Going for Cate, ending up Dorothy

The coolest, and most dangerous, thing on the world wide web today is Instyle's Celebrity Hairstyle tool - where you can upload your own photo and "try on" celebrity hair styles.

But since I look JUST like the Asian model on the top right corner, I chose to use that face instead.

And then I went hairstyle shopping.

I thought I'd like America Ferrera, and I knew I wouldn't like Cindy McCain (is she REALLY a CELEBRITY????). But Cate. Cate was who my hair was on the inside.

After clicking on Cate's hairstyle, I then made it dark, added highlights, tried to add lowlights (but couldn't really figure out the difference) and then pressed print and I was off to the hair salon.

But somehow, when I left, I was not Cate. I was more Dorothy Hamil. Not that I didn't spend most of my childhood channeling Dorothy. (When I wasn't channeling Debra Winger as Wondergirl).

But now I am in my late thirties, a mom of two kids trying not to LOOK like a mom of two kids, and I ended up looking like a cross between a seventies figure skater and a Japenese adolecent boy. Not really sure what is worse . . .

Ah Cate. You are so elusive.

Julep First Ever Family Picnic - Indoors!

The on again off again rain didn't stop us from gathering with our families for our picnic - we just moved it indoors to the UD parlor! Thanks everyone for staying/coming out/ driving up from Gig Harbor / bringing your spouses and family!! It was so great to have some time to get together! And thank you Amy for organizing the event!

Julep Family Picnic - Indoors!

Getting our jollies from checklists

I was so excited driving into work today because we were having our first ever seasonal promotion pre-launch meeting. Strange but entirely true - I was so giddy with anticipation that it felt like Christmas morning.

Up until now, we haven't had/haven't had a chance to have prelaunch meetings because I was head of marketing, parlor hostess and parlor manager, so the promotions I dreamed up at 2am only needed to be discussed with Jeanne, printed up in Powerpoint and communicated to our small team in parlor, and we were off and away. Total time from inception to rollout: 7 hours.

Turns out 7 hours notice doesn't really work for 3 parlors.

So even though our awesome fall treatments and vernis colors launch OCTOBER 1 - a full 16 days away - we met as an implementation team to discuss our programs and figure out how to bring them alive in our parlors (using Jeanne's awesome step by step checklist, which gave Kate the goosebumps). Moving from 7 to 384 hours is an over 5000% improvement.

And I love sitting around a table with such smart, passionate, and powerful women. I have the most amazing job EVER.

Suddenly it's fall!

Over the past few months, we've been getting used to welcoming guests and trying to keep the lightbulbs from going out in three locations across Puget Sound (KBM knows more about 130volt light bulbs than she ever thought necessary . . .).

And suddenly it's fall!

Everybody's babies are bigger (Jeanne and Shari here, Ali & Renata out of state). And some are about to come out to meet us (Danielle - who is conveniently planning to have her baby on September 29th - between processing payrolls).

I'm entering fall with a renewed sense of purpose and excitement for leading Julep to the next level. Our walls are plastered with regional maps - and growing numbers of red stars for where we want to bring Julep next. (Including Bellevue, Kirkland, West Seattle, University Place, Mill Creek, Edmounds . . .).

Right now, I'm excited about:

• Doing a better job telling our story! Okay, maybe if you're reading this, you're already immersed in Julep, but we're realizing that a lot of our guests don't realizing that they we're a healthy, non-toxic, ultra-sanitized, community-oriented, responsible place that's perfect for your next party. They just know they're somewhere hip and friendly, with rockstar treatments. That's great - but there's more to us! Yes, it is possible to be both beautiful AND deep!
• All the guests who are bringing their celebrations to Julep! September is turning out to be a busier party month at Julep than August was.
• Our new Refresh Citrus-Mint Salt Scrub! We have a sample jar in our Julep Support Center offices and I've been using instead of soap to wash my hands - with velvety results after just 2 days.
• "Liv" - one of our new fall colors that's a beautiful gun metal grey
• Summer finally coming to Seattle
• Our amazing teams in all three parlors.