Archive: November ’08 on The Blog

Hi everyone!

For the past couple of years at Christmas time, Lima Beads has given the gift of beads with every order. This is our way of saying thank you to our customers for a great year. Well, it’s been another great year and we’re here again to say Thanks!

This year, we’ve added a lot of new products. Vintaj Natural Brass, Green Girl Pewter, Stampt Metal, Cabochons, and thousands of new Gemstone Beads. We love them all! We’ve made a lot of new friends, especially on the Fresh Daily Blog. We’re so proud to be part of the beading community and to be part of a business that people enjoy. We’ve got some pretty awesome stuff planned for next year too! So again, thank you for being part of the Lima Beads family and enjoy some free beads on us!

How it Works:

You can choose a free gift with each order you place. The gifts you can choose are based on how much you order. There are gifts for any order, orders over $75, orders over $150, and orders over $300. To see all of the free gifts, check out The Gift Giveaway Page!

UPDATE: The sale has ended! Thanks to everyone who participated this year!

Black Friday is almost here and we just had to do something special. For the first time ever, Lima Beads has put every single item in our shop on sale… and I do mean EVERYTHING!

This sale has already started and will be available until 11:59pm EST on Monday 12/2/08. You don’t need a discount code or anything, you will see the sale prices throughout the web site. Just make sure you complete your purchases by the end of Monday because when the sale ends, any sale items in your cart will revert to the regular price!

As you know, Lima Beads is a pretty small company and we expect to be completely overwhelmed by this sale If we run out of an item, we’re sorry, but we won’t be able to offer rain checks. We’re pretty sure we’ll be able to keep up on orders and get everything ordered by 3pm out the same day (as always), but just to be safe — if your order is super time-sensitive, we highly recommend choosing UPS. Those orders are 100% guaranteed to go out the same day if ordered by 3pm EST.

Everything on Sale:

• CZ and Pearls? 25% off!
• Gemstone beads? 15% off!
• Vintaj Brass? 20% off!
• Stampt Metal? 20% off!
• Copper beads? 20% off!
• Cabochons? 20% off!

We also announced our holiday gift giveaway today. You can get free beads with every order through the end of 2008.

To everyone celebrating Thanksgiving this year — Have a safe and happy one! For everyone getting up at 4am to go shopping on Friday, play nice

The Fresh Picks this past week could have been inspired by travel magazines, holiday cooking, memories of vacations, or winter. These are great ways to trigger your creative energy. While shopping downtown this week, I was inspired by a rose bush covered in snow – with the pink roses still in bloom! It was too odd not to notice, yet people walked past this bush all day long without stopping . . . to smell the roses.

This time of year we all seem to be in such a rush to do everything – drive, shop, cook, eat, create – try to take a moment in the midst of all your rushing around to notice obscure moments around you. You’ll be surprised by what might influence your next design.

This week’s Top 10

• Cardinal’s Nest by Cuban Queen
• Mint Chocolate Cocoa by Lisa S
• Icicles and Peppermints by Snickers
• A Chain Tied To My Heart by CAS
• Polynesian Batik by Perlemamma
• sand and sea by Jodi O
• Café Crema by Anna C
• Symphony in B Minor by Sandy S
• raindrops and sunshowers by Tab
• Cape Cod by Debbi C

Cardinal's Nest

Cardinal’s Nest by Cuban Queen - I love Cardinals. We have one in the tree out side our kitchen window all winter, but he just never seems to sit still long enough for me to take a picture of him This pick does a great job of creating this image for us. The coral chosen is the perfect red. I like how one may not immediately think of combining the coral with mica quartz, bronzite, Chinese ocean jasper, and turritella agate, just to name a few. I really like the use of the copper wire wrapped triangle, it adds that “Je ne sais quoi”. If I were going to make a piece with this pick, I might add a few CZ salsa or poppy faceted fans, I can’t resist a touch of sparkle.

Mint Chocolate Cocoa

Mint Chocolate Chip by Lisa S - This is a delicious combination. As it so happens I am drinking a Mint Cocoa from one of my favorite grocery stores, Trader Joe’s, with Dakota (my dog) in a deep sleep at me feet. The brown stones chosen seem to swirl around each other while minty greens are tossed in for the finishing flavor. This pick would definitely make a statement if designed into a necklace… there are some pretty big and bold shapes. The silver green dancing button does a fantastic job of softening this design.

Icicles and Peppermints

Icicles and Peppermint by Snickers - I took one look at this pick and said to myself… “I have to make something out of this!” I love how its holiday and winter and sparkle and snow all wrapped up without being kitschy. Excellent choices in pearls, the colors – fire pink, gold, pepper red, silver peacock and pearly whites, and the biwa sticks really make this piece pop. The Australian chrysoprase adds a breath of refreshing green while the crystal clear CZ and the Stampt pewter poinsettia filigree are the icing. I feel like getting my tree or going to Chicago to see all the beautiful lights and decorations. Just wonderful!

As I mentioned, I grew up in the “thumb” of Michigan. A town of approximately 2,000 people and probably ten times that amount in livestock. It’s definitely a Midwest “meat and potatoes” kind of community. Needless to say, there are not too many vegetarians! So, when I go home for holidays, I usually have to do a little grocery shopping before I leave. There is a tiny grocery store with a very limited selection. No Tofurkys, that’s for sure!

My family is definitely in the “meat and potatoes” category. They balk at the idea of a meal with out meat! “But, what are you going to eat?” is an expression I hear all too often and when I am cooking anything too “exotic” for their tastes, there is a lot of curiosity, but not much willingness to experiment. I have learned to ignore it, mostly because I love my family dearly and feel no need to argue over it! So, I have decided it would be much easier to just cook a vegetarian Thanksgiving feast to enjoy before I even went home. By the time Thursday rolls around, I’ll be so sick of eating my own leftovers, I’ll just be ready for Grandma’s pumpkin pie! Most of the recipes we used are available online, so follow the links to see them

Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie

Okay, so the “turkey” was obviously not homemade, but Quorn makes AMAZING faux meat! As for the rest of the meal, we knew we were in for a little work. The butternut squash lasagne, which is by far the best thing I have ever eaten, took forever to make. Riki was busy getting the chocolate bourbon pecan pie together as I chopped and peeled and chopped and peeled Butternut Squash until I thought my hands might fall off (3 pounds of squash chopped into 1/2 inch pieces…) The filling for the pecan pie smelled so good I could have just eaten it all in liquid form. It was definitely not long before the kitchen looked and smelled like Thanksgiving! A mouth-watering disaster! Riki was also busy sauteing the vegetables and herbs for the Chestnut Stuffing, while I finished chopping the ingredients for the lasagna.

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We have a winner in the How May Beads in The Jar contest.

When Mademoiselle M guessed 763 only a few minutes after we started the contest, we thought maybe it was going to be too easy! She was the first person to be within 25 of the correct answer, so she gets a $25 gift certificate.

In the days to follow, we had a great time coming up with the hints and watching such a huge range of guesses come in. The real shocker came this afternoon when the correct guess came in and it was…. Mademoiselle M!!!

There are 781 beads in the jar. This means that Mademoiselle M won the $25 gift certificate AND the $100 gift certificate. The contest was originally intended to award two people, so we’ve decided to also give a $25 gift certificate to the second person that came within 25. This is Charlotte P with her guess of 777 on Nov. 18 at 9:44am.

Thank you to everyone that guessed. We had a ton of fun with this contest and we hope that you did too. We’ll definitely be doing something like this again in the near future.

If anyone wants to share pictures or screenshots of their spreadsheets, scribbled notes, or hand-written tables, we’d love to see them! I thought it was so cool that some of you went all mathematical on us

A few weeks ago, I announced that Lima Beads would soon be carrying gemstone cabochons. I started receiving emails about a week later saying “Hey! Where are the Cabs???” Beaders have no patience! I can say this for sure because I’m married to one.

I’m happy to say that we have added gemstone cabochons to our shop today! We’re starting off with shapes in some of our most popular stones and we’ll be growing the line from there.

We have standard cabochon sizes to wire-wrap or set:

Oval Cabochons

We have these standard sizes in:

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Our First Christmas

First, I’d like to thank everyone who commented on last week’s “Matt Needs Help Beading” post. They were all great ideas and useful hints, but I couldn’t decide on just one of the Fresh Picks that were suggested. Therefore, I created a new Fresh Pick based on the stones, colors and textures that I liked from your Picks.

Since CAS was nice enough to create a Fresh Pick for the occasion, I decided “Merry Christmas Newlyweds” would be a good place to start. As you can see, I chose a similar color scheme and even some of the same stones. You’ll find Plum and Orchid Freshwater Pearls as well as Smoky Quartz in both of the Picks.

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If you guess how many beads are in the jar, we’ll give you a $100 Lima Beads Gift Certificate!

The rules are simple:

• You have until 2pm EST on Monday, November 24th, 2008 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 first person to guess within 25 beads of the actual amount will receive a $25 gift certificate, so hurry and start guessing, but remember — you only get 1 guess per day!

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We’ve got lots of different inspiration here this week! Chocolate (always awesome), fall in the Southwest, aloe, snow and rain (not sure how I feel about these two), starry skies, marine life, flowers, and one of the most popular songs of all time.  For those of us in the northern parts of the country – winter is coming and there’s nothing we can do to stop it, so we might as well make picks and design lots of pretty things.

This week’s Top 10:

1. Chocolate on a Blue Day by CAS
2. SouthWest Fall Garden by Haute Rawx
3. Aloe by Tab
4. Snow Bunnies by Jyll P
5. November Rain by Cuban Queen
6. Snow Falling on Cedars by Beadaholchick
7. Night of a 1000 Stars by Lima
8. Dolphins And Sharks by Perlemamma
9. tulips and daffodils by Julie v
10. Amazing Grace by Sandy S

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Purpleheart Tree

I’m in need of some expert advice! Since Deidra and I are newlyweds and saving for a house, we decided that instead of buying expensive gifts, we would make something for each other this year. Naturally, the first thing that popped into my head was jewelry. The only problem is, even though I work at Lima Beads, I’ve never even held a beading tool or cracked open a beading magazine.

That’s where you come in. Ali has already agreed to teach me a few beading techniques, but I’m not sure what beads I should be using. So as my first step, I want to choose a Fresh Pick that will be the inspiration for my design.

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Hi Everyone,

Each Monday afternoon, we choose what the lunch specials will be. They start getting sent out at around 9pm EST because all the Lima Beaders in New Zealand are eating lunch.

We have chosen the first 6 specials, but we want your help choosing the final 3. Of the following items, which 3 would you most like to see in the Lunch Specials?

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This fall, Kevin and I decided to do some landscaping in our yard. When we first moved into this house 2 years ago, there were two big, ugly cedar shrubs that literally covered half the front of our house. We tore them out in the spring, so it was time to replace them with something. I had an idea of what I wanted to do, so we got some quotes from some local landscape companies. They proved to be pretty expensive and who was I kidding – us creative types like to do everything ourselves. As I’m sure most of you do, I have a hard time giving up creative control on anything  So, we decided to do it ourselves.

I began by marking out the beds and then I went on a search for interesting plants so I could surround the house with focal pieces.  I do the same thing when creating a necklace – I have a habit of using more than 1 or 2 focal pieces. Why let one piece get all the attention?

Our Moms

Usually the process of stringing my design is relatively quick. I thought that this would also be true of planting – I had convinced myself that planting an entire yard worth of plants and trees could be accomplished in a weekend. Ha! 1 week later everything is in the ground except my bulbs. I need a day of rest and most of this Saturday has been spent on the couch. It’s that feeling you get after a jewelry-making marathon for a holiday craft fair or trunk show.

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Here at Lima we like to focus on the inspiration behind the designs. After all, it’s the reason we created Fresh Picks. It’s the brainstorming… the bad ideas put aside and the good ideas put to use… that wild spark of energy that inspires you to create. Whether you’re a hobbyist or a professional artisan, there’s an inspiration behind every piece you craft. It might be humble, it might be bold, but it’s definitely there–and today, we’d like to offer a way for you to share it with us.

Is it the season? Your friends and family? Fashion trends? The weather? Antiques? Estate sales? Photography? Your peers? The music on your iPod? The city? The countryside? We’d like to know!

Share pictures of your creations!

Starting today, we’ll write special articles on The Fresh Daily that call for pictures of your designs… and you can post them below. When you write a comment below, just click the “Attach a Picture” link, and you can attach up to 3 pictures of your designs along with your comment. This is a special feature that won’t be available for every blog article… so listen for announcements on the blog about new opportunities to share your designs.

So tell us… what’s inspiring you? And post pictures of your designs!

The favorite Fresh Picks this week make me want to start a fire and find a blanket to get under. You can tell that winter is starting to make it into our minds and what could be better than being beside a fire with a great book (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), wearing a cozy cashmere sweater, drinking a hot coffee (or green tea) while a chilly nor’easter wind is blowing outside (Brrrrr!)?

I was curious about “Birch Beer” so I looked it up. Apparently it is a carbonated soft drink made from herbal extracts (usually from birch bark) with a taste similar to root beer, but mintier – sounds interesting!

These are the TOP 10 this week

• A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Cuban Queen
• Istanbul by Perlemamma
• Whale Pod in a Puget Sound by Bonnie R
• Birch Beer by CAS
• Ocean’s Depth by Thelma B
• Brrrrrrrrr! By Sandy S
• Cozy in Cashmere by Jill W
• Nor’ Easter by WillowCreek
• Coffee by the Fire by Tyra S
• Snoqualmie Falls by beadaholchick
• green tea by Kitty

A Midsummer Nights Dream

A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Cuban Queen

I Love the dark and luxurious night effect when the black and purple stones are combined with gold pearls and Stampt antique gold filigree balls. The touch of olive green pearls and fern cz adds that summery leafy feel. Just like Shakespeare’s play, there is that special touch of fantasy thanks to Green Girl’s pewter butterfly faery and romance thanks to the use of the filigree pieces in gold and pewter. Great contrast in shape and texture, love the splashes of sparkle! This pick definitely creates the right mood, I might actually have to go and read A Midsummer Night’s Dream now rather than the cliff notes like I did in school (sorry Mrs. V.).

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The other day, Kevin alluded to some upcoming additions and updates to our web site. We’re happy to announce that you’re looking at some of the changes right now! We reorganized The Fresh Daily blog into sections, which are listed in the right-hand column. The Lima team members that write on the blog are now listed there as well–so you can get to a page with only Ali’s posts (that is, if you like her writing better than mine!). Finally, you can see the recent comments around the blog posted by our customers–so you can stay on top of all the chatter!

We hope this makes it easier to find out what’s fresh at Lima! We’ve got more in store… stay tuned!