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