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I just got back from a two-day buying trip for Orange Tree in Chicago with my mom and sister. Going on these trips is always exhausting for everyone involved and kind of resembles a science fair experiment wherein the subjects are timed to see how long it takes before everybody gets knocked out and falls flat on the floor from being hypnotized by All The Pretty Stuff To See. Stationary, in particular, is one of the hardest things to pick out when we’re on these trips because there is more stationary in the world than there are flies, but I’ve about gotten used to the blurry vision and fog in my head when looking through piles and piles of stationary and eventually resolve to just wait to pick anything out until after my eyeballs can’t take it anymore and burst into a thousand pieces. Then wherever those little slime balls land on top of the glossy catalog pages I’m all, THAT’S IT, THAT BIRTHDAY CARD LOOKS AWESOME, IT’S TOTALLY THE ONE WE HAVE TO HAVE, IT’LL BE A BEST SELLER. It’s a system that we’ve found really works.
Seriously though, you would not believe the brain power it takes to stay focused at these trade shows when standing in a vendor’s booth and trying to decide whether Apple Pear or Vanilla Berry lip gloss would sell better in the store. Or what about Chocolate Mint? WHICH FLAVOR WILL MAKE US MILLIONS? It’s so comforting to know that other people have taken the initiative to worry about all those important issues in the world like health care and taxes because, clearly, we at the Orange Tree have other things to worry about.
Going on a buying trip at thirty-five weeks pregnant was another bit of a challenge, in more ways than just one. Yeah, there’s the physical fatigue that comes along with the territory of a beluga whale walking around on two feet for an entire day, but being very visibly pregnant at one of these shows also made me a moving target for all the vendors selling baby-related items. After being verbally attacked several times by those peddling baby bags, pacifier holders, and ridiculous onesies (“that have a velcro flap across the tummy so that you never have to put that cute little tummy away!”), I finally became savvy. As I would mosey up and down aisle after aisle I’d try to locate THEM before they would see ME, which really took quite a bit of concentration because, dude, they could see my midsection coming towards them three minutes before the rest of my body. However, I had to alert myself that one of them was right up the aisle waiting to snatch me up so that I could mentally prepare myself and resist bursting into an emotional mess with tears streaming down my face for feeling so manipulated, so targeted, SO FAT! LEAVE THE FAT PEOPLE ALONE!
By the end of the two days we pulled ourselves together enough to write some orders for a lot of new, really fun merchandise, stuff that I would love to show you right now but just can’t because my brain can barely even remember what specifically we bought. But I promise, if my memory of those two days at the market didn’t resemble a beautiful pen and ink drawing that got splashed with a bucket full of water I would totally give you the scoop, so here’s to hoping that it’s not too long before I’m thinking straight again! Cheers!
Today I was reading Pioneer Woman’s Home and Garden section of her website and what do you know…
She featured Kee-Ka organic cotton onesies, one the most popular items we sell over at Orange Tree!
The little onesies are all darling (I especially love the Sweet Pea one), and I plan on sneaking away with one in every size and every design to put in Avalon’s closet.
(Mom, you did not just read that.)
Click HERE to see why The Pioneer Woman herself loves them so much.
And if you decide you need some for your little bambino…you know where to go.
Last week my mom, dad, and sister went to Florida for Spring Break, those tan little buttheads. While they were there, I picked up a few extra hours over at Orange Tree to help Mom out and cover while she was gone.
Since it was Spring Break and many people were away in warm, sunny places drinking fruity drinks on the beach (No! I’m not bitter!), the traffic in the store was rather slow, so I shopped a lot to keep myself busy. I’d slowly wander through the store, eyeing everything from jewelry to clocks to serving dishes, making mental pictures of how each item would look in my house. Sometimes the mental picture just wasn’t enough, so I would bring the item home with me just to see if in reality it really was something I wanted to keep. If it wasn’t, I planned on taking it back and no one would have ever known about my sly ways.
As it turns out, 100% of the time I ended up keeping whatever I brought home, which, as I recall from my business statistics class that I passed with NOT EXACTLY FLYING COLORS, is a fairly high rate of return. Today I wrote a check to pay for everything that I bought and then proceeded to ask Mom if she would mind firing me because, dude, I can’t afford to work for you.
It all started with these place mats and some extra napkins to add to my collection. I ordered these back in January when we were at the New York International Gift Fair, and they finally just came in. It started out innocently enough when I brought these home, but then went totally downhill from there…
Later on that week, I brought home this platter. I had been eyeing it since last Winter when it came into the store, and I just loved the vibrant colors. I knew exactly where it would go – right there in the corner of the kitchen – so I brought it home for a test drive.
Just so you know, it’s still sitting on my counter, looking awesome as ever. I did, however, finally rip off that little sticker that you can see in the picture, as a sign of my love and commitment to the platter. It’s mine forever now. Muahh haa haaaa.
Finally, the clock. These funky clocks, made by an artist up in Michigan, are extremely popular and always fly out of the store as soon as we receive them. While we were building our house, I knew that we had the perfect spot for a clock of our own.
So again, same story…brought it home to see if it looked all right, then promptly hung it on the wall, fell in love with it, and lived happily ever after.
The end.
I don’t really know what has gotten into me lately, but I have been feeling a certain responsibility to my community that I never felt before. I suppose it could be attributed to today’s shaky economic climate, or too much time spent in front of Fox News, or maybe even a lack of Coke Zero in my life.
Because let’s face it, a day without a Coke Zero is like a day without oxygen, isn’t it? DOES CRAZY THINGS TO YOUR BRAIN.
Whatever the case, in the past couple of weeks I have discovered how vital it is to support local businesses.
In other words, I’m all about supporting my Local Yokels.
It’s no surprise that my eyes have been opened to the world of small retail businesses since working for my mom at Orange Tree. I see the ins and outs of running a store, the good and the bad. Being the “accountant” (totally deserving of the air quotes, heh), I am more aware than anyone of our financial standing, and have random spikes in my blood pressure according to how much money we made – or didn’t make – on any given day.
With this new perspective, I find myself drastically changing my shopping ways. I want to help other local businesses afford their employees, afford their heat, make a decent living.
I’m absolutely not tooting my own horn here, because in all honesty I AM CHEAP and it’s not like I go and offer the locals a pile of gold everyday. But here are a few of the very small ways I try and support my area’s local businesses:
- If I grab a coffee in the morning, I hit the small local coffee shop instead of that one other big place (despite the fact that they have those pretty red cups during the holiday season)
- I go to the family-owned gas stations to fill up my car
- Just recently when we bought the furniture for our new house, we bought from a local store rather than a big chain
- Whenever I need something I could usually buy at Target or Wal-Mart, I first ask myself if there is a local place where that item could be bought
The irony in all of this is that Rob and I made plans to take a trip to Chicago this weekend so we could do our Christmas shopping. Luckily we have already finished the majority of our shopping here in town, so you can refrain from calling me a traitor already. I’m sticking to my guns on this, people. And since it would be virtually impossible for me not to shop while in Chicago, I’m really looking forward to dragging Rob off of Michigan Avenue and into the small, boutique-y, local shops.
Not gonna lie, it does take a little bit of planning and thinking ahead to shop locally, but I really believe that it can make a difference. Sometimes it costs a little bit more monetarily, but in a way it feels good. Like you’re making a difference. Give it a try.
If you are in the Granger area, please come and stop by Orange Tree tomorrow (Saturday) for the official Grand Opening! There will be different sales going on every hour – for jewelry, stationary, menswear, etc. – so come and get a jumpstart on all of your Christmas shopping*!
Located at: 322 W. Cleveland Road, Centennial Plaza (next to Talbots)
Hours: 10 AM – 5 PM
Come check it out!
(Public service announcement sponsored by Orange Tree**)
*Or not. I mean, if you’re just not feeling the whole ’spirit of giving’ thing yet, there’s always the option of just indulging yourself. In fact, I have excelled in that particular area, and so has my Grandma. I guess it runs in the family. So don’t fret, there’s no hatin’ at the OT.
**No it’s not. I’m totally lying. There is no particular sponsorship or compensation package for this advertisement. However, perhaps there should be? I’ll be getting right on that. Mom?
Do you remember my last Orange Tree post? Something about chaos, anxiety, and a gigantic mess resembling this?
Well, thanks to many hours of work and lots of blood, sweat, and Diet Coke, Orange Tree is finally up and running!
Welcome to opening day at Orange Tree!
It’s like night and day compared to last week, isn’t it?
(Praise the Lord, Hallelujah.)
Here is one side of the store. And I’ll just go ahead and point out that those awesome crosses hanging on the wall? And that cool vertical mirror? My mom made those. She is much, MUCH too modest to ever come right out and admit that to people for some reason. But they are beyond awesome, and I love them. In fact, I just might have to commission her to make me a funky new mirror for my new house. Maybe she would even give me a 97% discount. Mom?
Here is another side of the store. More of the same cool stuff; lots of things that will hopefully eventually make their final resting place on my coffee table or foyer wall or kitchen countertop.
Then there’s the Point of Sale counter:
It looks innocent, like a simple tool used to check out our lovely OT customers. But here’s the truth: IT’S A TRAP. Because after you spend all your time lolly-gagging through the store checking out all the candles and bags and doodads, you make your way up the counter to pay for whatever you have already picked out, and then BAM!
JEWELRY! PERFUME! COOKIES!
Yes, cookies. My mom bakes cookies everyday for her customers. I know. Mother Theresa, practically, isn’t she? She aims to please. Or bribe. Or whatever.
Anyway, come on down to Orange Tree and see what all this fussin’ is about. You’ll like it.
Don’t forget to eat your cookie.
It’s official…
Orange Tree is actually coming to fruition!
After last week, the space itself was almost completely finished; the only things missing were a few more light fixtures:
Which, to my mom, translated to READY AND OPEN FOR BUSINESS!
Not really. But practically. She is rearing to go, I tell you.
Want to take a look around?
Here is the point of sale counter from the front:
And here is is from the back:
See how on the top of the round, orange end of the counter there are lines to make it look like an orange slice? So creative, she is. And that wacky light fixture? And the metal under the countertop? And floating ‘cloud’ thing up there? WHO WOULDA THOUGHT TO DO THAT?
She and my dad, that’s who. The creative wizards. They have magic in the right sides of their brains.
Anyway, in order keep the progress moving along and keep the boss happy, we took last weekend and moved all of the inventory from her house to the store, which resulted in nothing more than a humongous, stressful, chaotic mess.
Anxiety to me.
Pure delight to her.
Here is only part of the mess:
Oy. It gives me heartburn just looking at it.
Luckily, we were able to actually wade our way through the mess and begin pricing the inventory, hanging things on the walls, and organizing everything (the word “organizing” being used very loosely here).
No matter the mess or the chaos, it’s all extremely exciting. I’m so proud of my mom, and the way her determination never fails. And look how happy the little shop-keeper is:
Of course there is still oodles, loads, mounds of work to be done, as the store is still in shambles as we speak.
Nonetheless, my mom’s goal is to open next week (:::insert nervous/anxious emotions here:::). If you’re in the Granger area, please stop by! We’d love to have you 
So the latest news around Orange Tree headquarters is that we are homeless. I mean, we never really had a home in the first place, considering we never signed a lease anywhere, but we thought we were at least close to having somewhere we could call the official Orange Tree location.
And we were close to that point. Like, as close as you can absolutely get until you are legally bound for the next five years of your life. My mom was so sure that this place was going to be “it” that we were about to have that address put onto our stationary and all of our checks. Thank goodness we didn’t because when it came time to sign the contract on the dotted line, she changed her mind.
And rightly so.
The location she was interested in is within a new shopping area here in our town; it’s a very upscale, outdoor “lifestyle center” or something fancy like that, with restaurants, shops, and there’s even a hotel going under construction soon. There are both national chain stores (like Eddie Bauer) and local mom and pop shops, which we thought would be perfect for our little Orange Tree. However, we were wrong.
We came to find out, throughout the whole lease negotiation process, that this maybe isn’t the best place for a small locally-owned shop. Our first clue was the lease itself – it was about as thick as Webster’s dictionary, obviously not meant for a small business such as hers. And it was all legal jargon that the normal person cannot even comprehend; however, thanks to the many dollars spent with attorneys, we figured out that most of that jargon has to do with the landlords wanting to take EVERY! SINGLE! PENNY! WE COULD MAKE! away from us in some form of payment or another.
It was clear to us that being able to succeed at that particular location probably would be impossible. All of our inflow of cash would be quickly poured into the landlord’s pockets.
So anyway, after months of all this lease-negotiation rigamaroll, and literally at the meeting where my Mom was supposed to sign the lease, she changed her mind. And she stood her ground. And she gave those people a piece of her mind.
She is now in the process of looking elsewhere for a place where Orange Tree can unload all of its inventory baggage (really good stuff, might I add). There is already one location she is looking into that looks much more promising and would better allow us to, you know, MAKE MONEY, which is most often a very high priority in the business world.
Throughout the past couple of months there has been much stress, questioning, praying, and, well, stress. However, I think we are all grateful that we can now rest assured that it just wasn’t meant to be. And without all the screwing around we’ve been through, we might have ended up in a place where we really weren’t supposed to be.
It seems rather odd, considering that my mom is an artist and my dad is an architect, that the creative gene skipped over me and forgot to settle in my DNA. For some bizarre reason I came out of the womb very right-brained; I like facts rather than ideas. I am extremely organized and have a hard time just going with the flow. I’M ANAL. AND COMPULSIVE. Sometimes even… OBSESSIVE.
If you know me you are not shocked.
However, I do have my days when something comes over me and I just need to get artsy. But instead of taking my time and just letting it flow, I want to do it. And get it done. And clean up! And move on.
Remember? Anal?
Last week I decided I felt artsy, and wanted to spruce up my back patio, so I decided it would only be right to go pick up a metal trash can and paint it really flashy and colorful. And although I am definitely not the artist in the family, it does look pretty cool, if I may say so myself.
Want to see? Here’s how it all went down:
First, when painting on metal, it is important to prime the area that you will be painting, so head over to Menards and get some white metal primer.
Then go to Wal Mart and pick out some acrylic paints, in all of your favorite colors:
Then prime the area you are going to paint. My plan for the design was big, old, funky polka dots. And since I didn’t want to prime the entire can (I wanted some of the metal to show through) I only primed the polka dots that I would be painting over:
After I had put two coats of primer on, and after it was dry, I began to use the paint to color over the primer:
And voila! There she is! DONE AND DONE.
Now, I thought it needed some kind of coating, like a polyurethane or something, but apparently the dude at the hardware store disagreed, and said that it would actually pull the paint off of the metal. (Something about how polyurethane is actually meant for wood, and not metal…yada, yada.) So anyway, I didn’t use anything. Don’t know how it will hold up… but it’s only for me, so whatever. If it starts to rot away tomorrow, I’ll let you know.
I’m pretty pleased with the end result. Mom loved it, too, and said that I could sell them in her store if I wanted to. And I would! Except that, would you believe it took me about five hours to complete this? That’s a little too much time, that I just don’t really have.
But in case you are ever feeling a little do-it-yourself-y, here is a project you should try. And if you are hesitant at all, please rest assured that if I can handle it, you can definitely handle it.
As an Orangette, my house and I are really much better outfitted.
(Wait, what’s an Orangette? I totally made that up. But I like it, so let’s roll with it. And, hey! If you want to be an Orangette too, just apply to work at Orange Tree. Then all of us Orange Tree Orangettes should make up a song and dance – or maybe more of a kickline – that we could perform for every customer who walks in the store. Kind of like at Moe’s, the way the workers obnoxiously always proclaim WELCOME TO MOE’S! every time someone steps over the threshold.)
(On second though, I’m realizing that my tongue just really got away from me, because that whole Moe’s thing is SO annoying.)
(And my whole point in this post has absolutely nothing to do with whatever an Orangette is!)
What I’m desperately trying to say is that I have already borrowed taken bought a few really, really cool things from the good ol’ OT. And tonight I’m gonna represent (holla!) and show you a few items which I am sure that you are also going to lust after.
Are you a smelly person? I mean, do you like things that smell good? Do scentfully-wonderful things really excite you? Then you are going to LOVE these Aroma Cones. They are real pine cones that have been dipped in wax that has been infused with essential oils. Bottom line, they look pretty, and smell delicious. Every time I walk by them my nose does backflips.
This was something that I made absolutely, positively sure we ordered while at the New York show for no reason other than I heard it calling out to me. Something about how it was just so freakin cute and couldn’t go on another day if it were not sitting on my counter, next to my stove. This oil & vinegar set can now settle down and take a breather because – well, what do you know. In that picture they are sitting on my counter. Next to my stove. Truth be told, I’m as happy as they are.
And here we have a belt. The buckle is made of fused glass, and comes in an array of colors. Lucky for me (and you) the buckle easy comes off the belt, so that we can really abuse our paychecks and buy every single color that is available. Yay! And, duh, this was obviously the first color that I had to have. You know, Orangette, and all.
And finally, this is not exactly going to be for sale in OT, but it kind of is. This is a trunk that my parents made for Rob and I for our wedding. ISN’T IT AWESOME? My Dad did the carpentry on it, and my Mom did the painting. It has our wedding date on it, the ‘love is patient’ verse, and on the top are the twelve months. It sits proudly in our living room and someday I can see it serving as a toy box for our little kiddies. But for now I find that it works great for when Rob ticks me off by leaving his dirty dishes in the sink. Because then I just shove him in there and sit on it for awhile, until he promises he will never do it again. So far, my discipline hasn’t worked, if you know what I mean. Anyway, if you want one of these too, my Mom and Dad are making more. And don’t worry, they won’t have my wedding date on it. But I can guarantee that it will look beautiful and will serve as a great Time Out location. For husbands or kids.
Whew, I’m exhausted. That’s good for now, right? Don’t you fret, I will stay right on top of new :::airquote::: INVENTORY :::end air quotes::: that comes through my doors. It’s all for the good of the cause. You know, for marketing purposes. I have to know how stuff works.
And I will always take one for the team.
