Finders Keepers Fashions received one EPIC makeover

Mission Accomplished!

 

I love nothing better than a crew of skilled workers on a mission as they create excitement and energy that cannot be duplicated!

 

The mission? To revamp Finders Keepers Fashions in 4 days including interior painting, exterior painting and repairs, new flooring, new ceiling fans, up-cycling old counters, additional electrical wiring and various overdue repair projects. Not to mention putting the store back together and re-merchandised once the work was complete.

 

We did it in 4 days and we posted about it regularly on Facebook for those interested. But it wouldn’t have been possible without the co-ordination that took place beforehand by our contractor and his project manager and a great deal of prep work on our part. The various teams worked together like a symphony performance and everyone had a part, everyone kept working, everyone kept moving. Hours and days flew by.

 

Saturday night at closing, my staff and I pushed all the merchandise to the right hand side of the shop, as far as it would go. It was a well-orchestrated dance as we packed the accessory room with as many racks as would fit. The guys arrived at 7 p.m., started on the cleared area by removing the carpet, the wall racks and prepping the walls and ceiling. Half of the shop was totally painted the first night. All the fans were replaced in the main part of the store.

 

Sunday the flooring guys arrived, unloaded the flooring and began prepping the floor. The floor was installed on the left half of the shop by 5:00 p.m. We could tell how wonderful the store was going to look already. I ran to the used store fixture warehouse and purchased a set of 3 counters that once lived in a Wolf Camera store. They had great potential and with some bead board and re-laminating, they will be good as new! We discovered that the fans I purchased caused an installation problem and only went one speed….super-fast, creating a hurricane effect that was humorous but expensive to correct. Note to self: read the box before purchasing, especially when purchasing 12….

 

By 5:15 we were moving all the racks of clothing over to the left side, on to the new floor! By 6:15, everything was moved over and the right-hand side was empty and ready for the guys who arrived at 7 p.m. to strip the carpet and paint the rest of the shop. This night they stayed until about 3 a.m. Unfortunately, as the painters were leaving, one of the drivers thought he turned his car headlights on, didn’t and got pulled over immediately by the police. His license had expired and he ended up spending the night in the DeKalb County jail. A long, bad day for him and the contractor bailed him out the next day.Monday the flooring men arrived about 11:00 and prepped and installed the rest of the flooring, including the kitchen and 2 restrooms. Again they were out by 5:00 p.m. Exterior repairs and painting began. The staff began organizing the clothing on the racks. The counters were delivered. I had to figure out the new arrangement of the counter space. Fans now go 4 speeds but the wall switches are faulty and dangerous. Fans kept off until this is corrected. It would be a shame to burn down the building after all this effort and work….not to mention expense.

 

Tuesday the manager and I planned and implemented the new floor lay-out. We donated old racks and put casters on ALL the racks for easy and safe repositioning. Wall racks went back up, all merchandise was placed on each rack with great care. For once, there was not one thing on the wrong rack and each piece was colorized. Accessory room was put back together, old counters and jewelry cases cleaned like never before.

 

The electrician was there all day, disassembled a power column on the floor and ran wires behind a wall, then through it into the new counters so all cords are hidden and off the floor. Hurray! He left about midnight.

 

Wednesday my husband re-connects all of the computers to all of the new wiring. This project takes all day and several Office Depot runs. New curtains go up for the fitting rooms, all mirrors are re-hung, and displays are created, crafted and beautiful, including the jewelry cases. The exterior is still being painted and repaired. Punch list items are addressed. Computers are tested, and the final job of sorting through boxes of stuff once in the counters and drawers begins. The manager puts her area back together, floors are swept and mopped, paper over the windows removed. I found myself just standing and staring at the shop, totally thrilled with the outcome. We leave about 8 p.m. after taking lots of photos.

 

Thursday 10:00 a.m. Back in Business! Thanks to a great staff and a great contractor. Yes, there are still some things to be done but we made it, and it was worth ALL the effort! We love it and we hope you love it, too, because we want to look our best for you, our loyal customers and consignors, in honor of our 29^th birthday. Stop by and see us soon!

Check out a few pictures below, and visit us on facebook: www.facebook.com/fkfashions for the whole photostory.

 

Want to know exactly how your old suitcase can affect the life of a foster kid?

Finders Keepers Consignment stores are currently collecting suitcases for foster children through the Women’s Council of St. Peter and Paul Catholic Church. Want to know exactly how your suitcase will affect the life of a foster kid? Assistant manager Cassandra Rayburn can tell you from personal experience. She’s lived these moves, and she knows just how much these suitcases mean to kids whose lives change in the blink of any eye. Learn more about Cassandra and how much the suitcases donated to this cause will help:

Cassandra: What strikes me most about my experience bouncing my way through foster care in the late 1990’s is the infrastructure of the system.   It is a sprawling, multi-faceted system.  For example:

·         Each home may have preferences about the types of children they are willing to accept. 

·         They may have more preferences about what types of children they will accept on an emergency basis. 

·         Each group home has a maximum capacity.

·          The families housing foster kids still go on vacation.  (The new foster children mostly do not- they cannot be transported across state boundaries, and probably have a court date to attend soon anyways- if they were welcome in the first place.)

These are all examples of why I called my experience “bouncing.”  The system is placing children sometimes on a day-to-day basis.  The problem is so big and so time consuming, sometimes all the system is hoping for is each child in a bed by bedtime.

Cassandra Rayburn

Now my story is compiled of a mish-mash of problems, odd situations, and oversights from county health offices, which were just doing what they needed to do to get through their workload.  My story is not the run-of –the-mill kid in foster care story.  The thing about my story is that I understood it. 

On one occasion when I was being transported from home, I kindly told the worker to wait 30 minutes so I could properly gather my belongings.  I had a travel bag full of outfits; I grabbed my popular-brands of perfume and other not-so essentials, and tossed a couple of my wrapped Christmas presents in there for good measure.  I had it all figured out, and had been dealing with these kinds of moves for many years.  My story didn’t happen out of nowhere.  Or in the middle of the night.   But so many children’s stories do.

Imagine being swooped up from wherever you are, doing whatever children do, having your belongings stuffed in a store brand, garbage bag, and sent to a place where nothing is familiar, and that bag will probably tear before you get there.  (That is, if you are lucky enough to have someone be able to gather some of your belongings.  If not, you may have a small allowance that can buy a few outfits at a discount merchant, outfits that you will still stuff in a garbage bag). Now, not only is your situation unfamiliar, but remember, you’re a child. You probably have no idea why you are there anyways. 

So what’s the big deal about the garbage bag? It’s cheap, it’s sort-of efficient, and it’s the best they can do in that chaos of displacement.

But it comes at a high cost for the foster kid, whose life is about to change. Again. The garbage bag signifies that nothing is normal.  Do you ever take a garbage bag full of clothes to Grandma’s?  What about on summer vacation, or a sleepover?  It’s shocking enough to be transplanted, sometimes several times in a month, to foster homes or group homes.  A suitcase is symbolic of family trips and holidays.  A suitcase brings faith to a child that his or her unfamiliar situation is just temporary.  It is not as scary and open-ended as a torn, stuffed trash bag.

A suitcase will be less likely to get mixed up with someone else’s black trash bag.  It is definitely less likely to be mistaken for trash.  If the only reminders a child can carry with them can be mistaken for trash, isn’t that heartbreaking?

Please consider contributing suitcases and duffel bags to this very personal drive. We have currently collected 80 suitcases - that's 80 kids who no longer have to feel like everything they own is little better than trash. And that's amazing.

All of our stores are accepting donations at this time.

Building relationships in Eastman - A Kanu Update!

Betsy and I ventured to Eastman today to check in on Kanu and you will all be glad to hear that he is doing very well. We swung by, picked him up and headed to the Cochran Campus before the financial aid office closed. It had been suggested to me by someone who cares about Kanu that it would be wise to meet with the financial aid office and explain Kanu’s special situation. This was great advice. We learned a lot from our visit and I believe his aid advisor learned a little more about Kanu. It was time well spent and he got some dates and deadlines that he needed to know. They found out he has support in the form of 2 “moms”, Betsy and me.

 

I realized Kanu needs an advocate to help him navigate all the dates, deadlines and fees so he doesn’t miss something. I did not helicopter parent my kids and I certainly won’t be doing this with him but I realized today that without someone asking essential questions, he could make expensive mistakes. Too many assumptions are made on the part of the college concerning new students. They need a mentor for these kids, especially new students. Thank you to Bobby King for suggesting that I get involved with the financial aid office. It will make a difference.

 

We stopped by his bank and deposited $750 in contributions from Finders Keepers customers and consignors. Kanu couldn’t believe money was still coming in. We brought him copies of the Champion article written about his journey. I hope you all saw it! Betsy made his favorite cookies and brought some of his favorite foods. We stopped by the grocery store stocked him up on a few things, including a can opener. Don’t ask how he has been getting by without one!

 

Then we headed to the Aviation Campus and met Chad who co-ordinates and manages the flight instructors. He was both helpful and encouraging to Kanu as he gave us multiple sites to visit for scholarships. Chad did a bit of mentoring on the spot, giving Kanu advice on the best way to approach each segment of flight school and training.

 

As we were leaving the campus, a guy pulled up beside us and jumped out of his SUV. He stopped us and asked if he had heard correctly that Kanu was from Liberia. Kanu got out and spoke with him and it turns out that this young man was raised in Kenya and Nigeria by his missionary parents. He offered encouragement and advice on loans, classes, flying and instructors and it turns out they are in a class together! His name is Jordan and he shared that one of the main instructors is a Christian and really cares about the students. He and Kanu exchanged phone numbers. Jordan didn’t have to stop us or even notice Kanu but he went out of his way to meet him and I am convinced that was divine.

 

 

So we made progress building relationships today: Kathy in Financial Aid, Chad, the flight instructor coordinator and Jordan, a fellow student. Mustafa has been invaluable with his knowledge of campus life…and his car. Kanu is surrounded by support in Eastman and he knows that he has support at his Finders Keepers home, too. He has been a little homesick but he is building a life in Eastman, as he should, one relationship at a time.

A first step for Kanu and a walk down Mom-Mode memory lane for me

On a recent rainy Monday, Kanu and I loaded up my minivan with as much of his furniture that would fit and headed off to find a place for him to live in Eastman, Ga. Always upbeat, Kanu had given me no indication that his housing situation for college was dire. Several roommate options had materialized and then vanished over the past few months and Kanu was super stressed out but not letting on. Finally, before our fundraiser, he told me that he had no place to stay and was a bit worried. Well that’s all it took for me to go into Mom-Mode and make a plan. We would drive to Eastman the next day we both had off and find a place for him to live.

 

So that day arrived and we headed down south to accomplish 2 goals: one was to open a bank account with all of the money customers, consignors and fellow employees contributed during our fundraising (over $4000!) and two was to find housing. I had 2.5 hours in the car with Kanu to “discuss” what I thought was important, how to manage money, how to stay focused, how to write thank you notes and more. Okay, maybe it was a bit of a lecture but hopefully some of it sank in. And remember, I was in Mom-Mode…..

 

Mustafa, Kanu’s friend who attends the Aviation School, met us and rode with us to various housing possibilities he had already scoped out, saving us a world of time. We saw a trailer in a really remote area but fairly close to the school, public housing and all of that paperwork, unaffordable apartments and condo rentals and finally a one bedroom duplex unit. We decided on the duplex unit because it is close to Mustafa and the shopping district and not a bad bicycle ride to school. The trailer was fine but it was far from everything and Kanu will be traveling by bicycle so this could be problematic. Also, I think he will be more comfortable closer to a friend.

 

We opened his account at the main bank in town where they graciously welcomed him as a customer and offered their own words of wisdom. Mustafa was with us and many of the pretty girls working there stopped by to give him a hug. Somehow, I think these guys are pretty popular in town!

 

We stopped by the campus where Kanu will be spending most of his time and saw the hanger with all of the planes he will be flying including the old Air Tran Plane that serves as a landmark for the left turn to the school.

 

So as a Mom, I now feel that Kanu is going to be okay. He has a home, money in the bank, a few old friends and a few new ones. He has people “at home” who care about him and to come home to.  He has Betsy and me planning random visits to Eastman to check on him and folks who want to send him “care packages”.

It was on the way home from Eastman that Kanu let on just how worried he had been about it all as he thanked me for taking my day off to drive to Eastman with him. He explained how he had hardly been able to focus because the fear of the unknown was taking over and weighing him down. This trip to Eastman, Finders Keepers, his job, his co-workers and customers had blessed him. Now his spirits were lifted, he could be a college kid, be excited about his future.

 

That was my blessing and I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.

Bonnie Kallenberg, Tacoma Perry, and 6 piles of stuff

Blog Post Sept 5, 2012                  

I was that kid all the parents loved having over because my idea of fun was cleaning out a messy closet or organizing a room and truthfully, I still think it is fun and offer my services regularly as my “gift” to friends. Remember the scene from the movie “Sex and the City” when the girls are helping Sarah Jessica Parker clean out her closet before she moved out of her apartment? Now THAT’S my idea of a fun girl’s night out event.

So it will come as no surprise that I created and present a workshop on this topic complete with handouts and props. Pointers from this presentation landed me a spot with Tacoma Perry on FOX 5 News where I helped this TV personality purge her closet using my 6 pile process. It is airing as a piece for National Procrastination Day, which is Sept 6^th. We all procrastinate about some things and hers was her closet so it was a perfect fit.

 

I will share my 6 piles and a little bit of explanation on each.

First the piles:

1. Keep
2. Sell
3. Donate
4. Toss
5. Mend/dry clean
6. Archive

 

Keeps are the clothes that you wear with confidence and grace. They have earned the right to take up space in your closet. You feel good and comfortable whenever you wear them. Rehang them on matching hangers.

Sells are the pieces that are mistakes, you purchased them on impulse, or they were a gift, on the clearance rack or for whatever reason landed in your closet but they don’t feel right for you. They are in style, have little or no wear and have value in the resale marketplace. These you can take to a consignment shop. Leave them on hangers…..please!

Donates are the pieces that you loved but no longer work for you. It could be size, style or wear but they are not up to consignment shop standards. However, they may have value for a thrift store and bring needed cash for a good cause. And speaking of good causes, I just found a thrift store with a great cause where I plan to send some of my donates but that’s a topic for another day. Put donates in black bags.

Toss is a pile for clothing too worn or torn or damaged to sell anywhere. I have volunteered at thrift stores and know how time consuming it is to go through bags of clothing that should have been trashed. It is a waste of precious time and man power, so don’t do it. Remember, you want to support this charity and not waste their time with your donations. Put tosses in white bags.

Mend/Dry Cleaning is a pile that must be dealt with regularly. Don’t let it pile up for weeks in your closet. Get those clothes back into your rotation quickly. I like a laundry basket for these.

Archive is the pile for things that you just can’t part with but at the current time is not earning its keep in your closet. It could be a few items you love but cannot fit into right now or a cool top from the 70’s that you break out for every retro party. The key is that your closet needs to be a reflection of what you need for life right now. So, everything cannot go in this pile, only a select few special pieces. Giant Ziploc bags that fit under the bed work perfectly for this pile.

So there you have it, now get started. There are tons of consignment shops to chose from, each with its own special niche, waiting for you to show up.  Be sure to check stores’ websites for consignment specifics.

Happy Purging!!

--Bonnie  Kallenberg

 

 

Resale's Night Out

The idea for FK’s Resale’s Night Out was hatched last year when Boutique’s Manager, Stephanie Smith, headed up to New York City for Fashion’s Night out.  She had so much enthusiasm to share about her experience that I decided to bring a taste of NYC’s celebration to Finders Keepers for our special customers this year, and we have been planning for months. Tickets are $5 and 100% of the proceeds from ticket sales will be given to our favorite charity, Refugee Resettlement and Immigration Services of Atlanta www.rrisa.org

 

Finders Keepers Fashions and Finders Keepers Boutique + Menswear will both close at 6pm on this night (Thursday Sept. 6) to get ready for the event and will re-open for ticket holders only at 7pm.

 

Finders Keepers Fashions starts the event off with a fall preview fashion show featuring some special RRISA staffers along with FK staffers stomping the runway in looks put together by our own Jamilla Hill. Stylist Lillian Charles wows us every time she comes to our events as she pulls together fun looks for anyone who asks, so be sure to ask! Knikita, our resident caterer, has come up with tasty treats for the evening and our whole staff is ready to make this night fun and memorable.

 

Fall Fashion spotlights via live mannequins start the night at FK Boutique + Menswear with looks put together by FK Staffer, Carrie Tatro, known for her avant garde approach to styling. Barbara Warren’s spread from Tastefully Simple is sure to please while the entire staff is on hand to ensure all Resale’s Night Out customers enjoy their shopping experience. Tweets and FB Posts are expected regularly from Stephanie so be sure to follow the FK FB and Twitter pages.  Check our website to sign up for these.

 

I am really excited about this event for several reasons. Resale fashion styling requires way more talent than regular retail styling and I am lucky to have a staff gifted in transforming “used clothes” into fabulous fashion for a fraction of the cost, making our shoppers look great on a budget. I am also grateful to my FK employees, who are enthusiastically coming together to make this event happen. Honestly, I could not pull off this event without their willingness and expertise to go above and beyond for me and for Resale’s Night Out. Lastly but importantly, it is a charity event and a donation equal to 5% of total sales for the night will be given to RRISA in addition to money from ticket sales. I hope you will attend and enjoy our first ever Resale Night Out Event.

 

Bonnie Kallenberg

Finders Keepers Consignment Stores

owner

Two events this week!

We have two events this week! A fabulous complimentary taste test at Finders Keepers Boutique this Thursday and free access to a fantastic local stylist at Finders Keepers Fashions on Saturday. See below for more information.

Yum: Our very own Barbara Warren is now a representative for Tastefully Simple: restaurant style favorite finger foods and drinks. And she wants to give you a complimentary taste test at Finders Keepers Boutique on Thursday, May 10th from 5pm-7pm. Barbara and her husband will demonstrate simply delicious beer battered bread and dips that will be a hit at your next party. Learn more about Tastefully Simple on the official website: www.tastefullysimple.com.  If you like what you see and need it fast, you can place an order using their consultant information: Donald Warren with consultant code 0130982

Call us for more information: 404-634-6995

Finders Keepers Boutique

2134 N. Decatur Road, Decatur GA 30033

Glam: Do you think you have to decide between comfort and chic? Stylist Lillian Charles doesn't think so! And she is coming back this Saturday, May 12th to offer a free workshop at Finders Keepers Fashions. Whether you're a working woman or a mom on the go, Lillian will teach you how to add a touch of glam to your all-day wear. One of our customers has been working with Lillian since her first appearance at our store. This is what she has to say about the experience: Lillian has transformed my wardrobe in a matter of weeks.  She helped me understand what looks good on me, decide on pieces to let go of and identify and shop for ones that I needed to buy.  Getting dressed in the morning is fun and easy now, and my new look makes me feel like sashaying around town! This workshop will begin at 9:30 am.Learn more about Lillian on her website: www.wardrobesbylilliancharles.com.

Call us for more information: 404-296-0285

Finders Keepers Fashions

84 N. Avondale Road, Avondale Estates, GA 30002