Persnickity Designs

2007-11-29T17:51:00.000-08:00

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!

2007-11-26T17:22:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-25T16:56:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-24T10:53:00.000-08:00

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?

2007-11-21T10:49:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-15T18:04:00.001-08:00

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?!

2007-11-13T18:00:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-10T19:11:00.000-08:00

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…..

2007-11-09T21:46:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-08T10:23:00.000-08:00

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!

2007-11-07T17:40:00.000-08:00

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!

2007-11-06T11:26:00.000-08:00

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!

Check This Out

2007-10-30T09:19:00.001-07:00

Wow, this is highly exciting! I found this site while stumbling around etsy.com the other day and I think it is fantastic: www.buyhandmade.org

I love it when the crafty types band together and create cool things like this. I’m off to make the pledge!

How Sad is This?

2007-10-08T14:34:00.001-07:00

So, it absolutely horrifies me that I have not posted in what is it now, 2 weeks exactly? Especially since I had 5 days of posts written out so all I had to do was post, and I still didn't manage to get them posted. Just plain old sad.

Why the long absence, you ask? Well, amoung other reasons we were hiring again here at Persnickity Designs. We needed a new shop “Assistant” before the big holiday rush. We put an ad on craigslist, and got about 30 applications in three days.

So this last week was spent sorting through all the highly qualified candidates and calling back a few to schedule interviews. It is so hard for me because I like everyone, and want to hire everyone, but we have to choose one person for the job. Andrea will be starting with us this coming Monday.

I never thought, even at this time even a year ago we would be employing 3 people and looking for the fourth! It is pretty amazing, and this year has been a real learning experience for me: about managing, about business in general, and especially about myself. It is so amazing think about Persnickity Designs, my crazy idea, supporting one part-time person and four, soon to be five full-time people.

I am sure I have mentioned before, but I think about 4 years ago when I decided to start making purses, if I had known then where I would be today, I wouldn’t have known where to start! It is really amazing that people have supported me, and believed that I know what I am doing enough to do things like quit their jobs and work here full-time, and continue to work here after really getting to know me!

I love what I do, I wouldn’t trade it for anything, and I can only do it because I have such a great team that when I say “jump” they respond “how high?” I am amazed on a daily basis by not only my wonderful team here, but the amazing support all of our customers give us as well.

Thanks everyone.

Welcome Dinea!

2007-09-24T17:21:00.000-07:00

James and I and the pugs drove down to lovely Olympia, Washington yesterday to meet with our newest Persnickity Consultant and get her her starter kit. We had a lovely time and got to see more of a city that neither of us are familiar with.

Dinea will be starting to do parties down in the Olympia area, so if you are interest in hosting a party, she is your gal. She is super sweet, very excited about the program and we can’t wait until her first party!

Party On

2007-09-19T17:01:00.000-07:00

To celebrate the release of our new Persnickity Purse Party Program, we are having a big in shop party.

Come play with the sash bags, see our new fall designs, and find out more about Home Purse Parties: September 28th from 6-9pm.

We look forward to seeing you here!

Jingle Bells........

2007-09-18T10:19:00.001-07:00

So in a small handmade business like ours, we look forward to christmas all year. It is certainly the craziest time of year, and the middle of november to january 1st always rushes by at light speed.

Being as this is the case, we are already stocking up for christmas, getting everyone scheduled and ready, and beginning to plan. I already have decorations decided on, including window displays for mid november on, and the smell of my pumpkin spice latte the other morning put me in the christmas spirit.

Of course you can’t discuss this with anyone in the middle of september, or they look at you like you have lobsters crawling out of your ears. So, imagine my excitement when we had our first official christmas shopper yesterday morning. She came in and bought four bags for the women in her family. We even gift wrapped them and everything. I wish everyone shopped early! And it made me think about my own christmas gift list, and that I should probably get on the now so I don’t have to think about it the couple weeks before christmas. And, it got me that much more excited.

It also made me realize how much I need to get done in the next few weeks!

Another Happy Customer

2007-09-14T17:22:00.000-07:00

Check out our lastest interview:

http://seattle.metblogs.com/archives/2007/09/metroblogging_i_3.phtml

Red?

2007-09-13T17:42:00.000-07:00

Have you driven past our shop in the last three days? Well, if you have, I am sure you did a double take seeing as our once multi-colored patchwork front is now RED!!! And by red, I mean RED, visible from 3 blocks away, with white and black accents. It is the same color scheme as inside, where we have white walls, a dark gray floor and red and black furniture.

Our wonderful landlord trusted me entirely with color choice, so I thought for about 3 seconds and said, “What about red?” He thought about it for awhile, said yes, and now we have arguably the coolest storefront in all of bellingham. Especially because the building to our right and our left is pretty much just white. Our landlord, Fred likes it enough he thinks he is going to send a picture to the local newspaper. Yeah!

The pink truck really clashes though....

My Home Depot Adventure

2007-09-12T14:32:00.000-07:00

So, we started out this morning with all of our vinyl (that would be about 18, 15-80lb ea rolls) falling over and nearly taking out Jamie. Since James and I had been discussing making a big vinyl rack to hold all the rolls, and james was already running out for an errand we decided to go buy supplies for the rack today. I just don’t want to have to explain to Jamie’s, or any of the other employees’, parents that they were killed by three 80 lb rolls of vinyl falling on them.

So off to home depot, my already *favorite* store on the planet we went. First we stopped at hardware sales (if you don’t know about this place it is a truly amazing hardware store in bellingham. James used to work there, many years ago now, so it isn’t quite as amazing to us, but they do manage to stock something like 150,000 different items. You could get lost for weeks in their aisles, and no one would find you, yet it is probably 25% the square footage of a depot or lowes). We went up to pay our account there and ask a question, and of course since they allow dogs we brought Lucy (our baby pug) in with us. She is rather easily scared anyway, and hardware sales can scare the best of us, so she was clinging like mad to my bare neck. Then, Alta, the 94 or 95 year old owner asked if she wanted a cookie. Having seen a couple large dog cookie buckets around I figured it was ok. But Alta instead walked over to the people cookie bin and pulled a cookie out and started feeding it to my puppy who was hanging over my shoulder, clawing my neck. When I caught a glimpse of the cookies I thought they might be oatmeal, but alas, as I was standing there, back to alta, who was feeding a full cookie to my 12 pound dog, I got many whiffs of chocolate. Sigh, but there is no telling alta “no” so, Lucy got a chocolate chip cookie.

We made it out of there just fine, got what we needed, and headed to depot. We have a pop up crate with a zip closure that we use at the studio, so we dropped Lucy in it, and went inside.

To start, the aisles of lumber for three aisles wide were blocked off for a forklift, so we couldn’t get to it. We instead went to look at conduit, which are big metal poles we are using to mount the vinyl onto racks. They were the right price and length, but they only had 1/2”, 1” and on up in sizes in the style (ie the cheapest one) that we needed. There was 3/4” in both of the more expensive styles, and the plastic piping, and there were all the findings that went with 3/4”, but none on the rack. Oy.

So, off to find a Home Depot employee, which took a good 5 minutes of solid searching. We found one who was very helpful, who found the correct guy we needed. He rolled his little inventory cart over, and found out that indeed they should have 3/4” conduit, in fact his inventory showed they had 1100 sticks. Ok, great, so where are they? He told us they were likely in upper storage somewhere, and he could get them in 20-25 minutes.

So, we went off to get the lumber we needed, and being as the aisle we needed was half open again, we checked prices, found what we needed, and went searching for a cart. We went back down the aisle, since the door end was blocked off, and started to go down the next aisle over, when we noticed it was blocked off as well. So, being as the next (and final aisle which ran along the edge of the building) was open, we headed down, only to come to that same stupid orange foldy gate around the corner blocking us from the door.

SO, we headed over four aisles, came down, and started for the door, only to find they had ENTIRELY BLOCKED OFF THE DOOR TO THE OUTSIDE and the forklift was about to head out the door. At this point, James starts in a panicked voice repeating, “I just need a cart! Why can’t I get to the carts! I just need a cart! I just need a cart!” After a funny/scared looked from the 3-4 home depot employees it takes to operate a forklift, and one of them saying “Well, they’re just outside there.” (you know, like we were stupid and couldn’t figure that out....) They let us by. And we grabbed a cart which made a sound like what I would imagine a hippo being skinned alive would sound like, but only after we got back into the store.

On the way back in, skinning a hippo cart and all, and the guy with the conduit comes around the corner and says, “Well, when I was asking the electrical guy about the conduit it, he said there was just no room on that shelf so they are over in the middle of the plastic shelf.” Of. Course. They. Are. No, seriously, that makes TOTAL sense.

Off we go to get our conduit, walking past another h.d. emplyee who is called on the radio as we pass, and screams at the top of his lungs "I'M BUSY RIGHT NOW, GET SOMEONE ELSE!!!!" James then turns and looks at me and says, "Well, the store make be difficult to get around, but at least the employees aren't surly....." Once back at the conduit aisles, look at that, there is one rack of metal conduit in the middle of 15 different kinds of plastic conduit.

Off we head to the checkout, feeling thankful that we are done with our h.d. adventure, only to have all of the bar codes rubbed off the hidden 3/4” conduit. So, on the phone goes our cashier to electrical, looking for a skew. And guess what? HE COULDN’T FIND THE 3/4” EMT CONDUIT. So, we spent at least 10 minutes at the checkout, getting the correct skew, even though we know size, name, price, and everything else.

So, after finally checking out, being nearly hit by only 2 cars in the parking lot- one of which we thought about just rolling the cart full of metal conduit and lumber into, we got to the car with a big sigh of relief, only to realize we had pulled through another parking spot (in our giant van. no seriously. we have one of those dodge sprinters. they look like european delivery vans and it is like 9 feet tall) and someone had parked right behind us, close enough we couldn’t load the car. So, we open the door to get in, and there’s Lucy, out of her crate, chewing on one of those cardboard 4 drink holder things you get at coffee places. She, in her hopped up on sugar state, was spinning circles and had gone through all the trash in the car, and was grunting at us.

At this point we were in absolute hysterics, enough that other people in the parking lot were looking at us like we were totally nuts. I pulled into another parking spot, we got the lumber and conduit loaded, and just as james was putting the handbreak down, we noticed Lucy had chewed on the release button.

Oh my goodness. What an absolutely hysterical morning! We watched Arrested Development season one last night under recommendation from Jamie and Kendall, and though we thought it was funny, james and I decided nothing on tv tops real life. No wonder I never leave the shop!

Alright, thanks for reading my ridiculously long post. I hope you enjoyed it half as much I did....

Its Party Time!

2007-09-11T15:29:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, have you heard about our latest, greatest idea? We’ve started a “Persnickity Purse Party” program. Gotta love that alliteration!

I just booked another party this morning for thirty lucky ladies in Olympia in the beginning of october. I will head down with a bunch of samples, we’ll have food and drinks, and a great evening of purse shopping. Doesn’t that sound fun?

We got the idea because I have done a few home shows and parties with other crafters over the last year, and they are such a fun, personal, and intimate shopping experience that we now have 3 consultants doing parties in bellingham, seattle, and los angeles, and we’re looking for more. Interested in selling persnickity bags and making a part or full-time income? E-mail me, and we'll get you started.

We are going to do a big purse party gala in the shop here I think around October 12th with drinks and food, and shopping fun open to everyone.

Come on in or e-mail me about booking your own personal purse party! I am sure you can think of a reason to have the girls together for a night of shopping. Suggestions to get you started:

a birthday party
a bridal shower
bridesmaids party with built in gifts
girl’s night out
goodbye party for a friend
welcome to the neighborhood party for a friend
girl’s night out
a fundraiser for you favorite charity (we do that too!)
because you want one of our bags for free
knitting night with built in project bag shopping
you need a new job, and you want to try being a persnickity consultant
you are celebrating a milestone
the kids are back in school
a thank you for your clients
a fall celebration party
just because
a “chocolate is wonderful and we are going to celebrate by buying purses” party
a “I am going to get ready for christmas early this year, I mean it” party
a “I am stressed out and need a evening of shopping to relax” party

You get the idea.....

Message From The Executive Office

2007-09-10T18:56:00.000-07:00

It’s here! I am finally upstairs in my new office! I am so very excited. I have a desk right next to a big window, comfy chairs for relaxin’, and a work table and sewing area for prototyping. I really, honestly, don’t think I could be much more elated. Sigh.

I actually have my own personal space now, where no one can disorganize anything, if I need to focus on a project I can with out distraction, and I can put up all my design inspiration stuff.

There is one wall that is probably about 20-25 feet long that is mainly windows right now, that they are going to close up because of logistics of re-roofing, and tar coming halfway up the window issues. At first I was a little bummed out because I was loosing so much window, but then I realized it is where the majority of the heat upstairs comes from (and it can get pretty darn toasty up here), so I was just fine with it. And now, I realized that it will give me a 20-25 foot design board. Um, yeah, I think that is the only way my office in it’s current condition could be any better.

Alright, off to get executive officey sorts of tasks done. Hmm, I actually don’t quite know what to do with myself!

Whoosh!

2007-09-08T13:34:00.000-07:00

Whoa! Where’d the week go? Actually, where did summer go? Are we really in fall already? Yikes! I can’t believe it is September, let alone a third of the way through.

So, it has been quite the week with the sale here and all. We are about 1/3 of the way through the seconds we had, with just about 5-10 left in our back stock. Remember the sale ends next saturday, so come and get them before they are all gone!

It is feeling very fall like here all of a sudden. The days are just a bit nippy, with that crisp cold in the air but still gloriously sunny like fall always is here. I love it!

More Sales!

2007-09-01T18:00:00.001-07:00

Hey Guys!

Check it out, all of the bags listed on Etsy(non-seconds) are marked down at 15% off. Yeah! It is sale time around here, until september 15th. We wanted to make sure all of you cyber shoppers get the same deal all of our brick and mortar shoppers are getting.

Grab them quick, they are going fast!

Seconds and Retired Bags Sale!

2007-08-24T15:41:00.000-07:00

Ok guys, we’ve decided to put some stuff on sale! This happens very infrequently, as I am sure you have noticed. But, we have a pile of seconds and lots of retired designs, and it is time to clear out the shelves!

So, now until September 15th we have seconds on clearance and retired designs at 15% off. Come on in the shop and get them. Wohoo!