a letter from me :)

Hi Bliss fashionistas!  Bliss online boutique has been so truly blessed to work with and serve so many beautiful, inspirational, and fashionable women over the past 31/2 years!  This blog is to let you know that Bliss will transition out of regular "online" sales and focus on fashion events, fundraisers, fashion shows, and photo shoots.  We'll still operate our website as well as our facebook page and will also host a few private online sales, but the daily online operation will stop as of today.

I will be taking on a new and very exciting position at the YWCA of Oahu on April 8th and want to focus my energies on my new very demanding job.  Please stay tuned in to Bliss by following me on facebook!  Keep in touch with me as well or come and visit me at the YWCA!  I would love to see all of you!

with much love & gratitude,
wendy :)

February brings Comfortable Chic back!

It's February and love is in the air!  This month, I have fallen in love with Comfortable Chic!  The Comfortable Chic collection features ultra soft and cozy fabrics that are lightweight enough for Hawaii's weather but have enough weight to keep us warm with layers.

The tops featured this month are perfect for hitting your favorite coffee shop, getting some much needed girl time with your bffs, or cuddling up with someone special.

Wear these tops over jeans, shorts, skirts, skinny jeans or leggings, or even dresses for a casual look.  Easily dress it up with a career cardigan or blazer and slacks or pencil skirt for the office. All of the tops also provide the perfect canvas to show off all kinds of accessories!  Play with scarves of different colors and textures, long pendant vintage necklaces, chunky choker necklaces, or dainty necklaces.  Pile on a stack of bracelets or just one bangle bracelet or add a cute hat to top your look off!

Shop Comfortable Chic here:  http://shopblissonline.com/category/new.htm

   

2012: a year of gratitude

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away - Maya Angelou  
What a year this was! Thanks to all of you, 2012 was filled with many breath taking moments that I will never forget. It was a year filled with meeting new friends, reconnecting with "old" ones, exploring new ideas, trying new things, and overcoming challenges and fears.  I have been blessed to work with so many inspirational and talented people last year.  Please know that if I worked with you in 2012, you have honestly and sincerely touched my heart.  2012 was a year that I will not soon forget.

“Showing gratitude is one of the simplest yet most powerful things humans can do for each other.” - Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture
One morning as we pulled into my son's school, he said "We're at school so early. (He loves getting to school early.) Wow, thank you mom!"  I drove to work that morning with a huge silly grin on my face, but it paled in comparison to the smile that had been imprinted on my heart.  Those three words were so powerful, it made my whole day...and it made me realize the importance of not just feeling gratitude but also expressing it.

So,  in this blog, I would like to say thank you to all of you, my friends new and old who were there for me in 2012...There are so many of you that I can't list everyone, but please know that if we crossed paths, I am grateful for you!

• Very extra special thanks, though, goes to Denise Park, Angela Choy, and Valerie Kubota for truly being my support system in 2012. 
• Thank you Leah Fukuyama, Lori Furoyama, Lana Nakamura, Tina Koike, and Les Kwock for being such good friends to me.  
• Thank you Nathalie Kim, Keoki Kim, Brice Kurihara, Tia Morales, Laura Grace D'Angeli, Kristina Lum, and Jasmine Nip for always supporting and promoting Bliss throughout the entire year!  

“Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls.”  - Joseph Campbell  
In 2012, I am so grateful for all of the amazing opportunities and experiences.  One of the highlights of my year was being able to coordinate efforts to allow our customers to give back to worthy community organizations.

• In April, Bliss customers donated over $200 and two cases of children's books to Read to Me International through our Spring shopping event.
• Bliss customers donated over $1100 and 5 bags of career clothes to the YWCA of Oahu during our spectacular standing room only Soul Beautiful event at the Venue in July. Special thank you to the models, make up artists, photographers, silent auction prize donors, Bliss volunteers, Francesco Valenti of the Venue, the YWCA of Oahu, and a huge thank you to Shari & Brittnie Aguilar and Blank Canvas for their amazing performance. 

The largest Bliss event last year was our Fall Fashion shows at the Hawaii Women's Expo in September.  I am so grateful to the amazing talents that came together to put on this series of fabulous shows. Our clothes were also featured in a live segment on KHON with Manolo Morales for the second year in a row.  Thank you to all of the phenomenal models, make up artists, hair stylists, photographers, interns, dressers, and booth workers. Over 50 people gave up a part or their whole :) weekend to make these shows a success.  Special thanks to the creative team of Nathalie Kim, Angela Choy, Leah Fukuyama, & Keoki Kim for making this show happen.  Thank you also to Shannon Nii for always being there to help Bliss!

Bliss was also blessed to sponsor and style some amazing women including a fashion show for Hope Chapel West Oahu, Miss Asia Honolulu Jasmine Nip as she competed in the National Miss Asian America pageant in San Francisco, and the contestants and titleholders for the Miss Hawaii Junior High school Collegiate America pageant. Thank you to Leah Beamon from Norwood, North Carolina of the blog Life as Leah who also styled a few of our pieces for two of her fashion and style blogs.   

Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn't matter to me...Going to bed at night saying we've done something wonderful - that's what matters to me. - Steve Jobs 
In October, I was so honored to be a part of a very exciting fundraiser for the YWCA of Oahu.  Co-chairing Downtown Decadence: Persimmon & Posh allowed me to meet extraordinary women, grow as a person and as a professional, and get out of my comfort zone by being interviewed live on Melissa Chang's blog, KITV, and KHON. Thank you to Bo Tanaka, Marissa Fong, Samantha Neyland, Inga Schlingmann, Morgan Clark, Tia Morales, MUA Kaylee Simili, Brice Kurihara of BK Photo, Kimberly Miyazawa Frank, Noriko Namiki, Carmille Lim, Ian Murphy, JJ Dentel, Julie Zimmerman, Joe Ho of Mystical Sounds, Melissa Chang, and of course my co-chair, Valerie Kubota!

In December, Bliss, along with Darin Hajime of Darin Hajime Company and Valerie Kubota of A Little bit of Everything, launched Chari-tees, a line of women's tees with 100% of the proceeds benefiting the YWCA of Oahu.  We were blessed to sell out of tees in 3 days!  Thank you to Darin Hajime, aka Genius Darin, for your creative genius work on this project.  Look for more styles in early Spring of 2013!

The biggest adventure you can ever take is to live the life of your dreams. -Oprah Winfrey. I love January!  The first month of the year always brings me feelings of hope, empowerment, and inspiration!  I, like everyone else, am feeling hopeful that 2013 is going to be the best year ever! I challenge all of you to turn 2013 into your biggest adventure.  Live the life of your dreams starting today.

It pays to be our fan!

Today's task: finally started the model's board for our 32 outfit show!

As I anxiously plan for the Hawaii Women's Expo and excitedly talk with my production team, volunteers, and customers, I realize this expo is going to be one huge and super fun party!  Sure, we're going to be working hard, but I want all of us to have a lot of fun too!  What better way to ensure we have fun than to turn it into one whole weekend long party?  And, whose on the guest list?  Why our loyal facebook fans, of course!!!  So, if you're already a facebook fan, please join us this weekend as we celebrate almost 3 years of Bliss!  Not yet a fan?  What are you waiting for?  Click here and become one!!!  

Here are some of the amazing things we have in store just for you!

Facebook Fan Friday:  Opening Night Party!  Join us from 6:00pm - 7:00pm and get first pick of all the new Bliss pieces.  In addition to the expo special of an additional 40% off, all Bliss facebook fans are eligible to select a BFF envelope containing a gift card valued at $5, $10, $15, and $20.  Limited supplies of BFF envelopes are available and you must be a Bliss facebook fan to participate. Stay with us until 7:45pm and watch our exciting Opening night fashion show! (Expo opens at 5:00pm)

Super Saturday: All day Saturday, BFFs receive a free $20 online gift card (valid 9/10 - 9/30) with all purchases over $100!  Proof of "friend" status also required.  Stay to watch our amazing Saturday fashion show at 3:00pm!

Girl's Day Out Sunday: Bring at least one girlfriend and if both of you were facebook fans as of Labor day Monday, you will both receive a $25 gift card for use on Sunday only.  Gift cards cannot be combined.  Click here for more information. Stay and join us for our last fashion show of the year at 2:00pm!  There will be a special facebook girl's day out BFF seating section! 

Sunday Happy Hour:  From 2:15pm - 3:15pm on Sunday only, take an additional 50% off clearance items!

The home stretch to the Hawaii Women's Expo!

Here we are, about 4 days away from the first day of the 10th Annual Hawaii Women's Expo!  Shipments of over 200 pieces of new tops, dresses, jeans, ccdoodle vintage obi belts, beautiful necklaces, earrings, and bracelets, and even ccdoodle men's ts have arrived, been tagged and are almost ready for their debut. 

Ever wonder how many people it takes to
put on a 15 minute fashion show...take a look! :)

Prepared the Stage Director's folder
 including her "backstage" pass, the music
CD for the show, exhibitor passes,
and the line up and detailed schedule
for the weekend.

Putting on one major fashion show is a production, but putting on three fashion shows requires the three Cs...coordination, collaboration, and ... lots of coffee!  About 50 volunteers will assist with this year's expo and fashion shows and when you consider that the show itself is only 15 minutes long, that's a lot of quick movement and shuffling of people and resources.  A fashion show is what I like to think of as organized chaos.  My job is to make sure the organized part is more prevalent than the chaos part.  Stay tuned to join me on this crazy, but totally exciting week!

Picked up the fashion show
programs and flyers from the printers.

The road to the Women's expo!

After almost a year of preparation, we are now officially on the countdown to what is shaping up to be three absolutely fabulous shows!  At this year's 10th Annual Hawaii Women's Expo, Bliss Online Boutique will be featured in fashion shows on Friday, September 7 at 7:45pm, Saturday, September 8 at 3:00pm, and Sunday, September 9 at 2:00pm at the Neal Blaisdell Center's Exhibition hall.

I have always LOVED fashion shows!  I love the music, the excitement, and of course the fashion! I've been in the audience and on the runway, but where I love being the most is backstage! If you enjoy fashion shows like I do, here's a little glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes to put on a 15 minute show!

The day after last year's fashion shows were over, I knew I wanted to do it again...only I knew we could do it even bigger and better!  In order to do this, however, I had to enlist help.  After compiling a fantastic core production team consisting of Stage Manager Angela Choy, Casting Director and Head Make Up Artist Nathalie Kim, Photographer Keoki Kim, and Stylist Leah Fukuyama, it was time to get to work!  I asked fashionista Leah Fukuyama to go "shopping" for me!  She pored through hundreds of tops, dresses, and bottoms to select the perfect pieces to be on the stage.  After getting feedback from a small focus group, we finalized our selections and are bringing in over 200 pieces of brand new and simply beautiful pieces including beautiful tops, dresses, cardigans, jeans, leggings, necklaces, earrings, bracelets, scarves, and even a few pieces from local designer, ccdoodle! 

Next, we needed talent for our show!  We needed models, make up artists, hair stylists, dressers, and assistants!  I am so fortunate to have Nathalie Kim in charge of all of the talent casting for this show!  She has tirelessly worked to secure an amazing team of make up artists and hair stylists to make our models look even more beautiful than they already are. Nathalie then met with Dawn Larson-Lord of Larson Talent to hand select talented and beautiful models from Larson Talent and Wilhemina Models to come to a casting call. During our casting call, the models all exuded such beauty and poise, even though we had them walking on an uneven concrete sidewalk in front of many curious fans and admirers. Thank you to Dawn Larson for sending us such an unbelievable array of talent...and for making our job SOO hard! :) 

After a production meeting with our Stage Director, Angela Choy, we realized that in order for this show to run smoothly and efficiently, we needed more help!  We decided to create a fashion show internship team of enthusiastic and fun young women who were interested in learning more about fashion and/or modeling.  I selected 6 beautiful interns; Tiffane Cheng, Meshelle Hirashima, Joyce Furuya, Sharon Ramos, Leslie Anne Nilo, and Jessica Cheng; who have a variety of interests and experiences including fashion design, event coordination, merchandising and buying, fashion blogging, and modeling. Some have already assisted with our purchasing decisions and Joyce is already starting a bliss blog entry.  Meshelle will accompany us to our KHON on air live promo taping and most of the interns will be there to assist at the runway rehearsal and fittings.  All of them will help backstage during the fashion shows and will have the opportunity to meet with and learn from professionals in the business.  They will also have an individual and group photo session with our professional photographer, Keoki Kim.

The upcoming weeks will be hectic, but stay tuned!  I hope to keep this blog updated on our very busy, often crazy, but always ALWAYS FUN journey to the Women's expo! 

- It's sometimes fun to do the impossible...Walt Disney
 

A sneak peek at some of the pieces picked for this year's
fashion show!  Color blocking is huge for Fall!

Going through model's composite cards.

An inspiring morning

I wish every morning could start like this!  After rushing to drop my two boys off at school and sitting through rush hour downtown traffic, I finally arrive at this oasis in the middle of the hustle and bustle of downtown.  The brand new Cafe Julia (opened May 1) in the Richards Street YWCA is an absolutely charmingly beautiful restaurant that serves a very delicious breakfast and lunch.  I had the Local Style breakfast with scrambled eggs, mini ham steaks (delish!), and tater tots and thoroughly enjoyed each bite (I cleaned my plate). 

It was such a treat to be able to sit, relax, and enjoy a delicious breakfast!  But, the best part of my morning was having the opportunity to sit and talk with two inspiring and amazing women. This morning, I met with Kimberly Miyazawa Frank, the new CEO for the YWCA Hawaii, and I was impressed and inspired to learn so much about the YWCA and all of the amazing work they do for women.  The YWCA, through its' Homebase housing project, provides transitional housing opportunities to economically disadvantaged women transitioning from challenging life circumstances to permanent housing. Up to 84 residents are able to be accomodated at one time and are provided breakfast and dinner (made by Cafe Julia staff) 7 days a week.  Women also have access to a variety of self sufficiency resources to help them to find a job and  permanent home.   

One of the resources women in the homebase program are offered is the Dress for Success program.  Dress for Success Honolulu provides professional attire to women who are referred from government agencies and non-profit organizations.  The women in the program, who are often homeless, domestic violence survivors, or recently incarcerated, receive one suit as well as job interview coaching and mentoring before her job interview.  Once she finds a job, she can return for a second suit.  The Dress for Success program is so much more than simply providing clothing for women in need, it's about helping women to become economically self sufficient and to feel good about themselves from the inside out.  It's about changing lives. 

Join Valerie Kubota and A Little bit of Everything as well as myself and Bliss boutique at "SOul Beautiful" on Thursday July 12 from 6:00pm - 9:00pm at the Venue in BambuTwo for an event benefitting the Dress for Success program and all of the wonderful, selfless work that they do.  The event will include an awesome summer fashion show featuring dance group Blank Canvas and some of Hawaii's top models.  DJ MassFunk will be there with amazing music and the Venue will have a full bar of decadent cocktails!  Shop til you drop and bid at the silent auction, both benefitting the Dress for Success program!  Tickets are $10 and include one cocktail (specialty martini or wine) and pupus.  VIP tickets available for the first group of 20 or more.  Click here to purchase tickets!  If you are interested in donating to the silent auction, please email customerservice@shopblissonline.com .

This event might be small in size, but with all of your help we can make a difference in someone's life through the Dress for Success program.  Sure, you'll be having the time of your life, but you can feel good knowing that while you're shopping for your own closet, you're changing a life by putting clothes into someone else's closet as well.  Hope to see you there!