Organization

Todd was my hero, once again. I use a lot of bubble wrap and packing material in shipping out my products for Hackberry Creek. I use a lot of recycled material that has been discarded and it was piled up to the ceiling in black garbage bags and boxes in one of my stock rooms. It was a chore finding anything and just made me feel very disorganized.


Inspired by the wire fencing on the guinea pig cage, I asked Todd if he thought we could use the same material and build bins for my bubble wrap and packing material. He was skeptical at first, but then saw my vision and went to work.


The result was outstanding. Now all of my packing stuff is neatly organized and easily accessible. Thanks, babe!

Packing Material -- Before

Packing Material -- After

Yea, New Beads!

Wow, I got a large order of gemstone beads in yesterday. There are some real beauties, so I am sure that my customers will love them. It feels just like Christmas. Did I say that I love my job?

Typical Evening

Evan was so excited to find a dried up gecko last night. He ran in to tell me that he had in his possession a "gecko skeleton." I'm not sure if it is really a skeleton...just more like a dehydrated gecko. I wanted to take a picture of Evan holding his specimen, but he had just taken a bath and was a t-shirt and underwear and was adament that he didn't want a photo of him in his underwear on the internet. I told him I would only take it from the waist up, but he still wasn't convinced. Thus, we had to settle of a photo of the gecko on the table.

Chad and Todd were troopers and helped me bag some beads for our store. Chad wasn't in the mood to have his photo taken and Todd couldn't help but tease him a little. Thanks guys, for all of your hard work and dedication!

Evan's find...

Todd teasing Chad about being camera shy.

New Additions to Hackberry Creek

One of my favorite things about having my own business is being able to sell things that I love. I was recently inspired by some handmade notebooks that I ran across on Etsy. I love all things having to do with paper, writing, reading, drawing, etc. To that end, I bought the equipment so that Todd and I could make our own notebooks that we could offer on Hackberry Creek.

The photo above is an example of some of our art notepads. We also have some fun ones made from upcycled boxes and bags such as Doritos, Lucky Charms and other food and consumer products. You can see our entire selection here.

Preparing for Fall

Fall is the busiest time of year at Hackberry Creek. Thus, we are working very hard this summer in preparation for our "busy season." We are getting in a lot of new inventory like these gorgeous enamel beads.

My friend and Evan's teacher, Coach, came over to help me package beads yesterday. Thanks for the help, Coach!

Pretty enamel beads.

Coach inspecting and packaging beads.

It Feels Like Fall at Hackberry Creek

I know it is summer, but when I saw these adorable Halloween beads that I just got in, I felt a bit of Fall in the air.

Mini U Bead It's

One of the most popular items that we sell at Hackberry Creek are our U Bead It Pendants. They are so great because the tops screw off and on which makes it a snap to individualize them with your favorite beads to make fan pulls, key chains, zipper pulls, necklace pendants, etc. Even children can use them to create since all you have to do is slide the beads on (with adult supervision, of course).

We started out carrying them in a long 2 1/4 inch length. We received tons of requests for shorter ones, so then we worked with our manufacturer to get a 1 3/4" size. Still, the requests continued for even smaller ones and finally today, we got the mini size delivered. They are 1 1/4" long and have a 1/2" inch space for beads, the perfect size for that special lampwork bead. Here are they are in action. So cute!

Mini U Bead It's in action.

Summer Boring?

Evan started daycamp this week, but Chad has school through Thursday. Thus, Chad has been on his own after school and has had to find ways to keep himself busy for a couple of hours until Todd brings Evan home from daycamp. Yesterday I heard the words that all mothers dread, "Mom, I'm bored." I thought I gave a good response. Very calmly I said, "Gosh, Chad, it is only the beginning of summer. You could go ride your skateboard, play basketball, draw, read, go on the slip and slide, play a game, do some arts and crafts, or if you want to, help me with some beads." He didn't really like any of my ideas. What makes me think this is going to be a long summer?

I got to do one of my favorite things today, open new boxes of merchandise. These gorgeous window beads are decorated with bronze all around the edge and had me drooling as I took them out of the box.

Fun Storage Tubes

I just got in a lot of new bead storage containers. These cute little tubes are one of my favorites. They are so girly with the bright pink lids.

I Love Bead Eye Candy

One of my favorite things about my business is getting new inventory in and packaging it up. Here is a photo of some cute charms that we recently added to our inventory. There is nothing like new stuff to get the creative juices flowing.