Discover Austin.

This weekend I enjoyed a trip to Austin, TX for a hair show with Kate and Laura. This was my first time in the capital city, and it did not disappoint. We enjoyed shopping at the local boutiques and vintage shops... maybe a little too much. We also enjoyed stuffing ourselves at every meal. One of our favorite stops was a cupcake truck on South Congress called "Hey Cupcake".


In the midst of all the shopping and eating, we did manage to make a little time for work. We enjoyed several classes at the Redken and Pureology stage. I feel rejuvenated and ready to play with some hair tomorrow.

10 years from now when someone asks me where I was when I heard Osama Bin Laden was dead, I'll remember hearing the news in a hotel room in Austin, TX with Kate and Laura.

Katherine Grant Salon Progressive Dinner.

Monday night was a first for our salon: we had a staff Christmas party in the form of a progressive dinner! We had 7 out of 9 staff members, plus several spouses in attendance.  Our evening began at our nail tech, Susan's, house for appetizers.  After filling up on meatballs and winearitas, we moved on to Laura's house for salad.  The main course was chicken spaghetti at our house, followed by dessert at our other nail tech, Carrie's, house.  To top the evening off, we played "dirty Santa" with ornaments at Kate's house.

The hairstylists (minus Herb and Tessa).

The nail techs.



Our massage therapist, Mark, and his wife, Sandra.



Laura with her husband, Caleb.



Susan and husband, Bob.



Kate with her ornament, (made by Laura!) and husband, Blake.

My Christmas gifts to the staff.

 Love this group of people I get to work with each day.  We enjoyed our first KGS progressive dinner, and I hope we started a new Christmas tradition.

My Luke 11:9-13 story.

On this week last year, Katherine Grant Salon and Spa re-opened in its new Park Hill location.  Our lease at our original location was up and was not being renewed.  When we moved we had only been open a year and a half.  Our old space had room for 3 stylists and a massage therapist.  Our new space would be 3 times the size of the old one.  Kate, Laura and myself made up the staff.  As you can imagine I was extremely nervous about the future of our business.  I wasn't sure how we would find the staff to fill (and pay for) our new space. 

About a month before I found out we needed to move our business, Gary and I had written the final check to pay off our initial start up costs for the first location (equipment, supplies, remodeling, etc.).  Now I would have to borrow money again and start over.  Our new space needed some major remodeling and we would need more equipment to fill our space.  This factor combined with our small staff seemed overwhelming.  However, both Gary and I felt we needed to continue in our business endeavor and ask and trust God to provide for us as he did at our first location.

A year later, I am here to prove He is faithful.  Our staff grew from 3 to 9, and this morning I wrote the final check to repay the money we borrowed to remodel and equip our new location.  Never in a million years would I have thought I would own a successful salon with a staff of 9 people at the age of 25.  I tell you this not to boast in myself,  but to attest to the Lord's faithfulness when we trust Him to provide. This morning I want to encourage you with a verse I've been clinging to this year.  "Ask and it will be given to you, seek and  you will find, knock and  the door will be open to you.  For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks the door will be opened.  Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" (Luke 11:9-13)  Ask, seek and knock.  He is faithful to provide!

 

I know God answered our prayers for a reason, and I can't wait to see how he wants to use a salon in North Little Rock, Arkansas to bring His kingdom glory.

(All photos were take by Grant Harrison.)

Stepping Up For Ouachita.

Thursday was a fun day for us at Katherine Grant Salon.  We arrived at work early to style 8 ladies' hair for the Dillards fashion show during the 1st annual "Stepping Up For Ouachita" women's luncheon. 

I was honored to be asked to serve on the "Stepping Up" planning committee this year.  When the idea for a fashion show came up at one of our meetings, I saw an opportunity to help by providing our hairstyling experience at KGS to polish off each model's look.  Both Laura and Kate also have OBU connections, and were gracious enough to also volunteer their talents to help.

Kelsey's hair styled by Kate for the style show.


Katherine Grant Salon and Jenkins Enterprises went in together to purchase a table at the luncheon.  Our table held: My mom, Gary's grandmother (Betty Jo Grant), and his Aunt (Shirley Hardin), Brooke Hayes, Laura Shaefer, Molly Banks, Karen Watts, Kate, Laura and myself.



Brooke and Mrs. Laura.



Molly, Mrs. Watts, and Mom.

Me with Gary's Aunt and Grandmother (both OBU Alumni).

The luncheon was held at the Chenal Vallley Country Club, and the money raised will go toward providing scholarships for the women of OBU.  During the luncheon, the Dillards' style show featured fall trends modeled by Ouachita women.  Miss Arkansas (OBU Alum) closed the style show, modeling a purple formal gown.  Rebecca Jones, the style show emcee, was kind enough to give our salon a shout out at the beginning of the show.  All of the women looked beautiful, and we were all proud to be a part of this new OBU tradition.

After the luncheon, Kate, Laura and I enjoyed a glass of wine and appetizers at YaYa's, followed by some down time shopping at the Promenade at Chenal, before going back to work at 5. 

Friday night Mom and I had a mother/daughter date with Brooke and Mrs. Laura.  We had dinner at the Capital Bar and Grill, followed by shopping at the Jr. League's annual Holiday House.  I didn't buy much, but I enjoyed spending time with them looking at all the neat stuff. 

Yesterday after work, I watched the Hogs whoop up on South Carolina with the fam at Mom and Dad's house.  John Allen came  home with two friends from OBU and Jessica brought her new boyfriend, Richard. 

Today is a lazy Sunday for me and the animals.  Gary has been in Gatlinberg, TN at the Smokey Mountain Gift Show since Wednesday.  I'm looking forward to having him home Tuesday night!

Halloween on the Hill.

Today was the annual "Halloween on the Hill" trick-or-treating extravaganza for the churches and businesses in Park Hill.  Kids come from near and far to trick-or-treat, and they come by the hundreds.  This was Katherine Grant Salon and Spa's first year to be involved in Halloween on the Hill, and we had a great time dressing up and seeing all the cute kids!

The candy squad.



Several of our clients came by.



An owl and a kitty.



Herb and his grandson, Ironman.



Who's that lady? Mark, our massage therapist...



The kids thought Mark was hilarious!

Tonight Gary and I stayed at home and enjoyed some time together.  We cooked dinner, continued our tradition (4 years strong!) of carving a pumpkin, and roasted the pumpkin seeds. This year we carved the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland.  This has by far been our most ambitious jack-o-lantern to date, and we were very pleased with the outcome!

What a fun day we had today.  I'm worn out now! Hope you all have a fun, safe Halloween.

Fall Open House.

Last night Katherine Grant Salon & Spa held a fall open house.  We wanted to have the chance to do something nice for our loyal clients, family and friends, as well as draw in new business.  We had food and wine, our TIGI rep did make-up demonstrations, a client sold her cute fall clothes from Arkansas Apparel, other clients showed Artistry skin care, Mark gave lots of chair massages, and Carrie and Susan let people try the new Gellish manicures.  It was a huge success!  We had lots of clients and friends drop by, as well as several people in the Park Hill community who just wanted to check us out. 

Our Staff (minus Laney).

Me with Laney.



Napkins.



The cute cookies Laney brought!

Our sweet friends from church stopped by.

Mr. Kirtis wore purple to show his salon spirit!

A good time was had by all.  Thanks to everyone who came by, and to all who helped!

So... Friday Little Rock got an Anthropologie!  I know, moving on up, right? Meghan (it was so good to see her/catch up on life) and I headed over to check it out Saturday afternoon.  It is super cute, and I could make a wish list a mile long, but I'm too cheap to actually buy anything.  A girl can dream though...

Tonight was bunko night.  I won 3rd place and got a cute zebra print scarf.  Now if it would only get cold enough for me to wear it...

I'd like to give a shout out to blog reader, Linda, in Kansas City.  She came across my blog, liked my hair in the header pic and called the salon to find out the color formula.  I was so very flattered, it's made me wonder if I should go back blonde? (Thoughts?)  Anyhow she was getting color today, and I am hoping it turned out well, if you're reading you'll have to let me know!

It's been a busy past few days for us, I'm gonna sleep good tonight!

Our New Website is Complete!!

We have been working hard to update the look of our salon's website since April.  Today is the day it is finally done!  And, It looks AWESOME! 

I want to say a special thanks to Grant Harrison who did all the photography on the site and to Jason Skinner of Studio-Worx who put the site together for us!  They did an amazing job making the salon look good. 

So please, check it out and let me know what you think, comments and suggestions are welcome.

Fall is my Favorite!

Gary and I spent the weekend in Dallas for his friend, Stephen's wedding. The wedding was nice, and we got to spend some time with his friends, Reid and Stanton. Gary, Reid, Stephen and Stanton have been friends since they were very young.

Today I worked on getting our house decorated for fall! Let me know what you think.

Gary and I ran 5 miles tonight. We beat my goal of 55 minutes. Our time was 52 minutes, 30 seconds! Feeling better about running the half marathon every day!

In other news, Katherine Grant Salon and Spa has a fan page on facebook, and a twitter (KGsalonandspa). We're getting so high tech! We also started demolition on the new location today. Be on the look out for some "before" pictures in the near future.