She’s been hounding me for these past two weeks, but I haven’t really had the urge to set up a Christmas tree.
I get why all of the stores are setting up early. Based on the numbers, it totally makes sense. One of the local radio stations started playing 100% Christmas music a week ago. Every time Deidra turns it on, I say to her, “Really?”

A couple of years ago, I would’ve said, “Crank it up!”

So, “Why the change of heart?” To be honest, I can’t really put my finger on it. I still get the same, warm, fuzzy feeling every year around Christmas time. Maybe I’m just getting grumpier in my old age.

I’m trying to weigh the pros and cons of decorating early. Here’s what I could come up with.

The Argument Against Decorating Early for the Holidays

This gem came from my Father-in-Law: “Whatever happened to Thanksgiving? I’d rather put the Christmas tree up the day after Thanksgiving and take it down in January, than put it up the day after Halloween and take it down the day after Christmas!”

Not only is there the risk of growing weary of the holidays, but I think that starting the holidays in early November starts to diminish the integrity of this special time. It only comes once a year, but when it lasts for over two months, I think it loses the “Wow!” factor.

The Argument For Decorating Early for the Holidays

For me at least, the obvious argument for setting up early is that it is, in Andy Williams’ words, “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!” It’s undeniable. In most cases, there’s no time like Christmas time.

On top of that, regardless of how early I set up the tree and turn on the Christmas music, I always feel like Christmas just comes and goes so fast! There’s always something that I wished I would’ve done, but didn’t really have the time. The last couple of years, it’s been Holiday Nights at Greenfield Village. I hear it’s pretty great, but I’ve yet to check it out.

Here are a couple of things that I absolutely have to do each and every holiday season:

• Set up the Christmas Tree and other decorations
• Go to Frankenmuth and Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland
• Visit my Grandparents
• Go to Cincinnati to visit family the weekend after Thanksgiving
• Help Mom set up her Dickens’ Village
• Listen to “Christmas Eve with Johnny Mathis“
• Watch the following movies:
  • Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
  • Frosty the Snowman
  • A Charlie Brown Christmas
  • Christmas Vacation
  • The Santa Clause
  • White Christmas
  • Home Alone
  • The Nightmare Before Christmas
  • How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (TV Special)
  • Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town

The realization that I’ve come to after writing this is that Christmas time can be as long or as special as you make it. It could last all year, so long as we keep the spirit in our hearts and the peace in our lives. The stores and radio stations shouldn’t decide when we’re supposed to be preparing for this most special of times. It’s up to you.

What about all of you Christmas lovers? Do you love that the holiday season seems to be creeping earlier and earlier on the calendar? When do you start decorating? Do you have a list of things you absolutely need to do every holiday season?

This is what I’ve tried in the past that worked at the time:

• Dixie cups: Works for holding head pins and eye pins
• Big red “keg” cups or a box: Works great for holding tools (these were always on hand in college )
• Tackle boxes: traveling with beads. They have great little compartments for taking beads on the go. The only problem is that I now have too many beads to choose from and the tackle box I would need is the size of a small piece of luggage. I will say though that this also worked great when Kevin and I lived in a small apartment and I had to bead at the dining table. Tackle boxes are also great for storing glass or cz beads.
• Plastic storage drawers on wheels: This worked in my apartment when I didn’t have a permanent beading spot. What I didn’t like about this storage method is that if you make the drawers heavy with too many beads, they don’t pull out very easily.
• Beads in baggies inside of Tupperware bins with lids: This option worked great for the last year and I think that concept behind it could still work if I could find a better storage option. I used to store all my gemstones together, all my pearls together, all my vintage together, all my glass together…you get the drift. The problem then became that I would miss out on using a cool red bead because I had only been looking in my gemstone bin. I then decided that the best way to organize my beads because of the way I design was to do it based on color, regardless of material. For instance, I take all of my red beads no matter the type, put each in a Ziploc bag and put it in the bin labeled RED.

The last option is by far my favorite for actual bead storage. The only remaining issue is that Payton likes to play with beads almost as much as I do. Our house is not huge, so her playroom doubles as my beading room. There are two problems with this. First, I have a limited amount of space to work with. Second, every time I go in the room, my beads are pulled out of their containers and strewn across the floor, because my little designer has been hard at work when I wasn’t looking I think what’ll happen is that I will find an amazingly perfect desk and come up with a fantastic wall storage for above. Sounds realistic right?

I would love to see pictures of your bead storage and/or studios. Not necessarily your beading desk or table, but the place where you store the beads and supplies you’re not actively working with.

What you think the best method for organizing your beads, tools, and projects is?

What special circumstances have you had to work with?

Please help!

I’ve always thought the idea is fun to think about in theory, but it’s even cooler when you discover some of the completely random connections between people in your life.

My Favorite Customer

My siblings and I ran a small lemonade stand every weekend during our summer vacations as kids. We set up shop on the corner of a busy street in suburban Atlanta that attracted hundreds of runners, walkers, and cyclists each weekend.

Thanks to the Atlanta heat and “Rock Bottom Pricing“, we sold gallons of watered down lemonade at $0.25 per cup. On a good day, we would each profit $5 or more (after paying mom and dad back for expenses, of course). That was BIG money in those days. Now I wish I had listened to my parents and saved it.

We began to attract regular customers, but one British lady always stuck out in my mind because I loved hearing her accent, peculiar jokes, and strange phrases from “across the pond”. She also packed extra quarters in her fanny pack to buy our lemonade before and after her morning run. She quickly became our favorite customer.

Of course, eventually we grew up, got out of the lemonade business and never heard from her again. But the story doesn’t end there…

About 10 years later my grandparents took a sightseeing trip to London and stopped in a pub for a pint and some fish and chips. They started talking to the British lady on the next stool about travel and living overseas. Wouldn’t you know it…this woman had lived in the States just outside of Atlanta and was a frequent runner. (You know where this is going…)

It didn’t take long for them to figure out that the nice British lady was our favorite customer! They laughed at the near impossibility that they would end up at the same pub after 10 years on an entirely different continent!

We’re All Connected

I love the random moments in life that remind us how connected we are to each other. I’ve got plenty more, but I’m sure you do too. So, it’s your turn. What random connections have you discovered that seem to prove the theory that it really is a small world after all?

Photo Credit

Dakota

I can honestly say that we’ve never dressed Dakota up in anything. We’ve tried our T-shirts, bandanas, and booties, but he is never very excited. So when it came time to shop for a costume, I headed to Target. I know a homemade costume would be much cuter, but I barely have time to make a pair of earrings I enlisted the help of Payton (17 months old) to choose the right costume. She loves Dakota and loved nothing more than the idea of dressing him up to make him even more furry and cuddly. It came down to a chicken or a squirrel and as you can see, Payton chose the squirrel.

After putting Dakota through all of this without being able to enjoy his candy, I am feeling a little guilty so I was thinking about baking him some fresh doggie treats (recipe courtesy of The Martha Stewart Show October 2009)

Izzy’s Apple Cheddar Dog Biscuits

• 2 cups barley flour
• 1/2 cup old-fashioned oatmeal
• 1/3 cup shredded cheddar
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 2 tablespoons olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with a nonstick baking mat or parchment paper; set aside.
2. In a large bowl, mix together all ingredients and about 3 tablespoons water to form a dough. Roll out mixture between two sheets of plastic wrap to 1/4-inch thick; remove plastic wrap and cut out biscuits with a 3 1/2-inch bone-shaped cookie cutter. Reroll scraps and continue cutting out biscuits.
3. Space biscuits 1 inch apart on prepared baking sheet. Bake for 30 minutes until nicely browned and firm.
4. Transfer biscuits to a wire rack. Turn off oven and place biscuits on wire rack in oven overnight. Remove from oven and store in an airtight container up to 2 weeks.

The rest of the Lima staff also got in on the action:

Andrew

Sammy

This is Sammy, our 5-year old Yorkie. He’s not really the costume type and I couldn’t get anything else on him. Just getting these pics cost me 2 milk bones. I’ve had this candy corn tie forever, which apparently he didn’t mind wearing because it’s similar to a collar. He’s all set for a night on the town.

Matt

Minnie

Here’s our bunny Minnie! I mean our dog Minnie. Which I think most of you have already met in our “We Love Our Pets” post. She’s generally pretty easy going, so dressing her up in ridiculous costumes is loads of fun. The ashamed look on her face is the only reason we don’t dress her up more often. If she only knew how cute she was…

Steve

Reesey

This year, Reesey wanted to have a little more bite with her bark, so we fashioned a tiger dog coat and booties. It was a tight fit, but I think she appreciated the ferocious twist on her typically laid-back personality! That is, until she shook the whole thing off.

You!

Do you have a photo of your pet all dressed up? Submit it in the comments below!

Battle Creek Linear Park

One of the reasons we chose the location is the bike path in Battle Creek, MI called Linear Park. It’s a network of over 17 miles of scenic paths that travel through downtown, parks, residential areas, and along the river. After a few wrong turns and some unplanned detours, we rode about 26 miles (note to self: next time, don’t print the color-coded map in black & white). I was feeling it the next day!

Geo-what?

On Sunday morning we hit the trails again, this time on foot. Equipped with a GPS unit, we went geocaching, which is basically a mini-treasure hunt. The goal is to find a “cache” (a box with stuff in it) that was hidden there by someone before you. The GPS unit helps you find the cache, and sometimes there are hints when it’s hidden especially well. I’ve only done it twice, but both times I discovered new paths and places that I wouldn’t have found otherwise.

Eagle Lake at Fort Custer State Rec Area

Next off on my fall checklist: pumpkin carving and candy! Keep your eyes on this blog in the next couple weeks… I have a hunch that there might be some treats (and maybe a trick or two). In the meantime, what’s keeping you busy this fall?

Autumn Sunset

It’s that time of year again! Freshly harvested apples, changing colors of the leaves, apple cider, frosted pumpkin spice donuts, cider mills, corn mazes, caramel apples, weekends filled with football and nights filled with playoff baseball.

There’s also a smell in the air that I can’t quite put my finger on. Some would say it’s the smell of dying leaves, which is partly true, but I think it’s mostly nostalgia.

Some of my fondest memories take place in Autumn. My wife and I were married just last fall up in Mid-Michigan. It couldn’t have been a more picturesque weekend. The sun was shining, it was about 75 degrees, and the trees were dressed up in their full Autumn colors.

This year, for our first anniversary, we’re staying up in Northern Michigan for a long weekend of rest and relaxation. It’s a resort about 20 minutes south of Traverse City, the self-proclaimed cherry capital of the world! As cheesy as that sounds, it’s a neat little town that reminds me a lot of Ann Arbor. It has that “artisan” feel, but it’s quite a bit smaller and right on the water. Michigan’s wine country is just a drive down the Leelanau Peninsula and Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is also close by.

In between naps, we might find time to play some golf or visit the newly renovated spa. Then, we’ll take the ski lift to the top of the mountain to listen to a couple of the live bands play and soak in the beautiful scenery. On a clear day, you can see the sunset on Lake Michigan! We’re certainly looking forward to creating more wonderful Autumn memories this year and all of the years to come.

Fall is most certainly my favorite time of the year. It seems to be a favorite among our Fresh Pickers, too! There are dozens of Fresh Picks inspired by the season. Just do a search for “Autumn” or “Fall” on the Search the Picks page to see what I mean. I’ve made a pick of my own called “Autumn Sunset” inspired by my vision of how I’ll be celebrating my first anniversary.

Do you have a favorite season? Let us know in the comments below.

We have so many good ideas to improve your experience and expand the Lima Beads community that Kevin decided it was time to make it an official function. Over the next few weeks we will be reviewing and prioritizing each of these ideas to continue to bring you the freshest products at the best prices and with the highest level of customer service that you have come to expect.

A Little More About Me

Some of you may recognize me from infrequent appearances in The Garden or mentions on Kevin’s Twitter account. After working with Kevin, Steve, Matt and Ali on a few projects over the past year, it seemed like a natural fit to officially join the team.

When I am not hanging out in the new Lima Beads office, I enjoy hiking, camping, fishing, woodworking, reading, and biking. My newest hobby is cooking and my wife thinks I’m pretty good, or at least improving quickly. I still make the occasional mystery meal that didn’t quite turn out the way I would like. At my house, we call that “pizza night”!

My wife Elizabeth, our Yorkie Sammy, and I moved to Ann Arbor from Richmond, Virginia a couple of years ago when she enrolled in a graduate program at the University of Michigan (Go Blue!). We love it here but we are planning to move back home to Richmond in mid-December to finally settle down near family. At that point I will become the first “remote” Lima Beads team member but thanks to modern technology and frequent trips back to Ann Arbor, we won’t miss a beat.

I Need Your Help!

I will be the first to admit that I don’t have Ali’s detailed knowledge of each product (yet), Steve’s technical abilities, Matt’s design expertise, or Cathy’s ability to keep the orders flying out the door like greased lightning. But I do love to read and learn new things, which is where you come in.

Which books, websites, blogs, magazines, or online communities do you like? Where do you go for inspiration or motivation?

Feel free to leave a comment here or write on my Wire in The Garden. My door is always open and I am looking forward to getting to know you!

Meet the Lima Pets

Matt

My wife and I have a Maltese, Minnie, and a dwarf hamster, Sebastian (we call him Sea Bass). Now that we have our own place, Minnie can come live with us again. We’re so happy to have her back. We would try to sneak her in to the apartment every once in a while, but every time we walked out the door, she would bark like crazy. She obviously didn’t understand the consequences!

As for Sea Bass, he loves to run on his wheel. So much so that the constant  squeaking was keeping us up at night. After a few applications of olive oil on the plastic axle, I think we’ve finally fixed it.

Kevin & Ali

Ali and I adopted Dakota from The Humane Society 7 years ago. They told us he was 2 years old, but in the first 6 months after we brought him home, he gained 25 pounds. We figure he was more like 6 months! He’s about 8 years old now and still acts like a puppy — endless energy, high-pitched bark, and all. We like to play fetch with the tennis ball to see who gets tired first. It’s always me…

Steve

I don’t have any pets myself, but my closest animal companions are my girlfriend Shannon’s dog Reesey and lovebird Lanny. Reesey is an Irish Setter mix from an adoption shelter who is usually being lazy somewhere (except when there is a bird in sight). She has a wonderful temperament and loves walking on trails and sunning herself on the patio. Lanny the lovebird doesn’t care for me that much, but she loves cuddling up in blankets and looking out the window. Her beak is powerful (trust me), and one time she sat on Reesey’s head and pecked her, causing Reesey to keep her distance from then on!

Cathy

I have two crazy dogs. Their names are Diamond and Onyx. We probably spoil them too much.  We have had Diamond for 5 years now and Onyx for 4. They still act like puppies even though they are approaching middle age! They love each other and would be lost without one another. They love going for car rides, walks and bunny rabbits! My house would probably be a lot quieter without them, but I would not have it any other way!

Amy

My cats are strays we took in. Their names are Toots and Skittles. Great cats and apparently both are pregnant. My kids are excited but the possibility of maybe 12 kitties is crazy!! Anyone want one?

My dog’s name is Kira. She’s an 8 year old chocolate lab. She like swimming in our pond and has become an expert frog hunter! She pretends to not like the cats but we’ve caught her playing with them! I don’t know how she’ll do with the new kitties. Again, know anyone who wants a kitty?

Ingrid

This is my cat Max, who I adopted from the local humane society nine years ago.

He basically sleeps all day long, but those rare hours when he is awake he is underfoot, looking for attention, and is without a doubt purring. Unfortunately, he had to stay home with my parents when I went off to school, but luckily he still remembers me when I come home! Even though I probably have a biased opinion, I truly believe that he is the best cat ever!

What about you? We’d really love to hear more about your animal companions in the comments below. Take the poll, then upload photos or tell a funny story! The poll is multiple choice, so select as many furry, feathered, or scaled friends as you’d like.

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I’m convinced of two things. The more sugar, the worse off I am! The frosted pastries and sugar-suffed cereal bars are tasty, but they definitely don’t sustain me. Secondly, I need some consistency from day to day… random meals means random performance in my case!

What’s on YOUR breakfast menu? Let us know!

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Our New Home!

I briefly mentioned this in my “Matt Needs Help Beading” post, but my wife and I have been house hunting for awhile. After 2 realtors, 50 viewings, and 4 offers, we’ve finally found our house! We close this Wednesday at 10 a.m.

We’re obviously really excited about it. It’s a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath, 1447 square foot colonial with a full basement. It’s nestled in a quiet cul-de-sac and the neighborhood seems really nice. It comes with all of the appliances and a gas fireplace. It’s way more of house than I ever would’ve imagined for being our first.

It was built in 2002, but it hasn’t been lived in for two years. So, the yard is in horrible condition and there are some minor cosmetic updates that need to be done before we can truly enjoy our new home. What was once well-crafted landscaping is now a mix of overgrown shrubs and weeds. The lawn consists of dandelions with grub-infested crab grass. It looks like there used to be sod, but the grubs, or something, has ruined it.

Here’s the Honey-Do list that my wife has so lovingly crafted for me us:

1. The lawn: This is probably the biggest and most rewarding project that we have to work on this summer. I’ve been reading up on how to keep a beautiful lawn, but I have no idea on how to restart a lawn after years of neglect.
2. Paint the living room, dining room and the kitchen: We’ve already picked out colors for those rooms, so the fun part is over. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind painting, it’s just one of those things that can get expensive if you’re not careful.
3. Weed the garden: I really enjoy gardening. I’ve been gardening with my Mom since I can remember, so I can’t wait to get my hands dirty in my own soil. Speaking of “Gardens,” isn’t there a new Lima feature launching tomorrow?
4. Clean the bird doo-doo off of the siding: Some birds have been nesting in our attic vents and trim, so they’ve made a mess of my siding. If only I could charge them for room and board.
5. Level the patio: There’s a patio attached to the back of the house, which is nice, but they must not have packed the ground good enough before they poured the cement. Since the patio is actually attached to the house, it’s pulling some of the siding as it’s falling to one side. I think it’s probably done falling, but I’d like to level it without cracking.

Not a very hefty list, but unfortunately, a lot of these things won’t just happen overnight. It’s going to take a lot of time, hard work and dedication, but it will totally be worth it when it’s over.

If you have any tips or advice that might help me in my homeownership, please post them in the comments below. Wish us luck!

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