glassybaby tales

Seeds and Fruit...Nightly Smooch...Made in the USA

   We were contacted by the lovely Kathy Epperson, author and founder of the arts website named Seeds and Fruit. Her passion is art in all of its forms. This week she has installed a glassybaby feature. Find the piece and interview with Lee here: www.seedsandfruit.com. Our missives with her, before launching the glassybaby segment were a pleasure...the last came with a P.S.:"My 'verdant, 'glacier lake,' and 'deep sea' glassybaby are on the table right in front of me, happy as can be. She anthropomorphized her glassybaby, we love it. Thank you Kathy, for the lively segment on glassybaby.

   Earlier in the week, two friends arrived in our Madrona store for a glassybaby session...candle lighting and color therapy. It was a birthday outing for one of the pair. I loved the side note I received, not from the birthday girl, from the other. She happens to be one of my many favorites. She whispered to me that she lights her 'smooch' glassybaby every night in mirthful intention to find her perfect man. As she lights her pink glassybaby, she says: "smooch," beckoning her certain, worthy love to find her. It is only a matter of time...she is wonderful.

   End note...Thursday April 23rd, the New York Times business section, page B4, declares: "Goods 'Made in the USA' Sustain Small Manufacturers." The article, authored by Tracey Taylor of the Times jumped off the page at us (Lee.) Truth be told, I try to read a fraction of the Saturday and Sunday Times, the Monday through Friday 'gray ladies' are generally off of my radar, except when I get a morning revelry call from Lee: "There is an interesting article for us in the Times today." I easily sought out the paper at the Madrona Deli nearby. The article is substantive and relevant and hopeful to us. The gist summarized in a quotation from Steven J. Davis, a professor of Economics at the University of Chicago: "People read stories about unemployed Americans and they want to feel good when they make consumption decisions." This relates to the glassybaby manufacturing story. We are made in Madrona, USA. Our glassblowers arrive prior to seven in the morning to begin their craft. They sleep soundly at night somewhere nearby in the greater Seattle area. So often customers...my realm...comment upon this very phenomenon: 'I love supporting a local, hand made product.' Hallelujah. It is wonderful for us to place a gorgeous red sticker on our outbound glassybaby cargo that reads: "Hand Blown Glass, Made in the USA, Handle With Care." So, this article moves us to say thank you...for supporting us with a philosophical, often emotional and local mind. This is part of our lifeblood.

   Until Next Time, if this stunning Spring sunshine doesn't leave me speechless...Nicola

  

Green Thumb... Village Design...I Think of You Everyday

   We have arrived. Cherry blossoms are everywhere, and we are in high level discussion on what flora to embed in the two planters that flank the entrance of our store. We are lucky to have Robin in our sales mix...she 'moonlights' at a local nursery and has a penchant for planting. She has volunteered to plant Spring for us. Her suggested lineup?: black mondo grass, ivy geraniums, coleus and tasso daisies. Just writing her choices sounds like it will look beautiful. This level of plant/flower detail mystifies me. We work with a  multi-talented dream team. Thanks Robin.

   Speaking of planting, we are busy planting the permanent University Village store. The ground has broken there, and our favorite, Addado Construction, is making a beautiful space. A few elements to tantalize you with...the floors will be beautifully finished concrete. The point of sale will have drawers of glassybaby, a twist on our ever present shelves. Glide the drawer open for a helicopter perspective on a bevy of glasybaby. So sweet and somewhat dangerous in terms of throwing one more glassybaby in your shopping basket. The store will have the signature crisp, simple, elegant, glassybaby aesthetic,  a great canvas for the myriad color.

P.S....Technology knocks at our U Village door...there will eventually be a live video feed of our glass blowers making glassybaby out of our Madrona hot shop. A nice James Bond element.

   Along with the cherry blossoms are the lady joggers. I love that with the promising skies, we get to reacquaint ourselves with the outdoors. One customer came in having just jogged through Seward Park. Her carrot after the run was to replace the glassybaby she bequeathed to her friend visiting from Sweden. She implored to me that she has truly missed it (glassybaby waters run deep.) As our time together at the register wound to a close, I said: 'Thanks so much for thinking of us.' She replied: 'I think of you everyday lighting the glassybaby on our dining table.' Lovely.

   End note. Just a smile for the week. Our 4 year old daughter makes mini masterpieces of art at 'school' which she signs with her name "Rae." She is currently in the habit of reversing the letters of her name. So regularly I pick up my daughter named "Ear." It makes me smile.

   Happy Spring. Until Next Time, Nicola

  

Talisman...Detective Work...Rivers of Color

   So often we have the pleasure of receiving talismans...often couriered to us in words. Last week, a vibrant, red envelope arrived, flecked with minuscule sparkles and scribed with, none other than, a white pen. The letter was addressed to Lee and the glassybaby family. The content was so meaningful to all of us:

"It means so much to me that you have included 'Marsha's Hope' in your Goodwill Program. There are blessings to be found, as we fight the good fight- and your generosity is one of them. Increasing awareness and raising money is a pretty great side effect to adding beauty to one's table. You are lighting the way to hope. Thank you. Lisa"

Lisa, sweetly, allowed me to share her words. I wish I could share the photograph of her on the front of the card. It is a 'knock out' photograph of Lisa within a garden, donning red feather wings and a fire engine red wig. Her smile is priceless and she is holding a hand-made, felt, banner that reads:"We love our angels!" It is in supreme honor of Lisa that 10% of the sale of the 'Marsha's Hope' gift set goes directly toward ovarian cancer research.

   Other field notes...a customer called with a distinct sleuthing intonation. She had dined by the light of glassybaby at the Seattle Art Museum Restaurant named: Taste. (What a compliment to adorn SAM tables.) She explained that her life is incomplete without the orange glassybaby that she had so longingly seen. I did the quick forensics from our order list and the color emerged as kumquat. The customer then expressly found us in Madrona to shop for kumquat. I had the pleasure of helping her and as she extended her arm to pass off her chosen glassybaby, I had to smile at the kumquat colored scarf that she was wearing...obviously her signature, life fulfilling color.

   Customers are poetic. One sound bite from the store captured my attention. We have a lovely customer who supports us through her design firm...we are her 'go to' gift, which is so wonderful. She paused, while shopping in the store recently, to say: 'When I need a break at work I go to the rivers of color on the glassybaby website...' What eloquence...we love it.

  I am personally thinking of rivers of chocolate as Easter approaches. If you are here with the blog...you met our Easter Bunny on the home page (compliments of the photographic genius of Jim Waltz and his stylist/wife Valerie Waltz.) By all accounts...Bunny talent is a highly kinetic endeavor. Have a wonderful Easter from all of us at glassybaby.

   Until Next Time, Nicola

glassybaby contest...WWISH Event...Super Powers

   Hot tip of the week. Go to the wonderful website www.creativemontage.com and navigate to the blog, authored by the lovely Aimee O'Boyle (owner/founder with her husband Chris.) Scroll a bit until you find glassybaby content. You will discover there a glassybaby contest. Enter your choice of a glassybaby gift set in the comments section, cross your fingers and voila you are a contestant. The odds of winning a set of three glassybaby are sweet, very un-lottery like. Good luck and thanks to Creative Montage.

   Once you have entered the contest, be sure to peruse the gorgeous wedding scribe/design offerings of Creative Montage. Aimee's description of founding the company (about us) on the heels of her own wedding and facing stagnation at her then job...is inspiring. I love that she calls her husband her 'partner in crime;' the crime of loving what you do and doing it with creativity and passion. Perfect. Know that their credo is to bring beauty, detail and unique perfection to your wedding print.

   Binoculars to May. On Saturday May 30th, there will be a marvelous event/fundraiser chez glassybaby, hosted by WWISH (an online women's magazine...anagram translation: Women's Wellness and Integrated Social Health.) The event will benefit the ever essential entity: Family Services of Seattle. Family Services provides life and soul sustaining services to Seattle families in the direst of need. Laura Cruikshank, founder and CEO of WWISH is an amazing mobilizer. In all of her abundance, she saw the opportunity for partnering glassybaby, WWISH and Family Services. We have found a wonderful synergy. (footnote: This all began after Laura attended a luncheon where Lee spoke...the seeds of possibility were sewn.) The benefit evening in May will include:

• dozens of glowing glassybaby
• dreamy food by the one and only St. Clouds, our lovely neighbor
• beautiful wines
• glassblowing
• an inspiring key note speaker
• a piano performance by Jeannette Alexander
• and one beautiful glassybaby for each guest to take home (the color of their choice of course)

Tickets for the benefit are $125 and available at www.wwish-inc.com. Join if you can for service celebrated.

   End note...Our production binder contains various notes and tallies regarding the production of glassybaby. Usually this binder is off of my radar; however, amusingly, my eyes fell upon one page in particular which read like this:

"Quade went home sick...sorry guys! (drawing of a sad face.) Brian showed up around 8:30am to save the world. I think that he did a great job. (drawing of a hand with a 'thumbs up.') Actually before that, Mike M. who happened  to be here...worked for South Team...to save the universe."

This note made me smile. We love our glassblowers and their super powers.  Bon voyage to Ryan Mellinger, one of our glassblowing treasures...he is off to hike the Appalachian trail for 6 months (I repeat...super powers.) Good luck Ry...come back to us.

Until Next Time, Nicola