Saturday, June 18, 2011

Blue Eggs and Jam

Went to the farmers market this morning.  I was a bit late, so the lady I usually get my blue eggs from was sold out. Yup really blue eggs... I would post a photo, but I obviously don't have any to photograph. I had to get other eggs to do me until I leave fore England on Thursday. Did some running around, got my Ipod station fixed at the Source, picked up stuff at Shoppers that I need to have for when we leave. General running around stuff. Extremely windy when I got home. I decided that I should clean my makeup brushes before I leave.


 So that lead to cleaning my desk and further contemplation on the way I should hang this mirror. I am leaning towards the vertical way. I remember shopping with a friend of mine and she picked up a top with horizontal stripes... I mentioned that I don't wear horizontal stripes on tops because they make you look wider wherever you wear them. It never occurred to me that ANYONE would not know this. That's how my mom taught me the difference between vertical and horizontal..." horizontal makes you look horrible". This was, without a doubt one of my mom's top 10 life lessons :)



 I'm going to go with the vertical, then I can hang things like my hairdryer stand on either side of the mirror. It would be cool to hang fabric on either side of a mirror somewhere, like curtains. It would have to be the right space, and probably semi-sheer fabric... might be neat though.

 
I rented The Tourist from Jumbo and Am going to watch that tonight. I actually rented in a few weeks ago, they still have our old phone number, so I'm not sure if the "real" person has started calling there yet to ask us to bring it back. LOL.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

The Elusive Awesome Purse Beast


OK - So it MAY have been a bit easier to find the elusive purse beast than I though. Still not sure if this one is a "go" or a "no". Liking the shape and large size as well as the double round braided Shoulder Strap. Hand to Elbow ratio is good... Just not SURE... about the bling or the cresty thing. It's still on trial! Thoughts?

Friday, June 10, 2011

By George I think she's got it!

And by It. I mean me, who I am what my passion is what I LOVE.....it's Purses... ya I know, it's not solving world hunger or the aids epidemic... but hey if I could solve the worlds water shortage with purses... I would be ALL OVER THAT!

I like, Fashion, not mainstream, not the stuff that goes down in Milan that no real person would ever be caught dead in (though I do see the importance of the inspiration these pieces create) I mean real people wear. Accessories that cost less that $25 but that can rock your Marks Work Wear house Outfit like there's no tomorrow.! Woot real people fashion, and most notably.... purses. Purses get me out of bed in the morning, they make me happy. And that's what its all about people, happiness is a choice, and so are your accessories.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

10,000 hours of awesome

I've been researching consulting companies for small businesses now for quite awhile. When I decided to close my retail business, consulting with other people on their businesses was a natural direction that I was drawn to. I discussed the prospect with some highly respected business people such as Nancy Beth Guptill of Sweet Spot Marketing and Tera Hill of Barnies Inc. These wonderful business women along with a handful of others that I ran the idea by, were very encouraging. Ultimately though I just didn't feel.... well, um... old enough to be a consultant!

Jumping ahead about a year and I'm working for one of Canada's top employers, and all I can see is holes in their company... HR holes - like saying you want to hear what your employees think, but flying right to defensive when something is brought up, Quality issues, if your QA team is spelling staff members names wrong, that might be a problem, and staffing issues - if you promise the moon and then hand over 10hr monotonous shifts where your bathroom breaks are timed and result in your hole "team" loosing the monthly contest of, who can hold their bladders the longer? Please don't be surprised when people leave!

Then I got the opportunity to work with an amazing company, Barnies Inc. The owner of this company is so inspiring, so driven that I agreed immediately to work with her, even though I am still employed full time with the toilet watchers. Working with Tera has made me realize that I am ready, my suggestions are unique and helpful and worth something, and maybe you don't have to be approaching 50 to give other people suggestions on their small businesses, in fact - maybe it's better if your more along the lines of approaching 30 with 10 years of Small business ownership under your belt.

So then comes the market research and that's what really sealed the deal for me. The complete lack of new age, small business consultants. They do not exist. I actually knew this from certain points in my own career where we were on a path that was leading to an obvious fork in the road. I would have jumped at the opportunity to meet with someone that had been down said path, or a similar one to get their objective opinion. Which would have been a snap if I had about $1000 laying around. But hello, I'm wasn't a mega corporation, or the government, I was a small company with a consulting budget of about $75 - and there was no one there for me to talk to.

In his book Outliers, Malcom Gladwell says that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert in your field. 10,000 hours translates into roughly - 10 years. So that's it, I've arrived... I am officially and expert. But in what you might ask? Sorry to say I guess you'll have to wait for me to figure that out...