If you want to SEE what happens if you eat too much during the holidays, just check out this picture of our cat Vernon.  He sort of hangs out of his bed.  Actually, it’s really Robin’s bed and he is just determined to fit into it–sort of like me being determined to fit into pre-holiday jeans!

Now if the camera gets a shot from the RIGHT angle, just look what a difference it makes!  He’s a mighty handsome cat in a very becoming bed!

The holidays were wonderful–filled with our kids, grandkids, brothers, sisters, and cousins.  Bradley, our oldest grandson had a constant admirer in his cousin Mikah, who is 16 months old.  Mikah loves for Bradley to carry him around and Bradley very graciously obliges.

Jake was happy as usual.  He always has a smile and a hug to share.

Mikah was delighted with his very own toy cell phone.

Here is is already talking on the phone and I think that is a lump of coal in his other hand.

Only a matter of minutes until Mikah has figured out how to talk and ride!  Uhhh, I don’t think that he knows that he’s talking to the BACK of the phone….

I hope that you all had some wonderful holidays and have the best year ever in 2009!

Goldilocks said it best:  “And it was JUST RIGHT!”  Only we’re not talking about porridge.  All of us here in Wubberland are talking about our new Wubbers Medium Flat Nose Pliers.  We are so excited– they are available to join your Wubbers tool collection right now!

After months of waiting, we have finally received the newest member of the Wubbers Classic family.  Just like the other Classics, the Wubbers Medium Flat nose measures 6.5 inches in length.  It offers the same great comfort, leverage, control, and versatility as the original 5 Wubbers Classics.  The new Wubbers Medium Flat Nose is especially well-suited for working with jump rings and holding onto coils as you wind them.  Whenever the Narrow Nose is too “skinny” and the Wide Nose is too “hefty,” just reach for the Medium.  The width is so perfect for so many metal working tasks, that they will hold a special place in your Wubbers collection!

We are also very excited to let you know that Wired Up Beads has very recently contracted with the well-known company, EURO TOOL, and they will be handling our manufacturing process as well as managing our wholesale program.  EURO TOOL has an excellent reputation for superb quality and exceptional customer service.  We are very excited and honored to have contracted with them to bring you Wubbers that are better than ever!  The new Wubbers have all the features of the old, but will sport improved padded grips that are form-fitted to provide even greater stability and a more sophisticated look.

One last bit of Wubberly news is that, as you have requested, we will be adding Baby Bent Nose Pliers to the Baby Wubbers Series.  We should have this cute new Baby within the next 30 days.  We will let you know as soon as they are available for adoption.  You will WUB them!

We had a cold front blow through here (the Dallas/Fort Worth area).  Well, it was sort of a cold front.  Actually, it was wind and rain, and the kind of weather that when you go out the next morning to get into your car, you might think that a jacket could feel nice, even though it still seemed way too much trouble to get it out of the back of the closet and really put it on.

So, since the weather has been no help in getting us into the pre-winter spirit, we decided to have a little winter in Wubberland.  Trudy, Donna, and I sat around the table in the front room here at the store and made snowmen out of cracked quartz beads, Swarovski Crystals, and sterling.  We added a cute little scarf with brightly colored wire.  Then, we couldn’t resist taking their pictures in a Texas-style snowbank (i.e., satin fabric from our local Joanne’s store).  What fun!  A whole herd of snowmen that will never melt!  After the glamor shots, we put all of the snowmen on a little strap so that they could adorn the cell phones and purses of some of our favorite friends.

Here’s wishing you a Wubbly day with the kind of weather that makes it oh so much fun to hole up with a couple of friends and make something happy, including some great memories!  And if you need a little inspiration, stop by open studio next Wednesday afternoon, find a comfy spot at our table, and make yourself a little snowman.  We would love to see you!

1.  Never let your parrot roost on top of your Christmas tree, not even if you have to get a ladder to get her down.

2.  Never believe your parrot when she tries to convince you she should be left out of her cage so that she can enhance the household decor.

3.  Never wear your potty-trained parrot on your shoulder for an hour and 25 minutes, then rush off to the grocery store for milk without checking your back.

4.  Never EVER let your bird play on the bathroom cabinet and in your make-up drawers.  You just might get a phone call from a favorite friend right as you finish brushing your teeth.  Then you might rush off to work because you’re late, grabbing your glasses, putting on your watch, and closing the drawer that you left open when you answered the phone.  It is possible that you will get to the freeway and suddenly remember that you forgot to feed the parrot (better known as “Pumkin”).  You might also start to retrace your steps and realize that you left Pum’kin out of her cage.  This demands that you speed home, run lickety-split to the bathroom, and panic when there is no parrot visible.  Check the ceiling, picture frames, and…MY GOODNESS!  The drawer!!!

The moral of #4 is that you might well end up with a mess like this!

You might also end up with a parrot that has a passion for Estee’ Lauder!

The donkeys are back! After a long summer with no donkeys, the owner has finally let them back into the pasture behind our property. Jake, Bradley, and I love to feed the donkeys. I love to take pictures of the boys feeding the donkeys. Bradley is so tall, he can reach over the fence now. He will soon be 10. When I stand at the fence and yell, “Donkey!!!” the male runs over to the fence and yells right back at me. HIs bray is so funny it always makes us laugh.

"Bradley Feeding the Donkeys"

Our six year old Jake is a bit more adventuresome. He soon ran out of leaves to push through the fence, so he decided to do a little socializing with the donkeys.

"Mimi, can I touch his nose?"

"Ouch!!!"

But not to worry, no grandchildren were harmed in the making of these pictures.

Here’s wishing you a day filled with smiles and hugs and the time to enjoy the small wonders all around you!

We almost met her, but she didn’t show. It sort of hurt our feelings, though we didn’t know…that actually, she was busy being nominated as the Republican Vice Presidential candidate for the upcoming elections!

My husband Denny and I had the pleasure of visiting Alaska a couple of weeks ago. The trip was a combination of business and pleasure. While we were in Anchorage, we attended a community celebration at the Anchorage Museum of History and Art. The governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin was scheduled to attend, but was unable to come. NOW we know why!

Alaska is such a beautiful state. We were told that the weather during our visit was the best of the entire summer. The skies were blue, there was very little rain, and the temperature was comfortably cool. This was quite a change from the Texas heat.

Humpback whales, Stellar sea lions, Puffins, Harbor Porpoises, Bald Eagles, and Dall sheep (the little white dots in the picture above)–we saw them all and they weren’t in the zoo! My favorite was a mama moose and her baby.

We rode a train from Anchorage to Seward, but were stranded for several hours by a rock slide. The railroad sent out a crane to lift the heavy rocks from the track so that we could continue our trip. We were not the least bit bored during the wait. We stood on the little deck on the back of the train and could see “post card pictures” everywhere we looked (thank goodness for digital cameras–we clicked away with no worries about “wasting” film!).

The ride to Seward was intersting and beautiful. The train car that we occupied had large windows for sight seeing. The bridge and tunnel pictured below were a couple of the memorable sights.

After reaching Seward, we took a cruise out to see some glaciers. They were the most unbelievable shade of blue.

Denny went on a fishing expedition. The group caught some really large halibut that you can see in the picture below. They also caught salmon and red snapper.

While many of the group were hunting for fish, I went hunting for beads. A friend named Therese drove me to all her favorite bead shops. One of my favorite stores was a combination bead and leather store. The textures and colors kept me busy until Therese was practically herding me out the door.

Denny and I walked around downtown Anchorage and saw the bear in the picture on the sidewalk. He was amazingly large and had a funny little sign balancing on his back. I think the sign said “Please don’t climb on the bear. I wasn’t very tempted–he looked a bit grumpy.

T

The picture below is Denny sitting in fron of the visitor center. The sign post has the distance from Anchorage to Dallas. We were glad that we flew! The flowers at the center were so beautiful.

We are glad to be back home. I have settled back into a routine at Wubberville. We are working hard on getting the new teaching studios finished. We have lots of news to share in the coming weeks, so please stay tuned.

Have a wonderful week!

If you were attending the 2008 Convention for the International Society of Glass Bead Makers (ISGB) in Oakland, California this weekend, you would most likely know. There were dragon beads, acorn beads, and beads that were made to look like Elvis singing into a tiny microphone. There were lions and tigers and bears, oh my! There were birds, octopuses, beetles, and fish. Flowers, leaves, berries, and trees. And they were all in glass, and most were wearable beads!

The convention was packed full of activities that included open torch time (with access to every torch imaginable), bead-making demonstrations, and a gallery tour. The gallery above hosted a show named “Out of the Box,” only all of the imaginative glass sculptures were secured safely inside small Plexiglas boxes. Below is a picture of Terry, Trudy, and I enjoying the show.

On Saturday, we participated in the Bead Bazaar hosted by ISGB. Jennifer, Terry, Trudy and I set up a table to display the work of the Grapevine Bead Society. We met hundreds of people and saw a bazillion beautiful beads, leading to four cases of severe sensory overload! We will not be posting pictures of our appearance on the last day of the convention. After four days of activities from 8:00 A.M. to 11:00 P.M., we were looking a little tired, although still feeling happy and inspired.

We leave for home on Monday, loaded with lots of new glass and tools. We also bought the torches for the new glass working studio that we will open in October in Southlake (we ordered the latest and newest GTT dual-fuel torches!). So, if you have been wanting to try your hand at making your own glass beads, then get ready for some fun and start planning a day to visit us at Wired Up Beads University (WUB U).

Here’s wishing you a wonderful week that is filled with plenty of time for jewelry-making fun.

It’s not too often that I pass judgment, but this time I did. We have a friend named Jerry who is a model train enthusiast. I can understand his collecting those pricey little brass engines. I can also fully understand that he would travel cross-country to participate in regional and national conventions related to his hobby (that’s how we met Jerry, heehee). However, when my husband told me that Jerry bought a dual cab pickup to transport his new model train from Michigan to Texas, I really thought that Jerry might have gone a little too far.

Just how big was Jerry’s model train? Denny explained that it was big enough for Jerry to ride on and that it needed a bigger track than Jerry could build in his back yard. Once Jerry transported his new acquisition from Michigan to his home in Texas, he still needed his new super cab truck to haul his model train to a local county park where other modelers had laid big enough track to run trains the size of Jerry’s.

Amidst giggles and thoughts that Jerry had really “lost it,” Denny informed me that we were going to a county park in Houston that evening to see some of these trains. When we arrived at the park, I saw the funniest of sights. BIG people were riding these pint-sized trains. Did I want to ride one? Well, OK, I guess I would, but they looked like they moved really slowly. The park was really big—this might be boring (besides looking ridiculous).

I sat down on one of the little trains, the whistle blew, and we pulled out from the station. The train was powered by a fully functioning steam engine. We made our way through the park and passed a little factory, a dilapidated shack, and a farm. There were water towers and miniature people waiting at a depot and going into a general store. We crossed a bridge and I realized that I was actually getting cinders in my hair.

Oh no, I was starting to think that this was actually really fun. Maybe Jerry was onto something. Hmmmm…. We already have a pickup truck. Christmas isn’t horribly far away. Hey, Santa! I’m thinkin’ that I might be wanting one of these here model trains. I’ll be good, I promise!

P.S. My deepest apologies, Jerry! And if you get tired of your train, just let us know. We’re keeping our long-bed pick up truck just in case.

We had a great weekend and many of our clasps left Wubberland for new homes all the way to Germany. We received a new shipment today and did some restocking late this evening. We FINALLY have some of the Contemporary Toggles again. They are made in Israel and the detail and quality are superb. I was just about to give up on getting more, then like magic, they arrived!

Now that I think about it, maybe I should give up a little sooner next time so that we won’t have to wait so long for them!

We received a lot of new findings that we will try to post throughout the week. There are great new sterling silver, bali-style toggles, bali beads, and Hill Tribe Silver. I also handpicked the prettiest sterling bali headpins that come in two sizes and found some wonderful earwires. There are a lot of new goodies that we want to show you!

Have a wonderful night’s sleep with visions of Bali in your head!

Babies, babies, and more babies. First we will talk about our human baby. Mikah, our youngest grandson, is taking after his dad Jamil who loves to ride his scooter (no, Jamil doesn’t ride Mikah’s Little Tykes scooter–he has his own grownup version in silver). Mikah looks so happy!

Here in Wubberland, we are just as happy as Mikah because we’ve been told that a new shipment of Baby Wubbers should arrive very soon now. We know that many of you are awaiting their arrival just as we are, so we will let you know as soon as they are safely in our nest.

Our new studio in Southlake is really starting to take shape. We’ve been waiting all month for our office and classroom furniture to arrive (are we seeing a theme here? heehee, patience may be someone’s virtue, but I don’t think it’s mine!). We’ve been told that it will be delivered Friday. Despite our limited furnishings to date, the new studio and warehouse are wonderful and we can’t wait to share them with you!

Here’s wishing you all the effortlessly natural patience I that I might lack (notice I said “might”), and no reason at all to need it (translation: have a wonderfully smooth, trouble-free week!).