We Have a Winner!

Kimmie here:

A Big Thank You to Susan B., winner of the Magpie for Andrew.

I hope y'all will visit his blog and bid on some of the wonderful things being auctioned there.

I'm working at a big quilt market this weekend, one more day to go then home to Encinitas and then we are moving up to Mammoth Lakes on Tuesday! We're hoping to squeeze in one more surf before we take off. After unloading we will head up to Montana for a visit with my parents until I return for training as a lift operator on Mammoth Mountain for the season. I am SO excited, can't wait to snowboard myself silly this winter!

Sadly, I won't be able to take my torch with me, but I have a good inventory and will update my website with loose beads and finished jewelry, including some great new button pendants. We will return to the coast in June; I'm sure I'll be bursting with inspiration. Of course, I expect to be knitting and felting up a storm while in the mountains, so it won't all be stuff from my stash here in the blog and on the site.

And by the way,
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

We're still here!

Kimmie here:

Joan and I have both had a lot going on the past month; I am moving in a couple of weeks to Mammoth Lakes, California to work on the slopes for ski season! I won't be able to bring my torch to make beads, but I will be updating my website with beads and jewelry from my stash, and I hope to be felting up a storm :-). A snowstorm, that is!

Our friend Andrew Thornton, a wonderful artist, has some big medical bills coming at him, so I decided to offer up my magpie wearing a monocle and sterling top hat in a silent auction to raise some funds. If you want to place a bid, you can email me through my website, not the blog: kim at cuteglassbeads dot com. You can also bid via facebook message to the Kim Van Antwerp http://www.cuteglassbeads.com/ page or to me. You can check out Andrew's work and see some other great things to bid on at his blog: http://www.andrew-thornton.blogspot.com/

The high bidder as of Friday evening (central time, I will be in Houston) wins the bird. In a slight departure from usual procedure, if you are high bidder and get outbid, I will let you know!

Off To Connecticut!

I will be ehibiting at the CT Bead Society show this Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 11 & 12. This is a very sentimental show for me. This was my first bead show Sept. 15, 2001. A customer at the Guilford Handcrafts Expo had mentioned there was a bead show in North Haven and gave me the info. It was all of $35 to exhibit and I figured what do I have to lose? I grabbed my friend Louise and off we went to CT. Oh............one little hitch 4 days after the towers fell. I will never forget driving over the Tappan Zee and looking up the Hudson river to see the huge columns of smoke still rising. None of us knew what to expect at that time. We called to see if the show was still being held. Life must go on was the general feeling and the show was still going on, so off we went. CT Bead Society show was about 20 tables in a smaller banquet room at the Holiday Inn. We came. We set up too much display(you can take the girl out of the craft show but you can't take the craft show out of the girl) and we sold BEADS to NICE people! We were in heaven. Possitively giddy on the drive home we decided "We could run a bead show!" and Spring 2002 we held the first Berks Bead Bazaar. So giddy that we missed our exit and started driving into the city. Turn around. Back on track and on to countless bead shows which have been added and dropped over the years. The CT Bead Show is now about 3 times its original size and 2 days instead of one. It had quite a peak but like alot of shows has leveled off a bit. I have high hopes for this year. Just feel like it is going to be good, but even if it doesn't quite meet expectations I will continue to do the CT Bead Society Show for sentimental reasons.

Halloween Starts Early at Penny Michelle. Boo!

Halloween is Coming to Penny Michelle!
Get an early start on your Halloween designs...
All FINDINGS on the Halloween page are 25% off now thru September 13th
Discount will be applied when your card is charged and NOT reflected in the shopping cart. Discount does NOT apply to finished pieces or beads.

Grab 'em now and be the belle of the witch's ball for Halloween

Learnin this Internet stuff

King's Canyon National Park

Kimmie here:

Sounds like Beadfest was great! And those starfish beads of Joan's are beautiful.

I had a great time at the San Diego Bead Society's Bead Bazaar, thanks to everyone who came, and especially to Cindy Lohry, who made a beautiful necklace using my Precious Metal Clay fairy pods and let me display it in my booth! She's going to have it photographed and email me the pictures; I will share them as soon as I get them. I'll also update the blog when I get some more pods made and posted on the website.

After SDBS, Morgan and I drove up to the Bay Area and across for a week of camping at Kings Canyon/Sequoia National Parks. The weather and the scenery were just spectacular, there's no other word for it. We didn't have any bear encounters, but there was a racoon who stole, and promptly rejected, a bag of rice cakes!

That weekend, Klew hosted me at a trunk show in her Tehachapi store. What a treasure! (both the store and Klew)

Now I've been home for two weeks and summer has finally arrived in San Diego County. I have been filling orders and making beads for finished jewelry to show at the Ocean Beach Music and Art festival on September 11. Art Row is free, and there's a stage that's open too, so you don't have to buy a ticket to have a great day!

In the meantime, I have overhauled the look of my website and added both beads and finished jewelry, as well as an FAQ on the about me page. If you check it out and find any issues, please let me know!

Back from BeadFest and Back to Work

Gater by "Fired Up Ladies"

First installment of starfish Beads for "Moonbabies"

I am happy to report I had an excellent show at BeadFest. Phili seems to be my town. Not sure if it is because I have been doing shows in the area since my art/craft show days or just because but I am on alot of people's "must see" lists.

I am very grateful to all my loyal friends and customers. We got a new booth location last minute so we were not listed correctly in the show program but everyone managed to find us.

I got very little time out of the booth for shopping and socializing. More due to being exhausted than not being able to leave the booth. My friend Dona Jones of Kindred Spirit Designs helped out all day Saturday and Sunday. I push myself so hard getting inventory ready for a big show that people at the show get the goofy barely able to function version of Joan but that seems to work. I think they find it amusing. Beads and entertainment.

I got to see Melanie Brooks of Earthenwood Studio briefly. I meant to go back and buy a piece for my bead collection but ran out of time and energy. Only purchase I managed to make was this great gater by fellow BOC'er Fired Up Ladies . I also got to see my cabs set in sterling silver as clasps by Clasp On-Clasp Off . They looked fabulous! and Dee sold alot. Looking forward to a long collaboration. I am going to send some pieces to be set for my own inventory as pendants and bracelet components.

Finally the back to work part. I am doing a large order of starfish beads for Moonbabies that will be part of a fundraiser for breast cancer. I put a pink breast cancer ribbon on the back of each bead. 50 down 250 to go. I am hoping to be at the halfway point by the end of Aug.

In closing happy to be done with my last "BIG" show of the year. Really happy to have so many great fun customers. And think I will be content to hole up back in my studio for a little while.

Joan

Update on BeadFest Phili Free Passes

Interweave has sweetened the deal with FREE WEEKEND PASSES !!! Get together with your beady friends. Book a room and shop til you drop! Bead Fest Philiadelphia is Aug. 20-22 at the Valley Forge Convention Center. Keeping this post short and sweet. I am trying to get as many studio hours in as possible. Still have to make owls!