You may have wondered where I've been these past couple of weeks, or maybe not. Well, here's the story of the Airhead Boutique. I received a message on my Etsy page from owner #1, let's call her Leslie, of an upscale Jersey Shore boutique--in one of the very chi-chi shore towns (no, obviously not Lavelette, Seaside Park, or Asbury Park, ha ha--but not even Deal or Spring Lake. . . .)--one of the REALLY chi-chi towns where moms & grown daughters of Wall Street brokers' families (you know, the ones who pass along their Wall Street position from generation to generation) just don't have enough to spend their money on. They leave their pearls and diamonds in "The City" while they "summer" in their lovely seaside town for two months and do nothing but spend money. Well, that sounded good to me, especially when owner #2, let's call her Sharonne, told me that the shop wanted to make me a "featured artist" with a whole area to myself with my jewelry, note cards, & purses, and that they would even do a newspaper writeup on me. That they wanted a "long-term relationship" with me. And that I would probably clear about $1K per month there in the summer. They would send me a contract and I would send them some of my best, most expensive items, with prices more than doubled. Heard nothing. Two weeks went by. I called and got Owner #3 on the phone (let's call her Donna). Well. Donna had never heard of me, didn't know about my conversations with Leslie and Sharonne, and told me that the only items that were selling right now were $10 and $20 anklets. I told her that I'd had an extensive conversation with Sharonne and that my impression from her was very different from what she, Donna, was saying. I asked to speak with Sharonne & got no where with that. Donna told me that she would call me after she had talked with Sharonne. Heard nothing. I called back and again got Donna. She had talked with Sharonne and they had come to some sort of understanding; Donna told me to go ahead and send my things. Still no contract. I told her no, thank you, I'm no longer interested. In the mean time, I had priced & labeled and boxed up some 50 items, which I then had to unpack and re-post to my Etsy site. That's what I've been doing. Talk about a gerbil on a wheel! I'm just glad it's over. | 
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