Spring is Here... Summer Looms Ahead

With each spring, we welcome the warm weather and embrace the chance to shed a few layers and soak up the sunshine. For me, spring heralds the calm before the storm: summer. This is the time of year when my "real job" workload increases and blog posts decrease. Very soon my boss and I will be off to Los Angeles for the first buying trip of the season, and if all goes well, we'll do it again in July.

In summers past, blog posts have been few & far between because to be honest, I just didn't have the time or inclination to work on home projects. By the same token, my job becomes my creative outlet and this year I'm hoping to share more of my work here. It's hard to describe what I do for a living, because it's so multifaceted. I work in the clothing industry for a small business, and I do whatever is needed. My duties include selling to both retail & wholesale clients, preparing invoices, accepting incoming merchandise, packing outgoing shipments, tagging & pricing new goods, organizing the warehouse and keeping the office clean. And that's just the tip of the iceberg! My favourite "duties" include buying trips, store merchandising and visual display, where I can be more creative. We buy from many sources, and throughout the process I'm thinking about how the clothes & accessories will look together in the store.

2012...

 

 

2013...

Last year I started bringing items from home to use as props. Did you notice the champagne bucket holding quilted purses and the faux bois tray full of bracelets? This past weekend I hit up a few local thrift stores to pick up some interesting store props. I hope that this summer I'll have the opportunity to share some of my fun display ideas with you.

What I've Been Up To Lately

Have you been wondering where I've been for the past 6 weeks? It's an incredibly busy time of year for me at my "real" job, and it's obvious that my time management skills aren't up to snuff. With the exception of a few quick posts, I haven't been able to spend much time here at Cherish Toronto, but I'm hoping to get back into the rhythm again soon.

A buying trip to LA at the end of March kicked off the busy season at my job, where we operate clothing retail stores at beach locations. In addition to my numerous regular duties, I tend to volunteer for extra work, but it's only because I have so many great ideas :-) For example, among several other projects I thought it would be a good idea to create fabric banners for one front window. These banners serve three purposes: (1) block out the hot afternoon sun, (2) provide a backdrop for mannequins, (3) conceal a messy cash counter.

Project Requirements:

6 wooden dowels, each 30" in length
6 eye hooks
3 yards of 110" wide fabric
fishing line
6 strong magnets

I got a great deal on this 110" wide printed cotton at
Designer Fabrics - total $30.00!

I turned and stitched the sides of each panel, and also stitched in a rod pocket at the top and bottom for the wooden dowels. Then I screwed eye hooks into the ends of the top dowels, and attached fish line to suspend the panels from the ceiling. Because this store has an industrial metal ceiling, I tied the other end of the fish line to strong magnets to hold each panel in place. Voila! A fun and functional window display:


For those of you who are curious about what I do, I generally don't mix my "real" job with my personal pursuits, which is why I haven't mentioned the store names. But just for fun, I'll reveal a few photos from inside the store:

Cheers to a great summer season!!!

Apres LA

The week following a buying trip is always chaotic at the office, so forgive me for such a prolonged absence from the blog. Although I've been back for several days, the suitcase sat in the kitchen until just a few hours ago, and I finally feel like I'm getting my groove back.

Tonight I also found the time to put together a DIY project for the store. I created an accessory display by wrapping inexpensive fabric ($3) around a square cork board ($10). Then I hung necklaces from colourful straight pins ($1).

Voila! Instant display!!

And they're all so pretty!!