FEST: In My Corner with Bead Lover Korner

So I must amit that I am a little jealous of Bead Lover today. She has a whole ROOM to craft in. Although it gave me hope for the future because she did tell me that she started with only half the room until her sons moved out and she gave her husband's desk (which was really a pile of papers he never touched expect to pile more papers on) the boot. HEHE. At least she didn't have to act on the threats of throwing his "important" papers away. There has been a time when my husband has found an old newspaper in that pile of "important" papers.

I am shaking my head as I write that.

These two pics are where Bead Lovers Korner operates nearly every single day of the week, 12-14 hours a day and I must say she must love what she does to be so dedicated.

These shelves hold boxes of products that need to be photographed still, and the little pink crate holds orders that are pending for payment or backorders waiting on shipments. What a great organizing system I am still trying to find the best way to organize already made items though I must admit jewerly is probably easier to store than clothes.

Bead Lover sells items she has made as well as Biagi Beads and clasps.She sells these and Landmark beads to people who have the Pandora and other style Euro bracelets.

Here are a couple of storage racks like I mentioned in my space, she got one at ACE hardware and the other at Lowes and all the little bins are perfect for storing different beads and things.

She had everything in bags stored in boxes and it would take her forever to find what she was looking for! Now look how organize it is with labels. I bet she never has to look though multiple drawers to find what she is looking for again.

When asked what she couldn't live with out she exclaimed her computer.

Especially since all of her sales are done on several different venues online and she has to constantly move items from one place to another, make sure the pictures are really good, answer emails and print all her postage labels. A couple of years ago her husband got her this huge monitor for Christmas because he kept seeing her right on top of the old monitor and he said he didn't want her to go blind! She also can't do without her coffee cup, it's probably hard to make out but it is one that she bought from Paintings by Gretzky that has a picture of herTailess Black Cat silhouette.

Across from her desk is her beading table, for years it was way back in the bedroom which left a mess around the house when she beaded.

Now she have her own space and she can leave things out and it doesn't matter! " You know how sometimes you aren't finished with something or want to "sleep on it" before you make the final touches?" she said. Oh yes, Bead Lover we know.

Where does she get her inspiration from?
"Well, I have a ton of Bead Style Magazines, Fire Mountain Gems catalogs and others for visual references and sometimes I get idea from those. I really don't ever want to copy another design so I just use them to spur ideas. What really makes me think are the Team Challenges and the Etsy Merchandising lists. Those two things help me formulate ideas on what I can make from what I have."

One of the many reasons this team is so great for us!!!!!

Lastly, here is her storage tip. Her husband is an avid fisherman and practically has a bait store in his closet (can she say Hoarder again?). Anyway, one time he came home with some of these really neat little partitioned storage containers that he got at Walmart to hold all his Lures, worms, hooks, etc. and he only paid a few bucks for them. She had seen really cool bead storage units in the different bead catalogs, but they cost more than she ever wanted to pay. So one day she went to Walmart and found this cool tackle box that came with three large partitioned boxes and two little tiny ones. And it had space in the top to hold other important fisherman stuff, it was pretty cheap really (She thinks it was like $15-$20.00). And guess what? Now she have two of them, LOL!!

What's missing that is the kiln and torch that she bought and that Bead Lovers Korner carries over on inventory every year. She did beading and all sorts of crafts when she was kid, but really took off with this about 10 years ago when her husband took a lampworking class. He had done glass blowing in school (back when they used to have real SHOP for guys) and he wanted to take this class. Meanwhile she wanted to hang something pretty and decorative in her car and had some beads someone gave her. One thing led to another and then her hubby took her to the bead store where he took the class. So she started beading and selling about 6 months later Bead Lovers Korner was born! She bought the kiln thinking he would make beads she could sell, but that portion of the plan has yet to really happen. She keeps thinking she will learn to do that, but she stays so busy all the time with what she is doing that already she hasn't had time. Every time she mention the words sell and kiln in the same sentence her husband insists that he is going to start that soon!! That sounds like most husbands and to do lists. My husband's is getting pretty long, it may be reminder time again....hmmm.
Well I was so glad to see Bead Lover's area and she gave great tips for us all. I am sorry this was a little late the holiday season gets the best of you.
Enjoy,
Barbara