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Thursday, 7/1/10, 8:13 PM Hi everyone, Silver Glass, Vol. 1 and Silver Glass, Vol. 2 have been released. If you preordered, you should have been sent a link and instructions on how to download your copy. If you preordered and did not receive a download notification, please drop me an email if you still haven't received notification in an hour or two, and I'll do some sleuthing and make sure you're taken care of. I'm happy to announce that we just conducted the drawing for the set of "Ether" beads, and Theresa Daddio of Bethesda, MD was the lucky winner of the custom-made set. Congratulations, Theresa! For those who didn't preorder, both tutorials are now available for sale by instant download, meaning that if you purchase, you'll be sent a download link immediately. If you're interested, you can check them out on the Tutorials page. Thanks, and later, gators! K. Wednesday, 6/9/10, 12:21 PM Welcome! Today's news: I'm happy to announce that I'm putting the finishing touches on my first two lampworking tutorials, which will be released on July 1st. All the details and preordering info can be found here. This is a meaningful new journey for me. Hope you'll come along for the ride! Kim Wednesday, 6/2/10, 9:33 PM Hello everyone! New beads on Ebay tonight: "Cool Jewels," a 51-bead set of angular crystals, cubes and disks, in peacock transparents with gunmetal trim, and a deluxe 45-bead set from the "Chamomile" series, featuring lentil focals (which I've never offered before in this series), matching rounds and disks in a beautifully-detailed design that uses swirling neutral hues, handmade murrini, and touches of raku to create an antique-style floral tableaux. Both of these sets have a "Buy It Now" option, but please note that the "buy now" option will only be available until someone places a bid. So if you prefer to buy that way, better step lively! Later, gators. Thanks for stopping by! K. Wednesday, 5/26/10, 12:11 AM Evening! Two more new sets added to Ebay tonight...LOTS of great beads up, at very low prices, so don't miss them! K. Monday, 5/24/10, 9:50 PM Welcome! Lots of new work available starting tonight; I've been playing with several new glasses and having a great time with them, so I'll be rolling out new designs all this week. Hope you'll check everything out, and keep checking back to see the new additions — lots of vibrant summer colors coming your way! Cheers, Kim Monday, 4/29/10, 11:28 PM What's up, beadheads? I've got 2 new sets to tempt you with this week...there's a collection of rustic, colorful mosaic tile beads made from Gaffer's magical Chalcedony glass, and "Misterioso," a strand of beautifully-made tribal glyph pillows, with sparkling "window" crystals to match. Both auctions start at just $.99 with NO reserves, because the rent is coming due and I like to play mean tricks on myself. :) Seriously, I hope you'll check these out. They're especially nice sets, made with love as always. Thanks for reading, friends. Wishing you a wonderful weekend, and I'll see you again soon! Cheers, Kim Monday, 4/19/10, 12:04 PM I've had a few requests for "scaled down" sets similar to last week's huge "Color Therapy" collection, so I've chosen some of my favorite designs from that set and am offering them this week in 11-bead strands. These are very nice sets — colorful, elegant, versatile, and extremely design-friendly beads, in a strand length that's just right for a necklace or a few bracelets. Hope you'll check them out! Thanks bunches, everyone. Wishing you a happy Monday! Cheers, Kim Wednesday, 4/14/10, 10:26 PM Evening everyone! New auction just listed...I'm probably shooting myself in the foot listing this extravagant collection on Ebay right now...Ebay is not just dead -- it's, as we say in the South, DAY-UD. Practicality would dictate that I at least split this large set up into smaller strands, and I did give that some serious thought. But the fact is, I just like making big honking collections of beads. I like to plan them and tinker to get the mix just right and spend a whole week making them and then another week playing with them and stringing and re-stringing them. I just like to put my sets together this way. I'm a bead glutton and I like to design sets for other bead gluttons. I've been making a lot of small sets lately to keep things more affordable, but darn it! Economic slump or no, I really need to indulge my inner bead-hog at least once in a while, and make the kind of big, elaborate sets I love and that I built my reputation on. And not compromise that vision by busting them up into mini-sets before I sell them. Too many teensy sets make Kim a dull girl, know what I mean? And if I'm not inspired, how can I expect you guys to be? So...this one's for my fellow bead gluttons. I made so many of them because that's what inspired me...and I'm keeping them all together because I like the idea that, when you open the box and see all of these beauties, they'll inspire you, too. I hope you like them. ;) K. Thursday, 4/1/10, 12:17 PM Welcome! I was just looking at the date and time of last week's update...it's so interesting what creatures of habit we are, even if we believe we live unstructured lives, isn't it? Anyway, lots of new beads available, and I've set the prices LOW, because...well, because it's spring, I'm in a great mood, and I just felt like it, alllllrighty? There are 3 new sets on Ebay, and 2 smaller sets on the Available Work page, too. Come and buy these dudes, will ya? Headed out to the torch now. Thanks for checking in, and have a wonderful day! Kim Thursday, 3/25/10, 12:11 PM Hello everyone! Just a quick "new bead alert" — I have 3 brand-new sets on Ebay today, eagerly awaiting new homes. Hope you'll take a look! Thanks for stopping by, Kim Friday, 3/19/10, 10:45 AM What a happy week — I became a great aunt! Here's my first great-nephew, John Owen Hoover, born on March 16th. He was 7 pounds, 4 ounces and is sooooooo darling and sweet...I haven't seen him since Wednesday, and I'm already going through withdrawal! What a bundle of love.
There's a new auction listed, and there are new goodies on the Available Work page as well. Happy browsing, have a wonderful weekend, and I'll see you soon! Kim
Thursday, 3/11/10, 8:01 PM Hi everyone, Hope you're enjoying your Thursday evening! I'm rushing to get everything finished here before Grey's Anatomy starts, so this is just a very quick note to let you know that there are 2 new sets listed on Ebay. I really hope you'll take a minute to check these out -- they're the first sets I've done with Reichenbach's Multicolor glass, and I love love LOVE this glass! It's very organic and stonelike, with lots of beautiful striation and color shifting...just dreamy stuff! Anyway, gotta run, and these speak better for themselves than I could for them, anyway, so I hope you'll come see them. Thanks for stopping by! Later, gators! K. Tuesday, 3/9/10, 10:11 AM Just a quick update today: New auction listed on Ebay (see link above), and I've also added some yummy made-to-order Easter disks to the Available Work page. Happy shopping! K. Hello everyone! I apologize for the looooong silence this past month or so; I had a lot of orders to fulfill (that's a good thing!), so I needed to kind of shut out the world and chain myself to the torch. It's been a long, hard winter, but I'm finally feeling like myself again -- all caught up on orders and back to my regular routine. I want to thank you all again so much for helping me through a tough couple of months. Ollie, my new rescue Shih-Tzu, is doing wonderfully -- he's settled right in and made himself comfortable, and he and Lucy are getting along great. I still miss Winston very much, but Oliver has kept us laughing and he's been a very welcome addition to the family! I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about whether to continue selling my beads on Ebay. I've been on Ebay for 10 years and have always done very well there, but frankly, I'm beginning to feel like a change is in order. I haven't made any decisions yet, but as an experiment, this week I'm going to skip Ebay and sell all of the beads I have available from my website. If you have an opinion on the Ebay-or-not proposition, I'd love to hear your thoughts. Meanwhile, I have 4 sets available and ready to ship (including 2 fantastic Terra sets -- I was recently lucky enough to hear from a fellow beadmaker who offered to trade me some of her Terra stash for a set of my Terra beads -- yay!) As another change that I hope will be welcome, in addition to the larger sets which are ready to ship, you may order individual beads on an a-la-carte, made-to-order basis. You can see the beads I have available this week at http://www.bluffroadglass.com/availablework.html I guess that's all the news for now. Just wanted to let you all know that I'm back to routine, and that the bead draught is over. Hope you're all staying warm, and thanks for reading. I'll see you again soon! Cheers, Kim Monday, 1/18/10, 8:22 AM Good morning, everyone. I realize it's been over a month since I updated this page -- most of you know by now that I lost Winston a few days before Christmas, so I haven't felt a need to explain my absence from the online world, but I did want to post a quick update to let you all know that I'm fine, just working on bead orders and hibernating a bit, trying to get my head together and get organized for the new year. I also wanted to introduce you to the newest member of our family.
I knew fairly soon after Winston died that Lucy and I were going to need a new furry face around to help us cheer up and move on. Some people might wait a lot longer, after the loss of a beloved pet, to bring in a new pup, but I've always believed that when the time is right, you know it. Both Winston and Frankie came to me very soon after hard losses, and both helped me tremendously with the healing process. You never stop missing the ones you lose, but having a new charge in your life to take care of and love helps to keep your focus on the present, and on happy memories rather than on awful feelings of loss. That's been my experience, anyway. So, meet Oliver. Ollie is a Shih Tzu; we're not sure of his age, but the vet tells us he's still a baby, a year old or less. I found Ollie through a rescue organization in New Orleans. He was in a Jefferson Parish shelter, nearly bald across his hind end from flea allergies and carrying huge saddlebags of matted hair on both hips, when the rescue folks found him. A visit to the vet, a bath, and a thorough grooming later, just look how handsome he is! I'm told Oliver was brought into the shelter as a stray, and nobody ever came to claim him, but it's obvious that at one time someone devoted a great deal of attention and love to him. He's very well-mannered and respectful of other dogs, completely housetrained, outgoing and confident, incredibly smart, playful, and overall just a prize of a dog. He has made himself right at home and I'm amazed at how comfortable he seems. Lucy took a few days to warm up to Ollie. For the first 24 hours, she acted like I'd completely ruined her life, literally pouting and turning her back on me when I tried to pet her, and treating Oliver like she was the prom queen and he was the nerdiest guy in school. But he kept trying to get her to play, and on the second day, her tail started wagging again and she finally gave in to her curiosity. We had one serious bout of snarling and growling on the second afternoon in a dispute over a toy, but apparently that was all that was necessary for the two to establish some boundaries; since then, they've gotten along great and had several looooooong, rowdy play sessions every day. I think Oliver is going to be a perfect fit for us and feel very lucky to have found him. So, that's all the news for now. I still miss Winston so much, and wake up every morning wishing he was here. But life and routine have to march on, so that's what I'm working on. I want to thank you all so much for the kind emails, and for the bead orders that were a real lifesaver for me these past few weeks. I have lots of orders yet to fill and will be focused entirely on those for the next few weeks, so I doubt I'll be updating this page again until I'm all caught up, but in the meantime, I just wanted you all to know that I'm on the upswing, and thank you so much for your kindness and support. I feel so blessed to be part of such a caring community of friends. See you soon, Kim Saturday, 12/12/09, 11:48 AM Welcome! Two new sets just listed on Ebay...both of these sets are exceptional. Just for fun, I've set the auctions to run for one day only, ending early Sunday morning. Hope you'll take a look! It's freezing out, and has been raining since last night, but I'm looking at it from a positive angle: Perfect nap weather! Off to snuggle up with the pups. Hope you enjoy your Saturday, and thanks for stopping by! K. Tuesday, 12/1/09, 10:18 PM Just a drive-by update tonight, 'cause it's 10:30 and I haven't eaten dinner yet and I'm starving! I have one new set available on Ebay; there'll be more to come later in the week. I apologize for the meager offferings this round; there were two other special sets from a new series that I'd planned to list tonight as well, but they are sold now. Here they are if you'd like to see them! That's all the news for now...time for whatever I can rustle up for dinner that doesn't have to be cooked (I'm thinking cereal), and the Sons of Anarchy season finale. Thanks for checking in, and I'll see you later in the week! K. K. Tuesday, 11/10/09, 10:15 PM See you soon, Kim Monday, 11/2/09, 10:06 PM The new beads are up, if you're interested...2 matching sets inspired by my time in the Black Hills this summer. Hope you'll take a look. Good night, beadheads. Thanks for visiting! K. Wednesday, 10/21/09, 10:20 PM 4 new sets listed this week...I finally got caught up on all my custom orders, and got to enjoy "make whatever I want" torch marathons just about every day last week, so I had a good long visit with the muse and there are several new designs I'm excited about. I'm posting a lot less here, so I should remind you guys that if you want to keep up with me on a daily basis, Facebook is the place — send me a friend request. (And if you're not a member, well fertheluvvapete, sign up!) It's just a lot quicker and easier for me to post updates there than it is here, so my, uh, online base of operations has kind of gravitated over there. I might remedy that if I could find some kind of blog software that would integrate with my own site. Anyone know of anything? I would like to be able to just type in what I want to say and push "post," the way you can do on blogger or facebook, rather than having to start up a separate application, and fiddle with links and html code the way I do now. Anyway, that's all the news for now. Enjoy the rest of your Wednesday...I missed The Sons of Anarchy last night, so I'm looking forward to watching it tonight on DVR. Thanks for checking in, and I'll see you again soon! Kim
"Ready? And, ONE-two-three, ONE-two-three..."
Lucy and Winston, Sunday morning wrestling match
Look at that face! |
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Winston at 12 weeks:
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