Late night....

Well since I've promised myself to Blog regularly...here I am, sometime after 11pm blogging -- let's call this "The Blogging Hour."


My day, like many of my yours, is filled with kids, work, family, chores, kids, chores, and ends quite often with more work. I promise myself to take time to blog --goal is 3x a week....hmmmm.

I'm trying to not look at blogging as so much as a chore, but as MY time --
since I love beading that shouldn't be so hard -- right? Wrong! Because my love has turned into work ie: Brightlings Beads, as so many of my loves have over the years, and I for one do not like to work after 11pm when I could be sleeping or doing other non work related activities. Here I am rambling, please forgive me. It's late. I really should be in bed. But I promised myself that I would blog.

If you've made it this far into this blog, let me digress and share an interesting website that I happened on today. It's called Etsy.com a wonderful site -- it's a place to buy and sell all things handmade. I personally found it to be very inspirational. There are some fabulous artists selling/promoting their creations -- I was completely absorbed and lost for quite sometime -- really digging all the beautiful jewelry designs. So check it out -- it looks like a great place to sell jewelry or other handmade items, and it is definately a fun place to browse.

They day I fell in love with beads....

It's kind of funny that I remember the day I fell in love with beads, because it was magical. Love at first site, little lampwork glass beads glimmering in the sunlight at a local craft fair. My eyes were captivated by the spectrum of colors and shapes -- they were beautifully intoxicating.

There was a kind of frenzy surrounding the display booth, which drew me in all the more -- I had to fight my way through the crowd to get a closer look, to find the ones that I would later call my own. Along with the strands of glistening beads there was fabulous selection of finished jewelry and I was drawn to a pair of transparent blue lampwork earrings with opaque green dots. I waited patiently until it was my turn to pay for my newly found treasure and as I waited I knew then that something profound had occurred in me, I fell deeply in love with the beads. I purchased three strands of beads before I even new what to do with them. The artist gently wrapped my purchase neatly in shimmery pink polka dot tissue paper. She handled them with such care and love, they were her creations and I admired her as she worked. I was totally in the moment -- it was surreal.

Naturally, I began beading -- I'm not crafty, I'm not an artist, I don't wear much jewelry, I'm not a material girl -- but I love beads. So I bead simply for the love of beads.

Design, Create, and Inspire Love.....I think most of us designers are influenced by Valentines Day. We are inspired by those we hold dear. Bookmarks for my husband and sons who loves to read, trendy Swarovski crystal cellphone straps for my daughters who love to talk, a beading party for my friends --just because we don't get together enough, the list goes on....

Great New Features!

Well, this week Brightlings Beads received a bit of a face lift this week -- nothing dramatic on the outside, but we did add some really cool new features. The most requested feature that we added is an account login for our customers -- after being promised that by our ecommerce provider for years (it was always just around the corner) we finally bit the bullet and hired some fantastic developers to develop it for us. Customers now have the ability to create an account that keeps a record of their shipping/billing information so that they do not have to reenter it with each order. It'll also keep a history of all their purchases, a list of their favorite items, and for those who create an account it will allow them to earn customer reward points. We are very excited about the changes and hope that the new features will enchance our customers shopping experience.

Sweetheart Savings

Sweetheart Sale
Enjoy 15% Off your entire order, no minimum
purchase requirements necessary. You must enter

coupon code: valentine

Coupon is valid on Feb. 11, 2009 and expires on Feb. 14, 2009. This coupon
cannot be combined with any other coupons.