Notes from A Cottage Industry

Halloween in the work place.

I have shared before that I am not a huge Halloween person, but much more of a harvest look sort of gal.

That being said, I thought I'd share a bit of my specific office's Halloween display. (I didn't do anything too over the top, just one area of our room.)

My grown up girl company goes a little crazy for Halloween, (and that is putting it mildly!)and we all wear costumes, (You really look like a non-team player if you don't...)so, for today, I am a cupcake fairy.

I cracked myself up this morning, driving to work.

(FYI- It turns out that hot pink tulle keeps its poofiness quite well, even after being smooshed into a seat-belt.)

 

Ask and you shall receive.

Such was the case a month or so ago. You might remember this post, where I shared the awesome award I presented to a teammate at work for her efforts in raising the bar on remarkable.

Even prior to that award presentation, I had been looking online at novelty shops, and during my weekly pit stops at the thrift shops in town for a trophy that would be big enough, and grand enough, and cheap enough for us to use as an ongoing recognition trophy for all of us to continue recognizing those who go above and beyond at work. (Truth be told, I keep a mental list of all the off-the-wall stuff I would LOVE to find at yard sales and this topped the list.)

Two Saturdays ago (the Saturday before I scored the crazy-cool football snack server) I discovered the most off-the-wall-perfect-for-what-I-needed-it-for-sent-from-God-amighty-himself item ever.

Ever.

Let me first say that scoring the loving cup a while back at GoodWill and using it at work was pretty fabulous, but that paled in comparison to what I found on a folding table in a cul-de-sac garage that eventful Saturday morning, and I can honestly say that I had never seen anything like it before. (I would bet my paycheck you haven't either.)

What I saw there on that folding table was a trophy with a small loving cup topped by a business lady up top there. (anyway that is how I would describe her. If you know differently, and it is something else, like a top-producer Encyclopedia Britannica saleswoman from the 60's, or the award for perfect attendance at an all-girl prep school, please do not share it with me, as I am blissfully happy thinking it's a businesswoman.)

Anyway, as I was saying, I spied with my little eyes this glorious meant-for-me trophy and squealed out loud when I spotted her. I pointed her out to my yard sale pal (yes, the Patriot's fan from the story with the football snack server...) but she didn't quite see the awesomeness of the trophy...just yet.

I asked the little middle-aged looking hispanic woman running the garage sale how much it was, and she replied in a thick accent that it was five dollars. (I was appalled, of course. While it was priceless to me, who in their right mind would drop a five dollar bill on this rather unusual trophy? Didn't she realize she was most likely going to still own this oddity at the end of her sale, and she should be thrilled anyone even inquired about it?!)

We got back in the car to leave and I felt compelled to discuss this with my friend before starting the car engine. She is quite wise in matters of bargaining, and incredibly level-headed.Once I explained my vision for the trophy to her, she was inspired as well. I asked her if I should get out and offer the woman two bucks, she said I should go for it.

I opened the car door, stuck my head out, and hollered my new price offer in a casual, nonchalant voice to the woman, and the smart little middle aged lady said sure.

Score.

Now, if you are a yard saler, you will understand this. If not, I can't explain what makes a girl go all tighter-than-Ebenezer-Scrooge when wheelin' and dealin' in someone's driveway, but I can tell you, it's the principle of the thing.

People need to understand that they are hosting a yard sale, pushing their unwanted and many times unsanitary items for resale, and not hosting Nordstrom's semi annual event. (in their garage no less...helloooo, what does that tell them?)

Am I right?!

Anyway, I nabbed this Little-Miss-Books-In-Hand for two dollars, and she could not be more perfect. Today we are awarding our second teammate with the "That's What I'm Talkin' About Award",(An award for raising the bar on remarkability) It will reside on his desk until the next person is awarded down the road. The plan is to continue to add names to the trophy, honoring random acts of remarkabilty.

Yes, the clear stickers did print up like I did it on scotch tape, (hey, you cna't win 'em all. I had nothing else to work with.) but the trashy-ness of the stickers seem to add even more of a funkified-charm look-no?

Oh yeah, we're livin' large at my office. Happy Friday-before-a-three-day-weekend, my friends!

The fairly impromptu Chili-Mac n' Cheese-Dessert Bake Off event.

I am not sure I mentioned that my team at work decided we would take turns by month being in charge of adding fun and value to the team, and the other folks we work with. (Did I share that already? Maybe so.)

Anyway.

I volunteered to take the first month.

(This is right up my alley, and the true sweet spot of my existence!)

I collaborated my a couple of teammates to see if there would be any interest, and threw together a Bake Off to be held this coming Monday. We chose Monday so people could do their cooking on the weekend. We will make entries anonymous and have prizes for winners in all three categories.

I sent out an email yesterday to the departments on our floor and upstairs as well, and the response has already been fun. There are email challenges being thrown around as to who will reign as the first King (or Queen) or Chili.

I am entering a dessert of course, but also have decided to enter a mac n' cheese recipe. I haven't ever done mac n' cheese from scratch, and it sounds so yummy, I can hardly wait to make it.

Last night I whipped out these reminder flyers and sign up sheets to post on the doors of the offices.

Pictures to follow the inaugural event...!

An award for a team mate who is raising the bar on remarkable.

I work for a company that has over 150 employees, and many different departments. I am not sure if I have shared this but, I am a recruiter (We call them Talent Acquisition Managers…sounds much more fancy, doesn’t it?)

Anyway, we have lots of funnier-than-fiction stories and events that unfold as we are working to fill various positions, and a few months back, we decided to start sharing the funnier stories with one another, and then awarding the best one each month or so. We call them “Come on, Man!” stories. (One of my favorites was a person that listed their previous job experience as a “Cow Milker” when applying for a front desk spot in an ENT’s office.)

We recently came up with the idea to share stories of the opposite end of things, and I came up with the idea to call it the “That’s what I’m talkin’ about” stories and award.  Over the past few weeks, one team mate in particular has helped me with a new project and event I proposal I was working on. She gave me some stellar advice and guidance, and I am now moving forward with it.  

I decided to thank her in a big way, and presented it to her with a loving cup trophy from Goodwill, spruced up all Tracey-style....

...at the start of a two department meeting. I had a friend cue in pomp and circumstance on the computer for my background music, and I read my dedication to her in front of the group: (Now remember, you need to read this imagining the graduation march playing in the background, like we did at our meeting...)

The Audigy Group TAM Team Presents the inaugural "That’s what I’m talkin about" award.

Today we salute you, Ms. Theater major turned Talent Acquisition Ninja gal.

For going above and beyond the call of Senior TAM, showcasing your rebel style. Are you ashamed of your rules-are-all-about-interpretation attitude? Hardly. You embrace your think outside of the box attitude with jazz hands enthusiasm.

Talent Acquisition is a game of extreme mad skills, and strategy, and you’ve shown us all that a little bedazzled sweater-vest with a feather flower pin doesn’t hurt either.

Sure, anyone can throw together a cheesy PowerPoint, but only you have the moxi to walk a team mate through the tedious process to score her an audience with the President of the company.

(You’re a star.)

Yours is a magical world, Ms. Bloom, and we are feeling mighty lucky to have you on our team.

. . . . . . . .

She loved it, and so did everyone else.

Oh, how we need to remember, it takes so little to make people feel valued.

A fun little potluck detail.

My picture is lousy, and if I get time later today I will take another, and edit my post. I wanted to share a little sign I whipped up last Monday for a potluck luncheon we threw for a couple of teammates at work whose birthdays slipped past us all the week before.

I make signs for any and all occasions, and I like to put them in my vintage sign holders, or have them sticking out of my one of my old typewriters. I found the wording for this sign on a cute card on this adorable site, and tweaked it to work for our coworkers.

It was a hit.

Going the extra mile, in an oh-so-charming way.

When I began training for my new position at my grown up girl job, I knew I wanted to make a lasting impression on the clients I would be dealing with.

And, I knew exactly how I was going to do this.

I immediately called my incredibly talented card-designer gal-pal and asked her to create some fabulous note cards for me to send out correspondence to clients.

She ordered some rubber stamps from a grouping that I had liked on her previous cards. They are all stamps of girls doing things, without showing a face.(You see, we work with offices all over the nation and so we do not necessary meet face to face, at least not too often, so I really liked that idea.)

Anyway,

As I said, she ordered the stamps I liked. Then, she got busy crafting and designing, using oodles and toodles of various shades and patterns of purple paper, since our logo is purple. Finally, she added our company logo to the cards. When she got them finished, she sent them by post.

They arrived last Saturday.

Be still my heart.

She out-did herself. So cute. So professional, and polished. So....perfect for what I needed.Now, when I finish a job for one of our members, I will write a note to them inside one of these sweet little cards, and pop it in the mail, post suite.

*sigh*

I heart these little works of art, masquerading as stationery, and I know my clients will be tickled purple when they find one in their mail box.

Adding a little charm to my work-place supplies.

I think I shared a short while back that I got a nice promotion at my grown up girl job.

And I am really enjoying it.

As I am learning the various aspects of my new job, I have divised some strategies for keeping various data straight, and in order. That brings me to today's post.

I bought a pile of composition books back in late August, when it was back-to-school sales were in force, and I got them for fifty-seven cents a book at WalMart. (Still cheap, they are normally about a dollar each.) Anyway, I decided to use some of my composition books for work, to use for note keeping...
...and tracking my activities with certain members.

All I needed to do to add a little charm to these other-wise ordinary comp books was to personalize them by covering the generic cover wording with home-made labels.

Easy, peasy.

In no time at all I had three personalized journals for my desk at work, and they look like me. (does that make sense?)
After creating these, it occurred to me these sweet little journals would make fabulous gifts as well, and for mere pennies.

I like that part too.

And I'm sharing it with you, 'cause I thought you'd like it too.

Allow me to introduce myself.

The position I hold at my grown up girl  involves working with two separtate teams. Today, I made an appointment to meet with each of these teams to introduce myself formally.

You know, some of them already know me, but I wanted to give them my own little five minute elevator speech about my career background, and I especially wanted to make sure they knew just how thrilled I am to have the opportunity to to work with their respective teams.

I decided that a nice touch would be to start my introduction with little treats; spice cupcakes with maple frosting and starbucks frappacinos, specifically.
Needless to say, the treats were the perfect ice breaker, and the teams were even more awesome than I was anticipating!

I think I am gonna love this job.

Halloween hits the workplace.

Last Friday I moved to a new cubical at work, and so I spent part of last Sunday foofifyig up my cube. (I know, you are not the least bit surprised.)

I went with super affordable black plastic frames on black and white family photos in several sizes. (God Bless Walgreens! Cheap and speedy photo prints you cna order online and pick up in an hour!)
I added some photo boxes for storage, and my vintage typewriter, and used an old clipp-y holder I found at Camas Antiques to hold more black and white pictures. (I am pretty sure the metal holder was originally a potato chip bag holder from a mini mart!)

Here is the back end of my cubical workspace...
Then, I added just a hint of Halloween to it. I added my signature book page "BOO" Banner, and a few cobwebs..
...and some glittery spiders...
....and a little crow.
...Oh, and Mr. Bones here completed the look.
One of my gal-pals at work said it looked very "Poe-esque" and I took that as a compliment. (Considering I am really not a more-is-more person when it comes to Halloween decorating.)

I don't know if I shared this before, but the folks where I work are really a lot of fun. They are creative types, with think-outside-the-box mentalities, and they are competative. This all makes for a positive and challenging, feel-good atmosphere to work in. (And play in.)

Anyway.

We had a cubical decorating contest, a costume contest, and trick-or-treating from cubical to cubical near the end of the day for all of the employees kids. (And Grand-kids!)
I loved watching my little men comparing their stash with another little guy....
...and watching them scurry with their Daddy to get more treats from the Good Witch across the hall.

So much fun.

Next fun-at-work event? Getting ready for the Christmas Cubical Decorating contest, of course.

The First Annual Bake-Off, baby.

I told you we were having a Bake Off at our Company Picnic, right?

Well, we had some pretty incredible (and yummy!) entries, and I want you to know that, if your work place has an Annual Company Shindig, you might wanna consider adding a Bake-Off to the mix. It's a lot of fun, and well, people love to compete. Some were baked by Junior Bakers (under 12) and some by Not-Junior Bakers (Um....ehem....over 12)

And, we took the judging very seriously.
In the end, we all had fun enjoying the treats, and I am betting we will have triple the entries next year.

EVERY Company Picnic needs one of these.

....don'tcha think so?

oh yeah.

Nothing is more fun than watching your fellow employees go down a 30 foot blow up water slide.
Well, nothing except watching two of them.

Here comes good ol' Santa Claus....

I don't recall sharing anything about my co-worker friend Clarence. 

Clarence is 80 years young and proud of it. For most of the year, he's our sweet lil' mailroom guy, but come December things start to change. He grows his beard a bit longer and fuller, and he gets out his nice red suit.

Mmm hmmm, he's our very own in-house Santa! Last Thursday and Friday he and Mrs. Claus (another good sport-co-worker friend) sat and listened to countess wish lists from kids (and Grand-kids!) of employees...(Have I mentioned that I love where I work?)

Carter was a little shy this year, but managed to sit on Santa's lap and have a lil' chit-chat, but Coen wanted no part of Old St. Nick. Now, Mrs. Claus was another story....(I'm telling you, this little guy is totally a ladies man!)

 

...Hard to believe Christmas will be here in just one more week!

Winter Wonderland.

Nothing like a little snow to make things merry and bright for the holiday season....even if you don't live where there are real snowflakes falling outside! Mmmm hmmm, just use a few bags of fake snow, drizzled in handfuls over the twinkle-lit tree, and you're good to go.

Little details of mittens, and faux flocked boughs, old ice skates, and my personal favorites of the season, my little winter birds, complete the winter wonderland look. 

The giant cardboard letters (From JoAnn's Fabrics and Crafts...available in three sizes!) painted a weathered red, and be-decked with more snow were a fun touch showcasing our company initials...

A coworker friend provided a roaring fire for my big screen behind the counter...how fun is that?! 

A thrifted fake wood (plastic!) mirror, reinvented with a coat of white primer and adorned with flocked boughs anda lil' sweet snowman...

...changed the alcove from all business to a warm and welcoming spot in the room.(Sorry for the sort of blurry-out-of-focus-odd-angled picture!) The thing going across the mirror is the Winter Wonderland Banner's reflection.

Oh yes, people, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

The merriment continues...

Can you guess what I will be doing with these pieces today? I'll be sharing pictures in my next post!

Creating a better world with cookies and milk.

**Before I begin, let me say that my photos came out really poorly due to the lighting in my office....**

Christmas decorating isn't only reserved for your home, you know.

We are having so much fun at work this week! We're decking the halls...er....the main lobby areas on two floors, along with the reception area...for Christmas! To kick off the festivities on Monday afternoon we had Christmas music playing, and I decided to offer up a lil' buffet of milk and cookies.

I began by emailing everyone on my floor (we have three entire floors of employees..) the following quote:

(in case you can't read it in the photo: Think what a better world it would be if we all - the whole world - had cookies and milk about three o'clock every afternoon...Robert Fulgum) and I invited them to help create a better world by stopping by the reception area for a treat.

I served the milk in old wine carafes I got a long time ago at a thrift store, tied with little gingham ribbons and placed in a bucket of ice....

The cookies were a nice combination of homemade (by me and a friend at work) and my good pal, Trader Joe. (I adore his dark chocolate star cookies!)

I am decorating the entire reception area (more pics in a post to follow later...)in traditional red, white...and non-traditional grey tones.....

A five dollar scarf from WalMart makes a fabulous winter-time runner, a jingle bell from a place setting a few years ago (remember it here? Wow. Was it really 2007?!Feels like it was last year...)

....and dollar mittens complete the look.(Oh! And, aren't you lovin' my stocking cap birdies from Camas Antiques?)

So, how's your work space looking this Christmas season? What do you do to add some cheer? I'd love to hear!