Avoid lost shopping carts – update your bookmarks!

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Our new shopping cart has been doing lots of great things, but predictably, the transition has not been without its kinks here and there.  One thing we’ve noticed is that some folks are still ending up in the old PayPal shopping cart which means lost carts and lost orders.  We’re still trouble-shooting this but one culprit could be old bookmarks.

If you have any of our supplies pages bookmarked in your browser, we highly recommend going in and updating these bookmarks or creating whole new ones with our current page urls.  Simply go to our homepage and navigate to the page you want, for example Anodized Aluminum.  Create a new bookmark using that url instead and ditch your old one.

If you are shopping for Anodized Aluminum, your page should look like this:

Click for larger view.

If it doesn’t, you’re probably on the old page and your order will not be processed.  Our new enameled copper page looks a lot like this page as well so double check that when you’re shopping too.

Another thing to look for is that your shopping cart looks like the screenshot below.  If it doesn’t, try going back to our homepage and starting over with your order.

Click for larger view.

We expect this issue to be non-existent soon – it has already tapered off significantly.  As always, if you find yourself have troubles ordering, we are happy to help.  Just give us a call or shoot us an email at [email protected].

Cast your vote for June’s “Featured Product” Contest!

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CAST YOUR VOTE NOW!

Submissions for June’s Featured Product of the Month Contest are closed and the B3 team has completed the difficult job of narrowing down the finalists, which means it’s time for YOU to cast your vote to determine the winner. Folks this month were challenged to use color creatively – anodized aluminum, enameled copper and niobium jump rings were all fair game.  Voting will close June 30th. Voting is only allowed once per computer so choose wisely!


To share the survey, we recommend you copy the link to this blog post and use that in any emails, blog posts, or social media posts you’d like to make about it (we’ve noticed some weirdness in the past with sharing the link directly – it sometimes like to bump people out of voting that haven’t already.)

Get a sneak peak at the all of our finalists below:


                     

 

FEATURED PRODUCT FOR JULY – 6mm Miyuki Beads!

 

We love adding colorful glass Miyuki Beads to some of our favorite weaves – it’s like adding jewelry to jewelry!  We’ll be releasing the 6mm Miyuki Beads that we use in some of our kits for sale à la carte in the next week or so.  In honor of this release, we are challenging you to get creative with adding them to your next project.

For inspiration, check out these kits that use these beads to add just the right amount of bling: Rapid Track, Beaded Gridlock Byzantine & Glass Caterpillar.

Help B3 Win $250k!

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Mission Small BusinessBlue Buddha is eligible to win a $250k grant through Mission: Small Business, sponsored by Chase Bank and LivingSocial.  The grant would be used to help support the buildout of our new retail space (complete with chainmaille “genius bar” and classrooms to house lots of great classes and guest artists) as well as to build desperately needed back-end systems that would allow us to reduce out-of-stock issues and get orders processed and shipping much more quickly.  In short, this grant would help us catch up to demand for our products and services, which has grown far more quickly than we could’ve imagined in the past few years. If that all sounds pretty great to you, you can help us get to the next level!

We need 250 votes to be considered for the grant.  To cast your vote, simply go to www.missionsmallbusiness.com and scroll down to the big blue button that says “LOG IN & SUPPORT”.  You will be prompted to log in with your Facebook account. (And yes, you do need a Facebook account to vote. If you don’t have one, perhaps you could get a friend to vote on your behalf? *grin*)

Once you have logged in, type “Blue Buddha” in the blank space for business names. You don’t need to select the city or state.  After you click the SEARCH button, our company will be displayed at the bottom of the page. Click the SUPPORT button to cast your vote.  For extra credit, you can share your vote with your friends on Facebook by clicking the “Share Vote” link, and then clicking the Facebook icon. :)

That’s it!  We’ll be sure to keep you updated on how this goes.  In the meantime, keep your pliers crossed for us!  We’d love to use this money to really improve our service! Thanks for your votes; we appreciate every single one of them.

SUPPORT US NOW!

Bead&Button Show 2012: Thanks for another great year!

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We just wanted to take a moment to thank every one of you who helped make this another great year at the Bead&Button Show.  Whether you signed up to be a booth helper, stopped by our booth to say “hello”, shopped our supplies, waited patiently for your order while we finished prep work or simply sent good vibes our way – we thank you!

We have already posted our favorite pictures from this year to our page on Facebook, but we thought we’d share some of them here alongside some favorite parts of the show from our B3 team members who were there.

Jen HoheJen Hohe / B3 Inventory Coordinator and Weaver

I always enjoy seeing the reactions of the “Zed-head” winners. And, I have to give props to some of them for making it up there so fast!  One of the winners ran up with a stroller!

This year I also really made it a point to meet and say hello to some of our vendors. It’s always nice to be able to put a face to the name and voice (or email).


Happy "Operation Zed" winners!

A few of our "Operation Zed" winners!

Our mascot Zed

One of our booth helpers Laura having fun with the "Zed-head".


Rebeca Mojica Rebeca Mojica / B3 Owner + Founder

I loved teaching overall–the B&B students are so dedicated and enthusiastic!  My favorite moment was teaching Elemental Leaves and watching a complete novice go from a deer-in-the-headlights-oh-my-goodness-what-have-I-gotten-myself-into look at the beginning of the class, to a look of absolute joy when she completed her piece by the end of the session!


Former B3 Intern Stephanie Czaja

Former B3 Intern Stephanie Czaja shows off one of her amazing handmade pieces!

Rebeca + Laura

Rebeca poses with one of our booth helpers, Laura.


Jason ScerenaJason Scerena / B3 Quality Control Specialist

One cool thing from the show was people coming from the “Make ‘n’ Take” table to the checkout proudly wearing the earrings they had JUST made there and buying supplies to get started making more chainmaille.




Omni + Jason

Omni and Jason looking dashing in the booth

Make 'n' Take Table

Our Make 'n' Take table all ready and waiting for maillers!

 

Lisa RosenbergLisa Rosenberg / B3 Order Processor

During my “Make and Take” session, I helped a senior woman who told me she had not done beading or craft stuff in 40 years. The moment she opened the bag of rings her eyes lit up and she exclaimed how easy they were to see, and use!

After she learned the basic of opening and closing the rings she commented to me how patient I was and thanked me for helping her get her confidence back. She then proceeded to buy many items in the booth including a CHAINED book.


Folks Shopping for Kits

Folks Shopping for Kits & Instructions

Lovely B3 Ladies

Jen, Laura and Lisa take a break to look cute!

 

Dan Rychtarik Dan Rychtarik / B3 Quality Controller

During the make and take on Friday, there was an adorable senior woman who had never done chainmaille before but was determined to do some on that day.  She may have taken longer to do the earrings than many of the other patrons, but she couldn’t have been less stressed about taking as long as she did.  There were many open seats at the make and take table when she showed up so I just sat down with her basically one-on-one and we worked it out and got it done. *grin*  Her attitude towards making chainmaille just made my day.

 

B3 <3's Pizza Shuttle

The B3 booth crew takes a well-earned break to enjoy Pizza Shuttle!

Dan setting up the B3 booth

Dan takes a quick break from B3 booth setup

 

 

 

Order Processing Update

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The 2012 Bead&Button Show has come to a close and we are officially able to go back to business as normal (well, once the rest of our team gets safely home that is.)  We wanted to give you all a quick update on where we’re at with order processing times.

While we were able to stay open this year during the show, we ended up having a lot more last minute prep and projects than anticipated.  On one hand, that is a great thing for us  – we had lots of new chainmaille students at the show, lots of pickup orders and lots of items that flew off the shelves in the very first day.  On the other hand, it pulled our team in a lot of directions and slowed the processing times for our regular orders by much longer than we had anticipated.

Our current order processing time is posted as 5-7 days, but it is likely they may take a couple days more than that, at least until everyone is back from the show.  We are doing everything we can to shorten that time as quickly as possible.

If you are waiting on your order, we want to give you a sincere thank you for your patience.  We have been in contact with many of you and have been so blown away by your understanding.  We are a much larger business than we once were but we are still a small business with a relatively small group of people fulfilling orders in a very hands on way.  That said, we never want to make our customers wait for their orders and want you to know that we are going full speed ahead, all hands on deck to get back on track this week and get them out the door and to you as quickly as possible.

Thank you again for your patience.