My Mom's Day at LILL

Hello Everyone!

It's Amy, I am the Web Store manager for LILL. You may recognize me from a previous post as I was awarded HQ Team Member of the Month. So fun and what an absolute honor it was to be voted for by my peers.

Anyway, I just thought it appropriate to share my experience for my pre-Mom's Day at LILL. I have a LILL tradition with my family and in-laws. My best friend, Kelly, and I married brothers. One year we decided to start a tradition of giving the aunts-in-law, grandma-in-law and our moms LILL Gift Certificates for Christmas with a "save the date" note to visit the LILL store for Mom's Day. We design our bags and then head out to a local restaurant to treat the moms to lunch afterwards. We have a great time chatting about the bags we designed. I look forward to it every year. Last year we all designed SOPHIE bags.

We just had our visit to the Chicago store yesterday! As I am expecting my 2nd baby boy in a few weeks, so we decided to go a little earlier than Mother's Day.

I thought it would be fun to share with you all what we all designed! I hope the family doesn't mind me sharing their gorgeous combos with the world.

My two aunt-in-laws and I designed CHARLIE bags!

I am SO excited to have designed a CHARLIE, he's what she looks like:




I designed my CHARLIE with Giselle Paisley. It has all my favorite colors in it, violet purple, hot pink and green. I think it will be a great "mom-on-the-go" bag for me to carry with my two boys!










Aunt Sandee designed her CHARLIE with Brown Stone.




We were all surprised that she did not use an animal print for once! But I think she made a good choice. She travels a lot, so CHARLIE is perfect for her.











Aunt Robbin designed her CHARLIE using Calla Lily:


We discovered a few years ago that Aunt Robbin is a closet LILL shopper! She started driving down to the store on her own and picking up ready-mades with out telling us. She'd show up to family events with these new LILL Bags. I think she has well over 35 LILL bags now!









My mom's gift from me for Mother's Day was a LILL bag of her choice. She chose CHARLOTTE:



She chose Topsy Turvy. She wanted a bag she could wear around and out to dinner. I think It's a great choice for her. She takes care of my little guy, Jack while I work so she definitely deserves some fun nights out to dinner with a gorgeous LILL bag! She also chose a ready-made DENISE to coordinate with her CHARLOTTE, she's just so sassy and cute!







My BFF, Kelly also picked up a CHARLOTTE:

She's heading out to Florida for a vacation next week with her family so opted for the "instant gratification" approach to her LILL Bag. I was actually going to use Lime Leaves for my CHARLIE, but we decided if we ever wanted to, we could switch bags. We both LOVE this fabric. No wonder, I mean we did marry brothers so we kind of have the same style. She also chose a ready-made DENISE with the same Lime Leaves fabric.









Kelly's mom, Susan, designed herself a NIKKI:



She wanted an everyday bag with fabrics that went with everything. I think she made an excellent choice all around! It's cute and sassy just like her!










And finally, there's Grandma Sophie! She designed a KIMBERLY- zipper:

Grandma chose Spring Fling for the exterior and Key Lime Twill for the pockets and straps. She is the fasted LILL bag designer of the bunch! She walks in, sees what she likes and is done. She never second guesses her choice. She likes to relax and watch us all design our bags after she's done. I LOVE her combination, so cheery and fun, just like her!



I love looking at all these combos now and seeing what different personalities we all have. It's such a wonderful way to bond with the family. Our LILL bags always represent a special Mom's Day memory. When we see each other at family gatherings, carrying our LILL bags of course, we love to talk about the trip we had down to the store and how we can't wait to go again next year! We may have to turn this trip into a bi-annual event though.

Just wanted to thank the girls at the Chicago store for giving us such a fun time, again!

I hope you enjoyed my memories with my family. I wish all you Moms out there a beautiful and happy Mother's Day!

-Amy F.

Emily's Pick of the Week

Happy Friday LILL fans! The weather is glorious today, so grab your favorite LILL bag and go outside! This time of year, I always want to design a new bag for the Spring and Summer seasons. I am even more excited to design a bag this Spring becasue I am expecting my first baby in late May! I still have time to design my bag before the baby arrives, so I am looking for help from all of you. I have a few ideas on what fabrics I'd like to use for my bag, but I was wondering if any of you have suggestions for me. I am planning on designing a custom SUSAN bag. I really love bright, spring colors like pink and yellow. I was thinking about putting Spring Fling on the exterior base and pocket, Yellow Stone on the exterior top, Pucker Up on the trim and Spring Fling on the strap. Let me know what you think of my design. Please post your ideas to our blog. I will post any ideas/thoughts that I receive from all of you next Friday! I want to hear your ideas on different SUSAN designs too! Once I collect all of your feedback, I will make my final decision and then I will order my bag! Thanks so much for your help! I'll see you here next week! Emily R.

LILL's Team Member of the Month

Congrats to Amy F., LILL's HQ Team Member of the Month for April!

Amy, LILL's Web Store Manager is always warm, cheerful and welcoming! She is very helpful in helping new staff adjust, seasoned staff maintain, and the LILL community as a whole excel to be the best it can possibly be! Amy is known for her creative ideas, such as the Lucky Charm promotion or the name of one of LILL’s latest lines, “Simply Chic”. She is also known for her willingness to help anyone and everyone, aiding in everything from social outings, collecting donations for birthdays, leaves from the office, special potluck things in conjunction with the social committee and all while maintaining her consistent excellent service to the web. Positive, energetic, hard working and friendly are good words to describe this month’s LILL person of the month, Amy!

Let's get to know a little bit about Amy:

(Picture on left features Amy wearing a dress made by Jess Audey, she specially made this maternity design for her)

Where are you originally from? "I’m originally from Chicago and moved out the DesPlaines by high school. Been living out in the beautiful, fun-filled Chicago ‘burbs since then!"

How long have you been with LILL? "I’ve been with LILL for over 6 years now. I first started with Jen as an intern over the summer during college in 2000. I cut fabrics on the floor of Jen’s studio apartment (1154 LILL) with these giant silver sheers! It was my favorite job ever. I loved all the fabrics and patterns she came up with for new bags. I especially enjoyed watching a customer’s handbag go from being a traced pattern on a fabric to a real, 3 dimensional piece of art that you can wear. Any money I made from that internship quickly turned into a LILL handbag!"

What’s your favorite style? "Right now I am loving CHARLIE. I have my AUDREY JANE hooked to it’s handy snap hook. I have been between this one and HADLEY lately."

Top 3 Fabric Picks

From left to right, Amy's current fave fabrics are Lime Leaves, Giselle Paisley and Wild Zebra.

What do you love most about working for LILL? "The culture and the spirit that LILL holds. I look forward to seeing the girls everyday and I think we all work really well together. LILL is very open to creativity and ideas and I learn something new every week.
Not to forget we have the best potlucks ever!"

Do you have a nickname? "A-Dogg. It’s ridiculous, but I love it."

Favorite band or music genre: "Dave Matthews, pretty much all the time. I go see them every year at least once a year, I’ve been doing this with my very close friends since 1997. We call it our “Summer Christmas” because we look forward to it all year and it’s a day just for us - no kids, no responsibilities and no worries. Just good times, good tail-gating food and good friends. If not Dave, then I’m still pretty stuck on music I was into in high-school, all that alternative sound like Beck, Green Day and Everclear."

Where did you last go on vacation? "Key West in May of 2008 with my family and a few close friends to celebrate my husband's and my 5th wedding anniversary. My husband and I renewed our wedding vows on the beach on the day of our actual anniversary!"

Anything else fun you’d like to share? "My husband and I are expecting our second baby boy end of May. I’m excited to meet him and know Jack (my 2 and 1/2 year old) and him will best friends."

"Even though I work at LILL I have a LILL tradition with my family, I guess I really love LILL – a lot! My best friend/sister-in-law and I have a yearly tradition where we bring our moms and in-laws to the Chicago store for Mother’s Day and design handbags. We get each of the special ladies a LILL gift certificate for Christmas and include a “save the date” note to make plans for a day together. We go to the store and create our bags and then off to lunch after to talk about our day at LILL. We’ve been doing this for 4 years now and look forward to it every year. It’s a great time to bond and we always treasure our creations. Last year we all made SOPHIEs!"

Thanks, Amy! We are all so lucky to work with you everyday!!

Emily R.

Potluck Eggs-travaganza!

We recently hosted our monthly potluck! The birthday kids voted on pizza to be served, an oldy but a goody! Being as we always need to have some sort of activity to go with our food, we tied in an Easter theme with potluck and hosted an Easter egg decorating contest. Team members brought in their eggs that they decorated over Easter weekend.

Check out these egg-squisite works of art!

Imelda F., our Cutting Department Manager submitted these. Notice the Mardi Gras inspired egg, completely covered in colorful sequins!

Mandy L., Design Team Director, submitted this elegant egg. Died with onion peels (her grandma's recipe) and a hand-drawn, henna inspired pattern.

Rachel D., Creative Services Manager, submitted these beauties. Dyed with a Martha Stewart recipe that involves food coloring, olive oil and vinegar. You may notice the egg on the right magically appeared with a tiny smiley face on it!

These delectable treats were not real eggs, rather egg-shaped cakes! Submitted by Erika B., Marketing Assistant

Everyone at LILL voted on his or her favorite entry. It was a close race between all 4 submissions, but Imelda F. ended up with the prize! LILL's newest style, NIKKI. Made in Fleur de LILL.

Really, in the end, everyone wins. Not only are these contest entries beautiful works of art, but they are delicious, edible treats!

Mandy and Imelda were caught enjoying a little egg dessert after the potluck.


We hope you enjoyed sharing in our potluck festivities!

Email me if you have a fun idea for our next potluck! lilly@1154lill.com

Spring - A Great Time to Host a Party!

I was anxiously awaiting spring this year - mostly because I was REALLY ready to have my baby, but also because it is such a wonderful time of the year. Full of new beginnings and occassions to get together with friends, I always feel inspired at this time of the year.

Speaking of new beginninngs - I am settling in as a new mother of 3... wheh! I am impressed with all of you who have already accomplished this feat. All kidding aside though, baby Grey is a very sweet little guy. He has been my easiest newborn yet and I'm really enjoying getting to know him. He looks a lot like Joey did as a baby and when wearing some of Joey's old clothes, I flash back 5 years and have remembered lots about Joey that I had forgotten. Pretty fun time. Thank you for all the kind messages after his birth. I've attached a couple new photos of the three, though haven't figured out how to get them all into one picture yet. :-).

We are finally seeing real signs of spring here in Chicago. I hear it may be 70 and sunny on Friday. I hope you are all also experiencing some signs as well. I love this season as it brings about lots of reasons to get together with friends or coworkers to reconnect after months "on the inside." Its the season for showers and weddings, for celebrations of mom and graduations. With all these occassions I find myself looking through my closet and needing something to refresh my wardrobe to match the enthusiasm I feel this time of year.

This year I'm looking to brighten my wardrode with accessories. Its a logical choice given that I still have some baby weight to take off, but also a smart financial choice. With a few added accessories this spring, I can revitalize my wardrobe with something I can wear everyday and feel good about. And what better way to start than to get some friends together to catch up after a long winter and help each other create some versitile spring accessories for all those upcoming occassions.

From exciting style introductions to inspiring new fabrics, LILL has a lot to offer both new and returning customers. I am really pleased with our most recent additions - the Nikki (above on right) and the Brianna (above on left - coming soon!). Nikki is selling very well so far and from the initial reaction by those who have previewed the Brianna, I think she too will do exceptionally well. I am currently pondering fabric for my first Brianna and am looking very forward to regularly sporting it this spring/summer. It will be tough to replace the Charlie I've been carrying for a while, though - I just love it and am not sure if I'll be able to give it up. And, I'm not sure if I can reduce the contents of my purse down to fit in a Nikki yet, but it is a goal. I've tried her out a few times and I love how she feels and looks on my arm.

So many options with our current line and more great things to come.... Its a great time to host a party and check them out yourself!

Happy Spring!

Jen

Founder / President

1154 LILL Studio