glassybaby tales

Thanksgiving

 So many things to be thankful for...here is this year's installment with a glassybaby twist:

• We give thanks for the new Thai restaurant around the corner.
• We give thanks for the Holiday boughs and twinkle lights that swag through the beautiful corridor of Madrona.
• We give thanks for egg nog lattes at the Hi Spot.
• We are so thankful that a color such as Hudson exists.
• We are thankful for 555 Hudson...our New York home and Bridgeport Village our, temporary, Oregon home.
• We give thanks that Ryan, our valued glass blower, is back from 4 months on the Appalachian Trail.
• We give thanks that Ryan, our valued Production Manager, has the giggle that she does.
• Thanks for baby Akira...joining the planet.
• We give thanks for humor.
• We give thanks for Marissa's ability to master the art of making origami cranes...to the tune of 300 count.
• We give thanks that Michelle, our beloved barrista, who moved to Wenatchee, is happy in her new home.
• We give thanks to Kim's quiet thunder.
• We are thankful for Steve's strong and gracious leadership.
• We are thankful for Dogs.
• And how can we resist...we are Thankful to Lee for bringing us all together.
• We are thankful...so thankful, for our loyal and loving customers...that give us our heart beat.

From glassybaby...Have a marvelous Thanksgiving. Until next time, Nicola

Boon and Boat...Santa Express...Hint and Hex

   What a boon to receive a call from a lovely Northwest, island dwelling, glassybaby fan, named Boon. She called and described a great fund raising effort to buy a boat for a rowing club on Bainbridge island, where her teenage daughter rows and where a new boat is desperately needed for the youth. Earlier, I blogged about this, describing wrongly, that Boon was the rower and the island was Whidbey...erroneous. Correction...the island is Bainbridge and Boon, rather than rowing, has been headlong into fund raising for her daughter the rower. So sweet. Boon's vision came to fruition last Saturday, November 14th. glassybaby lit their gorgeous event. Boon and her architect husband spearheaded the visionary table top aesthetic. They had long wooden boats carved, in the form of rowing skulls, buoyed aloft were various glowing glassybaby. Guests at the event were able to purchase the glassybaby with  surplus proceeds going to this great effort; and yes, the evening was successful. Auction synergy led to a purse that will fund the certain purchase of a new boat for the junior varsity rowers. We loved finding partnership in this great maritime adventure. 

   Another call I received months ago led to another fruition. Pat, of Sister Rose Fidelma Auxiliary, sweetly inquired about buses of 'Santa Express' shoppers, hailing from Bellingham, arriving to glassybaby as part of a shopping tour...a very exciting prospect. To explain, every year, this Bellingham, Santa Express delivers their shoppers to 5 well researched retail destinations. The ladies go in blind, in other words, the bus surprises them with their destinations. Such a great concept. An email trail with Pat ensued and then the deal, to our delight, was sealed. We received 8 buses, each coaching 50 women, arriving at expertly timed intervals. The women, post mimosas and scones, streamed into glassybaby for a 45 minute express shopping fix. The promotional code "santa" was used for their purchases and glassybaby is sending a 10% check back to Sister Rose Fidelma Auxiliary. Their wonderful charity is St.Joe's hospital in Bellingham. Our philosophies converged. We absolutely loved hosting the loveliness of their group. Thank you Pat and company for choosing glassybaby. 

   Small anecdote that made me smile...in the comments section of a recent web order, a husband explained how he had learned about us: "Big hint from my wife." He had the extreme wisdom to order his wife our gift set named, 'Red Hot Love,' which consists of red licorice, red rose and lipstick, an excellent and evocative, red selection. Perfection to order a red mix as December is nigh.

   End note...which is really not meant to be a down note, rather, an up note revealing the lengths our customers will go to support glassybaby. I dashed through pelting rain on Monday, a dash to my car, which would deliver me to a  steaming cup of lunch time soup somewhere. When I arrived curbside, to my dismay, I found a dangling side mirror, profoundly smashed by a drive by side swipe. My eye quickly followed the contour of my car panels, sadly, I found the back haunch of my car, smashed as well...not a little ouchie...a big ouchie. In a nano second my eye went north to the windshield...no note. The rain continued to unleash and all I could think was: 'They have gone to fetch a zip lock bag for their note.' Dixie whistled in the rainy wind. Alas, as the day wound on, I logged in a hit and run police report and called my insurance company. Thanks for indulging me thus far. Here is where the glassybaby customer enters. A customer caught wind of my hit and run Monday. She offered the sweetest sympathy and then insisted on placing a hex on the offender of this crime. I somehow did not dissent, her insistence was truly amusing. She said: 'I am Finnish and my hexes work. They will not be harmed, however they will be extremely uncomfortable.' Then she stared into my eyes and said: 'There...it is done.' We giggled. Truth be told, I do not believe in hexes, nor do I wish one upon anyone. What a funny store passage...that felt blog worthy. Next, we will usher in Thanksgiving. Prematurely, I give thanks for car insurance and our sweet customers.

   Until Next Time, Nicola

    

Phoebe's Tradition...Strength...Nurse and Friend...Cabo Returns

   I know the holidays are rapidly approaching when I  see Phoebe rapidly approaching our store. She is a wonderful glassybaby life-er, not to mention a very well organized holiday shopper. She was in today, in all of her glory, to purchase seven single glassybaby, that will be dispensed 6 weeks hence (eek,) coinciding with the red and white guy's deliveries. Our yearly mirth was exchanged. She lives one block from our new, Main Street, Bellevue, glassybaby store. Forsaking this proximity, she drove right past our Bellevue store, tradition bound, to find us in Madrona. I love it. She would not dispense of her yearly pilgrimage over the 520 bridge to find us on the West side where glassybaby are born. Her tradition is immutable. Her die hard presence at glassybaby  today led Phoebe to lament the conversion of our local voting to absentee ballots only. No more bake sales, no more bad coffee, no more church parking lots, no more dutiful civic  volunteers in comfortable clothing sitting at folding tables in folding chairs, looking helpful. Phoebe...your glassybaby tradition is safe with us. Great to see you in Madrona.

   This week our prayers and the prayers of so many surrounded Sarah Hughes, who inspires our giving glassybaby set named Sarah's Strength. Her strength carried her through a difficult operation; and we learned, in vigil and support, many glassybaby were lit for Sarah, throughout her loving community. We wish her continued strength and healing. Simultaneous to the surgery, a very dear family friend to Sarah entered our store to purchase sets of Sarah's Strength, they were to be gifts for her 3 grown children at Thanksgiving.  The great impetus behind the Strength set is to raise important research funds for Pediatric Brain Cancer. It is our honor to partake in this effort.

   Another moving store passage occurred just yesterday...a lovely customer entered our late afternoon, sun bathed store. She perused colors carefully and navigated the store adeptly. She landed upon an orangesicle and a cashmere combination, really lovely. We talked as I boxed her gift. I learned that the set would be given to a dear friend...a  friendship born out of the profound caring relationship between nurse and patient. This nurse would join in celebrating her friend/patient's one year anniversary since receiving a stem cell transplant and remaining cancer free. What could be more of a harbinger to Thanksgiving...which knocks at our door. 

   End note. We have a plethora of autumnal and winter glassybaby...think pumpkin, harvest, great oak, ripe olive etc... For months we have missed our beloved cabo, a very aquatic, sunny, beachy blue. Clarion call...it is back. Ryan, our treasured Production Manager, sleuthed out a match. If you need to balance the warm with the breezy...cabo is back.

   Until Next Time, Nicola

In A New York Minute

 
  

   One moment I was settling in to my Monday swivel chair, logging on to gmail, diving  in to the accumulation of 4 days of emails, the next moment I was on Expedia booking a flight to New York City. To explain, Steve, our beyond wonderful CEO, greeted me with a phone call revelry, and with classic Steve understatement, asked: 'How do you feel about going to New York tomorrow?' I easily glanced at my calendar under my forearm and did the 'Mom' algorithm to determine: 'Yes...I can go.' And now I am here in my Lexington Avenue hotel, watching the Yankees loom largely in the World Series, after a very good NYC glassybaby work day. My presence is another layer of training our already dream team, which lends me to extend a rousing welcome, in alphabetical order, to:

• Allie
• Glendys
• Olivia
• Patricia
• Randy
• Terrell

We are well represented here. Melanie who helps build stores for us, unfalteringly has done it again, building this team and store. Our Hudson work force refers to her as Super Woman...I concur. 

   glassybaby at 555 Hudson is a stunner (see photo above.) Within, there are wood plank floors, slightly rough hewn but sealed, nice to walk on with enough of a faint creaking to give you a sense that this place has history. The walls are white as is the dreamy embossed tin ceiling (my favorite element.) Then imagine glassybaby shelves creating a kind of color amphitheater for shoppers to choose from. There is a lovely white fireplace, no longer working, but a great architectural element. Above the mantle hang wooden glassybaby hand molds. As you enter the store, two white crucibles, retired from our Seattle hot shop, have been fashioned into haute couture glassybaby tables. They are absolutely gorgeous and one of a kind...signature Lee Rhodes.

   Outside the front door of 555 is the marvelous West Village life on Hudson. Dogs of every shape and size stride by with people exquisitely bundled in their fashionable New York November layers. Hudson is dotted with little business treasures...cafes, restaurants, boutiques. glassybaby has definitely found a New York home and we feel welcome here.

   One of my favorite New York moments from my time here...as we closed yesterday, Allie expertly hailed me a cab, my timid walk to the curb was of an inferior technique. A cab swooshed  in to my aid. I quickly turned to hug Randy, a key member of our dream team, who I would not see again on my trip. The momentary embrace was too long, the cab sped away. Allie hailed me another cab, swoosh, I was hotel bound.

   End note, a couple from Chicago was in today with the New York Times Home article featuring glassybaby in hand. After a glassybaby session (they were a quick study at lighting and choosing) they purchased a lovely, indeed edible, duo of french vanilla and creme brulee. They asked for a few extra candles...the plan was to light their new glassybaby in their Algonquin Hotel room... model customers with style.

   Greetings from New York. Until Next Time from Seattle, Nicola