Blogging for Bucks

Erica Tannen of The E-List shares her road trip from Fashion Industry Maven to "Belle of the Blog"

"Anyone in the fashion industry will tell you it's impossible to get out, but I finally did" says Erica Tannen. After 25 years of owning and buying for specialty retail companies, I launched the-e-list (http://www.the-e-list.com/). I have an eye for style, a strong opinion and a knack for knowing what's coming next. My friends think I'm a blabbermouth. Due to my inability to say no, I am a fanatic volunteer in my community, my daughter's school and my favorite art institution, the Florence Griswold Museum. In my spare time, I am a wife and mother of a teen-age daughter."

Sounds simple, Erica!

Design Salon is looking forward to Erica's story and how she turned a creative idea into an uber-$ucce$$ful business.

Ladies, if you are not a blogger and you don't care much about turning fantastic ideas into $ (yeah, right), then stop by to check out fellow salonista Mitra Morgan's sweet spot- Joss and Main (http://www.jossandmain.com/).

When: Wednesday, May 25

Time: 7:00 pm

Where: Joss and Main Showroom

177 Huntington Ave (overlooking Christian Science Center)

R.S.V.P.: jill.palese@gmail.com

Please bring wine and/or snacks to share with the group!

5 Under 40 - Overview | New England Home

Award winning "Salonistas"

Last month, New England Home chose outstanding local talents for the "5 Under 40" award. Happily, 3 of the 5 winners are current members of Design Salon. Here's to you, you talented and hard working ladies...

Kelly Harris Smith, www.filzfelt.com. Kelly is one of the founding members of Design Salon and on the planning board.

Rachel Rieder, www.rachelreider.com, interior designer.

Debra Folz, www.debrafolz.com, Furniture and Home design.

5 Under 40 - Overview New England Home: "New England Home's 5 Under 40 awards spotlight the hottest emerging talent in residential design in New England, including architecture, interiors, furniture, and home design products and accessories. Selected by an all-star committee of regional design leaders, 5 Under 40 winners are the people to watch, producing some of the most beautiful and innovative work available today."

Oh la la...

Stacey Santo is rocket-hot! As senior marketing executive and on the "starting team" of Boston based retailer Rue la la, she defines the word "multi tasker". Stacey and Rue have cooked up a blend of fashion/bargains/marketing/innovation/technology resulting in the perfect blend of pure and simple GENIUS!

Come hear how Stacey has managed to give retail giants a run for their money and how she has made bargain shopping uber hip! It's sure to be a la la lavish treat for us!

We will meet at one of our favorite cozy spots...Twelve Chairs Boston. http://www.twelvechairsboston.com/ .

When: Tuesday, April 5th

Time: 7:00

Where: Twelve Chairs319 A Street. Fort Point. Boston

R.S.V.P.- Jill.palese@gmail.com

Please bring snacks and wine to share with the group!

Living Life in the Fab Lane

Mother + Daughter = perfection

Forget romance for the month of February! Blood is thicker than water, especially when Barbara Goldberg, owner of Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams Furniture store and her daughter, Jill Goldberg, owner of Hudson Boutique in the South End are involved. This dynamic duo has graciously set aside the evening of February 24th (YES, it's a Thursday) to host the ladies of Design Salon at Hudson. The will share their interesting stories about the retail and interior design business in Boston, what it is like to work as collaborators and competitors and how they have successfully navigated their way though the finicky world of retail and interior design in our beloved, buttoned up city.

Where: Hudson Boutique

312 Shawmut Avenue

When: Thursday, February 24, 2011

Time: 7:00

R.S.V.P.: Jill.palese@gmail.com

Limited to 25, so reserve early!

Please bring wine and snacks to share with the group.

Fabulous for the New Year Party! ***RESCHEDULED SNOW DATE IS TUESDAY, JAN. 25TH***

Happy New Year, Ladies!

A new year always brings endless opportunity for new beginnings, new ways of thinking, new designs and business ventures. For members of Design Salon, January also brings the chance to meet fabulous new designing women at our Meet and Greet Party!

Please join us on Tuesday, January 25th at 7:00 pm for a meet and greet party. Doris Yaffa, voted "Fast Lane Fabulous" by Boston Magazine's Best of Boston.com, will kick off the evening. Jessica de Guardiola, owner of 5s Public Relations firm http://www.5spr.com/ has generously offered to host the evening in her beautiful new studio.

Doris, an eighty-something public relations consultant for non-profit, has seen many interesting aspects in her career. Early on, Doris found herself working in fashion and eventually worked her way to Fashion Director for Saks Fifth Avenue. She was an insider in the glamorous high fashion world for quite a while. When she decided that fashion was not her passion anymore, she made major life and career changes that were brave and bold. Doris is inspirational, stylish, outspoken and timeless. www.boston.com/lifestyle/fashion/articles/2008/11/20/yaffe/

We will be mingling with Doris and fellow Design Salon members! Please be prepared with a topic that you would like to share. Since this is a party, please bring your favorite wine and snacks to share with the group! Looking forward to being inspired by all of you.

When: Tuesday, January 25th

Time: 7:00

Where: 5S

560 Harrison Ave Suite 508

Boston, MA

RSVP: Jill.palese@gmail.com

Studio Carta Grand Opening!

Taking it to the next level! If, when and how to grow your business from $100,000 to $1.5 Million

Ladies, don't miss this fabulous opportunity to hear from two design powerhouses, Ebony Snow Chafey and Suji Meswani who are happy to share their success stories with you.

Chicago based Ebony Snow Chafey of Snow and Graham www.snowandgraham.com and Philadelphia based Suji Meswani of Skeem Design www.skeemdesign.com will travel to Boston for an evening at one of our favorite meeting places, the luxurious Mohr and McPherson www.mohr-mcpherson.com. We will hear real life success stories about how these designers took their ideas, their talent and a (maybe?) a little bit of luck and grew it to what is now businesses with $1.5 M in sales. We hope it will inspire you to take it up a notch in your own design studios here in Boston!

Ebony Snow Chafey has been in business for 14 years and claims that "it is the relationships that I have developed with my customers and vendors that have allowed my company to be successful and to get through difficult economic times". Chafey says "I founded Snow and Graham straight out of art school (the School of the Art Institute of Chicago) where my focus was on sculpture in the metals foundry". She goes on to say that "I dabbled in print making. I stumbled upon a letterpress print shop here in Chicago and fell in love with the process- it made me want to draw. Along the way, I learned how to get a product produced, distributed and sold"! "It was a lot of trial and error and a little luck", she says. "Now, S&G is headed into it's 14th year, but I say it is the last 2 that really count".

Suji Meswani, founder and co-owner of Skeem Design founded the company in 2004. Inspired by travels to exotic locales such as India, Costa Rica and New Zealand, Skeem design developed a perfect wax formulation along with gorgeous scents, colors and packaging. "Everything can be a source of inspiration, whether an exotic locale, a piece of music, a show at a museum, fashion or antique textiles", says Suji. "The name Skeem?" Meswani says "is a play on words and the founder's scheme to break free from the corporate world".

When: Wednesday, November 3rd

Time: 7:00 pm
Place: Mohr and McPherson

460 Harrison Avenue

Boston, MA

Please bring wine and/or snacks to share with the group

***Come early, M&M is open until 7:00 pm. You can start your evening off with some lovely inspiration shopping at the store before the meeting.

RSVP: Jill.palese@gmail.com

Limited to 40 people, so please respond early.

What the Tweet?

Welcome to Fall 2010

The sad news is... summer is SO over! But not to fret, Design Salon Boston is gearing up for another great season of hot topics that are sure to keep your creative juices heated up. So I say, "Bring on those dreary fall New England days. Mother Nature, give us the best that you've got! We'll design the hell out of those cold, drafty rooms... all we need is a little color, some interesting patterns, beautiful textiles, fabulous lighting AND a bottle of red wine...voila!"

Please join us at 12 Chairs for an earnest discussion from two Stylish Tweeters who are enjoying great success.

Stacy Kunstel http://www.stacystyle.wordpress.com/, stylist, editor, writer and producer will be back for her second annual discussion about Twitter, Twittering, Tweeting. She will detail "Why to Tweet, how she started, what it has done for her, what she looks for in other tweeters and what makes it effective." Come prepared for an interactive discussion. If you are not yet a tweeter, sign up, bring your twitter name and get prepared to get connected....it only takes a short while.

Stacy is a constant traveler, finding houses and locations for magazines, which she then styles to produce beautiful photo shoots with some of the top interior photographers. As Homes Editor for New England Home magazine, New England Home Cape and Islands and New England Home Connecticut, and as a regional editor for Traditional Home, Better Homes & Gardens, Coundry Living, and Renovation Style, she writes, makes television appearances and works with interior designers and architects photograph their own work for books and portfolios.

Also, we will hear from Julieanne Covino of Jace Interiors http://www.jaceinteriors.com/ whose style blog is named CreateGirl http://www.creategirl.blogspot.com/. The blogger and Design Salon member Holly Becker of the popular blog Decor8 wrote a piece about Julieanne after she appeared in Daily Candy http://decor8blog.com/2006/10/03/meet-julieanne-of-jace-interiors-boston-ma-/. Julieane Covino has a wonderful sense of style that she generously shares with her blog and twitter followers and through her work at Jace Interiors. She offers her clients an approachable attitude toward design. The idea that owning a beautiful space is available to anyone's budget. Fine Design need NOT be intimidating.

Perhaps the best reason to step out of your door on October 5th is to check out the FABULOUS new Fort Point boutique, 12 Chairs. "Twelve Chairs is a home furnishings shop and interior design studio located in Boston's up-and-coming Fort Point neighborhood. The shop provides a well-edited, thoughtful, and beautiful collection of items that surpass the company's standards of sustainability, good stewardship, and just plain good looks. Twelve Chairs promotes the idea that beautiful design and respect of the planet and its people do not have to be mutually exclusive. To learn more check out http://www.twelvechairsboston.com/."

12 Chairs has generously offered to host Design Salon in their brand new space! Please bring snacks and White Wine only- no red please!

When: Tuesday, October 5th

Time: 7:00 pm

Where: 12 Chairs

319 A Street

Boston, MA 02210

R.S.V.P.- jill.palese@gmail.com

"Trend/Spotting" Night

"Trend/Spotting" Night with host expert Susan Battista, (principal of market research firm Topc101), at her fashionable home in the south end.

Tuesday June 15th
7pm-9pm
24 Rutland St. Boston

join Susan for a fun workshop where she will show us how to use market research tools to take our business to...
THE NEXT LEVEL! Susan has gotten great results using this same method with both big and small companies.
She promises we will not only have fun, but we will also learn:
*to reposition our brand
*to create smarter marketing plans
*to attract new customers
* to do something GOOD for our businesses

Attendance is limited to 15.

Please rsvp directly to susan at susan@topic101.com

The June 15 session will be held in the South End from 7 - 9pm
please bring snacks and wine to share with the group

Blogger's Ball II

It was so great the first time that we have decided to do it again! Please join us for our second annual Blogger's Ball, happening on May 18th in the Fabulous Mitchell Gold Showroom.

Our fashionable headliners for the evening are the young style mavens and trend experts; Erin Gates, Liana Peterson and Jessica Sutton.

Erin Gates, founder of Elements of Style (http://www.elementsofstyleblog.com/) will speak candidly about her style blog, fashion, culture and the scene inside and outside of Boston. Her career as a blogger is skyrocketing right now, and Erin will tell us how and why.

Liana Peterson, founder of the blog New Brahmin (http://www.newbrahmin.com/) stays on top of the fashion scene as the founder and Executive Editor of her blog, New Brahmin. She, along with a host of rocket-hot guest writers have made New Brahmin a regular read for (the new breed of ) Bostonian.

Jessica Sutton of JS Graphic Design, (www.jessicasutton.com/daucuscarota) formerly a web designer of Fresh, is piping hot as a solo act! She will speak with us about why one should and should NOT blog or become a blogger. She is keenly interested in Fashion, Culture and all things in between.

When: May 18th
Time: 7:00

Where: Mitchell Gold Showroom

142 Berkeley Street

South End, Boston

RSVP: Jill.palese@gmail.com

Please bring questions, snacks and wine to share with the group!

Art and Wine Party

Getting Buzzworthy

An Evening with Marni Katz

Marni Katz, City Editor for NBC and the writer for the blog Style Carrot (http://www.stylecarrot.com/) will will share her expertise with The Salon. The candid discussion will cover Public Relations and Marni's tips on the who, what, why and how of getting and keeping your work in front of the press!

This is a very limited engagement for the first 20 people to RSVP!

When: Tuesday, April 27th

Where: Mohr and McPherson

(www.mohr-mcpherson.com)

480 Harrison Avenue

South End

Time: 7:00

R.S.V.P.: Jill.palese@gmail.com

Please bring snacks and wine to share with the group!

Check out this upcoming class at MassArt

When: Wednesday, April 28th

7:00

Where: MassArt Tower Building, 11th Floor, Trustees room

Part 1: Contracts

What are contracts and why do you need them? What should you make sure to put into your next contract? We'll be learning about these important documents with the Graphic Artists Guild's Advocacy Chairperson, Lisa Shaftel and how to create a proper agreement without a lawyer and with one hand behind your back.

Part 2: What is Licensing?

Licensing is big business, presenting tremendous opportunities for graphic artists of all disciplines to generate revenue in new markets. However, far too many artists don't recognize that licensing can be a hugely profitable segment of their business. Get the information you need to get started!

cost: before April 20:

Sutdents w/ valid ID: $2.00

Guild Members and MassArt Alumni: $5.00

Non-Members: $10.00

Cost After April 20 and at door:

Students with valid ID: $5.00

Guild Members and MassArt Alumni: $8.00

Non-members: $15.00

For more info and to register, please visit the online community.

Networking News.....

Ahhhhhh, spring. Time to come out to play.

Stuck inside your design room? Need to get away from the computer? Hiding from a cranky buyer? Fear opening the mail? It sounds like you need to spend some time with fellow designers or creative women who are doing the same thing.

Please join us on Tuesday, March 30th at 7:00 for a social night with fellow salonistas. We want to see your creative selves especially if you are thinking about attending but feeling shy, moody, intimidated, uninspired or just downright sick and tired of the business of business.

Salon networking night is a good opportunity to chat with the talented New England designers and that drive New England's creative scene. Be prepared to exchange ideas, promote your line and chat about yourself and your work. If you are new to Design Salon, come check us out. If you haven't checked in for awhile, now is the time.....

We will gather in Jill Rosenwald's fabulous studio space in Fort Point. Please bring wine and/or snacks to share with the group.

SEE YOU THERE!

When: Tuesday, March 30

Time: 7:00 pm

Where:

Jill Rosenwald's Studio Space

369 Congress Street, Fort Point

2nd Floor

R.S.V.P: Jill.palese@gmail.com