Humblebeads at Ornamentea this weekend...

We've got some lovely hand made beads from Heather Powers at Humble Beads this weekend at Ornamentea in Raleigh. Her work is so delicate and the colors are all right up my alley. Come see the goodies now through Tuesday.

Heather is the genius behind the Bead Cruise. Yes, that's right, there is a boat you can board with all your beads and just take classes and make things while the tropical sun warms your tootsies. I have this on my list of fun things to do someday when my girls are older and I can go bead on a boat and not feel guilty!* Since I pack about fifty pounds of craft materials for a regular trip to a beach house I don't know exactly how I could possibly pack for a bead cruise. Maybe get a steamer trunk?

*um, yes, I do realize that I bead for a living so I shouldn't feel guilty!

Free beads to celebrate our anniversary!

Happy Birthday to us! We turned 10 this month and we have celebrated with $1 tee shirts, lots of great classes and events and now, with 100 strands of free beads! Come into Ornamentea starting Friday September 25th and you can ask for one free strand from a specially selected grouping of semi-precious stone strands. These strands range from $2.50 - $14.50 in price and there is a great variety but hurry, we are only giving away 100 free strands and you must come to the store in person to receive your free strand.

One per beadfreak, you must be a registered beadfreak card holder to receive a strand!

Yes, we still have a few tees for $1, medium, large and extra large. Not in town? You can still get a $1 tee with your ornamentea.com order. Read all about it here...

No rest for the wicked

Are you busy this weekend? Of course you are. There's Sparkcon, They Might Be Giants at the NCMA, classes at our stores AND on Sunday Down By The Tracks, the SPCA fundraiser that is fun for dogs and people. This is the eighth year for the fundraiser and it's getting better each year. I am personally excited about the free (temporary) dog paw tattoos they are giving out as I know my children will each sprinkle them liberally on arms and legs. There is also a fab silent auction where you can get a basket of crafty goodies from Ornamentea.com. My daughters will also want to hit the dance store and try on fancy tutus but that will be fine with me. I'll be next door at Galatea, revving up my fall wardrobe with a skirt or sweater or some new shoes...or maybe all three.

Whew, I am tired just typing all of this. See you this weekend!

(Galatea is 13 this month. Congrats Cheryl and Susan on Lucky Thirteen!)

Celebrate our birthday with a $1 beadfreak tee!

You can get a swanky beadfreak tee for just $1 at either store or order on line.* These tees are a great way to say "I'm not just any kind of freak" to the world. We've been shipping boxes of them to bead clubs around the country...enjoy! Order here.


*on line orders require a $20 purchase, some restrictions cause, hey, it's a $1 tee shirt! click link above to read the nitty gritty.

ancient history, staff photos

In all the years we have been in business (did I mention Ornamentea is 10 this year?) we've had some really talented folks working here. I feel incredibly lucky to have had them join me on this road and I am amazed at what some of them have done after they grew out of the Ornamentea nest.

Kiona, second from the right, is a founding member of the Handmaidens and the designer of Lucky Accessories. Her work is worn around the world and she's also a wonderful mom. I'd like to say that I knew how fabulous she'd be when I offered her a job but honestly, I just liked her.

Leeannn, under the hat second from the left is one of the owners of Epona and Oak and also a founding Handmaiden. She's amazingly talented and I would like to point out at this time that when she left my employ it was because all the ordering and pricing of merchandise was making her crazy. Um, how's that new store going Leeann? (note to readers, it is going great!)

Natalie, in the center in the green is now a mom. Kathryn in the far right is married and working at a great job. Sierra just had a sweet baby boy and is living way out west.

Oh, that is a much younger me sleeping in the middle. I may have been drunk on margaritas. We often drank margaritas at the shop in those days, or at least, we talked about it a lot!

This is a photo we took as a staff photo for the store, way back in the olden days. There were a few folks missing but I seem to remember we photoshopped them in. I hope they wore flowered shirts!

September Challenge at Art Bead Scene

In honor of our 10th Anniversary we are sponsoring the September prize for Art Bead Scene's Monthly challenge. You can read more about the Challenge here and enter to win a $30 Ornamentea gift certificate (good on-line or in our stores!) plus an Art Button created by Teri Sasser. I wish I could enter and win the button!

Go, read about the challenge and then, ENTER!

Party at the old store, or maybe just a busy Saturday?

A photo of our tiny Glenwood Avenue store, circa 1998?. Lots of old friends in this one, and there, in the middle is Miss Heidi back when she was just a fabulous customer. Now she's a fabulous Panopolie staff member! Wow, Heidi, we DO go way back!

We still sell those Chinese Festival of the Moon lanterns. I love the way they shimmer in low light (like moonlight) and have several hanging at my home.


This is Kathryn walking away from my persistent photo-ing. Actually, I was taking a picture of the space behind our narrow counter...always way too messy for my taste but it worked. Those tiny pink chairs in the background sat at a tiny table and we had a big box of plastic animals and cars that we sold for a penny a gram. Children would pick out the perfect orange plastic snake and we'd weigh it and ring them up. Then mom would bring up her iolite briollettes and we'd weigh those, too! Jennifer B remembers bringing her kiddos in to play at the table and I am pretty sure they bought a snake or dinosaur from us!


The back wall of the store was painted a bright mustard yellow, a color I still love. That is Sierra at the counter.


Those bead shelves on the wall are still in use at our current store. Remember, I never throw anything out. Looking at these photos I recall we had no slatwall (which is retail geek-speak and maybe meaningless to you!) but that's the wall board with the grooves for pegs. How did we manage to cram so much stuff in that tiny store?

Oh, yeah, we hung strands over the counter.


Those pink chairs? My girlies are too big for them now, so the chairs have returned to Ornamentea. Look for a tiny table, soon, and maybe even a box of penny-a-gram animals.

I am going through actual boxes of real photos taken in the days before digital cameras. It is amazing how many bad shots you take when you don't have a delete button or a view screen to preview the images. If you or anyone you know is featured in this edition of Way Back Then, please contact me so I can annotate the names correctly!

An old front window...circa 1998!

This is a picture of our front window at the 'original' Ornamentea on Glenwood Avenue. The yummy creations in the window are the work of Raleigh artists Ashley Carter (Goldbug Studios) and hmm..help me out, who made the photo on the right side?

Our 'original' store was painted a pale pink inside, the floor was swirly red dots and there was (at the most) 200 square feet of store. It was crowded when two customers came in at the same time!

See what we look like NOW.

Our old store...we'll be 10 in September!

This is a photo of our old store...can't believe we'll be ten this September!