Monday, November 16, 2009

Vanity Takes A Back Seat

Life has been an absolute thrill ride over here at the Treehouse. I'm busier than ever and having the time of my life, doing EXACTLY what I love... Managing! And can I just say that, as a supreme control freak, I'm the best damn manager that ever managed anything EVER!

Last week was a freakin' whirlwind of activity. Throughout the week, the artists I've been working with got each of their sections decorated and stocked in preparation for Friday's Grand Opening. Tuesday I went down to the shop and painted a mural on the back wall, you know, to infuse an 'Artsy-ness' to the place and just as I was getting ready to start sketching out the mural, I got a call that the local paper was sending a photographer over to do a story on the place.

*blink* *blink* Photographer? Did I just say Photographer? Yep! And guess who didn't bother showering or putting on make-up that day because all 'she' had planned was painting a wall and then adding a mural to it? One doesn't 'need' to shower for such things.

"Well hello Vanity... Meet Free Publicity... Now shut up and climb in the back seat!"

Seeing as I was the only one at the shop at the time, I did my best to represent the place, t-shirt, sweat-pants and all. Did I care when on Wednesday morning I opened my morning paper to find my t-shirt & sweat-pants clad figure ON THE FRONT PAGE!!! Did I mention I hadn't had a shower? Not only that but there was a $250 size ad block on page 3 with a close-up of me sketching the mural.... Uh yeah, NO make-up! Did I care? HELL NO! Okay, well maybe a little... But we're talking FRONT PAGE, FREE Publicity here, on a Wednesday! The second biggest day of the week for newspaper sales!

And it was all TOTALLY worth it because the turn-out for our Grand Opening on Friday night was FABULOUS! We had over 70 people walk through the door and at times it was wall-to-wall people in the front of the shop. Sales were good and the energy of all involved was through the roof, up to the moon and back again.

I handed out four contracts on Friday, to other artists interested in a spot in the shop and gave out yet another contract today. It's all SO exciting, so busy and so mind boggling that this whole thing came about in just 3 weeks time and seems to be taking off like a hot match on a dry Southern California hillside, during a Santa Ana windstorm... But in a 'Good' way, ya know.

Like any proud new parent or 'control freak' manager, I'd like to share a couple of pics with y'all:
Our 'sweet' little store front.

Still in the midst of getting everything set up but here's a shot of the mural I created.

Sorry, no pics of the cover story because... Haven't I suffered enough humiliation?

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2 Comments:

Blogger kiddiesandkitties said...

Ahhh, come on, GIVE! I don't get the whig, so I haven't seen it! And I'll miss you at the sketti tonight, still recovering from my wisdom tooth thing!

4:43 PM, November 17, 2009  
Blogger EmBee said...

Ah k&k... You think you can ply me with the ol, "But I just had my wisdom teeth out and this would make me Sooooo happy." thing... Sorry, it just won't work but my sympathies to you and your aching mouth... Worst pain I ever had to endure, I'd sooner give birth to a 12 lb. baby before I'd got through the pain of having my wisdom teeth removed.

Feel better soon!
:-)

9:36 PM, November 17, 2009  

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