Photos © 2012 Curly Girl Design, Inc./Leigh Standley. all rights reserved.
One year ago Sunday (April Fool's Day, naturally) we opened our shop, Marmalade, in our town center. A bigger and more beautiful location with lots of foot traffic and parking (yes!) has made our presence officially known as a fabulous retail destination in the suburbs of Boston. It was a big risk, a lot of work, a lot more work than that, and frankly, contributed to one of the hardest financial and organizational years Curly Girl has had to go through. But at the year mark, things are looking really good. The community has embraced us whole-heartedly, we are winning awards and getting the kind of press I always thought we deserved.
We are story-telling, community-building and creating an world for Curly Girl to live in that exists beyond the work we do in the offices, or online, or on paper. We have more work to do still, and growth is a moving target but I am really pleased in this moment with what we have done. I put this thought, this intention, this vision out into the world, and the world around me, the people around me and the community around me made it real. It's real and it's bright and shiny, just like I thought it would be. Happy Birthday Marmalade!
We have come a long way…
You can read a little about the beginnings here and here and see photos of our opening week here and here.
Saturday we threw ourselves a little party inspired by Marie Antoinette and piled the sugary treats high! We popped prosecco and put on our party dresses and treated our customers to a storewide sale.
The place was packed with customers (which is always good!) and balloons! Coach even helped bartend! (how cute is he?). The marmalade girls were in full effect and everyone's spirits were high!
It really put a cherry on top of an excellent first year and I couldn't be more grateful to all whose energy and time and love and support went into making this year a success! In particular: Lauren, Emily, all the marm girls, Ethan, Coach and our friends at Glutenous Minimus for all the delicious sweets when we need them! Also, to the Curly Girl staff (esp. Molly) for holding down the fort while we did all of this. Thank you all for making my vision a reality…and continuing to.
xoxo
