Julep Girlfirends' Night Out for the Cure

Wednesdays in October have been "Girlfriends' Night Out for the Cure" at Julep. An explosion of pink - and an explosion of support for all of our girlfriends who have battled or are in the process of battling breast cancer. We've been sold out at our first 3 events ($5 of each ticket sold goes to support Susan G. Komen Puget Sound for the Cure), but of course we're soft-hearted when our guests call wanting to come with a friend who is a survivor or on her way to becoming a survivor.

It was fun to see the parlor so full of girlfriends and life! A big thank you to all of our partners who participated in our event and to our amazing goodie bags: The Finerie and Betsy Johnson (for the fasion show downtown), Courtney Seard who provided fabulous massages, Clutch, Trophy Cupcakes, Gourmando Catering, O Wines, Victoria's Secret, Dry Soda, and finally to Carilyn Platt and Kari Moe Straley, our awesome and passionate PR partners.

Our guests enjoyed two mini-treatments of their choice (polish change, paraffin wrap, neck and shoulder massage or brow wax) while hanging out with girlfriends and enjoying treats. As always, we learned with each event - for example Amy realized that a lot of our guests were interested in the massage services (thank you Shirley for helping out at our Bellevue event!). The last event is at our University District parlor on October 28 - it's already sold out (sorry!) but its fun to be learning every day and with every event. That's where I get my energy!

But if you're in or around Gig Harbor please join us this Wednesday the 21st - this is a such a unique and memorable event.

I was also grateful to our downtown guests for being flexible about the PBS filming crew who joined us to capture the party atmosphere. As some of you know, Julep is being featured in an episode of a new PBS series on entrepreneurs and start-ups hosted by Damon Vickers. It was fun getting to know the producers and crew - Susan McNally and Fran Dunaway are perceptive and have wonderful instincts.

Figuring out what to do about this blog

So I'll try to keep the post-modern navel gazing to a minimum, but I am trying to figure out what to do about this blog. It's been so long since I've posted anything here (despite Kate's gentle encouragement) that I couldn't even remember my password to log in. Thank you if you are one of the 2 people besides my mother-in-law who is still checking back here.

We now have a Facebook site, we Tweet, and in the meantime we try to grow a new business, so it's been hard to know how the blog fits in. 140 characters is more manageable to share news flashes (like Anne Hathaway visiting us at Julep last week!).

And yet. I DO want to share the inner workings of building a great enduring company with you. In a more grown-up way than the chick-flick-style "OOPS she dropped the flan on the floor again!" manner in which I started out. When I had my first child, I thought his every bowel movement was fascinating, and when we first opened our first parlor, I thought our washing machine disasters were just mad cap zany fun! (Hilarity ensued!).

Now Eli is 8, and our laundry is just laundry. Which are both very good things.

But this new phase has it's own new joys and challenges, which I'm just learning to appreciate. As I've been out in the world talking about our ambitious plans for bringing Julep to women across the country, I've been asked a lot of questions about my motivations, my abilities, and my mortality (you always get the "what happens to Julep if you get hit by a bus" question). This causes one to THINK. Which then causes one to log into a long-neglected blog.

The thing I've been thinking lately is that starting a company is like falling in love - giddy, inspiring, eye-opening, and tingly. Secretly mind-blowingly exciting, but it all looks kinda mundane from the outside (I married an anti-trust lawyer! And started a nail parlor!). But buliding a company, like building a family or a marriage, takes more. Courage, tenacity, creativity, intelligence, and faith. Weaving these together to be who I want to be for myself, and who I need to be for those around me is my life's work.

If I were to write a business book, it would be called a catchier version of something like, "Everything I learned about growing a multi-million dollar business I learned from dating and marriage." (Come to think of it, maybe the subject itself is inherently un-catchy. . . and yet I persevere).

Here's one concrete example: "Know what you need and don't apologize for needing it." Applies equally to personal and professional relationships. I remember the profound a-ha moment I had with my first college boyfriend when I agonized and then finally worked up the courage to express an important need (for phone calls and some very basic form of verbal communication) - and lo and behold the earth did not shatter. It wasn't that he didn't care, he really didn't know that I wanted him to use his words and call once in a while. Because he did care, he rose to the occasion, and life was very sweet and lovely for the rest of the semester (which equates to decades in non-college time).

Although it's decades later, I still think of this moment often in asking for what we need from colleagues, trainees, vendors - everyone we work with. How can anyone know what Julep needs if I don't ask for it? What if they do care but they don't know we need them to call? It's the only way to give the other party a chance to help us achieve our goals.

This lesson works hand in hand with one that I'm currently working on, which is practicing more expansive generosity each day in making assumptions about the intent of others. Assuming positive intent is part of our "Rules of Engagement" at Julep - and it's one that I am passionate about. Asking for help is also easier and more fun when you assume the best in people.

So I'm going to reflect on both of these lessons as I present tomorrow to a local angel investor forum. I know what we need and why, I am passionate to the core about our future, and I will assume until told otherwise that everyone in the room is smart and dying to be part of Julep if I would only show them how.

Membership Has Its Privileges . . .

So we're contemplating a new membership program to focus the love on on our most loyal guests. We'd love feedback - please let us know what you think by taking a few minutes to take our online survey.

How Launching Another Parlor is like Having Another Child

Day four of our new parlor, and as I drive across the 520 bridge, I ponder all the ways in which being a mom has prepared me for being a better business leader. (Now that I'm driving across 520 a lot, you may see more postings as I have MUCH more time to contemplate the state of the economy, Julep, and the license plate in front of me).

So here are the top ten ways in which launching another new parlor is like having another new baby:

10. You take WAY less pictures of the last parlor/child because, afterall, you ARE BUSIER this time around.

9. Just when it's too late to turn back, you begin to question your sanity and your ability to take on ONE MORE THING without losing your already tenuous grip on reality.

8. Each parlor / child comes with its own unique, unanticipated challenges that you have to learn, figure out, and create an action plan around.

7. But you love each parlor/child equally for its unique qualities.

6. You're not as nervous that you will be a complete failure because, after all, you and your partner(s) have done this before.

5. "But OMG what if the other time(s) were a fluke and this is different?" you wake up wondering, heart racing.

4. It takes a bigger village with each additional parlor/child. No one can do it alone.

3. You sweat less about the details (no retail display, diaper rash) and are able to focus more on the bigger picture (is everybody alive and breathing?).

2. You start living at Top Pot Doughnuts and gain weight much earlier in the process.

1. You drink more with each additional parlor launch / pregnancy.

"Sneak Preview" Day at Bellevue!

Sneak Preview day - here we are before the crowds arrive . . .

And then there was a line out the door!

We had an amazingly fun day introducing ourselves to our new guests and introducing our loyal guests from other parlors to our new Bellevue parlor.

THANK YOU to everyone who helped us celebrate our Sneak Preview! And thank you to the amazing Bellevue team, and others who joined us all day long to help us out (especially Erica, Susie and Jfed!). And Amy and Lisa, who have been with me through all four parlor openings.

I couldn't have imagined a more perfect opening day for our new parlor.

And at the end of a long day, here are Katie and Jennifer closing down the registers before they head home.

I myself went to bed right after reading to my kids - at 8:30! That might even be earlier than our early to bed, early to rise District Manager Amy Fritz!

Free Manicures at New Bellevue Parlor 3/12

So now the sign is up! Join us at our new Bellevue parlor for free manicures, express facials, eyebrow shaping and neck massage next Thursday March 12!

I'm not sure where January and February went - I can't believe it's already March and we're opening next week!

One Week Before Opening Day!

We met at 10am on Friday at our Support Center offices in Queen Anne to take all the "shopping" we've done to date over to our new Bellevue Parlor!

Here's our buff District Manager Amy and our new Bellevue Parlor Manager Katie loading up the van!

And Susie, and Lisa, and Amy, and Erica, and Tyson too. (THANK YOU!).

With everyone pitching in, it took no time at all. Now our Bellevue parlor has hot towel warmers, guest chairs, one vernisseur stool and one esthetician stool, verniseur baskets, moisturizers, hot water dispenser, hole punch, coffee table, flat screen TV, POS terminals at the front, and a partridge in a pear tree. On Sunday Kate, Ripley and I will be delivering the final pieces of furniture to Bellevue. Our final building inspection is on Monday, and, our phones arrive on Tuesday, and our final Board of Health inspection is on Wednesday. Then we're excited to swing our doors open to our first guests on Thursday!

8 Days Before Bellevue Opening

Of course, it's pouring rain the day we decide to put up our temporary banner - but there it is! Now we're opening on March 13th (and no, you're not the first one to notice that it's a Friday the 13th - but thanks for worrying on our behalf). Thank you Mitch and Darryl for climbing up on the roof. And as part of the more glamorous part of her role, Kate had to run out this morning to buy bricks to weigh down the bottom of the sign.
Thanks the Tait (who I somtimes call Darren, because of my early onset Alzeimers) of Seattle Computing and his brilliant colleagues, our 54 inch flat screen can play Wonder Woman (as promised for our March Chick Flick Thursdays), and we have an internal and external network connection stuff going on (to use the technical terms). We'll be able to check in our guests and they'll be able to connect to our WiFi network and email from their pedicures - if they choose to that instead of dozing off after a glass of wine (licnese still pending!) and a neck massage.

Jennifer and Chris - we LOVE the gi-normous walnut ledge behind the front desk. And Chris - you are a genius because Darryl was worried about how it would mount - but of course you had thought of that already.

Katie and I put up the FREE MANICURES sign this morning - and our love affair with our Studio SC gang deepens with each project - even 2 hour turnaround ones where we don't give you basic information like dimensions. Thank you Alli and JJ!

To extend or not to extend Staycation?

Of course, the answer is to extend! Through May 28, to be exact.

Because our guests have DEMANDED it (some gently, some not so gently).

And, to be honest, it's one of the few promotions we've offered that is beloved by guests, verniessuers, managers, and parlor hostesses. Usually there's at least SOMETHING a little askew . . .

I think it helped that we sent out a Survey Monkey to our team to ask for input in advance - troubleshooting potential issues before they happened.

And it also helps that it's a fun idea - I LOVE seeing women with lovely hands and toes sip their umbrella drinks.

The benefit of being a small start-up is that we can make these responsive decisions on the fly - we are not locked into a a two year marketing calendar (after we build one, then we'll figure out how locked into it we need to be!).

So for now, we're Staycationing away.

The walls are up and painted in Bellevue

For all of you who are, along with all of us at Julep, eagerly awaiting the opening of the Bellevue parlor in March - the walls are up and there is color on them! (Thank you AGAIN Wilcox, Hutchison & Maul, Thuma Works and especially Kate MacDonald).

THANK YOU for the overwhelming response - we've sold hundreds of gift certificates and have over 50 appointments on our books already! And we're not even open yet!

This is the wall where our 54 inch plasma screen is going to go. We're playing Wonder Woman in our parlors for our Chick Flicks for March, and Bridget Jone's Diary for April. I just emailed out a survey by surveymonkey for our Mother's Day May movie. If you're interested, please fill it out too! But as Susanne just observed, all the mother's day movies are quite depressing:

“Stepmom” (1998) Susan Sarandon & Julia Roberts

“Freaky Friday” (2003) Lindsay Lohan

“Heartbreakers” (2001) Sigourney Weaver, Jennifer Love Hewitt

“The Princess Diaries” (2001) — Julie Andrews, Anne Hathaway

"Terms of Endearment" (1983) - Shirley MacLaine, Debra Winger

If you have any other ideas, please let us know!

But we're all set for Father of the Bride in June. Why do dads always get to have all the fun?

Board Games

I just finished playing Tsuro with my family tonight - a board game that calls itself "The game of the Path." Each player puts tiles on the board that connect into a path, and the object is to stay on the board and not let an inadvertant move or another player's move change your path such that you go off the deep end. You have to keep moving forward, no matter where the path may lead. You can shape and connect the path, but ultimately much of the path has been laid and connected by others.

Lessons for my life at Julep abound. To wit: always try to keep all the paths and potential paths in view so you can make the best choices. (Of course, I got knocked off the board twice by my spouse tonight - but managed to survive my seven-year old). Strategy is all about seeing ahead, and not being blinded by satisfaction of the immediate next move. Keep moving forward, making the best moves you can through the criss-crossing maze of options. And try not to be beaten by a seven-year old.

I've also enjoyed playing Blokus with my son. The object of the game here is to take over as much of the board as possible with your color pieces, and leave as little space as possible for your opponent. While I don't think of the world is as being as zero-sum as the Blokus board, this game still MAKES YOU THINK. The first few moves feel just like building a start-up in the first days. As you stretch out and take up as much of the board as possible, each move is exhilerating - anything is possible, each step builds momentum and feels like a bridge to victory. The last few moves feel like navigating through a tough economy - thinking hard about where to put your limited resources, what will make the largest impact, how to conserve your space while still going for the ultimate goal.

Of course, the ultimate lesson is that it's fun and energizing to engage with the people I love - over a gameboard or anything else. And maybe that I should stop drawing work-related lessons from a game board. . .

But if you have kids around age 7, or are in any kind of leadership role in your life, or both, I highly recommend Tsuro and Blokus.

Girlfriend's Glycolic Manicure

I'm on my third week of doing the Girlfriend's Glycolic Manicure - and what a difference.
Lisa has always said that I'd see more results by doing a series - since skin takes 2-3 weeks to turnover, doing the glycolic treatment weekly really helps to improve the look and feel of your hands.
I'm now an even truer believer. The lines at my knuckles have disappeared - spots are gone and my hands feel baby soft. Even lotion goes on differently - it soaks in immediately.
Since my hands are always dry and scratchy in the wintertime (from cold, and perhaps exacerbated by the fact that I drive around with my car heat on high, blowing right at my hands), it's such a relief.
I've loved getting periodic Girlfriend's Glycolic treatments, but three in a row has made a huge, noticeable difference.
I want to bathe in this stuff - maybe I've got to get Lisa to develop a glycolic wash for guests to take home . . .

Staycation

Our Staycation special has been amazing! I love seeing women at the front of our parlor, enjoying chips, salsa, and Mike-aritas. I've been thinking about adding a sunlamp next year to this special. I love my sunlamp, but the requirements are so specific (sit 8-12 inches, have it shine in your eyes, better earlier in the day, for 10ish minutes) that I'm not sure how to offer that to our guests.

For now, you're just going to have to enjoy a fabulous deal in a fabulous environment.

Julep All Company Meeting January 20

We had a great day celebrating our accomplishments and coming up with ideas to delight our guests in 2009 (I love poster-sized Post-its - and we covered our walls with them!). I left with renewed energy and purpose. Thank you Amy for organizing such a fun and productive day for us. Thank you everyone for being honest in sharing your hopes, fears, and most of all, your ideas for how we can do better each day.

Happy New Year

I just logged into this blog for the first time in a while, and looked at the header again with fresh eyes, and am amazed by the fact that I might need to rename this blog. It's not about the trials and travials of STARTING Julep Nail Parlor because it's now been over a year and a half since we first opened our doors to our first parlor. We're long past "starting"!

I'm also reflecting all that we've accomplished because we're getting ready for our first all company meeting on Tuesday (apologies to our guests - we will be closed this Tuesday, January 20th while we gather, connect and refelect). We're getting together to celebrate everything we've accomplished together in 2008 and share our ideas for 2009. Here's a slice of what we've done together in just the past twelve months:
· Launched a new menu in March with innovative new treatments like the Girlfriend’s Glycolic Manicure
· Delighted guests with our new “Parlor” level treatments by offering them complimentary nail repair and Julep vernis
· Developed a new manicure table and pedicure ottoman solution that is uniquely Julep’s (and currently being patented)
· Sat in over 100 chairs to find the Steelcase Leap Chair – the new Julep guest chair going forward
· Opened a beautiful new downtown parlor in May
· Opened a beautiful new Gig Harbor parlor in July
· Started offering eyelash extensions
· Raffled off a pair of Manolo Blahniks
· Learned how to spell Manolo Blahnik
· Recruited and welcomed over 20 amazing new team members to Julep
· Hosted our first ticketed Girls Night Out event
· Hosted an amazing Sex in the City Movie screening event
· Developed and offered out guests not one, but TWO Julep branded Salt Scrubs
· Launched a seasonal color palette for the first time this fall
· Hosted hundreds of bridal showers and birthday gatherings
· Welcomed thousands of sisters, girlfriends, mothers and daughters
· Launched our Frequent Filer program
· Improved upon our seasonal Pumpkin and Cranberry treatments – and offered them to our guests again!
· Celebrated our first Service Quality month in June
· Got our license to serve alcoholic beverages to help our guests celebrate special occasions and everyday triumphs at Julep
· Signed a lease to open our fourth parlor in Bellevue
· Launched a new in-parlor signage system –and put up holiday signage for the first time
· Started using our flatscreens to tell the Julep story to our guests
· Added a hot oil and salt scrub experience to our parlor treatments
· Were featured on King 5 news and Komo news – in the same month!
· Helped each other grow and stretch beyond our usual comfort zones each and every day
· And, most importantly, served our guests passionately, making them feel happy and beautiful through over 10,000 appointments

For 2009, I'm thinking hard about how to break down our extraordinary goals into ordinary days. For example, I'm committed to sleeping an average of 8 hours a day, and asking everyone who works at Julep to just keep doing what they are doing so well - each and every day in each and every appointment and task.

We've invented our wheel! We've got to keep learning, improving and growing, but the way we will achieve our dreams is by keeping going what we've got. Just doing our best each day.

Thank you to everyone who has been part of our community and our success. We look forward to continuing to wow you through the extraordinary sum of our ordinary actions.

True Colors Events

Thank you Travis & Jesse for featuring us on your True Colors Events blog. We love you back - and we know others do too, since you were recently voted “Best Wedding Planner” and “Best Day-of Wedding Coordinator” in Seattle Bride Magazine’s Best of 2008.

What would you expect from a project manager for a Fortune 500 company, and a professional counselor? The most dashing wedding planners in town.

First Girlfriends' Holiday Kickoff Party

Let the festivities begin! We had a fabulous girls night out at our parlors Thurs Nov. 19/20. (It's taken me a while to post the photos!). Mini-stations of hand massages, paraffin, polish changes and neck and shoulder massage were enjoyed by all. To top it off, we had some amazing bargains that night only. We had so much fun on our end that most of our vernisseurs wanted to do an event like this monthly! So stay tuned.

More Girlsfriends' Holiday Kickoff Party photos!

Bellevue Here We Come!

The lease is signed, and Jeanne, Kate and I went to pick up the keys and put up our signs in our new Bellevue parlor at 221 Bellevue Way (just south of Bellevue Square Mall, across the street from the new Safeway). We're SO excited. This parlor is going to be amazing. It's 1527 square feet - so a little larger than our University District parlor and the first floor of our Gig Harbor parlor, and a little smaller than our Downtown Parlor. Kate and Jeanne met with our technology gurus today to figure out our exciting new media features. We're targeting opening in late February or early March, depending on whether you're talking to me or to Kate.

But we're taking reservations now for bridal showers, birthdays, and other parties. Just reach out to Susie or Susanne at events@myjulep.com.

Also, to celebrate our fourth parlor, we're offering a preopening special: $100 gift cards for just $50 at http://www.myjulepshopping.com/ - just select $100 gfit certificate and use code Bellevue09Mail at checkout (certificates valid at Bellevue parlor only). I can't wait to open our doors! Audrey, we can't wait to welcome you in early March!

Excited about our Girlfriend's Night Out Holiday Parties

Margot has organzied "Girlfriend's Night Out" parties for us next week - one at each of our parlors - and we've been so excited to the ticket purchases happening! Danielle keeps emailing us that someone else has purchased a ticket online! And another two friends! And another three friends!

It's our first time with this type of event, and all of us are so excited! That's why we keep repeating the word "excited"! And using exclamation marks!!

There's something so immediate and gratifying about online invitations. In case you aren't on our mailing list yet (email me at hello@myjulep.com and let me know!) or your invitation didn't make it to your inbox, here are the details below:


Girlfriend's Night Out
& Julep Holiday Kickoff Party

Downtown Seattle - Wednesday 11/19, 5-8pm
University District - Thursday 11/20, 5-9pm
Gig Harbor - Thursday 11/20, 5-8pm


We invite you and your girlfriends to enjoy
wine & cheese while you sample
a favorite Julep mini-service:

Dress your fingers with a mini-manicure in holiday colors
Clean up with a brow design at the brow bar
Warm up your hands with a paraffin wrap


Only at the party:

We'll "top off" your $75 Gift Certificate purchases and
make them $100 each

20% off all future appointments booked this evening

Check out our new party packages and get
20% off your own Julep Party
(when you reserve the date at this event)

Get a sneak peek at our exciting new
"Ready to Delight" Pre-Wrapped Holiday Gifts

Tickets $25

Purchase tickets for this event online at http://www.myjulepshopping.com/

Space is limited!

Questions? Call 206-818-0607

Loving my happy lamp

As I type this blog entry, my eyeballs are being hit with happy light.

Because it is grey and rainy in Seattle. And I'm currently in the process of reading Harry Potter to my kids, which feels grey and rainy too.

Also, the happy lamp distracts my attention away from the flickering of the flourescents in our office (although they do nothing to distract from the buzzing of the same).

I think I'm supposed to sit under it for about 10 minutes, but of course it's already an hour and I'm still here, getting happier. It's just like when I ask our vernisseurs to leave on the glycolic peel for twice as long on me when I get the the Girlfriends' Glycolic Pedicure. Lisa frowns upon this practice, but I have thick, fast growing skin. According to my expert self-diagnosis.

Eyelash extensions

We're starting to offer eyelash extensions at Julep next week - and WOW they are amazing. As a busy working mom, I love waking up feeling glamorous. It takes an initial upfront investment, but now all I do is add lipstick and mascara. And I look JUST like Lucy Liu.

You know how eyebrow shape makes a huge difference? (Although I unfortuantely only learned that AFTER my wedding photos). Eyelashes are the same. Immediate, amazing difference.

It was also awesome to fall asleep (actually drooling and snoring!) while Lisa went to work transforming my short stubby lashes into sweeping curls (using "j" curl, which is more natural looking than the "c" curl).

But I asked Lisa whether my eyelashes were the shortest she'd ever seen, and she said no. Mine were a size 7, and she swears she's seen 6s. But I suspect she says that to everyone.

Anyway, now I'm a size 9. Take that, TMZ.

Now I am obsessed when I look at magazines - trying to spot eyelash extensions (which last up to 6 weeks and look more natural) versus the false eyelashes (which can be more Tammy Faye and are applied for just the evening). E.g: Jennifer Lopez - false eyelashes. Jennifer Aniston - eyelash extensions.

I've never had lashes long enough to worry abut clumpy mascara before! Now I understand why that matters. . .

Thank you thank you Lisa!

Julep Support Center Offices - Transformation to Holiday Workshop

Here's a sneak peak at our Holiday Gift Set preparation! I LOVE our earth-friendly ribbon - Recycled and Recyclable, with our elegant-but-cute-as-a-button leaf cluster printed with soy-based ink. I want to send it to Project Runway for someone to make me a dress with it. (But Kate would kill me if any of her holiday goods went missing - as she's clearly laid out in multiple post-it notes throughout the office).

And how about our eyecatching environmentally friendly shopping bags? We've only got a handful of these first edition bags! Someday, I hope to be kicking myself up-side the head for not keeping mine in better condition to sell for huge bucks on Ebay.

Our shared wood-paneled Support Center office is brimming with boxes and boxes of lovely holidy gift set goodies. True to our goal of learning and getting better everyday, our holiday preparation this year was in full swing MONTHS before the "H" word even crossed our minds last year.

Speaking of our Home away from Home (or right next to our homes, for me, Kate and Jeanne), apparrently we've sufficiently aggravated our co-tenant/landlord with all of our clutter that he's banishing us next door - where we will have access to more space and light, but not free heat/water/phones. And, most importantly, we're going to have to leave behind the wood panels. Kate is so excited she can barely concentrate in yoga class.

When I first told Kate where our office was located, she was pleasantly surprised to learn that the building wasn't a front for a porn studio, as her husband had concluded based on the perpetually pulled blinds, the non-descript company name taped inside the window, and the presence of scantily clad women smoking cigarettes outside the back door. (But it just turned out that the building houses a legitmate photo studio that works for local spas - or so we've been reassured).

Anyway, now we will have a room of our own. (That's two literary references in the same month! Reading this blog will make you smarter!).

Our chairs are FAMOUS (on SNL!!)

Marylee emailed me over the weekend to tell me that she saw our orange chairs on a Saturday Night Live sketch - Don Draper's Guide to Picking up Women.

We've seen Vanessa Williams in the sexy white version on Ugly Betty, but not in our Italian leather deep orange.

Come to Julep - sit in the chair that all the stars are sitting in!

My baby sister is getting married

We're down in California for my baby sister's wedding this week. (This is where I'm totally psyched to have an awesome team at home - especially since after scouring the land for months and months, we finally have some live prospects for a Julep on the Eastside! Thanks Kate and Tracy!).

I love that my sister has found someone who wants to go to the airport as early as she does - especially since she comes from a family where flight times are taken as merely suggestive.

My sister Alice is nine years younger than I am, so I've spent my whole life equippping her with all the tools she needs to be a happy, responsible adult, including mandatory essays on E.M. Forster's Howard's End at age 9. All my life, I've worried about her, pushed her, nagged her, basically did everything my parents did to me that I found as profoundly irritating as it was ineffective.

But I love her such a "big, gi-normous much", as my daughter would say. Being a sister to Alice and my other (already married) sister Jenn has been one of my life's greatest joys. I really love being a sister.

And yes, I used to love making my sisters act out the "Sisters" song from White Christmas. ("Sisters, sisters, there were never such devoted sisters . . .").

I once read an article about a pair of sisters who were 98 and 100 respectively, and the 98 year old was still waiting for her older sister to stop bossing her around. I'm just barely perceptive enough to know that this is NOT an appropriate wedding present, but I might try to dig it up for my sisters nonetheless. . .

Beyond "Red State Blue State"

The whole nation was holding it's breath tonight - and the verdict is in. All the pundits are calling it on every network. Julep's beautiful fall colors are in - deep indigo, true turquoise, rich wines, gun metal grey . . . We're far, far beyond just red and blue.

I'm wearing "Maggie" these days (the first bottle in the row above)- and there's something about beautiful color that just makes me smile. I love that it's colorful but still sophisticated and grown up. I want to bathe in this shade.

After you register to vote (deadline in Washington state is October 4th!), then come pick from our rainbow of colors while you contemplate what you want November 4th.

Going for Cate, ending up Dorothy

The coolest, and most dangerous, thing on the world wide web today is Instyle's Celebrity Hairstyle tool - where you can upload your own photo and "try on" celebrity hair styles.

But since I look JUST like the Asian model on the top right corner, I chose to use that face instead.

And then I went hairstyle shopping.

I thought I'd like America Ferrera, and I knew I wouldn't like Cindy McCain (is she REALLY a CELEBRITY????). But Cate. Cate was who my hair was on the inside.

After clicking on Cate's hairstyle, I then made it dark, added highlights, tried to add lowlights (but couldn't really figure out the difference) and then pressed print and I was off to the hair salon.

But somehow, when I left, I was not Cate. I was more Dorothy Hamil. Not that I didn't spend most of my childhood channeling Dorothy. (When I wasn't channeling Debra Winger as Wondergirl).

But now I am in my late thirties, a mom of two kids trying not to LOOK like a mom of two kids, and I ended up looking like a cross between a seventies figure skater and a Japenese adolecent boy. Not really sure what is worse . . .

Ah Cate. You are so elusive.

Julep First Ever Family Picnic - Indoors!

The on again off again rain didn't stop us from gathering with our families for our picnic - we just moved it indoors to the UD parlor! Thanks everyone for staying/coming out/ driving up from Gig Harbor / bringing your spouses and family!! It was so great to have some time to get together! And thank you Amy for organizing the event!

Julep Family Picnic - Indoors!

Getting our jollies from checklists

I was so excited driving into work today because we were having our first ever seasonal promotion pre-launch meeting. Strange but entirely true - I was so giddy with anticipation that it felt like Christmas morning.

Up until now, we haven't had/haven't had a chance to have prelaunch meetings because I was head of marketing, parlor hostess and parlor manager, so the promotions I dreamed up at 2am only needed to be discussed with Jeanne, printed up in Powerpoint and communicated to our small team in parlor, and we were off and away. Total time from inception to rollout: 7 hours.

Turns out 7 hours notice doesn't really work for 3 parlors.

So even though our awesome fall treatments and vernis colors launch OCTOBER 1 - a full 16 days away - we met as an implementation team to discuss our programs and figure out how to bring them alive in our parlors (using Jeanne's awesome step by step checklist, which gave Kate the goosebumps). Moving from 7 to 384 hours is an over 5000% improvement.

And I love sitting around a table with such smart, passionate, and powerful women. I have the most amazing job EVER.