DAFFY DAYS! It's April in Newport and that means Daffodils (and wish's 5th Birthday and Best of RI voting). Everywhere you look, 🌼🌼🌼. Do you know about Newport Daffodillion? It's an initiative under the Alliance for a Livable Newport that started in 2006 with the mission to plant 1,000,000 daffodils in Newport by giving bulbs to residents and business owners annually since. Newport now has 1.1 MILLION DAFFODILS blooming all over town!
We've entered the Newport Daffy Days Window Contest and will be sure to post on social when the "People's Choice" voting starts but in the meantime take a minute to vote for us in one of our favorite polls of the year. Voting has already begun for Rhode Island Monthly's Best of RI. Voting ends April 30, and you can vote once per email address. You've helped us win "Best Consignment Store in Newport County" in 2017, 2018 and 2020 and I hope we can do it again! Things like Best of RI help fellow Rhode Islander's and visitors alike know where to eat, drink, shop, etc. And in a time like this, the "best of" awards make small business owners like me feel appreciated and warm and fuzzy inside. So don't forget to vote for all your favorite small businesses, we've all had a rough year like everyone else and this is a little something you can do to go towards brightening their/my spirits. Here is the link a third time, just in case: https://www.rimonthly.com/vote.
In some other exciting news, this week marks 5 years I've had wish. Sometimes it feels like it's been my whole life for so long, and in other ways it feels like my then boyfriend, now husband (mr. wish) and I were just picking the slate gray color** for the walls and cleaning up 80 Thames to move in and open, alternating our take out selection while working on the new store late into the evenings. **(let's be honest, also lots and lots of help from my personal color consultant, mom, and her other half who will help me with just about anything I ask even though he hate's the word "stepdad")
A few thank you's are in order around here, to mr. wish for almost always being patient about the amount of time I spend in the store, talking about the store and dragging inventory back and forth from wish to our home to work in my office or more likely, spread all over the living room.
A gigantic thank you to my wonderful mom for always coming to help my themed window decor dreams come true. On Tuesday, she thumbtacked and taped our own version of daffodillion, while I ran around dressing mannequins and looking at our work from the sidewalk yelling, "OMG it looks so good" or "I love it!" When we were about 3/4 of the way done, I said to her, "mom, did you ever think we'd be entering so many seasonal window decor competitions?" After some laughter, the answer was no, although I sometimes wonder if she does it because she loves the creativity or simply humors me in spite of the whirlwind that is me and wish. Either way, she has a way of just making exactly what I'm envisioning come to life before I even fully get the words out of my mouth. Or coming up with the perfect thing that I can't put my finger on.
And lastly, thanks to my girl Hil, who will always stop by in the middle of her day to take 50 photos of my in a pink shirt in front of the store when mr. wish's patience has run out.
So here's to 5 years, and many many more. I know many of you have been worried about us during this past year, and among all the crazy that is 2020/21, we're not thriving by any means but wish is still here, I'm still here and we are a-ok. Though still very covid cautious and masked for now, I'm excited for a hopefully busy summer season of helping you all get dressed for events big and small as more of us get vaccinated and the weather warms up. And let's be honest, a weekday lunch date with your bestie is an event worth getting dressed for these days.
For a closer look at all the styled outfits, slide right through the photos below. To shop all items in the window on the same page, head to Window Shopping.
To jump directly to the page of a specific item, click on the thumbnail below. To shop all the items in the window in one spot, go to Window Shopping. To see or shop another window display, scroll through or search all blog posts.
Will you take part in any of the Daffy Days activities this year? It seems like their focusing on outdoor, distanced events like a bike ride and car parade which I think is great. Stop into wish for a little something yellow before you head out to enjoy springtime in Newport!
I spend so much time styling the window in the shop and hear from all of you how much you love it. This year so many of you aren't able to stop by and get a closer look like you usually would. And I know many of you aren't in Newport in general so you're used to enjoying our Window content on Instagram and Facebook but I always feel like they should have a more permanent place online. Hope you enjoyed it too and maybe you even find something you love! As a thank you for supporting wish, which you do each time you come to our website, stop in, shop online, flip through our social media, tell a friend about us, etc. I'd like to give you a little discount on the items you saw and read about in this post. So now through April 15th, use code 3RDBLOG for 15% off ONE ITEM.
Thank you for celebrating the big and little things with me and wish over the last 5 years. Of course it means the world to have great family and friends in my personal life, but all my wish friends and cheerleaders mean a heck of a lot too. See you soon?!
xo
Kate