Sometimes I do NOT hella love Oakland

What an Oakland day: Got in my car to take Ruby to school this morning and discovered someone had been napping there (Door must've been unlocked. Should I be grateful they didn't break glass to break in? Should I be glad to provide temporary shelter for someone in need?).  

Thru the day I'm realizing more things they took with them when they left, including:

- Ruby's favorite jacket and art supplies in a bag from Grandma (steal from me, but don't steal from my daughter!)

- the shoebox donation that was supposed to go to a poor child overseas but I missed the deadline so I left it in my car to return (should I be glad it went to someone presumably poor and local?)

- my file of special orders for shop customers. (Classic: very important to me, totally useless to a thief. Hoping I'm wrong about this one and it turns up somehow, it just doesn't make any sense.) 

I know these are just things, and I will be fine, but still feel a little BITTER. It's not right to have your things taken from you like that. But then a lot of things are not right, like why some have so little and others have so much. What is the take-home? Lock your doors? Don't leave stuff in your car? Or leave them unlocked and welcome the needy? Maybe leave them some food in there for next time? 

Oh, and then I went to the shop and someone shoplifted two pairs of shoes, I think right before my very eyes and I couldn't do anything about it. BUMMER. Or, helping a needier person??

How do you deal with this and other less lovely aspects of our fair city?

Temescal Dish: Burma Superstar

Burma Superstar opened up to a crowd of excited fans, which Express writer Anneli Rufus could do without. She also doesn't like the acoustics. But read her raves about the food, calling Burmese food "the next big thing." I haven't eaten there yet. Is it really worth the hype?

Burma Superstar
4721 Telegraph Ave.
Tues.-Thurs. and Sun. 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m. /5 p.m.-9:30 p.m.
Fri.-Sat. 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m. /5 p.m.-10 p.m.

Beware of Tow Trucks

Temescal Plaza has a parking lot that generally makes it pretty convenient to shop in Temescal. HOWEVER, they are now enforcing the TWO HOUR TIME LIMIT. Meaning, they are chalking and towing every two hours until 6pm, and towing any cars left overnight. I should know, it happened to me!

So if you think your business in in our little Temescal district is going to take more than two hours, please find street parking. It'll be easier than going to the tow yard off 106th Ave. and paying them $300+ to release your car. By the way, please don't get mad at the towing company guys, they're just doing their jobs.

As you know, in RETAIL, one day you're in, and the next day you're out.

The best reality TV showcases talented people with big dreams putting everything on the line to achieve them. We want to be inspired, because some of us really do have it all on the line, don't we? On Project Runway, designers watch their outfits walk before the judges, then wait to hear their fate: Am I IN or OUT? 

Small retailers like me, in the worst economic meltdown in recent history, certainly can relate. We're hustling to squeeze a maximum return for of our limited time and extremely limited money. This summer three more local kids boutique have gone under, bringing my count to NINE of our small indie kids stores out of business in the past year (see my 6/5 post for #1-6):

7) Bellies & Babies, on College Ave. in Rockridge (and Danville)
8) Lora's Closet, on College Ave. in Elmwood
9) Babyalula, on Piedmont Ave.

These nine were IN (some for many years), yet now they are OUT, but not because of Project Runway judge Heidi Klum. The real judges here are the consumers: this means you and me! We all vote with our dollars every day. Which retailers would you like to vote IN? Besides spending money at these places (see Project 350), don't forget to tell your friends.

Ruby's Garden is extemely grateful for the encouragement we've received from our customers; you really are the reason we do the work. But now, more than ever, we could use your word-of-mouth power! Please Yelp us, every review helps! Please join our Facebook Fan Page and invite your friends! We want to be in this for the long haul. You can help.

Temescal Dish

As a Temescal / Oakland shop owner, I hear all kinds of news about the area. I've recently realized that not everyone hears this stuff so maybe every once in awhile I'll post some Temescal dish on my Ruby's Garden blog.


Today's dish: If you've been to Bakesale Betty for lunch lately, you've probably stood in a line that extended past an empty storefront a couple of doors down from your chicken sandwich destination. Sinan's Windows was there since 1988 and vacated the space several months ago after deciding to consolidate their showroom with their custom factory space on 39th St. in Emeryville.


The building is co-owned by Kesete and Sarita, who own a number of the commercial buildings in Temescal. One morning a couple of weeks ago, I saw Kesete on his way in to his restaurant Asmara so I asked him what was happening with that vacant storefront. He told me someone was nearly signed on but he couldn't tell me who until it was finalized (props to Kesete for his discretion).


So this past weekend I finally heard who was going in: Scream Sorbet, the purveyors of ultra-fresh-fruit-tasting sorbet you've probably sampled at one of the 26 Bay Area farmer's markets they paraticipate in, including our very own Temescal Farmer's Market. Made in their Emeryville kitchen, this Temescal location will mark Scream's first retail storefront and become the latest addition to our version of the Gourmet Ghetto.


How long have I been saying ice cream would do great in our neighborhood? Even before all these Chez Panisse alums came along! I hope Scream proves me right.

Birthday Party Madness?

Ruby's turning 6! I'm thrilled, amazed, and wondering how FABULOUS I can make her "Princess Tea Party" coming up in just 11 days.

First there is the matter of budget. I googled party supplies this morning: garlands? paper lanterns? matching princess cups/napkins/plates/goody bags? And what to give to the little guests? Tiaras, royal capes and scepters?

Then there is the instinct to be SuperMom. Why, I could simply make tiaras! It won't be that hard, it'll just take a bunch of trips to Michael's...ick, I hate Michael's. I can find better things online. I'll ask Martha Stewart--What Would Martha Do (WWMD)? Actually, Martha would create a line of craft supplies and sell them at Michael's. What would Martha's staffers do? Run around New York City looking high and low for the perfect vintage / modern / design-y tidbit. Am I not equal to the task?? In a word, NO. It comes back to the age-old SuperMom-Quandary: if only there were more hours in the day to DO IT ALL.

As always, the clock is ticking. I'll probably buy a few things and maybe even get a little bit crafty here and there. Ruby and her friends will have a great time and somehow Ruby will know that I love her more than anything in the whole world.

Ruby's party is taking place at Ruby's Garden. She is the first beneficiary of our new party hosting services, where I'm learning what it's going to take to put on a fabulous party for YOUR kid! Fortunately we'll make it much simpler for you when we host your kid's birthday party. Since we want to kick this off with a bang, we're offering a discount if you book for July: 10 kids for $140 includes a themed craft, decorations, and goody bag. Call or email us for a custom consult.

Tough Times for Independent Brick and Mortar

So long, Siobhan Van Winkle. You are #6 (by my count) of local baby boutiques that have closed their doors since this ugly recession hit us hard last fall.
1) Cotton & Company, on College Ave. Rockridge
2) O Baby Baby, on Solano Ave. Berkeley
3) A Child's Place, on Solano Ave. Berkeley
4) Waddle & Swaddle, on Shattuck Berkeley
5) Milk, on College Ave. Rockridge
6) Siobhan Van Winkle, on Telegraph Ave./Alcatraz

All of these were beloved businesses, some longtime and established. Each store closure spells a loss for our community; what comes in their place is most likely a national chain. I know times are tough for everyone. But your favorite indie retailers need you now more than ever! Many of us know it's "good" to buy local, but 3/50 Project suggests this: choose THREE indie shops you'd miss most if they closed and go/spend money there every month!

350project.net. Which shops would you miss if they shut their doors for good?

Some Cutey Pies took home the Sugar Pies! Pumpkins, that is...

It was another packed house Friday night at our 3rd Annual Pumpkin Party! By the time Jennifer Ackerman's beautiful singing began at 6:30, the room was already filled with grown-ups and kids playing and eating sandwiches and downing four dozen pumpkin cupcakes by Celeste Cooper, a.k.a The Cake Ladies. Ruby loved having kindergarten classmates at "her store;" Zoe Quinn & Ruby created a new pumpkin display involving hay scattered in piles on the carpet. After the cupcakes & candy corn, kids got to choose a sugar pie pumpkin to take home, each bedecked with a recipe for pumpkin bread.

Thanks to all of you who made it to the party! Mary and I had a great time seeing you and hope you all had a great time. I'll post photos as soon as I can get mine downloaded. And keep an eye out for the next party announcement, another Mama's Night Out in November. Just in time for kicking off the holiday season...champagne & massages anyone?

Rockridge Street Fair was a total hit!

Today was my first time as a vendor at a street fair, and believe me, I have a new respect for those people! Ruby's Garden had a booth at the Temescal Street Fair last summer but I was out of town so Mary and Robbie did the set up for that one. Fair vendors make it look simple, because by the time you get there to have fun at the street fair, the stressful part is over!

I had done what I thought was plenty of planning, but setting up this morning I was still totally flustered. I had sketched a floor plan of our 10'x10' space and decided what to sell from the shop, what prices to sell them at, and what furniture to display them on. I had packed most of the merchandise and supplies and made signage the night before. We met at the shop this morning at 8am so we could be all unloaded by 10am and setup by the time the fair started at 11am. Mary, Judy and I loaded up the stuff in all three of our cars, found our assigned spot, unloaded most of the things and parked. Then I was really thrown for a loop: I had planned for our booth to be back to back with another vendor but it was apparent that we were a single row of vendors which would mean we'd need to greet people from two sides, or that there'd be two fronts. Besides, I was seeing all sorts of things I'd forgotten such as Ruby's Garden front door signs that would read from far away, more pricing signage, a work table just for sales supplies, and balloons. Cue sound effect: thought processes coming to screeching halt. I stared at our piles of unloaded mess for about half an hour while Mary went back to the shop two more times getting what I'd forgotten. Suddenly it was 10:40, I had to finish unloading my car and park it off the street.

The bad news is that setup brought out my inner grouch (this is what stressed-out + feeling dumb for not doing everything perfectly looks like on me). The good news is that we were setup (enough) just in time for the fair to start and it ended up being a great day for us. We told hundreds of people about our shop, gave out about 200 postcards ($10 off coupons + invitations to our Pumpkin Patch Party this Friday 10/3), and even raised a little cash so I can buy more new fall merchandise! We also saw tons of friends and customers since Rockridge is so near to our shop. Ruby had a great time playing with Quinn and Tess, daughters of Elizabeth Falkner of Mariposa Baby, and Fiona, Judy's daughter. She ended up with a decorated cupcake (cute but eaten immediately) and a decorated pumpkin (cute but no longer edible).

Besides the lessons learned, I'm so glad we did this street fair, even though it was SO much work. I'm also glad to finally be off my feet after about 12 hours from start to finish. Maybe next year I'll actually leave the booth and walk the fair!

Welcome to the Party that is Facebook

Have you joined Facebook yet? It's useless to resist it. It's pretty awesome in a "the world is getting smaller" way.

I didn't know anything about it until I was invited to join by my high school reunion committee (anyone else 38 this year?). Other old acquaintances were equally deer-in-headlights about it, so I knew I was not the last to the party, though some seemed like they'd been at that party for awhile and I wasn't sure it was my kind of party: "You've been poked!"--huh?? That's not usual party behavior. So I hung out on the edges for awhile until some more people I knew got there. Like Jane Goodall, I was studying FB behavior: What are we all doing here?

It all made sense to me when I saw that someone I 1) really like who I'd lost touch with and 2) was truly glad to reconnect with was in the list of "online friends" in the bottom corner. We chatted back and forth and laughed out loud. So I'm getting to know who of my friends is usually "at the party" and who's is there in the wee hours of the night like I am. I'm also realizing that not everyone you'll see, i.e. friends of friends, falls into those two categories, and that's okay. You don't have to talk to everyone at the party, and it's pretty organic who you end up talking to anyway: you overhear an interesting snippet of conversation and you put in your two cents. Well Facebook shows you all the snippets at once, and you choose which you want to jump in on (politics? faith? reality tv?). Once the frenzy of friend-finding is calmed down, you can get to the party and get comfortable, knowing you'll get to talk to whoever you want. Or not--and just find out what everyone is up to (status updates: "Mae Chan Frey is...blogging about facebook at work instead of ordering new merchandise.). Either way, consider yourself *invited* to the strange and wonderful party that is Facebook, and if you decide to come, I will be your Facebook Friend.

What do you think of Facebook? Friend or foe? leave comments...

Back from New York--where do I begin?

I "heart" NY, for real. I could hang out there for weeks, since there are seriously about ten awesome things going on in Manhattan at any given moment. I could hardly decide what I wanted to do with my two free days there! NY Fashion Week, 9/11 memorial, San Genarro Little Italy Festival were all going on while I was there.

Rick couldn't miss school (plus he hates New York--freak!) so Ruby and I flew out on our own. My mom flew up the next morning and I led us all from our hotel near JFK, in Queens, onto the A train to explore Brooklyn's Park Slope. For some reason, my 72 year old arthritic mother and my 5 year old daughter were not prepared to walk for 6 hours straight, as all New Yorkers are accustomed to. So I dragged them through Prospect Park and into Park Slope like it was a death march until finally I gave up and got them to the lucious Italian bistro I found for us to eat dinner. Ruby fell asleep on my lap on the A train home, while my mom slept beside us. It was a like I had two little kids.

The next day we took the subway to Manhattan but I toned it down a bit. First we had an amazing Chinatown brunch (jook, my favorite comfort food) at Big Wong, then we strolled San Genarro eating gelato and we caught the Cannoli Eating Contest (simultaneously fascinating and repulsive). A few more blocks and we were at the Museum of Children and the Arts which was kid heaven. This is how I ditched my two "kids;" frankly, this plan was genius. My mom watched Ruby run around at the kid art place so I could run around SoHo without anyone needing bathroom breaks every ten minutes. I went to the MoMA store, Pylones, Kate's Paperie, Purl Soho and lots more in the two hours of rain before going back to play at the Childrens' Museum. Ruby chose famous soup dumplings in Chinatown for dinner before returning to the hotel to wait for my sister to fly in from Maine. It was so great to see her, and for the next few nights we had four of us girls sharing one hotel room, like a long sleepover according to Ruby.

We had to go to Queens to experience the California "sour yogurt" phenomenon which was just right on the 87degree (HOT) day. Karen said it was a highlight of the day, and she's quite a foodie.

I felt so lucky to have this wonderful family trip and get to share it with my little Ruby girl. I was feeling the separation of her starting kindergarten, but the trip was a bonding experience reminding me she's still always going to be my daughter.

Mamas know how to party

Mama's Night Out, Fri August 1, 7:30-10pm: Oh yeah, the mamas got their groove on Friday night! We had about 70 women come to our party Friday night and it was a beautiful cacophony of love and friendship. David at The Wine Mine helped Mary choose some sparkling wines for sipping with the margarita cupcakes baked by The Cake Ladies. Good music, good food & drink, and great shopping! Some early-arrival fall lines were cleared out that very night, helped by the 20% store-wide event-only discount. We sprung for free massages by our new favorite massage therapist, which were such a hit, we paid Flo for an extra hour. What can I say? We had a blast and you shouldn't miss the next one, November 7th. Stay tuned, i.e. join our email list, for details.

Cake Ladies cupcakes now for sale at Ruby's Garden

Now The Cake Ladies has a retail outlet for their cupcakes--Ruby's Garden! The flavors this week are Classic Vanilla cake/Vanilla icing and Vegan Gingersnap Cookies & Cream. Cake lady Celeste Cooper is taking orders for August so email her to get on her schedule now. Check out her Yelp page and all her fabulous reviews.

Why I love watching Kimora

Alright, let me break it down. Kimora Lee Simmons is a momma tiger who is also running a successful fashion empire. She is a total diva, I mean ridiculous, but she loves those little girls and does her best to do right by them. She's Asian (Japanese mother, African American father)--how many Asian American women do we get to know on tv? She's not super-bright, but she seems to know it so she thinks on her feet and has staff members that somehow keep managing to come thru. She whips out this sassy attitude but it's smoke and mirrors because she's actually a goofball.

So, in short, she's pretty much just like me (only a multi-multi-millionaire).

4th of July is July 4th. Always.

Another working mom mind-blip. Our dear friends Scott & Evelyn throw their annual 4th of July barbecue where I get to catch up with some of my favorite people every year. In mommy-mode, I say of course we'll go! Meanwhile, in shop-owner mode, I'm asked, are we open on 4th of July? Of course we're open!

Whoops. Did you know that there's only one 4th of July 2008? And I can only be in one place at a time? Luckily my business partner Mary graciously allowed me to abandon her at the shop while I stole a couple of hours with my friends and family. And it turns out the neighborhood was pretty much a ghost town and we closed as soon as I got back. So did I run back to my barbecue? Nope. I stayed at work and enjoyed the quiet of getting to work uninterrupted. Lucious.

Cake Ladies Cupcakes rock

We had a good crowd in the shop yesterday for Cake Ladies cupcake tasting! Celeste Cooper brought her A-game, with nearly 20 different flavors for us to try including vegan, gluten-free, and of course, classic varieties. Vegan Cookies and Cream was the clear crowd favorite, although I love the lemon-lemon-lemon best (lemon cake/lemon curd/ lemon frosting). The orders are rolling in, so contact Celeste right away to get on her schedule (book a week ahead minimum): celeste@cakeladies.com. Check out her Yelp page to see what others are saying about her goodies.

Stay tuned for the next fun Ruby's Garden event in the house!

Summer is kicking my ass

1) I got all teary-eyed on the last day of preschool. I was dropping my daughter off in her classroom and her little cubby was all cleaned out, her artwork in a bag to take home for the last time. Holy crap, I'm in a Hallmark commercial. "My little girl is so grown up--she's now a kindergartener, pretty soon she'll be graduating high school..." sniff, sniff
2) Two weeks later and I can't wait for school to start again. I knew I didn't want to keep her in childcare all summer, but I didn't quite put it together that it'd mean I'd have to work twice as much in half the time! Classic "why can't I have it all" working mom-itis.

Can anyone else relate to this?

We've finally found Faith

This week we are officially back on the growing-our-boutique wagon with an important milestone. Not only did we pass One Year on the odometer this past Sunday, we also hired our first employee. Announcing... our new Store Manager, Faith, who started today with a bang as she gave each of our displays a tune-up and got to know our vibe. When I left the shop today, she was transforming it into a spooky-cute Halloween zone! Can't wait to see it.

We're so excited to welcome Faith to our team and look forward to having a little help in the kitchen. Come on by to meet her; you'll see her handiwork as soon as you come in.

Me and Kat Von D

So it's Tuesday night which means I've got a date with Kat Von D. She and I have a lot in common. So what if she's a goth-metal-skull-tattoo-covered ghostly-pale white girl and I'm, well, not. Really not. But Kat is the star of LAInk, which chronicles a young passionate tattoo artist opening her own shop in Hollywood. She's so green but she makes decisions with her gut, and it's clear that she loves her work and she loves the crew she's working with.

That's just like me and Mary! (Only we sell clothes and cute things that aren't permanent parts of your body!)

Her shop is also woman-powered by Kim, Hannah, and Pixie (plus Corey, who's a married guy and has three kids, so he's practically a woman). Every artist in the shop is absolutely awesome, as in I never knew tattoos could be actual works of art. Can you tell that I am considering getting one for the first time? I could even get one on the show, if I could be so brave.

And I love how their work is so crazy-personal with the clients. People get tattoos because of some heavy-duty issues: death in the family, near-death car crash, love lost, love found, love my child and/or pet, beat cancer, beat bulimia, new career, ...the list goes on. What a privilege to (permanently) mark these major turning points in peoples' lives!

Our dream for Ruby's Garden is to be a safe place to land in the neighborhood, even if you're at the end of your rope because your colicky baby kept you up all night, even if only for a little while. I'll say it again, getting to know you awesome people has been one of the absolute best reasons to stay in this job. What a privilege indeed.

By the way, we're still waiting for final word on our move. Stay tuned.

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