Pics from Jan '10 Voltage Buyer Event

We have scrounged some pictures that were posted to Voltage's Facebook fan page for your viewing pleasure...although, if you were already a fan you would have seen them yourself. Do we have to do all the work? Dang. ;)

Fab photos courtesy of Stacy Schwartz at Staciaann Photography:


Sarah and I pre-event, warming up with some Crispin Cider.



Our very own Alice in Wonderland. All gowns and garments by Christine Carmichael of Carmichael Claith...accessories by yours truly, obvi.

This model also modeled for theLook Book photo shoot this afternoon. Look for her (I would imagine) on the Voltage Fashion Amplified site shortly! She was advised to act like a marionette today for the shoot and props to that as the photos are sufficiently more than satisfactory! I could never do it myself. Beautiful. You'll see...you'll see.



Little top hat.


Christine taking her final walk-through with her model, to the applause of many.



Post event, Sarah and I peddling our goods. Yes, I needed to wear the red headband, asap. Somehow the model made it look better. I suppose that's her job so I will let it go.

See anything you like? We are now available at I Like You in NE...come see for yourself! ;)

P&B

VOTE for Sarah & Kyle!

A: Yes, we are alive (a month later) and kickin'.

B: Voltage Buyer Event on 1/26 at Vision Modeling Agency was a real interesting mix of peeps in the local fashion industry, including people carrying dogs as accessories. Dying to have had my camera, danggit. Picture a Lenny Kravitz type, v-neck sweater with no shirt, oversized dark glasses, fur collar, Pomeranian on forearm. No idea...no idea.

Others you may have seen...

This guy

This guy

This gal

Yes, we know who they are. It's a fun test for you though right? Interesting night. Good times.

C: Quick note to vote for Sarah and her fiance Kyle in Crate & Barrel's $100k wedding contest!

Sarah and Kyle will be getting married in September on their 10 year anniversary (shock and awwww). Their story is adorable and so is their daughter Lucy, obviously. She, we, would love your support for their dream wedding outside of St. Louis.

Check out Sarah's wedding blog for details on their county fair themed wedding and vote at this link for the contest! Thanks a ton, yo.

And Happy Birthday to my sister Amanda!!! ;) 31 and one hot mama (literally).

Voltage photo shoot (and spa) day!

Today started out pretty swell...getting our hair cut and dyed at Juut (or "jooooot" as my husband would say) in Uptown. I really needed a picture of me with all the foils in my hair. Cory, my stylist, said that I could now pick up radio frequencies (sadly, I did not).

So, after looking pretty fab we departed with new Aveda tonic and hairspray in hand (we're suckers) and headed to the Independent where we had time to eat approximately two bites of our lunch and then had to rush out in the extremely bitter cold to make it to our Voltage photo shoot in NE at the MNfashion studio.

We arrived literally on the dot, 3:50pm with taco breath and great looking hair...good combo. I had already changed in the bathroom of the Independent, natch...Sarah changed when we arrived. P&B headbands as accessories we hit up the shoot for a quick 5 min each and then, voila, c'est fini!




Then we attempted, and I stress 'attempted', to begin our Spring collection tonight. We basically succeeded in strewing things about...and that's it.


Before (clean office...nice, organized, clean office...well, sort of...for us this is good!):



After (extremely disorganized with nothing much accomplished, boo hiss):



For most of you these may look like one of those image contests where they test you to see what ten things are different...or, you may think they look the same because with all this "stuff" you can only look so organized in the first place.

New Custom orders

Excuse my photography...still working on that whole "I deserve a new/nice camera, right?" initiative. Deserve = yes, afford= sadly, no.

This is Cece, custom order for Monica. She wanted a version of our Cecelia which is a bright yellow tulle with white/gold zipper accent. Here, Cece is a navy blue and blue layered tulle bow on a gold 1/4" headband, cinched with a navy/gold zipper tape.




This is Mirabelle, a custom order for Rachel. Mirabelle is a take on a previous birdband named Mable. Red/magenta sequin and feather bird sitting on turquoise grosgrain ribbon and plum velvet bows....with a turq sparkle branch accent. Main headband is also turq...a perfect match to the ribbon.

We're In..Voltage '10!!

We were told today that we were chosen by Carmichael Claith as an accessory designer for Voltage- Fashion Amplified '10. Words cannot describe our excitement..."adrenaline rush" came to mind. Hands slightly shaky when typing, in a good way.

For those of you who don't know it please visit the link...it's inspiring. There is also a profile on Christine Carmichael (of Carmichael Claith). For Voltage '09 she was inspired partly by the Scottish Highlands. After some internet digging...I found that we're the same age, live in the same city...and p.s. I am Scottish (clan Mattheson to be exact). It's fate.

So...lots to do with T minus 4 months until the big day. What an awesome opportunity...and such an amazing show to be a part of. Not only are the clothing and accessories amazing every year, but the local bands consistently tear down the house...not to mention the out of control production skills by all the backstage talents. All I can say is, "f", it's amazing. I guess I know what we are doing prior to my birthday week (4/23) next year. Voltage will be a great kickoff to MN Fashion Week too.

Luckily we had today at the boutique to work on several Spring inspired headbands for our upcoming collection. These are just preliminary thoughts...a mood an inspiration is yet to be nailed down for next season. We'll keep you posted. Right now we are feeding off some amazing found vintage objects and our fave birds. (squeal) Two new custom orders today too...due prior to New Year's...do-able.

This is what Sarah and I call "organized". Joke...this was mid-prep.

Kinda loving these old award ribbons from various time periods and events. The dark blue one featured here was 1st place at a MN Peony show. Peonies are A-mazing, heart.

Also inspired by the awards ribbons to make something reminiscent with blue velvet...

Love this purple sparkle twig. Beauty.

There's a little birdie in here, hiding. You can't tell here but that bottom ribbon matches the bird almost exactly. Great finds. This birdband matched my beret today...great combo eh? Sense my sarcasm?

Working, working, working...

This weekend at the boutique...

Besides being hung over for at least 30 min of working today at the boutique I recovered and was really quite productive, if you can believe it, but first...

I blame it all on Kate Lilienthal...for turning 30 and for us planning her birthday party for last night at Gasthof's in Minneapolis. Go Germany!!! Steins, accordions, ziggy zaggy hoi hoi hoi's, meterbratwurst and a combo of beer/hardwood floors/slippery shooties=you are all the devil!

Who am I kidding...we had a blast. Little miss Bean was a little better today since she woke up early, had aspirin, and went back to bed. I attempted a #2 combo (extremely out of the norm) at McDonalds with a Diet Coke and a hearty dose of chocolate cookies...and then took Ibuprofen when that didn't quite do the trick. But alas, I am alive...and as Sarah so eloquently stated on Facebook today "not in college anymore". Whoa.

Yeah, this is the kind of party it was. Yowsa. I picked up a card at the boutique from Maybe You Should Die...it really summed it all up:

Kate getting crowned...a really special moment for her.

OK, so back to our productivity... ;)

Sarah and I made at least 7-8 new headbands in the store today. Sundays are generally slow so we set up our craft table, plugged in our glue guns and ipod and got rollin'. We also had fun re-merchandising some of the tables within the boutique into color stories while we worked Saturday.

"Dasher" present headband with red grosgrain ribbon bows and a sparkle "sprig" in our red and magenta story.

Beard Day! display in our blue color story...featuring our "Babette" love-birdband and Maybe You Should Die's 'Happy Beard Day' card. I personally love the 'Someone in Minneapolis Loves Me' onesies on the left. Awwwww.

Gold and black table...featuring our birdband "Goldwing". Our sage green feather and tulle headband, "Gilda" with George Moskal's navy blue dress.

"Bumblebee" feather spray band.

"Lady" white birdband and "Sleigh Bells Ring" sparkle headband in the front window.

As noted in a previous post we sold 6 headbands yesterday...but we also had 2 headbands commissioned today. A couple girls who work at Saks next door came in and tried on several of our bird bands. We're going to put something together for them in a peacock style and in a plum/champagne combo. We'll have those ready by Friday...can't wait to make some new "biiiiird bands" (in the tune of "biiiird book...bird book".

The best part had to be when they were perusing the headbands and one of the girls said to her friend, "These totally remind me of Sex and the City!"... as I sat behind the counter just nodding thinking "You're reading my mind ladies...you are reading my mind". I told them that when I post a new birdband on Etsy it's usually followed by that exact quote from SATC: "I even wore a bird in my hair!" "Oh, I thought that was feathers?" "No, it was a bird." "Well it was pretty!"

New, new, new...

Meet "Pearl"...a mini hat box with flower inside...on a giant pink peony with mint colored headband, featured in our green color story.

Sarah and I have also used down time at the boutique to plan for Pea's & Bean's ('s's's) future. Ever seen that Orbitz commercial? "Hernandez's's's". Anyway, we decided to reach out to other local boutiques that offer consignment etc. for locally designed and handmade items. We emailed I Like You (could the name be any better?) today to see if they have any interest in carrying our headbands. It went so quickly, but the holiday boutique will be closing in a few short weeks. It was such great exposure for us to be in the store...and in the future only offering our headbands online doesn't seem like the best strategy.

This is Sarah intently researching our options. ;)

"Photo Booth" pics from the Holiday Bazaar

We are so happy we put up the "photo booth". We set up the fitting room as a photo booth with a fireplace scene setter, big red bow for the faux wreath and oversized Christmas lights. I think everyone had a lot of fun with it. We left several headbands in the fitting room for everyone to try on....this made us laugh all night! You are all good sports for doing this! Look how fabulous the men look...maybe P&B is unisex?

Happy Ho Ho Holidays from Pea's & Bean's...or in this case, Bean's & Pea's.