Good morning and welcome to a cold and rainy Friday morning. As dreary as it looks outside I have to say I am pleased the rain has finally arrived. While I was fine yesterday morning after about ten yesterday morning the high pressure system outside collided with my brain and I ended up with one of those nasty headaches where it feels like your cheekbones are going to pop out of your cheeks and your forehead is going to split down the middle. While the contents of the medicine cabinet did help lower the feeling of impending explosion, I ended up writing and erasing the same paragraph for most of the day. I am hoping that with the rain finally breaking today will be a more productive day. Let’s at least try to get things started with the morning writing prompt. Timers at the ready? Fabulous. Let’s get going.
That was kind of fun. Not at all where I was thinking it would go. But I kinda dig it.
Friday, February 18th: The orders were coming in quickly now.
The orders were coming in quickly now. She felt as though she was in constant motion as she tried to keep up with things. She had a stockpile of the items but needed to schedule time to make more. She had to figure out which items were selling faster than others and adjust her inventory to keep up. She had to wrap the more breakable of her creations carefully, settle them in the appropriate mailers and ship them out, all while remembering to send an e-mail with the tracking numbers to the recipients.
It was a bit manic, but even as she stressed about being able to meet all of her orders there was a relief. Her wares were selling. She knew that part of it was the hype she got from her spot on the local morning show. They did a segment on local businesses each week and her spot had done particularly well with the viewing audience. While she liked to think that part of her current success rate was due to her own marketing as well as the quality of her goods, she knew that a part of her success was an unintended celebrity endorsement.
Their town had one celebrity of note but she was a big one. Known for her lifestyle shows and decorating skills as well as her fantastic taste, she was the local girl who did well. In addition to her own success she married a notable musician.
Ella snorted in amusement even as she carefully slipped the well wrapped delicate glassware into its shipping case. The musician Jella Montgomery married was in the top stratosphere of musicians. One of the mega rock stars. Elle met him a few times when he came hole with Jella during the holidays. He was a polite soft spoken man who seemed to enjoy the quiet of their small town.
Ella wasn’t sure if it was an act or if he actually enjoyed the break from the throng of fans, but she had known Jella since they were kids. They had been close once even if life took them apart. Withstanding the childhood taunting of their rhyming names had once united them even if Jella went on to fame while Ella began a tumultuous career as an artist and now entrepreneur. Even though they were separated now, Ella could still see that her old friend was deep down happy and that counted more than the fame, at least to Ella.
After seeing the spot on the local news, Jella’s mother was one of her first customers. Ella gave her a family discount. The next thing she knew, her pieces were featured not only on one of Jella’s show but held a prominent place in a house tour of Jella’s home.
As a result, orders skyrocketed. Ella knew that she needed to hire help to at least take care of some of the more mundane details. But because of the temporary nature of fame, she was hesitant to expand, less the popularity of her items die off with the fickleness of a flame in the wind.
Ten til Midnight 