It's about time!

It's coming! Finally! The road to a new Beaded Things website began over two years ago when my sister in law, and partner in business, Jen and I decided that we were ready to try for a new "baby". Our original Beaded Things website launched in the fall of 2003. It has remained relatively unchanged despite the fact that our business has gone through many changes since then - partly because the format of the website was difficult to update - and partly because as busy "mompreneurs" we we constantly struggling with having way too many great ideas, and never enough time to devote to them.

When our personalized baby spoons were featured in several national magazines and had become solidly our most popular product, we decided to create a spin off mom and baby themed website. At the same time, we wanted to give Beaded Things a face lift. Unfortunately, we experienced a bit of trouble conceiving when we hired a dud of a web designer to handle both projects - and after 4 or so months and a few false positives we ended that experiment with no website - both of them were a disaster. We were out some cash, but a bit wiser, and put things on the back burner with Beaded Things to focus on the baby site.

We started from scratch with a new designer - and this one was a keeper! It was love at first sight, literally. Heather's designs were everything we had hoped for, and in the fall of 2005, 9 months after conception, Growing Up With Style was born.

And then, as with most newborns, we found that Growing Up With Style demanded a lot of our attention. Poor Beaded Things - like an older sibling - was often a bit neglected. We still loved her just the same - but our energy and focus was a bit too much on the new baby. We had just forgotten quite how much attention a newborn needed.

And then, this past spring big changes happened for all of us. My family and I decided to leave Chicago winters behind and return to my home of the Pacific Northwest - and Jen decided she wanted to leave both Beaded Things and Growing Up With Style to return to her former career.

After a summer of transition and settling in, I found myself on my own once again with the business, and kind of back where I started with Beaded Things. I felt like a frumpy old mom! I realized with a shock that my "baby" wasn't quite a baby anymore - and boy did she need some attention! Again, it was Heather to the rescue - she took my tired neglected website to a fresh new place - and I got my groove back! I am so excited to share the new design - and thrilled to be offering who whole range of new products and fresh ideas. Stay tuned - it won't be long!