The Pretend Boutique

I can't even begin to tell you how much fun I had on Saturday!  My sister-in-law, Robin and her two friends, Kelly and Christina, one fun filled night recently, decided that they needed to get over their artist fear and host a Holiday Boutique.  What a grand idea!  They schemed up their plan and thought, how bad could it be to host a boutique for a couple of hours on a Saturday?  Nothing too dangerous as going to a full fledged craft fair or anything.  So they decided, let's do it.  Last Monday is when I came into play.  Robin emailed me and asked if I wanted to join.  Of course I did.  If anything else, she said, it'll be fun just to hang out and eat and drink.  It so was!  

Everyone worked hard during the week and got our wears together.  I even pulled an all nighter on Friday to finish up some last  minute items.  Saturday morning, I woke up and got it all together, Robin came to pick me up and we headed over to Kelly's house in a darling little neighborhood of ours in Willow Glen.  Super Cute house, and Super Cute items she makes! You can find her here. When we walked into her house and saw how darling everything was displayed, we knew it was going to be a fun day!  We set up our stuff, made our little plates of goodies, poured ourselves some coffee or tea, and waited for that first customer to arrive.  We were giddy with nerves and excitement!  Who would be the first customer and what would they buy?  One of Robins beautiful framed photos?  Or perhaps it was going to be the Sugarplum Joy banner that Kelly made.  Or maybe, just maybe, I'd get an order for my quiet book. 

We talked, we filled our plates again, heated up some spinach dip, made some delicious rum spiced cider, and waited.  Hmm...we thought.  Perhaps no one can see our sign.  Well, we'll just go outside and fix ol' Santa here with a sign that welcomes the troves of people inside!  Yes, that will help! We moved Santa, although I didn't want him too close to the street in case the mob came and decided to swipe Santa, and placed our newly crafted signage right near him.  Yes, that will do it.  They will come now. 

After acting like crazy, slightly drunken, loons out front, we came inside and waited on pins and needles, again.  Oh my gosh!  It's working!  A truck is pulling up RIGHT in front of the house, right in front of Santa and the sign! Robin blurted out, "Act natural!"  Our "security" girl, Christina, jumped up to pretend like she was a customer already browsing.  Yes...the girl is out of the truck!  She's...she's...crossing the street to another house.  Didn't even give a second look our way.  Blocked ol' Santa and didn't care.  We fell over in laughter!  

Our beautifully set Holiday Boutique, didn't get one customer.  Not one.  I didn't care, I had so much fun hanging out with Robin and her friends.  We even came up with a better marketing plan for our Spring boutique.  While outside moving Santa around, Kelly made the comment that her neighbors were probably thinking, oh look at her pretending she has a shop. We died laughing but thought, what a great idea for our boutique name, The Pretend Boutique.  Intriguing right?  What could they be selling at the Pretend Boutique?  Makes you want to come find out.  Well, you missed out on this one, but you are more then welcome to come to our Spring event.  I'll keep you posted on the details.  (okay, so even now, I'm "pretending" that I'm talking to a lot readers right now...I'm really good at this!)   I can't wait to do it again!