I'm working on a complete rework of the homepage (with pretty new graphics) and adding a whole bunch of new merchandise. Bring on the cupcakes and earrings! At least some of it should be done today!

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Kris

It's Sunday, all storms and tornado warnings again, so to ward off the dull grey of it all I'm working on a big update (stud earrings anyone?) and some bonus goodies for my email list members. Are you on the email list? Cross your fingers for me, I'm really hoping to make it through the whole day with power!

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Kris

Northeast Iowa (otherwise known as HQ) used to be a really calm, quiet place to live. Sure, we had storms, it's the great plains. The last couple summers have been insane. You may have noticed a bit of a shipping delay. What started out as an ordinary storm became something much more remarkable. By the time it was all over winds were measured up to 120 miles per hour (though they can't guarantee those numbers because the equipment wasn't built to measure that high!) and Luster HQ was disconnected from power at about 4am, thanks to trees falling onto the power lines. After around 30 hours of outage power was finally restored, but internet took quite a bit longer than that. It shouldn't be too much of a mystery why orders were delayed for a while there - no power and no internet makes it tricky to check email, print order slips and shipping labels, cook food, not injure yourself in the dark, etc. As soon as things were back running we got busy catching up! I'm sorry if your stuff got caught up in this delay, I couldn't even get online to post an announcement! After last year's flooding and this year's super storms (this is after a tornado was within two or three miles of here already this summer) I'm thinking mother nature owes this city a calm, easy to survive winter ;-)

xoxo
Kris

Between you and me I've got an awesome new project coming up so if you've got pictures of you wearing jewelry from Luster track them down. I'm going to be asking for them ;-)

I made some tasty cupcake toppers for Valentine's Day (though, since I'm not a fan of cake, for me they were just tasty candy pieces!) This is what they look like:



Click here for the instructions!

<3
Kris

Until tomorrow, anyway. I've posted some sparkly new Valentine's Jewelry right here, but I haven't added it to the official front page of links yet. Back to work for me!

<3
Kris

If you aren't caught up on these things (and there's a good chance you aren't) the US government is changing laws about what can and can't be in products for children. In case it's not obvious, the stuff on this website is NOT for kids. Honestly. Everything is in adult sizes. Almost everything contains dangerously small pieces. Everything is handmade in the US. It all should be handled like hand made art pieces, and owned by adults. Think about it, a fake piece of candy with a pin back sticking off the back isn't a great thing to give a kid. Even the smartest kid has bad days and might decide to try that out in their mouth.

That said, every attempt is made to be sure everything here is as safe as possible. All supplies are are labeled "lead-free" from the manufacturer, and most of this stuff can't contain lead (no really, it's science.)

So, basically, Luster's not for kids. Thanks for reading this!

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Kris

If you want to know more about the CPSIA (and it's potentially devastating effect on small, responsible, independent businesses) you should check out this post by the very smart Dale Dougherty from Craft Magazine or this update on Etsy. I know there are a lot of things to care about in this world, but if small business matters to you this might be a good time to get involved.

Hey, I'm a real person and I like having friends. If you haven't already tracked me down somewhere, here are some places you can find me:

Myspace

Facebook: Kristin DeGraeve

Buzznet

Twitter

<3
Kris