the pretend boutique

i've been avoiding this post.

because it's a little embarrassing.

but then i decided

it has a good

moral to it.

so here goes.

a little while before Christmas,

a couple of my girlfriends and I were

having one of our "girl nights" and we

came up with the idea to have

a Christmas boutique.

robin is a super talented photographer, but

she is so humble and not sure about

marketing or selling her

framed photos.

{we're still trying to get her on etsy}.

christine is just the nicest

person you'd ever meet,

and, by her own admission,

not super "crafty",

but she's always up for a fun gathering.

and she is the most supportive friend.

she decided she would help us.

she'd be the official greeter and

server of apple cider to the

crowds of customers

flocking to

our

boutique.

robin's beautiful angel photos.

we didn't have much time to pull this off.

we decided to have it at my house

and robin and i both

worked frantically to get

our items made and ready for display

and sale.

{christine spent the whole week before

at a science camp in the rain with

5th graders. brave girl.}

and we were ready.

the displays looked great.

i had my calculator, notepad, and

little stamped brown bags ready.

robin was all set to

go with her inventory book near by.

she also brought her sister-in-law,

who came with really cute

"quiet books" that she

hand makes for little ones.

of course we had to have food

for us.

and drinks.

we had cheese and deli meats,

crackers, nuts,

fresh fruit,

yummy sweets,

tea, coffee, bubbly water.

wine.

baileys.

rum.

our advertising was comprised of

face book shout-outs,

word of mouth,

a nice sign at the top of my street,

and a craig's list ad.

oh, and a cute "boutique" banner strung

across the front porch.

so there we were,

all ready to go.

and no one showed up.

no. one.

i'm pretty sure no one

was even home in my neighborhood

that day.

we were all feeling pretty discouraged
at that point.

christine was drinking baileys with her coffee

and nursing a cold {remember the rainy science camp?}

robin and i decided to spike the apple cider

with the rum.

and soon we just started to laugh at ourselves.

not because of the liquor.

just because there we were with all of

our high hopes

and dreams of this super successful boutique.

at one point robin decided that

we needed more advertising out front.

so the four of us lugged this life size

carved santa from my front porch to the sidewalk

and propped another sign on him.

the whole thing just got us to laughing,

the kind of laughing where you feel

like you might pee your pants.

i commented that my neighbor

across the street

{mind you i've only lived here a couple months

and don't know anyone that well yet}

was probably watching us from her

upstairs window,

making comments like,

"look at those silly girls, they

are pretending to have a store today..."

that just made us all laugh even more.

later on, inside, we had a little meeting

about what had gone wrong.

and robin took notes.

we decided that our wares are

fabulous,

we just lacked customers.

which is kind of important when you're having a boutique.

not to be discouraged,

we decided that we will not give up.

next time we just need to start a little

earlier on the advertising.

and robin suggested we do it at her

house because she lives in a busier neighborhood.

the idea that we came up with is to

do a spring or summer boutique

and try to invite more local

vendors.

and really advertise better.

i suggested that we needed a name for our event.

robin's sister-in-law said,

"well, why don't you just call it the

pretend boutique?"

which made us all laugh again.

but we decided that we really do

like that name.

the point is that

it all worked out

because we ended up having such

a good time together

visiting and laughing and just

being silly girls.

and we encouraged each other.

which is what friendship is really all about.

sometime

this summer or spring,

we will be having

the pretend boutique

in robin's backyard.

the first of many, i hope.

p.s. you're invited; please come!

p.p.s. robin's site isn't up yet,

but you can email her at

pro5robin@sbcglobal.net