birth announcements in the shop

Photo announcements are now available in the shop!

a mini makeover

I'm note sure if I had mentioned this, but I am temporarily living with my folks here in H-town. My little brother has been out of the house and so I was fortunate enough to take over his room so that I could have my own bedroom and my own office/studio.

That was too good to be true...

My brother is moving back home which means that I have to combine rooms back into my childhood bedroom. Some time in high school, I thought that it would be a magnificent idea to paint funky stars on my ceiling. I had a pretty rad room then.

Before

But now I find the stars to be absolutely ridiculous! And so I took on the crazy project of repainting my ceiling.

Goodbye, funky stars. You will not be missed.

After

brand new job

Back in February, when I first moved to Houston, I contacted Amanda, the owner of PH Design Shop about any employment opportunities that she might have. Designer, sales associate, you name it, I was game. The store sounded like a smaller version of Broadway Paper which in turn would have been a perfect fit for me.

Unfortunately the store did not have any openings and so I moved forward with my job search.

To my surprise, I received an e-mail from Amanda last week about a position that opened up. She asked if I was still interested...um, of course! I went by their studio last week for an interview and landed the job.

So, I am now officially the Invitation Designer at PH Design Shop!

The store is adorable and I highly recommend stopping by for any of your stationery needs.

emilee rose on etsy

About half of the photographs are taken. Two item's photos are edited. And I have begun listing new items in the shop.

If you read any storque articles on etsy, they ALL suggest to not list items all at once. And so I will be listing a few a day until the store is full.

So check back often!

crazy movie weekend

So, I have seen a whopping 2 movies in the theaters since I have moved back to Houston (Coroline and Sunshine Cleaning, both I highly recommend.) And so last weekend, somehow, I have managed to see three movies! And all were actually very good!

Friday: Whatever Works

This movie was hilarious! I had been asked to go, and really didn't think that I liked Woody Allen movies. In my defense, I have only seen Matchpoint and really didn't like it. But this movie was super funny. Larry David was perfect for this role. It's only playing in one theater in Houston, but if you get the chance to see it, I highly recommend it!

Saturday: Public Enemies

Who doesn't love Johnny Depp? And did you know that the film was shot in parts of Wisconsin? I remember last year when they were having tryouts for extras in Milwaukee. I wanted to go so bad, but just couldn't justify taking off work to go try out.

The movie was fabulous. I am a little bias, though, because I find that whole era (early 30's) extremely romantic. The movie is a little on the long side, but still very good.

Sunday: Star Trek

Ok, so I know I may be the last person on earth to go see this, but I finally went! I made my dad a movie coupon for Father's Day to take him to a movie of his choice. I sort of already knew that he would choose Star Trek and I was glad when he did.

blog makeover

{image from Little Paper Dog}

I stumbled ac cross the cutest little blog and had to share! It's the Little Paper Dog blog. I found Michelle on etsy and then started reading her blog. Not only does she have adorable products, but I loved her layout.

And Michelle was kind enough to share a link to a very helpful template for adding a background to your blog. Thanks a bunch!

dallas finds show: part two

Here are Rachel and me standing in my finished booth! I thought it turned out pretty cute for my first trade show and to be on such a tight budget. Obviously, I would have liked to have had different flooring, but I was still very pleased with how my booth turned out.

Ok, so I have had about a week to really think about what happened at the show and to try to make the best of it, but honestly, the show was highly disappointing. I had a blast getting to hang out with Rachel and am so thankful that she was able to fly down to help me, but the show was seriously a bust.

I had debated on whether or not post my true feelings about it all. I thought that perhaps I should just write about all of the great things that happened and play up all of the positives. And while I could do that, I think that most of it would be fluff. So, instead, I give you the truth.




Friday was the first day of the show and I still hadn't had a single buyer walk into my booth come lunch time. I think that it was about 5 hours into the show that I finally had someone walk into my booth. I was utterly distraught over this. How had I worked so hard on my product to not have a single person take interest in it. Thank goodness for Rachel who did everything in her power to perk me up, when I was ready to go back to the hotel and cry. It didn't help that the booths near mine were hopping! Seriously, I saw the booth next to me take about 10 orders in the first couple of hours.

I had a couple more buyers stop in my booth that day, but still no orders. It was still the first day, and I figured that many more buyers would not actually come until the weekend. So, I held my head high (or as high as I could get it) and got through the first day.

My parents were also a life savor the entire weekend. They played cab driver as they drove Rachel and myself all over Dallas. They also came to work my booth for about an hour every day so that we would actually sit down and relax for lunch.



Saturday's traffic was a little better, but still not great. My booth was in the isle right off the elevator and was on the way to the restrooms. With that said, I thought that there would have been a lot more foot traffic than what I saw. I had imagined going to a trade show and having the walkways be filled with people, sort of like the malls at Christmas time. That is not what I saw. Anywhere in the show.

Rachel and I made friends with the ladies over at May Arts who were all so sweet. They were pretty shocked at the lack of buyers at this show. And, from what I heard all over the show from vendors and buyers, the show was extremely slow. I had great feedback from everyone that walked in my booth, but still no buyers.

I even heard a couple people walk by and say, "oh, emilee rose, I saw them last year." Really? And my personal favorite was when I over heard, "we don't need to stop there, I bought their holiday line last year." Seriously? Because I didn't sell my holiday line to them! Almost everyone that walked in my booth had "recognized" my products and no one could remember from where. It was very odd.

Saturday passed and Sunday was here. For sure someone would come back to my booth to place an order. But not a single buyer that came into my booth came back to place an order. I offered free shipping for ALL orders placed at the show and even reduced my price of my paper dolls as a show special. That didn't seem to really matter.

One thing that I did notice is that the Dallas market had three isles for the "paper" category. In that "paper" section, there were only a handful of stationery products. All of the other booths, I would have categorized as "general gift." There were even stuffed animals in the paper section!
Also, the products that were displayed at this show were mostly mass produced items made in factories all over the world. I asked one vendor where their product was made and she said very matter-of-fact-ly, "China, of course." My products were lost in this show and many of the buyers did not seem interested in the fact that my stationery is all made and produced by me. I didn't really hear much of a response from our "buy local" pitch either.

And as much as I liked my booth design, it did not fit it at all with the rest of the show. All of the booth designs were very typical. I had only seen images from the National Stationery Show and their booth designs looked fabulous! This show was mostly about just showing your product, however that may be.

There was another vendor at the show, that was very crass to put it lightly, that told me that the reason that I didn't have any buyers come into my booth was because it wasn't pretty. Really, lady? Thank you for that encouragement. Many of the booths at this show used the white curtains provided in their booth and set up directly on the white skirted tables that came free with the booth.

On a high note, I learned A LOT. I had some great product ideas come from some buyers and met a lot of really nice people. I learned that I probably could have benefited from purchasing some lighting and some other what-to-do's for the next time I exhibit at a trade show. Though, I don't have a plan for doing that any time soon!

So, what's next for emilee rose? I am most definitely not giving up on my line. I still like it and think I just need to find the right niche. I am working on photographing everything to (finally) update my etsy site and will then work on contacting local stores directly about carrying my line.

dallas finds show: part one

image from startmybeat's flickr set

As I walked into the Dallas Market Center, I felt completely out of my element. The market center is over 12 floors of show rooms stocked full of gifts, apparel, housewares, and just about anything else you can think of! And that was just one of the buildings there. I was not able to get a photo of my own of the market center (there was a very strict sounding no photography inside the building, and I respectfully adhered to that rule,) but was able to find one on Flickr. The space was unreal. Right now it is adorned in Christmas colors and the center of the atrium already housed their Christmas tree. Holiday carols played throughout the main floor.

After I was able to catch my breath for what I have gotten myself into, my parents and I drove to the back part of the building to unload the car. We arrived at my booth to find out that May Arts Ribbon was in the booth directly across from me! We dropped off my stuff and went back to the hotel to rest for a busy weekend ahead of us.

The following morning my parents and I trekked back to the market center to begin set up. I was shocked at how few booths were actually set up just one day before the show. I knew that our set up would be fairly quick, but I sure wouldn't have left it to the last minute like some other vendors.

I hung chocolate brown curtains around my 10' x 10' space. My sign hung at the very back of the booth.

I had designed some very simple tables to house some products. My dad, the handyman, was kind enough to put them together for me.

My mom tied perfect knots with all of the ribbon to hang the plywood panels. It is somewhat difficult to see here, but there are mini clothes pins glued to the panels to hang the cards and invitations.

The booth took about 2 hours to set up. Now it was time to pick up Rachel from the airport!