Trash Ties™

We did it!  And I can’t believe we pulled this off in time for Christmas — It’s Trash Ties day!!! 

My once-buttoned lips are now happily unfastened and I can freely talk Trash.

This is a big day for Isaac & me.  We spent a good half of 2007 designing, photographing, planning, re-designing,
sourcing, proofing, printing, and planning some more.  There have been
a few rocks on the path and a couple of big boulders, but we forged
ahead.  And now here they are, cute little pink boxes of Trash Ties,
looking all innocent and easily-accomplished.

Isaac just finished the new Trash Ties website today and I’ve started a Trash Ties blog!!  So much of my personal history is wrapped up in my adventures with Trash Ties (movie sets, patent stuff, fancy stores, big magazines, tiny apartment, terribly-sick baby, incredibly-worried
mommy, rapidly-growing business, and a big decision to hold off on Trash Ties till
the patent came through, etc).  I wanted a place where I could recount some of those stories,
hold contests and challenges, and we could have all sorts of madcap fun
with hair.  I probably said it better over there;  I’m all googly-eyed
and goofy at this point.

So stop by the new blog & website and see what I’ve been up to for
a big part of the year.  I bet you can even track down the front view
of this curious photo. 

There are a crazy-ton of pictures and all of the info you need to finally see what I was wearing in my hair last Easter.  That
was an accidental sneak by the way, not so much a sneaky sneak (though
I like those).  And sorry about keeping quiet.  People go crazy over
these and I didn’t want you wanting them until I could deliver.

But yes, go read my first post over there and then have a look at The Basics pages in the sidebar and Isaac’s pink palace of a website.  He even programmed a video slideshow and lovingly turned these little pink boxes into a Winter Wonderland.  He cracks me up.

And here’s a coupon for your holiday shopping pleasure, good through December 10th.  You don’t really need the coupon, just the code, but I couldn’t resist.
(BTW, and completely unrelated, if you haven’t learned the words to Sesame Street’s I Love Trash, then
you’re not truly living.)  The above code will give you 15% off
your entire order — just for you guys.  So many of you have written,
wanting to buy Trash Ties without even knowing what they are – wow!
And yes, the shopping cart is set up for international sales.  Follow
the Globe symbol for details.

So, go to the Trash Ties blog to see what these babies can do and put that cutie coupon to good use. 

Yay for Trash Ties day!  We made it.  I’m excited to finally share these with you.  It’s a good day.

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Update:  A few of you had difficulty paying through PayPal earlier today. I wanted to let you know that Isaac has since worked with GoDaddy to implement a solid and secure solution that allows you to pay directly in the store. Now everything is working smoothly!  I apologize for any inconvenience.

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Another Update:  If you’ve placed an order or are about to, make sure to read through this bulleted list I just added at the Trash Ties blog covering shipping dates, coupon tips, site security and a giveaway! 

Wow, thank you for the well-wishes.  I would be glad to put together a pattern for that quilt if I could find a snippit of time to spare.  It might be far more immediate to just mimic it this time.

So, guess who found me last week — a woman who interviewed me for Trash Ties years ago for a now-defunct web magazine.  We met at the Fairfax High Flea Market — the very first day I ever sold Trash Ties.  It wasn’t a craft-fair- type Flea Market either; it was a true junker.  I was completely out of place. I had a booth full of all sorts of fancy, hand-made things — hats, baby clothes, jewelry, etc.  At the very corner of one of my tables sat a bowl full of Trash Ties, each set wrapped with a cheap, photocopied label.  One small bowl. 

That bowl had to be replenished many times throughout the day.  And well before the day was through, I sold out of the Trash Ties completely.  I hardly sold anything else.  Hundreds of dollars in hair thingies, I knew I had struck gold.  Those Trash Ties were then hidden-up until the provisional patent paperwork was submitted.  That was the same day I met Scott Williams, the Head Hairdresser for Dharma & Greg at the time, who later helped me on many occasions – for free.  Such a godsend.  Oh, and Kathy Najimy bought some Trash Ties that day — one of those "odd, somewhat-meaningless celebrity encounters" I’ve alluded to.  Do you guys even know who she is? 

Anyhow, Jennifer — that’s her name —  found me through someone else’s blog, read the words,"Trash Ties," and ding! (a light in her mind and a new email in my inbox).  She reminded me of our Flea Market meet-up and a lunchtime interview at a floral shop cafe on La Brea.  Gosh, she even remembered where I’m from. 

Whoa!  Have you ever heard the word, redintegration?  This is one of Isaac’s favorite big-shot words.  In layman’s terms, I’d say it’s when one memory opens doors to many more. That email brought on some serious redintegration.  The floral shop, The La Brea bakery a few doors down, the nearby fabric store, the bomb-scare at the grocery store, Scott Williams’ stories of being a straight, fat, curly-haired British guy (now very much thin, bald, American and gay) and so on.  Oh, it goes on. 

I love emails like that.  Just another glimpse at the inter-connectedness of it all, and moreover, the reach of the internet.   

I was also contacted by one of Isaac’s old work buddies this week, Mike.  I don’t think I ever met Mike, but I sure heard his name a lot.  (Yes, this brought on a bit more redintegration, but nothing monumental or even very interesting.)  So, why do I tell you about Mike?  Well, Mike found the URL for that live video of me from a couple of posts ago.  So, if you hurry, maybe you can still watch the segment before its cleared off ABC’s server.  Thanks, Mike!

Oh, and thank you, Typepad for featuring my blog this week.  Whoever writes those features makes every blog sound amazine.  Oops, amazing.  But, Amazine would be a great zine name, wouldn’t it?

The flower photos?  Just something pretty I had kickin’ around.  Flowers go great with memories.

Ooo, scandalous!  Maybe too scandalous-sounding.  Hmmm. 

But, nothing fishy’s happening — just a behind-the-scenes peek at yesterday’s Trash Ties photoshoot.  Yes, I still need to tell you all about my hair accessory invention.  I won’t forget.  I’m launching them at CosmoProf in two months and I’ll do a tell-all post or three.  The plan is to put together a Trash Ties website with tons of photos and videos to explain them fully. 

True, there’s not much hair-accessorizing to see in these photos.  That was on purpose : )  I don’t want you to know what Trash Ties can do until I’ve nailed down the manufacturing.  (Cuz once you see them in action, you’re going to go NUTS.  And I can’t handle that just yet.  July, hopefully.)  Do any of you have amazing manufacturing contacts – US, Mexico, anywhere?  We have a couple of manufacturing guys sourcing things, but boy is it a slow process.  Yawn. 

Isaac took a beautiful photo for a full-page ad in the CosmoProf guidebook.  And, the wrapped ribbon comes across perfectly friendly-like in the finished shot.  Think conceptually — getting caught up in Trash Ties.  It’s more of a tangle.  I’ll show you the final picture this summer — it’s powerful and dramatic.

I know, I keep doing that.  Teasing.  It’s not on purpose.  I just want to post about what’ s going on.  At some point, the dam will break and there’ll be a deluge of new fabrics, sewing patterns, hair accessories and more.

And about that video clip…

I don’t have a specific book in the works.  Patterns first.  The book thing is just on my list for the coming year.