For some reason I've been making a lot of chili lately. I'm sure it makes sense to many...it's winter and any kind of hot soup or stew (or chili) sounds good. Only it hasn't been that cold of a winter here (which is a little diconcerting) and chili has never been my go-to warm-up meal before. I honestly don't know if I've ever made chili before this winter (in the past I've just eaten the surplus that my mom brings me). Honestly, I think my friend, Sarah, is to blame. She's mentioned several times to me lately that she makes chili every week and I think it's just sounded good to me lately. The quandary I'm now in because of the abundant chili-making is that I am craving some gooey cinnamon rolls to eat with my chili. A craving I'm pretty sure was nurtured in the early days of my schooling when the cafeteria always seemed to have cinnamon rolls on the same day as chili.
So, I'm on the hunt for a yummy cinnamon roll recipe. Thus far I've made due with Pillsbury cinnamon rolls in the tube (or whatever that thing is called), but since each roll has like 500 calories and 15 grams of fat, I think I've actually felt my arteries clogging up as I've consumed them. My other option has been purchasing freshly made cinnamon rolls from Wild Oats, but they're over $2 a pop and I just can't keep that up or it may turn into a very expensive addiction.
I'm pretty sure my friend, Kerry, has an amazing cinnamon roll recipe, but I keep forgetting to ask her for it. Plus, I figure there are so many variations on the cinnamon roll, one recipe couldn't be enough.
Thursday, February 02, 2006
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
i'm back
Yes folks, I've decided to re-enter the blogworld. Basically, I'm tired of being harassed by my "friend", Jeff, who has been consistently leaving me judgemental comments on my last blog post (check it out if you want to see what kind of a friend he is). At first, I was a little intimidated by starting to blog again. I mean, what would I say in my first post back? It certainly would need to be funny...and entertaining since I've been away for so long. People would want humor. They would want to laugh. Well, since my loving husband stole my idea for my first post back in the blogworld, I gave up trying to come up with a humorous post. I would just write about what's been going on. I mean, that's what people really care about, right? No one cares if you're funny (shut up Jeff). They just want to know about me...and Margot of course. Well, here's some tidbits about me...and John...and Margot from this past weekend. I'll try to be better about this blog thing in 2006. Happy New Year.
This past weekend John and I celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary. We actually got to celebrate twice. Our real anniversary was last Thursday and since Chris Thile and Mike Marshall (two of the best mandolin players in the world I hear) were in town, we decided we couldn't pass it up. I don't know much about playing the mandolin (OK, I don't know anything about playing the mandolin), but I do know that these guys are good. I spent most of the evening wondering how it was physically possible for a person's fingers to move that fast (and furthermore how a person's brain could remember all those notes to play that fast).
But the real celebration was to come Saturday night when we dropped Margot off at my parents for 24 hours! We spent the night at a hotel on the Plaza (the same hotel we stayed at the first night we were married) and pretended we were out of town for ONE WHOLE DAY. I wondered if we would know what to do with ourselves with an entire evening and day in our home city to do whatever our hearts desired.
The evening was awesome. We ate the most superb meal at Cafe Sebastienne in the Kemper Art Museum. We'd eaten brunch here once before, but I did not remember it being this good. We started off with spinach and ricotta gnocchi in a braised duck ragu. It was amazing. It's definitely one of the top ten things I've ever eaten. I followed that with grilled lamb chops with butter-roasted new potatoes in a roasted garlic-lamb reduction. John had the coffee-encrusted beef tenderloin on sweet potato gratin with caramelized onion sauce. Both were magnificent. We finished the meal off with flourless chocolate cake topped with fresh raspberries and cream. My mouth is watering just thinking about this meal. For those of you who live in KC, you need to put Cafe Sebastienne on your short list of restaurants to check out.
A movie was next on the "do whatever our hearts desire" list. This may not sound exciting to many of you, but since neither John nor I could remember the last movie we had seen in a theater, it was exciting for us. The winner: Walk the Line. For not knowing much (really anything) about Johnny Cash, I enjoyed it. It was difficult to witness (just a small portion I'm sure) of what he put his wife and children through. When the movie drew to a close, I found myself wondering what had happened with Vivian and the girls. Was she able to forgive him? Did he ever ask for her forgiveness? At the same time, I appreciated the redemptive nature of his relationship with June. It would be easy to make all kinds of judgements about their relationship, but I don't think anyone could argue that June was used in his life to help bring about redemption for him.
The next morning we enjoyed breakfast at reVerse (I wish I'd discovered earlier that they had great french toast) and then walked around the Plaza for several hours shopping at stores we normally visit and some we rarely do. Around 2pm, I must admit, we found ourselves running out of steam. I don't know if we just didn't know what else to do, if we missed Margot, or if we were craving our usual Sunday nap, but if eating a late lunch hadn't been an option at the time, I might have suggested that we cut the day short and go pick up Margot early.
Well, that ended up happening anyway. During lunch (eating out three meals in a row in your own city is a weird thing by the way), we received a phone call from my mom. Margot was crying hysterically b/c she had fallen out of her crib. Our "pretend day out of town" ended abruptly, but we weren't too disappointed b/c I think we were both secretly thankful that we now had an excuse to pick Margot up early.
The only downfall of the 24-hour day away? -- the subsequent several days of adjustment it has meant for Margot. Our daughter is amazing and I am VERY thankful for her sleeping habits (she sleeps until 8:30 almost every morning, she typically goes to bed without a peep, she says "bye-bye" in the most adorable way when you tell her goodnight). I definitely have no right to complain about Margot's sleeping habits. The only sleeping quirk of Margot's that can occasionally be difficult is she cannot stand to sleep anywhere but her own bed. And she especially dislikes the crib at my parents' house. She screams and screams and screams when my mom puts her in it, which is traumatic enough for my mom, but can also cause enough trauma for Margot in one night that for the following week she thinks we are going to leave her and continues the screaming pattern at home, even in her own crib. To complicate matters, since Margot got mad enough this time at my mom's and figured out how to crawl out of the crib (well, she crawled out one time, fell out the next), she is now able to crawl out of her crib at home. This is not a good thing. Not only because she could hurt herself on the launch from her crib to the floor, but also because she could mess herself up falling down the steep flight of stairs in our old home.
For the past three nights, John and I have tried to get creative with getting Margot to sleep while at the same time planning ahead for her protection should she choose to scale the crib walls again. In the meantime, we're trying to make the big decision of, "Do we transfer her to a toddler bed now, or do we just wait a little longer and trust the crib-jumping will pass?"
Oh the questions that parents must answer. This is serious stuff people.
And since I missed posting photos of Margot at Christmas, here are two shots of her trying to be the conductor of a train that is supposed to be a pull toy. She's not the best driver.
This past weekend John and I celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary. We actually got to celebrate twice. Our real anniversary was last Thursday and since Chris Thile and Mike Marshall (two of the best mandolin players in the world I hear) were in town, we decided we couldn't pass it up. I don't know much about playing the mandolin (OK, I don't know anything about playing the mandolin), but I do know that these guys are good. I spent most of the evening wondering how it was physically possible for a person's fingers to move that fast (and furthermore how a person's brain could remember all those notes to play that fast).
But the real celebration was to come Saturday night when we dropped Margot off at my parents for 24 hours! We spent the night at a hotel on the Plaza (the same hotel we stayed at the first night we were married) and pretended we were out of town for ONE WHOLE DAY. I wondered if we would know what to do with ourselves with an entire evening and day in our home city to do whatever our hearts desired.
The evening was awesome. We ate the most superb meal at Cafe Sebastienne in the Kemper Art Museum. We'd eaten brunch here once before, but I did not remember it being this good. We started off with spinach and ricotta gnocchi in a braised duck ragu. It was amazing. It's definitely one of the top ten things I've ever eaten. I followed that with grilled lamb chops with butter-roasted new potatoes in a roasted garlic-lamb reduction. John had the coffee-encrusted beef tenderloin on sweet potato gratin with caramelized onion sauce. Both were magnificent. We finished the meal off with flourless chocolate cake topped with fresh raspberries and cream. My mouth is watering just thinking about this meal. For those of you who live in KC, you need to put Cafe Sebastienne on your short list of restaurants to check out.
A movie was next on the "do whatever our hearts desire" list. This may not sound exciting to many of you, but since neither John nor I could remember the last movie we had seen in a theater, it was exciting for us. The winner: Walk the Line. For not knowing much (really anything) about Johnny Cash, I enjoyed it. It was difficult to witness (just a small portion I'm sure) of what he put his wife and children through. When the movie drew to a close, I found myself wondering what had happened with Vivian and the girls. Was she able to forgive him? Did he ever ask for her forgiveness? At the same time, I appreciated the redemptive nature of his relationship with June. It would be easy to make all kinds of judgements about their relationship, but I don't think anyone could argue that June was used in his life to help bring about redemption for him.
The next morning we enjoyed breakfast at reVerse (I wish I'd discovered earlier that they had great french toast) and then walked around the Plaza for several hours shopping at stores we normally visit and some we rarely do. Around 2pm, I must admit, we found ourselves running out of steam. I don't know if we just didn't know what else to do, if we missed Margot, or if we were craving our usual Sunday nap, but if eating a late lunch hadn't been an option at the time, I might have suggested that we cut the day short and go pick up Margot early.
Well, that ended up happening anyway. During lunch (eating out three meals in a row in your own city is a weird thing by the way), we received a phone call from my mom. Margot was crying hysterically b/c she had fallen out of her crib. Our "pretend day out of town" ended abruptly, but we weren't too disappointed b/c I think we were both secretly thankful that we now had an excuse to pick Margot up early.
The only downfall of the 24-hour day away? -- the subsequent several days of adjustment it has meant for Margot. Our daughter is amazing and I am VERY thankful for her sleeping habits (she sleeps until 8:30 almost every morning, she typically goes to bed without a peep, she says "bye-bye" in the most adorable way when you tell her goodnight). I definitely have no right to complain about Margot's sleeping habits. The only sleeping quirk of Margot's that can occasionally be difficult is she cannot stand to sleep anywhere but her own bed. And she especially dislikes the crib at my parents' house. She screams and screams and screams when my mom puts her in it, which is traumatic enough for my mom, but can also cause enough trauma for Margot in one night that for the following week she thinks we are going to leave her and continues the screaming pattern at home, even in her own crib. To complicate matters, since Margot got mad enough this time at my mom's and figured out how to crawl out of the crib (well, she crawled out one time, fell out the next), she is now able to crawl out of her crib at home. This is not a good thing. Not only because she could hurt herself on the launch from her crib to the floor, but also because she could mess herself up falling down the steep flight of stairs in our old home.
For the past three nights, John and I have tried to get creative with getting Margot to sleep while at the same time planning ahead for her protection should she choose to scale the crib walls again. In the meantime, we're trying to make the big decision of, "Do we transfer her to a toddler bed now, or do we just wait a little longer and trust the crib-jumping will pass?"
Oh the questions that parents must answer. This is serious stuff people.
And since I missed posting photos of Margot at Christmas, here are two shots of her trying to be the conductor of a train that is supposed to be a pull toy. She's not the best driver.
Sunday, November 06, 2005
open for business
The Grand Opening party for Habitat Shoe Store was this past Friday, but we officially opened our doors on Tuesday (Nov. 1st), so we could have a few days of helping customers under our belts before the November First Friday when potentially hundreds of people could be in the store. Well, the first week of business for Habitat has far exceeded any expectations John and I had. We really didn't have a lot of expectations for the first week because we hadn't done veyr much advertising. We sent out a postcard announcing our opening and were fortunate to have an article in the paper on Thursday (which brought in a surprising amount of people!), but other than that the only way people would know about us would be hearing about us by word-of-mouth, or walking by the store.
It has been such a fun week! It's so exciting to see a dream we've been pursuing for a long time finally realized! Frequently this past week when walking around the store, I caught myself wondering if I was still living in a dream. It's definitely hard to believe that the store is finally open, and yet at the same time, John and I feel like we've been selling shoes for awhile now. We constantly talk about what shoes people are and are not buying and how we've been surprised at the hottest sellers so far (I know it's only been 5 days, but it's still fun to talk about). When I'm not at the store I call John to find out what shoes he's sold that day and to whom.
Now, I know I've said this several times already, but honestly, there is no way we could've done this without the help of our friends and family. Our friends have watched Margot more hours than I could count, cooked dinners for us, cleaned our store bathrooms (that had been severely abused by construction workers!), wielded dangerous machinery to turn our John Malcovich-sized door to the back storage room into one we could step through without bending ourselves in half, unpacked many, many boxes of shoes, designed our grand opening postcard, put furniture and fixtures together, installed our point-of-sale system, created window displays and many other things I'm forgetting at the moment. Not to mention all the help we received on Friday night when we had hundreds of customers in the store.
Friday night was completely insane. I really wanted to have one of our friends who was helping greet count the number of people who came in the store that night, but I totally spaced asking anyone. I'm horrible at estimating things like that, but I'd say it was at least 300 people. My husband and his brother think it was closer to 500, but since the McClain family is known to exaggerate, I'm cutting that number in half and throwing in a few extra for good measure. However many people were there, it was a lot. Although I didn't get to hear people's reactions when they were entering and leaving the store (since I was busy running back and forth retrieving shoes and ringing up customers - yeah!), our friends who were helping greet customers told us what they heard after we closed. Here are a few of my favorites:
"Have you been to the new shoe store? It's like the shoes are art."
And the woman who gasped enthusiastically after getting just one foot in the door, "Ohhh myyy...now THIS is the most happenin' place down here!"
So enough words, here are some photos of Habitat...
The space went from this (taken shortly after the October First Friday):
To this (taken one week before the store opened):
To this (taken the night before the Grand Opening party):
The front of Habitat:
The wall of shoe art:
Where customers can hang out:
The clothing section (with super cool denim rack designed by Carl from Kojo in Lawrence):
And where we ring people up (the absolutely ADORABLE baby shoes distract from the brown paper which must remain on the windows so people walking outside cannot see all the shoe inventory stashed behind that divider that still needs to be painted):
So enough bragging about our new "baby". Stop by and see us when you get a chance. For those of you who can't stop by, we'll (hopefully) have the website up very soon! Thanks again to all of you who helped make this happen for us!
It has been such a fun week! It's so exciting to see a dream we've been pursuing for a long time finally realized! Frequently this past week when walking around the store, I caught myself wondering if I was still living in a dream. It's definitely hard to believe that the store is finally open, and yet at the same time, John and I feel like we've been selling shoes for awhile now. We constantly talk about what shoes people are and are not buying and how we've been surprised at the hottest sellers so far (I know it's only been 5 days, but it's still fun to talk about). When I'm not at the store I call John to find out what shoes he's sold that day and to whom.
Now, I know I've said this several times already, but honestly, there is no way we could've done this without the help of our friends and family. Our friends have watched Margot more hours than I could count, cooked dinners for us, cleaned our store bathrooms (that had been severely abused by construction workers!), wielded dangerous machinery to turn our John Malcovich-sized door to the back storage room into one we could step through without bending ourselves in half, unpacked many, many boxes of shoes, designed our grand opening postcard, put furniture and fixtures together, installed our point-of-sale system, created window displays and many other things I'm forgetting at the moment. Not to mention all the help we received on Friday night when we had hundreds of customers in the store.
Friday night was completely insane. I really wanted to have one of our friends who was helping greet count the number of people who came in the store that night, but I totally spaced asking anyone. I'm horrible at estimating things like that, but I'd say it was at least 300 people. My husband and his brother think it was closer to 500, but since the McClain family is known to exaggerate, I'm cutting that number in half and throwing in a few extra for good measure. However many people were there, it was a lot. Although I didn't get to hear people's reactions when they were entering and leaving the store (since I was busy running back and forth retrieving shoes and ringing up customers - yeah!), our friends who were helping greet customers told us what they heard after we closed. Here are a few of my favorites:
"Have you been to the new shoe store? It's like the shoes are art."
And the woman who gasped enthusiastically after getting just one foot in the door, "Ohhh myyy...now THIS is the most happenin' place down here!"
So enough words, here are some photos of Habitat...
The space went from this (taken shortly after the October First Friday):
To this (taken one week before the store opened):
To this (taken the night before the Grand Opening party):
The front of Habitat:
The wall of shoe art:
Where customers can hang out:
The clothing section (with super cool denim rack designed by Carl from Kojo in Lawrence):
And where we ring people up (the absolutely ADORABLE baby shoes distract from the brown paper which must remain on the windows so people walking outside cannot see all the shoe inventory stashed behind that divider that still needs to be painted):
So enough bragging about our new "baby". Stop by and see us when you get a chance. For those of you who can't stop by, we'll (hopefully) have the website up very soon! Thanks again to all of you who helped make this happen for us!
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
ticking off the to-do list
If I were really dedicated to journaling, I would write an entry every night recording what went on that day in the preparation for the opening of Habitat, so that in a year, three years, five years, John and I could look back and laugh about how much we didn't know, how many mistakes we made, the small things we got frustrated about, and how much fun we had doing it all. I do like to journal, but I'm not dedicated to it. Or maybe I just prefer not to cut any further into the minimal hours of sleep I'm getting already.
It's only 11:30pm though and John and I have decided we're done working for the night. My bedtime for the past 3 weeks has averaged 1am, so I figure I can spare a few moments of journaling tonight.
We checked in our first shipment of shoes tonight -- what a thrilling feeling! The lucky vendor who was checked in first? J Shoes. Mostly because they were the boxes filling up the back room (all the rest are currently in the middle of the store) and we needed to get them out of boxes and onto the storage shelves to make room for more shoes. Checking in the shoes was awesome (made things seem real in a whole new way); learning how to check in shoes was not awesome. Being the anal person I am, I felt like I needed to familiarize myself with how the POS (point of sale) software worked on my own (read: I'm the lame person who actually attempts to read how-to guides) rather than letting John show me what he'd learned so far. Well, after an hour of just trying to figure out where the sample/practice database was on the hard drive, I said, "Forget it (not that nicely)...we have work to do." John gave me a quick tutorial and we made quick work of the J Shoes inventory. As if anyone who reads this blog hasn't already gathered this, but we are going to be selling some stinkin' cool shoes! Every box I opened I said, "Oh my, I have to get these shoes!" I'm warning you now -- don't come to Habitat unless you plan on walking out with a new pair of shoes. You will not be able to resist.
Today we also ordered the FLOR carpet tiles to make the lounge area and the trying-on-shoes area more comfortable. Last night I was talking about how we needed to order them the next day in order to get them in time for the opening and my friend, Katie, mentioned that she had seen a store around the corner from Habitat that sold the tiled. John decided to check it out before we ordered them online, and I could kiss him for taking the initiative with that because he scored us an amazing deal! Plus, we get to support a fellow retailer in the Crossroads.
I also mailed out the second round of 300 grand opening invitations that our friend, Hannah, designed. I'll tell you, tracking down addresses is no small job (I feel like I'm getting married all over again). The invitations should be in people's mailboxes by Wednesday or Thursday...only one week before the grand opening event, but it's the best we could do. So if you're reading this and it's Thursday and you haven't received your card yet, don't feel left out. It means I didn't have your address b/c trust me, I sent an invitation to every person we know (and many we don't).
Well, that's enough boring details of my to-do list today. If you were looking for a laugh and didn't find it here, then check this out (probably only funny if you know these two).
It's only 11:30pm though and John and I have decided we're done working for the night. My bedtime for the past 3 weeks has averaged 1am, so I figure I can spare a few moments of journaling tonight.
We checked in our first shipment of shoes tonight -- what a thrilling feeling! The lucky vendor who was checked in first? J Shoes. Mostly because they were the boxes filling up the back room (all the rest are currently in the middle of the store) and we needed to get them out of boxes and onto the storage shelves to make room for more shoes. Checking in the shoes was awesome (made things seem real in a whole new way); learning how to check in shoes was not awesome. Being the anal person I am, I felt like I needed to familiarize myself with how the POS (point of sale) software worked on my own (read: I'm the lame person who actually attempts to read how-to guides) rather than letting John show me what he'd learned so far. Well, after an hour of just trying to figure out where the sample/practice database was on the hard drive, I said, "Forget it (not that nicely)...we have work to do." John gave me a quick tutorial and we made quick work of the J Shoes inventory. As if anyone who reads this blog hasn't already gathered this, but we are going to be selling some stinkin' cool shoes! Every box I opened I said, "Oh my, I have to get these shoes!" I'm warning you now -- don't come to Habitat unless you plan on walking out with a new pair of shoes. You will not be able to resist.
Today we also ordered the FLOR carpet tiles to make the lounge area and the trying-on-shoes area more comfortable. Last night I was talking about how we needed to order them the next day in order to get them in time for the opening and my friend, Katie, mentioned that she had seen a store around the corner from Habitat that sold the tiled. John decided to check it out before we ordered them online, and I could kiss him for taking the initiative with that because he scored us an amazing deal! Plus, we get to support a fellow retailer in the Crossroads.
I also mailed out the second round of 300 grand opening invitations that our friend, Hannah, designed. I'll tell you, tracking down addresses is no small job (I feel like I'm getting married all over again). The invitations should be in people's mailboxes by Wednesday or Thursday...only one week before the grand opening event, but it's the best we could do. So if you're reading this and it's Thursday and you haven't received your card yet, don't feel left out. It means I didn't have your address b/c trust me, I sent an invitation to every person we know (and many we don't).
Well, that's enough boring details of my to-do list today. If you were looking for a laugh and didn't find it here, then check this out (probably only funny if you know these two).
Saturday, October 15, 2005
fabulous friends & fabulous fridays
Even though this is a belated update to last week's First Friday, I still wanted to share that John and I felt it was a huge success. The street team models were fabulous and very well-received from the people passing by. We passed out over 1,000 (probably about 1250) sliers and got 181 people to sign-up on our mailing list. Obviously that is shy of the lofty 500 person goal I mentioned we set. Our less-crazy-and-more-realistic-goal was to get 10-15% of the people we passed out fliers to to sign-up, so we definitely surpassed that goal. We could not have done it without the support and help of so many of our friends. Whether you stood in a window for 5 hours, braved the cold to pass out fliers, stapled posters to poles, or chatted with perspective customers, we want you to know we appreciate you. This was one big step forward to our dream being realized. Only three weeks until the big night of our grand opening, so rest up and get ready to do it even bigger next time! Thanks to Hannah for taking photos (click on view a slideshow to see them all) of the event since John and I did not remember to take photos.
Below are the second round of sneak peak photos. These are farylrobin -- very unique and pleasing to the eye. This is the line most tempting for me to want one of each style.
Bisque -- Can velvet look any better than this?
Tetra -- I love the inspiration from men's ties.
Tickle -- metallics are starting to take on a more muted tone.
Charla -- Wedges are going to be around for awhile ladies.
Pesky -- I love the Victorian look of this boot.
Myria -- I mean honestly, does it get any better than this?
We received our Fornarina order this week, so more sneak peaks to come.
Below are the second round of sneak peak photos. These are farylrobin -- very unique and pleasing to the eye. This is the line most tempting for me to want one of each style.
Bisque -- Can velvet look any better than this?
Tetra -- I love the inspiration from men's ties.
Tickle -- metallics are starting to take on a more muted tone.
Charla -- Wedges are going to be around for awhile ladies.
Pesky -- I love the Victorian look of this boot.
Myria -- I mean honestly, does it get any better than this?
We received our Fornarina order this week, so more sneak peaks to come.
Friday, October 14, 2005
death cab for MY cutie
So tonight on our way back from Nebraska Furniture Mart (yes, at 7pm on a Friday night we decided there is no place we'd rather be than a big-box furniture store...we fully admit we are lame), Margot began her cry-whine-moan routine that John and I have noticed has become normal behavior for her lately.
"Why does she do this everytime we get in the car now?"
"I don't know. Let's see if some music will calm her down."
"What's in the CD player?"
"Death Cab. Maybe if we turn the volume up loud enough we won't be able to hear her whine."
As soon as the music began, Margot turned her head out the window and became eerily quiet.
10 minutes later...
"Do you find it interesting that she hasn't made a peep since we put in this CD?"
"Our daughter is a rockstar."
If you'd liked to view a slideshow of the rockstar dancing to Plans in her pjs go here (click on view as a slide show and move the scale to 1 second for the best effect). I'm sure no one else will appreciate the show as much as I do, but it was fun to learn how to do this on flickr. Here's one of the few clear snapshots of how the rockstar has started to welcome the day in the morning:
"Why does she do this everytime we get in the car now?"
"I don't know. Let's see if some music will calm her down."
"What's in the CD player?"
"Death Cab. Maybe if we turn the volume up loud enough we won't be able to hear her whine."
As soon as the music began, Margot turned her head out the window and became eerily quiet.
10 minutes later...
"Do you find it interesting that she hasn't made a peep since we put in this CD?"
"Our daughter is a rockstar."
If you'd liked to view a slideshow of the rockstar dancing to Plans in her pjs go here (click on view as a slide show and move the scale to 1 second for the best effect). I'm sure no one else will appreciate the show as much as I do, but it was fun to learn how to do this on flickr. Here's one of the few clear snapshots of how the rockstar has started to welcome the day in the morning:
Thursday, October 06, 2005
sneak peak
So it looks like I've become a once-a-week blogger. It's not because the novelty has worn off for me (although I did wonder if that would happen), but because Habitat trumps blogging right now and I don't have enough brain power left at 1am to pull together a coherent thought.
This has been a fun week for John and I because we've started receiving shipments of product. It's so exciting to open up the boxes of shoes, belts and T-shirts (so far) that will soon be lining the shelves at Habitat (and hopefully flying off of the shelves!). Thankfully, we received some shoes in time for the October First Friday tomorrow night (I wrote about First Fridays here if you're curious about what they are), so we'll have members of the Habitat Street Team modeling shoes at the store for people to get a sneak peak before our opening in November. Plus, many of our friends have volunteered to pass out handbills to get the word out and encourage people to sign-up on our mailing list. We've heard estimates that 3,000-4,000 people visit the Crossroads on First Fridays, so our goal is to get 500 people signed up on the mailing list tomorrow night! It's a lofty goal (12-17% of the potential crowd), but what's the point of setting a goal that is easy to reach?
For those of you who won't be able to come tomorrow night, here's a sneak peak for you of some of the shoes the Street Team will be modeling (please forgive the unappealing background of my kitchen counter...I didn't have time to give a lot of thought to layout). All of these are from P.F. Flyers -- the most casual brand we will be carrying. They've been around for many, many years and have recently come back to the forefront in the marketplace with their updated styles of shoes they've been selling for a long time.
The Grounder Lo in distressed brown leather and light blue leather:
The Number 5 in cream leather and tan suede:
The Center Hi in black canvas and navy leather:
Center Hi Limited Edition in eggplant(?) and hot pink, complete with art:
P.F. Flyers sent us all these shoes for free for promotional use for First Friday, which John and I thought was pretty cool (and we think the Street Team members will too). I'll take pictures of the other shoes that will be modeled tomorrow night, so there's more sneak peaks to come.
This has been a fun week for John and I because we've started receiving shipments of product. It's so exciting to open up the boxes of shoes, belts and T-shirts (so far) that will soon be lining the shelves at Habitat (and hopefully flying off of the shelves!). Thankfully, we received some shoes in time for the October First Friday tomorrow night (I wrote about First Fridays here if you're curious about what they are), so we'll have members of the Habitat Street Team modeling shoes at the store for people to get a sneak peak before our opening in November. Plus, many of our friends have volunteered to pass out handbills to get the word out and encourage people to sign-up on our mailing list. We've heard estimates that 3,000-4,000 people visit the Crossroads on First Fridays, so our goal is to get 500 people signed up on the mailing list tomorrow night! It's a lofty goal (12-17% of the potential crowd), but what's the point of setting a goal that is easy to reach?
For those of you who won't be able to come tomorrow night, here's a sneak peak for you of some of the shoes the Street Team will be modeling (please forgive the unappealing background of my kitchen counter...I didn't have time to give a lot of thought to layout). All of these are from P.F. Flyers -- the most casual brand we will be carrying. They've been around for many, many years and have recently come back to the forefront in the marketplace with their updated styles of shoes they've been selling for a long time.
The Grounder Lo in distressed brown leather and light blue leather:
The Number 5 in cream leather and tan suede:
The Center Hi in black canvas and navy leather:
Center Hi Limited Edition in eggplant(?) and hot pink, complete with art:
P.F. Flyers sent us all these shoes for free for promotional use for First Friday, which John and I thought was pretty cool (and we think the Street Team members will too). I'll take pictures of the other shoes that will be modeled tomorrow night, so there's more sneak peaks to come.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)