Blog Apology

Joie de Blog would like to apologize for not posting anything new this week . . . . between being glued to media for Hurricane Sandy coverage, and feeling anxiety about the election results on Tuesday, Joie just hasn't been thinking blog. Up here in our part of the world, damage from the hurricane was minimal - some downed trees, some power outages. But everyday we are reminded of just how major this storm was. Many of the companies we order from are based in Manhattan, and most of them are not up and running after a week. So, for instance, we're running out of our wonderful new Safari book, but Workman's phones are still not working. And we need a postcard order, but ditto for Fotofolio. It's interesting how when a "weather event" doesn't really hit your part of the world, and things return quickly to normal, how easy it is to forget that life is far from back to normal for everyone. As for the election - that's a whole other kettle of fish . . . and we'll no doubt have something to say about that soon. To be honest, we're hoping we can resurrect the Superman part of our Halloween window for a few days . . . . we'll see . . . . .

To Open or Not to Open

That - is the question! Whether it is better - I mean, nobler - to suffer the winds and rains - I mean, slings and arrows - of outrageous circumstance . . . in this case, Hurricane Sandy . . or by opposing them - opening the store? - and here, our analogy breaks down. In any case, it's always hard to decide what to do under extreme weather threats. Sometimes the City of Cambridge mandates closure, making it easy. Sometimes things are a little more fuzzy - and this morning we're really not sure what to do. So . . . we'll open for awhile. Be there for the UPS delivery and any brave morning customers. And then - we'll see. At the very least we'll be able to put a sign on the door if we decide to close. We hope all you blog readers stay dry and electrified until this passes!

Joie Gets Political

So . . . one of our customers who is a school principal ordered some Obama and Romney standups to use in the school mock election process, and we decided to order some extra and use them as a Halloween window. Why not? Our first thought was to have them dress up as each other - but it didn't have much oomph. Then we thought Romney could be a hippie, but somehow, while searching for costume parts, he wound up as Dracula. We were having a hard time deciding what to do with Obama, and then we thought Superhero of some sort - so he wound up as Superman. Just after installing the window, a passerby banged on the window, pointed at the display, and gave it a thumbs down, which caused us to spend an entire evening agonizing over whether it was too political, disrespectful, etc. But the next day brought nothing but laughter, compliments, and a seemingly endless stream of people taking pictures with their phones. So, we have relaxed about the whole thing. We just meant it to be fun . . . we really don't think of Romney as a blood sucking vampire . . . or not often . . . and we also don't think of Obama as Superman . . . not after the last four years. And we'll take it down right after Halloween and be as respectful as possible for the week before the election !

Mini Slinky + Artist =

Sometimes the smallest, least expensive things can wind up being kind of amazing - you just need an artist to take you there. Like the little mini slinkies we sell for all of $1.50 - they're cute, kids like them . . . . and then, someone buys one and sends you a picture like this, and you think - wow . . . . that's beautiful, and a tiny unassuming object is transformed into something quite glorious. Thank you SF !!

Just Like Bob Dylan Said . .

Well, he said the times are changing - as you'll notice here - it's our blog that has changed - visually, and our website as well. It's an interesting phenomena how this happens. When we first designed the website and blog we were absolutely crazy about how it looked, and remained so for a good two or three years. The green backround matched the green we had used on the walls in the store and our bags, and the logo with the duck in the big V was new for us. And then, one day - we decided to go with a light grey bag. And then, slowly, a kind of discontent crept in. The next thing you know we were wondering what the website would look like with a grey backround . . . and the next thing, our designer had come up with an entirely different page for both the blog and the website. We tinkered with it for awhile - and now it's up. The king is dead - long live the king! As soon as we decided we would go with the new look, the old look looked dreadfully dated to us. That's the interesting thing - how something you love so much can suddenly seem so not what you want. Anyway, we hope you like our new look - (and it's sure to remain for at least a few years!)

Cute and Bizarr !

So . . . we have this cute postcard, pictured above, in our rack, and the other day, an employee came up to me and said - "Do you know what this postcard says??" I looked at it - as far as I could tell it didn't say anything. "What it says?" I asked. She looked at me quizzically and told me that it said something that we might not actually approve of. I grabbed my reading glasses and looked hard at the little picture on the wall. Even with glasses, it was hard for me to make out - but after trying a minute, I could read what the framed embroidery said. And it clearly said: "go f--- yourself" !! Whoops! Not what I would expect on a cute postcard of a bunny and a bear, even though the company that printed it is called Bizarr. And probably not something I would have ordered had I known - but I comfort myself by hoping that no one else will really notice it either. Such are the perils of poor vision.

Memory Lane

I just took a little unexpected trip down Memory Lane. I was cleaning out my basement and came across some boxes of old invoices from the store. I picked one from 1998 - almost fifteen years ago, and decided to look through it to see some of the things we were selling that year. First surprise - many things that we are still selling today - we're nothing if not loyal to our products. Bu of course, many things I had forgotten - the Pop-up New York Story, the Dinobitz bottle opener . . . . the giggling Mona Lisa pillow . . . the punching nun, and the nervous hamster. (that was a great toy - a cute little plush hamster, you pulled a string and he jittered/ran a circle on the desk.) The Japanese animated clown music boxes - we had lots of them (and just the other day a woman came in looking for one - our customers are loyal to our products as well) And rubber stamps - we were still selling lots of those. So many companies I had forgotten, so many items - made me wonder why I didn't keep a yearly list of our favorite things from the year. I guess, because you don't think you'll ever forget anything - until you do. And after 28 years, I'm afraid I've forgotten more than I remember of the many fun things that have passed through our door. But - there are a more boxes down there - and I plan to investigate - maybe I'll start a little blast from the past feature on the website or this blog !

Sometimes Ignorance Really is Bliss !

A slight young woman, probably in her early 20s, came into Joie yesterday with her boyfriend. She looked at our wonderful Coral and Tusk pillows, asked if we had any more and when I brought some out, said she would take at least a few of them - could I set them aside while she continued looking? This was noteable as these pillows are not inexpensive. She continued around, we had other customers, I was kind of curious about her and as she added to her pile, I wondered if she was some young singer I didn't know. At one point as I helped other customers, I saw a couple of women her age approach her diffidently, and begin "I'm sorry to bother you but -" compliments ensuing. Okay, she must be a bit well known. I heard the word "movie." Finally, she finished shopping, ending up with a small pile of things that amounted to as much as I would expect to make for the whole Sunday. She pulled out her credit card and I looked at the name. Of course. I had even seen her, albeit when she was younger, in a few movies myself. I was glad I hadn't realized, because I was able to be completely normal and myself throughout our whole interaction. It did remind me of a time when I (during a past life as a woodworker's girlfriend) had been exhibiting at a craft fair in Manhattan. Early in the day, when there were not yet many shoppers, a rumor rushed through the building "Dustin Hoffman is here!" Many people took off to find him, including my boyfriend who left me alone in the booth. Suddenly, Dustin Hoffman entered my booth! It was just me and him and I instantly my heart was pounding, my face reddened, my tongue tied, and I was certainly not my "normal self." And it was fascinating how the proximity of a celebrity I thought was great had such an immediate and dramatic effect on me. I felt like a total fool. He lingered just long enough for me to finally decide it might be time to say something like "if you have any questions about anything, just let me know". I was ready to say it, my mouth was opening, when he suddenly turned and walked out of the booth. Oh well. In any case, my encounter today was much more pleasant because - I was blissfully unaware.

Event!

On reflection (so to speak, that's me relecting in the poster) we probably should have posted this yesterday so you could have come down and met our artist Leah Miller. The Art Institute of Boston is our new neighbor, and they organized a project where 17 of us Porter Square retailers had students or professors install a piece in our windows. Our artist chose to center her piece on kaleidoscopes and today they are having a little opening stroll. We hope you'll come down and see - there are a lot of interesting windows and of course, we're particularly fond of ours! They will be up through October 12th so you have plenty of time ! And bottom picture - taken with the very cool iphone kaleidoscope app by Scott Collard, available for free and lots of fun.

One of the Many Laws of Retail

One to two days after donating an item to charity that had been sitting on the shelf not selling for months and months - someone will come in and ask for one. "You know, that cupcake soap, they were so cute, I bought lots of them." The customer was so eager to get one that I went in the back and looked, even though I was 99.9% sure that I had not accidentally left one out of that donation box. What can you do - it's just of those odd laws of retail. Another related law - just after you've looked at an item that you've had on display for a long time and thought "maybe I really should give this away" someone will buy it, and - the next day, another customer will walk in and ask for it! The laws of retail - strange, but true . . . . .

R.I.P. Unicorn Pencil Sharpeners

It was such an inspired idea - a unicorn pencil sharpener, with a little silver pencil in place of a horn. Another witty idea brought to us by the same company that brought us the Unicorn Corn Skewers and the Screwnicorn wine opener. An inspired and witty idea - until we tried to sharpen the pencil! No matter what we did we could not bring that silver pencil to a point. We tried some other pencils. Ditto. We tried another unicorn in case it was just one bad one. We tried a third. I wrote to the company to let them know that their product didn't work. It had to be the plastic insert - and we've sold pencil sharpeners for $2 that worked just fine. They never answered our letter. So, sadly, and reluctantly, we let the unicorns go free. We love to sell silly whimsical things - but we do have standards - if it's a pencil sharpener, it has to actually sharpen the pencil. If it's a bottle opener, it has to open the bottle. If it's a pen, it has to write, if it's a medival weapon pushpin, it must push paper into corkboard. We want our customers to feel confident about purchasing our sometimes rather silly items - and that is why our unicorn pencil sharpeners are no more.

The Best Publicity is Free Publicity!

Last night one of our all time favorite companies, Blue Q, got an informal shout on on the floor of the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte. Michelle Obama took the stage and the cameras panned out over the wildly cheering crowds. One person was holding this bag, waving it slowly back and forth and the camera stopped and filmed them for a good ten or fifteen seconds. Of course there was no Blue Q sign - so we're doing our part by telling our customers - it was their bag! Available here at Joie de Vivre - and many fine stores nationwide. Go Michelle, Go Blue Q ! (& okay, we'll reveal our prejudice while we're at it: Go Obama!)