Brigid's Blog

Welcome to my blog.  I will update this page up to three days per week (Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday) with all the inside scoop on our store!  The entries will display from most recent down.  Check this page often to find out how we are continuing to improve the store to better serve you.  Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments!

January 10, 2008: I'm Back!

I'd like to wish everyone a Happy New Year!  We have just completed our first calendar year at Brie's and truly appreciate those of you who chose to shop locally and support our fledgling business.  We have met so many lovely people who appreciate unique, quality handcrafted items.  The momentum and excitement within the community is building and we look forward to what 2008 will bring!

We continue to receive new items!  We are in the process of helping liquidate the inventory from an upscale gift/floral shop formerly in the northwest suburbs.  This week we received a great selection of gourmet teas from The Republic of Tea, Intelligentsia, Mighty Leaf Tea and Barry's Tea along with some teapots, darling initial note cards and magnetic note pads and Valentine's Day-themed items such as greeting cards, accent pillows and ceramic appetizer plate sets, all 50% off!  Shop early for the best selection!

We are holding an Indoor Sidewalk Sale from now until Valentine's Day!  Everything in the back room is on sale including the items mentioned above along with newly marked-down Windy City Jewelry, vintage jewelry and home accessories and mosaic pieces.  Discounts range from 10% to 75% and most items are 50% off.

We are planning an awesome multi-artist jewelry trunk show.  The jewelry we will offer will only be available for sale at Brie's and many pieces will be on sale!  As soon as the details become available I will post them here.

November 1, 2007: It's Been A While!

It's been almost two months since I've written, what a busy time it's been!  Mother and Dad took their annual trip overseas, this year they traveled all over the South of France.  They had a great time visiting vineyards and the sights of cosmopolitan cities like St. Tropez.  The food was excellent but the shopping was not quite as good as they hoped.  There was one outdoor market they loved but it's difficult to get larger pieces home.  They did buy two vintage French posters though.  I was holding the fort down while they were gone.  I'm glad they're back!

We've gotten in so many new items these past two months, too many to detail here.  However right now we are a bit low on non-jewelry items because many of them are over at the Grove Holiday Craft Faire in Glenview.  For the second year we have rented the Herb Shed with fellow artists Beth, Lee, Lisa and Becky.  The Grove show is the first opportunity to see their new Christmas ornaments this year.  The show starts today and runs Thursday-Sunday these next two weekends, November 1-4 and 8-11.

September 4, 2007: New Items

I would like to elaborate a little more on the jewelry Beth has recently brought in.  Fall is her favorite season and the new jewelry reflects her love of Fall colors.  We have new beaded necklaces with stone pendants, floral garland necklaces and multiple strand bracelets.  Each piece is an original design and truly unique!  Also she has given us some darling petite sterling silver earrings featuring freshwater pearls or Swarovski crystals.  Prices start at only $10.00!

Lee has a new product, acrylic photo frames in 4x6 or 5x7 sizes with polymer clay borders that coordinate with her pens.  The 4x6 frames are $12.00 and the 5x7 frames are $15.00.  They are a great gift for all ages!

We have finished pricing the huge quantity of vintage jewelry from an estate.  There have been some items in the store for a while but right now the selection has never been better!  The jewelry is priced to sell and proceeds will benefit Standing Tall Foundation in Des Plaines.

It's hard for us to believe but we are coming up on our one-year anniversary of the store's opening, October 10.  We are still in the planning stages but will hold an exciting event to celebrate!  It's been a great year and we have enjoyed all the wonderful people we have met along the way.

August 31, 2007: I'm Back!

Wow, I can't believe it's been 20 days since I've last written.  Last Thursday Mother and I were having such a fun day in the store.  A number of our great customers happened to stop by that day and our wonderful beaded jewelry artist Beth came in with her friend Becky and some terrific new jewelry.  Mother was in the store too because she had just found two corner cabinets and was finishing up their touch-up paint.  After things settled down Mother decided to run a quick errand in town.  The weather looked fine but then all of a sudden a terrible storm came up, torrential rain and 74 mile per hour winds.  The rain was going sideways and tree limbs were just breaking off and floating slowly to the ground instead of just falling because it was so windy.  The power went out and the front door was slamming open and closed because of the wind so I ran and locked it.  I waited until there was a break in the wind and then made a run for home.  The power was out at home but the dog was OK.  I called Mother to see how she was and she had taken refuge over at Marshalls, it was impossible to drive in that weather.  I got my car into the garage just in time because the fire department closed off my street, apparently there was a live wire in my backyard!  Mother made it to my house and we decided to make a run for it to her house in Northbrook.  It was crazy out there, impossible to get down streets because of all the fallen limbs, all the traffic lights were out and it was rush hour.  We finally made it to Northbrook safely.  The power finally came back on Sunday evening so we weren't able to open Friday or Saturday.  It turned out that Mount Prospect was the town hardest hit during this storm, about 65% of the residents and businesses experienced a power outage.  I only lost one medium-size tree branch from one of my beautiful maple trees and there was no damage to the store.  I didn't lose any food because the next morning I took it to my parents' house.  Many others weren't so lucky, it looks like quite a few people lost the contents of their basements.  I only had a bit of water in the basement and didn't lose anything.  I'm glad that things are back to normal now!

August 11, 2007: Special Occasion Jewelry

We placed a great selection of our (Windy City Jewelry) special occasion jewelry in the store today.  The centerpiece of the collection are the Swarovski pearls.  The pearls are made by Swarovski and have their crystal in the core so they do not chip or peel like glass pearls.  The collection is set in sterling silver and is accented with clear Swarovski crystal rondelles.  We make 6mm and 8mm drop earrings and bracelets, 5 styles of chain necklaces and strung necklaces.  If we do not have the color and style available in our store we can make these pieces to order within two weeks.  For more information CLICK HERE.  Brie's customers receive 25% off the marked prices on the bracelets and necklaces.

Also available is a beautiful variety of vintage aurora borealis crystal jewelry.  We mixed various shapes within the same bracelet to give them interest.  Also available are necklaces, some of them with dramatic crystal drops.  Aurora borealis is the most commonly found color in vintage crystal but we have only collected the best quality and most unique shapes over the years with a fiery surface application which reflects the colors you are wearing.  With our 25% discount, pricing is very reasonable at $18.00 for earrings, $27.00-$45.00 for bracelets and $27.00-$54.00 for necklaces.

August 9, 2007: More Vintage Jewelry

It's been a fun but time-consuming process to go through a huge lot of vintage jewelry we received from an estate.  We've had some of the jewelry in the store for about a month but just put in a new lot yesterday.  This person's taste in jewelry really runs the gamut from rhinestones to sterling to Southwest style so it's worth a look.  Prices are very reasonable and range from $4.00 to $24.00.  I still have two shoeboxes of jewelry to go through and price so more will be coming soon.  Proceeds from the sale of the jewelry and antiques from this estate will benefit Standing Tall Foundation in Des Plaines, a wonderful organization which provides educational and vocational opportunities to at-risk youth.

Mother was in this afternoon (she can never take a day off!) with her Benjamin Moore paint chips to choose a new color for the display cabinet.  She's thinking about something in the orange family in a shade or two darker than the wall as something unexpected.  I think this is a good idea because ivory would be boring and green could end up really clashing with the orange wall.  She's going to see about backing the cabinet in the same black wallpaper with the tropical flowers that is currently backing the main jewelry cabinets.  She's off to buy paint so she can paint it tomorrow!

August 7, 2007: New Display Furniture (again!)

Yesterday I was in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin where my parents have a darling home on Okauchee Lake.  Mother and I went to the antique mall in town, she wanted to show me a display cabinet.  It's made of wood with a glass door, sides and 3 shelves.  It has the French Provincial look of our main jewelry cases and some of the other furniture pieces in the store.  However at $249 we weren't sure if we wanted to make the commitment.  Antique dealers never want to part with their display cases so it's important to seize the opportunity when it strikes!  While we were pondering whether or not to purchase I noticed a note taped to the inside wall.

It said that the piece came from the rectory of St. Joan of Arc Church and was owned by the late Fr. John Murphy.  This was immediately meaningful to us because I was married at that very church 15 years ago and Fr. Murphy performed the ceremony.  We did not know that Fr. passed away.

Mother wanted something from this lovely Spanish-style church because on my birthday, October 7, 2004, they experienced a terrible fire and although they were able to salvage a portion of the building, they had to build a new church and school in nearby Nashotah.  We felt it was meant to be so now the cabinet is in its new home in the front of the store between the main jewelry cases.  There is more room to navigate around the area now!  We moved the green metal display shelf to the back of the store and removed the wood vanity table for now.  I'm sure it will be back again soon!