So, yesterday. It was insane. Yesterday, I realized I was only human. In a perfect world I would have the website finished, all the furniture done and construction completed. At about 4:30a the night before last, I realized I had to cut myself some slack. My team and I finished the salon and I delayed the website. I have to keep this post short, I have to run -in the mist of the crazy I [along with my siblings] are hosting a surprise 60th birthday for my mom tonight.

​Buttttt first, I want to thank everyone who came out to support us <3 All you good looking people.

     Last night we had an amazing turn out. I was blown away by the support  from everyone. Last night when I was finally home and crawling into bed I looked at my husband and I smiled, "Can you believe all those people?" Touched, so loved and so supported. Thank you to everyone who messaged, texted, came, or virtually cheered us on. I hope to continue this blog until the remainder of the salon and rebrand is finished, maybe another week or so. Today though, I want to thank a few people briefly. I'll try to keep it short and if I am missing anyone, please don't be offended. I am still slightly sleep-deprived.

Jd my supportive dreamer of a husband
My amazing office team
​My super-amazing artists
​Jimmy D Shea for the awesome video
​Dj Maskell for the sweet tunes
​Sweets by E for the DELICOUS cake
 Capital Party Rentals for the lovely linens and tables
​Erica Abbey Photography [Can't wait to see the pics!]
Illiah from C&V Designs <3
​Reina my amazing coach
​My mom for sewing a thousand curtains

     Okay, I'm sure I've missed people. Just know that I know that this process was only completed with the help of all of the amazing people in my life. Sure, my name is on the door but I did not do this alone. So, thank you always for your support.
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     Okay, so its 2:30a and this little nugget is pulling the all nighter with me. I've been behind my computer since 9p. Remember all that design work that I had to do? Its finally getting done, just at the worlds slowest speed. I've honestly been running steady for over a week, at least 10 hour days and after a while your brain becomes a little mush. ha. I don't always run this hard, this is my version of a marathon. I'm almost there. In fact today we made amazing progress.

    
​      We had signs hung, shampoo chairs installed, carpets installed, furniture built and some curtains hung. You wouldn't believe how much we accomplished. I have to give a real serious shout out to my team, 'specially Carly & Thy well after acceptable work hours. I had to literally kick them out of the salon to go rest. A few of our team showed up and really helped us to knock it out of the park. With our team its all hands on deck, they've done a fantastic job. Truly, this wouldn't be possible without them.

​     I really want to keep the photos to more details shots, so that when we open the space tomorrow it is really dramatic. The day was packed, including two trips to the city hall building for permit items, a trip to the printer for my menu cards, a trip to the bank, lowes and the carpet store. I have to go rest now so I can hopefully make sense tomorrow. Thanks for reading & if you are feeling up for it -I really hope to see you at our grand opening party tomorrow night. 
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     omg, yikes. Is it really only 3 days? [well, now 2 since its practically midnight -again.] I am really starting to panic. In fact after an entire day of running errands and having professional interactions, my mother informed me that my shirt was on inside out. Its been one of those days.

    
​       I arrived at the salon at 8a; spoke with the contractor, started building furniture and taking more and more deliveries. We we're working downstairs; Carly, Thy, Alisa, Caitlin and I, with Jd tackling that hallway of doom when a tractor trailer stops by to deliver - MORE BOXES. We start unpacking and building -Before I knew it, it was 1p and time to leave. I had a holiday party to gift shop and party supply shop for, among a million other errands [i.e. making a deposit at the bank, picking up fabric for the curtains, etc.] You see, each holiday season we host a brunch holiday party for our team. Its my little way of saying thank you for a kick-ass season. This year, these girls deserve all expense paid vacations -but we're on a target kind of budget. Every year I purchase enough gifts for each person on my team; we place them in the middle of the room and have a white elephant. Its like my favorite thing since I'm heavily competitive, but these polite women barely steal each others gifts. So its basically its an hour of me egging them on; repeatedly asking them "Are you sure you like your gift? Really sure? You know can steal someone else's gift. Caitlin has a real nice candle over there." ::Nudge:: Never works. Regardless, we all deserve an afternoon off and some eggnog.

     Anyhow back to business. I spent all of Sunday wrestling with the branding items. I was supposed to design all of our website, etc. [Ambitious, I know. Practically a full redesign in one day]. I also wasn't feeling too hot. I have a pretty sensitive tummy and I haven't been taking super good care of it. [Seriously, we've eaten out way too much.] I did learn a very valuable lesson. It is extremely challenging to be both stressed out and creative. I nearly threw my brand new laptop off the balcony. At about 7p I decided to take a break and stalk the aisles of Barnes & Noble listening to Jay-z on my headphones.  It worked and I came back a bit inspired, but it was also almost midnight. Which means, you guessed it. I have a lot of design work to squeeze in somewhere.

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​       Construction wise, the upstairs floor was completed today. It has to dry until tomorrow morning. We have a lot to do in the upstairs once the floor is completed. The lighting fixtures have to be installed, a wall needs to be built, carpet needs to be laid, shampoo bowls need to be installed, curtain rods need to be hung. -You name it. I don't think I've ever felt this stressed before. I am hopeful though, knock on wood -things seem to be going well. I'm really just learning to hold on tight. I've got to hang it up for the night, I still have a menu to design, in order to place the order in time for Thursday -it has to be submitted tomorrow am. Then its up and at em' to set up for our brunch party and another very packed day.
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     So, we open in 2 days -er.. less. Today was another whirlwind day. At 6a I received a call from my landlord; the contractors we're at the salon and wanted to finish everything. The issue? They couldn't get to the walls because of all of the boxes and items leaving only a small path through our entire space. [The wood floors had to be stained, meaning everything in the large portion of our space was crammed into the carpeted area overnight.] By 7:30a the girls; Carly, Thy, Alisa & Caitlin were busting their butts next to Jd and I carrying everything upstairs, getting it all unwrapped and began setting up for the holiday party. 

​     Today we had our holiday gift exchange and brunch. I have to say, my artists are amazing. I am lucky to have each and every one of them on my team. Not only we're they patient about our party; having it in a small portion of our space. [since the rest was covered in stuff] A large majority stayed after and helped to build furniture. Yes, immediately following their holiday party they we're helping to build out our salon. As the saying goes, many hands make light work. I have absolutely no idea what I have done karmatically to attract such an amazing group of women. The coolest part? They all genuinely like each other.

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​     Construction wise, we made real progress. The lighting was completed, two of the cabinets with built in sinks were installed, the flooring was completed, the painting is almost done and the majority of the furniture was built. The insane thing? Each and every item in our space was ordered from a catalog or the internet. Meaning that each item came in a box. I'm disappointed we don't have a photo of it, but we had a trash pile that was over a story tall. The pile took over over 3 parking spaces. I am not kidding. -You don't think about these things. I called my brother, between Jd and his truck we were able to haul it all out.

​       In addition to a quick bank run, a product meeting, and all the other fun stuff today; I also had the Laurel Historic Commission meeting. Since we are in a historic district we have to get all of our signage approved by the city. They are super tough, allowing only a certain amount of signage with very specific rules. I totally respect that they want to keep this area quaint. I do too, but it is really nerve racking as a business. Ultimately if they did not approve of my design; we would have to redesign it, submit it for approval to go before the board next month. That would have delayed our awning by another month and a half. Lucky for us, they unanimously approved our request; a victory for us!

​     This isn't my photo. [My phone is dead and I left it at the salon] This is the room and the board that I had to present to. Very nerve racking. Baby steps. I still have a lot of design work ahead of me. I ended up researching POS systems and ensuring that we are EMV ready.  Now we are so it's back to design work. While Jd is currenty at the salon painting [yes at midnight] I am about to design menu cards. The menu has to be at the printers by 9a tomorrow morning to ensure we get it on time; so I've got some work ahead of me. Tomorrow the team is showing up and its build out day! I am really starting to get tired,  we're so close to the finish line. I keep telling myself that I can sleep for 3 days once we're open. Keep us in your thoughts!
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     So, today is dedicated to design. I've strapped myself to my computer and I'm dedicating my day to redesign and brand update. Before I get into anything crazy I want to tell you about my brand person. Illiah from C&V studio. Not only is she mega talented [boy is she skilled] she is also flexible, patient and so, so giving of herself. I am honored to work with her and to consider her a friend. I can't express how well everything turned out and I can only share a snippet of her work today as I'm hoping to roll everything out with the grand opening.

​     Illiah and I began working together right before the storm hit and decided to continue through the rebuild. I figured I may as well relaunch everything together. Ambitious, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Working with her has been refreshing and so helpful. In the initial steps she met with me and we talked vision, dreams, goals and personal tastes. She was able to get an amazing feel for my tastes. She created a mood board and from there a style board. Each step was exciting and helped to ensure she was designing items that fit me. I have no idea how she did it, but she nailed it.

​     The big thing here is the change in our brand presentation and focus. I'll try to explain as quickly as I can here. Prior to this year, we really focused on a higher end client. This was a personal choice for me, I would not consider myself a high end client but I thought it was ideal. [and if I'm being honest, it wasn't me -so if someone didn't like it, I didn't take it personally -a subconscious self defense] While I am so thankful for how my business has grown, I quickly discovered that we weren't the right fit for that client. Our previous branding was fashion inspired, expensive looking and focused on black, white and gold. While I do like the aesthetic it attracted clients that had different expectation. My team is a team of dedicated, talented and patient women; above everything though they are diverse. Diverse in age, race, interest, skill, and appearance. There were times when I truly felt a few of our clients were disappointed that our team wasn't full of young, thin and blond artists. I realized that we were presenting one thing online, and then presenting something different face to face.
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​      It was time for us to bring it back down to earth and for me to inject my personal tastes. This has been challenging for me. Often I battled with "I like this, what if no one else does?" or "I think this is really rad, what if its actually stupid looking?" Yes, those were real thoughts. I realize now though that it was unfounded. I am surprise how beautifully Illiah was able to weave my vision together. I am excited, anxious and ready to put it all out there. She did a fantastic job.

​       Since we are launching a small boutique with our new space, I knew once I saw her gorgeous designs that she had to be a part of that. I've been working with Illiah and she has been making some really amazing items for our shop. She surprised me yesterday with the kindest gift. She designed and printed a whole box of our own personalized #ididntPREPforthis cards. Honestly, if I had had even an ounce more energy I would have wept. It was the sweetest and most thoughtful gift. [Her mom even sent the yummiest cookies too!] It was such an awesome surprise. I am excited that we'll be carrying her hand stamped and printed line of cards. Some of which were designed specifically with us in mind!  

​      Overall, I am excited and so happy that I chose to go with Illiah. Honestly, if you are ever considering a rebrand it is totally worth hiring a professional. I am not the easiest person to work with, I am very particular and I really push the people who work with me. Illiah was no exception. She respected my need to be excessively hands on and she took all my feedback in stride. Through this whole process, I am so happy with the outcome and her outlook. I can only hope that now I can do her justice with the webdesign, since I trust no one with that but me. ha [crazy much?] 

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​     In other news, construction continues. They had to move all of the items from the upstairs area so that they could sand and clean the floors to stain them today. Which means when I arrived this morning to unlock I found this fun surprise. Which gave me heart palpitations. Honestly, now we literally have a single path through our space. I cannot wait for these floors to be finished. I mean what else can you do with 4,000 sq feet worth of stuff?

​     Okay, I have to go. I've got a lot of design work to do. I've also got to drop off fabric to my mother, who is sewing all of our curtains and I've got a meeting this afternoon with our new book keeper. Lots to do, but its all moving. Also, I'm popping Airbourne like I'm sponsored. Everyone around me has started coming down with colds. I'm paralyzed that I'll get sick. So fingers crossed I get this all done, on time without getting sick.
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      Okay, I'm pulling a close one. I made a commitment to myself that I would blog daily until this place was up and running. The days about over since its pretty much midnight, but I still set a priority to share something, every day. Good, ugly or funny; I had to share daily. My day started at 4:30a. I hit up the grocery store, and lowes on my way into the salon to unlock for the flooring team. Still starting that early I can't seem to carve out enough time to hit the gym and I can't seem to eat any semblance of a breakfast either. Things are getting a lot busier and I have to keep reminding myself to take time out for me, even with all of these insane deadlines. By the way, I totally didn't plan for this but curtain rods are way more expensive than I thought. I didn't realize I had to virtually replace each rod, before 7a I had spent over $350 on curtain rods.

​     Today was dedicated to two things; my early morning meeting with my friend and brand expert Illiah from C&V Studio and getting into the holiday spirit. I was planning on posting and sharing all of the amazing work Illiah has been doing for us, but I think this is better saved for tomorrows update. I'm afraid my late night posting isn't going to get the exposure that her talent deserves.

     I had to leave the salon for the bulk of the day while they sanded the floors. My landlord informed me that there's a good chance the wood stain upstairs will be completed by Monday! Which is fantastic news, a whole day ahead of schedule. [I'm sure we could definitely use the extra time. We're going to need it for all this furniture we have to build] Anyway, it worked out nicely since it was a holiday craft day for my family. My cousin in law hosted and members of my family crafted. I brought grocery store cupcakes. It was pretty funny. Since this is a majority female event she decorated with Ryan Gosling memes everywhere. I walked past 6 of them before I started to notice. Hysterical.

     Afterwards in a fit of holiday energy, my sister and brother in law came over and we decorated our tree. If we hadn't done it tonight I would question if we would have ended up ever getting a tree with how busy we've been. I'm starting to get serious holiday anxiety since I haven't purchased a single gift yet. yikes. Anyhow, we capped off our day of semi-relaxing with the Garfield Christmas Special, because how else would you end such a day?

​     Overall it was nice to step out of things for even a few hours, though no matter how hard you work you can't really shake the soft lace of guilt reminding you of how much work you still have. I'm hopeful though, that it helped recharged me, for the crazy busy day I have scheduled for tomorrow. I've got to overhaul the entire website, -yes pretty much in one day. Challenge accepted. Now I'm off to bed before I continue rambling and it stops making sense.
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     I had serious plans to blog twice yesterday, but I think that is over ambitious at this point. Yesterday evening was sucked up by another large trip to IKEA. I swindled my sister and our friend Sam into helping me haul the 3 large carts and 2 cars full of items back to the salon. We had items tied to the top of their little cars and packed through the interior. At about 9p we started hauling it inside. A huge project and I only received one very gnarly cardboard paper cut.  Now we have to break into it and begin building. Double yikes. 

     I have to give a super big shout out to my husband. Not only has he officially adopted all of the house chores, the laundry, the grocery shopping and giving me very backrubs when I whine [That's a real thing btw.] -He has also taken on chores here at the salon including sanding, priming and painting the entire hallway of doom. [Its a really long hall and stairwell] This morning we were supposed to have a Mizani hair class in the space; however we have zero space. Late last night we moved the class to my living room. My dear, sweet, amazing husband slept for 5 hours and woke up early to clean our whole house. I even woke up to bacon and eggs. It was a beautiful start to this morning! 

     It is about 1p, we've already received the lowes delivery that was to arrive yesterday. The fridge is amazing, the washer, dryer, bathroom sink and back-splash are being worked on now.  The construction team is busy finalizing the painting and the electrician is installing the last of the light fixtures for the downstairs. The sign company, is coming out to put the lettering on the door and I've spent at least 2 hours on the phone collectively chasing people for things. 

     I still have to work on a press release, creating a grand opening flyer, log in and purchase business cards, take photographs of all the non-beauty-product retail items and I need to leave for Lowes right now. I need to pick up curtain rods like 15 of them. Also, my dear friend Portia is having a birthday-happy hour thing that I am really hoping I can cut out and visit. -Fingers crossed.

     All in all progress has been made, downstairs is almost complete and the heating and AC are finally hooked up. Doesn't do us any good, since they will be sanding the wood floors we can't turn on the system. We can't wait to turn up the heat, we've been glued to the most hood space heater. We literally argue over it. ha. Okay, lots to do! 
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     This is what my day has looked like. I'm locked behind my computer chasing people down for things. For example, I am currently waiting for return calls from this little list: 

• My lawyer for tax id information
• My insurance lady for unemployment insurance addition
• The awning company to get the sq footage of the signage for the historic society approval
• My distributor for pricing on robes and capes, etc.
•  A local news outlet for follow up coverage

     This list is actually much more detailed and significantly longer than this. I also have a to do list with about 27 things on it [all that needs to be completed today], plus a full inbox and a lot of stuff to finish ordering, business cards, etc. I spent easily an hour on hold dealing with the unemployment insurance office. Filing new accounts and ensuring that I have a all of the proper tax documentation figured out. 


     Constructions wise, things are coming along. Everything is covered in dust. Everything, and I mean everything. Literally even items in our back office that sit behind 3 doors are covered in dust. My pants are covered in dust, everything is covered in dust.

     They ripped out the bathroom floor and are re-laying it. Downstairs is being painted and the lights are being put in. The washer, dryer and fridge were to be delivered today, but they postponed until tomorrow. Since I have to roll with the punches, I'm leaving right now for the IKEA trip I had planned for tomorrow morning. My husband is stuck in the hallway sanding and priming, my sister will be hauling furniture and my office team is sorting out all of the damaged items. 

     All in all this is moving smoothly *knock on wood* I described everything to my talented business coach, Reina this morning. The only way to describe how I'm handling all of this is like trying to hold sand. There are a thousand things happening, I'm quickly learning to trust my gut, to roll with the punches and to WRITE EVERYTHING DOWN! This is like my new mantra, I couldn't keep half of this straight without a pen. So, I've got to jet -IKEA calls. -AGAIN. 
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So the worlds fastest update.

• A huge thank you to my amazing, thoughtful and supportive husband. Last night he surprised  me with my Christmas gift early. He got me a laptop duo that folds into a tablet. I almost wept all over the box, but I was way too tired. He is such an amazing researcher, he found one that was the perfect size, with everything I need. I am so hard to please and he is amazing. I am so, so thankful for him.
• I picked out floor stain! After much debate with my landlord, we went with the stain on the far right. [I preferred the darker shade, but they preferred the lighter one so we settled for the mid-tone. ]
• Set up the business bank account for the new Inc. yesterday, in preparation for the meeting I have with my new in house book keeper, the ADP rep and my salon manager to get the payroll info up and running.
• The office team is finishing up getting all of the new items into our system, well until they ran out of barcode labels. Which I am currently calling staples and checking amazon to see how quickly we could get them here so they can finish.
• The painting upstairs is complete. [woohoo!] They will be replacing the hallway and spa room floor soon, we're going with a low carpet and tile option. Here's a quick before, I'm excited to get this all re-laid.

As progress goes, I plan on updating again today so keep your eyes peeled. <3
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     PROGRESS, SWEET PROGRESS! So the painting [upstairs at least] is complete! Yay, the Auburgine wall I wanted [and fretted over] looks dreamy. We're doing a matching accent wall in the downstairs area as well. We met the carpet guys too so I could pick out a suitable carpet. Finding something simple enough was more difficult than it sounds. I went with my gut, picked the color in under 30 seconds and moved on. 

     Today in the office, we dedicated our time to organization. We're breaking open boxes, checking inventory and getting everything labeled and set into the system. We're shreding old documents and cleaning out cubbyholes. We don't have the additional space to keep extra junk, so its all got to go. We're calling it a mid-winter-spring-cleaning.

     This ends up being a lot more work than it sounds. We also had to also clean out our old shampoo room, which had temporarily served as storage space. Thursday they deliver the new washer and dryer that will live there. 

     Tonight, I'm headed to a really cool holiday networking event. So I'll be leaving these ladies to finish straightening up. With all the items coming in [collectively over $10k in products] we have to ensure that we're not missing anything and that nothing is busted up or broken. Hard work. 

     Lastly, the really hard working contractor team is beginning the floor downstairs. I had to sneak this photos so I didn't come off as a creep. Downstairs the floor is cement. They have to sand down and even the current flooring, then flash patch it. Once its dry they will have to paint it then seal it. They have until Thursday, because a bunch of junk is being delivered and this is where it is going. Yikes. We'll get there. 
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