glassybaby tales

Bliss Speaking Leaves... Manhattan Evening Glow... On the Road Again

Springtime is not the only time that inspires the muses of poets:

"Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the autumn tree."

Emily Bronte

Or:

"Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns."

George Eliot

(Oh really? Easy girl. Now, let's not get carried away.)

Our glassybaby friend Sarah recently wrote us about an early fall trip to New York that she, her sister and two friends enjoyed. Upon checking into their hotel room, they were delighted to discover that it had a beautiful terrace displaying the charms of lower Manhattan. The ladies decided that it was the perfect spot to relax and even have cocktails and dinner. But it was missing an essential ingredient: glassybaby. 

Even though all four of the lovely ladies have nice collections at home, no one had thought to bring any glassybaby on the trip.  The next day Sarah, Mary, Ashly, and Leslye were down at the Hudson Street shop lighting and plucking glassybaby from the shelves. They picked out a few to ship home but chose one apiece to take back to their fabulous outdoor spot.

They placed 'hudson', sheer creem', 'dragon', and 'arthur' on the ledge and sat back to watch them do their magic in the warm glow of the evening sky.

Nicely done ladies!

Thank you for sharing with us.

If you missed the article in The New York Times on Thursday Sept. 29, about Lee's story and the glassybaby mission of giving in New York City, you can read it online:

A Small Retailer Tries to Get a Foothold in the Country’s Biggest Market

We are so grateful for all the New Yorkers that show us their glassybaby love everyday.  Our store may not get a lot of foot traffic but we have so many new friends since we opened in the big city.  They order glassybaby and use them to take a few moments out of their busy lives.  Thank you for finding us online and at our Hudson Street store.

Also I do want to mention that glassybaby is going on the road again. This time to the Bellingham Yacht Club. 

Come up (or down!) to see the collection this Sunday October 2nd.  10% of all glassybaby sales goes to the Whatcom Hospice House.

I hope you enjoy your week.  Thank you so much for reading here.

(And remember: It's not too early to begin thinking about what you are going to be for Halloween!)

Until next time,

Alice

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Light glassybaby, My Dear... Warm Welcome to Our New COO... Courage to Overcome

Wow! Have you noticed how quickly it gets dark in the evening now that school has started? And in a few weeks, daylight savings time will halt and twilight will descend (eek!) before dinnertime! But to paraphrase the wolf to Goldilocks, "That's all the better to light glassybaby, my dear."  This wonderful photo above from our files was sent by a thoughtful reader and beautifully portrays just the feel I am talking about.

There's always a silver lining.

All of us at glassybaby are delighted to welcome our new COO/President, Greg Huey. He comes to us with a long list of superlatives from his former associates including such depictions as "phenominal asset" and that "he made a remarkable difference," especially given the financial crisis.

Greg with a lead glassblower in the studio

I asked Greg what drew him to glassybaby and how his first weeks have been going. I just love his reply:

"I joined the glassybaby team because they have a amazing product, brand and culture. Lee's story is inspiring and the focus on giving makes glassybaby a special place. I've spent much of my first couple of weeks in our retail stores listening to customers and our retail employees, as well as cleaning up wax and re-stocking shelves! It's been great so far, although my feet are killing me - I guess I'll be ready for our holiday season." 

As Lee, our owner and founder, put it: "He gets glassybaby is about quality,authenticity and giving back. He will help maintain our very high quality, and standards as we expand. We are thrilled to have Greg and his expertise."

Welcome aboard, Greg!

 

This month, glassybaby takes great pride in introducing the luscious, deeply saturated, pull yourself up by the bootstraps, and Cowardly Lion touting color 'courage'! If you can, get to a store to check it out! The picture doesn't do it justice. It's a keeper! And Lord knows we could all use some courage to overcome "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" that life sometimes hands us.

Maya Angelou wisely put into words: "Courage is the most important of the virtues, because without courage you can't practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage."

 

     

Two darling little girls we know, Henrietta and Frances, had lots of courage as they boldly painted during a visit to Arts Aloft. Not only was there plenty of daring there but also I do believe they drew artistic motivation from the inspiring glassybaby shirts they donned for the session! How cute are they!! Picasso beware!

I hope you have a wonderful week aided and abetted by all good things.

That's all for now,

Alice

 

Good Friends in the North Woods... Pairing Frogs & glassybaby... No Cooking!

The north woods of Wisconsin called to us once again this year and we (over) packed our duffels and headed up. The serenity and beauty of the lake we visit has no parallel, but the real draw is our coterie of close friends who come from near and far to be together. Our gracious hosts Patsy and Lauren's cottage has bedrooms for seven couples and we fill them every year without fail (unless something important, like say, a new baby girl! decides to coincide!)

Some years it's like summertime and the trees have hardly turned at all. Those are the times we squeeze in lots of golf, boating, hiking, fishing and of course, swimming.

As you can see, we are clearly fashion forward for the latter:

But other years have been cool and damp, with a cozy fire in the big stone fireplace and with tables of Stave wooden puzzles in various degrees of completion.  There's football to be watched, knitting to purled, and of course books to be read.

 

We look forward to our own "lounge act" on the cabin porch each year: 

Who could forget "Sven and Olie"?

But the number one activity rain or shine is the repartee (aside from a glass or three of wine...  oh yes, our glasses all have our names on them!)

Yes, the number one activity is the scintillating conversation... but don't get me started on that! There is practically no subject we (especially the girls) won't lay a hand on! But that's another story! (Remind me to tell you my lively Burl Ives yarn!)

Patsy (above in orange) redid the long screened-in porch this spring and chose a delightful stripe and an animated print of enthusiastic frogs.  She accented with scads of glassybaby in verdant colors like frog hunting, grass, new fern, jade and candy. 

It looks fabulous! We adore glassybaby and those excitable frogs!

Oh! Did I tell you about all meals being taken up at the lodge? That's right, sisters, there is no cooking! We are offered three delicious B, L, & Ds every day. (The cottages have kitchens not much bigger than a broom closet I'm happy to report!)

And we bring glassybaby up to the lodge at dinnertime to enjoy their heavenly glow... and, to make everyone else pea-green with envy. (Of course we shared with them the story of these magical little vessels.)

Above is Jane on the left, of glassybaby 'jane's caramel' fame, with Nancy on the right as we finish dinner on the eve of 9/11.

Thank you for listening to how we spent our vacation in the love's light of glassybaby. Just wanted you to know that gb is just as at home in the north woods of Wisconsin as in a penthouse in the big city!

Have a great week everybody!

Until next time,

Alice

aliceblog@glassybaby.com

 

 

Dogs on Parade... Perspicacious Miss... Your glassybaby Color

Teddy and Beau with 'wet dog'

If there's one thing we love at glassybaby, it has to be dogs. Dogs of all sizes, colors and fur-style!

So, as we were putting together a poster of all glassybaby employees (now that we are growing we wanted everyone to know whose name goes with whose face), we thought why not give the same advantage to our many furry friends gracing our offices and hot-shop. They need a poster too, being the social animals they are!

Well, you would have thought Vogue magazine was doing a fashion photo shoot here last week with all the canine preening and hamming it up. Jack, our valiant photographer, captured the essence of the parade of pooches and every one of them seemed to be having a fine time.

Just look at this engaging, ingenue, Piper! She really has that cover girl aura, doesn't she?  (Piper is the owner of one of our favorite glassblowers, Taryn!)

 

And look at this young lady! Sydney was so thrilled to be a part of it all, she performed a merry, carefree gavotte for all assembled. Her closest human friend is another glassblowing luminary, Alyssa.

Stay tuned for more pet-tales.

Tracy, of our Bellevue store, told the cutest story about her friend, Paula's eleven year old daughter:  After Paula and family moved to Savannah last month, Maddie was helping her mother out by collecting pictures to put in her phone for contacts. She couldn't find a picture of Tracy so the perspicacious miss took a photo of a glassybaby ('new fern' as it turns out) and put it with Tracy's number.  Now when Tracy phones, a cheery glassybaby photo pops up.

What color glassybaby would you choose to represent you? To me that is an imponderable, but it would be fun to think about.

Enjoy your last stop of the summer at the ice cream shop! 

See you next time,

Alice

aliceblog@glassybaby.com

 

 

 

 

Back To School... Celebration of Life... Best Girlfriends

Okay. Listen up, kids. It's everybody out of the 'pool' time.

pool

Sadly, everyone must come ashore and move away from the 'beach' now.

  
 beach

But don't despair that summer has come to an end... for it is time to embrace 'happiness' as everyone goes back to school!!

happiness

As I with a smile, sang to our boys and my mother, before me, sang to us, "It's the most wonderful time of the year!" 

Truly, I often welcome Labor Day as the air begins to turn crisp but the days are still sunny and horizontal.  Fall as well as spring, ironically, is a time of new beginnings. 

As school openings progress, we have noticed many moms back in the stores chatting and happily perusing the new sets of glassybaby colors that are coming on the shelves. We love to see you here.

 

The glassybaby team is honored to be hosting a celebration of life potluck for Jena, who is the sister of one for our most long-term and valued glassblowers, Tree.

                         

Jena, who has been battling leukemia, will join with her family and friends, as some of our glassblowers, who have happily donated their time, will be leading a hands-on demonstration in the hot shop. 

In honor of Jena, who is a life long friend to animals and is passionate about animal welfare, we are happy to announce that on Saturday, 10% of sales from all stores and online will go to PAWS.  We wish you well, Jena, and thank you Tree for helping us host this memorable celebration.

 

   

Wouldn't you just love to shop for glassybaby with your best friend from high school?  I certainly would!  Now picture that same scenario except for the fact that the pair of you are 88 year olds!  This is exactly what occurred last week in the Bellevue store. Cindy helped two lovely ladies choose three glassybaby for the great granddaughters of one of them. They chatted about the longevity of her 69 year marriage and she shared the secret to it.  

Are you leaning in close?  In the words of this charming, wise lady: "Be sure you kiss your husband good night each and every night." And that's it! I just love that.  I'll tell Ernie first thing when he gets home.

Before I sign off, I would like to give kudos to our winsome models who so kindly shared their visages for this week's blog.  First I would like to thank teeny, tiny teddy who comes to us straight from the toy-box where he last appeared.

But most of all I must thank the divine Miss Dolly Blossom who is the new baby at our house.  Isn't she the cutest widdle snookums ever? Have you ever seen eyes that blue? And I'm not saying that just because she's ours. 

On behalf of all of us at glassybaby, I hope you have a wonderful safe Labor Day weekend and rejoice in the coming of fall and all the good things it brings with it.

Until next time,

Alice

aliceblog@glassybaby.com