Friday, February 26, 2010

When it rains it snows...

... woke up to this. Being from Idaho I love the snow but sometimes it would be nice to sleep in and watch it fall but when you're the owner of a small business a "snow day" is not in the cards! Fortunately though I can walk to the shops so our poor car (above) can have a "snow day" and I don't have to shovel and scrape to get to work.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

When it rains....

it pours and starts fires! Yes once again a little rain has caused the lighting tracks to burst into flames, sparks and lots of smoke!!! Everything is fine except for the fact that half of the shop is in the dark but no serious damage, thank goodness.
People, if you think that owning your own business is all cheery and wonderful you haven't been paying attention to this blog! You never get a rest, never get to take your mind off the business and hardly ever get to just check out. We are doing just that, checking out, next week as we will be in Guatemala and will have no cell or e mail access, oh a dream come true!!! I thank my lucky stars we have great employees who can manage without me! But, please if your listening oh benevolent one, don't let this happen again while I am away.... PLEASE!

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Disappointing reading...


So today since it's a blizzard outside and the shop is slow { see above picture of GCT at morning rush hour, it's NEVER this empty!} I decided to catch up on some blog reading.. and I wish I hadn't! You see I came across something that made me sad, not tears sad but sad non the less. I find it funny how people don't understand that it's all a collaborative effort and respecting everyone who has helped you to get you were you are today is a big part of the picture. Some people haven't the manners or self awareness to see the big picture and are only into self... it just makes me sad!!!
So I thought I'd acknowledge those who have helped me to get to were I am professionally today.
First: Pier One Imports for giving me a job during the worst recession that California had ever seen. I learned what I didn't want to do with my life!
Then: Lisa Graves for letting me intern to become a jeweler and then handing me the reins to her table top empire. It changed my life in more ways than one.
To: Douglas Duncan for believing in my talents and letting me run free.
To: 280 Design for letting me launch them and expand my horizons.
To: Frederic and Alan who pushed me to explore the world and led to, Jean Rouget, A.Purr.A, L' Atlier Des Tuilleries, Marie Papier and all the great years of collaboration and wonderful lunches.
To: Sesame Letterpress, together we changed the color pallet of greeting cards for the better.
To: ABC for believing in my retail talents even though they didn't exist in the real world.
And finally to the future creative and fearless people who will cross my path... here's to you!

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

I know the I phone photos are not the best but I need some sort of visual in order to blog!

For those of you who don't know, Douglas and I have run our wholesale company, Motel Deluxe, together for almost 14 years now. This past fall we decided that the shops needed me full time and that I would be pulling back from my duties at Motel to focus on Cursive. Well, if you know anything about wholesale companies you know that trade shows are a huge part of the business, and this season is the first that I am not working in the booth! It was kinda weird not to have the interaction with our great customers that I have worked with and talked to for so many years but it has been wonderful to be able to focus on the buy for the shops... each shop is so different in temperament and each of our little monsters needs to be fed differently in order for them to grow...
I'll fill you in on the new collections later this week.