friday report

i feel like i'm getting nowhere lately, which is sad. i am just so anxious to open! but i should take the downtime and crank out jewelry...

my awesome landlord drove us over yesterday, along with some very bulky boxes that i had shipped to my house. they stored the boxes in their back room for a week, which also has a skylight and a little parakeet in a cage. he also made us coffee and gave us a date cookie to eat on the way. did i mention awesome?

anyway we need to buy a ladder. derek can't reach the very top of my ceiling to put painter's tape on it, so painting is still not done. we are going to replace the clear chandelier bulbs with reveal-blue ones for more natural light. does anyone need 15 clear bulbs?

now i am thinking about what color curtain for the dressing room area could possibly go with white, wenge and lilac. i will go to baltic bazaar, the thrift shop/fabric scrap depot, for ideas.

we've decided to put in more shelving than first anticipated. the space is so small, and no storage, i just have to build UP and that's another reason to have a ladder on hand.

what else - arranging for Speakeasy to give me "naked DSL" - no phone service necessary. boo to you Verizon! it is cheaper this way. then i will put Vonage on top of that, and get an ethernet-ready credit card processor. everything takes time and i think installing the credit card machine will ultimately decide when my store officially opens. or, i guess i can open early and take cash for the first weekend or something. so many people have been sticking their head in the doorway, i think they'd at least like to look around the shop, if not buy...

finally, i am hustling to place some ads in the local mag and shopping guide. the Fall deadline was of course last week but i will beg and plead to get a mention.

now the fun part - i have ordered a ton of goodies to supplement the great stuff from the consigners. at the high end, i am getting exquisite leather bags in very simple modern shapes from Kisim, a company based in Israel but with a San Francisco distributor. i remembered seeing them from the SF shows i have done in the past. yummy. and at the low end, i will probably get some notecards from Waste Not Paper, and i also found these Japanese wool felted cozies (no other word for it) for your keys...it is a clever design where the keys get sucked up into the cozy so they don't jingle in your bag. i am using one right now and i love it. somewhat more info at raredevice.net. the logo (one version of it) will go up this weekend.