what to wear no. 073010

The Cute Husband and I are going to celebrate two people's achievements in study this weekend! I could seriously hardly make it through four years of the study part of college (could have hung in there for the social part with the best of them) and I was taking classes like screen printing and costume design and fiber arts and watercolor. Hard stuff here, friends. These friends of mine - both dear to me - have taken science-y, think-y, study, lots of papers-turning-in-y, test-y classes for longer than I can even imagine. I mean, seriously. They most definitely deserve parties. Lots of them. With all of the adult beverages and all of the snacks a person could want, if you ask me. Tonight we will go bearing wine and congratulations for a house party celebration and tomorrow we will head to New Jersey bearing swim suits and smiles for a pool party celebration. Here's to wonderful friends who have worked oh so very hard for all of those very important letters that will come before and after their names now! You guys are fantastic!

retro swimsuit | blue romper | gladiator sandals | laurel denise smile necklace | odetteny earrings

studio tour no. 073010

Here are a few studio photos...or general "in-the-life-of-laurel-denise" photos from the past week or so. Many people ask me what being in a showroom is like...I try to tell them it's like being in a store...only the store only carries about 20 lines or so and the designer is there selling each customer their line and their line only. Kind of an odd store, but maybe it gets the idea across. That third image down is of the laurel denise table in the Sarm & Nastovski Showroom in Chicago. So that's where I stood and sold with floating (and awesome) sales reps for a few days. So nice to get to know the friendly and fierce sales staff that will be behind my jewelry in Chicago.

Shipments of late...
-Quintessence (Northbrook, IL)
-The Keeping Room (Long Brook, IL)
-Chasing Fireflies catalog (with exclusive custom leather bracelets)
-Lou Lou (Middleburg, VA)

and i'm back

Holy cow, I've missed you, dear blog readers. I've missed my house and my Cute Husband and my routine and my computer and my google reader and and and... I guess when I said that I might not be posting a lot while I was away, what I really meant was that I wouldn't be posting at all. Because, man, even though part of my travels was a vacation, traveling can take a lot of out a gal! Funny how that tends to happen. Things were great at my trade shows in Atlanta and Chicago - can't wait to send you all information on the fun new stores that will be receiving Laurel Denise goods in the near future. As time these shows tend to always do, I've come home full of ideas and inspiration for new designs. Between shipping to all of the new stores and trying to get samples made of new designs before I leave for New York Gift and Seattle Gift in a few weeks, things are going to be, um, busy. But good, great, fabulous busy and I'm happy to be back in my happy little c'ville life doing these busy things.

(Hello letterpress print here from Hijirik on Etsy)

tour de gift show

I leave tonight to head to Atlanta for the Atlanta Gift Show (I'll be with the Simblist Group showroom - Atlanta Mart, suite 1621 - for all of your store buyers out there) where I will stay for a few days selling some jewelry and laughing with the great people behind this line and this one and I can't forget this one or this one either. These shows are so much more fun when you have such kindness to hang out with while standing on your feet for oh so many hours in a row - I'm thankful for such a great group. After my time selling, I'll hop on over to the Outer Banks for a Cute Family vacation (filled with many second and third desserts, thank you very much) and then I'll head directly to Chicago for more gift show madness (I'll be with Sarm & Nastovski there, buyer readers of mine - Chicago Gift Mart Suite 1574) where I'll hang out with one of the fabulous gals behind this line. All of this means that posting, if there is any, will be very spotty. I'm sure I will update the Laurel Denise Facebook page and probably throw up a tweet or two during my time away so become a fan or follow me and you won't miss the updates that I know you dream about with anticipation every single night. Right?!

In the way of shop shipping announcements, I shipped some great leather bracelets to Chasing Fireflies this week (if you don't receive their catalog, go online and sign up to receive it...especially if you're a momma. They have the cutest of cute things for moms and kiddies) and some more leather bracelets to New Twist. It's been a leather bracelet kind of week, I suppose!

hammered poetry

Sorry to just post about something that another blog has done (and, while I'm apologizing, sorry for my lack of weekend photos yesterday, too!), but this is just too good to pass up. Design*Sponge featured this amazing coffee table by Liz from Sticks and Bricks and it made my heart happy. I kind of melted...like, a lot. It's beautiful, isn't it? I've gotten approval from Cute Husband to do this on our dining room table (!!)...now I just have to pick out the right words. Any ideas, friends? I'm so excited.

what to wear no. 070910

Cute Husband and I are heading to Warrenton, Va today for a wedding weekend with college friends. I'm not at all wearing this dress. In fact, I'm wearing this one (only I promise it's not that short on me), but the images that Urban Outfitters has on their website don't really show the actual clothing...like, at all. So I picked this lovely number from Mod Cloth out instead. Isn't it light and airy? Makes me sort of wish that I was going to wear the outfit above instead of my dark, fall-ish dress. Ah well. Definitely makes me wish I had those heels, that's for sure. Love, love, love.

dress | heels | earrings | laurel denise simple joy necklace

studio tour no. 070810

I decided to embark on a new york gift show wall-building endeavor this week, friends. It's been quite an adventure and has taken just a little/lot of every second of my life, let me describe it in that super mild way. So, this week, although I'm sure I've done some other laurel denise things, the wall pictures are all I have to offer on this studio Thursday. These panels will hopefully create a seamless 8x10 wall structure in my new york gift show booth in August...that's the intended plan. Now if I could just stop having anxiety dreams about it not working or the panels breaking during shipping or how it will look every single night, that would be fantastic. Because, really, it's just a wall. No need to think about it between the hours of 11pm and 7am.

ps - some fun new store shipments coming up that I will announce next week!

rebinder

Any product that can make my expenses binder cuter is a product I need to have. Thank you, Rebinder, for making it so.

weekend no. 070310

Can we have three day weekends every weekend, please? Please? Seriously best, most filled-up, most happy weekend. That's what all fourth of July's should be about. Or all weekends, I guess. Or everyday. So, on Saturday morning we climbed Humpback Rock, as promised, and I learned something new about myself - I'm not so fond of heights. Specifically not so fond of huge rocks that seem to dangle in the air over large and beautiful valleys and mountains. Shocking, right? The hike was a blast...and then we got to the top. Upon arrival, I promptly sat down, faced the direction of solid ground, and waited patiently (sort of) until the crew was ready to take itself back to safety and life and goodness. As you can see by the photo above, my Cute Husband did not face the same fears on top of that rock. As you can see by the rest of the photos above, I decided to reward myself for the hike and the general fear I felt while on top of it with lots of delicious snacks over the weekend. There was wine, lots of Chaps ice cream cones (Heath Bar Crunch on a sugar cone, please), sushi, and I think I might have turned into a bag of guacamole tortilla chips. The tequila soaked watermelon I mentioned on Friday was an absolute hit at the fourth of July bbq. The sea salt made the dish, for sure, and I think I'd skip the sugar and put more tequila in next time, but that's sort of a life rule for me I guess. Cute Husband and I had an adventure in Lowe's yesterday (that explains that image of the stacked wood) with the Uhl duo (continuing our Uhl/Smith family weekend), but that project will get explained later. Let's just say I might have cursed the day I decided to build wooden booth walls a few times. Oof...me and my big trade show booth ideas.

what to wear no. 070210

This weekend starts this Friday afternoon with a trip out to this place with my friend Amanda, right after heading to this place for the best iced coffee, um, ever? After exploring that shop and hopefully coming home with a can't-miss item or two, we're going to enjoy the evening with some backyard barbecue and sangria. Because it's the best. Cute Husband and I are going to set the alarms tomorrow morning to go on a hike up Humpback Mountain with some friends (that assembly you see up there in the image is what I'd like to wear hiking...with some boots...but I'll really just be in black stretchy pants with a few layers and running shoes...because why buy hiking boots when I could buy this dress?), followed by an evening at Continental Divide with the same friends (because, really, it's the very best). The actual 4th of July brings us brunch, church, and then a cookout where I'm considering bringing some of these and maybe a few of these and maybe a blue cheese dip that Brett sent me. Or maybe I'll just wind up buying something at Whole Foods, putting it in a cute dish, and calling it a day. Most likely. I mean, does one person get to have so much fun in one weekend? I'm so excited. Happiness!

jean shorts | yellow tank | brown tank | laurel denise peace elements necklace | water bottle | lunch box set

studio tour no. 070110

So I realized sometime yesterday afternoon while taking a little break and reading through my journals from 2004/2005 that the laurel denise website launched exactly five years ago. Five years, you guys! I know and pray that I'll be able to look back on this business 20 years from now and see how it's grown, but it was such a gift to be able to sit back and see and honor that five year marker yesterday. I would have completely missed it had I not needed a breather, found that journal and decided to open it again for the first time in years. It had been a sort of stressful day where the little tasks where kind of weighing me down, to say the least, but reading my entries at that time and seeing that, really and truly, this business is everything my five-year-ago-self wanted it to be was soothing. And exciting. And exactly what I needed.

Alright, onto the normal weekly wrap up on my daily doings...important stuff, friends. I prepared my wholesale schedule postcards this week. Believe it or not, this is something I've never really done before! A simple and easy way to notify my current stores and stores that have been interested in the line of my booth locations at all of the wholesale shows. I'm not a cold-caller, never have been good on the phone, kind of awkward even in person, but I mean, a girl can send out a postcard easily enough, right? No excuses. It was fun to get to make these and sort of geek out on crafting them a bit. Sent some adorable elements customs to some wonderful customers. I think the donut one up there is my favorite. A beautiful quote about power and courage and such. Also, customs were shipped to Bellaches (Ridgeland, MS) and more re-orders were shipped to New Twist (Eugene, OR) and Little Luxuries (Mackinac Island, MI) this week. Have I mentioned how obsessed I am with these stores and their so on top of everything buyers??