so...

got in a bit of yoga this morning. feeling like I've crossed a hump in terms of getting things done. b and I were fortunate to have no thanksgiving plans this year. for the next day we had to be up early and out the door wearing heavy backpacks full of merchandise. the first day of gifted was fun, for sure. I was a bit dazed from taking various herbs and homeopathic remedies, not knowing if I was getting a cold or having allergies. turns out I was fine, making it through the show without a sneeze. we had a lot of interest in our products and our booth looked great if I do say so myself. b rigged up a display from a light stand and a fishing pole, from which the kreepy dolls dangled and delighted. design glut's world links necklace caught many peoples' eyes, including julie chang of fox5 news. yee-haw industries' letterpress products were a big hit, as well as andrew clark and kiel mead's rings. we'll be out there again this wednesday, and we'll be switching up the product mix.

after hitting the bed like a rock friday night, I got up early yesterday and starting putting products away, deciding what to take next time and doing some administrative work. then the exhaustion hit me and b and I both crashed in the late afternoon. watched some various shows on hulu (have you seen rick steves' europe? I highly recommend it!) then walked to peaches for a late dinner.

today? I'm going to model some of my own jewelry. yes, it's true! this season i made some extra-big bling, the scale of which is hard to tell from the photos. now, I think it's time for coffee!

oh, and in case you hadn't noticed, new jewelry!

my window is up

hey kids! if you're in or around brooklyn, go check out my window at brooklyn design lab. it will be up until december 4.

BDL
413A 7th ave.
between 13th & 14th sts.
park slope
f train to 7th ave.

or go to my flickr page to see the whole set of photos.

crazy busy

hey folks!

you know those people- who can run a successful business and also have fun, engaging blogs that are updated every day or so? yeah...I'm not one of them.

oh man, I can't begin to explain the amount of work that's been on my plate. all of the details involved in launching everbrite mercantile company have run well into the fall, leaving molliedash.com sorely neglected. when my assistant felecia left in the spring to have her baby, I left the position unfilled. things got pretty slow sales-wise and it didn't make sense at the time to hire someone to make more jewelry. so b and I plugged on through the spring and summer going to trade shows and weekend craft markets looking for vendors. I started ordering products, photographing and editing them, uploading the photos and descriptions to the database, and weighing and measuring them for shipping calculations. b spent many, many hours writing the code for the site, debugging it on various browsers and operating systems, and figuring out shipping formulas. together we designed the interface and consulted on many details and decisions. by august we had postcards printed and previewed the shop at the brooklyn flea. in october we launched the website.

some time in the spring I was contacted by a literary agent who had an idea for a book and was interested in having me write it. it seemed like a great opportunity and b was fully behind me doing it. I met with the agent a few times and put together a proposal with her help. but knowing that we were launching a new online shop and that fall and holiday would be coming soon enough (my busiest time for jewelry) made it hard to focus on writing the proposal. the process of submission and re-writes was starting to stretch out longer than appropriate, and the agent finally asked me if this was something I really wanted to work on. yes, maybe at another time, but no, not right now. (the agent did continue to look for another author, so I'll let you know the title if and when it gets published)

okay, so back to focusing on a fall line and getting the website updated. always ideas for how the site can look and function better. so as it's november and it's getting kinda late, I contacted felecia to see if she would like to do a bit of pick-up work. and thankfully, she did. now we are cranking through some new pieces with her amazing speed. I did hire an intern who started in early october, and she's been helping me with other aspects of the business. I was contacted in the summer by amy of brooklyn design lab about teaching a class there. each teacher is invited to do a window installation, and my intern has been much help in putting this project together. (I install it this friday, yo!) about a week ago, in the midst of my too-much-to-do freak out, I told b that I really, really, need to get the site updated. so he sat down and worked his magic on it for a few days, and it's almost ready to launch.

so yeah, not out of the woods yet. but getting close.

arts n' crafts rain day

(posted by "and friend" of ebmerc.com)

It didn't rain. But rain would have fit the day.

In addition to Mollie's upcoming Eco Jewelry Design workshop at Brooklyn Design Lab, she is going to install a window display at their studio in Park Slope, Brooklyn. The theme of the display: re-purposing of non-recyclable materials.

Or some such thing... I wasn't quite paying attention.

As Joanna and Mollie worked at their extremely well-organized table in Mollie's studio, I made a gigantic mess on the floor: cutting old telephone wire, plastic bottles and magazines.



The result of my hacky labor: an Obama-headed "Mr. T Bot" Uber-Bling necklace (who pities the fool quite nicely as his cardboard voice balloon clearly indicates.)



Mission accomplished. Time for leftover chinese delivery chow.