The POP UP shop..............Pop In Windsor for girly fun

As many of you know, I opened a POP Up shop on Saturday for the next month to clear website inventory from A Gift Wrapped Life.com. Click here to see local details. The worse part is now over (the counting, the pricing, the packing, the unpacking) and I am settling in to the retail environment and I have to say.................we are having tons of girly fun even though my legs are so sore I can hardly walk and my husband hasn't had a decent meal in days. That aside................need some fun fur ribbon or some great storage or gift boxes.?

The "we" in having fun is due in great part to my good friend Stephanie who has been adding her clever creative touches all over the store. Not only does she spark my own creativity, she has tons of her own and I really needed her remarkable eye this past week. As one of our friends said on Saturday as she gathered her gift bounty "this is the most fun I have had in months". A couple of hours in the POP UP shop and she is all ready for beautiful gift-giving for the months ahead. Tomorrow I am going to gift wrap her purchases, then she really is ready.

The idea behind a POP UP shop can be to clear inventory at markdown prices, like spools and spools of this lovely organza ribbon with little crystal hearts. It can also be used to promote new products and many major companies are using this retail method to blitz the market with hands-on marketing. If you are local to the Windsor area, you really must POP IN and visit our POP UP shop..........you don't want to miss all this girly fun or the great holiday buys. And I am not here for long, so hurry.

Rows of organza tie-on bows, such a easy and pretty way to tie up a gifts. I just realized how these ribbon spools and bows match in colours. I will have to put the two together somehow on a pretty package. If I was younger and didn't have another "idea" in the works (more about this later), I would so be keeping this store on a permanent basis, it is kind of like having a chic social evening all day long. It was positively wonderful to have a local blog reader pop in to shop and visit, so delighful to meet anyone from the blogging community. 

My GIFT WRAP WORKSHOP is set for the evening of December 2nd and some of the highlights will be video taped the next day (when it is quieter) for blog posting. Gift wrapping is one of life's creative pleasures and once you see how easy some of the techniques can be, you will be wrapping like a pro. I intend on showing some practical basics and then an over-the-top presentation just for holiday inspiration. You can email me at sandechase@agiftwrappedlife.com or pop in to the shop to register. 

There is only a few of the Cote Bastide Giroflee Gel and Soap products left but it was one of my favorite imported products, so feminine and elegant. My other favorite product for personal gifting is that blush linen photo album, I always saved it to gift my favorite women. I loved wrapping these products in pleated pink tissue with wide satin ribbon. 

The Little Prince may sleep here but my new little furry Princess was born late Saturday and put a smile on my face all day Sunday. We even a pair of furry friends named Dolce & Gabbano visit the shop yesterday and they seemed right at home with all the girly chat and fun. In fact, I think they are coming in for the day on Thursday. I will have to introduce them to my little princess in a few months time when she finally comes home, girls just love to socialize don't they? 

All photos by Sande Chase ~ A Gift Wrapped Life

Clean Up at the Pop Up Shop

I woke up at 6 am today. Actually it was 5 am. We didn't realize our mistake until about 9 am when my husband was preparing a bacon-and-egg breakfast, we totally forgot about last night's daylight savings time adjustment. While he cooked, served, and then washed up, I sat at the island and finished up some last minute inventory counts before the movers knock on my door. I told my husband that I had a bit of a "got-up-to-early" headaches, he said no, that would be those 3 strong drinks you had last night. I don't actually drink that much so I forgot all about those drinky headaches but I sure slept well. Yesterday, my housekeeper Alana, her daughter Monica and I listened to a energetic play list while cleaning up the temporary retail "Pop Up" shop I told you about last week and I thought I would share some of the "before" photos. By the end of today it will be filled with merchandise, and then the race will be on to unpack and price inventory, advertise, and do all the display before I open the doors this coming Saturday. Oh, and I have a wireless Interac transaction device to learn tomorrow. This should be interesting. I will post all the Pop-Up information early this week on this blog for local readers.

I got kind of lucky in finding a temporary space that is perfect for this type of limited sale, especially considering it is located 3 minutes from my house. Back where you see the name of the former store occupant is a workspace counter where I will set up for a couple workshop events. My website business and blog (eg. latent gift wrapping ability) are better know outside my home city of Windsor, Ontario (which is typical for websites) so locals will be wondering why a designer is suddenly offering gift wrap workshops. So though there is room for about 50 chairs, I may only need a few and those would be used by my friends and any one else I can convince to attend. If I can organize one more step during this month-long marathon, I may video the workshop and share it on the blog. Some gift wrap techniques are better seen than written about and some readers have suggested this idea more than a few times. Which means you would have the pleasure of hearing this Canadian say "eh" at the end of every sentence. It's true, we do that quite a bit.

Remember these orange crushed-velvet poinsettias I used last Christmas? I have quite a few left so they are going to cover the store Christmas tree. We spent last Christmas in snow-covered Oklahoma and I never did get to see this orange and red colour scheme on my tree as I had envisioned. Then, of course they will be on sale too, unless of course I really like the final effect. If so, then the tree and I will walk home when all is said and done.

All photos by Sande Chase ~ A Gift Wrapped Life