Happy One Year Vivid Hue, Our Celebration Recap

This summer we celebrated our one year Vivid Hue Home anniversary.  We invited our best clients to join us for an evening of  hors d'oeuvres, shopping and wine.  It was our way to show thanks for all of the support everyone has given us since opening our brick and mortar doors just a little over a year ago.

This was a big milestone for us and Acorn Talk Photography was on hand to capture the essence of the evening.  While we are professionals, we also know how to be silly and celebratory when the occasion beckons.   (Oh who am I kidding, we are always silly).   I love the photo on the left where Annie seems to be communicating to me with her eyes saying "Why in the world am I standing up here posing with a Mardi Gras feathered mask?"

Lindsey, Heather and Annie on the front porch at Vivid Hue Home

The kids were in attendance for the first portion of the evening before I had a sitter whisk them away.

Anyone that follows my instagram knows that my kids are always dressed in athletic gear.  Jack has a strict self-induced "NO COLLARED SHIRT" policy.  Smidge is only rarely caught in a dress.   Needless to say, this photo is one for the photo album because it captures the quick second where they were getting along and complying with the photo session.  (Not pictured:  balloons popping and Jack pulling out his tattered hockey USA tee shirt).

Smidge (Vivi), Heather and Jack

They even made it for awhile longer so that we could snap a rare family photo together.  

Jack, Heather, EG and Smidge

It's amazing how many of my friends have super fab talents.  A friend from high school, Jill Fahey, owns Sugar, LLC and designs custom cakes and sugar cookies that are beyond breath-taking.  I had her create these cookies from the Vivid Hue Home logo for the celebration.  (Yes, she hand painted every bit of the detail from our logo...stunning!)

Vivid Hue Home sugar cookies custom made by Sugar, LLC

And Lindsey used to operate her own pastry catering business in her previous life.  She made these fabulous petite cupcakes with pastel buttercream frosting.  Yummy!

All guests appeared to have a great time, which is exactly what we hoped for.  

Annie with her husband, Bill.  Bruce Charette (love him), and Lindsey and her daughter, Phoebe 

Emily Sapione, Codarus

Heather with Jodie Liddy

The food was catered by the Bees Knees Catering.  

Georgia Zikas

Christine Feinberg with our fabulous summer associate, Alli Burns

Amy Wildhack, EG, Sue McMillan

Jodie Liddy, Heather and Sally Lerman

Lisa Goldstein and Ali Galin

Lisa Goldstein

We have had an incredible kick start for Vivid Hue Home during our first year in business.  We have plenty of plans to grow Vivid Hue over the next year and more.  We are truly grateful and thankful for the wonderful support we've received by our local community and beyond (yes, fellow friends on Instagram, Facebook and the website....you, too, have attributed to our steady growth).  Thank you!

Cheers, 

Heather 

Off to a Bright New Year!

Vivid Hue Home + Gifts

775 Farmington Ave | Farmington CT  06032

860-677-0301 | vividhuehome.com

Hours: Mon Closed, Tues + Wed 10-5pm, Thurs 10-6pm, Fri 10-5pm Sat + Sun 10-4pm

I got back into the shop this morning after a mini-holiday hiatus.  I must admit, I wasn't entirely excited to get back in there because there was so much work to be done.  The holidays were good to us and the store was completely picked over and bare.  I still had remnants of our holiday merchandise and showers of red and green themed products spattered throughout the shelves.

I am now pleased to say that our holiday items have been moved onto our clearance shelves (60% off, I might add).  And the store has been refreshed with bright colors and new inventory!

My recent ordering trend is towards pineapples!  Not only are they the sign of prosperity, they're so cheery and welcoming.  What a perfect house warming gift!

 

 

We also have a hot pink and black theme going!  I tell you, I'm already ready for preppy spring gifts (and it just finally got cold here!)

 

This watermelon bag is a cooler (perfect for carting around juice boxes or beer or wine).  And the heart pitcher would be perfect with flowers for a Valentine's Day gift!  

If the shoe fits, buy it in every color!   These custom koi pillows are my fave!  

Our S'Well bottle inventory was completely wiped out over the holidays but we have more coming in every single size.  (And just about every single color combination you could imagine!! ) 

This little petit vase is one of my favorites, too.  It would be precious in a little kid's room sitting on a bookshelf.  Each side has a different pattern and an equally sweet French child's character on it.  

We still have our staple custom furniture and home decor brands.  Cotton + Quill pillows, Society Social Sofa, World's Away Lacquer Green Coffee Table, Taylor Burke Kings Grant Chairs, Vintage Palm Beach 1970's Chairs.  And we will be getting even more fun pillows in stock!

Looking forward to starting the year off with lots of color!
Whew, just after I arranged the entire store like this today, several more shipments arrived.  It's fun to unwrap the new deliveries, but boy is it work!

I'll be heading to the NY NOW gift show at the end of the month.  Hard to believe it, but I'll be scouting items for the spring and summer!!!

Hope you are all staying warm!  If you're local, pop into the shop and see what we have in person.

Cheers,
Heather

Vivid Hue appears on Better Connecticut!

Today we were thrilled to be featured on Better Connecticut with Scott Haney and Kara Sundlun.  Reporter Melissa Cole came for a visit to the shop and we discussed how to create a holiday mantle that will last through the autumn season. 

Impress Your Guests on Thansgiving with these décor tips
To view the segment, click here. 

Next Month, I will be on Better Connecticut again discussing how to make a terrific New England (live) centerpiece!

Vivid Hue Home is open

Tuesday through Friday 930am-5pm 

Saturday and Sunday 10-4pm

We are located at 775 Farmington Ave, Farmington CT  06032

Check out how Vivid Hue Home builds garland for the stairs at Christmas here.

Let's Cut The Ribbon

I tend to stretch my celebrations out as much as possible, so of course, celebrating the opening of the Vivid Hue Home shop is no different.

On Thursday, October 1st at 4pm, the Farmington Chamber of Commerce will help us celebrate our business opening with a ribbon cutting ceremony.

I'd like to invite all local readers to attend!  The event will be held rain or shine.
The actual ribbon cutting will occur at 4pm.

Between 3:30pm and 4:30pm we will offer a 20% discount on orders (regularly priced merchandise) if you mention the word "RIBBON."

The shop will be open until 6pm so even if you can't make the actual ribbon cutting, please join us for a celebratory glass of wine and shopping.

Wine and light appetizers will be served and you can see all of our new fall inventory!

Additional details about the shop here.

Vivid Hue Home Boutique

Vivid Hue Home + Gifts

769 Farmington Ave | Farmington CT  06032

860-677-0301 | vividhuehome.com

Hours:

Tuesday        10-530pm

Wednesday   10-530pm

Thursday      10-7pm

Friday           10-530pm 

Saturday       10-3pm

Sunday         10-3pm

Monday        closed

Contact: Heather Grahling  hgrahling@gmail.com | 860-677-0301

What do we sell? 
Everything from custom made pillows and furniture to unique gifts and greeting cards.  We have perfect items for dorm rooms, hostess gifts, house-warming, engagements, birthdays and "just because" gifts.  We carry whimsical and preppy products.  Our shop has a very nautical feel.  Visitors say they feel like they are in Palm Beach or Nantucket.  Despite our name and love for all things color, we do carry some neutral products for those that are a bit less daring about color!

We gift wrap and sell gift cards.

Online?
Shop our Instagram feed.  We will ship most items to U.S. and we frequently list our current selection of items online.   If you see something you'd like for us to ship...please ask!  We will ship!  

I last left ya'll with the renovations inside the shop.  I promise to revisit more of that journey in a future post.  Here's a reminder of the transformation:

I decided to take some pressure off of myself by planning a "soft opening" where I would just open the doors to the public at the end of April with only word-of-mouth advertising.  I handed out postcards to friends and Connecticut locals, but other than that, there was no big fan fare.  This would allow me (and my team of two) to work out the kinks in the process.  We could practice the checkout process, work on better staging the products, and get an idea for what customers were interested in.

 I'd be lying if I told you this was a stress-free soft launch.  I woke up on the morning of April 30th with my stomach in my throat.  What if people absolutely hated the shop?  What if Connecticut wasn't ready for my splash of colorful gifts?

The soft-opening weekend was exhilarating, overwhelming, tiring, rewarding, exhausting, thrilling and every other similar synonym.  People did come to visit.  And they visited in droves.  Personal friends showed up.  People that have followed Vivid Hue Home through social media came to check it out.  Some saw the porch display and stopped to check out what we were up to.  

 I was overwhelmed with the number of you that have read my blog and knew about Vivid Hue Home through social media.  (One woman entered the shop,  made a beeline towards me and the first words out of her mouth were, "I want to know what you consider to be the armpit of Texas!?"  (Reference my about me section here).  

Opening Day Flowers for Soft Launch

Much of the initial inventory flew off the shelves during the first weekend and I would go home at the end of the night to place additional orders for back-up inventory.  I stayed up til 1-2am most nights trying to catch up on the paperwork and ordering.  (Now to be fair, customers seemed to like the products I was offering, but also, I started out with smaller inventory quantities because I wasn't sure what would sell or not).

Vivid Hue Home was featured in a few local spotlights, here and here.

Vivid Hue Home Window Boxes Starting to Bloom

We have been opened for about 2.5 weeks now and already I have learned some tricks.  For starters, I have doubled/tripled the size of my orders from vendors so that I don't have to place new orders as frequently.  It's cumbersome to issue PO's, enter skus into inventory, receive inventory, pay invoices.  So it makes since to do it once for larger quantities versus 2-3 times for smaller order amounts.


Also, I find myself continually tweaking the look of the shop.  When we opened, the shelves appeared like this:

I was never thrilled with how each shelf displayed so much inventory.  The shelves were cluttered and too much for the eyes to digest.   Recently, I modified the items so there are mostly clusters of pillows and throws.  It's a bit more visually pleasing and I imagine that I will continue to tweak.

The gurgles now have their own dedicated spot within the shop.

Custom pillows in these fabulous textiles have been the talk of the town.

And, of course, the vintage palm beach chairs are a popular resting spot among visitors.

Thanks for continuing to follow along!  If you're a new follower, thank you!  And you can always check out what's happening in real time on Instagram here.