slowing down with johnny edward
I guess it’s no surprise that I liked this song after one listen on xm radio. Turn’s out he also is a John Mayer fan.
It’s a lovely little tune that has an ever important reminder to slow down a bit.
A quote from his facebook page reads, “It’s crazy how things happen. I picked up the guitar in high school to learn how to play a few John Mayer songs, and now I’ll be playing on the same radio show he did only a few years ago. Thanks to all my friends and family who encouraged me to stick with it or put up with me practicing into the wee hours of the night.”
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kitchen play giveaway
Since it’s still too chilly in the mitten to get out and play in the yard, why not have a little fun experimenting with some new recipes in your kitchen?
Recently we featured a collection of really good recipes using wine and one of the talented chefs we showcased offered her recently published recipe book for us to giveaway to our firefly fans. Carrie’s Experimental Kitchen is full of high quality, family-friendly meals using ingredients you already have in your home. So we paired it with a few of our fabulous kitchen finds like our recipe rock (which holds up to 8 pages of recipes for easy viewing), super absorbent Swedish dishcloth and oh-so-cute apron with a removable towel. ($69.84 value)
Just enter below & we’ll select the lucky firefly fan’s name on Tuesday, April 2, 2013 and the winner will be listed on this post.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Have fun, good luck and thanks for playing!
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thanks for making our opening grand!
They skies may have been grey but it was a sun-shiny day inside our new Ann Arbor shops thanks to our fantastic firefly fans!
We enjoyed live tunes by talented guys all day long. Here is a little taste of the day…
One big hit of the day was our live photo booth. It was fun because even the camera shy could hide behind silly glasses or marvelous mustaches.
Even Steve’s shy mom and sister picked up some props and posed for us! See all the silly photo booth photos HERE. Many fans asked if our props were for sale so I put together a few of my simple drawings for you to print at home.
I suggest printing on a light weight card stock. Then just cut them out and hot glue a thin wooden dowel or kabob skewer to them and your good to go! It’s a sweet and simple way to add some fun to any party. Print the photo props HERE.
Thanks again for making our opening day one to remember! Looking forward to seeing your smiling faces for many years to come! <3 team catching fireflies
firefly facelift: before and after
After painting almost everything, re-purposing and tossing out some old display pieces and also bringing in some new… I believe we have achieved the fresh look we were going for at our Berkley store. Of course one of my favorite parts of those ‘makeover shows’ is the classic before/after shots so here are a few of ours…
We kept our crazy mannequins and positioned them so they were spilling out ‘paint’ from a few of our empty cans. The dresses and ‘paint’ all were created from plastic party tablecloths. (LOVE the color selection they have of these at Party City)
We said goodbye to almost all of our painted pine boards we used for shelves and replaced them with hutches, leaving room for small wall vignettes in between. And since we loved how the marquee letters SHINE looked at our new Ann Arbor shop, we decided on adding SMILE to Berkley’s store-scape.
We also got rid of all our card holding eaves troughs and moved most of the cards to acrylic spinners. This allowed room to add a retro vinyl love seat and more crates of cool finds for the guys.
The big front table and hanging window were replaced by a trio of industrial spools and giant tree budding with pretty paper lanterns.
A wall of doors was also removed from the front area which opened up the space nicely.
We moved the bath and body section to where the pet goods used to be and opened up our jewelry and accessories section by removing the hutches and windows. This also allowed room for our cool new candy display.
We re-purposed all the doors that used to be walls and made them self-standing cubes that display anything from handbags, jewelry, books, tiles and more.
The new pet table is where all the a.i. paper goods used to be displayed and our jewelry has moved out of the hutches and onto table tops.
By removing a few of our kitchen hutches we created a eye-catching wall-o-crates that display goods & recipe books very nicely. The baby section also got streamlined a bit.
And of course there is the girly room, check-out, quirky & cool products too… but you’ll just have to come visit us soon to see those sections. We hope you enjoy our firefly facelift! Now I need to take a nap or maybe escape to a sunny island for a bit… and then start to think about a small Rochester re-do!
You know us fireflies… always flying forward ;-) Thanks for following us through our facelift!
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plan to party with us this saturday
It has been a busy start to 2013 for this firefly family so we think it’s about time to celebrate! So on Saturday, March 16 we are throwing a little party for all of you! Lots of action is happening at all THREE of our locations…
To kick off the GRAND OPENING of our third location in Ann Arbor we are giving away free goodies (like that cute bag pictured above) to our first 100 firefly fans through the door! We’ll also have acoustic music throughout the day, a live photo booth with silly props, sweet treats & 20% OFF EVERYTHING all day long. We are located at 419 Detroit Street in the Kerrytown district of Ann Arbor and are open from 9-6 on Saturday.
Can you believe our Rochester location is 7 years old already? Stop by our turquoise train depot for fun times, sweet treats and 20% off EVERYTHING all day long. We are located at 203 E. University in downtown Rochester and are open from 10-6 on Saturday.
Our Berkley location may be our original and oldest store BUT it has a BRAND NEW LOOK! Come check out our new digs, enjoy some sweet treats and get 20% OFF EVERYTHING all day long. We are located at 3117 W 12 Mile in downtown Berkley and are open from 10-6 on Saturday.
And if you can’t make it out this Saturday or don’t live in the area we are also extending the 20% deal when you shop online NOW through March 17 when you use coupon code: PARTY (we also offer free delivery to all our locations)
Hope to see your smiling faces this Saturday. Thank your for celebrating with us!
firefly facelift – day 5 and 6
The last two days of our fast and furious facelift were the most work. Once again I have to thank our team for all their hard work, late nights and extra shifts needed to pull this off. We are about at 90% completion in these photos. This week we’ll put up more artwork up on the walls, add tree branches budding with paper lanterns in a few displays, light up a marquee sign that reads, SMILE and place a clothesline or two in the baby & kitchen section to complete the look.
But without further ado here are the fruits of our labor…
After we add all the extra touches we’ll do some before and after shots for fun. Stay tuned…
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firefly facelift – day 3 and 4
We went through our share of colorful paint on Tuesday. Our fabulous firefly team is doing an amazing job helping us transform our whimsical space. We are so grateful to have such a positive, flexible and hard working crew. Thank you gals!
Now… if we could only teach Piper how to paint trim work.
The back half of the store floor also got covered in chocolate brown paint. The only thing we didn’t move this time was the kitchen sink.
In addition to painting there was a lot of taking apart and putting together displays.
Now… if we could only teach Piper how to use a drill.
And then there is transitioning all the product. This is when I say…”Why did I think we could do all this in 6 days?”
The next two days will be filled with finishing up painting some displays and then merchandising all our whimsical wares in their new spots! Here are a few more peeks of how things are starting to come together.
As you can see, it’s back to the shop for me! Stay tuned…
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firefly facelift – day 1 and 2
It has been 6 years since the last time we gave our original Berkley location a makeover and we decided it was time to mix it up again. Inspired by our latest location we’re turning our current sherbet color theme into a more punchy palette. Also we are saying goodbye to a lot of our traditional shelving and adding more industrial spool table tops.
First the un-fun part… tearing apart the store after the store closes on Saturday night.
For some reason when we first moved in that space over 12 years ago we decided to put down 4×8 pressed wood boards to cover the commercial carpeting. I still can’t recall why we made this choice but it does mean we need to paint the boards from time to time. This marks our fourth coat and means everything in the front of the store has to be stored in the back while we paint away.
As you can see, this paint job was WAY overdue and it was also time to say goodbye to our floor fireflies. This marks the end of our first night… or shall I say morning (a lovely 1am first coat finish)
Day 1 included taking down all our wall art, patching hundreds of nail holes and painting, painting, painting. Ready for a red wall behind our check-out?
Day 2 included a big delivery of industrial spools and other display pieces plus more painting of walls, furniture and more. In the evening we started to position some of our displays so we can start transitioning all the product from the back of the store to the front so we can repeat this process to the back half of the shop!
Now it’s time for me to close this computer and head back to work! Stay tuned…
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hooray for jetty rae
If I was a musician and had to write a song & make a video… it would probably look like Jetty Rae’s latest release, The Nice Ones.
She is a local gal and her music came up in conversation when I was chatting with one of our new Ann Arbor firefly gals and I instantly added her to my spotify play list.
A review reads, “Drowning in Grain is truly the best of what folk music has evolved into. Jetty Rae has created an album that will connect with you no matter what the day brings.”
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hello ann arbor!
After many weeks of preparation we happily opened our doors on Detroit Street this Wednesday.
It seems so long ago when we originally looked at the space and to be honest, it’s still sinking in that it is finally a reality. We had a blast putting everything together and are delighted with how it turned out! Here are some of the classic before/after shots…
Talk about the power of paint, right? And now for the rest of the tour…
We invite you to stop by anytime to see our colorful world in person. We are open Mon-Fri 10-6, Sat. 9-6 and Sun 11-5. Also for a grand time, make plans to visit us on Saturday, March 16 for 20% off everything, acoustic grooves, sweet treats, a live photo booth & free goodies for the first 100 firefly fans.
Looking forward to seeing many of your smiling faces soon!
