Miracoli Beads | Come Be Inspired

September 10, 2008:  ** STATS ANNOUNCEMENT **

Dear Friends,

After the SiteMeter discovery and removal, we have realized that good, solid stats tracking has become a business necessity.  Not only does it help to protect this site should any breaches be attempted (as happened at the end of July), but stats are critical to effective advertising and product development.

After reviewing several different stats providers, we have selected StatCounter.  While their commitment to site owners is reassuring, their bulldogged integrity regarding user privacy (ie, yours) was what pushed them over the top.  For your information, here is their Privacy Statement:

Important Privacy Note: StatCounter.Com respects your privacy, and the privacy of your visitors. Personally identifiable information such as visitor's name, telephone number, postal address and email address are technically impossible for StatCounter to collect and no attempt is made to do so. The information that is recorded consists of the date and time of visit, ip address, browser (e.g. Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0), operating system version (e.g. Windows 2000), screen resolution (e.g. 800x600), referring link, the current page url and the current page title. A small cookie is created with no personally identifiable information to determine whether a visitor has been to your website before (e.g. a first-time or returning visitor).

Your privacy is top priority to us, too.  If at any time you have any questions or concerns about your personal information experience on this website, please contact us via the sidebar link.

As a reminder, you are always invited to sign up for our email newsletter (hosted via Constant Contact).

Blessings,
Jennifer

July 28, 2008:  SiteMeter Service Has Been Removed

Like every business owner, I am interested in putting my energy and revenue where it will do the most good, and tracking site stats is an important part of that effort.  To that end, I invested in the SiteMeter stats tracker last Fall when I launched this website.

Apparently, SiteMeter had made a deal with the ad company, Specific Media, several months before, allowing a cookie to be placed on the computer of every visitor who clicked onto any SiteMeter member's website.

SiteMeter is vague at best about the purpose of this cookie; however, one thing is clear: that it was implemented without the knowledge of SiteMeter's members or those member sites' visitors.

I only learned about this SiteMeter story just recently, and have removed SiteMeter from this website and have cancelled my account.  This website is now SiteMeter-free.

For any of our visitors who want to remove the Specific Media cookie, you will want to look in your cache at your stored cookies and find "specificclick.net".  Delete it to remove it from your cache.

To our wonderful and extremely loyal visitors, customers and clients, my deepest apologies, especially if this has caused you any inconvenience.  Please know that your privacy is our highest priority (please forgive the cliche) and that we would never knowingly do anything to compromise your information, or your trust.

Blessings,
Jennifer
jennifer [at] miracolibeads [dot] com

July 4th, 2008:  Happy 4th of July...and new pages coming soon!

Happy 4th of July!  I hope you have a wonderful holiday full of family & friends, fun, food and fireworks.  Remember to keep cool and drink your water.  We'll be going to the community celebration tonight with all of the above and a laser light show.  The fireworks will be on the 26th for the Beach Bash.  <giggle>  Go figure...

I am working on some new pages that will tell you more about wire wrapping.  The Materials page is getting hits like crazy (hurray!), but I completely missed an explanation of why I made the switch to wire wrapping, or the mechanics of this construction method.  The photo album that I'm working on will show you the process in detail.  It'll only take you a minute or so to look at the album, but time lapse it out to about 10 hours and you'll have an idea of what goes into every wire-wrapped rosary and chaplet that you'll find here.

Those pages are still very much "under construction" (har har har), but I will post as soon as they're up.

Blessings,
Jennifer

June 28, 2008:  New Gallery Pages (!) and Materials Page is Up

At long last, the new Gallery pages are up, and we are happy to share our new Materials Page.

Enjoy!

June 26, 2008:  Getting Ready to Throw Open the Doors!

Hello dear friends,

(sigh)

Well...it's been quite a couple of months.

Two months ago, we were en route to our new duty station here in California; I never imagined what frustrations and challenges this move would have in store for us.  But here we are.

We left Texas with the distinct impression that we would be moving straightaway into our new government quarters; we got here and learned the truth of it...we had a long wait ahead.

We arrived to the area April 28th and our projected move-in date was May 28th.  That meant a month of the hotel (at our expense) with three very active (and patient) boys.  Only problem with the house, though beautiful, was that it was a two story home, which would wreak havoc on my arthritic knees, especially with this being an extended assignment.  After x-rays and a long, hand-written letter from my doctor, we were granted an exception and placed on the waiting list for a one story house.  Finally, on June 16th, we were able to sign for our latest address and the moving truck was here just three days later.

It's been a thrill to get settled after such a long and unexpected bout of wandering in the desert.  I had such high hopes for a seamless business transition, but those hopes revealed themselves for what they really were (naive assumptions) and reality gave way.  It's taken longer to get going--a lot longer!--than I had anticipated, but I'm getting closer every day.  Paperwork is submitted and approved (in no small part due to the Holy Spirit) and the spark is firing in the engine!

I have a few custom orders that I have to complete, and I'll be off and running.  Feel free to drop me a line (jennifer @ miracolibeads.com (just remove the spaces), or click the "Email Me" link at the top left) anytime with your thoughts and ideas for a rosary you'd like to see, or maybe for the rosary of your dreams that you've seen in your mind for decades now.  Give me a call or send me an email; let's see what we can do together.

May 16, 2008:  ready, Set, GO!

Well, friends, we are off in just a bit to go and get my new business license.  Hurray!  I am so excited and will be all squared away TODAY to get back online and working again.

I am so behind with posting my latest work that I want to share with you.  The direction that I've been pointed in (courtesy of the Holy Spirit and our dear Blessed Mother) is so exciting and deeply gratifying to me.  I hope that you like it as much as I do.

Be watching for Father's Day offerings...and a few funsies!

Blessings,
Jennifer

May 10, 2008:  Hello California!

Well, friends--we made it; we are here. 

< e x h a l e >

We're taking a bit of time to catch our breath and get our bearings, but it's lovely here.  There are desert mountains, which reminds me a lot of where I grew up, and the temperatures are so mild--at least for the moment.  The Big Heat will come soon enough.

For now, we've met so many nice families, been to Mass at our new parish (with unofficial Perpetual Adoration--hurray!) and we have easy access to the Sacraments.  We are very blessed.

Tess the Newf is still in pupper jail, but they are taking beautiful care of her there, so my stomach isn't tied up in knots that she's not home with us.  As soon as we move into housing then she can come home, but the hotel here is strictly no pets.  Phooey on that.

We did get our new address yesterday, and it looks like mid-June will be move-in time.  Not as soon as we'd hoped, but it could always easily be worse.  This is the Army.  ; )

For now, I'm very busy working on business paperwork to cross the t's and dot the i's.  The goal is to be up and running to offer a few things for Father's Day.  I had so hoped to be able to have a Mother's Day line this year, but the timing was just bad.  I have been feeding the bead need in the meantime : ) and have some incredible new lampwork beads in that are going to make amazing Paters.  Sneak Peeks will be shared though the debut edition of my newsletter (above left)!

Speaking of which, to stay in the Miracoli loop, if you go ahead and take just a quick minute to sign up for my email list, you get all the latest and greatest: sneak peeks, private sales and more.  It'll just take a second and I won't ever bombard you with junk.  Not your thing?  No problem, you can unsub anytime.  It's hosted via Constant Contact so you can be assured that your privacy is top priority.  But you might just try it and see what you think.

Blessings,
Jennifer  : )

April 26, 2008:  So Far, and So Good!

We are half-way to California and have been very blessed so far with a safe trip and good health.  Please pray for us that we continue to have such great travels.

Blessings,
Jennifer

April 22, 2008:  On the Road...Again!

Well, my friends, we are just about ready to hit the road for California.  Friday morning is it.  We'll wind up our time here with Mass that morning (our 16th wedding anniversary) and Father will bless our family and the cars and then we will point ourselves West and set sail for the next chapter in this great adventure of life.

We would appreciate your prayers for travel mercies, as well as for our family.  This weekend, we suffered our second miscarriage since February (we have three living children, and this was our 7th pregnancy), and we are hoping that the doctors at our new duty station will be inspired to care and help us figure out what is wrong with me.  I love writing as much as I love creating with beads; I wrote down some thoughts about miscarriage if you'd like to read more about it.

Back to business!  We are hoping to get housing quickly and be settled by the time Hub has to start work June 1st.  That's the hope and the goal!  Please pray for that time line (vs. living in a hotel for four months while we wait for housing to become available...that's a definite possibility, unfortunately).  As soon as we are settled, I will be back in business.  I have so many ideas and so many beads that are just crying out for attention!  Add me to your feed reader so that you can get updates "as they happen".  : )

Blessings,
Jennifer

April 9, 2008:  Gallery Updates Are Coming!

Oh, woe are my Gallery pages.  : )  Improvements are coming soon!

Blessings,
Jennifer