Fire & Ice Boutique is Growing

Fire & Ice Boutique is a great new store at a great location. I am proud to offer my jewelry lines to Grand Junction, CO. Vital Wonders and Molten Ice/Blast Glass Jewelry is a great addition to White Hall Village, a wonderful alternative mall for wandering and discovering interesting, not to be found anywhere else - stores in Grand Junction, Colorado. Come on over to 600 White Ave.

Grand Opening! New Store to Open!

Wonderful news from Vital Wonders, Molten Ice and Blast Glass Jewelry!

FIRE & ICE BOUTIQUE

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Monday February 1st, 2009 -
The official opening date for Fire & Ice Boutique
in Grand Junction, Colorado at White Hall.

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Kim DiJulio has opened a store in the historic White Hall Building, an old converted church with loads of character with various spaces for eclectic stores, an alternative book store and library, non-profit foundations offering many types of classes and community help, sound-proofed rehearsal rooms; a lovely performance stage, with a restaurant coming soon. It's a small alternative concept mall to roam around, socialize and network.

The Grand Opening of my new store Fire and Ice Boutique will be on February 1st with a Grand Opening Party soon afterwards. Fire & Ice Boutique will be selling Kim's designer jewelry, Vital Wonders Magnetic Jewelry, Kim's Molten Ice Dichroic and Blast Glass Jewelry and Silver Shrine Gold Mine sterling jewelry; along with consignment pieces from other artists, deluxe sea sponges, hand-made soaps and many other fine green-orientated merchandise.

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With the horrid economy upon us, it seems nuts to start up a store. But this is a Community Hall with civic minded politically active people with lots of community events and business and social networking constantly going on.

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We are glad to join this active community at White Hall and invite everyone to come!
I'll keep everyone posted as to what is happening at Fire & Ice Boutique and White Hall!

Iggy and the Stooges - 1970's observations

ROCK AND ROLL MOMENT

Doing research, I came across pixcetera.com and found some great retro pictures by Michael Ochs of Iggy and the Stooges, revelent because of the passing of Ron Asheton, band member.

I knew Iggy was genius in '73/'74 Ann Arbor. Seger didn't get it. Non of the Ann Arbor hierarchy did. It was a great moment - the Primo Showbar All Star Show with all the A2/Detroit music kings. I'll never forget seeing Iggy for the first time; I looked over at him, not knowing anything about them, and thought 'who the hell does he think he is?' Then I concentrated my gaze and checked out the silver cowboy boots, beat jeans, the face, the hair... It wasn't easy standing out in Ann Arbor in the early 1970's, believe me - everyone was trying - hard. After studying him further I realized - "what ever he is trying to be - he IS IT!" He was unique. He wailed at one show and all the biggies also preforming shrunk away. Shaking their heads. I was totally intrigued. He was a stage presence and the level of excitement and life force was total and electrifying. Seger was a cutie, pretty boy face with that deep rusty voice and the fame - he just didn't have the amazement of Iggy. No one did. Retro pictures from back then jogs my memories better [when it comes to Iggy whose looks have changed somewhat]. :) What a crush I had on Iggy's drummer! He had a big platinum streak in his pompadour. Hot.

I have pleasant thoughts of Ron though I don't remember much due to my [past] '70's lifestyle. My blessings to your family. Rest in Peace Ron. Thanks for adding to rock and roll history.

Kim - the errant Primo girl.

Vital Wonders Presents Blast Glass Jewelry

Blast Glass is Exploding into 'Crazy-Eyes',

'Delicate Danglers', 'Gold on Black'

and 'Blast Glass Red/White/Blue.'

Blast Glass is exploding! Subdivisions are quickly developing. Vital Wonders presents Blast Glass Jewelry a sister company to Molten Ice Dichroic Jewelry. Blast Glass Jewelry is offering fantastic fused glass earrings and fused glass necklaces full of color, individuality and attention.

Another striking Blast Glass addition is 'Crazy-Eyes', wildly energetic earrings. 'Delicate Danglers' offers romantic sweet delicately dangling earrings. All are formed from the highest quality glass fused in a kiln, after careful planning, many with the wire bails melted right into the bead. I hand form most of the ear wires to incorporate little embellishes like accent beads within wire designs. If I luck into some special sterling silver Bali, Indian, Thai, among others, ear wires or components I may add their handicraft to my piece.

Two other divisions are 'Gold on Black', a stunning look of black glass with 22K gold decals like sea horses, grape vines, flowers, animals and more;

and 'Blast Glass Red /White /Blue' offering jewelry and gifts in red, white and blue fused glass, celebrating America's future.

Come visit www.vitalwonders.com

or www.moltenicedichroic.com

Earring Styles - Big, Little, Chunky or Delicate? Welcome to Silver Shrine Goldmine.

What's going on in earrings? Is large and chunky in? Tiny and delicate? Long or short? One thing is for sure: hoops will always be in. There is no guessing on hoops! Hoop earrings - any size - are just so becoming, on any shape face, any age, any ethnicity.

This winter I will be releasing my Silver Shrine Goldmine Line of lustrous sterling silver jewelry, sometimes with a touch of gold. I will be debuting all types of exciting sterling silver hoop earrings and also streams of flowing silver discs; firey white, molten silver convex circles of glowing moons in many becoming combinations. I will be offering sets of earrings and necklaces, with some bracelets, rings and barrettes too.

One thiing will be true for all the pieces; they will celebrate being hand wrought; curved, hammered, polished and - silver. Absolutely silver.

Kim DiJulio's Vital Wonders is debuting her sterling silver line of jewelry - Silver Shrine Goldmine Jewelry! Please visit : www.vitalwonders.com/silvershrinegoldmine

Debut for the Holidays

Blast Glass Jewelry is up and showing. Great earrings, colorful, wild, fun, beyond trendy. Classy beaded necklaces - a bit victorian, a bit modern. Blast Glass Jewelry is my non-dichroic line of fused glass jewelry. I had a lot of fun playing with Wasser pre-cut glass pieces. Getting circles and curves is tedious with glass and Wasser has great pre-cut circles, heart-shapes and stars. Using these shapes freed up the effort so I could just have fun with shape and color. They free up the price also. I had specialized in dichroic glass, which is so expensive, worth it, but I wanted a less expensive line so people had the choice to spend less. Plus the line is totally different, its own entity - Blast Glass Jewelry.
I have had a long time love of polling so I invite everyone to be in my polls. I hope they are interesting and I am most interested in following our shared predicament. I think of it as 'mass mugging'. Just a few months ago I couldn't understand how people could default on paying on their credit card bills. Wow! Now I know! This is how: one by one each company sends little messages advising you of 'changes'. You have to write in to opt out. I am afraid to opt out. I feel they would flag me and punish me. And you hope maybe the change will be in your favor. And they change more than rates. They change policy. They yank the rug right out from under you. How about your balance remaining the same but every month your Minimum Payment Due goes higher and higher until you can't pay it! Where does that get them? I am willing to pay for the rest of my life but if they jack me around I can walk away. We have to understand their financial crisis and they get bailed out. We bail them out and then pay through our noses to keep them going. If we all walked away, together, we could take the power back and bring these money suckers down. The thought of killing myself to do the right thing while realizing the thought I can't get out of my mind that all my money for the rest of my life isn't a drop of fuel in someone's yacht. It is the greatest imbalance - they are WAY too important to me and I am not at all important to them. And they have sour grapes.
Blast Glass Jewelry, division of Vital Wonders

When times get tough - it is time to design.

Hello everyone, hang in there. Woe to the retailers.
We are making gifts this year. Maybe splurge on food. If nothing else, it will be an old fashioned Holiday season. The way it should be, togetherness, gifts of the Magi, feasting. It frankly sounds good to me.
I am in the retail business, my online store is www.vitalwonders.com selling designer magnetic therapy jewelry and artful fused glass jewelry and gifts, but I cut out most advertising this year - still paying off last December's pay-per-click bills. What answers the question anyway of 'who is clicking on my ads? How much can it cost to not sell anyway?' [a lot] Who pays $2.50 a click? You don't sell if you don't show and who is showing? The same big guys on most every page - how do they do it? Many times they are subsidies of the click company which I doubt get any bill but seem to set the bids high high high. Seems to me greed will bite these big companies in the butt because after a while as they grow bigger and bigger no one will be left to keep the wheels oiled.
I lowered my prices consistently as the months went on, seeing how everyone is taking economic blows, and reality is slipping into new depths. Am I the only one biting the bullet? Are we not writing history as we are winging it? This is new territory for us, I just hope I can continue in a civilized manner. Anything can come at us, when you are vulnerable fate strikes. As I tried to prepare starting eight years ago, I thought I could outlast it. Well, for four years anyway. But the obvious corporate thieves struck heartlessly and I watched as a spectator and witnessed rug after rug being pulled out from beneath me. Forced company buybacks of blocks of stocks, why always mine? How did they pick and choose who's stocks are taken back and who gets to keep theirs at the new inflated price, huh Sears? After 25 years we get unceremoniously fired and dumped. And what a low price you offered and after taking off the charges for the right to sell the shares back, we got shinola. The other fourth of my portfolio went bankrupt. [not their CEOs tho] Exxon made big bucks but it didn't seem to trickle down to the investors. What's the point, who is getting the profits? Oh that special few! Where are they going to hide anyway? People hear 'let them all eat cake' too often and there is no cake, it will bounce back. How utterly foolish. Hey thanks health insurance companies, thanks for letting me pay in and pay in for some catastrophic event that MIGHT happen and then canceling me when it did and leaving me untouchable. Breaking a bone nowadays is like farming using big machinery, it could cost little if treated but why treat a wound when you can xray the hell out of it, give inflatedly high med prices, have nine specialists take a look see at hundreds per, and who even knows who really had their hands in the mess, a sea of strange faces when you are whacked on drugs they pumped into you. Ever get butchered in an emergency vehicle? They are there to help you so you lose all rights but if not done right, they can turn out to be a worse memory than the accident. Then let's inundate you with meds that all constipate you and then NOT let you leave until you eliminate. Mission impossible? I could go on but why bother. There are plenty with worse horror stories than my observations. But why do doctors get huge salaries for a quick look see and the nurses who watch over you and nurture you along hourly get a small salary, long hours, and a brutal schedule? I'd rather pay the nurse. Doctors rushing at a diagnosis is like injury lawyers scuttling towards the victim... Can I get in on the bill, huh? Oh boy, a vulnerable victim to re-victimize!
We need new people in charge, new ideas, new technologies, new standards, new pride, new motivation and big fixes! And some decency.