im back b*atch.

 

Floor is smoking. Mannequins are hot. Messy organisational mornings. Big bosses are happy. Guess mommy is back in town!! Hehe .. Nitenite peeps! / P. x

its all about the decoratives.

It's more fun when there is interaction right? First time the brand is going in this direction with jewellery display but I really think it works. Easy to shop and maintain. Well done us! Love / P. x

guess where i'm gooooing? :)

Didn't take any photos from the nightshift this time around. Got one from our new jewellery destination which looks pretty cool. Had our visit in today and it went really well .. But it left me with no breaks at all as I was super busy. Sometimes that's needed I guess ..

On the flipside something quite amazing happened. I finally booked my tickets to the States!! Going with my sister in a less than 2 months to visit my dad and celebrate his birthday and I'm super excited! Been missing it so much and can't wait for all the shopping .. And the food!! Yumyum .. And I actually love the fact that I'm going there with my sister .. :) Yay!

Some images from last visit:

So see you all in about two months my American muchachas! Love / P. x

today.

Very productive day today .. Feels like I'm saying that about all my days lately. Haha .. But it's true! Decided to launch our beach destination a day earlier than planned to bring in those extra dineros! Was a success too as everyone seemed to appreciate it as the area was selling really well .. Well done me!

Had a relaxing day at the gym after work with steamroom, sauna and a few lapses in the pool. And had a fairly healthy "buffet dinner" when we got home. Yummy!

Tomorrow is the official launch of beach directive and we are getting our mannequins changed too. And after work I'm off for 3 days with my bestest friend by my side!! Yihoo for early weekends!!

Nite lovelies! / P. x

my day today.

beach destination

new high-level display in place as well

my lunch today .. healthy doesn't always have to be bad :)

Busy Monday with sexy layouts on the floor being put in. What do you think? Anyways .. time for a siesta now. Another busy day is waiting me tomorrow as we are re-working the rest of the floor and have also decided to go and pick up more uniform. Joyful Tuesday .. and even more joyful Thursday as that's when my darling arrives! Couldn't ask for a better week .. :)) Love / P. x

when the lights are off and the curtains roll down.

This is how it's done. Messy, empty, dirty .. It was the biggest floor move in a long time but I am happy that I can finally say byebye sale and hello spring! Thanks to everybody who contributed. Ciao / P. x

shots from today. jan directive WBG.

silk & prints vs. tailoring

ikat print, casual

tie-dye with print instead of graphics this season

first & second cluster of mannequins

Bring on spring 2011! Love / P. x

morning glory at WBG.

Came in to store this morning and saw that the whole floor was perfect! The guys last night did a brilliant job, I have to say. Amazing .. Putting some images of the floor a bit later today but thought I'd show you a little sneak peak first.

Time for some more work now and then a siesta! / P. x

january directive.

new mannequin directive in place aswell

Worked an early shift this morning to tweak the last bits on our new SS January directive. We are looking to completely come off sale this weekend which naturally means that full price needs to be expanded. A new directive is being rolled out in our WBG store tomorrow night. I am not going to join the set up this month as I am working on the photo shoot the day after. Exciting to see how it's going to look.

Did some window shopping after work to look for some pieces for my room so was dead tired when I got home. Made myself this nice instant made soup.

yumyum .. called mug shot with thai style flavour

Ciao for now! / P. x

ss 2011 floor, part I - check!

Like I mentioned yesterday today was dooms day! We literally had 2hrs in the morning to re-merchandise our entire full price area and condense our sale area down to a minimum. Got my team in for 7am to unfortunatly find out that all the products we needed were yet to be unpacked from this mornings delivery .. so the plans were pushed back and we had to hectically re-do everything during the day whilst we were open! Hate working with customers around .. But it all turned out well in the end. And the new products are pretty sweet!

One presentation will have to be enough for the sneak peak. Hehe .. Didn't have time to take a picture of the final presentations but it looked pretty sexy. Refining it all on Sunday night anyways so might put up some pictures then .. Halleluja to that! Really into the new shapes and prints though .. Spring come and mixing it up with nice leathers and sandals. Feeling it, feeling it ..

Ok need to do some eBay shopping now so catch up with you later. Ciaoooo / P. x

OH! Forgot to say it but SWEDEN IS BOOKED! Going back home mid February to visit my darlings in GBG for 2 weeks .. Told you it was time to plan another trip back! :) Can't wait!

rihannas new perfume: reb'l fleur.

Snapped up a Stylist magazine on my way back home from work and read a quite interesting article about a proffession that you normally don't think about .. yet they produce products we all use everyday: perfumes!

It was a brief summary of the day to day tasks of Ruth Mastenbroek, a perfumer from Buckinghamshire in England that makes scents for a living. In her three years of training she committed over 1000 ingredients to memory and has a perfume lab in her house. It's pretty amazing how all the luxury perfumes that we see everyday in campaign pictures and on the shelves in high-end stores actually start off with someone mixing up ingredients in a lab.

Anyways this is what a learnt:

A perfume is build from three ingredients: a top, middle and base. And the difference between these ingredients are simple. Top notes are citrusy and evaporate from the skin within 15 minutes; middle notes are floral and herbal and can last up to an hour. These could be scents like jasmine and lavender. Base notes are the heavier, muskier scents such as amber and vanilla, which will stay on your skin for hours and hours. Isn't that just absofrikkinlutely cool?

debut perfume reb'l fleur by rihanna. due to hit macy's stores (US) on the 25th January

Our favourite Rihanna has also decided to join the mainstream and launch a perfume of her own. Supposely it is very fruity to reflect her Caribbean roots. Unfortunatly the international sale will not happen until later on in the year. I recently decided (well I got it as a gift) to turn back to my own roots and start using Gucci Envy Me. Been smelling the cap for 10 minutes now trying to figure out what the three types of ingredients can be .. but you got me. I best leave that to the proffesionals and instead focus on my own bits. Expanding our full price area massively on Thursday morning so have made huge preparations today and will carry on tomorrow aswell. Bit worried how this is going to go as it is so last minute .. but hopefully it'll be ok. Working a really early shift on Thursday to implement this aswell. It sure is a hard knock life for a VM during this period, with all sale coming off and new Summer/Spring collections hitting the stores. But hey .. instead it only means we only have 5 months left to summer!!

my baby

Anyways .. Going to make some concept sketches on some pieces I am working on now and then maybe try to go to bed a bit earlier tonight? We'll see .. Sketches will go up in the blog later.

Ciao for now / P. x

sale is driving me mad!

For the past couple of days we have been given several different dates to launch our sale. This has naturally made me re-schedule my life about 5 times this week .. really frikkin annoying. But I hope the date we have been given now is a definite one. With this going live I will therefor be able to spend some more time with my friends and family, as the dates for my Xmas night shifts will occur on days such as bank holidays and days off (which means I get some time off!!) .. so it's all good.

Also I stumbled across some fun characters in store on Thursday. Don't know if you have all seen the new Selfridges Christmas characters?



Well you will be able to meet them in store as they go around and play, dance and joke with customers. They aren't always on the floor though so if you are lucky maybe you'll get the chance to meet them too!

can you see them?

Sitting right now and chilling with sosis. Was going to see a film in the cinema tonight. The nominated ones were either Tron or Megamind :) .. but we missed the viewings so we're gonna bring cinema home instead. Hehe ..

Stay sound now / P. x

this is how i relax.

but before relaxing .. this is how I roll before every nightshift. making plans for the floor

Nightshift's finally over and I've had a good 8hrs of sleep. Woke up this afternoon and felt a slightly blocked nose and a drowsy feeling that I am probably coming down with something. Great! Well not to worry because I have stacked up with soup (really yummy ones aswell).

So when the clock hits 6-7am and you can see how the shop floor is shaping up and you realise that you are finished with the floor ... that's when you appreciate these nightshifts. When I am on my home to go to bed, and everybody else are moving themselves into central London to work, then it feels like it has all been worth it. But the shifts I do are hard and it takes a lot of time, organisation and patience to complete a successful floor layout. I therefore often find myself being very tense and tired. And the chilly winter we have entered is not exactly working to my benefit either. Luckily, thanks to someone special, I have now found a way to get fully rested and refreshed once a week. My secret is acupuncture.

Acupuncture is used to treat a broad range of conditions and is a treatment which encourages the patient's body to cure itself. It is one of the oldest medical procedures in the world and dates back (according to some) to 4000 years ago! Now a method developed over so many years can definitly not be something bad .. right? And it's not. I have spoken to several people, including my dad (who btw is a licensed psycholigist & hypnotherapist), and everybody believe that it's very good for you. Since it helps the blood circulation in your body and helps restoring the imbalance of the energy in your body, it will in the long run, not only be good for your physical health but will also help you stay young and beautiful. So for the next couple of weeks the chinese medicine clinic is where you will see me once a week. Today my doctor even made a special treatment for me to help prevent me from catching a cold. Now isn't that sweet? Hope it works!

my bed today - sorry for the poor quality

Dress warm and stay sound! / P. x

byebye vm daughter.

I absolutely love weekends! Relaxing in my own space is the best thing in the world I have to say. I had big plans for this weekend but I decided to ditch them all for a couple of days of doing absolutely nothing! Love it!

Just had one of my favourite girls over with her adorable baby boy (whom I love btw!) .. And I need to say that my maternal sides aren't too bad. There is still hope for me! Hahaha

Right .. So Friday was a sad day. I found out that my in-store VM (my VM daughter!) was going to be transferred to another store .. And that it was our last day together :'( .. She's a brilliant VM and I am happy for her but I thought I would offically let you all know that I will miss her at work. All the best Jess-Jess .. And make sure you don't forget about us! :) xx

So to cover up the open wounds of Fridays tragedy I decided to undergo therapy .. Well .. to make some beads anyways :) Fimo was the material and I realised that it can be tricky from time to time. Certain shapes and patterns are hard to create so I think I need to practice some more .. Ill get the hang of it soon. Remember the crochet project? I turn that baby upside down in a fortnight. Hehe .. Anyways I made a couple of beads and thought I'd show you an image of them but as it turns out you can't do that with a Blackberry. So the image will be uploaded later .. But they turned out pretty nice :) Making some more tomorrow. Also it's so ironic that I couldn't find any chains anywhere a couple of weeks ago and now I'm finding and being given chains left to right. Can't really complain!

Hearing fireworks outside my house. Remember, remember, the 5th of November? I know I don't .. Still going to have a little sneak peak!

Good Night! X / P.

shoes, shoes, shoes!!

I have been away for a couple of days but it's mainly because I have had visit, and it's un-polite to be anti-social. Haha .. Ok no but seriously I have been really lazy, but also very busy.

On Thursday the final opening of the Shoe Galleries took place in Selfridges. The worlds largest shoe department was launched with Grazia magazine on site, hair & make-up team from MAC jazzing up all the opening staff members and a grand party in the evening. Luckily (although you might have all wanted to be there) I did not have to stay for the party in the evening! On Wednesday before the opening I was in, together with the whole VM and Display team from head-office, to set up our department. Here are some images from the happy (even though they might not look it) visual team:



And here is the final set up:




Because of this shoe mania, there are alot of events going on in Selfridges at the moment but the most interesting part (well at least for me) are the displays around the store.

Falling pieces in central escalator void:

Ceiling piece above escalators towards the Shoe Galleries:
The amount of work and thought that has gone in to this project is quite magnificent. I contributed a day to this grand event but there has been loads of press and planning behind all of this .. work that has taken several months. So a big well done to Selfridges and everybody involved!

Viva les chaussures!!

/P.