Crystal Jewelry Inspiration from the CREATE YOUR STYLE Ambassadors

Most of you don't know this but I started out in 1998 as a beader.  Yes that's right.  I started out by roaming all the thrift stores and flea markets I could find to buy vintage jewelry, cutting it up and re-purposing it.  I opened a little boutique to sell jewelry and other crafty things that my mother and I created, but we soon found that it was my unique beads and findings that were drawing the customers in.  Eventually my cute little boutique morphed into a wholesale bead store specializing in Swarovski Crystals, Beadalon supplies, imported Bali and Thai silver and semi precious gem stones.  We were selling a lot of Swarovski Crystal, so much so that a couple of the head honchos from Rhode Island and Austria came to check out this little store that roared in crystal sales.  Long story short....this is when it all began!  I met Kim Paquette.  We collaborated on a massive beginner beading seminar at the Charlotte Merchandise Mart teaching 48 to 50 students a session over a 3 day period.  It was a blast. Following this event, Kim asked me to come out to Tucson to teach beginning beading at their first annual Tucson Event.  This was the beginning of my National teaching career.  While I was there I met the infamous Impatient Beader herself, Margot Potter and the beautiful and talented Anna Draegar.  Margot was the editor of Simply Bead at the time and asked me to submit to her magazine. This was a dream come true for me.  From that moment on doors began to open for me on a much larger designer scale than ever before.  Using my back ground in teaching and my love of designing I was off and running in a whole new direction.  I had finally found my niche.  If not for the Swarovski Company and it's fabulous staff, mine and my husbands life's would be much different.  We are living our dream, I am the luckiest person alive, I get to do my favorite thing to help support my family!  Being a part of this beautiful book, Crystal Jewelry Inspiration, with the all of the other talented Ambassadors is the crowning event for me.