Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Big or Small Let's Save them All T-shirts - Now Available!

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, and we just got the *Cutest* Breast Cancer Awareness T-shirts in! 

Heather workin' it in her new tee! 

A portion of the proceeds from every shirt purchased goes to the Carol M Bladwin Breast Cancer Research Fund, Inc. which supports both new and established researchers investigating the causes, prevention and treatment of breast cancer. 

(Just so you know - Heahter has on a medium size shirt so I would say they run true to size.)

T-shirts are $25 each or 2 or more for $20 each - to encourage buying one for you and one for a friend.:)  Breast Cancer AWARENESS is the key! 

T-shirts come in S - XL are a "Ladies Fit", so they look cute on!  Available instore only, but if you don't live in or around Cary, NC call us at 877-SWAGGER and we will hook you up!


Thursday, September 23, 2010

Limited Edition Assorted 2 Trollbeads are Here!

Oh. My. Gosh!  The very limited edition (and very sought after) Assorted 2 Trollbeads have finally made their way over from Denmark and landed at Swagger Gifts!!!  Aren't they beautiful?! *sigh*

How exciting for them to get here before the end of our Trunk Show!  Come by today to view the NEW Assorted 2 beads (seriously I am going to go broke because they are so beautiful!)!


I know I will see some of you Trollbead Freaks soon!:)

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Fall Trollbeads Trunk Show starts TODAY!

The Trunk Show starts TODAY, Tuesday September 21st and runs through Thursday September 23rd. The trunk show is all day 10 - 6 with extended hours till 8 pm on Thursday - for all of you who want to drink wine while you shop or just can't make it before 6 pm! ;)

We are super excited about showing you all the new beads including the Autumn 2010 Release, our brand new unique glass beads that arrived yesterday, unique amber beads, and the Empowerment Beads for Breast Cancer!


We are also offering lots of Trunk Show Specials (choose up to 2 per customer)

  • Buy 4 beads and get the 5th bead free!! (5th bead must be of equal or lesser value)
  • Receive $25 off a Fantasy Pendant with the Purchase of a Fantasy Necklace!
  • Buy 2 sets of Earring Accessories and receive a free pair of Silver Hooks!
  • Receive a free bracelet with the purchase of a decorative clasp!
We love this Wine Harvest theme for a Fall inspired bracelet!


You could also Win a $400 Trollbeads Bracelet!


Help cure cancer by donating to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society at Swagger Gifts! And to sweeten the deal - every $10 donation gets you one shot at winning a $400 Trollbeads bracelet!

The winner of the bracelet will be drawn this Thursday Night, September 23, at 7 pm! Click here for more details!


Here's the bracelet YOU could win!




See you this week!

I want to be the Deep Fried Ambassador for the NC State Fair!

So I know what you are thinking - THE WHAT?!?!  Yes, the Deep Fried Ambassador.  And I think I would qualify.  My family and I have eaten EVERY deep fried item found at the NC State Fair!

Hmmmm.  My niece pondering. What can we eat next...

Deep fried Oreos.  Check.  Deep Fried Pecan Pie.  Check.  Deep Fried Cheese.  Check.  Deep Fried Candy Bars.  Triple Check.  Deep Friend Coke.  Yes - Coke.  Check!!!  And the list could seriously go on. 

But we don't stop there.  We eat everything else too.  And we check out the competitions, livestock, Village of Yesteryear, the rides (LOVE the rides), games - we've even purchased a bunch of stuff from the Commercial and Education Building booths (you know - the stuff that basically looks like it should be on an infomercial)! We leave no rock unturned - deep fried or not.

We love the candy apples!

I'm even cutting a vacation to Greece short to attend the NC State Fair with my family this year.  GREECE people!  Yeah - my husband isn't thrilled with this decision, but strangely he understands my obsession with the fair! 

The NC State Fair is good old fashioned family bonding FUN!  My sisters and their 5 children even travel in from other states to go to the fair!  We are a Fair Junkie Family! 

Do we look like we can rock the State Fair - or what?!?!

Last year we were living in Switzerland during the NC State Fair and I CRIED because I couldn't go.  Real tears.  But my family was so gracious to Skype me with their cute painted faces, prizes, and stuffed bellies.  (Thanks guys you really know how to make a girl feel better.)

OKAY - what's my point here.  I want to be the Deep Fried Ambassador to the NC State Fair (yes this is a real (really awesome) title bestowed upon one lucky person), but I CAN'T :( .  I can't because I don't arrive back from our trip to Greece until October 14th and the Deep Fried Ambassador's official duties start on October 11th.  *sigh*

So I'm telling all of you guys about it so maybe one of you bloggers out there will get the title and possibly let me tag along one day.  I even promise to carry your winnings, hold your fried food, kiss a carnie (okay - not really) - but you get the point!  I NEED one of my friends/customers to WIN THE TITLE of DEEP FRIED AMBASSADOR

If you are interested (and why wouldn't you be?), here is the link to the NC State Fair Deep Fried Blog post where you can get all the details.  And if you win, will you put in a good word for me for next year?!  I would appreciate it!

Long live the NC STATE FAIR and fried food!:)





p.s. - You can even "like" the NC State Fair on Facebook!  Heck yeah!

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Trollbeads World Tour hits Germany!

Trollbeads is currently going on a World Tour!  Each month Trollbeads is "visiting" a new country where they will introduce four new beads exploring the history, culture, and charming quirks of that corner of the globe.   The World Tour collection is available only in it's homeland.

The first country they visited was Denmark (of course)!  Denmark is where Trollbeads originated so it makes perfect sense that they would start there!  The beads designed for Denmark were a Viking Ship, Design Troll, Anemone, and Runes.  You can check them out on Trollbeads Universe here

Once they started selling the beads in Denmark they announced the next country on the list would be Germany - arriving in September 2010!  Which I was super excited about, because I was also arriving in Germany in September 2010:)!  Hamburg, Germany to be precise - the weekend of September 3-6.
The Trollbeads Universe website said September 2010, but not an exact date, so I kept my fingers crossed that they would be there when I arrived on September 3rd!

My husband and I went to Germany to visit our good friends, Miriam and James, and when they asked if we had any "must see" things while in Hamburg, I said "YES - we have to go to a Trollbeads store!:)"  I'm guessing they weren't expecting that, but hey I knew they would take us to all the other cool places!

So, not even 3 hours after arriving in Hamburg we found the first Trollbeads Shop on my list!  "Where are your special  Deutschland World Tour beads?" I asked the friendly sales clerk.  "I'm sorry they don't come out until September 15th" she said.

What?  Booooooooh!  That put a damper on things.:(

I asked the sales clerk a few questions like, do you know what they are, do you have pictures of them, can you mail them to me in the USA.  No, No and No.  :( 

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

Oh well - I tried. 

A couple hours later, we passed by another store that sold Trollbeads - the name was easy to remember from my "Trollbead stores in Hamburg research", Becker's Jewelers (my last name is Becker - we're German:)).  Of course, this only made me more depressed. 

James told me I should go in.  WHY?!?!  He said he had a good feeling about this store.  Dude - no good feelings - THEY HAVEN'T COME OUT YET.  But he pushed us all in any way.  And low and behold...

THEY HAD THEM!!!

And not only the beads, but also beautiful brochures about what they meant and special boxes just for the World Tour beads - ah-mazing!  The four beads (which have now come out on the Trollbeads Universe website) are a Gnome, VW bug, Brandenburg Gate, and The Frog Prince.

I was in TROLLBEAD HEAVEN!  I was the first person to come in and ask for them (probably because they weren't supposed to come out for another 2 weeks!), so I got my pick of the litter!  (And if you know about Trollbeads, you know that all the glass ones look slightly different so this was awesome!)

Now which one(s) do I want?:)  Hmmmmm.

Well - living in Zurich (the German part of Switzerland), gave me a new obsession for Gnomes!  Yes weird, I know!  But they remind me of all our hikes in the Alps, because seriously they are in EVERYONE'S yards!  You have no idea how many pictures I took of gnomes and gnome gardens.:)  So I HAD to get the gnome...

Isn't he so cute!!!  Every time I look down at him I smile!

Then there was the Frog Prince.  I loved the Brother's Grimm when I was little, and this bead with the cute frog with a crown on his head and with a beautiful green glass ball under him.  You KNOW I had to get him too...

 Don't you just want to kiss him to see if he turns into a prince?!

Yeah for great Trollbead KARMA!  I'm not sure how that worked out in my favor, but I'm not asking any questions!  I know the beads were released officially Today, so I am one lucky Trollbead FREAK:)!

I had to get a photo in front of the "Becker" store with all my goodies! 

It had to have been Becker FATE! 

Today they also announced that the next country will be ITALY!!!  The beads will be available some time in October.  Italy is my favorite European country so HOW AM I GOING TO GET TO ITALY before I leave Europe and move back to the United States on October 14th?!  I'm working on it and will let you know;)

So my final question.  It was announced that the World Tour will be stopping in the USA some time in 2011 (no I don't know the dates).  What four beads do you think they will design to represent the USA?  A McDonald's arch or a Starbuck's coffee cup?:)  But seriously...

WHAT IS OUR U.S.A. STORY?

Does this work?

Recently my computer blew up. Yeah, it kind of sucked, BUT I did get a new computer out of it so I can't really complain (oh and all my info was backed up through Carbonite so that was helpful too.) My new computer came with the "New" Microsoft Office Suite – you know – the one that creates files that won't open on any of my other company computers. Yeah – that one. (And I do know how to make it work, but I always forget to save as the "old" Word file. Why does Microsoft have to torture me like this?) Anyhoo, as I was "saving as" I saw the item "Publish to Blog" on the drop down list and I HAD to see if it worked. And if it worked in the "old" Word – don't tell me. I feel really special (and smart) right now, so don't ruin it – okay:)!

Moment of truth. Here goes… pushing publish to blog right…NOW!

***OMG - it worked!!!  Now I am in here editing the text to write this and adding a label to the post!  I think I am going to dig this!  Anybody else write their blog posts this way?

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Announcing our Holiday Open House Preview Night beneficiary - Nancy's Butterfly Fund!


We would love for you to join us for this amazing event!
Make sure to make your calenders for our favorite night of the year!!!
  Here are all the details:

Who: You and all of your friends! Tickets are $10 in advance and $15 at the door.
100% of the ticket sales and 10% of the store sales during the event will be donated to Nancy's Butterfly Fund!

When: Thursday, November 4 - 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm

Where: Swagger Gifts - 2425 Kildaire Farm Road, Cary

Why:
To raise money and awareness for Nancy's Butterfly Fund and to check out the fabulous new Holiday 2010 items at Swagger Gifts!

What’s happening:

50% off monogramming for items purchased at Swagger
FREE freight on all personalized orders
FREE personalization on ceramics
FREE gift bag filled with goodies worth over $25 for the first 50 customers LOTS of prizes given away– including a $100 worth of Swagger Gifts certificates
And Cool Gifts sold at Special Prices for this night only!

A little more about Nancy's Butterfly Fund:
Friends of Cary murder victim Nancy Cooper created Nancy's Butterfly Fund, a fund to provide financial assistance to women and their children leaving abusive relationships.

The goal of Nancy's Butterfly Fund is to minimize the financial obstacles that may prevent women from leaving violent, unsafe homes. Assistance from the Fund may help with apartment and utility deposits, childcare, education, food, transportation and ther basic financial needs and services.

The butterfly symbol memorializes and honors Nancy, and also serves as a symbol of hope to victims whose lives are impacted by domestic violence.

Money raised for Nancy's Butterfly Fund is then donated to the North Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCCADV) which is a statewide non-profit membership organization providing support services to local domestic violence agencies and allied professionals.

NCCADV was founded in 1981 and provides training and technical assistance to 90 doestic violence programs throughout the state of North Carolina. The purpose of NCCADV is to strengthen the network of people working to end domestic violence in NC. NCCADV also advocates to improve statewide policies and legislation to positively impact the lives of victims and domestic violence and their children.

For more information about:
Nancy's Butterfly Fund please visit their website www.nancysbutterflyfundnc.org
or
NDDADV please visit their website www.nccadv.org

We would like to thank our gracious vendors for donating items for this event!

Friday, September 10, 2010

This Just in - Twa-La Rings!

When I saw these changeable rings by Twa-La at market, I knew we HAD TO HAVE THEM at Swagger! Buy one ring then change the base, medallion, and crown for endless possibilities! (In my opinion you are saving money by buying this ring b/c it is so many in one:))

I love this ring for traveling.  Bring a couple of different bases and it will match your entire wardrobe.  Brilliant!  Say it with me one more time - "Why didn't I think of that?":)


And we have special - Now until the end of September buy the ring, base, medallion, & crown combo and get an additional base FREE!

Not available online, but calls us if you want to buy one and you don't live near our store in Cary, NC!

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Swagger's Redesign on a Dime!

I have to show you what my mom, Jill, has been working on at the store!  Her official title is Vice President of Visual Merchandising, but since Swagger is a small business,she does a lot of other things too - like fulfills all internet orders, calls in all damaged products from our vendors, keeps up with all bags, ribbon, boxes and wrapping supplies, instore sales, customer service, etc.  (I'm actually starting to wonder, if she does all this what do I do...but I digress.)  So, as you can see, it is amazing that our products even get out on the floor!  I'm sure she wonders why she even took this job...but again I digress (love you Mom:))! 

ANYWAY, my point here is - she has all these great ideas for visual display, but since I have her doing all this other stuff and I haven't always given her lots of money for the displays, she worked with what I had given her (which wasn't a lot).  But after attending a visual merchandising class at market, she got motivated (actually I was a little scared by the amount of motivation), kicked me in the butt and said "I NEED MONEY FOR DISPLAYS"!  Sheesh.  Why didn't you just ask?:)  (Okay - so she asked like a bizillion times in the last 8 years.)  But this time I listened!  Don't I get credit for that?

We agreed on $300.  I know it wasn't a lot, but it was better than nothing - right?  So she and my dad (who I need to apologize to because he got roped into a lot of work and isn't even on the payroll at Swagger - sorry Dad - but thank you and I love ya!) set out to Redesign on a Dime!  My mom has always been creative and can envision things I would NEVER come up with (hence why she is the VP Visual Merchandising!), but I am truly blown away by this transformation.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!  Did I say I love it?  I LOVE IT! 

Here are some Before & After shots!  I love it at the store, but thought the pictures might give you some ideas for your home!

Before - boring plain old white.  Now I love the new pop of bright color in the back of the cabinet!  The products really stand out!  I need to find a way to incorporate this idea into my home!

Before - we got this piece at a used displays store.  It was actually from the Godiva store at Crabtree Mall.  The brown wood really never went with our decor at Swagger but the piece was great for display.  Now - OMG!  Amazing what white paint can do!  Then she painted the entire wall behind the unit a light blue and painted another piece of plywood a dark shade of the same hue for behind the shelves.

I had to show a close up.  Not sure if you can tell, but my mom covered the ply wood with wallpaper that you can paint - I believe she just rolled on the color.  Then she went back in and did some hand detailing in lime green and white.  She said it was really easy!  My mind is spinning on where I can do this in my house!

Before - my mom always hated these glass shelves.  They were hard to display on and always looked dusty.  Now - my mom and dad headed down to the Habitat for Humanity warehouse off Capital Blvd and found these cool table legs that they painted black.  Then my dad cut pieces of wood in different sizes, so when stacked on top of the table legs it would look like tables stacked on top of each other.  Again she said - super easy!  I would love this as a book shelf in my family room!

So there you have it.  Pretty cool, huh.  And before you get any ideas she is NOT for hire:)!  I heard some of you people have been trying to get her to do interior designing at your house!  Hello?!?!?!  Christmas is coming up and she is MY mom - hands off people:)!

One more picture to show the finished product.

Here you can tell that she painted just the one wall the accent color - really makes your eye go to the back of the store.

I hope you guys got some ideas! I would love to know if you plan on incorporating any of these ideas into your own home! Have fun!

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Let's Light the Night!

Do you want to help cure Cancer?  Starting today, you will be able to donate money to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society by purchasing a Light the Night balloon from Swagger.  You can donate any amount, $1, $5, $10 or MORE!:)  Every donation is appreciated! 

However, we wanted to sweeten the deal by offering a $400 Trollbeads bracelet to raffle off to anyone who donates $10 or more!  How does that sound?! 

Come by to check out the bracelet and get your balloon and raffle ticket today!  The raffle for this beautiful bracelet will be held during our Trollbeads Trunk Show on Thursday September 23rd at 7 pm! 

We hand picked the beads for this bracelet to represent everything Light the Night stands for:

 
  • the Unity bead - for coming together to help cure cancer
  • the Victory bead - for everyone who has kicked cancer's butt and for one day finding a cure
  • the Forget-me-not bead - for everyone we have lost to this terrible disease
  • the Red Feather and Red Stripe beads to represent the Leukemia and Lymphoma awareness color
  • the Zebra, Fashion Flower, and Black Armadillo beads to represent light and night!
To find out more about this event and how to participate in local Light the Night walks click here!

Please tell your friends! You can help a great cause and possibly win a present for you or a family member/friend! Remember the Holidays are coming up!

We would like to send a special thank you to Lund Trading (TrollbeadsUS) for graciously donating this amazing bracelet to help us raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society!  Thank you Lund Trading!

And the winner of the Trollbeads People's Bead 2010 is...

Kristi Denning from the USA with her Ice Bear design!  He is strong, beautiful, and in trouble. A constant reminder of the fragile climate we need to protect. With luck, his story will have a happy ending.


The Ice Bear will be part of the Trollbeads' Christmas Collection.  We will let you know when we have it in!

Congrats to Kristi Denning!