nervous. anxious. excited.

preparations are in full swing for this weekend's launch party. i took the teen and her friend rock-ell, plus the bean in her stroller, up and down the main drag to ask the local merchants if we could put flyers up in their windows. most were quite accommodating, and we tried to be selective about who we asked. like, we didn't ask jewelry stores or boutiques that sell jewelry, and we paid attention to which shops already had promotional flyers posted. we only ran into a couple of places who hemmed and hawed about it, asking to just leave the flyer behind or saying that they had to check with the owner. cool.

and then we found our way into the wine bar that's hosting my little shindig:

it. is. super. cute. like, so girly and fun and totally in line with the stella & dot image and how i wanted to present myself and my wares. it's a bit smallish inside, but the owner (who was really sweet, as was her little girl) is very friendly - not to mention, gorgeous and would make a great model for some of the jewels. and with a little girls' line coming at the end of april, i'm seeing more trunk show possibilities there in my future - of course, if saturday's launch goes well. hey, we're both new businesses in the area and exposure is good!

i'm still waiting (yikes!) on an order i placed for display items that i'll use on the table(s) during my trunk shows. talk about cutting it close, huh? in the meantime, i figured i'd make an attempt at putting together some sort of display for my charms line. i bought a basic white frame, took the glass out, cut out some white cotton fabric and a bit of quilt batting, and ended up with this:

i'm not 100% thrilled with it, so i may have to play around with it somewhat. i kind of wish i'd bought more charms to fill up the space, but trust me - i've spent an assload of cash on jewelry samples. i'm surprised the hub hasn't put a lockdown on my debit card yet.

i dragged the girls to ikea yesterday, in search of a couple of inexpensive mirrors to put out on my tables. that place is such a zoo, and it usually takes a good hour to get through the maze, but we found the shortcut to the marketplace area. yay!

we ended up finding just a few things - a couple of basic frames that i needed, and i scooped up two of each of these mirrors:

mirrors for customers to admire themselves in fabulous jewelry and hopefully buy everything they see, check.

last week, i'd received an e-mail from a salon i'd frequented probably eight years ago, promoting their first-ever beauty bash:

as much fun as it sounded to attend, i also realized that it might be a great venue to introduce my new venture to a cute little town that needs to be S&D-ized. heh. so i dropped them an e-mail and then called the salon to talk to the owner. she sounded interested enough, and invited me to come in and meet with her.

i put on some of my favorite pieces and strode into the salon a few days ago, armed with business cards, a catalog, and a few other marketing pieces. after a quick 15-minute meeting, i left with a good feeling, but i wasn't yet confirmed. apparently, one of the salon's employees reps a rival jewelry company. and while she hadn't requested to have a table at the bash, the owner wanted to make sure she was cool with me coming in.

yesterday afternoon, i got the call - and this weekend is shaping up to be quite the launch for me! the teen's going to come and help me at the salon, as will my cousin seven, who had a scheduling conflict for saturday but is free on friday evening. if you're in the area, come on out to one or both parties! the more, the merrier.

so excited! my weekend looks busy as hell, but even more fun. whee!