Why the building isn’t green
and other tidbits about us you may or may not have wondered…
If you live in Portland, or have ever driven though, chances are good that you’ve crossed the Ross Island Bridge and/or have seen the huge billboard at the northeast end of it. Below that sits our building in beautiful, funky, southeast Portland. It is a lovely rounded building that is boring old beige. I dream of painting it green, a gorgeous bold green that will stand out and inspire happiness in all who see it, especially the poor commuters who drive-by by the thousands every day (the count we were told is 50,000 per day!). But the owners of the building have concerns and think our shade is too bright, we hoped for a compromise and were given a list of local building that were acceptable shades of green. Every one of them no more exciting than army green or pea soup. They say that despite our area being progressive with lots of lovely bright and beautiful shades of green (and blue and terra cotta, ect) that our spot is actually considered the “gateway to southwest Portland” which, apparently, is not as progressive and/or open-minded to new ideas and colors.
Now that the rainy season is about we’re going to wait til spring to bring up the issue again, hopefully a little time will help open their hearts to the shade we desire.
Having an actual store to shop in has been set back to spring due to permits and time (see our FAQs for more info). But we will continue letting people come by to pick up orders at our front door.
Sock Garters are being worked on right now…
Shelleopard has been sending them to us by the dozens, including a nifty new one that I’d hoped to have up in time for Halloween shopping but didn’t get my pictures ready for in time, they are gorgeous and are now ready to go..
We finally got more of the special elastic to make our pretty buttoned garters and will have the first batch ready Monday morning.
Black Fingerless Gloves…
everyone loves them, everyone wants some
we order them by the hundreds
but sometimes things don’t happen as fast as they should.
Our latest batch is finally in!!!
The Halloween rush is slowing down and we’ll have a little lull before the holiday sales kick in again so I’ll be busily getting lots more sock garters ready in between adding more new items, I got a little behind on that the past two weeks and am happy to have time to get back to it…
This weekend I’ve been getting new colors of current styles done including the garnet cashmere knee highs, new Gingers, new Giadas and new brown arm warmers.
The new web site with all its fancy new features to bring us up to speed with customer log-ins, full tracking, wishlists, back in stock notifications, ect…
we’re working on it and much as I wanted it done by now, some things are worth waiting for and it is never a good idea to make a major change after September. So we’ll be inviting some of you to help us test it, hopefully, in December. The launch will be around New Years. But Gift Cards by email will be ready much sooner!
I’m sure that didn’t cover some of your wonderings so ask and I shall answer…
October 28th, 2007 at 11:38 am
I’d love for the building to be purple, but I suspect they’d go for that even less. :(
October 28th, 2007 at 1:17 pm
Me too! I thought we’d have a far better chance with green so I didn’t even risk asking for purple. Now I am seeing all these freshly painted green buildings everywhere and am almost tempted to ask for purple in spring so as to not be following the pack (even if I did think of it first). BUT, they did reject purple for the trim already so it really might be too much to ask ~:(
October 28th, 2007 at 3:29 pm
Maybe if we give them pretty-colored socks they’ll get excited about pretty colors and not scared of new things?
October 28th, 2007 at 5:54 pm
I’m not so sure stuffy old men will be as motivated by pretty socks as us free spirited modern girls ~;)
October 28th, 2007 at 7:29 pm
This may be a good time for some photoshopping. A picture is worth a thousand words. Most people have a hard time visualizing. You’ve probably thought of that already though. When will the private label items be up? About how long for more EG Smith heather tights?
October 28th, 2007 at 7:35 pm
oh wouldnt it be lovely an artist do something funky and colorful…like a beautiful graffitti mural….dancing legs everywhere….ok that would probably go over even less well.
i love green….
did they give a list of “acceptable” shades (all colors)?
October 28th, 2007 at 7:38 pm
i suppose one could go a mor subtle shade and then do some beautiful green or purple (or both) window treatments….they cant say anything about the window treatments can they? there are so many glorious windows the color would still be a visible attraction. oh and how cool to have a huge sock dreams billboard.
October 29th, 2007 at 1:18 am
Stuffy old men are so boring! :(
October 29th, 2007 at 3:08 am
Green or not, I’m sure the store will be absolutely fantastic!
October 29th, 2007 at 5:46 am
Private line, most likely December, assuming all goes well.
EG Smith heathered tights, I don’t have a set date, but I was told most of our back-orders were on their way soon.
No list, but I’m sure any shade of grey would be would be most welcome, but purple trim was rejected early on.
And yes, the store will be lovely regardless of the exterior color.
…If we did it now we’d be so stressed out we couldn’t enjoy it, just keeping our phone answered at this time of year becomes a challenge and my priority is always getting as many orders out the door without error every day as we can (and we do make errors, but our ratio of happy to not-happy customers is pretty good).
Mmmmm, coffee, must have more coffee!!!
October 29th, 2007 at 12:02 pm
hey what stocks are those you are wearing in the trump garter pictures????
October 29th, 2007 at 2:21 pm
Oooh! I am so excited! You got my arm warmers of love back in stock, and so many new wonderful socks.
I will -have- to buy a new pair of the armwarmers, I lost one in my move, and as much as I try, going outside with only one on is not as fun.
:(
As soon as I have money, I’ll probably be placing an order, but because of the fact I haven’t a job..
It could be awhile.
October 29th, 2007 at 3:28 pm
Uh, if I tell you every one is going to want some and they are not ready to sell yet ~;)
…but since you asked, and since I hope to shoot them on the girls tomorrow, Hot Sox cuffed thigh highs (!!!)
…poor Sierra!!! “will work for socks…”
October 29th, 2007 at 4:47 pm
gaaaawwwwshhhhhh they are freakin most excellent looking!
October 29th, 2007 at 11:17 pm
OMG OMG OMG!!!! Almost a year ago, in response to my very first email to sock-dreams, you told me Hot Sox was planning to come out with these in the fall. Im soooooooooo excited they are here!!!!!!! OMG! I can’t wait to own them! Miss Rebeckah is going to be thrilled!!!! They look nice and long too! I WANT I WANT I WANT!!!! Can I ask how many colors? OMG!!!!!!
October 30th, 2007 at 5:52 am
just three, brown, grey and black. Uncuffed they went most of the way up my legs and though I’ve only worn them around the house so far they stayed up pretty well.
October 30th, 2007 at 7:32 am
Stuffy old men–that’s funny!! I can just see them gathered around some meeting table debating the green shades allowable in their “What Not to Wear”-like minds!! I say yay for green and double yay for purple. Don’t they know they can always paint it back!! Get em stirred up to the hilt–stick a bright gold shade in there too and have a Mardi Gras building!!!!
OOOOO–mardi gras socks!! How fun!!
October 30th, 2007 at 2:12 pm
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0903/Kommando/sockdreamspaintjob.jpg
something like this?
a picture is worth a thousand words… i dont think its that bold at all.
October 30th, 2007 at 2:55 pm
Do they also own the billboard space above it? If they do, you could perhaps sell them on green by noting that it would attract more attention to the building and thus the billboard above it, perhaps allowing them to charge a higher rent for said billboard. :)
Also, I am excited about anything Hot Sox. :)
October 30th, 2007 at 4:00 pm
EXCELLENT job Drew! very excellent!
October 30th, 2007 at 4:41 pm
Yes, very nice job Drew!
I should have said so sooner, this post was actually a follow up to this:
http://www.sockdreams.com/weblog/2007/06/06/almost-there/
…I have business owner’s brain most days and don’t seem to remember all the things I am trying to say due to all the details I try to keep track of ~:)
October 31st, 2007 at 11:09 am
Totally off topic:
Got a package last week, full of goodies, because it’s been too long! (1) The pomegranate O Yummies are the perfect scarlet red! (2) Levante Giotto stockings are the most amazing ever! (3) Tried the E.G.Smith bootsocks for the first time, and love them. (4) B.ella Kimis are absolutely lovely and kept me warm while still looking elegant and not at all bulky.
Yay for such wonderful socks!
*kiss-kiss*
October 31st, 2007 at 8:55 pm
I’m so excited about those Black Fingerless Gloves being back in stock (in fact I’ve already ordered a pair!) The pair of black Harajuku arm warmers I ordered came in and I had to keep stealing them back from friends so I could actually keep warm, so I’m very excited about those gloves…
And that shop makes me wish I lived closer to Oregon! I can’t believe they don’t like green – how silly.
November 5th, 2007 at 5:06 pm
More of a mint green with a purple neon sign reading Sock Dreams in CurlsMT?
maybe.