I Survived My First Christmas at STUFF

This season has been challenging. We entered the holiday season with the least experienced staff in many, many years.The new people we introduced into our ranks have proven themselves to be resilient, thoughtful, and hard-working.

This season has been challenging. We entered the holiday season with the least experienced staff in many, many years. After 17 years in business, we had become accustomed to having a handful of senior staff members in our ranks to help rock the season with us side-by-side. But this year the stars simply did not align. We found ourselves training an almost entirely new crew in the few months leading up to our biggest and most demanding season.

Yes, we had a couple of seasoned veterans, but these are team members that work very limited hours. So really the team was being built almost from scratch. At the start, we often resembled the movie Bad News Bears. Everyone had a heart of gold, but we were in serious need of finding our groove. And our leadership – us – well, we weren’t drunk like Walter Matthau was in the movie, but we were spread thin and overcommitted on too many projects.

It was a rough start.

There was frustration. There were tears from some. There were times we doubted we would make it through the season. But, at last, we have.

We are deeply thankful that the stars did finally align. These last two weeks have been joyful for us behind the counter, and we hope it has been joyful for you in the store. Our store is really about people – not product – and the new people we introduced into our ranks have proven themselves to be resilient, thoughtful, and hard-working.

The next time you visit our store, please congratulate our newest team members. We should have bought them cheesy T-shirts that read “I Survived My First Christmas at STUFF”. But they are too angelic for that….

Casey & Sloane

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Plastic Redux

This time of year, I drink a huge amount of water through a straw. Water is what wards off the evil spirits, in my view.

This time of year, I drink a huge amount of water through a straw. I seem to consume more that way. This collection on my dressing room table this morning reminded me that life is long, fun and wonderful, but not particularly tidy. We work monstrous hours at work that are thrilling and full of joy. Water is what wards off the evil spirits, in my view.

 

dressing room

 

And today it was evident that life has been full of water in re-usable cups, with a side of Lysol from the big can!

Sloane

p.s. One of these cups may very well be from this past summer. Read more here.

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Blush

It isn’t easy to get a Simmons sister to blush, but we are not comfortable sitting still and letting the spotlight be on us. With this realization and admission, we are bravely passing this along. We couldn’t have conceived a better Christmas gift.

Front page of Thinking Bigger Business issueIt isn’t easy to get a Simmons sister to blush. We like to think we are prepared for every situation. We are comfortable sharing our opinions, our joy, our pain, and our emotions at work, at home, and in our blog.

But we are not comfortable sitting still and letting the spotlight be on us. With this realization and admission, we are bravely passing this along. Our close friends insisted we celebrate this recognition. We couldn’t have conceived a better Christmas gift. We are deeply thankful.

Casey & Sloane

 

p.s. Click here to read the article.

 

Click to read the article

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People Not Product

The grand irony in our lives is that we own a store named…STUFF. We should have named it The Artist. From day one, we have focused on our artists first. Read the email for more and for great photos of many of our artists.

The grand irony in our lives is that we own a store named…STUFF. We should have named it The Artist. From day one, we have focused on our artists first. We have always encouraged them to follow their creative paths. We have always told them to value themselves and their work. We have always offered them access to our experience in the art-selling business as it evolves (and boy howdy, has it evolved). And we have always treated them as real people – not machines, not factories, not nameless, faceless, grossly under-valued workers in some far off land.

Have we had some rough spots? You bet! We are all only human. At times our stress or their stress has clashed. Do we disagree sometimes? You bet! We are all wildly passionate people. But we all respect each other and work together to move forward. To support the arts in all its forms. And in the end we are just like you: we all have to pay our mortgages, feed and clothe our families, and participate in our communities.

Last week we sent a note to our artists and asked for photographs of them and their families. These images are what were sent to us. Each time we opened a new digital file, we would smile and sometimes giggle and our hearts would expand a little bit more. These photos reflect them so perfectly. Their personalities come shining through. The love they have for their families, their pet companions, and their creative lives is alive in each and every photograph.

It is with our deepest gratitude that we share this “holiday card” with you, our loyal customer and friend. You support these artists and their families every single time you shop here.

We hope to see you soon.

Happy Holidays,

Casey & Sloane

 

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Body Lotion, Cling Wrap and Chapstick Walk Into A Bar…

We all turn into our parents and grandparents. I think I’m ready to talk about this.

 

I think I’m ready to talk about this.

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On the premise that we all turn into our parents and grandparents, I have decided that I might most be like my dad’s dad, who saved old, used, no-longer-lightable light bulbs in cardboard boxes in his workshop. Or I might be like my mom’s dad, who used the very last of the Chapstick by digging out the remaining wax magic with a Q-tip and then proceeding with the application process in private.

Yep. That’s who I am most like. Cal Price.

I have used the same body lotion for over 30 years. Vaseline Intensive Care in the jumbo container with the pump. I have very sensitive skin, and I can’t just jump willy-nilly from brand to brand, or I will end up at the dermatologist with the rash to end all rashes. Been there, done that.

I will admit to using specialty lotions on elbows, ankles and kneecaps – Soaplogies shea butter in the lavender scent – but, on the whole, I am a Vaseline girl. I have lived through the scent changes, bottle re-designs, and various other attempts by them to knock me off course. But I’ve stayed true.

Even through this last bottle re-design where there is over TWO INCHES of lotion left in the bottom of the plastic bottle when the last squirt has been eased from the pump. It seems like the well is dry when in fact it is not!

So I have taken to using our serrated bread knife to saw through the plastic bottle – tossing the top in the recycle bin and the pump in the trash bin – and going after the lotion with my fingertips. There is usually several weeks of lotion remaining for use, and I just have to removed the very fancy – designed by me for easy access! – Cling Wrap topper for daily use.

I was too embarrassed to show the fancy plastic wrap lid in the photo above. I do have my principles.

Just like my grandfather who kept the Q-tips and old Chapstick tube in his bathroom drawer while the new Chapstick tube rode in his pocket with his change.

Sloane

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Detroit and Me

In March, I fell in love with Detroit. It has not dampened my deep commitment to my city, but I am now sharing the love. It is a great American city. Truly. But today I felt like I had been socked in the gut.

In March, I fell in love with Detroit. It has not dampened my deep commitment to my city, but I am now sharing the love. It is a great American city. Truly.

I have followed Detroit’s bankruptcy proceedings through many media sources. All reliable and non-biased. I live in facts and details in most of what I do, so this affair has been no different.

Today on National Public Radio they ran the next installment in what has been a long and continuing story on the Motor City from multiple angles and points-of-view. This was about the Detroit Institute of Art possibly selling its multiple-billion-dollar collection – which is owned by the “people of the City of Detroit” – to help honor the debts of the city.

I cried. I pulled the car over, finished my tears, and pulled myself together. I felt like I had been socked in the gut. I had just been in that museum at spring break. I had just talked about that collection and its curatorial staff at a meeting this week at The Nelson. I had just….

I could not get over the fact that the soul of the city – its art collection – was currently being appraised by Christie’s and was being considered for auction and/or sale.

Why can’t the Detroit Lions or the Red Wings or the Pistons be considered for auction and possible sale? Why is art, yet again, being called upon to set its people free?

Because that’s what it did when its people made Detroit its home in the first place.

The people of the City of Detroit slowly purchased the art for the people. Wealthy people spearheaded some selections. However, a curator told me during my trip that “everyday” people started and finished fundraising campaigns for many of the pieces in the collection. Groups of people. Committees. People who saw that art would bring so much to the people who were busy most days in big, loud industries building with their hands big mechanical things. They knew that people who worked hard with their hands and their bodies would be very receptive to art and her redemptive powers.

I’m still not at peace with this issue. I don’t know if I ever will be. I will continue to listen and learn. I am going to try and visit Detroit again very soon and eat in her locally owned restaurants, sleep in her locally owned boutique hotels, talk with her smitten residents, and visit her amazing museums and public spaces.

I don’t know what I will do when I enter an art museum that is devoid of its center of gravity. I guess I will figure that out when I get there.

Sloane

Here is a photo that I didn’t post earlier this year when I returned from Detroit. If you want to see more of my photos and hear about that trip, click here.

dia

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Suffocation

Winter is hard for me. Not because it is the opposite of summer, but because I am not a fan of socks. To me, all were made in the devil’s workshop.

Winter is hard for me. Not because it is the opposite of summer, but because I am not a fan of socks. Ankle socks, knee socks, thigh-highs or tights. To me, all were made in the devil’s workshop.

For years I have tried to get around my trouble with socks by purchasing brightly-colored and patterned specimens. The thought was that they would make me happy and I would see beyond my issues. Several were made in Paris and made me feel a wee bit cosmopolitan, until I began to feel like I was heating up like a house afire. My all time favorites were made in Vermont and are bright, cotton, mismatched fantasies.

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The current sock assortment.

My toes need to move. I need to feel cool air on my lower extremities. Things that bind feel like they are holding me back – never my favorite emotion. Suffocation starts to set in the minute fabric is pulled past my arch. The list goes on and on.

I have discussed this condition with my primary care doctor, and, after confirming nothing truly physical – internal or external – was causing this, I was again met with “the stare.” The look isn’t one where he is accusing me of mental health issues. The sight he rested on me pretty much said, “Just don’t wear socks.” Duh.

However, snow is the real problem, and it was easily mastered when I purchased my Frye boots with shearling lining last year. The boots tromp with me through the snow, and my bare feet are free to roam in cushy protection.

Now, don’t get me started on how lipstick makes me feel….

Sloane

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Copyright Casey Simmons and S. Sloane Simmons. People who steal other people's words & thoughts are asshats. Don't be an asshat.