed relationships with several vendors to purchase pre-made fashion jewelry. SFEJewelry expands our price points, provides more variety, and changes with fashion trends. Our Beads in a Box one-of-a-kind heirloom hand designed jewelry spans the years and trends. While we were in Tucson we kept in mind both lines. We looked for the new stones and discovered new vendors for SFE.

More later, have a creative day, hugs, Karen

Post Office Delivers!

2010-02-20T04:50:00.000-08:00

After Kyla and I packed, carried, stood in line, and packed more ~ all ten flat rate will taped boxes arrived! One always wonder if they should add additional insurance, confirmation numbers, and anything else they suggest to ensure your packages arrive at their final destination. To me after we spend so much time selecting the "treasures" it was a small price to pay. Kyla checked in and unpacked 8 of the boxes; I did two of them. Kyla found the rolling containers to fill with the "new stuff" and sorted, labeled, and put away all ten boxes. Well, they were in my office when I returned from a special visit to see three of my grandchildren. Love my time with my son and his family! I decided the rolling containers needed to be behind my door. Well, the weight of ten flat rate postal boxes did not want to roll anywhere. Kyla came in to help move them and the wheels refused to roll; so we had to push, shove, and coach them about six feet. We lost a wheel and decided to take off the rest. I now have 8 wheels inside my beautiful lead crystal candy box! Janice asked if I had lumps of coal in it. *smile*

More later ~ have a creative day, hugs, Karen

Have a creative day, Hugs, Karen

Playing Catch Up

2010-02-10T14:44:00.000-08:00

Karen and I spent our last working day in Tucson on Saturday shipping out the rest of our purchases. I am officially now a veteran at packing boxes out of the trunk of a car. (Notice my tan *smile*) (It was 70 degrees out!) It went fairly smooth. We prayed while we were in line with our boxes that we wouldn't get Mr. Grumpy behind the counter. If it was our turn and he was to serve us, we planned on letting someone go behind us. Mr. Grumpy would remind you of Fonzie from Happy Days. His hair was stuck back in the 70's and we are sure he hasn't cracked a smile since then either.

The rest of the day we hung out at the condo packing our suitcases, picking things us and creating. It was our goal to get some proto-types for the Untapped Potential line created. We struggled but made it happen. We watched I Love Lucy re-runs while we worked and I was laughing so hard that I could barely talk when my daughter called.

Karen and I had a date to go out to dinner at Joe's Crab Shack, one of my favorites in Tucson. They didn't let me down. I love their seafood enchiladas. We were entertained by a young college student doing balloon art and the dancing of the waiters. We shared a sinful dessert and headed back to work.

On Sunday morning the alarm was set for 4:00 a.m. I woke at 3:15 worried that I missed the alarm. It was a very, very early morning. We left the condo at 5:00. It took 30 minutes to get to the airport. We had to check both of us in and return the rental. So sorry to have to say goodbye to the coolest of cars, the Ford Mustang. We spent the rest of the day doing the airport hop. The hurry up and wait game. That's when it is so much fun watching people.

The closer we got to home, the colder it got. What a rude awakening to get off the plane in Lincoln with temperatures in the teens.

Monday wasn't just a typical back-to-work Monday for Karen and I. We put five Mondays into one. Ever have those days? I spent Tuesday and Wednesday organizing our boxes of treasures as they arrived from Tucson. Now, the fun begins. We need to sort, sort, sort. What goes to Karen's, what goes to Kyla's and what stays here. I took enough of the UP line inventory home to create the proto-types. Then we'll have our new staff create them here at the office.

Next week Karen, Janice and I will all be in the office together. It will be good to have us all together so we can start planning on the next steps to get the UP line up and running.

Tootles for now, Kyla

Friday in Tucson

2010-02-05T20:40:00.000-08:00

Can't believe today is our last day scoping out bargains. Karen started early around 4:00 a.m. and she thinks I started around 7:00. That's a normal time to get up isn't it? We did a lot of organizing this morning and packed our treasures in postal boxes. It took an hour at the post office to get everything off.

We returned to the Kino Sports Complex by 11:30ish and started the insanity all over again. We quickly stopped in the first tent to grab a few things from vendors we visited on Thursday, grabbed a bar and water and started in the second tent. We were disappointed in the second tent. It didn't seem to have the vendors that it did last year. The two vendors we planned on patronizing were a disappointment.

Today our focus was to tie up loose ends and concentrate on the Untapped Potential stones. With the UP line, we've picked certain stones that we know their mystical properties. We plan on working with rose quartz, tiger eye, aventurine, onyx, lapis, sodalite, coral, and jade to name a few. These all have the mystical/healing properties that we want represented in the UP line. So on our adventure, we searched for the size, colors, and prices we needed to create this new wholesale business. We found some beautiful dyed coral, shell and glass pearls that will make gorgeous summer wear for the cash/carry sales.

We've had three things to focus on throughout this trip. We've been looking for new stones for the one-of-a-kind, heirloom pieces we create for the Beads in a Box line. Since the Something For Everyone line is a purchased line of fashion jewelry, we kept a close eye out for good deals on pre-made custom jewelry. We found some amazing gemstone and crystal bracelets within our price range. Then, of course, the third project, Untapped Potential, is the new wholesale line.

Our brains have been cluttered with plans, ideas and strategies to make the UP line fly. It might take several years to get it going and have a presence - we are ready to get started! We will be hiring our help as soon as possible. They will start by helping us organize the gemstones that we do have, price the new jewelry, and make the kits for the wholesale line. It is unbelievable how many steps there are to get to the selling point. All this inventory will arrive at the office at the beginning of the week. Karen will be in Lincoln and Janice will be out all week. I plan to organize it and hopefully get it arranged somewhere in the office to prepare for volunteers and new hired help. Our space is an issue so it always seems like we are working in clutter. I'm always working in mass chaos due to lack of space. The main thing to remember is our ending goal, stay focused so we can help people and change lives. . . and we will.

Tootles for now, Kyla

Thursday in Tucson

2010-02-05T05:43:00.000-08:00

Neither of us could help ourselves, we were both up before the crack of dawn working with our treasures. There is so much that goes on behind the scenes. Our strands must be counted, taken off their fish line, bagged up and calculated so we know how much each piece costs. This is imperative for pricing our new wholesale line. Crazy or driven, we started this process again at 5 ish a.m.

Today after working at the condo about four hours we returned to the JOGS show. This is our favorite show. Unfortunately, it is the farthest away and takes quite a bit of driving time to get there. I'm mastering the layout of this large city so Karen shut off our navigating system which I've nicknamed "Margaret."

This is a rarity but Karen and I shopped for over two hours before we ever purchased anything and when we found the right thing bells went off for both of us. We found some spectacular stretch bracelets in our favorite gemstones in cuts that are going to WOW our customers.

At lunch time we shared a table with a very kind and interesting couple from Wyoming. Their take on this whole gemstone obsession was refreshing. We have come across people from every state and country you could imagine speaking many different languages.

I found our friend Vicki at New Century and was surprised to see that she moved her booth. She still had the same incredible chain that we get from her every year. I love it when they remember me from last year and give me a hug.

Tim, the lampwork man, was excited to see us again, too. We see him in Tucson and Denver regularly. We use his beautiful lampwork in many ways. I'm always on the look out for specialty beads like Halloween and Christmas. It is these beads that I put on quilt pins for seasonal and cancer awareness pins. Karen found some new findings in which we'll be able to create new earrings using our awareness ribbons. We can't wait to get them put together. I was tutoring the other lampwork customers on how to wash their beads before they use them and several people thought I was working there (Once a teacher, always a teacher!)

The clock struck 12 for these Cinderellas and back to the condo we went via the grocery store where we picked up some deli food. We spent the rest of the evening separating and cutting our treasures until we couldn't see anymore.

Tootles for now, Kyla

Day Three in Tucson

2010-02-04T07:31:00.000-08:00

It was drizzling outside but not in our spirit as we trekked off for breakfast. We were at the show at straight up 10:00. The vendors were barely ready for us. We finished our shopping with Cherry Tree Beads and moved onto other vendors at the Double Tree Hotel. I found some wonderful base metal findings that will be perfect for our new wholesale line called Untapped Potential or the UP line as we refer to it. Our plan is to be able to hire 2-4 people part-time to create this wholesale line. This will get us closer to our original mission to be able to create a line that is repeatable so we need help. This will in turn give us a chance to hire those we are serving to give them a hand up not a hand out and steer them closer to self-sufficiency.

I cannot begin to explain the sense of AWE one feels when entering these tents full of table after table of wonderful gemstones, beads, findings, creations and so much more. It is total sensory overload. I hope to catch a picture for you. The fun is in the hunt as we say but I can tell you that it is not an easy process. To remember what you saw, where you saw it, how much it was and if you could ever find it again would require several full-time assistants following us taking extensive notes. So, we have to trust our gut and go with what feels right. It's like grocery shopping; you know when it's a good deal or when it's priced too high.

This is quite a process: searching, touching, asking what it is and how much it is, and then asking again because you can't understand their language. Most of these booths only have one attendant and there is usually quite a line up to check out. While they are checking out your purchase, they are also fielding lots of questions, too. Patience, patience. Yesterday, one gentleman just couldn't talk so I could understand him. He wasn't too patient with me but he didn't dampen my spirit because I found the most awesome garnet.
What is interesting to Karen and I is the naming of the stones. We always ask what a gemstone is from each vendor we buy from to report as accurately as we can to our customers. We figure that this is their specialty. What is amazing is that one stone can have four different names. How in the heck? Turquoise jasper, teal paisley, rainbow jasper, what is it? (It could be all the same stone just different from booth to booth.) So we will report out in good faith.

Wednesday's shopping consisted of mostly purchasing the base metal findings needed for the UP line. We also found some wonderful stones that will be used exclusively for the Beads in a Box one-of-a-kind pieces. Karen absolutely fell in love with Chinese crystals because she's a flash and dazzle kind of gal.

We left the Double Tree Hotel and traveled to our favorite show out at the Kino Complex. We were there three hours and only made it down one row. We will head back there on Thursday morning. It is heart warming to me to be recognized by the vendors and I received many hugs from them as we recalled shopping there for the last three years.

Our goal at 6:00 p.m. when we drug ourselves and our goodies back to the car was to have a nice dinner. Then the plan changed to be Wal-Mart chicken. Strangely enough the Wal-Mart we went to didn't have produce or a deli. McDonalds to go, please; we have to be pretty tired for Karen to agree on McDonalds. *grin*

We hauled in all our treasures, ate our "dinner" and cozied up with our baggies and treasures to start the real work. Step one thru four: we counted each bead on a strand, divided it by the price to find the cost of each bead, took them off the fish line and bagged them up. Step five: see step one thru four again, again, and again until we can't see to do it anymore from sheer exhaustion. Off to bed by 10:00 and up again to start step one again at 5:30 for me and 4:00 for Karen, the early bird. No pictures please!

Tootles for now -- Kyla

....We began our journey

2010-02-02T20:05:00.000-08:00

Milestones Along The Path - - -

As I think about the milestones that make up our journey, many come to mind. I will share a few of them so we have a log that reflects the path we chose. You may find it interesting or not *smile* We do hope you will share your thoughts with us. The need for discretionary or non-federal funds is the underlying principal for creating a business plan to present to the Board for support and approval. The business plan was crafted to sell on the internet and teach beading classes. The plan had little face-to-face selling other than local craft shows and the Community Action Partnership national convention. The Board support and commitment of $7,500 provided the means to begin August 2004.

As we discussed our new business~Beads in a Box, yes we had to come up with a name that the domain was still available. Beads in a Box wasn't our 1st choice and possibly not our 4th, but we were able to purchase the domain name. It fit with the idea of bead project in frosted Chinese take-out boxes. Upfront expenses included web designer, photographer, and beads of course. A few of the staff stepped forward to help create the jewelry and I taught basic bead techniques to them. They created inventory and ideas for our beading classes. Our inventory was ready! We researched local craft shows and found one in Kearney. We were on our way after signing up to sell at a November show. Now all we needed was a way to package our sales. We found burgundy jewelry boxes and gold tissue paper. We then put the item in a frosted handled bags. Of course, we had designed a gold foil sticker for the box and bag.

Two months before the local craft show I arrived home to a phone message that the show promoter had canceled the craft show! What now? Next morning I called the "team" together and asked them if they wanted to manage a craft show? Of course they did! *smile* We now had a place to showcase our jewelry. Of course we had no idea how to set up or manage this craft show. We found the original manager of this craft show, Marlene Hadwiger. She was a blessing and became our cheerleader. She helped us every step of the way and loaned us the booth dividers for the newly named Holiday Splendor Craft Show. Beads in a Box had a place to begin selling our creations.

This was the beginning of our journey and it was so much more than one can write about. We had so many ideas that we thought were genius. *grin* Many, many false starts and do overs. We were determined and dedicated to the creating a business that provided discretionary income and would hire a couple of the folks we are here to serve. The idea to hire, train, and enable a young parent to be at home in the evenings with their children, give up a second or third job, and create inventory was at the core of what we had to accomplish. Thus, began our journey!

Karen

Tuesday in Tucson

2010-02-02T18:46:00.000-08:00

Tuesday in Tucson

WOW! What a day! Karen signed both of us up for a polymer clay class. We left the condo at 7:00 a.m. sharp in eager anticipation. Karen is an accomplished polymer clay artist by my standards. I, on the other hand, had never touched the stuff and assumed it would be like playing with play dough in the old days. I can safely say I know how to roll up a worm or swirl it to make a ball. That was the extent of experience that I took into my first class filled with accomplished Polymer Clay artists a.k.a. enthusiasts.

The amount of tools and supplies that they wheeled into the classroom astounded me. Everyone set up their pasta machines and we never got to eat a single kind of pasta! I soon learned that the pasta machine would save a lot on blending and rolling out the clay. It was quite fun.

I learned how to condition the clay and then blend colors to create my own design. I love color and had no problem blending and mixing. Now the "accomplished artists" on the right hand side of us looked to be struggling quite a bit. They had clay flying as they stuffed it into a pasta machine that cried for mercy. I went in worried that I might be the one slowing the class down due to my inexperience but I will have you note, yours truly held her own.

So much of today's class took me back to my rubber stamping days when I taught my own classes. I felt at ease with the teacher. She was very personable and taught in a way that novice to experienced could learn and understand. Our instructor's name was Julie Picaarello and she taught us the technique of Mokume Gane.

We'd watch her demonstrate a technique and a list of steps and then we'd go back to our tables to execute it. Karen was very helpful and reminded me if I'd forgotten a step. We were allowed a half-hour lunch break just long enough to take the necessary break and eat a banana.

I was the lucky winner of the first band aid in the class. They should've known not to arm me with something sharp! Not that Karen didn't provide an indepth lesson on handling the tissue blades before we started. Of course I received I told you to be careful. *grin*

Before the class was over we were able to bake our new masterpiece (or not) called tribal pendant and learn how to make lizard tails out of our scrap clay. This technique required some of my skills that I came into the class with like rolling a snake. Phew!

What I took from the polymer clay class is the knowledge that it is an addiction of its own. It can require as many tools, clay colors and supplies as my rubber stamping and other beading additions.

Karen kept telling me not to get hooked because one polymer clay addict between the two of us was enough. I could get hooked but have to keep my focus on what lies ahead. My job is to create one-of-a-kind, heirloom quality treasures for Beads in a Box. And now I'm creating the Untapped Potential line designs. No more time for new addictions. (If I could only get addicted to weight loss and exercise!*smile*)

After our class Karen and I finally had a light lunch at 4:00 to keep us going so we could shop until 6:00. We went and saw our friend, Bill, at Cherry Tree Beads. We discussed our next venture of creating a wholesale line. He talked about what stones, lampwork and metals he could provide that he carried regularly. He also talked about pricing and delivery timelines. Then we hit the tables on the hunt for the treasures that hide beneath all the other stones. Many new stones to consider and our old favorites that sell great awaited us. Bill has quality stones and cuts available. We ran out of time and will finish shopping with him in the morning.

Tootles for now, Kyla

We've arrived in Tucson!

2010-02-02T05:03:00.000-08:00

Here at last!

We were so excited to touch down in Tucson and not need our coats. It's 67 degrees and sunny. My kids are going to be so jealous when they see a picture of the car we are renting. A Ford Mustang and, no doubt, the coolest car in the lot.
I have to warn Karen to hold onto her cookies when I take off; it's got power. We started our hunt at the Village Originals tent where we traditionally start off buying our copper and silver findings every year. We had good luck there and found out that they will not be offering metals in the future. Something we've never done before is venture off to the other tents in that shopping area. We found some nice sterling silver earrings that our customers will love. Karen stopped dead in her tracks with pure bliss in her eyes when we found Austrian crystals. She was so in awe she could've bathed herself in all the glitz and sparklies coming from that area. Many colors and shapes were to be had. Hold us back! After an exhausting couple of hours we decided we couldn't take anymore. Remember we started our day at 4:00 a.m.

We thought we'd do some grocery shopping before we headed back for the night. Low and behold, half way through the store we realized we were in an all organic store! We are a little slow at this point. The realization came when we couldn't find our Diet Coke! Tragic! We got the heck out of Dodge and stopped at the nearby Italian restaurant. The shrimp marinara and shrimp scampi were wonderful enough to propel us back to the condo and get unloaded. Our condo has six remotes. Remember this country girl has only had three stations to choose from most of her life. Operating this high-tech system was quite a challenge. Just get a station we recognize. Karen and I sorted through all the treasures and cut the strands to put them in plastic baggies. Needless to say, we didn't last long into the night; we were tucked in by 9:00 p.m.
Tootles for now, Kyla

Tucson!

2010-02-01T07:14:00.000-08:00

Kyla and Karen are off to Tucson --

They are on the hunt for beautiful and exotic stones to create with. It is fun and exciting, but tiring. Keep watching for updates on what "finds" they come across!

Janice

My Turn & Thoughts

2010-01-29T18:15:00.000-08:00

I am finally able to sign in; until now, I couldn't get where I needed to be to add a thought or two. When Internet Explorer didn't want to let me sign in; Brandy, our tech, downloaded Mozilla FireFox and here I am! So, what do I want to share and more importantly what would you be interested in reading.

As I've read Kyla's postings and felt her passion, humor, and enthusiasm; I wonder what do I bring to our blog. One thing is my commitment to the path we are taking and how important it can and will be as we create our future for our jewelry endeavor. Another is the assurance that when you find the right combination of talent, hard work, and flexibility you can achieve your dream. One of my favorite sayings is "whether you think you can or you think you can't; either way you are right!" We think and believe we can.

We had a need that drove our vision 5 1/2 years ago and the path we turned down was all about personal adornment or jewelry. While this direction received mixed reviews from our co-workers; we got full board support and approval. Our journey hasn't been an easy one. But, it has been filled with people who understood what we wanted to accomplish and supported us through their praise, suggestions and purchasing our jewelry. What I am most proud of is all of the connections made across the country through our jewelry. So, I plan to talk about the journey, the dream, and our future. This photo is one of our first booths at our Holiday Splendor craft show and the one above is a display we set up to showcase our jewelry.

We welcome your comments; suggestions, ideas and potential partners that may want to display and sell our jewelry. This helps us to improve what we do as we continue our journey.

Wishing you a creative day, Karen

Hello from the Lincoln Women’s Expo

2010-01-25T09:19:00.000-08:00

Hi there from sunny Lincoln, NE, not! My daughter Sadie and I are working the Lincoln Women's Expo. We set up our booths on Friday afternoon for the Saturday and Sunday show. We were excited to see that we were right next to the staging area. We knew what that meant right away. "Elvis!" Yes, he was in the building.
Joseph Hall, an Elvis impersonator, had scheduled shows for both days. At the last show he was at, our booth was in a different building and we couldn't enjoy it at all. Not this time. WOW, was he gorgeous! I thought maybe even better than the real deal. I was corrected by a seasoned lady that Elvis was pretty hot in his early days, too.

My friends tease me about my uncanny radar when it comes to noticing special attributes about people. In my travelings, I love to watch people. Now, I never intentionally look for strange and interesting things; I think they just find me. The fun is telling my friends when I return because they are sure to ask what "sitings" I had on this trip. (Sorry, I can't tell you about my sitings in Philadelphia last September. There would be too many "beeps.") Saturday at the expo I was just sure this lady was going to be an act on the nearby stage. I could tell by her 1/2" thick perfectly painted on arched brown eyebrows that she was going for the dramatic look. Nope, I was wrong. She was in the "Elvis" fan club!

It doesn't matter how far away I am from home, I can always make a connection somehow with people. Returning to this show after being in it last September, I remembered some previous customers and even what they bought. They were impressed with my memory. They don't know that I can't remember to balance my checkbook or get the oil changed on a regular basis.

When our shows are in towns with Community Action, it is always easier to explain who we are and what we are about. We were able to reference Lincoln Action Program which most people were familiar with. Sadie visited with a local salon owner about becoming a vendor for our jewelry. We’ll see where that goes. The Lincoln Women’s Expo was a great show and had a lot to offer attendees. I wish the promoters success in the future in building their following. Once again we were blessed with a spectacular performance from the Lincolnaire Chorus. They sing so beautifully. I’ve included a picture of them serenading our booth. We had good sales and look forward to doing this show again next year. Sunday afternoon the wind turned cold and the flurries started. The wind put up a nasty fight on the way home.

It was amazing to see the ease in which Sadie can talk about our agency and the jewelry. She’s a natural salesperson. She, too, truly believes in our mission and is a great advocate. Makes her momma proud!

Tootles for now, Kyla

Lincoln Women's Expo going on this weekend!

2010-01-22T11:17:00.000-08:00

Kyla is on her way to the Lincoln Women's Expo -- come visit us Saturday January 23rd from 10 until 6 or Sunday 10 until 5 -- lots of fun and information!

FINISHING UP IN NEW ORLEANS

2010-01-21T08:47:00.000-08:00

At the reception on Wednesday night we were entertained by many stories from a gentleman who lives in Hollywood. I could have listened to him all night; I was intrigued. He lives neighbors to Erin Moran who played on Happy Days. Remember Joanie and Chachi? We turned in fairly early and were up and at it Thursday morning. Customers couldn’t wait to see if we brought anything new. Unfortunately, we underestimated our success and didn’t bring enough inventory. At lunch time while Karen was in a session, I made a quick change and moved our two tables of sparse inventory onto one. I quickly dragged the table off and waited to see how many customers noticed. It’s amazing to know that they thought we had added new things! Over all we doubled our sales from our experience in New Orleans last year! We were able to consolidate two boxes into one to ship home. That evening Karen and I were joined by Lois, Mary and Jan. We made our trek down Bourbon Street and definitely enjoyed the sites. (We were taken aback by a few!) Our destination was our favorite, the Red Fish Grill. They were packed and with good reason; it’s delicious New Orleans flavor. Barbecued oysters, seafood gumbo, blackened gulf fish to tempt our palettes … just enough that we couldn’t make room for their famous bread pudding. A hippie groovy store demanded our attention on our walk back to the hotel. I can’t tell you about some of the groovy stuff I saw as I’d get “bleeped.” The tie-dyed clothes took us back. My teenage girls love it these days. We did thoroughly enjoy the local talent along Bourbon Street. It’s amazing what these young musicians can create their tempos on. Who knew 5-gallon buckets made professional-sounding drums? The temperature was very comfortable for an evening stroll.

Friday morning was our travel home day. It started at 7:30 a.m. with a wild taxi cab drive. If I wasn’t awake before, I definitely was snapped into reality. I think our cabby drove 55 mph between stop lights slamming on the breaks at each light. I could handle that. It was the going 75mph on the 60mph interstate, weaving in and out that shook my dentures. I wore a hole in the foot board of the taxi when he took the off ramp doing 60 on the 35mph curves. Couldn't make my living doing that every day! I’ll stick to selling jewelry! We had time for a little breakfast before we took off. Holy Cow! One place had water for $4.50 and the other place for the same size was $1.99. Too bad I didn’t do my research beforehand. Gotcha! Our flight from New Orleans to Denver was eventful for me. I’m not supposed to tell you that I got locked in the restroom in the back of the plane for 15 minutes while our plane experienced a long stretch of turbulence. Karen wondered what happen to me - I had been instructed to “stay put.” (What better place to be if you’re scared to death! HA! HA!) In Denver we had a 4-hour layover. It was spent checking out the shops especially the jewelry stores. They have incredible gemstone jewelry. We studied the stones, designs and prices. It made us even more excited for our upcoming trip to Tucson, Arizona, January 31 thru February 7th.

Tootles for now, Kyla

Day Four In New Orleans

2010-01-14T09:26:00.000-08:00

January 13, 2010

Day four in New Orleans and I've been told that the temps are getting warmer! Didn't see daylight today outside our hotel.

Karen and I enjoyed a tour of Louisiana Association of Community Action Partnership's new weatherization training center in Baton Rouge yesterday. I didn't take anything along for the trip because silly me was planning on taking in all the beautiful scenery. WRONG! There wasn't anything but water and trees to see in the traffic back-up that we were in and boy was I wishing I had something to do or read. I dozed! I did get a wonderful bowl of seafood gumbo in the evening to make up for the trip!

Today was an early start setting up at 7:00 a.m. Yes, that's early for a lot of people but I'm normally at work at that time so it wasn't too hard. The challenge is getting out of these wonderful beds! Karen and I got set up fairly quickly and the crowds started coming. "Yeah! Beads in a Box is here!" is so warming and reassuring to hear. It's good to see a lot of familiar faces from all over the United States that have become regular customers.

Karen went into the opening session and I stayed at the booth. Three ladies were a little late to start with and after discovering our table probably didn't make it in at all. They were shoppers and didn't take their assignment lightly! One lady asked me to read the words on a bracelet for her. Even though my eyes are only 44, I struggle sometimes with the fine print. "SIN, SIN, SIN JOYFULLY" I replied. "Yes, sin joyfully." The roar of cackling hens started. "You mean Sing Joyfully?" Holy cow, I'm a spiritual person, how could I screw that up? Now our saying is sin joyfully and buy more jewelry. We cackled so loud not realizing that the doors to the banquet hall were open. Karen came out later and said she heard us. "Yep, that's one of mine," she commented to a collegue.

People from all over the U.S. flocked our booth with our first two sales being over $400. It was then that we realized we might not have brought enough inventory. We'll make due and know to bring more next year when we are in Miami.

At one time during the morning we were surrounded by three CAP directors wanting to get their agencies in on the Beads in a Box action. How exciting! This will take us to another level. All three had slightly different ideas how to make things work at their agencies. One has a craft store and would like us to put our jewelry in it. Another has youth running a store in their school and would like our line in it. The other would like the proceeds of the consigned sales to go to her youth program. The excitement made us giddy and my brain might just explode with all the possibilities.

Our evening reception filled us up with the flavor of New Orleans. I tasted leg of lamb, duck, gouda cheese and grits for the first time. No hurry to have those again but the shrimp, tomato bisque soup and bread pudding were out of this world.

The day went fast and I'm working on a new project that will take BIAB to the next level besides those mentioned above. I'm so excited and nervous more to succeed than to fail. The potential is huge.
More to come on that later....
Tootles for now, Kyla

Some of the "Big Picture"

2010-01-12T07:06:00.000-08:00

With a 5-year story to tell, I’ve pondered where to start this blog. Never blogged before so here I go. Why not start with today. Karen Lueck and I are in sunny New Orleans with a temperature around 50 degrees. It looks nice out even though I’m held up here in our motel room. Karen is off to board meetings and I chose to stay here and work on the computer. Yesterday my friend asked me how it was that I could go to New Orleans to sell jewelry. That’s a good question.
For eight years now, I’ve been the administrative assistant to our Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Community Action Partnership of Mid Nebraska. Karen happens to be on the national community action board which requires her to travel a lot to attend meetings, trainings and conferences. BINGO! That creates an opportunity for Beads in a Box. When it works, I travel with her and set up our business for other community action employees to enjoy and if we are lucky, we get to be in a spot that gets outside traffic, too. That is why, my friends, I’m here and there and little bit of everywhere. I grab onto her shirt tails and off I go. I’ve traveled to Orlando, Miami, Washington DC, Chicago, Philadelphia, Tucson, St. Louis, Kansas City to name a few cities.
Last year was my first time to come to New Orleans. Next year at this time we’ll be at Miami Beach which sounds so much warmer as I sit here fully clothed also wearing a warm, fuzzy bathrobe freezing.
I’ve found that I love to travel except that I hate to pack. Short trips, 4-5 days, is the best for me. I can’t stand to be away from my family much longer than that. Are you wondering about my family when I’m gone so much? They seem to handle it very well. It has taught my children responsibility and accountability. They’ve learned to think things through and not count on Mom to do everything for them. Sage, my baby, is in 6th grade, and Sydney is in 8th grade. They have to use the bus to get to school and count on rides to get everywhere else. Dad is their taxi when I’m gone. Ryan is 20 and Sadie is 21. They are off to college now but they were home when I started traveling so much. It’s given them great independence and I have a great support system in my husband, parents, and in-laws. AND, we communicate a lot by cell phone!!
Seeing the world through my job is probably the only way I’m going to see much. Traveling is not in our financial picture at the moment and it is hard for my husband to get away from the ranch for great lengths of time. I love to see a glimpse of another world and then really appreciate getting home. I’m very grateful for the opportunities that my job has afforded me.
Today I’ve been researching on the internet. Janice Cash, our Development Coordinator, has taken beautiful pictures of our one-of-a-kind Beads in a Box line and it is my job to explain them. Sometimes it is hard to get passed, “It’s just plain beautiful, as you can see.” They want more out of me than that. *smile* Janice is in the process of creating a whole new website with a whole new look for our Beads in a Box line. The Something For Everyone site she just completed is phenomenal and somehow we need to figure out how to drive traffic there and get sales going. I’ve been collecting email addresses everywhere I can find them to use in email blasts for the new site.

Tootles for now, Kyla Martin

2009-12-30T11:25:00.000-08:00

Little beads, huge mission

Posted: Saturday, December 19, 2009 9:55 am

By SARA GIBONEY Hub Staff Writer 0 comments

KEARNEY — They’re fighting poverty one bead at a time.

Two women volunteer their time creating one-of-a-kind jewelry to support programs that help people in need.

Karen Lueck, executive director of Community Action Partnership of Mid-Nebraska and a jewelry maker, had an idea to make and sell jewelry to help raise discretionary money to supplement funding shortfalls the agency faced.

In August 2004, Lueck and Kyla Martin, Mid-Nebraska’s administration/development director, took the idea to the board of directors. The board offered the women $7,500 seed money, and Beads in a Box was born.

Lueck, already an avid beader, taught Martin. Martin now credits the success of the business to the women’s addictive personalities.

“It was originally to be an Internet business, and we found out right away that it would take a lot of time to make that work,” Martin said.

Martin and Lueck eventually began selling the jewelry at craft shows, boutiques, and booths at conventions and conferences locally and across the country.

Beads in a Box features handmade necklaces, bracelets, earrings, pins, polymer creations, silver clay creations, bridal jewelry and special orders.

“Our handmade pieces just keep getting better and better,” Martin said.

The handmade heirloom pieces are guaranteed for life.

Funds raised from jewelry sales help programs such as Compassionate Connections, the Retired Senior Volunteer Program, Child Abuse and Resource Education, Every Woman Matters, the Mid-Nebraska Food Bank and the immunization program.

“It’s important for us to constantly look at new funding avenues, because funding dries up,” Martin said. “We’re always having to think outside of the box — think of things that other people aren’t doing and be creative and flexible. Those funds need to be there for those programs.”

Beads in a Box is well-known among Community Action organizations across the country. The pair have sold their jewelry at booths at conferences for Head Start and other organizations in Omaha, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Chicago and other cities.

“We’re Kearney’s best kept secret,” Martin said.

The women expanded the business 1½ years ago and began purchasing pre-made wholesale jewelry and selling it under the name Something for Everyone.

They took the new line to the Community Action National Conference in Chicago last year to test its sales. Within 2½ days, $10,000 worth of jewelry had been sold.

Martin said their Something For Everyone line offers a lower-priced option for their customers.

“Beads in a Box heirloom pieces tend to be pricier, and we were worried about the downturn in the economy. We knew our regular customers would want to purchase something from us, but we were concerned about the economy,” Martin said.

Martin said the business doubled its sales in 2009 compared with 2008.

Prices of the Something for Everyone line range between $5 to $48, and prices of jewelry from the Beads in a Box line ranges from $20 to $300.

“Our main goal is to have something for everyone. Style, color, price range,” Martin said.

In August, Beads in a Box hired its first employee, Janice Cash. She works on the Web sites and completes other administrative tasks.

Because it doesn’t have a storefront, many customers make appointments to visit the bead room located at the Community Action office. Jewelry also is sold at Community Action and Grow Nebraska events, the Holiday Splendor Craft Show and the Signs of Spring Craft Show.

Jewelry can also be purchased at www.sfejewelry.com and www.beadsinabox.com.

e-mail to:

sara.giboney@kearneyhub.com

Find Beads in a Box jewelry at

- The Great Platte River Road Archway gift shop

- Holiday Inn gift shop in Kearney

- Les Cheveux Salon and Spa in Kearney

- Grow Nebraska Kearney and Grand Island stores

- My Fair Lady Fashions in Holdrege

- From Nebraska Gift Shop in Lincoln

- Sassy’s Consignment in Lincoln

- Minden Coffee House

- Burchell’s White Hill Farmhouse Inn near Minden

- Accents Etc. in McCook

- On the Go Hair and Tanning Salon in Ogallala

- C’Zars Salon and Spa in Hastings

2009-12-30T10:57:00.000-08:00

Getting To Know Us --
Something For Everyone Jewelry (sfejewelry.com) was established as a fundraiser for our community service programs. Community Action Partnership of Mid-Nebraska is a non-profit community service agency that assists low-income, elderly, disabled, women, children, parents and single heads-of-households. Our numerous community service programs help people and change lives that cover 27 counties in south-central Nebraska and 2 in Kansas. Learn more at www.mnca.net.

The need to look for new sources of discretionary funding resulted in the creation of Beads in a Box (BIAB) in August 2004. BIAB is a non-profit, hand-designed jewelry business. The BIAB line is created by volunteers and it’s mission is to raise discretionary funding for the community service programs.

When volunteers couldn’t keep up with the demand and the economy took a downturn, BIAB expanded their selection, color choices, and price points by adding the Something For Everyone hand-selected, purchased line of jewelry. The combination of the hand-designed and hand-selected purchased lines have proven to be successful. Our store is portable and travels to special events, conferences, and conventions coast to coast. Find us at a variety of stores (see our locations at www.sfejewelry.com/store locator.htm) and a selection may be viewed in our Administrative office in Kearney, Nebraska, at 16 West 11th Street by appointment only.

SFE Jewelry

Teaming with Walk to End Alzheimers

Toodles for now! Kyla

April Showers & A New Concept

Treasures and Time

And Here We Stay

Defenseless against beautiful beads

Happy to be in Tucson

New Ideas, Opportunities, and Challenges

Off to Miami & Other Thoughts

‘Tis the Season

Winding Down?

Keep On Keepin' On

Still Growing, Planning, Believing

A Milestone -- A wonderful segment on our local Channel 13 - NTV

Bill - -

KEEPIN' IT FRESH

Making things easier!?!?

Exhausted - But Happy!

Remembering Those Who Serve & Other Stuff

TOO BUSY TO BLOG

OMAHA HEALTH & WELLNESS EXPO

The Cattlemen's Ball

A Busy April for SFE and Beads in a Box

Growing!

Making Progress & Experiencing Growing Pains

New Inventory

More on Polymer Clay Creations

Taste of Home Cooking Expo

LET’S TALK SOCIAL NETWORKING

The gift that keeps on giving

IT’S A FAMILY AFFAIR

VALENTINE’S DAY PAID OFF

A New Line ~ New Possibilities

Rambling Thoughts

More on Tucson Market Trip

Post Office Delivers!

Playing Catch Up

Friday in Tucson

Thursday in Tucson

Day Three in Tucson

....We began our journey

Tuesday in Tucson

We've arrived in Tucson!

Tucson!

My Turn & Thoughts

Hello from the Lincoln Women’s Expo

Lincoln Women's Expo going on this weekend!

FINISHING UP IN NEW ORLEANS

Day Four In New Orleans

Some of the "Big Picture"

Toodles for now!
Kyla