It’s that time again… time to reflect on the past year and review my goals for this next year. I have always loved selling apparel, and will still sell the swimwear and tote bags that i have always sold on the http://www.brookeboutique.com site.

   However, as i posted in some past blogs, i decided to pull the gift and other stuff off of Brooke Boutique,and do a new website http://www.theblingthing.com ,and hey while i am  at it, why not open a retail store?lol

   So that is what i did! I opened TBT(The Bling Thing) in downtown Saline, in October of this year. I love it! I have been planning this store since  i was 8 years old. The website by the same name is now ready,and we are loading it as fast as we can.

I have always had an accessory store on my wish list, but did i think i would open a retail store in 2009? NO WAY! All i can say is that i was open to a new adventure, i knew i would have to continue to make my own job(no jobs in Michigan),and i have never seen a store even close to what i have at TBT.

So, when you are reviewing your resolutions for the year, you don’t have to make them specific. Open your heart, your ears,and your eyes. You never know… you may be living your own Bling Thing!

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I am so excited to announce that a dream of mine since i was a teenager is about to come true! No, i am not going to kiss Shaun Cassidy! We are in development for a new retail accessories store, The Bling Thing. We will be located in Saline, Michigan right downtown.

We plan to pull most of the gift items, off of our brookeboutique.com website and turn it into strictly resort and swimwear.The gift items, jewelry,and bling apparel will go onto TheBlingThing.com which is currently in development.

When i was a young woman, there was this woman who owned an accessory store downtown Ann Arbor. She had so much talent, everytime i went into her place, i would fall in love all over again. She died many years ago of HIV,and i hope in some small way that this site is memorable and would be a good tribute to her.

We should be open for biz soon, will keep the blog updated!

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I think every single parent can remember the time when you realized that you are truly on your own. Even if you felt alone in your marriage for years, this is the moment when you realize you have noone to turn to..noone to lean on… noone who has your back.

For me this moment occured about a month after i had moved into my new place. I was laying on the couch at 10pm at night just staring at the ceiling. Suddenly i heard this noise.
Beep,Beep,Beep
Ignore. Pretend it doesn’t exist…
Beep,Beep,Beep
I get up, go into the hallway by the garage door and sure enough it is the smoke alarm.

I look around, no fire. No smell of smoke. For crying out loud, the battery must be dead.
I stared at it for a few minutes, just willing it to go away.
No such luck.
I get a chair. I get a screw driver. It’s not the right kind of screwdriver. I get another screwdriver.This one looks right.
I open the lid of the smoke detector,take out the battery.Ah…relief.
I come back into the living room, I can do this…
Beep,Beep,Beep
WTF?
Back i go into the hallway.Again, i stare at it.

Can i sleep with this thing beeping all night? No.i wasn’t sleeping anyway,so it shouldn’t have been a big deal.
Can baby diva sleep thru this?Yes.
I stare.
I learned later that the smoke detectors are hardwired,and that i could have simply disconnected some wires or something and the beeping would have stopped. Oh, the benefits of hindsight…
But, at that moment i didn’t know this…
So, i did what any technologically challenged person would do… I got out a hammer, and i banged that sucker til it stopped beeping…

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We recently sold our house of 9 yrs,and moved to a new house. We brought with us our 15 year old shih-tzu Cupid,and our 2 yr old rescue cat Lucy. Cupid had been moving slower and slower this last year, but really started to go downhill after the move.

 She had been steadily losing weight,and we were appalled to realize she had shrunk from a buddah size rolly polly 18 pounds, down to 9 pounds in just a few short months.

The master shipper had bought her for me as a wedding gift 15.5 years ago,and you can just imagine what i was feeling to watch her decline.As a pet owner,you know the day will come eventually but how do you prepare for it?

Anyhow, after 2 months of gladly getting up with her 4-5x a night to take her outside, it became apparent that she wasn’t enjoying her life anymore. I made the painful decision the first week of november 2008, to let her go.

I miss her every single day. 

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As a small business owner it is always hard to figure out where the business ends, and where the personal begins.Every time i started to post a blog this last year, i had to really decide how much i wanted to disclose about me personally, my family,and my friends.

As i sit here writing my goals for this year, i realize that i cannot separate the me from the business,anymore than i can separate the me from the we.

So, i am going to just be me. Hopefully i won’t run off  potential customers to www.brookeboutique.com  with my musings here, but i have to take the chance.

As this business grows, so shall I.

Join Me!

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