It has been a whirlwind around here the last couple days. I never really managed to get my butt in gear yesterday. Didn’t get a whole lot done, just some bits and pieces. It was probably more than I think, but since it wasn’t anything big it didn’t feel like much.

Today flew by. I mean, I can’t believe it is almost 6:00 already. I got in this morning, quickly did free shipping on the websites, then etsy, finalized the mailer that went out today, quickly cut out a custom appliqué, got the same bag together for Kendall (our sewer), had a friend stop in, wrote a couple emails, and here we are at 5:55. James just ran to get americano’s, since we are here late tonight for a party. Plus tomorrow night too. And tomorrow we have one of our consultant’s first party, which is really exciting. But, this is the first 2 in one day party, and I know since it is Friday it will be mob-ed in the shop as well. I hope I wake up more tomorrow than I ever did today! I was dragging all day today as well as yesterday. Geesh, hope that changes come December 1!

Whoosh, here we are almost December, and whoosh I know that will be gone as soon as I blink my eyes.

No pictures today, again. But hopefully I’ll snap a couple of the shop full of ladies tonight!

29 Days Left Means I Need A Break!

I got up this morning, after rather crazy weekend, took a shower, ate breakfast, and promptly went back to bed. I felt like the living dead, and no matter how hard I tried, simply could not will myself to be a functioning human being. Thankfully I have a trusty assistant who got everything going at the shop, let me sleep for several hours, and came back to get me. So, Lucy and I slept from 7:30 (when we were suppose to leave home) to 11am, and then watched The Simpsons until James came to get us about 12:15.

It was wonderful, especially since we have several parties in the shop this week and I know I wont have time to break come NEXT Monday through probably January 1!

That’s about all that went on today. I didn’t ever manage to get much done, being Monday and being I still feel sluggish. I did manage to decide on a theme for the, CATALOGUE, that will be coming out in January. I am very excited about it and will be working on it all month between customers.

It is really cruddy out today, and there is a possibility of SNOW tonight…..I am sort of excited, only it snowed bad this week last year and totally killed sales for merchants downtown. We’ll be here, no matter what, since we have chains and a car that amazingly does great in the snow. I love snow, so I sorta hope it snows, but sorta don’t. I guess we’ll just have to see what it decides!

30 Days Seems Much Closer Than 31 For Some Reason

James and I were on our way to Thanksgiving dinner Thursday and stopped at Starbucks on the way for some, uh, holiday-and-two-hour-drive cheer. We managed to get stuck in line for about 40 minutes, which I didn’t notice too much since I was knitting. The problem with the drive thru is once you get in line, you can’t get out. Especially in a van the size of a UPS truck.

Anyway, my knitting project was in one of our bags, since, that is all I carry. They handed us our drinks and sploosh, as I am putting the lid on my travel mug coffee goes right into the knitting bag. I started to get upset and then realized that the bag was lined in nylon (just like all the sash bags) and simply grabbed it and wiped it out. No coffee nightmare, no clean-up nightmare, just one happy camper. I looked at James and said, “Wow, our bags really ARE amazing!”

I mean it is one thing to design something to function while looking good, another to carry them and realize they are super functional and fantastic, but something entirely different to have an “Oh Shiiii-oot” moment completely neutralized by good design. It makes me want to blaze new trails in the world to save more women from “oh fudge” moments! See, we really DO plan to take over the world one persnickity bag at a time….

31 Days Left: The Madness Begins

Phew, we made it through Black Friday with just a bit of craziness in our small b-burg. We were super swamped all day yesterday and we’re back and ready for an even busier day today.

Just so all you Christmas present seekers know, we have our newest bag design available in our etsy store only: www.persnickitydesign.etsy.com


Fiat Mini

And Fiat Large

We designed them with gift giving in mind: they are priced to share at $48 for the small size and $58 for the large. They drop right under your arm with seatbelt webbing straps and keep everything secure with a zipper top. Available in all of our designs and colors: rocket, poppies, guitar, and car in three color combos each, you'll find yourself buying several to have on hand for emergency gifts.

Grab what’s on there now, or convo me for a new listing of different colors or size.

Shop Decorations?

I’d like to say that these pictures haven’t gotten up because of Blogger, but it just isn’t true. It is almost full on shopping month here and it has become quite crazy. I had the party last week, tons of customers Saturday, a party in Everett Sunday, a new employee Monday, business meetings all day yesterday, and couple more this morning (which I am right between as I type.)

With 33 shopping days left and counting, lets try the Christmas decoration pictures again….



The back wall with darling fabric "paper" chain



The cute display table, complete with trees as you walk in the door



More fabric trees, which I do believe will have their own post here in the next couple days



More trees and a hint at the current window display



A christmas tree...



And of course, a pug picture.

Have a great Thanksgiving everyone, and we'll see you for all your holiday shopping starting next week!

Shop Decorations

Today's post was suppose to be pictures of the shop at christmas, but apparently blogger wont have it that way. I have now been trying to upload pictures for about 30 minutes to no avail.

It was an otherwise uneventful day here, not worth typing about. Hence the pictures. But, now I must run off and get ready for tonight's purse party.

We'll try them pictures again tomorrow.

Thanksgiving is NEXT Thursday?!

Oy! How is it Thanksgiving already? Not that I have not been prepping, it just seems so, close. Yikes.

So, the decorating the shop project has now turned into a three-day affair. James and I stayed up until 2:30 am on Monday (Sunday night) sewing trees for the display and baking cookies. Then Andrea and I worked on it all day yesterday. Errr, Andrea worked on it all day yesterday while James and I made appearances. We managed to double book ourselves on decorating day. Mmmhmmm, what else is new? We had an interview for our sewing room job (did I mention we were hiring again?) and then a meeting with an artist, but more on that later.

So I set Andrea free with 50 fabric trees, 4 bags of snow, and a pile of green glass ornaments. Though "we" got the front half of the shop looking great, I felt like the back half was still missing, something. So I came in today and worked ALL DAY, and by myself today, on the missing something. It is looking much better, but still needs some finishing touches.

So, my one-day plan of decorating the shop has quickly become a three-day project. Oh well. At least we are getting it up early enough it feels like it is worth the time and energy.

Pictures to follow as soon as it is “finished”!

Deck The Halls

We are breaking my cardinal rule, and decorating for the shop for Christmas BEFORE Thanksgiving. It always freaks me out when I go shopping in November and retailers have their Christmas stuff up already, but here I am a retailer now, and decorating before thanksgiving. Monday is officially the day we’ll deck the shop with holiday cheer.

So, Andrea and I went Christmas decoration shopping yesterday to fill in the holes of Christmas chotskies and found, to our amazement, that green is apparently no longer a Christmas color. We had the hardest time find greens of any sort, let alone the limey but olivey green I was looking for. We found a few things, I am hoping enough, but we’ll just have to play it by ear while decorating on Monday.

If you’re in town, come stop in and say “hi” Monday while we are up on ladders, stringing garlands and lights. We’ll have cider and cookies for anyone who stops by!

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas…..

This was the scene here yesterday. A large, ominous stack o’ boxes ready to go to the post office. Our web orders are picking up, which makes me realize just how close Christmas is. Last year we were taking 5+ boxes to the post offices daily or every other day during the holiday. Looks like we are pretty close to that time again!

46 Days and Counting

I spent most of the day yesterday getting bins labeled, random pieces of vinyl into appropriate places, and setting up extra storage with these shelves in the sewing room. I think we are just about ready for the holidays, and just in time too! The orders are already starting to increase on the internet.







But, don’t they look great? Each bin is labeled and organized and everything. It made me feel so on top of everything and ready to go to be all official with my tape gun and the bin labels. We are also diligently working to get all of our patterns cut into Lucite since our sash bags have all been cut from paper patterns from January on this year….. Not the speediest system, that’s for sure! But, I can safely say we are ready to go for the holidays. I think. Or as ready as we'll ever be!

Oh and just FYI, we have a two new inexpensive bags about to be put on the website just in time for the holidays. They are already in the shop so come check them out if you are in Bellingham. Otherwise, they should be online in the next 10 days.

Alright, off to sip my tea and soak up the wonderful pumpkin spice candle burning in the shop.

Welcome, Andrea!

Since I realized I had forgotten to mention it when writing yesterday's post, welcome Andrea, our first Bellingham consultant! She is kicking butt and already has about 6 parties booked in the shop just in November! Wowza. You can e-mail her at andrea (at) persnickitydesign dot com to schedule your party. Or come in the shop Monday, Wednesday, or Friday as she works here part time too. Get her quick though, her calendar is filling up fast!

She also makes gorgeous jewelry. Buy it here: www.simplylotus.etsy.com I am wearing a pair of her earrings now. You’ll love them.

Only 48 Shopping Days Left Until Christmas!

Yes, this is how we think here. I am starting to get really panicky about the holiday rush, I can feel the Christmas rush just beginning.

As such, James and I ran around and did errands yesterday and Sunday to get ready. You know, things like I hate every piece of clothing in my closet, and struggle to find something to wear just about every single morning. So, I have done some serious clothes hunting the last couple days so that when it get crazy at Christmas I can just grab and go in the morning from my closet. And, I don’t have comfortable dressy, business shoes so we hit up the local shoe store yesterday in search of a pair of comfortable low, black heels I can wear all day for store sales and all evening for parties or extended holiday hours. Well, James found a pair of shoes, and I found a pair of boots. Not exactly what I was looking for but irresistible nonetheless. So, they are on order in black, and I went on zappos last night and ordered a pair of heels from the same company that were what I was looking for. Did I mention I ordered them last night at about 6:15pm and they will be here this morning, likely before noon. I love zappos.

We also went to Costco and bought more back stock shelving yesterday, and went searching for a new floor for the front of the shop (to no avail). The trip to Costco included a sweater (again with the freaking out about the clothes in the closet), a three-pack of Bing Crosby christmas cd’s, and the new Donald Trump book. Yes, Costco is super dangerous in the Christmas season…..

Andrea dutifully ran the shop while we were gone and then stayed late to help me with the window display. And by the way, in looking up her etsy store to put her link in here, I found a necklace I can’t live without. And some earrings. Oh dear, I know she is already freaking out about how little stock she has for Christmas.

So, 48 shopping days til Christmas! Yikes! More in the intriguing life of a small business during the Christmas season tomorrow! Oh look, zappos are here!