The Fresh Daily

It’s that time of year again — we just did inventory. Every bead, finding, cabochon, pearl, and foot of chain has been counted.

Cathy and her team did an awesome job getting it all counted. They even uncovered some items that weren’t already for sale at Lima Beads. We’re calling them “Cathy’s Collection” in honor of all their hard work during this year’s inventory. We’re also putting them on sale for 20% off for a limited time (see below for details).

They found some great stuff. There are a lot of gemstone strands that range from boulder opal to ruby crazy lace agate. They also found some awesome midnight blue and sky blue freshwater pearls!

See all of Cathy’s Collection now!

Things to remember…

The sale ends on Sunday night at midnight (August 1, 2010). We can’t offer any rain checks, so make sure to place your order by that time in order to get the sale prices! Start saving now!

In between all of the busy work it takes to put up new beads on our web site every week (not to mention ship out all the orders!), we make sure to keep a close eye on all of the inspiring work being done in the Design Gallery. Our customers really have amazing talent! One of those designers that caught our eye recently is Lynn G. Have you seen her PMC pendants? They’re awesome! Check out all her designs.

Some of Lynn's PMC Pendants

I corresponded with Lynn over e-mail to ask a few questions about her experience & inspiration with her work in PMC and beyond. I hope you enjoy some great information she was able to share.

Getting Started with PMC

Lynn says: “It all started when I wanted to add something different to my jewelry, and I started checking out books from the library, and came across PMC. I read them and I decided to go for it. I purchased a kiln and some other supplies. I started practicing, I think that’s the best way to learn.”

Planning...

Advice for Beginners

Lynn had some good advice for those who haven’t worked with PMC: “I recommend reading books like I did. I can suggest a very good one: Metal Clay for Beaders by Irena Meich. If you can’t afford a kiln you can torch some things, but you are limited, or some local bead stores have kilns and will fire for you.” Here’s another great nugget of advice from Lynn: “You have to have an idea ready, because the clay dries out fast!”

Inspiration

Lynn has always been clear that nature is a huge inspiration to her. You can see this in her Owl in Flight, Sea Shell pendants, Strawberry Fields Forever, and even in the leafy adornments she uses in her photographs.

Get inspired!

I love nature, too, but I wondered how people would get inspired if they lived in a big city and couldn’t go for a quick walk in nature. Lynn advises: “You can make just about anything with a good imagination. If you don’t live by nature, you can use many things around the home: old buttons, lace, perchaced molds and stamps with texture, houseplants, and so much more.”

Final word

I thought Lynn’s final piece of advice was simple and inspiring. She says simply, “if you dream it, you can do it.” Lynn wanted to let everyone know that she’d be happy to answer questions from anyone getting started. You can send her a message from her profile page in The Garden. Thanks again, Lynn, for your time and all your great work!

We have our winners for the How Many Feet of Chain contest! jewel in NP has just won the $100 Lima Beads gift certificate! The correct number of feet was actually 2549, but she was the closest to that (without going over) with 2525.

The winner of the cool geode is Color Us Purple with 2454! After just the 8th guess of the entire contest, she had us thinking it wasn’t going to last very long.

We always have a blast creating these contests and watching the guesses come flying in! Thanks so much to everyone who participated and congratulations to our winners.

Update: We have our winners!

If you guess how many feet of chain are on this table, we’ll give you a $100 Lima Beads Gift Certificate!

The rules are simple:

• You have until 2pm EDT on Monday, July 12th 2010 to make your guess(es).
• Guesses can only be submitted in the comments of this post.
• The winner will be the closest guess (without going over).
• If there’s a tie, the earliest entry will be the winner.
• You can guess up to once per day. At the end of the contest, only your most recent guess will be considered.
• If someone guesses the exact amount, we will announce it immediately. That person will automatically be the winner and the contest will end.

The Prize

The winner will receive a Lima Beads $100 gift certificate. The gift certificate can be used for absolutely anything in the Lima Beads shop and must be redeemed within 1 year. The winner will also be announced on the blog, so the whole beading world will know how incredibly awesome you are!

The "Cool Geode"

The first person to guess within 100 feet of the actual amount will receive a cool geode, so hurry and start guessing, but remember — you only get 1 guess per day!

Helpful Hints

You’ll find a couple of helpful facts about the chain below. Depending on how things are going, we may or may not be giving you another hint tomorrow afternoon.

• 7/8 – There are a total of 34 spools on the table
• 7/8 – Depending on link sizes, one of the larger spools will contain up to 400 feet
• 7/9 – Someone has already won the cool geode!
• 7/9 – The length of chain is shorter than a mile
• 7/12 – The correct guess is a prime number

Looking for today’s new beads?

Check the out on out New Additions page

What do you remember about celebrating the 4th of July as a child? I remember that I had just gotten out of school for the summer (reason enough to celebrate!), family and friends came over, the hot dogs were HOT, and the soda was cold. It was a great time. And then, at night, my dad would break out the sparklers. Something about sparklers makes people happy.

Know what else makes people happy? An awesome SALE on beads. We’re having one for the next 5 days and we’re calling it The Sparkler Sale because, well, we think it’s THAT good

What’s On Sale?

Red, White, and Blue gemstone beads – 15% off

All Vintaj & Stampt Metal – 25% off

All TierraCast & Chain – 20% off

Sale Ends Monday Night, July 5th

The only bad thing about sparklers is that they run out–and so does this sale. Be sure to place your orders by monday night at midnight (July 5th, 2010) to get the sale prices. We can’t offer rain checks on these items, so make sure to grab them while they’re hot!

Today, we’re releasing our newest product, a crystal clear, 5 minute, 2 part epoxy.

LimaStudios Crystal Clear 5 Minute Epoxy

I think you’ll find that this is the stickiest darn stuff you’ve ever seen. We’ve tested it extensively in a lot of different applications and we’ve been very impressed.

Why we Love It

• It Sets quickly (5 minutes)
• It’s ultra super duper sticky
• It dries clear
• It’s easy to cap and reuse
• It works on a wide variety of materials
• - It’s non-flammable, non-volatile & very safe to use

Get a FREE Cabochon & Setting

Try our new epoxy before the end of June, 2010 and you’ll receive a free black sardonyx cabochon AND a free setting!

FREE with LimaStudios Epoxy purchase thru 6/30/2010

Not familiar with two part epoxy?

We’ve got step-by-step instructions! Check out our sample project:

Using cabs, settings, & epoxy

The products you’ll need:

• Cabochons
• Settings
• LimaStudios Epoxy

It’s Thursday, which at Lima, usually means: new additions to our shop! We’re doing something a bit different today. For the first 5 days they’re on the site, these new beads will be on sale for 15% off. That means for the first time ever, if you purchase today’s new additions by the end of Monday (6/14), you’ll get them for 15% off.

We have an assortment of new gemstones , including some Botswana agate with incredible pattern, fire agate, fossil coral, and more.

In other news, it has been a crazy couple of months! There are three new Lima babies and all sorts of things happening at Lima! I’m happy to say that all Lima team members are now back in full force (including Ali) and that we have some exciting things planned! More designs, new products (including resin), and lots of other fun stuff. More details too come very soon

From now through Sunday (4/29/10 – 5/2/10), 13 of our most popular gemstones are on sale for 15% – 20% off! The stones are:

• Amazonite
• Blue pearl
• Muscovite
• Picture jasper
• Yellow turquoise
• Porcelain jasper
• Olive jade
• Seraphinite
• Smoky quartz
• Apple jasper
• Imperial jasper
• Mookaite
• and Leopardskin jasper

Don’t miss your chance to get these beauties at a discount! Please note that inventory on some of these items is a bit low and we’re unable to offer rain checks if any of them sell out. At midnight on Sunday May 2nd, prices of these items will go back to regular price, which will be reflected in your shopping cart.

New Gemstone Beads

We’ve also added some incredible gemstone beads to the shop this week. The pink shell is fabulous for summer and the cuts of ametrine, hessonite, and yellow smoky quartz are simply stunning.

Check them out!

In December, we told you there were Three Lima Babies on The Way. Andrew, Matt, and I all got new baby boys within a 3 week period! It’s been a crazy time, but everyone is doing great.

The Lima babies:

Douglas

Andrew’s wife labored for 11 hours on this little guy. In January, Andrew moved back to Richmond, VA, so the rest of us haven’t had the pleasure of meeting Douglas yet. Andrew says that he didn’t cry for nearly 24 hours after he was born. The doctors confirmed that he was happy and healthy, just very relaxed and curious about his new world. He still doesn’t cry very much (thankfully) but he can really belt it out when he’s hungry! He’s happy to be surrounded by grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins here in Richmond.

Douglas: Born March 24 at 6:06pm. 7 lbs. 7 oz. - 20" long

Henry

Matt’s wife endured 19 hours of labor. He was born on Matt’s birthday and is a very good sleeper. He takes about a 3 hour nap around lunch, a shorter one around dinner, and only gets up once to eat in the middle of the night. We put him down at 9 and he gets up at 9. Henry is blessed in the grandparent department. The grandparents are always looking for excuses to come visit. For instance, I mentioned that I needed 4 C batteries for his swing. Within a couple of hours, we had 8 brand new C batteries and 4 grandparents over the house.

Henry: Born April 7 at 5:50pm. 9 lbs. 7 oz. - 21.5" long

Gable

After Ali’s 26 hour labor with our daughter that ended in a c-section, her doctors weren’t messing around. We had a c-section scheduled for 8am, and 46 minutes later, we had our little boy. He’s already the most relaxed person I know. He only cries for a few minutes per day, usually when he’s hungry. If he’s not eating, he’s maxing and relaxing in his bouncy seat. His big sister Payton (now 23 months old) loves him so much. She has to know where he is at all times. Ali is still a bit sore, but we have two sets of eager grandparents helping us every day, which has been a blessing.

Gable: Born April 14 at 8:46am. 9 lbs. 10 oz. - 22" long

Payton loving her new brother

Yesterday, we officially announced our exclusive line of Handmade Chain. It’s a collection of big, funky chain styles that will be available in several metals (starting with antique copper). It’s awesome in person, and we know that sometimes it’s hard to get a feel for a product when you’re just looking at pictures online. So, I wanted to tell you about 2 things that we’re doing that we hope will make this experience better and more enjoyable!

1. We’re going to start showing all chain using wide pictures that let you see the pattern better. Right now, all the Handmade Chain pictures are like this, and we’re going to be transitioning all our chain pictures shortly to this new format. We think it’s going to be a whole lot easier to get an idea of what the chain will look like in your hands (or on your neck!)

2. We’ve added a cool zoom feature that allows you to get a close-up on the chain when you’re shopping. Just move your mouse over the Handmade Chain pictures and you’ll get a close-up that moves along with your mouse. Right now, this is only available for the Handmade Chain, but will soon be available for the other chain, too!

That’s it! We hope these small things making shopping a whole lot better. Check it out, and let us know your feedback in the comments!

… let’s get right down to business. Elaine aka Belly Chick is the winner of the 2010 Easter Egg Hunt Grand Prize, a $250 Gift Certificate to Lima Beads! Elaine found a total of 86 eggs, which qualified her for the Top 10 on the leaderboard and a chance to win the big prize. Congratulations, Elaine!

The Second Prize is a $100 Gift Certificate, awarded to Lara G, who finished tied for 61st on the leaderboard with a very respectable 76 eggs found. Congrats, Lara! We’ll be contacting both winners via e-mail.

We hope everyone had a great time during the hunt! A total of 97,553 eggs were found, and over 2,000 people found more than 20 eggs! Stay tuned for fun promotions in the future… we love having fun here!

The 2010 Easter egg hunt is here! We were blown away by the popularity of last year’s hunt and by the amount of fun everyone had with it! This year, we wanted to make it bigger and better!

100 Easter Eggs

That’s right, there are 100 eggs hidden on the web site RIGHT NOW. They’re all over the place – no page is off limits! As you find eggs, you’ll see this status bar:

We don’t want anyone to go crazy, so we should tell you up front: finding all 100 Easter eggs will be difficult. Some of them are very well hidden. It’s not really about find ALL of the eggs this year, it’s about finding the most

The Leaderboard

For this year’s hunt, there’s a leaderboard that shows the top 100 hunters. It will show the position of each person, but not the number of eggs they’ve found — we’ll reveal those at the end. See the Leaderboard.

Prizes

The more eggs you find, the more prizes you get. When you reach 10, 25, 50, and 75 eggs a new set of prizes will be unlocked. You can choose from a variety of FREE beads and even a 15% discount on a future order. There are also prizes associated with the Leaderboard. At the end of the Easter Egg Hunt, the top 10 people on the leaderboard will be entered to win The Grand Prize, a $250 Lima Beads Gift Certificate. Everyone else on the leaderboard will be entered to win second prize, a $100 Lima Beads gift certificate. See all the prizes.

Rules

• The contest ends at 11:59pm on April 4 (Easter). This means you need to make sure and do the following by this time:
  • Collect all the eggs you can find.
  • If you unlocked any prizes, add them to your shopping bag and place your order—all prizes (except the discount code explained below) must be redeemed by the end of the contest.
  • If you unlocked the 15% discount prize, write down your coupon code (you can use it any time until the end of 2010)
  • Watch the blog for an announcement about the $250 drawing
• There are a total of 100 Easter eggs that we’ve hidden for you to collect. Those are the only ones that count toward the prizes, and you must click on them to collect them. You might see some picture of eggs in promotional materials (like the ones in the grass at the top of this page)… those don’t count toward your total.
• We can’t offer rain checks on the prizes, so make sure to place your order when you’ve unlocked the prizes, because they’re only available while supplies last!
• We think we have enough free beads to go around… but in case we run short, we reserve the right to substitute a product of equal value as your prize (hey, it’s free, right? . We can’t offer rain checks on unavailable prizes. We also reserve the right to update this list of rules if it needs clarification later.
• Please don’t share the locations of the eggs. This ruins the fun for everyone Location sharers will be disqualified from winning prizes!
• The most important rule: have fun!

The Lima Beads Spring Cleaning has begun! Each year, we accumulate a lot of beads that never end up for sale in the shop. There are many reasons. Sometimes, we receive something and we’re not sure what to call it. Other times, it looks too similar to something we already sell or we didn’t receive enough quantity to add it as a regular item. Some things we return to the factory and others we hold on to because we like them

In an effort to keep ourselves from being overrun by beads, we do spring cleaning! Over the next couple weeks, we’ll have items that we would like to get out of here, so we’ll be offering them at or below our cost. These items will be sold on a First Come, First Served basis. We’ve done this a few times before, so you may already know how it works. If not, check out the notes below. Some of these items will sell out in 3 minutes, while others may stick around for a few days. If you see something you like, don’t wait! We just finished counting everything and I can tell you that we have fewer than 10 strands of many items. Finally, I want to make it clear that these are not items of bad quality, color, or consistency. Anything that doesn’t meet our quality standards gets returned to the factory immediately. These are just items, that for one reason or another, we can’t sell in the shop.

Week 2 (starting March 11)

Lapis, African Turquoise, Pyrite, Hematite (lots!), Pearls, Petrified Green Opal & more!

SHOP Week 2 now.

Important First Come, First Served Notes

• In order to secure these items, you need to place your order and complete the transaction. If they sell out before you do that, they will be removed from your shopping bag.
• These items are all FINAL SALE, so we can’t accept returns for them
• We can’t offer rain checks–when they’re gone, they’re gone!

Top 15 Favorited Design Gallery Pieces

We welcomed a lot of new designers to the Design Gallery in the last two months! They include (newest first): Monkeykat Chick-let Rhi, P Beal, Crissy G, Jade, Celticcrossing, Carole S, Kera D, stormy chic aka D Snyder, Carole C, Penny N, indigo, Reclaimed Vintage, D Dupree, Swedish Chick, Mera C, Firespryte, Connie W, Ms Dear Crazy Chick Fr, valleygirl, Joyce M, Emma Bella, Dionisia, Melanie L, Mary Magdalene, MTDesigns, JunQueJules, Rosie, Karri n, LeighAnn F, ShadesofVictoriana, Copper Dog, Dizzy Chick Lori Z, B Stafford, IzzyBella D, Cathy, JPeg Peggy, The Artful Healer, CIZACO, Harmony on Strings, Goldie H, Jameth, 4HisGloryCreationsbyCJ, N2Beading, Shawn l, D Cauley, GreedieBeadie, Science Chick Runs Sibes, Malina B, KittyMom Linda, Arja A, Eeka Mouse aka MERchick, M martinez, Vampire Chickie Ravin, and Cindy V.

Here are the “most favorited” pieces:

1. Calsilica Dragonfly by Diane Cauley
2. Ebony & Ivory by Chippy Chick aka Lindys
3. not your stepping stone by doktordesigns
4. Tutorial For My Girls by Lynn g
5. The Turritella Challenge by Wemai Coffee Chick
6. Vintage Hummingbirds by Dizzy Chick Lori Z
7. Katri by Arja A
8. Seahorse by Gunilla B
9. IBD*Izzy Bella Designs by IzzyBella D
10. Stormy Sky Bracelet by trinkets
11. Ocean Swirl by Leigh D
12. Cherry Blossom by LeighAnn F
13. Softly Sparkle by Kathryn Lobert

I love all the great focal pieces in your designs. Wonderful uses for metal this time around. Keep creating and sharing!

Top 15 Favorited Fresh Picks

1. Sweet As Lilies by Cuban Queen Crazy Chick
2. Lavender Scents by Chicky Zee aka Alice
3. Faces of Love by KarenDe-Challenge Chick
4. Porcelain Beauty by FaeryGoth Chick
5. For All The Garnet Gals!!!!! by Lynn Eileen Chicky Lee
6. sugared citrus by Shawn l
7. Violet Delights by Breezy Chick aka Bree
8. Bronzed Flight by Leigh D
9. Happiness is a Blue Boat by Mirjam E
10. Dream in Green by AllureofGemsGlamJulia
11. ChampagneAndLemonChrysoprase by ChickyD aka Debra
12. Dance of the Crane by Mommykat Bubbly Chick
13. Sublime by Vampire Chickie Ravin
14. Lime In The Coconut by JohnDeereBabe
15. Navy-Green by Anita QoG Funny Chick

Welcome New Fresh Pickers…

Get ready for a long list, because there were a LOT of new Fresh Pickers in January and February. Here goes!

• Jade aka Caryn
• Cindi
• Paige M
• Kera D
• MandaLVT
• Tootsie R
• TBella
• Anne
• Sandie b
• J Stoops
• Magda H
• Firespryte
• Bella Chick aka C Hill
• Andra B
• Andra M
• Karri n
• Ariadne
• T Fondren
• SLB
• Reclaimed Vintage
• K Palumbo
• Sali Jo GemsChica Chick
• Tess W
• S Dragon
• Dragons Chicky
• LG Designs
• C Stolte
• OK Jacki
• Beadazzled
• Victoria E
• Brittani
• PWL
• Debilu
• J Ranburger
• SPARKLING DIVA
• PMaxim
• KCz
• Lois F
• Jules M
• DALE J
• S Hurd
• Green Eyed Lady Chick
• Timeless 2
• Crazy Chick Frida
• valleygirl
• Daisy Chick - Dawn
• TiaKeri
• Chickie Nonnie T
• Nanobelle
• R harris
• Luna
• ShadesofVictoriana
• M W
• Lassie Chick
• B Stafford
• L phinney
• M Ferguson
• Merryn C
• JohnDeereBabe
• Jameth
• KittyMom Linda
• Goldie H
• Tea Rose
• Stonefrog
• Diana F
• Debra W
• Samantha N
• Lee D
• Tetyana B
• CIZACO
• Wolfkazzy WolfChick
• deedeedees
• A Boggs

Arja and Rapsu

It’s hard to believe, but it’s been 8 months since we launched the Design Gallery at Lima Beads. The creativity you have all shown is truly astounding! It’s always fascinating to get a glimpse into the mind of a designer, and I was lucky enough to talk with our customer Arja A yesterday about some of the work she’s been designing lately. That’s her on the right, with her dog Rapsu in a red helmet designed and made by Arja herself.

Arja has been beading for only about 8 months, and she’s made quite an assortment of wonderful pieces! I personally love the series she posted that was inspired by a “found” piece of metal she brought home from work.

From "found" to finished

Arja has recently been working with leather, and she told me that she’s interested in working with resin but hasn’t been able to try it yet. Here’s a piece she sent me that she’s still working on (she’s trying to make it less shiny–any ideas?):

… and here’s her first Full Persian Chain Maille project:

I asked Arja to tell me a little more about her background. Here’s a note from her, translated from Finnish to English by her daughter.

You can see all of Arja’s pieces in our gallery here. To see more inspiring work from designers from around the world, check out the Design Gallery!

I’d say our first-ever official Fresh Pick challenge was an overwhelming success with almost 100 entries in 4 days! A big “thank you” to everyone who participated in the contest.

Before I announce the winners, I’d just like to say that we had a really hard time picking just one pick for each of the categories. It was obvious that a lot of time, reflection and love were put into every one.

Here are the winners of the $25 Gift Certificates:

Best Composition: Mirjam E’s “Happiness is a Blue Boat“

When you look at this pick, it’s hard to break down why it’s so nice to look at. That’s one of the keys to a great composition. What we really liked about this pick is the way the wide range of stones were arranged to make a cohesive, visually-appealing piece. Beautiful pick!

Best Use of Color: Wemai Coffee Chick’s “Once Upon a Time“

Using Ruby Impression Jasper and Apatite together is a pretty bold move. Doing it alongside the pairing of Ammonite and Shibuichi and a great supporting cast of pinks and aquas is brilliant. Great work!

Most Creative Title: CAS’s “Your Heart is My Home“

Not only does the title embody Valentine’s Day, this is a great looking pick! We love the subtle use of metal charms to tell the story.

Best Story: KarenDe-Challenge Chick’s “Faces of Love“

One line in the description says it all: “a grandmother and grandfather in sepia wedding day splendor – a celebration of love.” But, we’re also blown away by the vintage look and feel of the pick.

People’s Choice: Cuban Queen Crazy Chick’s “Sweet as Lilies“

It’s the pick with the most favorites, but I think all of us here agree with our little community on this one. The colors, the composition, the title, and the story are all top-notch. It feels like there’s an organic color progression between the Champagne pearls, Rutilated Quartz, multi Moonstone, and Peach Jade. Finally, the addition of the onyx CZ is very clever. Truly inspiring!

The winners will receive their Gift Certificate code in a message from me in The Garden. If for some reason you didn’t get the message, just let me know in the comments.

Again, we really appreciate everyone who contributed to make this contest so successful. Hopefully, we’ll have another one of these up our sleeve in the coming months. With the baby boom coming up soon, who knows what’s going to happen next…

We love Valentine’s Day so much around here, that we wanted to give you all a special Valentine surprise. We’re introducing the first ever, official Fresh Pick Challenge! Some dedicated Lima Beaders came up with this idea last year and we thought it looked like lots of fun. The theme for this contest is Valentine’s Day!

We’re giving away $25 gift certificates to the winners of each of the following categories:

• Best Composition: The overall composition is one of the most important qualities of a beautiful Fresh Pick. It’s what makes our Fresh Picks so unique. Creating the best possible product arrangement is key to winning this category.
• Best Use of Color: When it comes to beading, is there anything more important than color? It doesn’t necessarily have to be all pinks, reds and purples. Maybe your favorite romantic movie, love song, or the restaurant of your first date inspires you!
• Most Creative Title: Some of the names you all come up with are truly amazing! Although we’re focusing on the title in this category, it’s important that your picks suit the name.
• Best Story: We know how you love to write stories to go along with your Fresh Picks. That’s why we’re going to read each and every description that you take the time to write. But please, try to keep it as short as you can! I have the feeling that we’re going to have a lot of story-tellers submitting their picks.
• People’s Choice: We want our Pickers to make the call! The Fresh Pick with the most favorites will win this prize. Even if you’re not submitting a pick, be sure to add your favorite fresh picks to, well, your favorites!

It’s now easier than ever to add one of your Fresh Picks to your blog comments! When you’re ready to submit your Pick, just select it from the drop-down menu in the comment form below. You’ll see your 10 most recent picks. Chose the one that you’d like to submit to the contest and “Voila!” Not sure what a Fresh Pick is? Find out on the Design Your Own Fresh Picks page!

Let me lay down a few ground rules before you get started:

• Only one (1) submision allowed per person. If you make multiple submissions, only your most recent one will be counted.
• You must create a pick specifically for this contest. We all love recycling too, but we want to see some awesome new picks!
• All Picks must be submitted as a comment on this blog post by Sunday, February 14th at midnight.

Here’s the Tricky Part

You have to use at least one product from ANY of these stones:

	Impression Jasper
	China Chyrsoprase
	Bronzite

IMPORTANT: You DO NOT have to include one product of each stone! We’re not that cruel.

All you have to do is create a new Fresh Pick and upload it in your comment below. Now, get Picking!

Each year, we try and think of a few major things we could do to improve Lima Beads. Fresh Picks, our new & improved shopping cart, The Garden, and The Design Gallery are all results of this annual goal setting.

This year, we want to do some things to improve the core of Lima Beads. The last few years have been crazy. We’ve grown a lot and to be honest, we’ve outgrown a lot of things that we put in place when it was just Ali, Steve, and me. We want to go back and fix a few things that will make us more efficient, more accurate, and able to continue our growth. I’ve come up with three goals for 2010 that would help push us in this direction.

Goal 1: Reduce “out of stock” items

We answer a lot of phone calls and emails from beaders asking when items will be back in stock. Having items out of stock in our shop is frustrating for them and it’s frustrating for us — if we don’t have it, we can’t sell it! We have completely redesigned the system we use to communicate with our suppliers. Last week, Matt began building new software that will allow factories around the world to assess our needs and help us keep things in stock. It’s our #1 2010 goal to make sure that you can get your beads and supplies when you need them.

Goal 2: Continue to extend our product lines

It’s hard to believe that as recently as 2008, Lima only sold gemstone beads, freshwater pearls, and cubic zirconia. In the past 2 years, we’ve pushed hard to add great lines like Vintaj, Green Girl Studios, TierraCast, Stampt Metal, as well as lines of chain and findings. In 2010, we want to continue this trend. In the next couple of months we’ll be adding lockets and a line of big, funky chain that I think you’ll love. Next, we hope to add some great Murano glass. We’ll also have an exciting announcement about riveting — what many are predicting to be the hottest beading trend of 2010. We’ve been working hard to become a one-stop-shop and we’re not going to quit anytime soon!

Goal 3: Make The Garden even better

A wonderful, interactive beading community has developed around Fresh Picks, The Design Gallery, and The Garden. When we launched these features, we weren’t sure if anyone would like them. We’re thrilled to see beaders from around the world building friendships and inspiring each other right here at Lima Beads. We want to make some major enhancements to The Garden in 2010 to make it one of the best beading communities anywhere.

That should keep us busy for awhile

If you have any suggestions for us, please tell us by using the feedback page. We would truly love to hear from you.

Thanks!

As I sat down last week to start designing some spring pieces, I realized that I needed to do a little research on the trends. I tried to find points on style or color where there seems to be a consensus. As designers, we all take suggested trends with a grain of salt. It’s our job to do our own thing, but if you’re looking to sell your creations, it can’t hurt to know what’s popular Here is what I found:

I couldn’t find a “great new trend” like large rough stones, filigree, or chain from the past few years. From what I can tell, it seems like trends from last year remain strong, although I pray that the 80s resurgence will pass soon! More and more women are looking to Michelle Obama as a fashion icon, much like my mother and grandmother looked to Jackie O.

Kingii Necklace at Anthropologie

In terms of style of jewelry and components, I noticed an increased use of feathers, leather, and chain. I also found a lot of cuff bracelets, big earrings, and bold necklaces. Not that delicate pieces are under appreciated, but even they are getting some zing to be bold without needing to be chunky. Art, especially “pop art” has inspired many designers this season in their choices of color and lines. If art is going to inspire me, I’d like to stick to the impressionists.

Memory jewelry and charm jewelry are being created by more and more designers. I think this is because designs with more of a “handmade touch” seem to be very popular. I asked Matt if Deidra would get a charm bracelet when their baby is born and he said she doesn’t wear bracelets. Hmmm, how about a charm necklace?

Color is playing an important role again this season. Based on what I’ve read, the most important thing in your color choice is to be very deliberate in your choices. Gold metals (both matte and antiqued) continue to rise in popularity. I used to tell my mom when I was little, that I’d never wear gold, but here I am starting to work bits and pieces into my designs. I try to avoid being trendy at all costs, but I have to admit, I’m drawn to the warmth provided by gold, especially in filigree and chain. Pantone has named *turquoise* the color of the year for 2010. They state that turquoise “evokes thoughts of soothing, tropical waters and a languorous, effective escape from the everyday troubles of the world, while at the same time restoring our sense of well being.” Wow! Turquoise can do all that? It sounds ideal, because we want our designs to carry people away and make them feel great. I’m glad I found that stash of huge Chinese turquoise nuggets under my beading table the other day

Pantone also selected green yellow, tomato red (one of my favs), champagne, dove gray, Mediterranean blue, and violet. This is starting to get exciting! What a great bunch of colors.

I’ll most likely keep these color suggestions in mind as I create my spring pieces. Good luck to everyone finding your style and theme for spring and summer! I think we’re going to see a lot of interesting things as people continue to mix their components, metals, and methods.

Lima Beads customers have been helping us support charities since 2004. When you place an order at Lima Beads, you’ll notice the option to choose a charity at the bottom of your shopping cart. Lima Beads will donate a portion of the profit from your order to the charity you select. This does not add any cost to your order — we just like to let our customers decide where our charitable donations should go. You are the reason we’re here and the reason we’re in a position to help others. Thank You!

It’s that time of year again to choose the charities we’ll be supporting in 2010. This year we have some wonderful causes we’d like to support. Voting will be based on category. Choose your favorite charity from each category below. We’ll be supporting a total of 6 this year. Voting will be open through January 21, 2010, so get your votes in soon!

Environmental Organizations

Greenpeace

Greenpeace is the leading independent campaigning organization that uses peaceful direct action and creative communication to expose global environmental problems and to promote solutions that are essential to a green and peaceful future. (more…)

Beyond Pesticides

Beyond Pesticides seeks safe air, water, land and food for ourselves and future generations. Beyond Pesticides works with allies in protecting public health and the environment to lead the transition to a world free of toxic pesticides. (more…)

Animal Organizations

World Wildlife Federation

We seek to be the voice for those creatures whom have no voice. We speak for their future. We seek to apply the wealth of our talents, knowledge, and passion to making the world wealthier in life, in spirit, and in living wonder of nature. (more…)

ASPCA

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) was the first humane organization to be granted legal authority to investigate and make arrests for crimes against animals. Our organization provides local and national leadership in three key areas: caring for pet parents and pets, providing positive outcomes for at-risk animals and serving victims of animal cruelty. (more…)

Humane Society of Huron Valley

Our mission is to support the loving, responsible care of all animals in our community by ensuring proper, nurturing care, for the animals in our shelter; placing all adoptable animals in loving homes; reducing pet overpopulation; providing education and outreach; and stopping animal cruelty. (more…)

Children’s Organizations

Boys & Girls Club of Southeastern Michigan

Since 1926, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Southeastern Michigan has provided high quality youth development programs, sporting activities, events and a safe haven for children from all walks of life. (more…)

The BackPack Program

The Backpack Program is an undertaking of the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan which attempts to reduce child hunger, educate students on proper nutrition and promote healthy lifestyles. (more…)

Women/Mothers Organizations

One HEART

The mission of One HEART is to save the lives of women and children, one birth at a time. Saving the lives of Tibetan women and their children is of utmost urgency for the survival of the Tibetan people and culture. (more…)

Women Thrive Worldwide

Women Thrive develops, shapes, and advocates for policies that foster economic opportunity for women living in poverty. They focus on making U.S. international assistance and trade programs prioritize women. (more…)

The Grameen Foundation

At Grameen Foundation our goal is simple – we want to see poor people, especially the poorest and those living in harder to reach areas, have access to microfinance and technology and as a result of access to these services, move themselves out of poverty. (more…)

Food Organizations

Food Gatherers

Food Gatherers exists to alleviate hunger and eliminate its causes in our community by: reducing food waste through the rescue and distribution of perishable and non perishable food; coordinating with other hunger relief providers; educating the public about hunger; and developing new food resources. (more…)

Oxfam America

Oxfam America is an international relief and development organization that creates lasting solutions to poverty, hunger, and injustice. Together with individuals and local groups in more than 100 countries, Oxfam saves lives, helps people overcome poverty, and fights for social justice. (more…)

Health Organizations

The Michigan Difference

The Michigan Difference as it relates to medicine in the 21st century is about ideas, about people intensely dedicated to using those ideas to make the world a better place. (more…)

Susan G. Komen for the Cure

At Susan G. Komen for the Cure®, we are committed to ending breast cancer forever by energizing science to find the cures and ensuring quality care for all people, everywhere. (more…)

DMC Children’s Hospital

With more than 40 specialties, the Children’s Hospital of Michigan sees more kids and trains more pediatric medical and surgical experts than any other hospital in the state. (more…)

Thanks!

Thanks for taking the time to help us pick the organizations we’ll support together in 2010. For more details and to see the charities we supported in 2009, please visit the Lima Cares page.

Update: Haiti Relief Effort

In response to the tragic series of earthquakes on January 12 that devastated Haiti, Lima Beads will be redirecting our giving for the entire month of January to the American Red Cross to assist in emergency relief and recovery efforts. For those who’ve placed an order in January and are curious, we’ll still factor in the charity you selected for our end of year giving.