Open for Business!!

(Photo courtesy of emilie inc. photography)

We are officially open!!
And, the website is live!! Check. It. Out.

Can you believe it? Come visit ASAP:

Gus & Ruby Letterpress
206 Market Street
Portsmouth, NH 03801
Open Daily: 10AM - 6PM

As if that weren't enough, we were interviewed by the fabulous WMUR yesterday morning (pre-opening, gulp!) and were on the 6PM news. Watch it here. Or, read about it here. Hooray!

The opening celebration was incredible. We had a blast chatting with friends, family and incredibly talented wedding/design/paper pros.

SO, so many people to thank for the amazing amounts of support, guidance, advice and old fashioned helping hands that we received. To name just a few:

The Finigan Family
The Swaffield Family
Thelma and Bud Lyon
AK Walker
Vance Gorham
Emilie Sommer of Emilie Inc. Photography
Joe Walker
Carrie Allison of Allison Consulting
Annie Loomis of Making Faces
Allen Hubbard of AJ Hubbard Construction
Claudia Macomber
Dave LeFebvre of Shanley Realtors
Patricia Lausier and Laura Capshaw of Lausier & Lausier LLC
Davide Campbell of Ceres Wine Merchants
Kristin Walker
The Rumbletree Family
Kerry Littmann

We thank you from the bottoms of our hearts.

Here's to sweet beginnings!

Butterflies...

In our stomachs. Big time.

Our party is tomorrow. Opening day is Friday.

Holy. Flippin'. Cow.

Buckle-up, this is going to be a wild ride.

Dog Blog

We've all been working 'round the clock to get Gus & Ruby Letterpress ready for the Grand Opening celebration on August 6th and the real-live Grand Opening on August 7th. 7AM to 1AM? No problem!

Whitney's been busy being a creative genius - she's been cranking on new store business cards, boutique signage, G&R packaging, framing custom works, merchandising our gorgeous products and finishing up a slew of custom projects. (Great job, Whiz! Keep up the amazing work!)

I've been a disciple of LightSpeed, our POS system. Entering inventory, updating vendor contact lists and trying figure out all the funny little details of this new software system. When needed, I break to drool over our custom albums and have fun making little wedding invitation or baby announcement vingettes on the pretty new bookcase.

Gus has been working like, well, a dog.

He's been sanding.

And measuring.

And taping boxes.

And boy, oh, boy are there boxes!!

We're opening a bakery next.

{Deliciousness found here.}

Another very busy and successful day a the shop. Here's what was accomplished:
- shelving for greeting cards installed
- hundreds of products barcoded
- template for first email blast designed
- cardboard boxes broken down and taken away (thanks, Allen!)
- front door painted
- bookcase delivered and installed
- mouldings, shelving and mirror installed in bathroom
- long, long nap for Gus
- Ruby's at the beach
- several iced coffees consumed
- it's 6:23PM and we're going stronger than ever

If anyone wants to make these peachy cupcakes and deliver them to us, that would be just fine. More pictures tomorrow!

The beginnings of a transformation.

We're so, so close. It's wild! Whitney and I can hardly believe that our dream is only days away from becoming a reality. We can't stop smiling. And we hope you can't stop smiling, either, when you come visit. You are coming to visit, right? Speaking of visiting...mark your calendars, friends:

Gus & Ruby Letterpress opening day - August 7th!
206 Market Street
Portsmouth, NH 03801
(603) 319-1717
Open daily 10AM - 6PM
www.gusandruby.com

A few shots of the progress:

Half-walls for the window seats.

Window seats!

Gus taking some important measurements. He's a real stickler for spatial accuracy.

Just a little inventory to enter into the POS system. No big deal, right? Gulp.

Oh, hello you pretty little chandelier! Won't you look lovely in the window?

T-minus 6 days until the Grand Opening party. T-minus 7 days until we are officially OPEN! It's going to be a long, hard, wonderful 6-days, people. Feel free to call the store at 11PM - we'll be here!

Bring it on!

Sunday Sneak Peek!

Gunmetal gray and Optic Blossoms

Well, well, well; aren't you just the sexiest machine I've seen a long time?

Let there be (sun) light.

Lookin' pretty bad-ass, Gus.

Drooling

Sam, real quick... can you make me these over the weekend? Great, thanks!

{via Design Sponge}