M. Stansbury, CEO

my first (and hopefully not last) business will be starting up in less than 1 week! this saturday, i will launch Rags to Riches, Australia to the world (well, at least, to Brisbane) at the West End Markets. im so excited! i thought it would be much more stressful than it is... though i attribute that to the fact that this is low-risk, both financially and emotionally. i decided to do this as an experiment, a trial, and consider even an utter failure to be a success because it means i learned what i set out to learn.
all of the inventory is bought, alterations are made, stall reserved. all is left to do the rest of this is to buy a clothing rack, affix price tags, and get small bills to make change with.
speaking of the clothing rack, i went in search for possible ways to borrow/buy one today, and kept getting sent to these business furnishing shops which sold just about everything you would need to set up a physical store. however, clothing racks were over $200! i wasnt willing to spend that much so after some further investigating, realized that IKEA sold clothing racks for only $30! it amazes me that businesses, who are in the field of making money, would really be so dumb... i guess it just goes to show you that when the person doing the purchasing doesnt see personal financial reward from saving money, often they will spend way more than they need to of their companies money for sake of doing it the 'easy' way.

on a side note, happy early birthday mom! wish i could be there with you!

happy birthday to me

feb 23rd, 1985
little michelle stansbury is born

feb 23rd, 2010
wake up, bright and early, excited for the day
head off to brekkie with sarah and get a birthday phone call from my wonderful mom
come back to my flat and get birthday flowers delivered to me from same wonderful mom!
off to get a massage (my fav) before lunch and shopping with my friend Sal
quick change back at the flat before meeting up at music cafe for a bit of dinner and live music
truck on down to greystones where i believe there to be a free comedy show
greystones turns out to not be having a comedy show, but hosting the owner of 'the comedy club' to give a speak
ironically, not at all funny, so swing by the point (work) to say hi to my friends having to work the night
end the night sitting on the pier on the brisbane river, watching the city sleep

feb 24th, 2010
(still officially my birthday in the states)
gchat date with pooja and britt, my besties in columbus
warmed my heart to know that even after 6 months apart, on opposite sides of the world, there is no change between us. comforting knowing we can pick right up where we left off, just as it should be with family and true friends.
menu tasting at work for the new menu... how often do you get every delish dish on a menu laid out in front of you, course by course? best job perk ever

i miss my friends and family back in the states so much, but am learning that there is no real distance between us. what a great birthday lesson!

rags to riches

i got approved for a market stall at west end lifestyle markets! i plan to open up on march 6th - cant wait!!

thanks baby grace!

i *heart* you and miss you too...

exciting news

two items of exciting news for today (and quickly, as i only have 7 minutes left on the library computer)

1. i have begun planning my trip to new zealand! plans so far are that i will spend 4 weeks there, take a bus company called Stray to get around (its half like the greyhound and half like a tour - a 'hop on, hop off' bus). Plane tickets are researched (i will fly into Auckland and out of Christchurch) and all is left is to press 'go'!

2. i am trying my hand at starting my own business! as you might know from a prior post, i am interested in being an entrepreneur in the future, so figured what better time to try my hand than the present! it was much easier than i imagined - one email address, one website (still 'under construction'), some free business cards and a couple of applications to local 'lifestyle' markets later, Rags to Riches vintage apparel company is officially a start-up! I hit my first bump when my application was rejected from my first choice 'lifestyle market' but it may be a blessing in disguise since I found another market that may be just as good with fees that are half the price. They have already emailed me asking for more information so I think (fingers crossed!) that it might work out! This would just be a trial business, only be up and running for a couple weeks and not expected to make a profit (it would be an investment in the experience) though if it runs better than expected, it could. im so excited!

20 seconds til i get kicked off so hope my spelling is correct :)

more about brisie

another random thing about brisbane that i really like is that for some reason, brisie installs completely random sculptures ALL over the city. some modern, some classical, some just bizarre. everywhere you look is a nonsensical huge piece of sculptural art. in addition, the city tries to make all new government constructions into practical works of art... the modern bridges that they've built, and, of course, the brisbane city library where i spend the 2nd most waking hours of my life here (the first being work). ive really loved sculptures of all kinds starting 4 years ago when i visited the galleria borghese in rome - my favorite museum in the world and almost universally considered the best sculpture museum in the world. the ironic thing is that its not even really a museum in the traditional sense - the history is that the villa borghese which the museum now occupies was the massive home of the borghese family, and the borghese gardens around it (the 'central park' of rome) was their private lands. inside the villa borghese is a good percentage of the art that was made Especially for them, for the villa, and for the exact location in the house in which in still stands today. so basically the artists would know by what window the sculpture would be placed and subtly used the architecture and light of that particular spot to make the art even more incredible. pretty cool, huh? also unique is that they only let a certain amount of people in at a given time, so it never gets too crowded.
anyway, that is rome and in brisbane it is slightly more modern and haphazard, but i still love it.

on a side note, not sure if ive mentioned it before, but for some reason, everyone in brisbane seems to think that my accent is irish. hmmm....