Blog

St. Patrick's Day

Submitted by katie on Thu, 03/05/2009 - 14:01

I'm not Irish, but I've celebrated St. Patrick's Day in a few interesting ways...

This time last year, I was living in Rolla, Missouri which has the country's 19th longest running St. Patrick's Day Parade, celebrating its 101th year this year (see wikipedia). In Rolla, they are crazy about St. Pat's! 3 years ago, I remember celebrating St. Pat's by running 20 miles in preparation for the St. Louis Marathon. (Check out Go! St. Louis)

Well we may not be going all out Rolla-style here at the shop or making anyone run 20 miles, we're still getting in the spirit! I mean, even if you're not Irish, doesn't St. Pat's Day make you feel a little bit so? Or, if you're like me, you at least wear green on March 17 so that you don't get pinched!

Karen Roodman is at it again and has inspired us with her awesome fimo clay St. Pat's beads. We've got a kit made up to create this whimsical bracelet with a rainbow, shamrock, leprechaun, green beer, and flag beads. We've included every part and piece necessary to create up to an 8" inch bracelet in this kit for $20. If you're not feeling too crafty, we can make the bracelet up for you for $23!

Class Creations

Submitted by katie on Mon, 02/16/2009 - 11:57

The store has been busy, busy, busy! (And I've been busy, busy, busier...)

We're well into our first quarter of classes and I couldn't be more thrilled about how they've gone! We've had one Basic Bead-Strining class, one Wire Crochet Necklace class, one Pearl Knotting class, and two Ring Duet classes (a duet of Ring Duet classes!) so far.

I've always been the type of person who picks up something quickly. I can look at a picture of handmade beaded jewelry in a magazine and immediately come up with a way to make it...but I've also been at this whole beading thing (and the arts and crafts thing in general) for quite a while. I'm so impressed with how well everyone is learning each class project.

I'm posting some pictures below of customer-created jewelry. Beading is such a fun hobby because once you learn one particular skill, you can build on that and make cuter and more creative stuff with each new project you do. These pieces pictured below are ones that I've actually remembered to take pictures of. I have to remember to take pictures of everything. I'm so inspired by all the things that are created at the store.

It's not too late to sign up for classes for this quarter! It's the perfect thing to do while still stuck inside for the next month or so. The first day of spring is just 32 days away!

-Katie

Great Valentine's Ideas

Submitted by katie on Tue, 02/03/2009 - 13:25

I feel like we just celebrated New Year's and here we are just a few days away from Valentine's! At what point did life start happening so fast?!?

Well, with Valentine's right around the corner, I wanted to share some of the new fun things that we have at the store for the holiday.

Remember the purses that we had for Christmas and Hanukkah? They're back in bright and bold patterns and sprinkled with love...literally (some of them have the word "love" in the fabric). I think that you could even carry the dark one with the red fringe (pictured below) all year round!

We've found that any jewelry we make with red and pink Swarovski crystals can be perfect for Valentine's -- like these spiral heart earrings!

The bling baseball hats are the perfect gift for the sports lover. After all, I don't love Valentine's because of all the mushy gushy romance stuff. It's not even the candy that makes Valentine's great. This is the time of year when pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training and that means that baseball season and spring are right around the corner!

The girls here also set up a Valentine's station with all sorts of beads that we thought would be great in making some festive jewelry.

I hope that you have a great Valentine's whether you're into all the lovey-dovey stuff or if you're just in it for the candy!

-Katie

Farewell, Old Website!

Submitted by katie on Sun, 01/11/2009 - 10:33

Welcome to the new bizzybeads.com! If you've visited this site in the past few months, you might notice a few changes. The look is updated and we've added some pages and pictures! The login feature will allow you to post comments on blog posts like this one and sign up for our newsletter.

Check out the recent additions to the Classes section for everything you need to know about the classes we're holding this winter.

Please look around and come back often as we will be posting new ideas for jewelry-making, store information, and info about our 2009 Summer Camp.

Thanks for visiting!

Katie

Bizzy Beads and Gifts

Submitted by katie on Sun, 10/05/2008 - 12:05

Welcome to the new Bizzy Beads and Gifts website and my blog! This is an interim site design that will be updated soon. Thanks to my husband Brad, his friend Jim, and my cousin Sarah for all of their help in getting this up and running!

It has been a crazy 2 weeks since I bought Bizzy Beads. With the help of my family and friends, we’ve made a lot of changes to the appearance of the store (new logo, new paint, new fabric, new website) but the heart of Bizzy Beads remains. I’m so excited to serve all of you while helping you get your beading fix.

Through this blog I want to keep you updated about things that are going on around here. I will post about everything from our new inventory and the fun birthday party we had here last weekend to sales and promotions. Some of this will be sent out in emails too, but I don’t want to overwhelm your inbox!

Please browse the site and remember to vote on November 4! Stop in on that day wearing your “I Voted” sticker and receive 15% off of your purchase!

Thanks for visiting,