My Turn & Thoughts

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

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!

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

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

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"

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