BRRRRRR

Friday night was the coldest night we ever spent on the boat. But it was pretty cozy in our aft cabin with the zoned heating on. Just a little frosty in the aft head if you happened to need to visit it in the middle of the night! Avoiding cold nights and months in New Jersey while living on our boat was the main reason we came south in the fall of 2005. Sure looking forward to the Carolina spring time.

NC Coastal Person of The Year Awards

Paige Somervell, Marketing Manager for Wilmington Cape Fear Coast Convention and Visitors Bureau, wandered in one day last week and seemed to me to be on a mission. It turned out I was right. She was given the task to find something that would represent the coast and would serve as an award to be presented to three very active "Persons of The Year" who promote the coast for their region. An inscribed plate needed to be attached commemorating this honor in each of their names. Paige was immediately drawn to one of our local artists, Richard Bunting's, conch shells that are solid glass blown pieces in rich vibrant colors and range in petite size to extra large size. This choice fit for many reasons because of it's a shell representing the coastal waters and Richard being a local artist. Now the task was to find a way to make it into an award presentation piece. Paige and I brainstormed, first considering mounting the piece on a low acrylic base and soon discarding that idea. I thought of using clear stained glass that would give the base a "water" look. Mike works in stained glass and had just the right pieces in his studio. After cutting them and placing the silver inscribed plates on them, the shells are perfect as an award. We were so pleased to work with Paige, and have learned that Richard's shells will be used again next year. Richard and Mike, his assistant in the studio, will work on a one-piece sculpture incorporating the base for next year.

The recipients are Al Delia, Kim Hufham, and Penny Leary. Congratulations to each from Mike and I. Enjoy your beautiful art glass shell

On My Game

I promised that some of my Philadelphia Eagles fan frustration might surface in future blogs way back in September. Well here I sit alone watching them play the Vikings in the playoffs with the score Eagles 16 and Vikings 14 in the 4th quarter and chewing my nails to pieces. I want this win for McNabb soooo badly because it's been a tough year for him. I'm always loyal to our quarterbacks.

But that has nothing to do with glass art or boats...oops Sheldon almost picked off a throw. darn Back to art. Our shelves and cupboards are bare after the holiday sales! I'm placing orders with our artists to...omg Westbrook scores, yeah! Five minutes to go in the 4th and its 23 to 14. I think I'll get back to the art later.

Stay tuned...

Ring Out The Old

It has been awhile since my last musings here...the holiday season was good to us at Crescent Moon. But here I am at 5:55pm on 12/31/08 thinking about the year 2008 and as the saying goes… to Ring Out The Old and Ring In The New!

I won’t belabor you with recapping the year on a national level, since all the media channels, websites and newspaper headlines cover that very nicely. And what fodder there was from record breaking Olympics to historic politic happenings. I will however take a line or two to ring out 2008 for Crescent Moon and Mike and I.

• We end our second year as owners of Crescent Moon
• We start on our fourth year living on our boat
• We weathered the start of the recession and learned much about retail markets
• Mike finished his first year apprenticing in glass blowing and wants to do more
• Joan learned to write a blog and entered into the cyberspace marketing era

We couldn’t have marked any of these milestones without our loyal customers and friends. We will strike a deal with all of you. We will continue to be here if you continue to be here. We will continue to strive to provide you with great service, beautiful glass and metal art, and a friendly atmosphere to do your shopping.

We wish all a wonderful New Year, 2009 upon us already. Wow it slides by so quickly. We are thankful for so much. We are thankful for our customers. Have fun and be safe!

Namaste….Joan and Mike