As if this week hasn’t been amazing enough, yesterday just put the icing on the cake. Three hundred orders in one day is much, much more than I am equipped to handle on my own. I put out the call to friends asking for help. Seventeen of the most wonderful people showed up to tape, package, label and stack boxes. A task that would have taken me days was done in just an hour and a half…and we had a pretty fun time while at it.
This fundraiser has given me the privilege of seeing people’s generosity. Aleta, who I’d never met before, contacted me saying that she lived in Santa Cruz and wanted help. She showed up yesterday morning to stamp the bags. It was another task that would have taken me so long on my own. My mom, always helping me in any way possible, is entering all the tracking numbers into everyone’s accounts. It’s a boring job, but such a tremendous help.
Looking back on the past 7 years of business, I have had a lot of wonderful opportunities and moments of jumping up and down with happiness; from selling my first bag to being a guest on Knitty Gritty, seeing my patterns published in magazines, travel (from Mexico to Scotland) and every little growth spurt in between, but absolutely nothing can compare to opportunity for this fundraiser. It is the highest moment of my business. Thank you for making it such a success.
Jordana Paige patterns are now available at wholesale to retail shops. Yipee, the day is here! Publishing my designs to yarn shops has been on my goal list for some time. I’m so happy to be able to offer them. If you are a yarn shop and would like to carry the patterns, please contact me or fill out our wholesale form. And, if you’re a knitter that loves our patterns, please ask your LYS to stock them. Thank you!
New pattern! The first of my self-published patterns became available today. This one is called Annie. It’s a sweet little tank worked in a vine stitch pattern with a square neck. The neckline is my favorite part. It looks really cute worn with a belt at the waist. I’ll get some fashion shots taken soon. The pattern is only available from JordanaPaige.com as a pdf, so you can start knitting immediately.
You may notice things look a bit different around here. Last night our new site went live. It was time bring the shopping cart into 2008. There’s lots of nice features to make the shopping experience easier and more will be coming. This is just Phase 1. I wanted to get the site up so that the new pattern could be purchased.
June 4th marks five years of sales! Whoooo hooooo!
I remember the day of my first sale very well. It wasn’t a sale from family or a friend, but from a complete stranger in Florida who only saw a picture of The Knitter’s Purse on my website. When that first order arrived in my inbox I jumped up and ran yelling to my mom that I had sold a purse. I was absolutely giddy (and relieved) that someone I didn’t know thought the purse was worthy of her $78.
I knew absolutely nothing about running a business or handbag manufacturing when I started the company. But my family has always told me, “you can do this Jordana” and they were right. So, we all celebrated this past weekend with a wonderful dinner.
I made little paper satchels as the invitations.
From left to right: my Gran (Paddy), Dad (Dana), Mom (Noni), (Me), Sister (Elizabeth), Brother-in-law (Tyler) and Dandy (Loren). These are people who have encouraged me from the beginning, have never told me I couldn’t do something, won’t let me give up when I’m frustrated, work countless hours for me for free, pray for me and celebrate every small and big success along the way. They are the blessing from God greater than any business success and I love them.
This has been the most exhausting week. What we expected would take two days to complete, turned into five days and counting. In between we’ve been packing up the tools to help my sister fix up her new condo. The family is so worn out and we’ve only just begun. But, all the hard work has been worth it. I love my new space. It’s even better than I pictured.
I’ve learned a lot about how a room goes together. I had no idea this would be such a big project. I thought we’d put up a couple pieces of wood for a ceiling, paint the walls and call it a day. No, my dad (the foreman) does things right. No little step was missed in constructing my office, right down to the caulking on the baseboards.
Here’s my mom, she was there every day way too early to even say. She always says, “You have to get up pretty early in the morning to get ahead of me,” so we don’t even try. She’ll do any job and attacks the grungiest jobs no one else wants to do, like cleaning the disgusting bathroom and scrubbing the floors.
Here’s Tyler, my sister’s fiance. He came on the first Friday to help my dad move the wall out and put up the ceiling. Wow that sheetrock is heavy. The gals held it up above our heads while my dad and Tyler got it to fit. The two existing walls were put up by the former tenant and were not square. This made everything from the ceiling to the floor that much more difficult.
Mom and my sister, Elizabeth painting. Everything got painted. It’s amazing how much soap, water and some paint can really clean a place up.
My timeline since last Sunday has been lost. It’s like one really long day that will never end. I know it was Sunday that we moved all the product in. Good news, it all fits. I think it might need to be stacked a bit higher for when the next shipment comes, but I’ll worry about that later. Here’s Elizabeth just after we unloaded the all that product. I promised her I wouldn’t post this picture, but she looks so happy to be done.
Here I am painting peg board. This one was taken the morning of the first day. I can tell because I don’t have any paint on me. The peg board was hung in my shipping area. My dad built two tables of the perfect height for me to ship at. I will hang my tape gun, stickers, etc on the peg board.
The bulk of the work is done. My mom and I laid the floor one evening. We are really proud of ourselves. I even used the chop saw to cut the pieces. All the electrical and painting is done. We just have little jobs left like hanging pictures, installing the new sink and moving all of my office stuff.
I will give you a real tour when it’s completely done, but here’s a couple shots that show the office from top to bottom. Isn’t my family amazing?
I visited the new JP Headquarters (I love saying that) today to take measurements. Friday the crew, more lovingly known as the family, will turn this room into my office. The plan is to clean, move the wall out to make it large enough for two desks, add a ceiling to accommodate more storage, paint, lay a floor, add outlets and install lighting.
Here’s the window in my “window office.”
The view to my left isn’t so cute but on the right there is a little potted garden. Oddly, there’s also a hot tub and lounge chairs. It’s part of the warehouse’s property, but I don’t know who tends to it.
Sunday we will move all the product in. I am so looking forward to organizing it by color and style. Right now it’s all randomly jumbled. The color I need always seems to be the bottom box with four more stacked on top.
Notice how the warehouse is dock level. This will make it much easier when I have a delivery. No more up and down with a lift gate. Now the pallets can be rolled right in.
Yes, it’s just a simple warehouse, but having a warehouse and office is a dream come true. I anxiously await getting to hang my sign. I am so overwhelmed with God’s blessings and where He has brought me today. Let’s face it, when I started this business at 18 years old I had no idea what I was doing.
I’m moving! The time has come to move my office out of my apartment and into a real office. I’ve been searching for the past several weeks for an office/warehouse space. While moving into an office is exciting, the process of finding a space with the right combination of location, price and square footage has not been fun. It’s been very frustrating. Most, no, all of the spaces felt like the office area was a closet. They were depressing.
But, last week I found the perfect space. It was waiting for me. I’ll be moving to Santa Cruz in just a few weeks. The new Jordana Paige headquarters is only a couple blocks from the beach. It’s on Swift Street. How appropriate is that? Only Purse Place would be better, but that can wait until I buy land and build the Jordana Paige campus.
To do list:
1. Find local SnB: Check and check
2. Find LYS: The Swift Stitch is just around the corner! I will be able to walk there. I told you this place was waiting for me.
3. Find somewhere to live.
I will take the camera next time I visit so you can watch it transform from warehouse to JP headquarters.
A couple days ago I discovered the date my episode of Knitty Gritty will air, April 23rd, is exactly five years to the day that I received my business license. What a great way to celebrate five years.
I can remember the exact moment the idea for The Knitter’s Purse hit me; I was sitting on the couch in my mom’s office reading an article in Vogue Knitting about the rise in popularity of knitting. From there my ideas took off with possibilities of where the business could go. Five years later many of those original goals have been acheived while the rest of them have grown with the business.
It took me a little over one year to develop The Knitter’s Purse. It seemed like the longest, most frustrating year at the time. I wanted the product right then. I was so excited and knew with certainty that if I could just get the purse made knitters would love it. And you did, thank you.
Although, next year will be what I consider the true five year mark, since it was a year before I started selling, April 23rd will certainly be a day for celebrating.
And celebrate we will. From now until April 22nd, enter to win a Jordana Paige bag of your choice. Picking just one winner isn’t enough so I’ll be drawing FIVE winners. Winners will be announced April 23rd.
