We live about 150 miles inland from Galveston, Texas where Hurricane Ike made landfall early this morning.  I’ve been watching the news and weather reports about the storm for the last two days, and my heart goes out to all the thousands of people whose homes, lives and property have been severely affected by this huge hurricane.

The predictions and warnings started coming in via television radio, and newspapers at least five days ago. Forecasts put Round Top directly in Ike’s path, so yesterday Jim and I followed some of the broadcast advice and got to work. We bought extra ice and stockpiled water in case we lost power. The ice  would save our perishable food. The water we could drink  or use to flush our toilets, since our well needs electricity to power the water pump.  We stored our deck furniture and plants  inside, charged our cell phones, prepared our battery powered lantern and flashlights, and cooked a  big macaroni and vegetable salad.

Our new house is under construction next door. Since  winds might blow at up to 65 MPH, we stuffed the lightweight building materials from the job site into our garage – we didn’t want to take any chances with flying insulation. The builder lashed down the sheet metal. 

The storm didn’t come our way after all. Ike veered more to the east, leaving Round Top with only a bit of extra wind and some rain. But we were prepared, due  to all the early warnings. Tomorrow I’ll put the furniture back on the deck, clean out the garage, and turn on my torch again and make beads.

The day after won’t be nearly as easy for so many others – Ike  left a lot of damaged property in his wake.   The strength of this storm could have killed thousands, like the 1900 Galveston hurricane did – but  thanks to early warnings and evacuations, very few lives (if any) were lost.

Property can be rebuilt or recovered – lives can’t. So thank you all the people in Texas who worked on getting the word out, and keeping so many safe – a big thank you. And Ike – Good riddance! I’m glad you’re gone.

P.S. I took the picture of the copper rain lilies after I ventured out into our field after Ike passed over.

I’ve made several changes in my business this week. First and foremost, after a lot of wavering over the last year, I’ve decided to offer my work wholesale to more galleries than just the two that currently represent my work ( The Gallery at Round Top and design|works). Retail shows are  so difficult for me and Jim to physically handle. I love them, I love seeing old customers, and meeting new ones – and of course I love all the favorable reaction to my work – but I need an easier way to sell.

So, I applied to  wholesalecrafts.com, and am now a new member. (If you are a retailer, and would like to join, please e-mail me at beads at cvtv dot net.). I’m sorry, non- retail buyers can only see the front page, since the site is for gallery owners, museum shop buyers, etc. to buy directly from  U.S.A. artists.

I’ll still be selling at retail shows, but my goal is to develop gallery accounts, and by next year prune my show schedule  from fourteen shows a year down to six. A lot of buyers have looked at my page since I joined a few days ago, but no one has placed an order – yet! I’m ready to go though, and did a "Test Case" over the last two weeks, pretending to fill an order for eight necklaces I’ve listed. I needed to be sure I could make them all in  less than  three weeks. I could, and I did. So, come on out, you gallery owners, I’m primed and ready.

I’ve taken one other step, and closed my retail shop on etsy. It is a terrific web site, where thousands of artists offer  handmade wares for sale. But since February  I’ve made only seven sales.   etsy is probably not right for me -  I simply don’t have  low  price point items, and I think I was lost in the maze of thousands of shops. I also wasn’t willing to sacrifice what little Internet time I have to join etsy clubs, post in forums, and tweak  multiple pictures for every item on offer.

You, my lurking readers ( I know you’re there) can still buy from me on line. Just follow my portfolio link and send me an e-mail about what you want.  Without etsy, I’ll be  catching up with posts of new work on my own site. In fact, here’s a "Dancing Bubbles Necklace" Jim and I made just last week. Set with a custom sterling silver bale, sterling silver head-pins – and six of my sparkly hollow beads. All on a multi strand stainless steel cable.

If you like it, e-mail me – it’s $295.