Breast Cancer awareness month at Bijou

It's October, can you believe it? We are participating in Breast cancer awareness month for the 3rd year in a row. We have several survivors and thrivers that are friends of Bijou. And also several that are battling right now. So this is near and dear to us.

We are happy to help, it's no trouble at all. It's fun to wear pink and feels good to wear pink for the cure. Won't you come get pinked?

We kicked off early this year and already before the 1st received 38 donations. Oh yeah, I guess you would like to know how it works: Donate $10 and receive a pink hair extension! And you get to write your name on a pledge sheet and hang it on our doorway! It's all good, you know ;)

I should tell you how this got started, because I love a good story, so you should too...right?!

Well the coach from the Auburn high school volleyball team, Rachelle, contacted me to ask if we were participating in pink hair for hope? I immediately googled the program to see what it was all about. We always like to do something and normally donate 10% of our month to a fund we decide on that relates to Breast cancer research. I looked specifically at the actual pink hair for hope, but was disappointed that only $7 of the $10 to research and then when you figure that most of the research funds have administrative fees as well. I hate to see money dwindling, it's hard earned, ya know!? So I took matters in my own hands, and found pink hair extensions for a reasonable price, bought 200 of them, because, HELLO! That is $2000 and Bijou donated the pink hair extensions so the whole $10 BUCKS can go to whatever fund we decide.

Any suggestions for where it should go? The one with the least amount that goes to administrative fees and the most of the buck goes to actual research or assistance.

What the heck is a "Pink cow bingo" anyway???

Okay, so you've been hearing and seeing images of Betsey..the pink cow...all around town, and everytime you ask yourself..."What is a pink cow bingo, anway?"

Let me clear some things up...I have it straight from Betsey herself! Hehehe - Actually, truth be told, there are TWO Betsey's! AND one Dairy Princess! Here is the deal...basically- think...football pool! See that football field up above...now you know, whichever square you buy, if at the end of the game, your square falls on the correct score of the game...YOU WIN! Well it's the same for the Pink cow bingo...but it's all about the manure and who's square it falls on!

See...like this...you will have a grid on the ground, two cows let loose from each side of the arena and the dairy princess leading them both..all the while feeding them and waiting to document the plop. It's all very technical of course, just like the football pool and besides it's for a good cause and to appease your gambling craving...I know you are all itching to get in on football pools, here is some easy practice and it's all live. The tickets are $25 each, or 5 for $100, but the great thing is, they are dual purposed tickets! Let me tell you allllllll about it!


They are not only your designated space, waiting for a plop of manure, but they are also your admission into the event! PLUS, while we are all waiting for the two Betsey's to give you a "return" on your investment..he-he-he! Your ticket also serves as a raffle ticket. So during the wait, however long it may be, fabulous prizes will be announced and given away! (There will even be a fabulous one from Bijou!)


So if you would like to have a fun and crazy afternoon out, that is good for the whole entire family, if you would like to see some cow's that hopefully will be donning pink attire for the event...or if you would like to be a part of voting for the "People's choice awards" for the best decorated porta potty!....Yep, you guessed it..Bijou has a porta potty that will be "Bijou-adorable"...it's a dollar to vote, and of course that allows you into the porta potty to - eh, you know..do like the cows...or maybe not, I guarantee, it will be the nicest porta potty around:)

So you must join the fun, it's not every weekend that you can say you gambled in manure and supported positively pink packages! Make sure you scroll down below to read the top 10 reasons why you should attend, it just may intrigue you enough to visit!

Now if you'll excuse me, we must turn Bijou pink for the month of October! Once again, we will be donating 10% of our sales for the entire month of October to a breast cancer related organization. This time I will let our clients and the Bijou girls help decide!

Bijou's Top ten "news" from 2008!

The year has passed by in record speed. With that year passing, there have been many changes, yet many things have also stayed the same!

While reading the Skaneateles Journal on New year's eve, I read the top ten stories of 2008, something every year I like to do! And I began thinking...hmmm has Bijou had 10 stories for 2008? Let me make an attempt and see:

1. Our Bijou blog was born actually in 2007, however only 2 posts were completed, having much more ideas and committing myself to actually putting them on the blog, in 2008 with the help from Courtney and Michele, I completed 69 posts. Having almost 3000 visitors for the first year to our blog, inspires me to continue. Hearing such lovely comments from Cheryl and Beth (2 women that I admire greatly) about my amateurish writing has me not so self conscious of all my run on sentences and incorrect grammar:) It is just a blog after all, for others, I ask, please forgive me if I butcher a paragraph, keep in mind I do these normally very late at night! Also in January 2008 Jackie Gage joined Kimberlee and I, who were working together as a duet for about 3 months, so quiet it was then, I remember wondering where the 2008 year would take us....I am so grateful for what it has brought us, soo grateful!

2. In April we were joined by Michele Zeppieri, bringing to us almost 22 years of experience! Click here for some previous posts about her!

3. In May Connie Willits our Bijou expert on the Young living oils came for a summer position, we do hope to see her again this fall, she fit in perfect with us girls! We were lucky enough to learn a lot about the young living essential oils, which can benefit all of us in one way or another!

4. June brought us Courtney Conley you can read about her here!

5. July...you guessed it, another girl! Wow, looking back I guess we just exploded! Every girl was a perfect fit! Lori Lovell, someone I had so enjoyed working with in the past, joined the Bijou team and we all couldn't imagine Bijou life without her! Here is one page of her work, I guess I need to do some Bio work for her:) ACTUALLY her husband is a very talented writer, maybe I'll try to get some help from him!

6. We've changed alot in products, finding what works the best! Eufora is still our favorite and really does make brand new hair, but now we've added Kenra to our list, we added Glo minerals for our make up, bidwell scrubs and lotions. We still have our shoe doodles and also our blissfull bath bombes.

7. We celebrated our year anniversary, had a month long of thankfulness with treats from savoir fair and lots of really good specials!

8. We took a challenge for the month of October to donate 10% of our proceeds on services and raised almost $1500 to send to the National Breast cancer foundation! Next year we will plan better and try to double our attempts!

9. We weren't happy with the performance and durability, not to mention comfort of our pedicure chairs, we made the decision to upgrade to the Cadillac of pedicure chairs and announced the arrival of Mr. and Mrs. Rinato in November! We are happy to say that it was worth the investment and everyone loves them even more than we expected!

10. We are collecting email addresses and have started a monthly newsletter filled with great deals and news. We will also implement "last minute deals", just like the airlines give;) I would greatly appreciate any feedback on this new option, since it is all new to me too:) You can also subscribe at the top of this page to the bijou blog, basically every time I make some silly little post about whats going on at Bijou, it will be sent to you in email form or you can just check back every once in a while!

Well I did it, I realize they are not newsworthy stuff like in the papers, but thanks for reading on, we are proud and grateful! We really could not do any of this without you! Thank you!

Back to brown and blue!

October is officially over!

Time to store away the pink capes (the young men we have been putting pink capes on are breathing a sigh of relief;), pink combs, pink retail bags and pink ribbons everywhere! Our month of fundraising is over! Although our last week of the month was one of our slowest, with a lot of sicknesses, including mine, we had one of our top months thus far!

I don't have the official number yet, (I will post that as soon as Thomas gives it to me:) I have a semi official word that it is close to $2000 that we will be sending to the National Breast Cancer foundation! Next year for October, I say we double that! Which I think is 100% attainable, because we really brainstormed for this fundraiser last minute and with more preparation, could have done even better!

One thing I hope to do, that happened in the last couple of weeks, is to join forces with Laura Ponticello, right from the start this time. Laura approached me toward the end of the month (although it's better late than never;) and I was delighted to collaborate with her, and carry her lovely lavender products. She generously donated 20% of her sales (in anticipation of selling them, so far so good, we only have 4 sets left!) from the lavender whip, room spray and soap! The trio is a great deal for $30.00 (also sold separately) it makes a wonderful gift and the smell is pure heaven! I will be sure to make a post solely dedicated to the Lavender gal's products, because Laura always donates a portion of her sales to some charity (which is why she has been voted the woman of the week) and that makes me honored to carry her products! (click on all the highlighted areas in this paragraph and read just who is - Laura Ponticello!)

But I am super pleased with this first attempt:) Thank you to everyone, including the hardworking Bijou girls and the ever faithful clients new and old! Once again, we couldn't have done it without YOU!

After years and years, of not being able to do anything...

Enough times I have seated a client into my chair, talked over what we would do and then got to my favorite part...the visiting and catching up:) and they have broken me the news....they have cancer. Every time, I want to scream, I want it to stop, I want them to just FIND A CURE!!

At times, I have felt helpless in helping someone, and just did what I could...be there, make a meal, shave a head, fix a wig, give other clients experiences to try to offer support or ideas to help...mostly, I've just felt helpless. To be totally honest, I never had that extra money laying around to make any contribution that I felt was substantial in my eyes. BUT now, mostly due to such a wonderful and full year at Bijou, all of us girls can help!

We will be donating 10% of our monthly sales from services towards the National Breast cancer foundation! I thought this was the best one, but please if anyone else has another suggestion, I am open to any foundation. What I was originally looking for was something that helped people offset the cost of drugs and extra stuff you don't anticipate. We just had a client in who was saying that she had to be careful about her budget and wouldn't be allowing herself to travel or any little extras because just one dose of a certain medication would cost her $600, I was listening (as it wasn't one of my clients) and I was aghast that she would have to pay for that on her own, and only one dose...I asked her if there was any kind of medication "bank", because she had also mentioned, that sometimes she bought the meds and then could not use them, but could not return them...I was heartbroken, aren't we supposed to be one of the richest countries??? While listening to her, I was thinking....oh please, how can I offer this service to her that she was getting without making her feel uncomfortable...and as if Courtney read my mind, she told her "this is my treat for you today, I want to do this for you, and I won't take no for an answer!" Times like that, I am so pleased to have girls with hearts the size of mine!

So if anyone has any suggestions for another great foundation, I do think we will have a considerable donation and it would be nice to make two different donations!

So from now until the last day in October, we will all be working hard to make those dollars add up and at least now feel like in another way we can try to make a difference!

So please stop in, pick up a tiny pink ribbon (that Thomas, Dylan and Chase made, even though, "they don't have boobies," they too want to help:) and Please check back here at Bijou salon in skaneateles blog in November to see how much we were able to send out!