Book Giveaway Deadline Extension

Hey, guess what? We're extending the deadline of our Blogging for Bliss Book Giveaway another week. What? You haven't entered yet? Click here to do so now. This is a wonderful guide for the new and aspiring blogger as well as for the intermediate blogger who wants to learn a few new tricks {this blogger included}. The new entry deadline is 10 PM EST on Thursday, August 13th. Why the extra week? Truthfully, it's because I'm a bit behind schedule on sending out my latest customer e-mail and I'd like my local customers to be able to get in on this. By the way, if you'd like to join our e-mail list, simply send a blank message to info@theblissful.com with the word Subscribe in the subject line.

In compensation for the heightened competition {more time=more entries}, we're going to give away not one but TWO copies of the book. No duplicate entries, please. The winners will be chosen by random number generator and will be notified by e-mail. Bonne chance!

Photo courtesy of Flickr.

I Blog for Bliss

Thanks to Kari from Artsy Mama for inviting me to participate in today's Blogging for Bliss Book Release Party. Click here to be transported to Kari's blog, where down the righthand sidebar you'll find a list of other bloggers who are "partying" on their blogs today. This is all in celebration not only of Tara's new book, but of the blogging way of life.

Kari said, "Write a post about what blogging for bliss means to you." Tall order. Blogging has changed my life--and changed me--in so many ways that I wasn't sure where to begin. So I decided to do a Top 5 list: my top 5 favorite blog posts here on Lettres from THE BLISSFUL since its inception back on 20 December 2006. This was NOT easy, let me tell you. As I clicked back through two and a half years of photo-filled posts, I grew pretty nostalgic. The shop has come a long way since our beginnings--and so have my photography skills! I started jotting down the post titles and dates of my favorite posts and quickly had a list of 16! There were so many posts with glorious, sun-dappled photos and fetching commentary, but ultimately the posts that resonated most deeply with me were the ones that were a little quieter and a lot more personal.

So here they are, beginning with...

No. 5 "Bonjour! (and How We Came To Be)"...20 December 2006
This is the first blog post I ever wrote. All I can say is WOW! Little did I know where my new blogging life would lead me. Notice that this post is even on a different URL {our original blog digs}. It looks so funny to me to see my posts couched in this old Blogger template.

No. 4 "On Faith and Fearlessness, Parts I and II"...21 and 24 February 2007
I was surprised to rediscover these posts I'd written on entrepreneurship and going for your dream. While the heart of these posts would probably be much the same were I to write them now, I definitely would have a whole lot more wisdom to impart in the practical and financial sense! Also notice on Part I our old store sign. We were The Blissful Home back then.

No. 3 "I Love Chi-Town"...18 April 2007
It's not so much the writing or the photos in this post that I love but what it represents to me. This chronicles a trip I took to Chicago with my girlfriends Lindsay and Kate.

Linds and I at a great Mexican restaurant in Chicago. April 2007.

We met up with our friend Laura there, who had just given birth to her second child. On this trip, I stumbled into a great little shop in Wicker Park with the most amazing blue walls called Tatine. While the shop's doors are now closed, the owner has an amazing candle line which we stock at THE BLISSFUL. {Anthropologie likes it, too.} Two and a half years later, that candlemaker {Margo Breznik} is a dear friend of mine and one of the people who inspires me to keep pursuing my entrepreneurial dreams every day. What a great trip it was.

No. 2 "Café Love"...18 February 2008
It's the first two paragraphs of this post that get me: the longing for my life pre-boutique ownership {it's okay to do that every once in a while, right?}. As an English teacher with a satchel full of essays to grade and an aspiring poet and fiction writer, I lived out many solitary hours each week in cafés throughout the Columbus, Ohio area. I still get wistful for those days.

Photo above courtesy of Flickr.

And finally, my very favorite post of all. . .

No. 1 "Shopkeeping in the Vernacular"...21 October 2007
For me, this post marries my twin loves: my shop and my writing. The "vernacular" is the local language that real people commonly speak. In other words, it's not necessarily the "King's English." In this post, I compared THE BLISSFUL's retail point of view to the "language of the people." There's never been anything hoity-toity or exclusive about us and there never will be.

Thanks for taking this little jaunt with me. To all the bloggers out there, may this next year bring you great new discoveries about your life and about yourself from post to post. And to all the new and aspiring bloggers out there, do it from your heart as only YOU can do.

There are still TWO DAYS LEFT to enter our Blogging for Bliss Book Giveaway. Simply visit this post and answer the one-question questionnaire. Post your answer there {not here on this post} as a comment and you'll automatically be entered. Good luck to all!

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Our Literary Debut

Ready for the exciting announcement I mentioned yesterday? Okay. Here goes.

See this book cover?

This week is its official debut in bookstores nationwide. It's the story of one popular blogger, Tara Frey of typing out loud, along with snapshot stories of various artsy, crafts-y, and boutique-y bloggers from throughout the blogosphere. The book is chock full of ideas, how-to's, and strategies to get new bloggers started, as well as some very good ideas for intermediate bloggers who want to take their blogs to the next level. We find it quite helpful and inspiring.

And guess what else???

We're in the book!!!!!


The fair Tara contacted us several months ago requesting an interview and permission to use screen shots of our blog for inclusion in the book. We were thrilled but decided to keep this little secret under wraps. Until now! Get your copy of Blogging for Bliss here or here. And very soon, we'll be carrying the book in the store. Watch the blog, as well as our Facebook fan page and our Twitter, because as soon as we slit the box open on these babies, we'll let you know!

So many of our local customers who read Lettres come in asking questions about how I got started blogging and how they can start their own blog. Well, Tara's got everything you need to know to get started, plus interviews with inspiring bloggers and lots and lots of photographic eye candy, all between two covers. In my opinion, it's even a great beach read for those who just can't wait to move into the blogosphere.


Now for the fun parts:

No. 1 We're participating in a blog party hosted by Kari Ramstrom of Artsy Mama on Tuesday, August 4th. Please meet us here on Lettres from THE BLISSFUL on Tuesday the 4th as we celebrate blogging for bliss--both the lifestyle and the book! Also, Kari has kindly provided a list of other participating "blissful bloggers" {Tara's nickname for us} in the sidebar of her blog so that you can check out other parties throughout the blogosphere on Tuesday.

No. 2 We're hosting a Blogging for Bliss Book Giveaway right here on Lettres and it begins NOW! One lucky winner will be chosen by random number generator to receive a complimentary, brand spankin' new copy of le book. How to enter our giveaway? I'll get to that part in a minute.

First, please humor me as I make a few private {now public} confessions:

First of all, while we are featured in the book, I surely don't consider myself or my blog to be the epitome of blogging glory. No way. I'm just a busy shop owner trying to find the time to get the oil in my car changed, much less blog in a way that touches people's lives. But writing is my first love and blogging here is always on my mind. I am thankful for every single person who stops by to read or check out our latest photos from the shop, and especially for those who take a moment to leave a comment letting me know you were here.

I have to confess: since my business has grown, I've hidden more and more behind the facade of it, to the point where I feel that my personality has almost been obscured on this blog. And yes, I guess I have to admit that it was intentional. The more photos of the store I could show and narrate, the less about me I had to show. I never wanted this blog to be about "Abby and her little shop." I wanted it to be about THE BLISSFUL--this store that has always felt bigger than me. I wanted the blog to be about my customers' experience of the store, like a peek through the shop windows, independent from me, its Proprietor. I felt that I had to take myself almost entirely out of the equation in order for people's experience of the store via the blog to be pure and natural. As humans, we judge everything we behold even without meaning to. I knew that people might be judging the store, but I didn't want them to be able to judge me. But in trying so hard to get out of readers' way, I feel that I've lost my way a bit. I miss the joy and freedom with which I used to blog here, on our old archives, before we rebranded and moved into these chocolate polka dotted blog digs back in 2007.

So I say all of the above to share this: that I'm taking back the blog. I'm returning to the kinds of personal posts that make me happy. I'm ready to open up again and share more of the heart of what makes this store what it is. And I hope you'll keep reading and enjoying all that is to come. It's always a scary prospect to reveal more of yourself, but I can honestly say that Tara's book is inspiring me to do just that, along with so many of the amazing bloggers that I enjoy reading every day.

In an effort to better connect with all of you reading, I'd like to tie a simple, one-question questionnaire into our Blogging for Bliss Book Giveaway. By responding to this questionnaire in the form of a Comment, you are automatically entering the giveaway to win a copy of Tara's first book. I say 'first' because I'm pretty sure this authoress has more books in her future! {Please be sure that your Blogger ID allows me to trace your e-mail address so that I can notify you if you're the winner.} Entry deadline is Thursday, August 6th at 10 PM EST.

To enter our giveaway, please leave a comment with your responses to this question:

Which of the following types of posts would MOST interest you here on Lettres from THE BLISSFUL? {Please rank your top 6 or fewer.}

a} posts showing new products in the store and in the Online Boutique
b} posts showing photo coverage of in-store events {Trunk Shows, Holiday Open House, etc.} and seasonal debuts
c} posts discussing behind the scenes goings-on of the shop and what it's really like to own a boutique
d} posts offering advice/tips/encouragement for aspiring shop owners
e} posts offering advice/tips/encouragement to artists desiring to sell their work to boutiques
f} posts offering design ideas/advice
g} "Dear Abby" style posts answering readers' questions on a variety of topics
h} interviews with other bloggers/shop owners/designers/friends of the store/other specialists
i} posts delving into personal stuff and non-shop related observations on life, design, inspiration, etc.

I'm looking forward to reading your comments. Once again, the entry deadline is Thursday, August 6th at 10 PM and the winner will be chosen by random number generator. We'll contact her/him by e-mail shortly thereafter and announce it here on the blog.

Meanwhile, see you here on Tuesday the 4th for a blog party!

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Check Back Tomorrow...

While tomorrow's announcement and giveaway details have nothing to do with the above bracelets, we wanted to show these new babies off anyway.

Check back tomorrow for an exciting announcement, as well as entry details for a giveaway we're hosting here on Lettres!

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Market Notebook: Seen & Heard in Atlanta

Here it is, the very last night of our stay in Atlanta for the July Gift & Home show and this is my first post! The last six days have slipped by very quickly. When you're faced with the prospect of buying a whole season or two's worth of inventory for a lifestyle boutique, you have a lot of mileage to cover in a pretty short span of time. Product at this show is brought in from vendors representing all parts of the U.S., as well as from Canada, South America, Europe, Australia, throughout the East, and from just about everywhere else around the globe. The show is comprised of three buildings in the heart of downtown Atlanta, each building 18-20 floors tall, housing one dozen to a couple hundred vendors on each floor displaying their wares in lavish permanent showrooms and in small, tricked out temporary booths. It's over seven million square feet of potential inventory to peruse. As you can imagine, taking care of business at this show involves a lot of planning ahead, a lot of walking, a comfy pair of shoes, and a sturdy bag whose handles won't dig into your shoulder too badly as you add new catalogs to it hour upon hour. Everything you can imagine for home and gift is here...and a lot that you wouldn't want to imagine! As one new retailer friend said to me over dinner this past weekend, "When my customers ask me about Market, I tell them, imagine the ugliest store you've ever been in. They shop here, too." Just like any shopping trip to the mall or to a department store or a boutique, the tradeshows are full of the good and the bad and it's up to each store owner to comb through and pull together a look that works for his or her store and appeals to the customer in mind. All of us are searching for next season's story.

And Fall's story is a good one.

Because there is a strict No Photography policy at these shows, my Market posts are never feathered out with showroom photos. Here, though, is the view from our hotel room:

View from our hotel room.

I know, I know--it's not nearly the same as being inside the showrooms with me. But maybe I can paint you a picture with words. Across seven million square feet of showroom space, here's what we're noticing:

• Eco-friendly goods are looking less crunchy and are now practically status quo. Designers across the board are taking a more ecologically responsible stance.
• Natural meets modern. One of the dominant looks in decor and jewelry is what I'd describe as earthy glamour--natural fibers, textures, and {in jewelry} beads mixed with a bit of metal, shine, or swish.
• The color purple was everywhere--from muted amethyst to moody plum to full-on fuschia.
• Jewel tones in general--in addition to purple, an off-shade of jade and a soft sapphire are making their return.
  
• Grey is the new brown {which was the new black}--from French grey to soft charcoal to pewter to nearly black.
• Botanicals are still big in both textiles, wall art, and home accents.
• Less is more. Bucking the "more for less" mentality of discount big-box stores offering designer knock-offs and last season's overstock for less dough, showrooms were paring down and focusing on pieces that really matter and will stand the test of time.
• Words, words, and more words--on art, handbags, home accents, tabletop, upholstery, and just about everywhere else.
• The industrial look is warming up--literally. Previously conceived of as cold, ultra modern, and best befitting a loft in the city, we're loving the new furniture that mixes metals and sleek lines with natural, hand-hewn woods. Think traditional styling with contemporary fabrications. Soon to be seen at THE BLISSFUL.
• Pattern is in--ikat, Indian sari prints, etc.

It was so good to get together with a few retailer friends at Market. We laughed, shared, swapped ideas, and compared notes on the show. We talked about the customers who love our stores and keep us in business--what they buy, what they want, what they need. And how we can give them the best of all that.

Looking forward to sharing with you all that we discovered at this show for the year ahead. One last great sleep tonight in my Marriott Marshmallow Dream Whip-py bed, then it's off to the airport tomorrow morning.

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Summer Notes

As I write from our hotel room at the Atlanta Gift & Home show, wanted to share just a few more Summer notes from back at the shop.

First, select Garden Items are 70% OFF. This includes select cast iron pots and urns, French Herb Potting Kits, colorfully patterned gardening tools, and more.


And, back by popular demand, our Chunky Initial Bracelets by John Wind/Maximal Art. No one could ever get enough of these. We know why: classic styling, a gently antiqued gold-plated finish, and an appealingly chunky textured double link chain {the kind you can clip other charms on to}. Silver lovers, take heart. The designer has finally done these in a silver finish, too, and they're on their way!

And new in-store for summer:

Vintage Grain Sack rugs and runners. We also like them as art for the wall, as shown here.

My July Market Notebook is yet to come this week. . .

Pause to Refresh

Thought I'd refresh your view today of the shop in mid-Summer splendor. No explanation necessary.









We're off to Market in Atlanta tomorrow. This is the world's largest home and gift marketplace that sells to the trade: over seven million square feet of permanent and temporary showroom space offering up endless gifts, home accents, and just about everything else a lifestyle boutique like mine could want. We'll be meeting with our French vendors there, our U.S.-based artists for handmade goods, and we know that we'll discover many surprises for the seasons ahead. Stay tuned in the coming week or two for my Market Notebook. Remember this past January's? If not or you're in the mood for some Summer reality reading, click here for Part One, here for Part Two, and here for Part Three.

I'll be blogging from my hotel room in Atlanta very soon, so stay tuned!

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