glassybaby tales

Excitement

   We are poised to launch (I love the grandiosity of the word 'launch') our new website. It will be stylish and simple...trademark glassybaby...with bountiful additions like glassblower profiles. a beautifully sublime slide show home page and more content on our ever growing giving programs (where our heart lies.) There is an exciting teaser...I will keep you posted.

    Also, we are excited about our Grand Opening Party (again excitement and "grand...iosity.") Please come and join us if you are local and have room on your dance card. We will have a lovely evening of mingle/mingle, glassblowing,light bites and libations. Let us treat you. Sachet in any time between  6 and 8pm on Friday September 7th...one week hence.

   Last excitement of the week for me...a spitfire, wonderful customer...entered our store expressly to buy glassybaby for her Rodeo Party...yes...Rodeo Party. She and her family go to Ellensburg for the rodeo and have a big family bash. I think this is our first... that I know of... rodeo related purchase...how exciting. (Worn Leather was of course a part of the equestrian mix....wonderful.)

   Until Next Time...Nicola

Dr. Hall, Happy Anniversary, Salon

   Two customers came through our door yesterday with a noted ebullience. They described themselves as glassybaby experts. So I hung back, which I can only do for so long...through a stream of wonderful banter between us I learned that the two friends were celebrating at glassybaby. One had just emerged from a grueling hour and a half long defense of her dissertation in a land very far from glassybaby...Math Education. She nailed it. The accompanying friend was buying her dear student friend a 'victory' glassybaby (after all...it took 9 years to reach this marvelous milestone.) Congratulations Dr.Hall. Footnote: in classic 'numbers person' fashion Dr. Hall noted this was the acquisition of her 8th glassybaby.

   Jeanine, our esteemed Operations Manager and 'blog scout' conveyed a wonderful story to me. A couple entered our store to buy themselves anniversary glassybaby...self-lauding their decades of happiness together. With incredulity they explained...they learned of our move...meandered to our Madrona store... and found us only one block from where they were married at St. Theresa's on 35th. Poetic serendipity. Happy Anniversary.

   We had a Glassybaby 'Salon' last night...in a penthouse condominium downtown. It was a swanky evening...a private party...pomegranate martinis, catered poo poos. and a sea of glassybaby lighting the event. Everyone shopped and basked in the color. It was marvelous...and Mount Rainier was there in the background wearing a gorgeous white evening gown. Keep us in mind for your next girl event.

  Endnote...as I was driving my little sweet girl to 'school' today...absolutely unsolicited...she said: "Mommy everybody is nice." It just made me smile.

   Until next time, Nicola

The Rains of Scotland, Christmas Shopping?, For Gretchen

   I am safely back from Scotland...Ahhh the misadventures of weather. Little does the Scottish weather muse know...Seattlites and consecutive days of torrential rain are a match made in heaven. No fear. We heartily survived it. As my husband says: "There's no poor weather, just poor clothing." Truth be told...my suitcase could have used a few more sleeves; however I did stay sheltered by my trusty gortex, and our 3 year old was brilliantly intrepid (maybe it is the 1/4 Scot in her.)

   It's good to be back, and we are thriving here, drenched in August sun (Thank God.) I passed the Scottish torch to a dear customer Elise. She will travel back to her homeland and birthplace of Scotland, to be in a friend's wedding just after Labor Day. She gathered 9 gorgeous glassybaby to take as gifts. The dominant color chosen: Angel. Elise gravitated toward it's neutrality and glow articulating: "I know I love a color when I want to eat it." Bon Voyage Elise.

   This week's trademark?...Christmas shopping. I'm outraged. How impressive. One customer is taking her 2 college sons to Kauai...an enticement to lure her peripatetic boys to spend the holidays with good old mom and pops. She purchased 6 oceanic glassybaby for gifts while on the island. Wow...I must come to terms with the fact that I am an underachieving Virgo. Ho Ho Ho.

   On a sacred last note. One of our dear, dear customers...more accurately...friend, passed away last week...Gretchen Mathers. I had the honor and complete joy of knowing her through our store. She crested 6 feet tall, a length that seemed to match her smile, sparkle, elegance and savvy. She loved glassybaby and championed us from the very beginning. Lee describes Gretchen as one of our original customers come cheerleader.

   There is more to Gretchen than we can possibly convey. A few jewels of her life...She was a maverick in the catering field. She began 'Gretchen's Of Course', a hugely successful catering venture. She adored Maui and regularly visited her resonant Hawaii.

   I learned that Gretchen passed absolutely surrounded by her family, wearing a gorgeous lei, with beautiful Hawaiian music serenading her onto her next journey. Lee has named Seattle Sunset a 'giving' glassybaby in Gretchen's honor. It is the most magnetic color and wonderfully matches one of Gretchen's favorite ever present nail polish colors...how fitting. Gretchen learned of this bequest before she passed away. It was her wonderful choice to name The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center as the recipient of funds from Seattle Sunset.

   Gretchen, we adore you. Your memory is beautifully etched upon us.We give to Cancer rersearch in your name. Until Next Time...Nicola

Whilst, White Horse Groom and Stanford

   Whilst I am gone, a few accumulated notes. (Using 'whilst' in this text seems very Scottish... this is where I am currently...blissfully.)

   A wonderful, tall, blond gentleman entered our store a few weeks back and summarily abdicated pleading color paralysis. His mission had been to choose glassybaby for a wedding gift. Recently he conquered this common glassybaby ailment. He reentered our store and chose a stunning combination of 3 glassybaby... his gift mission was a success. His presence was remarkable and his height allowed him to line up glassybaby combinations on top of our custom built, gigantic, shelving piece. He perched different ensembles without lighting them and landed a stunning, sublime trio of Angel, French Vanilla and Grandma Jane's Caramel. The bride is East Indian, her fiancee will ride in to be married on a white horse...in accordance with tradition. This just captures my imagination. How wonderful.

   Another store anecdote...a marvelous, soggy customer visited our store. It was a wet July morning. She stumbled upon us from the bird's eye view of her walk in the rain. What I learned...she was visiting from Stanford California. She and her husband, affiliated with Stanford University for years, are in retirement. Her husband had been a tenured Music professor.The great presence of this woman filled our store. She told me that she revels in  the rain...of course she does come from parched  Stanford.  We stood  together and I explained the process of making a glassybaby...she was just fascinated. She left with the promise to return.

   In the spirit of objects that march through our door...a grand, frequent, glassybaby customer came in with 2 objects carefully swaddled in dish towels. What was she holding? Two gorgeously painted ostrich eggs of course. One glance led me to suggest the out of season colors...Roots and Harvest. After a short trek to the back...she purchased 2 of each. I love it. I ate ostrich scrambled eggs in South Africa one time...I can definitively say that I prefer the painted ones that match glassybaby colors.

   In the spirit of travel I post to you...Until Next Time...post Scotland, Nicola

Purple Kilts?... Dingle Town glassybaby and Delilah

   I am hoping that our babe has successfully inherited the circadian rhythms of Scotland. If all goes according to plan this blog will post as I am with my sweet little family overseas for a family reunion...on the Scottish Isle of Skye. Our almost 3 year old with strawberry blond hair, porcelain white skin and geneology that includes 1/4 Scot...is hopefully frolicking on a moor somewhere, wishing quizzically that she could wear a (purple) kilt. How appropriate to post this email that we received...a missive from Sue Pecaut Stark that reports a glassybaby sighting in the U,K..Here is what we read:

   "Being a great glassybaby fan myself, I was pleasantly surprised when my husband Rick, myself, sister Barb and her husband Bill, were about to dine at the Charthouse in Dingle Town, on the Dingle Peninsula in Ireland. While sitting at our table, I spotted three deep amber candle holders, and asked our waitress if those were, indeed, glassybaby? She said that 'yes' they were!!! We dined there on Tuesday night, July 17th, 2007.Just wanted you to know that I enjoyed being able to enjoy your beautiful glassybaby in Dingle Town."

   Thank you Sue for taking the time to write us. Another sweet something...a grumpy July afternoon brought in an intrepid almost 3 year old...hand clasped to her grandma. The little one owned the place as she walked in...she bee lined to view the glassblowing. The grandmother was incredulous: "She must have been here before. She  knows all about this place and calls it 'baby glass.'" They came and left in a 2 year old minute. It was just so sweet. Even babies are marketing glassybaby or rather 'baby glass' for us. (Small detail...the little one's name is Delilah.)

   I'm off for Shepherd's Pie or maybe Hagis...Until Next Time...Nicola