shop tour: LUCILLE'S!!!!

On April 6th we opened our shop!  We put a huge amount of work into it (see our last entry to see what it used to look like), and our brains are still spinning from lack of sleep and from making more decisions than we ever thought humanly possible.  We're incredibly excited and stupidly tired, and still working on lots and lots of things... but thought we'd share some pictures so you could take a peek!

This is our sign that took WAY too long to hand paint, but came out amazing

We're still filling up the shop, but we're excited.  Isn't the floor the best color? 

That's Caiti's dude Steve loitering by the counter.

 

I'm sure we'll be sharing a billion more pictures as time goes on and we add more things...  it's exciting to think that our biggest upcoming task is shopping! Life isn't so bad, ya know? :)

xoxo,

Jess

Help us with our first retail storefront!

As you may or may not know, we've been itchin' to open a store for quite some time now.  Shortly after we met, we started collaborating on plans to open a shop right off, but we took a few steps back and went the slower route (selling online, selling at markets..), but now we're revving up the engines again!

We've picked out a spot that we're pretty in love with!  It's got plenty of space for the shop, plus storage in the back, and a workroom off to the side where we can do all our various messy projects (our dudes will be thankful to have those out of our respective houses, I think).  It's not in a location we really expected, but we love the space, and it'll be a great fit for our first spot.  

So we've got the space, we've got the drive, and we've got all the nervous butterflies we can possibly stomach, but we could use some help with our initial costs.  So we started up a page on GoFundMe - which is a close relative of Kickstarter... We'd be very glad if you could take some time to check it out, and either donate, or pass the word on to friends.  

You can visit the page at: http://www.gofundme.com/shoplucilles

Any help in any way, shape, or form is exceptionally appreciated!

Thank you times forever & ever,

Jess & Caiti

an ACTUAL store?

Lately, we've been plugging away every weekend at the Brunswick Flea Market, which has been really fun and a really great learning experience.  People have been admiring our stuff, and giving us tips and advice, which is super nice.  It seems like one thing that comes up very often is people telling us that it's smart of us to start small, because very often people make the mistake of having a store, and they have to spend all their time worrying about keeping up with their overhead.

I haven't been telling them that we actually do want a store.

Despite knowing that there's SO MUCH more risk involved when you get into an actual brick & mortar business, from the cost of rent alone to things like insurance, liability, WAY more money than we're spending on advertising now (our current budget is $0. ha), having an accountant (the list goes on...) - it's what we really want.  We have so many ideas that, honestly, won't even work unless we have our own space.  I'll be the first to admit that it's big and scary and we don't know what we're doing with everything, but I think half the battle is knowing that you're going to be facing things that you won't know how to handle, but life is about adapting, I think.  Being prepared to be in over your head is a smart preparation, right...?

 Tomorrow we are trepidatiously tiptoeing towards a possible retail adventure!  We're going to see a space that's currently an office but is being converted into retail over the next few months.  The fact that it won't be ready for a while is actually a plus for us, because it gives us an opportunity to get organized. It has big, lovely windows that would be perfect for displays, and it's in one of the only areas in our town that gets any sort of foot traffic at all. The owner is a great guy, and we actually met with him several months ago about the spot next door - which we fell in love with, but weren't able to take.  This new spot that we're seeing tomorrow might even be a better fit, so it's very exciting!   

all images from various placed on the interwebs, curated on our pinterest board

We'll keep you posted.  Wish us luck!

-Jess :)