As the whirlwind continues…

Since our last report, Bazangles finished a proposal for the Reigning Catz and Dogz website project.  Johanna loved our creations; we are now in the execution stages of photographing the items for her website and deciding how to handle sales when they come in.  

The Barn Festival in Hastings sounds like it was a huge success, and I’m headed over there to get our inventory.  Hopefully, they liked the new pumpkins Karen created.

 

Burchell’s White Hill Farmhouse Inn hosted their small quilting retreat, and we featured a quilting-themed line of magnets and pins from Bazangles. Reports were ‘the ladies loved them.’   We are still trying to find a vendor to showcase these quilting items and our buttons at the Threads Across Nebraska Conference in October. 

 

The Regional Library Association Conference in LaVista went well - we are prepared gifts for five gift basket giveaways besides the Bazangles inventory specialized with the education/librarian theme.  

 

The Holiday Splendor Craft and Trade Show will be on November 10^th_, and applications and phone calls continue to come in. 

 

Still on the front burner is creating a catalog and the related items to go in it as was requested by Wild Birds Unlimited, a national franchise of 270 stores.  If they like what we create, they will add our items to their shopping cart for all their stores. 

 

I’m creating, Suzette’s making and Karen’s photographing the items and putting them in a catalog as we speak. 

 

I’m also creating 20 nametags for Alternatives to Family Violence from Commerce City, Colorado.  With so many irons in the fire, we continue to try and keep it all straight.

 

The Development office and the Beads in a Box room remains in a whirlwind!  

 

Tootles for now, Kyla

2012 MPLA/NLA/NEMA Tri-Conference

Beads in a Box will be a vendor at the Librarians' LaVista 2012 MPLA/NLA/NEMA Tri-Conference! 

Come and see us October 17th -19th. 
 
The LaVista Conference Center is at 12520 Westport Pkwy, Lavista, NE. 

We will have all three of our lines for you to see and purchase - get a jump on your Holiday shopping!

~ Kyla

As the whirlwind continues…

Karen and I returned from taking Bazangles to the American Crafters and Retailers Expo Wholesale Show in Las Vegas.   We have many projects on the front burner for that including a total makeover of our product line.  

 As a result of speaking for the Envoys in May, Bazangles has a new account/fundraiser with a local Philanthropic Education Organization (PEO).  The PEO Chapter IX just ordered 24 specially designed nametags for their group and will be showing the fundraising project to the other local chapters and to their state membership.  This has an opportunity to go national. Keep your fingers crossed!  

 I just recently attended the Nebraska School Nurses Conference and sold both BIAB and Bazangles.   

We are waiting for our order from the Nebraska Historical Society to come in and look forward to those possibilities.  

Throughout the remaining two months, it is my goal to create some one-of-a-kind pieces for Beads in a Box to sell in New York at the national conference.   

The Nebraska Alzheimer’s Association asked us to gear up for another season of walks in which to sell their signature bracelets our volunteers have been creating.  

 Besides all the new creations for Bazangles, the Holiday Splendor Craft Show registrations are trickling in.  The news is getting out that we run an awesome craft show! One Omaha business ordered 12 booths for the November show!! 

Karen and Janice are out for a few weeks, and the Development office and the Beads in a Box room will remain in a whirlwind!  

 Tootles for now, Kyla

In A Whirlwind

As the whirlwind continues…Janice in the bead room continues to tweak the prototypes for the Nebraska Historical Society. They liked the original designs and asked for a few little changes. 

We held a nice open house for the staff around Mother’s Day and timed it perfectly during the CAN meeting, too. 

Beads in a Box attended the Elm Creek FCCLA Spring Fling and was able to help them raise $100. That seems to be part of the Beads in a Box legacy-raising money for good causes.

Our latest success story is with the Buffalo County Relay For Life. “Kim” came in yesterday with a check after selling 34 cancer bracelets that the BIAB volunteers created. We were excited to give her $340 towards her relay team total. 

The SAFE Center has sold approximately 80 bracelets for their recent fundraiser, and the Alzheimer’s Association is ready to get started selling their bracelets for the walks coming up in September.

Karen and I are in a flutter preparing Bazangles for the American Crafters Retail Expo (ACRE) Wholesale Show in Las Vegas. We take off right after the board meeting on May 31. This is our final show being considered “Emerging Artists,” and we hope to pick up new wholesale accounts. If we could ship more out to wholesale accounts, BIAB wouldn’t have to travel to as many shows. The next goal for the team is to create one-of-a-kind originals for the national convention in New York in August.

We remain in a whirlwind…

Tootles for now, Kyla

News from the bead room!

We successfully made it through the Signs of Spring Craft and Trade Show! Thank you to Community Action Partnership of Mid-Nebraska staff that helped set up. It feels more like an agency event when you are there! We had volunteers come and work in the Beads in a Box booth. They had a great time and we really appreciated their commitment. 

We ended up having 204 booths for our record breaker and customers were circulating all day even though the weather was causing some stress for the Show Promoter. For us oldies, we also appreciate all the young legs and strong backs when it comes time to tear it all down.
 

On May 8th, Beads in a Box is having an open house for Mother’s Day at the Kearney Woman’s Club from 3:30-7:00 p.m. The month of May, we will be preparing new designs and display boards for Bazangles to make its debut at the American Crafters and Retailers Expo Wholesale Show in Las Vegas. 

 Thinking seasons ahead, we must be preparing fall and Christmas holidays for displays. We’re so glad we got some wonderful volunteers! The Development office and the Beads in a Box room remain in the whirlwind! 

Tootles for now, Kyla

It's good to be busy!!

     We successfully made it through the Signs of Spring Craft and Trade Show! Thank you to all the Community Action Partnership of Mid-Nebraska staff that helped set up. It feels more like an agency event when you are there!  We had volunteers come and work in the Beads in a Box booth. They had a great time and we really appreciated their commitment.  We ended up having 204 booths for our record breaker and customers were circulating all day even though the weather was causing some stress for the Show Promoter.  For us oldies, we also appreciate all the young legs and strong backs when it comes time to tear it all down. 

     In our April newsletter we touched on the huge push for the Sandhill cranes. We put them in several stores and now we wait to see if there is any success. Hopefully, it won’t be a let-down.  With the huge push on Bazangles and preparing for the Signs of Spring Craft Show, the development department has been looking for a slow-down. Well, the slow-down consisted of preparing for a visiting group and the Board of Directors’ meeting. 

     A large bulk mailing is almost ready to go stuffed with the applications for the Holiday Splendor show in November. 

     In April we mentioned that the Nebraska Historical Society asked us to create specific Nebraska tourism Bazangles. Janice has been working hard on that and we have wonderful prototypes to send to them.   

      On May 8^th, Beads in a Box is having an open house for Mother’s Day at the Kearney Woman’s Club from 3:30-7:00 p.m. The month of May, we will be preparing new designs and display boards for Bazangles to make its debut at the American Crafters and Retailers Expo Wholesale Show in Las Vegas.   

     Thinking seasons ahead, we must be preparing fall and Christmas holidays for displays. We’re so glad we got some wonderful volunteers! The Development office and the Beads in a Box room remain in the whirlwind! 

     Tootles for now, Kyla

Monthly Activities and Updates!

Since our last monthly report, Beads in a Box has continued staying busy filling orders for the Bazangles.  One is almost ready for an art gallery in North Carolina. We’ve been in major Sandhill Crane production. We took cranes to the Museum of Nebraska Art (MONA), the Holiday Inn Gift Shop, the Rowe Sanctuary in Gibbon and Grand Island GROW stores in the malls.  We’ve been invited to put our inventory in the GROW store in the Eppley Airport in Omaha.  That order is about to go out.  

During our March board meeting, the Nebraska Historical Society stopped in, bought Bazangles and some Something For Everyone jewelry AND asked us to create some exclusive Nebraska items for their stores all over the state.  BAZINGA!  That is on the front burner and will be tackled after the Signs of Spring Craft and Trade Show on April 14^th.   

A Carnelian and Rainbow Flourite
bracelet available as a fund-raiser
for Feed My Starving Children

Barb Roebuck formed a team to sell bracelets for the Feed My Starving Children fundraiser and we’ll start making them up by special order real soon.   

Janice and our volunteers just finished 140 bracelets for the S.A.F.E. Center and their big fundraiser is coming up.  We hope they do well.   

Since last publication, we’ve recruited TWO new volunteers and we seem to be able to keep them and everyone else who is willing busy.   

2012 Signs of Spring Craft Show
vendor Simply Door Art

The craft show signs are up so now we mean business.  It is going to happen whether I feel we are ready or not.  There is so much busy-work to it; the booth numbers have been assigned, and we’ve broken our record.  As of the end of March, we have 193 booths, and we are expecting more! That’s the largest number yet.  We are always looking for volunteers in the Beads in a Box booth.  If you are interested in volunteering and receiving jewelry for payment, contact me soon. 

    Tootles for now, Kyla

We have joined with The S.A.F.E. Center by creating a bracelet to be sold in a fund raising project.  The S.A.F.E. Center's mission is to provide secure and confidential services, programs and advocacy to individuals and families who have experienced dating, domestic or sexual violence.  Each bracelet will have a dove charm, the symbol of peace and part of the logo of The S.A.F.E. Center.

Fifty percent of the proceeds will go toward all the good work done by this local organization.   Food, shelter and most of all safety will be made available for people and families in crisis.

The remaining money raised will go to into a discretionary fund to be used by the many programs here at Community Action Partnership of Mid-Nebraska.

The bracelets will be offered for sale through the S.A.F.E. Center and will be sold in conjunction with their annual Purse Auction held April 27th, 2012.  Tickets will be on sale until April 7th, but if you would like to contribute by purchasing a bracelet call 308.237.2599 or go to

http://www.safecenter.org
http://www.purseauction.safecenter.org

Beads in a Box is also donating a lovely Amethyst and silver 3-strand necklace & earring set to be sold the evening of the Purse Auction.  This and many other beautiful items will be auctioned to raise funds, so make sure to attend!

 

We are very pleased to be able to help such a wonderful organization.

Stay tuned -

              Janice

Beads in a Box has been changing in leaps and bounds. We attended the national conference in San Francisco last August, and our regulars were happy to see us!
We came back to the Alzheimer’s project that went amazingly well with many towns participating in the sales of the exclusive bracelet we created for their fundraising. The time spent by our volunteers was greatly appreciated as they made most of the bracelets needed for these events.

The Holiday Splendor Craft and Trade Show made its first appearance in the Expo Building and was very well received. We had huge crowds, a large vendor count and our first bead trunk show for Beads in a Box. We are so thankful for all the volunteers and the YRTC boys, for without them the execution of the show would be even more tremendous.

Last February on our way home from our Tucson, AZ, buying trip to market, Karen started a new art process called Zentangle. It’s as old as time and we all do it; just now someone put a name to it. It’s doodling to create a state of zen or relaxation. She came up with the idea to take Zentangle to the next level and create a line of wearable art for Beads in a Box. Bazangles was born. We’ve been creating designs and experimenting with materials trying to perfect the process. It’s been a joy to see the volunteers coloring and tangling our Whootrz line of owls.

On January 19, Bazangles made its grand debut into the wholesale world in Orlando, FL, at the American Crafters Retail Expo (ACRE) show. We could only be in that show after jumping through a lot of hoops in the jurying process created by Wholesalecrafts.com. Bazangles is now a member and was finally accepted to be an emerging artist in the ACRE show. Hundreds of retailers came to “market” to seek out the perfect items for their stores, galleries, museums, shops, etc. It was gratifying to experience their response to our new product, to hear their excitement when they heard our story and mission, and then finally place an order!! We hope the success of this new venture could cut down on the number of shows we have to travel to, help us to utilize more volunteers in the creation and eventually be able to employ those whom we are serving to help them reach self-sufficiency. Even if someone working several jobs could let one of those jobs go to do this in the evening, our success would be proven in giving them more time with their family. At the moment we are sending thank you cards to businesses interested in Bazangles, creating the products to fill the orders we got, photographing the new items created for our Wholesalecrafts.com website presence and doing all the bookwork that it takes to organize a project like this. It’s crane season soon, and we need to be cranking out the Sandhill crane creations that Janice has drawn.

Special Events is hard at work taking care of craft show applications coming in for the Signs of Spring Craft and Trade Show on April 14. We’d love to have your help in the Beads in a Box booth or in the set up and tear down of the show. Please let me know if you’re interested.
Tootles for now, Kyla