Laurie LaTorre with LaLa Beading Creations 2026

Meg McCormick Hoerner (00:08)
Welcome back to the Bridgerton Beacon. We decided to stop by today to have a quick visit with Lori Latour of La La Beating Creations to see some of her spring creations. We talked to Lori, I guess last year, was it, Lori? And got some background with her and Sandi Asselta about when and why they started La La Beating Creations. But we wanted to see some of these pieces in person and in particular, some of the

⁓ spring, new spring items that she wants to show us. So what do you have for us today,

Laurie LaTorre (00:44)
Hi, welcome back. Thanks for having us again. Just wanted to show you some things that we have out for this time of year. ⁓ I think of things like purples and yellows and pinks when I think about spring. So some of our display here is all of the purples kind of put together, various styles on one prop so that you can see a couple of different options for ⁓ springtime colors. So some pinks, you'll see some light corals and oranges.

on one of the other displays as well. Things like peaches, I think of spring. Obviously the hot pinks and the whites, you could wear that with black, it would be gorgeous. With just, you know, a simple even jeans, t-shirt, and you want to throw on something with a little pop of color, I think about that. So that's something that, you we wanted to display today. And then another piece that...

Meg was asking about was anything new that we have out. So we had a suggestion from one of our customers that ⁓ a lot of our customers are a little on the mature end of things. So being able to see maybe in a dark restaurant, reading a menu, gets a little difficult. So we created a couple of things like this. You don't even notice that hanging at the bottom of this necklace is a magnifying glass. So when you're sitting at the restaurant, again in the dark, you could pull it up the menu.

kind of hit it with the magnifier, but it kind of gets hidden along with the other necklace. And the way we did this was we made it on lobster claw clasps so that if you want to take it off and just wear the necklace part and not worry about the magnifier, you're really getting two necklaces in one. You could wear just the magnifier if you wanted, or here's your whole brown necklace by itself.

Just clip these two together. And you've got a two-in-one necklace. So you really have three necklaces. You've got it together. You've got the magnifier alone that you could wear with other jewelry. Or you've got the tiger's eye, which is all by itself.

Meg McCormick Hoerner (02:40)
That's fantastic.

I love that and I can think of some great local restaurants that are very dark that you could certainly use that ⁓ in. could almost trademark that. Patent that. What else do have over here?

Laurie LaTorre (03:05)
Yeah, yeah. Great. Some other stuff

over here. We're going to be doing a purse bingo for the Chamber of Commerce, one of the bag bingos. And one of the things we started making were purse charms. know, bling up your little pocketbook with just this extra. It could be a keychain if you really wanted to throw your keys on there, but I see it as just either a book bag kind of charm, maybe your zipper pole even.

but we throw them on our pocketbooks, we change them with the seasons, and they're a cute little gift, very inexpensive, to kind of give out to your friends.

Meg McCormick Hoerner (03:41)
That's really, really cute. I'm a reader and I could almost see you turning that into a little bookmark.

Laurie LaTorre (03:48)
Absolutely,

absolutely. We're big sports fans, Sandy and I, so we have them for the Phillies. We have them for the Eagles. We made them with Saquon's name on it. ⁓ Depends on what you like. can make, we do custom orders.

Meg McCormick Hoerner (04:02)
was

just going to say that we talked a lot about that when we interviewed you and Sandy before and it is important to make sure our listeners know that although you can certainly purchase one of these items that we see here, if you have something in mind, you're happy to do a custom order. In fact, you did a custom order for me last year. So that's really a nice feature.

Laurie LaTorre (04:23)
Yep.

We find that people sometimes can't find exactly what they're looking for. Maybe you have a special event coming up. You have the right dress, the right shoes, the right purse, but you're driving yourself crazy looking for the earrings, the necklace, the bracelet. They can match, they don't have to match. You might have a piece already at home and you want something to go with it. We'll do our best to make what you're looking for. You kind of get an idea of the style you want. We'll talk it through with you. I did an entire bridal ⁓

earrings and a bracelet for a woman I never met her until I delivered it everything was done by text. wow that's sending her pictures she agreed she looked at it she liked it everything went very seamlessly very low contact we didn't have to be in the same place.

Meg McCormick Hoerner (05:11)
So if somebody has right now who's listening wants to reach out to you, has something in mind maybe for later this spring or summer, what's the best way to get a hold of you?

Laurie LaTorre (05:21)
We

have a couple ways. We do have a Facebook page. You can message us through Facebook. I'm not a great social media girl, but we do our best. ⁓ My phone number is 609-381-9222. You can just call and leave a message and I'll call you back. 609-381-9222 or lalabeadingcreations@gmail.com.

Meg McCormick Hoerner (05:30)
I'm turn that around for you, Laurie.

Want to say that one more time?

lalabeatingcreations at gmail.com. Excellent. Great. So you seem to have different things for each season. Yeah. Right? So right now you're in your spring mode. When do you start thinking about different holidays? So right now, for example, if somebody was thinking about maybe 4th July or even Halloween, can they reach out to you at any time? Or do you have things in stock?

Laurie LaTorre (06:19)
How does that go? Anytime.

We keep everything in stock. You'll see on the display, we don't just take everything that's black or brown or gray off the display. It's crazy. People will come and say, I just want something that goes with everything. The colors are beautiful, but I want something black. Okay. And it's June. Hey, you can buy it whenever you want. Great. But we do kind of focus more, like right now we're thinking Mother's Day. I'm thinking brides. I'm thinking graduations, teacher gifts. It's coming the end of the year.

in May June. Great idea. You might want to give your teacher a little purse charm, just a little something. For somebody, just did a special order this past week for communion, first communion. It was a very dainty little bracelet for a girl that had a cross and her initial charm hanging from the bottom of the bracelet. Just work. Very understated, very simple. Yeah.

Meg McCormick Hoerner (06:54)
Graduation gift for somebody who's not sure.

Understated.

What's typical

turnaround time? Remind me. ⁓

Laurie LaTorre (07:19)
week

or so. Um depends whether we have the supplies on hand. If I have to order something I generally get them within a few days. Um and then it doesn't take very long to to turn around and make something. Because you love doing Right. Yeah, we do. I do a lot of it watching TV at night. Right.

Meg McCormick Hoerner (07:31)
doing it every night.

I

remember you telling us that before. Well, is there anything else you wanted to show us now or when can we can we do? Just gonna say can we can we do this every season? Right, I think that would be a great idea.

Laurie LaTorre (07:41)
Save it for next time.

Every season would be great. I

do want to point out that on our Facebook page is a schedule of the events that will be in person. So starting with this Saturday, it's out there that we're going to be at an event and then it's every so many weeks. So come see us at an in-person event so you can get a feel for what we have.

Meg McCormick Hoerner (08:04)
That's great. And your Facebook page is also Lala Beading Creations.

Laurie LaTorre (08:08)
Yep,

we tried to keep it simple. Keep everything with the name right out there. Lala beating creations on Facebook.

Meg McCormick Hoerner (08:13)
Alright, let's take another quick look and I appreciate you taking the time to show off your wares.

Laurie LaTorre (08:19)
Thank

you.

Meg McCormick Hoerner (08:20)
And I think there are going to be quite a few people that want to get one of these magnifying necklaces for themselves or someone that they care about or just to have in their purse.

You're never gonna find handmade jewelry at this quality for this type of price. So we appreciate all that you do. Thank you. And we'll talk to you again soon. All right, bye bye.

Laurie LaTorre (08:45)
Can't wait. Bye.

Meg McCormick Hoerner (08:49)
We're back with Laurie and you wanted to show us one more item.

Laurie LaTorre (08:53)
I just wanted to show my apron. We wear these when we're out at a show. We had them custom done. They have three pockets. I can put my scissors, my pen, my order form, my cash, my phone, my square plug-in right here. And we walk around, makes it easy. All I have to wear is a white blouse, white shorts, black top. We're set.

Meg McCormick Hoerner (09:16)
Alright, look for the lady in blue. She'll make you some jewelry. Thanks Laurie.

Laurie LaTorre (09:20)
Thank you.