I continue to meet very nice and interesting people, many of them living in Alexandria and Northern VA/DC. I love getting to the point where I can call people by name who I've met more than once! And being able to help people is so much fun, whether it is giving them a map, a suggestion on where they might find something they are looking for, or welcoming new people to the area.
On Friday afternoon, Cori stopped by with Colin and Ryan to bring me a lovely card and some yummy truffles from The Sugar Cube! Jim and I have had great fun savoring each and every flavor (we limit ourselves to 2 at a time!) Cori and her husband, Scott, have been explaining to Colin and Ryan about Cori's involvement with me in designing the logo and helping me immensely with the branding and collateral for the store but this was the first time the children have seen me in the store. Ryan looked at me and said "Do you work here?" A beautiful, classic moment!
I also met with an advertising representative from the news/community websites The Patch on Friday afternoon. Zoe is officially on the directory for The Old Town Patch but I also wanted to explore advertising possibilities. They offer a variety of levels and methods for advertising, including the filming of video that can be used on your directory entry as well as posted to Facebook, YouTube, your website, etc. The sample he showed me (for Ten Thousand Villages in Old Town) was very professionally done. I've never seen myself as a YouTube kind of girl but maybe Zoe is?
Saturday started cold, wet, windy and rainy. I knew it would be a challenging day. I always take some work with me to the cash desk to do during periods when customers are not in the store. And believe me, for the first three hours on Saturday, no one came in! Just as the weather had a little break, people started coming and steadily between 1 - 4. And then it started to flood! Some pictures:
At the corner of Prince & Union, shortly after 6 pm
Looking down Union toward the intersection with King - you can see the water crossing Union and going up King Street
The police and traffic enforcement were very organized and thorough. They closed off the streets and had tow trucks in to pull out cars that were in danger of being flooded. They had both Union and Prince closed off so I walked down Union a block so Jim could pick me up after I had closed. As a note, when I went back to open the store on Sunday, the City was cleaning up the flood debris and had the streets reopened in no time!
With the beautiful weather on Sunday (as well as the garden tours going on during the weekend), Zoe was very busy. In fact, I had people coming into the store before we were even officially open on Sunday! And people still coming in after closing time!
One of the funnier moments from the weekend - a man comes in and looks at a number of things in the store. I asked him if he is shopping for someone special. He tells me he is in the doghouse - he said something to his wife he should not have said and he needs to find a way out!
Expecting some Chan Luu necklaces this week as well as summer shipments from my lines this week and next!
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