Phew!

We’re there! We’ve done it! Everything is now officially moved over to our new space. Now, I am not saying moved IN, it is just all out of the old space. We are actually all set up in the shop area, and everywhere else is functional, we just need to get everything organized and in place.

This move has taken way more out of me than I thought that it would. We have now officially moved Persnickity Designs four times in under a year. Yikes. We have at least a three year lease here, and I actually never ever want to move again.

Well, it is as wonderful as I thought it would be and then some. No, seriously. We have so much room that when we talk it echoes. Can you believe that? The downstairs is like 4 old shops, and the upstairs is the 5th shop, making it about 5 times larger.

The store-front area looks FANTASTIC, if I do say so myself. Everyone who has come in has commented on how good it looks. Jamie (our still somewhat new employee) and I took about 3 full days to set up the front. We also got a great set up in the display windows, and they look wonderful. It took about twice as much product to fill the new storefront compared to the old one, so I am very glad I decided to keep on the old line at this point.

We are going to have a big grand opening on July 14th to celebrate the new digs. We are even advertising in the Cascadia Weekly for it! This will be our first local ad. Make sure to mark it on your calendars, and come check out the new “grown up” Persnickity Designs.

Alright, that’s about all for now. I am still in such a daze from this whole experience, I think I am going to go home and go to bed.

Pug Picture

We got a new camera over the weekend, and since we have a fairly new cute puppy too, you can see what our day was spent doing.

We are almost in the new space. We thought we were going to move everything over this evening and be open tomorrow, which we might still do, but as I sat down at the kitchen table this morning, James said, “There was a flood in the new space.” I am sure you can imagine my first thing in the morning mind, wheels turning, thinking “it didn’t rain last night, plus we are on a hill, how is it possible we got flooded?” Apparently the toilet backed up, and flooded water into the rest of the space. Luckily our contractor was there first thing to sand the wallboard in the kitchen and found it, cleaned it up, and turned the water off. And we didn’t leave there until after 11pm last night, so it wasn’t sitting for too long. So James and I got Jamie started in the old shop first thing this morning, and went to assess the damage. When we got there, it had leaked even more and my beautiful printed materials, and other paper supplies, and dog bed were all sitting in a pool of sewage water. And we just had our floors finished over the weekend, and we are going to need a new floor in a significant portion of the work side of the new space. Lovely. Everything is ok though, and our landlord Fred is being super wonderful about it, and it could have been a lot worse, etc, etc. It was just a BIG shock this morning.

But, we still think we might move over there tonight- we’ll just have to see how it goes. I still think we’ll be in for Saturday. Or at least that is my goal. Yup. That’s about the scope of it here. I still can’t wait to get in there, but this has been a rather trying experience. We had a whole patch in the office/sales side of the new space that started peeling up as we put furniture together on it over the weekend. Apparently the painters spilled some paint thinner, cleaned it up really well, but not quite enough and the floor enamel didn’t stick. That was fixed earlier this week though. And, we still have another trip to Ikea to get a last few things we need and missed last trip, or have realized we need since. Wonderful. Oh well, it will be worth it 1,000 times over in the end.

Adventures in Birthday Cakes

Today is James’ birthday. Birthdays mean cake, right? Well, here is what his looked like today:







There is a FANTASTIC newish little donut shop just a couple blocks away from us. I think it opened as long as a year ago, but being as we eat donuts about once every 2 years, we haven’t gone yet. BUT, we keep discussing it. So on the way to work this morning I had him make a “secret” stop(which he figured out about an hour before we left home, since he suggested we get espresso this morning, and I said I had another place to stop but I couldn’t tell him where) and he got to pick out a dozen donuts. Don’t they look all pretty in their box? That close up is of one called “death by chocolate” which is a chocolate old-fashioned donut with the normal glaze, and swirls of chocolate on top. They were as tasty as they look, and everyone has been on a sugar high all day because of them. Oh, and by the way, the water marks on top of the box are RAIN from this morning, not drool...

Rocket Donuts is my idea of the perfect business. They have a theme, and they follow it through in every detail. There is a robot statue from a 50’s sci-fi movie in the corner, everything is red and yellow and silver, 50’s crooners sing well loved melodies on the stereo, and there are black and white sci-fi movies playing in the background. I think I am in love.

Anyway, it was a good birthday and there is still more left in the day. Everything is crazy busy in town for WWU’s graduation this weekend. We are going to be closed all day tomorrow, and James, I, and the girls are going over to our new space to wallboard the kitchen and put furniture together. I am hoping to be nearly completely moved in by next Wednesday! Wohoo! And by the way, we are going to keep all of those little ikea allen wrenches and take a picture when we are done with all of the furniture assemblage, just for fun. The joke that keeps getting repeated here? “I bought a comforter at Ikea, and it came with an allen wrench…..”

So it comes to this

So, you all know by now that we have this super top-secret “new line” coming out, right? And, you all realized that the new line would replace the current line on the site? Yay, so, we decided over the weekend that we really should keep the current line, and ADD the new line. Especially because they are just so different. Which means we will have both lines in the shop, and both online. So, there you have it. News as soon as we know.

Anyway, that means that the crayons and sketchbook are out, as well as the sample squares for new designs. I always enjoy this part, and now I get to do it for twice as many products! I already have 2 new designs made up on samples, and 2 more to try out this evening. I forgot how much I love the design aspect of this business…..

The painters are at the new space today getting it all prepped. They think they will have the floor done by Friday, which means we should be in there assembling furniture all day Saturday. Wohoo! I am tremendously excited.

Design Mind

Check this out. I am really excited to get mentioned in the same place as all of the other great stuff she puts on here. Check out the lego-like bedroom near the bottom.

I can't take it!

Ok, so I am so, SO excited to move to our new space, I can barely stand it. The thought of my own design studio upstairs about the same size as our ENTIRE shop currently is killing me. KILLING ME!!! And all the space for the dogs to run around. Ack! And the new sales area. Ack! And all the store windows on the street. And all that Ikea furniture I get to put together. And all the room for the sewing machines. And enough room for all of our back-stock. And a kitchen. And a non-shared bathroom. And no fluorescent lighting. And did I mention that design studio just for me? I can’t wait. No, I actually mean that I am physically incapable of waiting.

Our contractors are finishing up this week. Our painter is coming on Wednesday. And we are ready to go put furniture together next Saturday. In others words, we should be in around the 18-20th of June. We were hoping for the 15th because it is James’ birthday, but, c’est la vie.

Well, at least I have the cutest puppy in the world to play with! And the cutest black pug in the world, too.

Oh, and the website. I went and did one heck of an extensive photo shoot yesterday with our web designer. It should be up and running with the new line the beginning of July.

And did I mention we got written up in the Herald again? It is pretty small, but here we are.

Ok, I think I covered everything. Off to walk to dogs in the park!

Uh Oh

What have we done?!




This is Lucy. She is 3 months old, and our new family member. That’s right, we’re now a real pug family- 2 pugs, and 2 people. We’re apparently persnickety purse and pug people ( who really like pirates and pizza).

Anyway, Abbey absolutely LOVES Lucy, and Lucy ADORES Abbey. It has been one playful day.

So there you have it. Exactly what we needed, right in the middle of everything else going on right now. At least there’s 3,000 sq ft awaiting our run around pugs in about a week and a half!

It's the little things

One of my favorite parts of running a business is learning customer’s stories. When I remove myself from the back room where all the designing, businessing, worrying, plotting, planning, executing, and a million other things go on, and just talk to my customers I always remember it is one of the main reasons I do what I do.

For instance we had a woman come in last week who knew her purse was too small because the little flap on it hadn’t shut in years, but didn’t realize until she say a picture of herself at a big event, and couldn’t see anything but the red sheet of paper sticking out of her bulging bag. So she bought on of our hip hoppers, which was just a bit bigger.

Or over the weekend, we had a couple from Orcas island come in with a cutie pie baby in desperate need of a diaper bag, since dad’s pockets were bulging with sun hats, diapers, and other baby accessories. They picked one of our big new bags because it wasn’t so girly dad would be uncomfortable carrying it. Both James and I got to talk to them about living on Orcas Island, a place we just love and would love to move to some day.

Or the woman going to Europe over the summer in need of a great travel bag. Or the customers who already have one of our bags and come back for a second, third (Fourth!), or a gift. Or the customer who has to confirm me she is not a stalker (you know who you are!!!). I just love them all, and appreciate their support so much because it means I can do what I adore.

Still no pictures since the camera isn’t fixed yet. I haven’t had a chance to get to Costco yet, we’ve been so busy. Our newest employee Jamie is starting tomorrow, and we have a full week planned for her first day! I think she will be able to relieve a great deal of stress we’ve been feeling.

And finally, the website launch is tentatively scheduled for July 1st, right about the same time we move to our new location.

What a beautiful Day!

Wow, it is gloriously sunny, and about 80 F here in bellingham. So, what am I doing? Standing at the cutting table ironing. Of course, no really, that makes complete sense. Oh, and did I mention that I wore long sleeves today? Oh yeah, someone is with it.

James and I went over and assembled our kitchen counter for the kitchen area in our new space today. Our van is absolutely packed, to the ceiling, with ikea furniture. Remember the aforementioned ikea trip that nearly killed us both? I’ll write about that one soon. Anyway, we have a van full of furniture because the contractors and painters want absolutely NO furniture in there until they are done. So, we continued to drive around with if for probably another week and a half. This was the first piece we have put together, and it came out great. It was very exciting. And since there is nothing in about 2,400 sf downstairs, Abbey had a blast running around after her mini chuckit ball. And then licking the drywall dust off the floor.

So I have that Knit.1 picture for you, but my camera is broken at the moment. I should get it fixed in the next couple days, and I’ll post the picture then. I didn’t actually forget.

Alright, back to ironing. I see now that the way to get myself blogging every day is to do something I don’t like, and will want to take a break from. Mental note has been made.

I hope everyone else has the fantastic weather we do, and a chance to enjoy it!