Tuesday, March 6, 2007

Hanging out with Diane


Shari and I spent a couple of hours on Monday afternoon creating party favors for some lucky guests of today's Nordstrom fashion show, which featured Diane von Furstenberg's spring collection (fabulous) and benefited the Seattle Repertory Theater (also fabulous).

I mixed and filled jars of organic shea and mango butter lotion ("hand-crafted", right?), and then Shari made labels and gift cards that we creatively attached to the jars using scruncci ponytail holders (the only thing Shari could find at the local QFC at 10:30pm). Heady, strategic stuff.

When I called Shari after the show to tell her how great our party favors had looked on the table, she asked me whether I thought it had been worth doing. I realized that there are several different ways to think about this question:

- Most importantly: Will it be successful in bringing new guests into Julep? (Hopefully! It was definitely the right target audience.)

- But also: Did we learn anything from the experience? (YES! Even simple ideas - let's give away some lotion! - can take a lot of time to execute, and time is becoming even more of a precious commodity).

- And not insignificant: Was it fun? (YES! YES! YES! How great was it to be doing something with my hands, sitting on Shari's couch while talking about toddler shoes. It was such a welcome break from being joined at the wrist to my laptop).

So thank you Marisa for thinking of Julep and sharing us with your friends and fellow supporters of "the Rep".