06.27.08
Posted in Main, business-a-go-go at 2:37 am by carrie
it’s 5 am… I’m cleaning and can’t stop (obsessive-compulsive much?) and I found this CD that my cousin Ernie gave me of all the photos he took of the opening of our store in 2003… I hadn’t seen these before this morning…
So sparse… new, “green”… and at that moment my Mom, Pam and I had gotten about 30 minutes of sleep each… scrambling around to get things in order. My Aunt Colleen is there, and she passed away recently.
So many reasons to feel so many emotions while looking at these pictures… I miss everything and everyone in them… and there are so many other people not in these pictures that I miss immensely, too!
Please know that I think about everyone all the time! I miss you!! (You know who you are! hehe)
Happy Friday!
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06.25.08
Posted in Main, Mind Wanderings, Sharing the Handmade Love at 1:53 pm by carrie
Trying to push myself to do more art. It’s tough! Nathan got me some awesome watercolor colored pencils for my b-day so having this new medium/tool has been helpful.
I added another dimension by gluing on acetate cut-outs and lime-green flowers. Eventually, I would like this sort of work to evolve to dense, covered mixed media… with found materials and bits of vintage papers.
By searching for new patterns and color palettes for inspiration, I’ve become somewhat interested in vintage fabric and wallpaper. I’d like to start a little collection… I already have a massive stack of vintage hankies that I’ve been collecting, but what box are they in? eek! I have to admit, I’m not completely unpacked and I’m so far from organized. But, I’ve been working on a web design project… so I have an excuse to not be organized :)
It’s taken a few months, but I’m really starting to feel the loss of not having the shop. It had a built-in passion… it came with the desire to create. Each day I would open the door and be inspired. It’s so much harder to feel the need to create here. I had tangible items, an audience and instant gratification… and input. I miss it so much.
I was joking with my friends that I need to have a wake for all the items that I left behind, and that I’m mourning the loss of. An old radio cabinet, my very old couches, a mop, sheets of plexiglass that I really could have made into something cool here… a laundry list of little pieces of the store… five years to put together and about 6 weeks to dismantle. *sigh* Well, I’m hoping, at the very least, to take these emotions and put it into my art… celebrate the joy that the shop created… and some of the frustration, too. Perhaps I can bind it all together and make a book about having your own little store… the mundane business paper pushing, the overwhelming responsibility, the joy, how rewarding it was and also all of the many annoyances. Towards the end, so many things seemed unfair… the joy was slipping away… and having to deal with outside forces… it seeped into my little magical fairy world and destroyed it. Next time… if there is a next time, I will make sure that my business is protected from the negative, that way it will thrive and grow, the way I intended it to. (And I may hire a bulldog to run the store while I get to just create… I’ll be the first to admit that I’m uber-hyper-sensitive to anything negative… or anyone who is negative, for that matter).
And here is a work in progress… I think I’m going to journal on it a bit… let vab know how much I miss her :) I think once I find closure on the closure, I’ll be able to get the website up and running again… I can once again share my passion for art and pretty little things :)
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06.17.08
Posted in Main at 3:50 pm by carrie
I’m on my way out the door! But I’m going to be without my computer tonight (boo!) so, I wanted to post some downstairs decorating progression pics before we jet out to Durham…
We opened up the table with all three leaves… it was so neat! And I added stuff to the walls, a few lamps, a wreath and some curtains… I’m also working on some art to hang up…slowly but surely it’s getting to look like a dining room!
Our sitting room is also coming together… a few chairs, some lime green and black shelves… just need a few things! (And Rach, you’re right… that bench may be too much! But I’ll never get rid of those acrylic grapes!! teehee!)
The living room… well… needs help. I’m going to do a few paintings for over the couch. I’m going to stick with blues, blue greys, shades of brown (and some in the red family to match the walls) and bits of black. Not what I had planned, but I found some inspiration from a photo album with bird eggs on it… (I’ll share that pic later)
Random dog wall in the breakfast area…
And… a chair I found at Ben’s Bargain Barn :D! I got this thing a week before I went to see the new Sex and the City movie. When they revealed Carrie’s new living room, I got really excited! The chair I got looks almost identical to the love seat and settee she has! (This picture doesn’t look nearly as good as what it looked like on the big screen!) The walls were a dark tiffany blue with grown-up floral pieces, mirrored furniture and pillows and rugs in bold, simple prints… it’s awesome! The guest room is taking on a whole new life… again!
Yikes! I’m really late now!!! Have a great Wednesday everyone! :)
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06.11.08
Posted in Main at 8:27 pm by carrie
When I first opened my store, we bought “tickled pink” white eggshell paint by the 55 gallon tub. Seems that everyone wanted white, shabby chic furniture. We painted at least 100 pieces of furniture that color!
Then something happened… all of a sudden color was popping up everywhere! Fun shades of green, periwinkle and pink! Accent and main pieces! yay!
Quite hesitantly, I bought a tiny little quart of black paint and painted a few pieces at the store last Fall. It wasn’t flying off the floor, but it got some attention!
When I closed the store, I sold quite a few furniture pieces that I truly wanted to keep. I thought it was going to be a breeze finding replacements in the furniture capital of the world, but not so much. I did, however, find a few awesome things that I must share :)
First off, I got a table from the early 1900’s and “shield-back” chairs from the early to mid 1800’s. They were painted black and covered in some fab fabric that I found online and viola! The beginnings of an awesome dining room! I also got the buffet… which I love!!!
Once I get the mirror on the wall and other adornments up, I’ll put up some larger pics… I can’t wait to take the time to “stage” the room!
Adjacent to the dining room is the sitting room… frankly, I don’t know what to do with it! We just bought 2 new couches so the idea of buying another couch makes us cringe… so I got a few elements in there to get started…
But I really want this old bench! (Or maybe it’s too… ??)
Here are some more pics from that trip to
Revival Antiques in Raleigh… (Joe has been so nice putting up with me coming in and browsing for hours)
And just because… here’s a Meg picture from the other morning…
So, here I go spray painting all of my frames black! Come, join me on the dark side! ;)
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05.30.08
Posted in Main at 3:09 pm by carrie
I’ve been drafting many blogs in my mind all week…
One about our afternoon mini-trip to the beach…
another about our trip to Duke Gardens…
One about my ocd when it comes to furniture…
I was going to share my decorating sketches…
How I had sort of entered Corporate America…
Kristina is here on Holiday… she is having fun!
The best French bakery outside of France is 10 minutes away!
I even had titles…
“Wow, I live under a rock”
“I hate commercial landlords”
“Electric fences… see what the buzz is about” aka “That dog isn’t stopping… RUN for your LIFE!”
“Furniture painting and you”
“Eat your way across the Triangle!”
And other fine attention grabbers!
Alas… stuff. You know… that stuff that oozes into your life taking all your attention.
Thank you all so much for your wonderful comments! I will be writing back soon!!!!!!
Have an awesome weekend!!!!
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05.19.08
Posted in Main, business-a-go-go at 2:29 pm by carrie
I’ve been buying and selling on ebay for just over 8 years. I have had over 4500 transactions.
For years I would hear people complain about listing fees going up, how greedy Ebay has become and I would shrug it off because overall, I have had good luck with ebay. (Knock on wood).
But this last run of sales have been… annoying for me. Out of about 100 things listed, 10 people were giving me a hard time and three of them REALLY tried to manipulate me. One even said they were unhappy with the product and gave it away, so they couldn’t mail it back to me… but if I didn’t give them a refund, they would leave negative feedback. I thought the product and service was acceptable, especially for the bargain price they got the item at. So, I started feeling a little gun shy about the whole selling on Ebay experience.
Then today, Nathan was going to leave feedback on ebay for a seller and got this little pop-up window:
As a seller, being able to leave negative feedback for a buyer was my security net. If the buyer tried to pull a fast one or complain about something, we both knew I could leave negative “retaliatory” feedback. Ebay claims this would “scare” buyers into leaving positive feedback even when they were unsatisfied. Really? Before I purchase an item, I look at the feedback the seller has left for others… if it is smarmy, derogatory and full of *$#! symbols, I refrain from bidding. I also look at their positive feedback, for you know, clues. Ugh.
So, I read up more on the new Ebay feedback policies. Although, it’s sort of hard to understand, the bottom line is that buyers are encouraged to be more “vocal” about their buying experience, and sellers no longer have the ability to leave negative feedback for a buyer. Period. Sellers can, however, wade through the form-filling-out process and fill out “non-paying bidder” forms, “feedback extortion” forms and the like. I love forms, don’t you! Also, the way our feedback score is calculated is different. Normally, one negative feedback would not affect me, but now… if I even got ONE, my score would go down almost a full percentage point.
Sellers are complaining left and right. There are two things at work here… if your feedback rating goes under 98%, you can be dropped as a powerseller and/or your “good ebay seller” discounts can be revoked. Apparently, Ebay is going to revisit this issue in July… sort of let the dust settle and then figure out if they are going to downgrade the powersellers or not. Bottom line is, Ebay gets more money and sellers have less of a voice (those sellers are greedy anyway!)
So, the large guys selling the same stuff by the thousands may survive all the changes and fee hikes, but the little guy will not. Ebay once advertised that they sold “It”, whatever “it” was… well, in my opinion, the diversity of the Ebay marketplace is going to suffer severely for this. That “it” product at a good price is going to go away.
The other thing I noticed with this last batch of sales… people demand above and beyond your normal customer service. The items I sold were new (prices starting at 90-95% off of retail price) or gently used collectibles. I charged either shipping costs or below shipping costs with ZERO handling fees and I still got complaints on shipping costs or shipping time. When is the last time you purchased something online, got 90% off, a low shipping rate AND you got the item in less than a week?? I’m not sure where all these demands came from? Who is meeting this new customer service experience because I would LOVE to shop there! :)
Nathan pointed this model out to me once… really think about it.
1. Good… meaning, excellent quality, good condition, good shopping experience or good service.
2. Fast… meaning, delivered quickly, made quickly or on your doorstep immediately
3. Cheap… meaning, doesn’t cost a lot :)
Pick Two… because really, it’s hard to get all three. Any service… including food service…. it’s impossible to have all three.
For example…
Food. If you want it cheap and fast, chances are it’s not going to be any good.
Service. Let’s say you want fast service for something. If you get something fast and cheap, it’s probably not going to have very good quality. Or, if you want it fast and in good condition, it probably won’t be cheap.
My brain is starting to hurt. I need to go do art or draw or something :) Can someone else handle the “business side” of my business? I just want to throw glitter on stuff ;)
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05.09.08
Posted in Main at 11:30 am by carrie
You say tomato…?
I need to catch up on my
American history!
Oooohhh, okay…. The Wright Brothers worked on the idea for their planes and gliders in Ohio and built them in Ohio, where they were from… but, the wind and altitude were more ideal in North Carolina for flying, so the first successful flight was here. Conceived in Ohio, born in North Carolina… who gets the credit? ;)
Maybe I’m the only one who didn’t know this? :)
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