the floor plan

When I worked in merchandising every morning I would check the fixtures and overall floor plan of my store. Straitening anything knocked off center, a scooch here, an omg this is heavy where in the world is Adam (my now husband) there. 

Occasionally, there would be a big change up and the whole plan itself would move around. Push this table there move this cart here. 

Never perfect — one thing out of line and the whole store is off — but prettttty close.

Not to toot my own horn but, I became incredibly good at this task. Largely, in part to a level eye and a touch of OCD but those rows would match from every angle and the level of satisfaction was unmatched. 

Ask me if I can read that street sign though and it's going to be a no from me. We've all got our strengths. 

Anyways, at some point in time I was tasked with teaching this very skill and I found myself constantly asking my peers what do you mean you don't see it?

How can you not see the corner of the table so obviously at a different angle than the cart 3ft away from it aligned with the cris cross thing on the ground and the grain of floor going in that direction?? 

I've got issues. I know. You should watch me try to buy jeans — the stitching omg. 

Back to the story — after many failed attempts to teach my insanity I really had to take a step back and ask myself what it was I was actually doing. 

And I realized almost every time I would go to focus on what was further away to align what was right in front of me for a split second, I would actually lose it. 

Not my mind — we all know that sh*ts gone but the visuals. Focusing on the goal made the present item blurry but in the end they were both aligned. 

I didn't realize how much I've utilized this practice in my business until I sat with the thought of closing a portion of it.

So we’re just going to scooch some things over there and trust that once the whole store is in focus, it will be perfectly placed — by design.

a new chapter

A new chapter

The proverbial turning of the page. 

I have sat with these thoughts for far too long now. Debating how or where I even start to put them down. I found myself wanting to wander into a story that was far different than the one I have been so diligently writing for the last six years. 

It felt wrong, intimidating, wasteful even. After all, I had set the scene and mapped countless to dos to complete this massive vision I had in my head. 

Then I had a thought — maybe I was wrong? Maybe, the story wasn’t what I had imagined it to be? Maybe, it was time for a plot twist. Because the reality is, this is just a small part — one we can always put back.

Closing out the 2024 holiday season I made the decision to close the retail portion of Package and Press — The Package and Goods Shops.

I love nothing more than curating products together into collections. It’s this very act that literally is Package and Press but, I have been feeling a call to something new.

When faced with the thought of closing down this portion of operations my first thought was that all I would have left would be my work with clients. It felt like a huge piece of this brands identity would be missing. 

Unit it hit me - ALL I would have left would be my work with clients and my perspective changed.

Package and Press has reached many milestones over the last couple years. Largely from our partnerships. 

I have sat with countless ways I can continue to grow this portion of business while at the same time thinking of ways I can better serve our clients now. 

I listed all the things I had to offer and honestly had some pretty decent edits for myself here. Gotta love a moment of reflection — lol.

Then suddenly it was clear — The Edits.

Every year I sit with this space and reflect. I’ll asses branding, marketing, plans, the whole kit caboodle — is that how we write that? Regardless, these actions make up the very process in which I have built not only P+P, but Little Crew, a few others, and some others that live rent free right now secretly coined and tucked away for a future day. 

I thought about my other projects and my other clients — more like friends — and the businesses they trusted me to build with them.

I have always thought that my “thing” was just product Tetris with perfectly matched packaging and textures all curated together with intention and the perfect little details.

Now don’t get me wrong that is very much my thing — who are we kidding but, moving forward we’re thinking outside of the box. 

So here we are. 

A new chapter —