What a Wonderful Time at Cousin Corporation!

 On Wednesday, February 20th, I flew out with my fellow ambassadors to for our Cousin Creative Circle retreat at Cousin Corporation.  I was a bit nervous considering I had never flown before.  But I got through it.

Longest escalator ever!

The trip to Tampa was an amazing one even though I got lost at the Atlanta Airport thanks to my fellow ambassador, Suzette Bentley, who told me to meet her at date D-10 and I needed to be at gate B-10.


Anyway, the flights were great.  Started out on Delta from Jackson, MS to Atlanta (a small puddle jumper plane) and then on to Tampa aboard a much larger and nicer Delta plane.  We arrived in Tampa to be greeted by fellow ambassador, Gail Devoid, and Chris White from Cousin.



We ate at Carrabba's in the airport. Great company! Chris kept us in stitches while we awaited the arrival of ambassador Lisa Crone. When we all had gathered together, Chris went to get the "Cuz Bus".  A huge Mercedes-Benz van/bus.  Super cush!  Somehow an orange and an apple got loose and started rolling around on the floor in the Cuz Bus.  It became the running gag for the whole trip.  The pair of fruit began showing up all over the place.

Sunset at Double Tree Resort

We were greeted by wonderful reception at the Double Tree Resort by Hilton on North Redington Beach.  A wonderful photo op on the deck in the setting sun made the day perfect.  Lisa, Suzette, and I stayed up until 11 pm just chatting away.

L to R: Jeff Cousin, Me, Lisa Crone, Suzette Bentley, Gail Devoid, Liz Heggy

Sunrise over the water.

I woke up early Thursday morning and sat out on the deck waiting for my fellow ambassadors and our ride.

We headed out to Cousin Corporation in Largo, FL.  In route, we had to travel down Highway 666.  Too funny!

L to R: Gail, Lisa, Suzette, Me

Big, yet small all at the same time. I was completely blown away on our tour of the facility.  Cousin Corporation began as a small family owned business and has grown into a thriving company with about 175 employees.  This is a major corporation that feels like a small business.  It's unbelievable how the whole operation runs as smoothly as it does with just a skeleton crew.  We aren't talking about just a few orders a month.  They process about 5000 orders a day almost every day - worldwide. All of their orders are processed and packed by hand.
 
Community at it's best.  There is a strong sense of community and family at Cousin that is undeniably the driving force behind their success.  Everyone is involved in the day to day operations making strong connections between every employee.  Everyone chips in together and helps out.   I was impressed by the fact that Jeff Cousin himself had no problem leaving his office to pack and ship orders.  That speaks volumes to me. Liz Heggy, Sales and Marketing Manager at Cousin, put it best, "If this company succeeds, it's because of all of us and not one person.  If this company fails, it's because of all of us and not just one."

Family. All of us ambassadors felt an immediate connection to the wonderful people of Cousin Corporation.  There was a closeness experienced by all of us that only be called one thing - "family".   The people of Cousin Corporation had no need to impress us.  Their interactions with each other, the joy on each one's face as they came into work and how they glowed as they talked about what they do there let us all know the truth.  Everyone there loves their job because they feel they belong.  Employees of Cousin Corporation have taken ownership of their company and represent Cousin well.  When someone takes ownership of something, one tends to take care of it and cherish it.  The people working for Cousin Corporation do just that.

Winding down. On Thursday night, we dined at a very nice restaurant, Salt Rock Grill.  Awesome food and great fellowship occurred that night.  On Friday, we enjoyed a shopping trip in the Bead Library at Cousin.  We were given a huge box to fill up with whatever we wanted.  Mine had trouble closing.  I had filled it up!

Parting is such sweet sorrow. Gail and Lisa were the first to have to be at the airport. Our hot tamale chauffeur, Chris, took us all to see her off.  Chris, Suzette, and I went over to the mall to await our flights.  Suzette was next to go.  Chris and I hung out at Target and then back to the airport.  I can honestly say, that I felt like I was leaving my home.  These were people in a very short time found a way into my heart, and I didn't want to let them go

Heading home. Sadness set in on the flight to Houston, TX.  The plane was rather large with super comfy seats.  Thank you United Airlines.  I had an almost two hour layover in Texas.  They kept moving my gate around so I had plenty of exercise going back and forth.  The flight home was quicker than anticipated since the United Airlines puddle jumper caught a nice tail wind.  We did hit some storms coming into the Jackson, MS airport.  Saw some lovely lightning around the plane.  I had never seen a storm from the top down before, so that was cool.  All of the bumps weren't so pleasant though.  We touched down and skidded a bit on the wet runway.  I was met by my darling husband, my two adorable boys, and a half dozen roses.

All in all, it was a great trip.  My goodie box arrived yesterday, and I am so stoked to make something pretty!  I made a little video scrapbook of the trip below.  Enjoy.

Getting Ready

Today, I fly out to Tampa, FL to hang out with my fellow Creative Circle Ambassadors and all the cool peeps at Cousin Corporation.  We have a whirlwind few days lined up for us.  I can't wait.  The only draw back is my dear friend and fellow ambassador, Patty Squillante, will not be with us.  She opened her very own bead shop and is unable to join us due to all the responsibilities of running a business.  She had one of her dreams come true with this shop so all the best to Patty!  I will make sure I take tons of pictures for you, Patty.

I woke up this morning at 3:50, wide awake at that, before my alarm which was set for 4:05.  I was planning to hit snooze for a while before I actually had to get up.  Since, I am up, I decided to go ahead and put makeup on.  Don't want to scare anyone on the plane.  LOL

Anyway, this will be my very first flight.  I am almost 40 years old and am just now going to fly.  I have always traveled by car everywhere I go.  Even when I went to Canada, it was by car.  I like my feet on the ground.  So....be praying for me that I don't freak out and become one of those raving lunatics you read about in the news on Yahoo!

Much love
Shelly

Prima Bead - Bead and Button Show Project - Part One!

In early February, I posted about a new project for Cousin which would be our "biggest assignment to date."  I'm super excited and super nervous about being able to create something that will be displayed at such a prestigious event.

While I sorted my supplies, I ran into a problem.  The color of some of the pearls were off.  I had ordered dark blue/navy and what I received was dark teal/green color.  Turns out I had a mislabeled batch.  Oops.... I reached out to one of my contacts there at Cousin/Prima Bead and he quickly sprang into action to make sure the other pearls were labeled correctly for other customers and find me a perfect match for what I wanted.  Within a few days, I received my new goodies.  But the fact I had off colored items didn't stop me from creating a beautiful piece from the pearls.  So now I have two necklaces for Cousin to choose from.  Below are the progression of each necklace from idea conception to finished beauty.

The beginning of the first one:

This was the focal design I came up with and the rest of the necklace flowed around it.  Sterling Silver fancy head pin, filigree heart connector and eye pins were used with a 10x8mm Crystazzi Dark Sapphire teardrop bead, huge 20 mm glass pearl and a 6x8mm Crystazzi Light Sapphire rondelle.

I came up with a pattern using 6mm deep teal, light turquoise, and white glass pearls.  I knew I wanted to use a collar style necklace as the base for this piece to give it a Victorian feel.

I used Beadalon's WildFire Thermally Bonded Bead Weaving Thread in Frost 10 lb., 15mm with a #12 beading needle.

I created a Right Angle Weave using a base ring of four pearls then adding in three at a time until I reached the desired length.  I then went back in and added 4mm round A/B finished Swarovski clear crystals and 4mm bicone Crystazzi Light Sapphire crystals.








I added in dangles along the sides using 10x8mm Crystazzi Dark Sapphire and Clear A/B tear drops accented with 4mm bicone Crystazzi Light Sapphire crystals and 4mm bicone A/B clear crystals. I draped a Sterling Silver link chain from the Elegance Metal line in the design.

Bit by bit, it all came together.  I continued to add in various colored glass pearls, crystals, and even some Jewelry Basics acrylic beads.

 

New Project!

Okay...I received my February/March project information on Friday, February 1st.  This is going to be the Creative Circle's "Biggest project to date" as our contact at Cousin told us in our email.

This is the exact quote from the email detailing what this project is about. 

We want to feature YOU at our Prima Booth at the Bead & Button Show in June!!!!!!!!!!!  Each necklace will be a major focal point of the booth complete with a name plate of the designer!

Assignment:

-Create a show-stopping Necklace that will be featured at the Prima Booth at the Bead and Button show.  We want something that will WOW them and grab everyone’s attention!

-The piece must retail between $300-$500

-No earrings or bracelets it must be a Necklace.

-Once you have completed the necklace we will send you a call tag to ship it to Cousin headquarters

-The assignment will be due on April 1^st

After the initial panic wore off and I composed myself, I researched some trends and decided to create something blue. My next step was to requisition the materials I was going to need from Prima Bead and wait for them to come in.  Today my goodie box came!  I was so excited.  I must have looked like a kid at Christmas when the UPS driver arrived at my door.

As the project progresses, I will post photos.