One year ago Sunday (April Fool's Day, naturally) we opened our shop, Marmalade, in our town center. A bigger and more beautiful location with lots of foot traffic and parking (yes!) has made our presence officially known as a fabulous retail destination in the suburbs of Boston. It was a big risk, a lot of work, a lot more work than that, and frankly, contributed to one of the hardest financial and organizational years Curly Girl has had to go through. But at the year mark, things are looking really good. The community has embraced us whole-heartedly, we are winning awards and getting the kind of press I always thought we deserved.

We are story-telling, community-building and creating an world for Curly Girl to live in that exists beyond the work we do in the offices, or online, or on paper. We have more work to do still, and growth is a moving target but I am really pleased in this moment with what we have done. I put this thought, this intention, this vision out into the world, and the world around me, the people around me and the community around me made it real. It's real and it's bright and shiny, just like I thought it would be. Happy Birthday Marmalade!

We have come a long way...

You can read a little about the beginnings here and here and see photos of our opening week here and here.

Saturday we threw ourselves a little party inspired by Marie Antoinette and piled the sugary treats high! We popped prosecco and put on our party dresses and treated our customers to a storewide sale.

The place was packed with customers (which is always good!) and balloons! Coach even helped bartend! (how cute is he?). The marmalade girls were in full effect and everyone's spirits were high!

It really put a cherry on top of an excellent first year and I couldn't be more grateful to all whose energy and time and love and support went into making this year a success! In particular: Lauren, Emily, all the marm girls, Ethan, Coach and our friends at Glutenous Minimus for all the delicious sweets when we need them! Also, to the Curly Girl staff (esp. Molly) for holding down the fort while we did all of this. Thank you all for making my vision a reality...and continuing to.

xoxo

Good Monday to you all! It is the day before Valentine's Day and do you know who your sweethearts are?? I love this day because it is an on-the-calendar excuse to write love notes. Now, though I encourage sending love notes all year round, I am not opposed to  a little annual nudge. I think that the ability to tell people how you feel about them is right up there with opposable thumbs and free will on the list of great things about being at our end of the food chain (as you might have guessed given my profession) and here is a whole day to do it!! Yahoo!

This, I realize can cause some anxiety for some folks, so at our shop, Marmalade, we do our best to help. Here are some peeks at what the shop looks like this season!

Lauren, our shop manager, got her hot little hands on the window display this month while I was at market. This was a big leap for me, because I am kind of a visual control freak when it comes to the shop displays and windows, but I was at market, and it had to be delegated. Check out this adorable scene:

We got in these hilariously cute sock animals and Lauren made them the "Valentine's Day Decorating Committee". She made it look like these little critters were decorating the window and getting into all sorts of mischief in the process. It could not be cuter or more "Marmalade". Great job Lauren!! It brings a smile to everyone who passes by!

That's what's going on in the shop at the moment. Also, we had a cute little write up in a local rag. Despite the poor grammar-check, it is a cute piece about the greeting card industry and my place in it.

Love to know what you think!! Do love V-day?? Not love it? Why?

xoxo

While I have been in my studio making stuff, our girl Katie (Curly Girl Customer Service Guru and all around fantastic person) has been out there putting something REALLY REALLY beautiful into the world! On Wednesday, January 18th, 2012 Katie and her husband Ed welcomed this perfect little guy into the world!. Weighing in at 7lbs 13.5oz, Alexander William MacKenzie was born at 4 in the afternoon. Welcome Alex and Congrautlations MacKenzies!!! We love you already!
 

xoxo

Happy New Year!!!! Oh how I love a brand new year! I venture to say that this first, fresh few weeks of the year is among the most sacred times for me. I feel energized, reflective, inspired and creative. I feel full of pride, a little relief and a touch of fatigue over the year I have just wrapped up and then, after a brief but important couple days of hibernation, immerge bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. I have big plans for this coming year and those big plans each have a thousand little steps. It is best to approach them one at a time.

In order to put last year to bed, and begin this one there are a few things I must get in order first. Things like inventory at the shop and warehouse, taxes, and travel-plans for the upcoming tradeshow season. There are also a few, ahem, cobwebs that need to be cleaned out. Places in my life where I have let things accumulate making it hard (or unpleasant) to do the things I really want to do in those places. This can apply of course to relationships, thought processes and most obviously to physical spaces. In this case... my studio.

Oh. My studio.

How can one expect to fill the world with creative genius when one cannot find a clear surface on which to put a pencil down! My thoughts go to Sherlock Holmes.

I have a 2011 wrap up post in the works, but this little studio re-org took up the better part of yesterday (into the wee hours of today) and I am pretty excited about it and wanted to share. It was a rough go. An epic organizing session. A true test of my attention span. There were points at which I thought the studio just might win the battle.

It started like this:

Not so bad you say? That's just because everything was shoved into the closets (we did have guests for Christmas after all...)

Not bad, but it would get worse before it got better. About 3 hours into my studio smack down it looked like this:

I had to stop for a snack. I sorted, I stashed, I chucked, I purged, I was merciless yet careful, thrifty yet thoughtful and above all... clever. The best thing I can't believe I didn't think of before was getting this pantry rack for the inside of my art closet door!! It pretty much doubled my storage space for 'small stuff' and made me APPEAR to be far more organized than I actually am! Double points!

I took these photos in the wee hours, so they are kind of dark, but I think you get the picture. All in all, I am pretty excited about how it turned out and can't wait to get in there to make some new cards!

Top 10 great or weird things I found while cleaning:

1.) A letter from a former student that she wrote me after I left the school for a job in Boston. She was secretly my favorite, and attached was her 1st Grade photo. She is now in college!

2.) A Year 2000 U.S. Mint Proof Set of Quarters (my Dad puts them in our stockings and I never know what to do with them!)

3.) A photo booth picture of me and Coach in Italy, right after we got engaged.

4.) The book my friends made me for my 30th birthday...full of letters and photos!

5.) My old retainer. Gross.

6.) A note my Dad left on my desk after they helped move me to Boston.

7.) My ear buds (totally been missing those!)

8.) Both of my LOUIE awards! (better dust those babies off!)

9.) My old 'design files'. Binders full of magazine pages with stuff I liked on them. Life before Pinterest!

10.) A stash of my wedding invitations. Feels like just yesterday and a million years ago at the same time.

So there you have it. As far as my studio goes, it's hospital corners for right now and I'm feeling pretty good about it! It's amazing how much energy you can get from moving some energy around. It sometimes stirs things up a bit, but I have never regretted doing it.
Are you harboring some energy somewhere? Burying a little light? I'll bet you are. We all are. Here is my official plug for getting to it this month. DO IT!! YOU WILL FEEL SOOOOO GOOOD! Promise! And don't worry, you will have plenty of time to go ahead and mess it right back up. That's what life is all about.

What do you need to get to? Say it out loud here. Maybe it will help!

xoxo

Hello! Here it is Wednesday and I have been off line nearly a week. How glorious! (well, sort of, except I missed you...) I would like to say I was taking a much-needed break, but it would be more accurate to say that holiday retail season has begun!! I have been working the shop for the big shopping weekend and then playing 'elf' and decking Marm out for Christmas until the wee hours. It looks sensational if I do say so myself (great job elves!) and I will show you a bit later this week.

I did get the day off on Thanksgiving, which was lovely. Coach and I live far away from our families, and this year with his coaching schedule and my work schedule, travel to one of those far away places was simply not an option, so we had a very nice, pretty romantic Thanksgiving Day date! We ate a delicious meal at one of our favorite restaurants then walked around Harvard Square, did a crossword puzzle together (sort of ) and capped it off by seeing The Muppets Movie. It was a perfect affair. We have both been so busy, it was nice to just have the day to reconnect. And, P.S. The Muppets Movie is the happiest movie on earth. I left with the biggest smile on my face! Thank you Jason Segel.

I did not, however miss out on the full Turkey Day meal or leftovers for that matter (phew!). I hosted some dear friends for a 'Friends Thanksgiving" potluck on Sunday. It is among my favorite things in life to host dinner parties, or host people in general. I just love having a house that is full of people. I love setting tables, and lighting candles, and fluffing pillows and having guests. I would have made excellent "staff". I don't love doing dishes, but that is a small price to pay for a warm house.

As I was setting the table (above) I got to thinking about being 'home'. How much I missed my family, and how sad I was not to see them on this holiday, but how glad I was to have chosen some family for myself here in Boston. How we, as humans, do that. We tend to nest into places, to surround ourselves with people and things that make us feel safe, and comfortable. What a nice trait that is.

Then I got to thinking about an email that I received back in August. It was from a Sara O. Sara is in the U.S. Navy and wrote me from Afghanistan. This is what she wrote:

... I'm in the Navy and I'm deployed to Afghanistan. When I got here the first two cards I got
in the mail were Curly Girl cards! Both from friends that were also deployed in Kuwait and on the USS Reagan. I just wanted to let you
know that I love your cards and blog.  I hung up both cards and your calendar, I attached a picture of them.

Thanks for brightening my day!

I was so tickled to think of Sara getting these pink and turquoise big square envelopes in her mail on a big grey ship! I was so thrilled that she had friends that thought of her when they saw the cards and sent them. I was so excited to have been part of brightening that day. That far away. For that woman, serving her country.

When I was setting the table, I hoped that Sara was sitting around the table with her real family, and if not, with people who felt like family.

All of this thinking, and eating, and thinking got me set on a bright and shiny little project.

If I know a woman in on active duty in the military who would love Curly Girl Cards, then I'll bet you guys do!! Let's send them some love and color shall we?? Here's the deal:

Send us the full military address for the woman or women you know, currently serving active-duty (we will certainly send to active-duty men too, if you think they would love to get a Curly Girl Card....pink envelopes are equal-opportunity day-brighteners!) along with an email love-note to them. We will print out your email and enclose it in a Curly Girl Card and send it off to them for you! On us!

Send emails to: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) (mark the subject line: SEND LOVE) by Monday December 5th 10am EST

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Thanks for playing along with this and thanks to Sara O. for her service and inspiration!

xoxo

A while back I found these little darlings at a flea market. They were tired and weary too, but as it happens, not worn out. The pair of office chairs (there are two of the same) were relics from the 80's, circa when everything was covered in carpet. They were covered in a bland, itchy and pretty tired industrial fabric an though had a great, super comfortable shape, and an awesome steel rolling base, were just this side of  "Working Girl" and were headed for a life of office chair glass ceilings.

The little foot stool was just too cute to pass up with its cute feet and all-but-free price tag. I knew these guys had one good do-over left in them.

Several yards of fabric, a good bit of work (by someone far more skilled than myself) and a couple car trips later:

Voila!! These handsome devils are ready to take on some serious (or not so serious) office work or homework, or a few good hall -races if they find their way to a free-wheeling home! They currently sit in the Thanksgiving window at Marmalade but are hopeful to find a new home soon!! I just love them and thought I would share!!

xoxox

Ok Guys! This is it! This year we made some very special holiday product with one of our licensors, Santa Barbara Design Studio. It turned out really really cute! So cute, in fact that it sold out before the end of September leaving us with only one shipment to sell!! Yipes!

We decided that with such a limited quantity on hand, we would give our nearest and dearest (that's you!) first dibs at scooping it up. This product will not go on our retail website, and will most likely not even go to Marmalade (sad face). In fact, my own mother probably won't get one. Sorry Mom!

This is not the most ideal way to order, but is the best way for us to keep a close eye on inventory so we know when its gone. Orders will be processed in the order they are received and we will confirm with you by email. To order, email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Please be sure to include quantities, your shipping address and the best way to contact you. We will contact you for payment information. Never send credit card info via email. All orders will ship UPS Ground, unless rush is specified.

List of titles:

Curly Girl Holiday Wine Glasses: $25 each ~14oz. wine glasses with hand-painted stem. Each comes in adorable striped tin.

Available Styles:

• Tiny Magic: "'Tis the season to be aware of the tiny magic everywhere."

• Mittens: "Her wish was simple. Peace in every nation, joy in every heart and a mitten on every hand."

Curly Girl Holiday Wine Wraps: $7 each ~ Turn a bottle of wine into an adorable gift! These  wine bottle wraps are made from the same cool stuff as our laptop skins, which means you can dress up a bottle and use it again!

Available Styles:

• Champagne & Cupcakes: "She had on good authority that santa preferred champagne and cupcakes."

• Tiny Magic: "'Tis the season to be aware of the tiny magic everywhere."

Curly Girl Holiday Doo-Dad Jars: $10 ~ These adorable little 9oz. vintage-style jars are just waiting to be filled with fun things!

Available Styles:

• Tiny Magic: "'Tis the season to be aware of the tiny magic everywhere."

• True Merriment: "It was her opinion that true merriment required good hot chocolate and extravagant amounts of tinsel."

• Joy in the Spaces: "If you look, you will find with some certainty that joy is in the spaces in-between."

• Mittens: "Her wish was simple. Peace in every nation, joy in every heart and a mitten on every hand."

Curly Girl Holiday Square Glass Candles: $16 ~ New this year! These (not-quite) square filled glass candles have gorgeous pattern on the back and your favorite saying on the front. Roughly 3.5" tall.

Available Styles:

• True Merriment: "It was her opinion that true merriment required good hot chocolate and extravagant amounts of tinsel."

• Champagne & Cupcakes: "She had on good authority that santa preferred champagne and cupcakes."

• Halls be Decked: "Whether mistletoe or boughs of holly, may your halls be decked and your hearts be jolly"

• Joy in the Spaces: "If you look, you will find with some certainty that joy is in the spaces in-between."

Curly Girl Holiday Mini Votive Set: $20 ~ These tiny votives will make your holiday sparkle. Set of 5 tiny votives in a beautiful box makes them the perfect gift also. 100% soy wax. Approximately 5 hours of burn time.

Available styles:
• Fa La La

Get your orders in soon! Let us know if you have any questions!

xoxo

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Also! Congratulations to our "Thriving Through the Holidays" Health Coaching winners!!

Super Sexy Random Number Generator picked us two lucky people:

First Prize (free course!): Samantha

Second Prize ($100 off!): Erica S.

Congratulations girls!! Lacy will be in touch with instructions!!

What a WEEK! I had so many things to share with you last week, but there was just so much going on and simply not enough hours in the day. We spent last week doing our second-ever big-girl photo shoot for the 2012 Curly Girl Design Wholesale Catalog, which involved about a million props, 4 staff members, two professional photographers, 400 photos and one dog.

This year we did the shoot in the professional studio (amazingly beautiful professional studio...) of Heath Robbins. Heath is an incredibly talented photographer who does super big-time stuff usually, but made some time for little ole' us to shoot the catalog. Knowing that time is precious (and expensive) I spent a good while drawing out the shots that I wanted to do, the girls and I made lists of props for each shot and Emily and I even spent until the wee hours of the night before setting up the shots in my kitchen taking our own photos (to remind us what we wanted) and then bagging up the props per shot. This may have been the most organized thing I have ever done. Although, if you had seen Emily's car the day of the shoot, you might have disagreed. Thanks Em!

We did all this prep work because we knew we could only afford one day of photography and we had A LOT of shots to get done and that we had never done this in a studio before so there would be the inevitable: "why don't we try this" or "shouldn't this have more snowflakes?" and "I know, but can you really see the sparkle?", common lingo here at CGD. We built in a little time for that, but in the end were shooting from 9am to exactly 5pm and I think Lucy clocked in some overtime.

In the end, I got exactly the shots I wanted and a few extra that I didn't know I wanted. We got more than what we needed for the catalog and a whole set of editorial photos of single products to use when, you know, Oprah calls. The next step will be voting on a cover shot. I will post that in the next few days. For now, up top are the pro photos and here are some of the behind-the-scenes photos that I took while we were shooting.

I had an absolute blast! Thanks Heath and Jason and my girls, Emily, Allie and Laura and of course Miss Lucy. This big job is "in the can" (photo lingo... you know.)

Let me know what you think!

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Also! We have a SUPERFAN!!!

You all were so wonderful and hilarious with your responses!! I love all the ways you are superfans! We had SUCH a hard time choosing a winner, but in the end, we must do what we must do.

The SUPERFAN 2011 title goes to: Courtney "Superfan" Law

who wrote us a song. We love the effort and creativity that went into that and as someone who re-wrote Michael Jackson songs with my best friend in 5th grade (ala Weird Al Yankovic) your cleverness is close to my heart.

Congratulations Courtney!! Emily will be in touch to get you your stash!!

That said, we decided that we had to give a runner-up prize for best laugh. Everyone, when picking their list of winners ended their list by saying "but, man, that tattoo girl was hilarious!" I agree. I laughed out loud at that comment!

So, Congratulations Kristen! We are sending you a mini-stash!  Emily will be in touch. Please don't get a Curly Girl tattoo though.

Thanks all of you for your many many lovely comments throughout this ahem, month of give-aways! It is such a buoy to my spirit and gives me so much energy to know that you are out there reading and 'getting' Curly Girl. It makes every little thing worth doing.

xoxo

Ceeeeeeelllebrate Gooood Tiiiiimes C'mon!!! doo doo doo do. It's a Cel-e-bra-tion... (Kool and the Gang? Anyone?)

I remember my Nana playing this record in her house when I was little. I thought that the St. Louis Cardinals SANG that song for the longest time. Now that I am an adult, I understand that it was Kool and the Gang (ahem, I may have been in college when I found out that the song wasn't written just for the Cardinals...) I believe it was a special edition record put out for the 1982 World Series win. You know, just one of oh, ELEVEN World Series wins for my hometown team! Congratulations Cardinals and St. Louis folks! Go Nuts!

Happy Monday to you all! I hope you had restful and snow-free weekends (though I know some of you did not. boo.) I am here today with my final (phew!) blog-i-versary give-away and I am looking for SUPER FANS.

Are you a Curly Girl Super Fan? If there were a Curly Girl plush suit would you run around in it?? (ha! I just got to laughing at the thought of that!) Do you think you love Curly Girl Design more than anyone else? I know you are out there ... and I want proof!

The winner of this give away gets the mother-load of a Curly Girl Super Fan Stash. This will keep you outfitted in all the important ways for a good long while thus allowing you the free time to pursue other ways to show your Curly Girl Love. You will receive:

One "The World According to Curly Girl" 2012 Calendar (signed by me), a stack of Curly Girl Journals, a collection of super strong magnets and an armful of delightfully dotty and striped Curly Girl Pencils! Whether or not you choose to share with friends is up to you. We won't judge you.

All you have to do is tell me, or better yet, show me what makes you a super-fan in the comments section of this post. Get creative. Have fun with it. We love this stuff.

The winner will be chosen by the Curly Girl Staff (sorry sexy random number generator.) on Friday November 4th at 10am EST. Have Fun!!

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OOH! We have a winner from last week's "Share the Love" Give-away!!
Thanks to all of you for putting those little seeds into the wind! I appreciate each one!

SSRNG picked:

Comment # 72:

The prize goes to Gina who shared on Facebook! Thanks Gina! Emily will be in touch to get your your loot!

Thanks All!!

xoxo

So my week of give-aways is turning out to be a month of give-aways, ah well. I have some fun stuff to give away so you guys will have to bear with me (suffer through, you know?). This one is the one where I ask you to spread the word. Share the love, shout it from the rooftops, sing it sisters,.... oh, you get the picture.

I have another box of holiday loot to give away! This one is from our lovely licensing partner, Demdaco. They have so nicely provided us with a fantastic box of some of the Curly Girl holiday product that they make!

(product in give-away prize may vary slightly)

You can deck your halls with all things merry and bright this year! Many of these holiday items are already available on our website so if you don't win, you can still be merry!

Here's how to enter:

Post a link to this blog (doesn't have to be this post! Have a favorite post? Share it!) on your blog, facebook page, twitter feed or other outlet. Heck! send a mass email if you think it will connect people you love with a blog you love...do it! Leave a link in your comment on this post (you can enter multiple times if you share it multiple places, just use separate comments please) and say a quick hello! You can also get an entry by putting a "I follow Curly Girl" button on your blog (available right there on the left hand side of this page) and linking to that! It's a linking bonanza!!

The point for me is, that if you love this blog and this product, you probably are friends with cool people who would also love this blog and this product. I love sharing!

Winner will be chosen Friday, October 28th at 10am EST. 

Get thee sharing!! Good luck!!
xoxo