August 24, 2013
Dear Stephanie,
Thank you so much for the beautiful frame that you gave me back in May. It was the first thing I brought into the shop when I got the keys on June 1st. I took a picture of it that day when both the frame and the shop were empty, and I took another picture of it today after getting it back from Wendy Comar, framer extraordinaire at Jenner Graphics. Both the shop and the frame are full now, that’s for sure!
I wanted to say thank you and also share something I wrote back in May. See you soon. Thanks again for the frame. It has found a both a home and a tenant.
Joy
“Here. Take this frame.”
May 19, 2013
There are a few women around town that have known about JOY for a while and Stephanie is one of those people. She co-owns The Dorset Exchange in Dorset with Diane. I shop at their store a lot and getting to know both of them has been awesome. They’ve been in business over two years and I’d say they have the most hopping parking lot in Dorset. For those of you reading this who haven’t been to Dorset, well…you ain’t seen quaint.
Anyway, I stopped by the Dorset Exchange the other day to tell whichever one of Stephanie or Diane the news that I finally signed a lease. Those two were two of the first people I told about the idea of JOY a few months back. Every time I went in over the past few months, they would ask me if it’s coming along and always be so encouraging.
They probably don’t realize the inspiration they’ve given me to open my own shop. I love their confidence as shopkeepers. I love the “feel” of their store. I love that they just DID this thing that I’m sure some people thought they were nuts to do. People like going to their store even when they don’t need anything…especially when they don’t need anything!
I was psyched to see Stephanie when I walked in. I’ve been friends with her sister and mother for a very long time, but until the Dorset Exchange, I didn’t really know her. She’s cool. When I told her that I signed a lease, I could tell she was genuinely psyched. She started offering advice on everything from business cards, to tags, to pricing guns, to fixtures, to bags, to anything else that was “the things you don’t think of,” as she put it.
I’ve run a lot of ideas about JOY by Stephanie and Diane over the past few months, including that I wanted to decorate it shabby chic. With all this lease news, it didn’t come up in today’s conversation with Stephanie, but as I was turning to leave, she said, “Wait. Here. Take this frame,” and held out a lovely white picture frame. I took the frame and instantly bonded with it. There were two of us driving over this cliff now: my new frame and me.
