August 24th, 2008 by Lori Houlihan

This afternoon was the Signature Sale, held at the Signature Ballroom at Landsdowne Club. Isle of You joined other chic Lexington boutiques for a 5-hour extravaganza.

OK, maybe extravaganza is too strong a word. But there was a sale! With prices slashed! And lots of people!

About two hours before the sale started, I helped pack and move the clothing from Isle of You to Landsdowne. So far, so good. Half an hour before showtime, I went out for snacks and change. (Two important things when you’re selling things to people: sustenance and small bills.) I rolled back into the Landsdowne parking lot two minutes before sale time.

Except.

Except there were already a number of women fingering the fabrics. It was barely noon, but the sale was on! And the women, they kept coming.

I got busy writing the final markdown on the price tags. Lolli was busy ringing people up — or should I say writing people up, as we were using receipt pads and calculators — and the time went by so fast that when Lucille arrived at one, I was surprised to see her.

Lucy took over the markdowns and Lori and I took turns waiting on customers and bringing more clothes in.

By the time things slowed down, it was after two, but there was still a steady stream. I "clocked out" and went shopping myself. On the Isle of You racks I found two great dresses: one a Custo Barcelona dolman  sleeve dress, and the other a Curtsey V-neck dress. Both will look great with my Anarchic Kitty Shoes. The best thing? They were 75% off!

It was a good day for the Isle at the Signature Sale, but the sale is not over. There are plenty of items still marked down. Just head for the corner of Short and Jefferson. You know, on the sunny side of the street.

August 18th, 2008 by Lori Houlihan

Well, howdy! It’s been a while, hasn’t it? There’s lots happening down here at the Isle, so much so that blogging has taken a back seat to the day-to-day business of, well, running a business.

This is not your intrepid Boss Lady, writing this, mind you. Let me introduce myself: My name is Alison (but you can call me Ali) and I’m going to be helping out at Isle of You, both at the shop itself and on the interwebs. I guess I’m the official Isle of You blogger now.

I have my own personal blog, and I long dreamed of getting paid to write blog entries. And here I am! So how did I manage to get this gig? The power of the Internet is amazing, let me tell you.

A little more than a year ago, someone named Lolli wrote me a Flickrmail after looking at some of my photos.

Hi Ali! Found you when I did a google search for 3rd Street Coffee.
Wanted to let you know that I love your photos. You should have lots
more in explore!!!!
Peace out!

Lolli

And so began a correspondence. Since I have a lot of self-portraits on my Flickr stream, the next time I walked into Isle of You, Lolli recognized me and said hello. And from there, our friendship developed. At first it was mostly online, but in the past few months, Loll and I have been getting together at community events and personal lunches. (Huh? Personal lunches? You know what I mean — we’d get together for lunch, either with other people or alone.)

When she asked me if I’d be interested in collaborating with her on some things, I didn’t hesitate. And here I am.

That’s the short version of the story. And it’s all due to a Google search.

I’ll be changing some things around here on the blog, so check back. Why not sign up for the RSS feed? And you can follow the Isle on Twitter, or join the Facebook group. Like I said, there’s lots of stuff happening at the Isle. Stay tuned!