Extra, Extra, Blog All About It!

We are spreading the Blog news! See today's article in the Loudoun Times Mirror chronicling Zazu's experience with this new media format.

Totally cool...

For the whole story, click here.

Finding Your Way In Style

I remember my first experience with the Internet. Find something cool, which leads you to someplace else, to a chat room about that new someplace else, which sends you to a horoscope site, and then eventually (hours later) you forget where you started. So, you "google" your own name to see what is out there about you only to be completely bummed that there is absolutely nothing. Zip.

Blogging is kind of the same - only different. By the way, I love that phrase; the same - only different. I have heard it used a lot lately. I recently got up to speed on Facebook and have reconnected with many friends from my school days. It seems that lots of folks look exactly the same - only different.

Let's get back to the point ... Blogging is the same, except that out in the blogosphere, it is widely recognized that you give credit where credit is due. The beauty of the whole system is that everyone is connected through links.

For example, I have a subscription to Wedding Wire through Google Reader. Every time they have a new posting, it shows up in my browser. Today they had a great post about a company who hand draws maps. Many of our wedding customers would be interested in including a beautifully detailed map with their wedding invitation ensemble. This is good information to share.

Thankfully, Wedding Wire not only gave us the name of the merry map makers (Couture Maps), but also credited another blog (Ritzy Bee) for bringing this company to their attention.
To wrap the whole thing up in a neat little bundle, I am bringing all this pertinent stuff to you. With pictures!

Shear Genius in Ashburn

I have never ever been happy with my hair. It is super-fine, limp, and I have been told that it is turning gray in parts that I can't even see. As far back as I can remember, dealing with my hair was one of the biggest challenges and most time-consuming part of my get-up-and-go routine. Did you notice that I said, "was"?

About a year-ish ago, one of our Zazu customers, Anna Michelle Jackson, let us know that she had opened up a hair salon in Ashburn called Modern Concepts.

Anna Michelle and her business partner, Cathleen, had been long-time supporters of Zazu, so I challenged them with rescuing my failing follicles.

Before and after pictures speak volumes!

Always great with words, Anna Michelle shares her own thoughts ...

The scent of fall in the air is invigorating, but when I looked in the mirror at my hair color, invigorating is hardly how I felt. Why is it that highlights look so great in the summer sun, but as soon as the weather cools so does our color! I have already indulged in this fall’s jewel toned clothing; a rich amethyst blouse and an emerald top are mocking my dull flat color from my closet. Time to get to work and formulate a new invigorating me!

I have one of the best occupations; I am a hair stylist! I am the stylist to Ashburn’s super- star Moms and Divas! I make women feel good about themselves all day long. They tell me their woes as I color and shape their tresses. Today it’s my turn to be the guest in my salon, bye-bye to my blah color.

So I stand in front of our wall of color tubes, the possibilities are endless, but I mix some copper, a little gold, and a smidgen of red to create that jewel tone look in my hair, perfect! I choose to use Schwarzkopf color, a German cream color line that creates amazing grey coverage with low ammonium and has vibrant reds. One of my stylists applies my re-growth area and then we mix a similar blend of “Personality Color” - this is also known as a glaze - for my washed out ends. A glaze is a semi-permanent color that deposits rich color with a lot of shine and conditioning. It is the answer to the damage left by the summer sun. My glaze is applied and so I wait to process with a People magazine in one hand and a glass of wine in the other.

Thirty minutes later its time for the best part of my day, the shampoo! Our shampoo assistant has put me asleep on many occasions, she has a magic touch! She uses Sudzz Cashmere shampoo and Moxee conditioner, the aroma fills the air and I can feel my hair soak up its goodness. My hair feels like silk as it slides through the brush, the heat and the noise of the dryer keep me in my Zen like state. The dryer turns off, and I am turned to the mirror to reveal the new me! Invigorating is a good word it is exactly how I feel - my color is rich and shiny deep and beautiful like a garnet or a ruby.

Our make-up artist comes over and compliments me on my new color as she leads me to her station. How many times have you changed your color and used the same old make-up, or use the same make-up from season to season? She touches up my foundation with a loose mineral, flawless finish. Rich brown on the eyes, highlight the brow, and the crème de la crème a lip pluming gloss in copper. Even I need a make over from time to time. I feel great; I think its time for a new purse to match my fall mood, happy times!

- Anna Michelle Jackson

What's In A Name?

The joke is... my brothers and I were definitely supposed to be royalty. At least by our namesake. We have very regal names and I suppose my mother was grasping a little bit when she named us all. We stuck with mostly family names which always makes things a little more interesting. Throwing a last name in the middle or even as a first name is a nice twist to all the usual "Johnsons" out there (that's a little jab to our 3 unrelated Johnsons that work at Zazu!)

Here at Zazu, we do tons of birth announcements and it is always fun to see what different name combinations mean to different people. I bet every one of you knows a couple who will not share their future baby's name. And it seems the pressure gets to some people.

"What if I don't like it after I have named my baby?" They may ask.
"Should I spell it the same old boring way?"
And some people are proud of their name ideas right from the start.

So what exactly is in a name? What does "Zazu" mean?

To find the answer you must read a cute little story we like to tell about our owner's genius idea to come up with the most fabulous name ever! (Not to mention the contents inside this place!)

It starts with the first two of her four children (God bless her!)
The oldest was unable to say his younger brother's name.
Should have sounded like "Carson". Instead it came out "zazzoo"
{Channel your inner child and say it quickly, he wasn't too far off!)
Which is cute enough to have inspired a store name, but after a visit to France she and her husband were walking around and saw the cutest little shop. The window display was fabulous and it had a pretty little awning over top… The name?... "Les Zazous"

It was destiny.


Cheers!

Brooke Millard Whittington, aka

Times Are Tough, But So Are We

As the economic news gets even gloomier – gas prices at a ridiculous level, grocery prices that make you want to start your own crop, a real estate market bordering on disaster, and mighty, mighty banking institutions being bailed out by the government – who wouldn’t want to hide their money in a mattress?

So, how are mom and pop going to keep open the shop?

This is the question being posed to us at Zazu, a locally owned gift and stationery store in Ashburn, Virginia. Opened in 2004, we had hoped that this would be the year to see some benefit of all the hard work we put into establishing ourselves as the most fabulous shopping experience in the community. All the books we read told us that’s what would happen if we followed all the rules: develop a kick-butt brand, offer unparalleled customer service, fabulous and trend-setting products, and a moderate pricing structure. That’s when we got hit by 2008. Ouch!

So, being the creative and stick-to-it types, we needed an extension to our plan. As luck would have it, our CEO and Chief Decision Maker, Caroline Haddad, recently learned of a new marketing tool called, “the Internet”. What a fabulous invention!

When sales are down, marketing and prospecting at every opportunity is critical to get more feet pounding your carpet. On the horizon, we at Zazu see social networking and blogs as becoming the channels to shamelessly self-promote and widen brand awareness. Being creative-types (and soon to be techno-types) we have decided to embrace and conquer this new media.

On Tuesday, September 23, 2008 Zazu published its very first blog, “The Little Blog that Could”. We invite you to join our adventure as we explore this brave new world.

Cheers!