Kristine: 0:08

Oh, hey. It's Christine and Carrie, and we are best friends. Welcome

Carrie: 0:12

to the Two Babies Podcast. We are the owners of Lavender and Lace Boutique, an online women's boutique based outta Sherra Park, Alberta. And we're just here to

Kristine: 0:19

talk to you. All right. Let's get into it. Welcome to episode eight. Episode eight. Like, that's, that's almost to full hands, like that's a thrill. Mm-hmm. Like how many episodes do you guys have? Almost 10.

Carrie: 0:32

We're 80% there. Holy

Kristine: 0:34

macaroni. Now that's a time that's, that is a. Like, it's not really a milestone, but I feel like it's a milestone.

Carrie: 0:41

We'll make it one. Yeah. Like who says

Kristine: 0:43

Brooks Eight? Who makes those things up? Like a milestone? Who invented that shit? I don't know. I have so many questions about the world,

Carrie: 0:51

and you know what? That's my favorite thing about you. I get so curious. Curious. You're curious about, so like George? Yeah,

Kristine: 0:57

I am George. Yeah. Yeah. Where did these things come from? Why did that happen? Who did who? Who made

Carrie: 1:03

that decision? It's like when I had that question for the guys in the pool the other day and you weren't there. Yeah. And I'm like, if Christine was here, she'd google it for me. Yeah. Because she'd also wanna know, I do like,

Kristine: 1:12

like months. Who came up with the days of the months? Who made April, April, the fourth month and, and throughout the whole world, who decided that we're gonna follow April? Who did that? I don't know. I don't know. These are the things that goes on in my head. It's wild.

Carrie: 1:31

Yeah. You know, that's probably why you watch so many documentaries and stuff. Hey, I'm just very curious.

Kristine: 1:34

Mm-hmm. Very curious, George.

Carrie: 1:37

Yeah. Things that I never think about

Kristine: 1:39

and these things that it's so common for me to think of these things. Yeah. Like it happens all the time. Yeah. Like who decided that's an Aspen tree? Who said now everybody's cool with having an aspen tree. They know that it's an Aspen. It really, honestly, yes, it might be the most ridiculous thing goes I've ever heard probably, but this is what my brain is full of and I'm cool with it. I love that. Yeah. If anything like sparks your interest of like you're curious about that, can you message me on mm-hmm. Like on two babes and just let me know what you think about, what's your random thought? Anyway. Well, let's get back to the episode. Cause I could talk

Carrie: 2:19

about this crap forever. Ramblings of Christine and I love it. I really do. Oh, is No, you're fine. Okay. Whew. I don't wanna see it before it happens. No, yours is really fun today that I'm asking you. Oh, I love

Kristine: 2:31

fun. Yeah. What is the theme? I love themes. Yours also has a theme. Yay. Yeah.

Carrie: 2:35

Yeah. Good. Not fast food. Fast food icons. That

Kristine: 2:40

one was such a classic move. Oh yeah, that was good. Okay. Let's, um, let's start off with our weekend. Yeah. What, how was your weekend? It was great. Yeah. Um, Friday, I should have made notes because I can't remember

Carrie: 2:54

Friday. You were busy. You went and picked cabinets. Oh,

Kristine: 2:58

I did pick up. Oh yeah.

Carrie: 2:59

Was that was fun. You went to the mall. Oh yeah. Kate, you went and got

Kristine: 3:03

needled. I did get needled on Friday. You're right. And I ran on Friday as well. I was a very busy day. Yeah. Um, we, so my husband and I have, if you guys listened before, um, you guys might know that we're building a house, so we had to go pick out our cabinets. It was time and get that designed up, um, and everything. So we did that. But our appointment was at 10 30 in the morning. So by the time our appointment was done, I was starting to get extremely hungry and I told Jason like, you have 15 to 20 minutes to like, get food for me, or I'm going to Become a person you don't wanna be around. Mm-hmm. And I, when I get hungry, I get hangry really fast and like it's not a good vibe. So quickest spot that had options was Westin Tamal and I haven't been there in ages and it was interesting. Yeah. There is so many different types of involved you can just really people watch there. Yeah. It was, we went and sat in the food court. I got Opa if you were curious and um, we sat there and we just, people watched for a couple minutes and it was, it was something else. Mm-hmm. I haven't been to Westman Jamal and had like, time to like really take it all in, in forever.

Carrie: 4:18

So that was a lot of fun. I didn't even know the last time I was there. You and you and I were dress shopping last, last May. Yeah. That

Kristine: 4:24

was probably in and around the last times I've been to. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I would think. Yeah. So yeah, it was, it was a lot of fun. And then quit made a quick pit stop to, uh, Lululemon and. Hauled ass out of there cuz it was just a lot for me. Mm-hmm. So that was my Friday to get some needling done. Had a quick little jaunt. Um, Saturday I had a ette. Mm-hmm. Which was a lot of fun. Yep. Um, I know there's a lot of girls who are there who are listening. So hello to you. You guys were amazing and so much fun to be around. Um, that was a lot of fun. It was decades theme and I took the. Theme and Iran with it. Did you ever I was very bright. I chose eighties and I did eighties workout, so I was wearing like bright pink, um, leggings with the bright blue leg warmers and wristbands and the sweatband around my head and had huge bangs and mm-hmm. A rainbow leotard on. And it was, yeah, it was so good. So much fun. I'll, um, maybe I'll post a photo. Mm-hmm. On Thursday? Yeah. On Thursday so you guys can see it. It was a lot of fun. And then, um, what shoes did you wear? I wore my bright blue mids. Oh, okay. Yeah. Right. I, yeah, they worked out perfectly. Yeah, it was a perfect, uh, yeah, addition. And then on Sunday I ran a half marathon and it was hotter than Saint's ball sack. It was so hot. I think it was up to 32. I don't

Carrie: 5:55

really know. I don't know. But I know by 11 o'clock it was already 28. Ugh. It was so and

Kristine: 6:01

humid. So humid. It was just like,

Carrie: 6:04

it just felt like you were walking into a wet blanket like a sauna.

Kristine: 6:07

Yeah. That's what it felt like, for sure. Mm-hmm. Um, thankfully it was a lot, of trails, so it was, there was a lot of treat. It did cool it down ever so slightly. But it still felt like you were running through like a hot blanket Yeah. Sauna type situation. Well, overall went really good. I'm really happy with it. Um, it was hot. I would do it again. We'll be doing it again. And yeah, I was happy. And then Sunday, oh, Jason and I went and got tattoo. I was too, are you gonna talk about your

Carrie: 6:35

tattoo?

Kristine: 6:36

Yeah. So during um, in the morning when Jason and I were driving out to the race, he looked at me and he's like, Hey, you wanna go get tattoos today? And I'm like, yep. So, uh, I was like, well, while I'm running, why don't you look up some places that we can go to that's available for a walk-in and then let's go. And so we went and had lunch after my run so we, to make sure that we don't pass out, we're getting tattoos. And uh, then we did. So I got um, our daughter's name on the back of my arm, just above my elbow. And then Jay got wsa. Mm-hmm. Which is so funny. Makes me laugh. It makes me laugh too. I love it. It's a nice little reminder to calm down and relax and just kind of take it easy. And it's funny cuz it's from bad boys too. It is. So yeah, that's, uh, and then we just had sushi on Sunday as well and, uh, watched. Couples retreat. Yeah. That's a good movie. Yeah. Our daughter's away for the week, so we just hung out and relaxed. Chilled. I tried to nap like so many times, but I could not nap, which was a bummer. I slept so much on Sunday. She texted me, she's like, I think I have nap 200 tons today. Yeah. Made me laugh. Said, oh, it was my weekend. It was busy. Really busy. Yeah. But I, I loved every single part of it and it was a lot of fun and a lot of, um, spontaneous. Mm-hmm. Things happened and

Carrie: 7:57

we did not spend any time together this weekend. That's a lie.

Kristine: 8:01

I saw you for five minutes.

Carrie: 8:03

You okay? Other than five minutes I saw you for

Kristine: 8:07

for five minutes. Did not. It's so wild. I know. It was really weird. So I, after the day at, I went to Carrie's place cuz that's where Jace was as well. So I went and said hello and um, tried to look for a bug spray, couldn't find any. That was my duty while I was there. Yeah. And that was it. That was,

Carrie: 8:23

that was Nick found it in like three seconds.

Kristine: 8:25

Well, okay. So I saw a whole bunch of like sprays that looked mm-hmm. Like it shouldn't be on a person. Mm-hmm. So I, I, I was looking for something very, like, obvious off and I didn't see it Yeah. Within the cans. Yeah. Um, but whatever was there. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, I was there for five minutes. Mm-hmm. Oh. Whopping five minutes. Yeah. That's, that's unusual for us to not spend the weekend together. Mm-hmm. It's very weird. Yeah. Yeah. I missed you baby.

Carrie: 8:53

Mm-hmm. Me too. It's fine. Next

Kristine: 8:55

weekend. Yeah. I don't have any plans next weekend.

Carrie: 8:58

Not until you have to go get your kiddo

Kristine: 9:00

Yeah. Sunday. Mm-hmm. Whatever that is. Mm-hmm. Who knows? Yeah. What about you? What'd you do this weekend?

Carrie: 9:06

Friday? I didn't do much, did I? No, I don't think so. I don't think I did anything on Friday. Yeah. You got your hair done.

Kristine: 9:14

Oh, right. I like how we knew each

Carrie: 9:16

other's weekends. Yeah. Right. So Friday morning, I just kind of took it easy, went to the gym, went on my walk, did all that stuff, and then came home, just kind of got the house a little organized for myself. And, uh, then I did, I had a hair appointment. So every second, um, extension move up, they, she removes all of them and puts them back in. Right. So we did that, and then we did a new method of installing, which I haven't showed you. I'd like to see it. Yeah. I'll show you.

Kristine: 9:45

Can you tell me about it? Right now

Carrie: 9:47

it's called like Fusion. What's that mean? Something? Um, it essentially looks like a chunk of glue that wraps around your hair. It's wild times. I'll show you. So there's no beads? No beads on the top. Oh, just the top

Kristine: 9:58

portion. I'm only used to one method. Yeah. So now I have two in my hair. So sometimes when Carrie would get her extensions put in or moved up or whatever they do, they, I would stand there and watch. Mm-hmm. Because it just. Yeah, it amazes me. Yeah. I think it's really cool how it's done. Mm-hmm. And so I would just, it's like relaxing. Yeah. Very

Carrie: 10:16

woo saw. Yeah. So she colored my roots because um, my roots were actually lighter than my hair color, um, right now, which is wild. And uh, so she did that and then reinstalled those bad boys did that new method, curled me up, trimmed me, well trimmed it first and then curled it because my new pieces are 24 inches long, so they're longer than my other extensions are. Wow. So she did all that and then I went home and relaxed. What did I do Friday night? Nothing. I guess. I guess just a whole lot of nothing. I honestly, I don't think I did much. I'm trying to think for you, but No. And then, uh oh, cuz you were driving Scarlet. Yeah.

Kristine: 10:58

So I was gonna say, why didn't we see each other on Friday night?

11:00

Because

Carrie: 11:01

you were driving her. We were gone. And then on Saturday, um, Spent the morning kind of getting stuff done, went to the gym and then Jace came over. Um, yeah, so it was, my daughter was at a birthday party for the afternoon, so it was just me, Nick, and Jace in the pool. That's so nice. Uh, and Nick's friend Mike stopped by for a couple hours, but it was just us three best friends. We had a couple drinks,

Kristine: 11:30

just one or one or

Carrie: 11:31

15, so many. And then, uh, yeah, we just. Like, literally that's all we did was go in the pool. Yeah. He didn't get out of

Kristine: 11:39

the pool until 10 o'clock. I don't, I know he, I texted Jason like, okay, I'm on my way home. And, uh, he's like, Hey, cool. I'm like, yeah, I'm gonna stop by. He's like, Hey, perfect. We're still in the pool. Yeah. You're probably so up. I was so

Carrie: 11:54

bad. My fingers were so bad. I, I think when you stopped by, Nick was doing bedtime.

Kristine: 11:58

He was, yeah. Yeah. I went and said goodnight to both of them. Oh yeah. And then left. Yeah. Wow. I had to go to the bathroom. Oh, right. So I went through the mm-hmm. Through the house to leave rather than going outside. Oh, right, right. And then you went and said goodnight. How, hello? Goodnight. And then, yeah. Nick was so cute. He's like, good luck tomorrow. Oh, that's so nice. It wasn't really nice. Yeah. And Brooke's like, for what? What is she doing?

Carrie: 12:20

That's funny. Yeah, it was cute. Yeah. And, and honestly it was such a nice Saturday. We had like, the weather was probably the best we've had. And uh, yeah, we just freaking floated, did nothing. That's so great. Had drinks and chips. Did you bake? Baked old Dutch ketchup chips. Nice. And then we left the bag outside open all night. Oh no. So I had to chuck it the next day because I'm like, there's for sure been animals in here eating this. Did you guys

Kristine: 12:45

eat the chips when you guys were in the pool? Did you guys eat dinner and stuff? Yes. Like you

Carrie: 12:49

ate? Yes. Yes. So in the morning Nick asked me what I thought we should have to eat. Yeah. And I gave a couple suggestions and then he asked Jace and Jace was fine with my suggestions. So we had chicken buns for lunch. Yeah. And then I was like, Nick, you should make the burgers right now. Yes. Like you should make, you should make them right now. He's like, no, I'll do it mid-afternoon when I need a sun break. I'm like, you are gonna regret that. Yeah. So at four 30 I'm like, Nick, you still have not made the burgers love, like you're going to regret this at six o'clock when it's time for dinner. So we went and made them. And then we had dinner at six

Kristine: 13:22

burgers. Good. Easy. Yeah. That's nice. Like I cut,

Carrie: 13:25

when I cut everything for the chicken buns, I cut everything for the burgers. Good. I cut cheese, I cut um, the tomato. I cut the lettuce. I got it already already. So that we just had to eat. And then I made the kids, uh, hotdog, nice burger. Had a friend over, made them hot dogs and yeah. Yes, yes. We did eat dinner. Good, good. Yeah. And yes, we ate chips in the pool. Good. That's

Kristine: 13:46

my favorite place to eat the chips. Mm-hmm. In the pool. Mm-hmm. It's delicious. Yeah. And

Carrie: 13:50

refreshing. And then in the middle of the night, I couldn't find my water bottle. It's cuz I left it outside. Oh shit. I was like, I wasn't going to get it. So it had a sleepover outside. It did. And it did nice. Yeah. And then Sunday I was a complete bag of garbage. Like I felt fine. Yeah. I was just tired. And Nick was like, oh, I'm gonna come sleep upstairs with you. No. Like, bro, you were drinking rum. Yeah. So we snorted so much. So the whole night I was like, ugh.

Kristine: 14:22

So funny. How did Kate, so you guys were watching a movie? Yeah. Because Jason ended up by, in the basement, by himself. Dead sleeping. Sleeping

Carrie: 14:29

Kate. So, I don't know. Um, I don't know. I, I know that we were watching a movie. We were watching, um, fast and Furious cuz we were watching it on, we watched Too Fast. Too Furious in the, from the pool, right? Because it was all on the deck. I did see that. And then we went downstairs to watch Fast and Furious. I fell asleep. Okay. Yeah. Jace must have fallen asleep. He did. Nick decided he was gonna go upstairs and take his pills and have a snack. And then he was walking past our bed and he was like, Hmm huh. He said, I'm gonna go lay down for a little bit. He fell asleep. I woke up, I was like, I don't know what's happening. So then I went up to bed

Kristine: 15:09

and I, geez, I was so confused. I woke up and like, I was in my bed at home obviously, so I woke up and I roll over and I'm like, where the fuck, fuck is face? I think I felt him not there. And I don't typically wake up. That's my move. Yeah. I don't typically wake up. Mm-hmm. I usually just like, if you're not home, someone problem will see you tomorrow. Yeah. And uh, he wasn't there and I was like, what the fuck? And then I started worrying cuz like, are you guys still in the pool at that point? Like, what's going on? Yeah. And so I texted him, he didn't answer and I tried to go back to sleep and didn't work. So then I called him. Mm-hmm. And had to do the, the double, the double call. Oh.

Carrie: 15:49

So that it would ring. Yeah. So I don't, I don't know if I went upstairs then. Yeah. Or if I was upstairs way before that. Like I couldn't, I had, don't know. He told

Kristine: 15:59

me on the phone that he was alone. Okay, so I wasn't there. Yeah. He's like, he's like, Nope, nobody's here. He's like, I'm gonna come home now. I'm like,

Carrie: 16:09

okay. Cause I heard him leave. I locked the doors. Yeah. I, I locked the doors. Oh. So I couldn't have been upstairs for that long cuz I heard him leave the house. Maybe not, probably not. Oh my. Like I've, we've never, like we never run away. We never, and I love that Nick just like left and didn't come back. It wasn't like, Hey you guys, maybe we should all leave and go to bed. Just like left. Everybody just left. Yeah. Funny.

Kristine: 16:31

I was like, funny. I was like, where the hell

Carrie: 16:33

is he? Yeah, I I would've cut the party off way before that. Yeah, whatever. But apparently we were just all sleeping and then I woke cuz I fell asleep to Fast and Furious. I woke up to Top Gun. Yes, that's what Jay

Kristine: 16:44

said. He was like, I don't know who put on Top Gun. He's like, I have no idea how that movie started. Because he's like, well, we started watching movie at a reasonable hour. I'm like, sir, I called you at two o'clock in the morning. Yeah, I heard the movie. You didn't start it at a reasonable hour. He's like, no. We were watching Fast Furious, fast Furious. And I'm like, what did you guys do

17:02

Nick?

Carrie: 17:03

Nick put on Top Gun. Yeah. And then he left to go get a snack and then crawled into bed and never came back. And like, cuz when I got upstairs, Nick was like fully clothed in his clothes. Like watch on like,

Kristine: 17:18

wow. Wow. That's so funny. I love runaways

Carrie: 17:21

like that. Yeah, it was, yeah. So, I don't know. I have no idea. I dunno.

Kristine: 17:26

That's too funny. I'm glad that

Carrie: 17:28

happened. At least, you know, he like, at least he's in a safe place. Yeah. I

Kristine: 17:32

But one of my worries was like, did he try to get home and then couldn't Yeah, because I, I've. The one time took him to over 10 minutes to get home and we live, we live three minutes away. And that was, you know, I watched him from the window that

Carrie: 17:47

time. Yeah. At least it was warm outside and Yeah. He'd have a safe

Kristine: 17:49

place to sleep. Yeah. He would just be eating alive by bugs.

Carrie: 17:52

Oh my God. Well no, cuz Nick is sprayed him 800 times with off pure deep. Wow. So that was our shenanigans. And I swear to you, every time we do a weekend recap we're like, yeah, we had so many drinks. It's not, it's This is summer. This is typical summer. Yeah. Winter team tones down a little bit. Maybe sort of till we go to Maui. Yeah. And then it ramps back up. We're not too sure.

Kristine: 18:13

No, we're not too sure how it'll go, but that's fine. Do you know what to reach through'em? Yeah. This is what we do for fun, right?

Carrie: 18:20

It is.

Kristine: 18:21

Yeah. You know, it's fun. Um, are you reading anything right now? Okay. I'm

Carrie: 18:25

audio booking still. Nice. New one though. Nice. Um, I did pull it up so I was reading the inmate by, or listening to the inmate by Frieda McFadden. Finish it. Yeah.

Kristine: 18:35

You guys, that's the one you

Carrie: 18:36

gave me the recap on. I did. I gave you the recap. It was a wild, it was a wild ride. I think that everybody needs to Yes. I'm recalling the

Kristine: 18:45

recap. Yeah. Yeah. It was a cool

Carrie: 18:47

book. Yeah. It was really, really good. I, whether you listen, listen to it or read it, it is phenomenal. And it's crazy because I knew something wild was gonna happen cuz there was still two hours left in the book, but it had wrapped up. Do you know what I mean? Mm-hmm. Or like, it, it felt like it should have been wrapped up. Yeah. So you knew, I knew something crazy was coming wild. And then now I'm listening To Never Lie by Frieda McFadden. Cool. So it's about this couple and they go to meet their realtor at a house out in the country, um, cuz they're looking to buy a house and the house belonged to a psychiatrist and she went missing. Mm-hmm. And so they go to her house to go look at it with the realtor, but. There's a snowstorm and the realtor never shows up and they're actually trapped there cuz they can't leave cuz the snowstorm got so bad. Spooky. Yeah, it is. You should

Kristine: 19:37

put the, the button.

Carrie: 19:40

No, no, no. Nope.

Kristine: 19:43

Yeah, yeah. That's, that's good. That was appropriate. Yeah.

Carrie: 19:48

That's, yeah. So she, the main character ends up actually finding, um, tapes from like, the therapist recorded all of her sessions. Eerie. Yeah. And now she's like, kind of trying to piece together what happened to her. Yeah. Because the police never found this secret room with all the tapes. Cause it was a hidden room. Oh,

Kristine: 20:08

hidden rooms, man. Yeah. Pulled on a book. Ooh. I love that. Mm-hmm. Oh, see I want one of those. Yeah.

Carrie: 20:14

So they're, they're on their second day there now. Yeah. Um, I'm sure. I'm assuming they're gonna have a second night.

Kristine: 20:20

I know somebody who has a secret room. Yeah. I've been in it. It's really cool. Oh yeah, you told me about that. Yeah. Yeah. A relative

Carrie: 20:26

ish. It's, I think I need to work on that for the next house. Well, let's, we'll talk

Kristine: 20:30

about it later, but Yeah. Because I don't wanna give too much. Right. Cuz you know. Yeah. But it's secret room. Secret room. But yeah, it's really cool. It is. It's done by a mechanical method too, like mm-hmm. You have to maneuver something around candlestick on the wall, pretty much type style. Yeah. It's, I love, it's pretty neat. That, huh? Yeah.

Carrie: 20:46

I need one of those, I think. Yeah. I text Nick that I would like a secret, secret, secret room secret. I would like a secret room in the basement. Yeah. And that was the weekend. Nice. Honestly. Nice Sunday. You're not wrong. I did nap 200 times. I kept just dozing off on the couch. That's good. Jealous. We didn't have anything Jealous to do. Jealous. Yeah. Well, except for I put my walk off until seven 30.

Kristine: 21:03

I know. She texted me, she's like, I do not want to do this. Mm-hmm. I

Carrie: 21:08

was, I'm so sorry. I was, um, whatever. I was cleaning up after dinner and I was like, maybe no one would know if I didn't walk today. I was like, I could just pretend. And I was like, no. The worst part is you would know. I know. And the other thing is, I can't fake closing my, like rings on my watch. Yeah. And I'm on 30. Today's my 40th day in a row of closing all my rings. That's so impressive. So like, you know, I would break that streak and then it's act like I, cuz I get an award every day for like the longest move streak or whatever. That's so cool.

Kristine: 21:36

Sometimes I get like, congratulations, you've walked 18

Carrie: 21:40

steps. I know. So, you know, I can't fake that. No

Kristine: 21:43

you can't. So I had

Carrie: 21:44

to, I really did. I had to do it, but I didn't want to.

Kristine: 21:48

I don't have a run plan until Wednesday. I know that I need to like not, it's kinda nice. It is. But it also like mm-hmm. I don't like that I'm taking a

Carrie: 21:57

couple days off from the gym. Yeah. I, uh, I felt myself not enjoying it last week. Yeah. That's a bummer. But I felt like I was just forcing myself to go. Yeah. So I'm like, you know what? Take off till Wednesday, start last week. Just push it and start it again. It was like

Kristine: 22:10

me at the end of May. Mm-hmm. Just not enjoyable when it becomes a chore. I don't want that. No. So just

Carrie: 22:16

take a little pause, take a couple days, just two days. But yeah.

Kristine: 22:19

Start back up. It's still weird though. Mm-hmm. Like I'm now back into like the where I want to be running. Mm-hmm. And I want to move forward with my training. Mm-hmm. And now it's like take two days off. Mm-hmm.

Carrie: 22:31

I mean luckily today, yeah. Is

Kristine: 22:33

our live tonight and it's gooky outside anyway, so it's really gooky. So hopefully Wednesday will pick back up and Awesome. It's just a little guy. Yeah. I am not reading anything. I need a book. I need a book. Really bad. My neighbor has one for me. Um, which is funny. It's the Lonely Dove You, you know. Um, but yeah, he has one. He's like, you should read this book. Oh, I like that. So I might grab that.

Carrie: 22:57

I think you should read The Boys of Be Rose

Kristine: 22:59

series. Okay. On the Kindle. Yeah. Yeah. Is it on there right now? No,

Carrie: 23:05

but I could easy put the first book on there. I just think if you're looking for something that's gonna like. Yeah. And it's a four book series, so like, it's like Madison, Kate. Yeah.

Kristine: 23:14

It'll just like suck you in for a little while. Yeah. I also feel like I haven't had time to read in this past little while. Mm-hmm. But also, you know, I can probably tone down the home improvement that I've been watching. It's just so good. I get it. Entertaining. Yeah. Yesterday we watched like four or five episodes. Oh, I love that. Backed back. Yeah. Al Borland. Yeah. He, I

Carrie: 23:34

think, yes, I, yes, I'd go for Al. Yes. He is a handsome, you don't realize until you're older. Yeah. He's

Kristine: 23:41

hot. Yeah. And he is nice. Mm-hmm. And he is kind. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And polite.

Carrie: 23:47

Yeah. And I feel like, and I dig, he's like, dad, bad body's got going on. He's hot. Yeah.

Kristine: 23:53

He has a lot to uh Yeah. A lot to offer. A lot to offer. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. That's how I feel. But

Carrie: 23:58

Al I love that. I love that. Okay. So we've been shooting the ship for quite some time,

Kristine: 24:03

quite some time. Obviously this happens when we don't spend the weekend together. Yes. Right. Wow. Wow. Okay. So this episode we are going to discuss having, um, an online store versus our brick and mortar store. Mm-hmm. Um, and all that and in between and what comes with those two stores. Yes. Uh, so let's, uh, and then we do have like a side topic as well, if we have time, if we have time for that. Because since we've been shooting this shit for 800 years. Yeah. It's two 30 already. That's wild. Mm-hmm. We'll see probably about 15 minutes or so. 20 minutes we've been talking for. Mm-hmm. That felt like five minutes. Yeah, it was good. It was nice. Okay, let's jump in.

Carrie: 24:42

So we'll start off by saying if you're not familiar with Vender and Lace or, you know, you just want a little recap. We started our business with the intent of it only being online. We really did when we did have a little shopping area in my basement, um, as you guys know from the first episode, but we, or second, um, That was really just to kind of get our name out there and kind of establish some sort of, um, customer base. Customer base and trust. Mm-hmm. You know, cuz you could come and actually look at the pieces. But our intent was never for that to be the way, it was always, it was always meant to just be online. Right. That was the goal. Endgame. It was endgame. And for the longest time people begged for a store begged,

Kristine: 25:30

and we mean like weekly. Mm-hmm. And begged for us to open a store, not just here, but like across Canada. Mm-hmm. And we're like, okay, that's just like, mm-hmm. No, the answer is no. We do not want a storefront. We did not want what came with it, especially at that point in our lives. No. And then we, few years down the road, we came to a time in our life where we needed a project. and, um, it was, Carrie actually mentioned it. She was over at getting her nails done and saw a building that, um, was under

Carrie: 26:07

construction. Yeah. It looked like they had change rooms. Yeah.

Kristine: 26:09

She, she was like, Hey, I got a crazy idea. And I was like, it's actually not that crazy. Let's do it. And

Carrie: 26:14

the fact that it's in our warehouse Yeah. Is what makes it so sustainable. Mm-hmm. If it was in, its its own entity mm-hmm. In another building. I really don't think it would be as seamless as it is. Right. You know, I didn't, I didn't want to create this project that would create more work for us in the end. Mm-hmm. Like, and make it unsustainable for us, because our goal has always been to try to scale our business, grow our business, but not make ourselves crazy. Yes. And I, I really, I think that's why a storefront was always such a no for us. Mm-hmm. Because I didn't want us to end up in this place where we had so much on our plates that nothing was working. Yeah.

Kristine: 26:56

And at that time, when we kept saying no, we were already stretched thin. We were between the two of us. We were just, we are not only doing our jobs, but we didn't have the positions and the, um, employees behind us to back it. No. So we were doing all of that work as well. Mm-hmm. So there was no way, no, that we could take on a storefront and our jobs and. So on and so forth.

Carrie: 27:20

Exactly. It Was it not even feasible? No.

Kristine: 27:23

No. Like he couldn't even, there was just not enough time in the day, nor the week mm-hmm.

Carrie: 27:28

To get this done. No. And I didn't wanna open this store and have it be garbage. Yeah. And then have people local come into it who maybe aren't familiar with our business and be like, well, I'm never shopping with them because this place is trash. Yeah. Not when our online business was so well done. Yeah. I didn't want that. No. So

Kristine: 27:46

we wanted to keep our, the representation of our brand. Mm-hmm. Um, cohesive with what we built online. Yeah. Because we spent at that point, six years building this online brand. And we don't wanna tarnish it by not giving it its effort that

Carrie: 28:02

it Exactly. That we needed. So we opened our little, our little baby storefront. No, she's just ski. So she was so cute. And we had two amazing staff when we started, which was so, so nice. Yeah. We had Mackenzie who shout out, uh, Mackenzie, if you listen, we always miss you. Yes. I just want you to know that she

Kristine: 28:21

is so funny and she's so bright and bubbly and she was just the kindest, sweetest Yeah.

Carrie: 28:28

Girl you'll ever meet in your whole life. And she worked for us two separate times. Yeah. Once and then she left for school and then she came back cuz she was taking a little time off from school. And then she went back to school. Yeah. And left us again. Yeah.

Kristine: 28:38

Ugh. She was just so kind. And she's hilarious. You guys. She would, uh, if we bust down to an accent, it's because we got it from Yeah. We got it from Mackenzie. Yeah. Anytime

Carrie: 28:48

she was stressed or overwhelmed, she'd get to an accent. Yes. Either

Kristine: 28:51

British or Australian. Yeah. And she just, she always made us laugh. She was such a little bright star. She really was in our lives.

Carrie: 28:58

She really was. But she's going to school in Kelowna and you know, she's

Kristine: 29:02

getting an e Etchy vacation. Mm-hmm. And that's okay. Yeah. Oh, we miss her every day. We do. Yeah. She was great. So yeah, she was, um, she was a really, really big

Carrie: 29:13

help. She was. And she had a lot of retail experience. Yes. Cause she worked for Hilberg and Burke. Yes. Um, so she had that, which was amazing. Yeah. And then we had Cassidy.

Kristine: 29:23

Yes. She was our, uh, oh my gosh. She, she, she really helped us out in the beginning. Mm-hmm. Like she was hired on and then her first like week was just prepping the new store. Yeah. She spent the entire time, um, building racks and putting things together, organizing the clothes, steaming it, putting it, organizing it together and putting it in, um, organizing the store to make it

Carrie: 29:51

functional. Yeah. Like the night before the ground opening when we were all sitting around the whole floor tagging stuff and putting stuff out. Yeah. Cuz it was chaos. It was midnight.

Kristine: 30:00

She's very, um, detail orientated. She's just, she has a

Carrie: 30:05

really good vision. I, yeah, she's for Yeah. Really good eye for

Kristine: 30:08

it. Um, so we are so grateful for those two. Yes. Yeah. Our store would not be No. What it

Carrie: 30:14

is now without them. And Cassy does still work in the store. Yes. And she's our assistant store manager. She's fantastic. She really does.

Kristine: 30:21

Yeah. I love her so much. Me too. Yeah, she's very, very good. If you guys do or have had the pleasure of coming into the store, I'm sure you've met Cassy cuz she's here a lot. She is. Yeah. Wonderful. So good. So helpful.

Carrie: 30:35

She's so great. And, uh, yeah, so Mackenzie did leave mid, you know, we'd had the store for six or seven months mm-hmm. When she left. Mm-hmm. And Cassidy really stepped up and kind of stepped into that. We spot that Mackenzie was leaving behind, which is really nice. And that's when our store was still really small. Um, it was half the size that it is now. And then last October we did expand it to double, which has been a game changer I think. I agree. Because one of our biggest issues and one of the biggest struggles slash complaints that we have with our store is it doesn't hold everything that our online store does, which is impossible. Physically

Kristine: 31:16

impossible. Yeah. So we have a 23,000 square foot warehouse. Mm-hmm. And we have a.

Carrie: 31:21

2,500

Kristine: 31:22

square foot store. Yeah. Saving between that and 3000 square feet. Yeah. There's no way. No, it's impossible that we can get that. Plus the local items that we bring in store and our exclusive items in the store at one time. No, it,

Carrie: 31:36

it's physically impossible. Mm-hmm. So we do our best to, you know, represent a good chunk of our online store, but it's just, it's not even remotely feasible. No. And it's not feasible for someone, you know, to just go grab it from the back. Yeah. So that's a big thing. We've had lots of, um, questions about, well, can they just go grab it from the back? That's just not even remotely realistic. First it's not safe because the store girls don't work in the warehouse. Exactly. Secondly, you, you don't even understand, I don't even think you can grasp how large our warehouse is and how much there is back there. Mm-hmm. They, they would be wandering around for 10 minutes looking for something. Yes.

Kristine: 32:16

And, and things change so fast. Yes. Back there that if. Cassidy, let's say, cuz she does kind of go back between, uh, both sides of it. Um, if we had something out, she may have seen it once before, but it might not be there. The next move Yeah. Might have moved because it either all sold out or there's only a couple left when we moved it to a spot where it's convenient to find those one or two pieces, those one-offs. Yeah. Um, There's, there's just so many different reasons that something could be moved

Carrie: 32:47

and you could grab a piece, someone could try it on and wanna buy it, but it's already sold out. Yes. It's already

Kristine: 32:52

somebody else's. Yeah. It's already

Carrie: 32:54

committed to something which, you know, our inventory online and our inventory in store are completely different. Mm-hmm. So you wouldn't know what you were grabbing? No. You, and then, and then you'd have to transfer it to the store inventory. Yeah. To put it in the store inventory. Yeah. To sell it to that person. Yes. All while managing the store alone and potentially leaving the store unoccupied. Yeah, totally. It's just, it's just not, it can't happen. There's no,

Kristine: 33:20

so our, what we like to do, what we prefer is if our customers, if they do want something in store, is to message the storefront themselves or ask on our Facebook, um, uh, Facebook page. So to reach out to our customer service team to inquire if that item is there. Mm-hmm. And if it's not there, then we can work on getting it in the

33:40

store.

Carrie: 33:40

Yeah. Cassy, that's one of Cassidy's roles is actually like pulling new inventory into the store. Mm-hmm. So if she knows it's something that's been highly requested, she will try to get it in store. Yeah. Not always possible. No. Because we don't like to pull everything the online store has into the storefront. Yes. And we

Kristine: 33:57

will, but we prefer if we're able to bring in a full size run. Yeah. So we will bring in items that are broken sizes, but it's not

Carrie: 34:05

our preferred method. No, no. We prefer to bring all small to three X into the store. Yeah. If we're gonna bring an item in.

Kristine: 34:11

Yeah. So that's one of the reasons why not everything goes in. Oh, that's actually. 30 reasons why not everything goes in the store. Yeah. It's just we do the best

Carrie: 34:19

we can. Mm-hmm. And I, I think our storefront is a great representation of our website. Yeah. It's just not everything.

Kristine: 34:27

Also, we have to mind our space in the store. Mm-hmm. And we don't wanna cram it so full that it's. An a negative experience by that you're not able to find things, you're not able to move things on the rack, search for your, like look for your sizes. Yes. And same thing on our staff too. We need to make it easier on them to be able to find things and Yeah. Et cetera. So we have to make sure we're mindful of our space and if we bring in too much mm-hmm. It's not a fun experience.

Carrie: 34:53

No. And there's also nothing worse than flipping through a rack and you can't move the hangers. Oh, that's because there's too many. Yes. So you can't even see, so you just walk away. Yes. Like if I can't move the hangers to see the pieces, I'm not looking.

Kristine: 35:05

No, exactly. No. And we won't be able to display the pieces out if we used all of the racks just to cram things on there. It's not gonna look good for you.

Carrie: 35:12

No, it's not gonna be nice. It's not gonna be a nice like, flow, cohesive shopping experience. Yeah. We like to have our racks, you know, tell a story. Like maybe you could make an outfit out of these pieces. Mm-hmm. Or whatever it may be. Yeah. I don't wanna just shove shit in there for the pure sake of shoving it in there. Yeah.

Kristine: 35:28

That's not fun. No, it's not good. Mm-hmm. We wanna give it a good experience, like what we do on our online side. Like our lives, we, you know, we throw outfits together. We wanna be able to have that opportunity and that chance in the store. Yeah. If everything's in there, it's just a crapshoot. Mm-hmm. Nobody's into that. Plus

Carrie: 35:45

we wanna be able to display the amazing local brands that we carry, which, uh, is part of my, one of my favorite parts. Yeah. Being able to find local vendors that make amazing pieces. We have candy, we have shampoo, we have bath bombs, we have soap, we have earrings. Earrings. We have, I don't know, so many, so many things, like, so many local things. Yeah. Greeting cards, all of that stuff. Mm-hmm. Like the fun little bits of bobs. I, I wanna give that it's due too, because you know a lot with the volume that we do sell online, sometimes it's hard for us to carry. A smaller vendor Yes. Because they can't give us the quantities that we need to sell online. Mm-hmm. Because our customer base is so large. So it's the perfect opportunity to display it in store. Mm-hmm. And, you know, I do, I, I feel bad when people aren't local and they're like, oh, I wish I could get that. And I wish we could get it for you too, but it's just not feasible. Yeah. Like when we order something for in store, we're bringing in one or two of each size when we're ordering something for the warehouse, for our online store, it's like 20 of each size. Exactly. It's a sizeable, it's a, it's a completely different ballgame. Yeah. I agree. And our storefront is probably five, 5% of our business. Mm-hmm. Like it's, it's just a small little, it's very small. Little gem. Yep.

Kristine: 37:08

Little sampling. Mm-hmm. Um, I have a question for you. Yep. Because we're talking about online store versus brick and mortar. Mm-hmm. Um, do you wanna talk about like, maybe two favorite things about your About the online store? Yeah. Like your personal favorite things and two personal favorites of the storefront. Yeah. And then I'll say

Carrie: 37:27

mine. Okay. So my two favorite things that I love about the online store. One, it's our lives. Mm-hmm. You know, having that ability to go live and reach so many people and try stuff on. I feel like that's a big thing with an online store that I love. Um, and the other one is the ability to reach so many people. Mm-hmm. You know, we sell countrywide. We've sold to every single province we've sold to. I can't remember how many states I'd have to look. I think probably like 18 to 20 of the 50 states, which is really cool. And we're so cool. We're trying to add the Hill

Kristine: 37:58

50, wouldn't that be the coolest? That would be, that would be really cool.

Carrie: 38:02

Um, we don't obviously have as big of a following in the US just because there is such a huge amount of boutiques down there. Mm-hmm. But, um, we do have some, usually, usually people that are looking for items like grace and lace or ampersand or Onei that they can't locate anywhere else. Yes. That's usually kind of what we seem to find here. Yeah. Is people shopping for that. They also have the advantage of their dollar being really good. So it seems like our pieces are much less expensive than Yeah. You know, Um, so those are my two favorite things of online. Nice. How about you?

Kristine: 38:37

Um, my, one of my favorite things. So it coincides with the lives. Yeah. Um, it's the social aspect of it. Mm-hmm. Um, I like to be able to chat with, um, a lot of our, with our customers and, um, during the lives and even off the lives when they follow our personal Instagrams or whatever. I, I kind, I really like that, um, friendship feel and like I have gained friends Yes. And friendships through, yeah. Through L l B. And I think that is really cool. So I love that. And I never give

Carrie: 39:08

that up because I think it is just so special. And that's, that's something that's very like specific to having that online business, right. That online presence. Yeah. And

Kristine: 39:16

how we do it is different I find than a lot of mm-hmm. Other stores out there. We have that social, um mm-hmm. Family feeling. Um, What else again, and my other one was with the reach as well, is that we've been able to, people across Canada, this is really cool. People across Canada and the us, but they know who Christine and Carrie are. Yeah. Like you might come across somebody in Newfoundland who'd be like, oh yeah, I follow these two girls. Christine and Carrie are like, oh my god, I know them too. Mm-hmm. Like, you know, and I think that is the coolest Yes thing

Carrie: 39:52

ever. There were just two people from Sher Park, Alberta.

Kristine: 39:54

Yeah. And like I know these two besties. I'm like, oh my God, we do like, you know, like that is so neat, so neat. So that the reach and the social. Mm-hmm. I guess that also coincides with it. And what about brick and mortar?

Carrie: 40:07

Um, so one, like I mentioned, our ability to carry those like small, local, curated businesses. I love supporting local when I can. I will say, even though I am a local business owner, I don't solely shop local, but I do it as much as humanly possible. Yeah, agree. And I like that we have that extra opportunity to support them. Mm-hmm. By showcasing them in our store. And maybe, you know, maybe you see one of our vendors and you love their stuff and maybe you start shopping with them as well. Mm-hmm. Like separately. Yeah. And that's so cool. That's so cool that we can give them that exposure because we have such

Kristine: 40:44

a large reach and because we can only take in so much. Mm-hmm. That if you come to our store and you see this couple, one or two items that you like from them, they have so much more to offer. Yes. And I love that you found who they are through us and now. The world is your oyster, like, you know what I mean? Like through them, like I think that's fantastic.

Carrie: 41:05

I just love being able to promote and support other brands and other businesses with our business. So that's one of my favorite parts. And then the second is just giving people that sense of community and somewhere where they feel like they can go to shop. Mm-hmm. I love that we have extra small to three XL in store. I love that it gives people that chance to come in like, See, touch, be, be in the store. It's on my list. Ugh. I love that. Yeah. Because it's just, to me, that's so important and you know, I know how nerve wracking sometimes it can be to go try clothes on in person because sometimes I don't want to either,

Kristine: 41:43

like relatable, I'm not very good in

Carrie: 41:45

store. No. I get overwhelmed. Yes. I get, I don't wanna come out like, oh, how does it look? Come show me. No, I also

Kristine: 41:53

don't, do you know what I don't like about store? And I know that we don't do this here because we try to encourage not to. I don't like the phony bologna. Mm-hmm. I, there's one time not, I mean, it's happened multiple times, but this one time sticks out. I was bathing suit shopping last year before Vegas, and it was right when I went through a. Big weight gain. Mm-hmm. And like my body was so different and she's like, oh my God, that looks so good. And I'm like, I know it doesn't. Yeah. Like I know, it doesn't, don't lie to me. It's not just me, just me being like insecure of my body. Like, yeah, this doesn't look good. This

Carrie: 42:27

looks like crap. Don't lie to my face. Don't try to sell that to me, Don, because you wanna make a sale. Yeah. And like

Kristine: 42:33

hate that I'm undecided if they're on commission or not. Mm-hmm. I have no idea if that's how it works. Yep. But it felt very commissioning to me. Yes. And I was like, don't, don't do that. Yes. It's great to compliment and like mm-hmm. To encourage. But it is so discouraging to

Carrie: 42:49

oversell it. I do. Because I find that like mean girls like phony. Yes. You know? Yes. Don't, and I do that sometimes when we try stuff off in our lives. I'm like, if I'm being real, I do not think that this piece. Flats my body. Yes. I'm not gonna a hundred percent over. I'm not gonna sell you something that's gonna look like shit on you. Yes. That's just, that's, that's greedy and that's yucky. And I

Kristine: 43:11

don't wanna be lied to. I'm not gonna lie to you. No, I will. Like, you know what? I'll like, I'll compliment you on, on, on some things, but like, I don't, I'm not gonna lie, lie, gonna tell

Carrie: 43:21

you that it looks good when it doesn't. Yes.

Kristine: 43:23

And I'll, that moment will always stick with me. Mm-hmm. I hated it. And I felt like garbage. Like

Carrie: 43:28

skeezy. Yes. I felt skeezy. Yes. And I don't like that he was yucky.

Kristine: 43:32

Yeah. Um, so for myself, for the brick and mortar, um, We touched, we talked about this, but the local aspect. Mm-hmm. Um, I just love having the opportunity for our smaller local businesses that we bring in. Um, and I love, um, I kind of have a three parter.

Carrie: 43:48

I love the No, you're only allowed to.

Kristine: 43:51

I love the idea of, um, being able to touch and feel because I am a texture person. Like I need, I like to touch mm-hmm. The clothing and give that a shot. So I, I think that's, um, a huge opportunity for the, those people. Yes. Who appreciate that. Um, and we have a lot of customers that do come in say like, I don't buy online because I like to touch the things. And like, thank you for opening your store. Like this is a perfect opportunity. Et cetera, et cetera. So that's one of my favorite things. Um, I also, this goes back to one of my favorite things from the online store is the social aspect. Yes. Being social. And I love when I do get a chance to go work in the store, I love it because I actually get to put a face to the name mm-hmm. That I see o either like through orders that come through Yeah. Or Facebook, or on our Facebook Lives or through the Insiders group. I like to do that. Like, like, oh, hi, like. Um, well, can you tell me your name again Yeah. And it was such, such, it's always such a good experience and I love saying hello to the people.

Carrie: 44:55

It's funny because Christina and I are very, very similar in so many different aspects. Yeah. But this is where we differ people. This right here, I, not that I don't love coming into the store and talking to you. Yeah. But like, my God, does it make me want to just like, curl up in a ball and like die?

Kristine: 45:13

It's, it's, um, a lot of my social anxiety does pop up however, but when I, when I'm talking to the people, to our customers, yeah. I feel so comfortable because they already know who I am. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I have a harder time explaining who I am and what I do to people. Whereas if they already know Yeah. If they're already previous customers Yeah. They know that, like, that's fair. Then I have no problem chatting their ear off. I

45:39

just,

Carrie: 45:40

yeah. And see I'm not good with small talk, so I'm like,

Kristine: 45:44

I do. That's just, I'll ask them where they think Aspen came from

Carrie: 45:48

and that's, and that's why you and I are such good, which this makes a really good episode. And potentially this could be next week's episode, like you and I pick up where the other leaves off. Yeah. All the time. And that's one of the things like if the store, if someone needs coverage and it's like, can one of you go, I'll look at Christine and I'm like, you, right? Like, like you're going. And she's like, yeah, I'll go. Yeah. Because that's just, it's not my strong suit. Yeah. Small talk is just not my thing. And I will flub through it, but the whole time I'm like, oh my God. It's why,

Kristine: 46:17

one of the reasons why I love picking up if we need the backup customer service. Mm-hmm. Because I like yes. To say hello and that chat.

Carrie: 46:25

Yes. That's easier for me. Yeah. Doing it that way is a lot easier. It's the per like face to face. Face, face where I'm like, I ran into a customer like two weeks ago. I was out for a walk and we were talking and then I'm like, I have nothing else to say. I'm like dead face. I'm like, Kayla, it was really nice to meet you. I'm now, I'm, I have nothing. And she's probably listening to this cuz she was listening to the podcast when I ran into her. I just like dead. Which is so funny because I'm such a chatty person. Yeah. And I'm so like social. So social. Yeah. But it's the small talk. Yeah. Where like, I don't know enough about that person and I just, I don't know what to say. Yeah. That is my, that's my dead moment. I look at my paper, so, so that is one of the cool things about you and I is like our, like we both have a lot of like really similar traits, but there are things that each of us are better in. I

Kristine: 47:16

actually wrote down Ying and Yang. Yeah. If you ever wanna get a tattoo. Okay. We can do ying and yang. Oh my God. We can get our favorite colors. That would be really fun. It would be really cute. We can get pink and purple or like animal print. Yeah, I like that. They're really cute in there. I love that. I

Carrie: 47:30

know because, you know, it, it, it is true. I have real estate. Yeah. I have a availability.

Kristine: 47:36

I do as well. Full up. Yeah. When I was getting my tattoo the other day, he's like, Hey, like, are you planning on like, making this into his sleeve? And I'm like, Sir, my whole left arm is naked. I have no intentions of a sleeve right now. Yeah, yeah. No, no. He's like, okay, I'm just

Carrie: 47:49

making sure. No, I just want you to write my kid's name on the back. That's it. Yeah. I just, yeah, that's one of my, I think that's, that's why mm-hmm. And I talk about it all the time. We, we do, when we meet business owners that aren't mm-hmm. Like that are just them. Mm-hmm. And I'm like, what do you do when you're bad at something? I agree. Because you're good at the things. I'm not like calling people.

Kristine: 48:13

I'll always call people. I do that for Jace too.

Carrie: 48:15

Yeah. But you'd make doctor's appointments for me if I asked you to. Absolutely. I have. Yeah, I have. I know. I don't like talking to people

Kristine: 48:22

on the phone. Yeah, yeah. I'm with you on that. And like, how, how do they bounce ideas? Like where, who do they bounce ideas off of? Right. I just hope that they have a person that they can and

Carrie: 48:33

like, what if you have a, it's not a business partner if you have a failure. Yeah. Like if you, something you do fails, like that's, that rests solely on you. Yeah. At least if you and I do it, like, we're like, wow.

Kristine: 48:43

Oh you, well that sucked. Yeah.

Carrie: 48:45

And like we've got each other to be like, wow, we really fucked that up. Yeah, exactly. But like, if it's just you, you're like,

Kristine: 48:51

I fucked up. Well, I do that still. It's the two of us. Yeah. Like last weekend I was like, oh, Carrie, I fucked up again. She was like, oh God.

Carrie: 49:00

But like whatever. Yeah. You know, like you have that other person to like, I don't know. Yeah. I just, I can't imagine doing this solo. Hell no. Who would make the phone calls? Who would make the phone calls?

Kristine: 49:12

Who would do all the shit? I don't wanna do, who would do the pst? It's not gonna be me.

Carrie: 49:20

Yeah. So, uh, who would make the spreadsheets?

Kristine: 49:22

Who would have the conversations with our accountant? I don't know.

Carrie: 49:27

sometimes it's me and I don't even know. And I don't wanna do, don't wanna do that. I don't wanna do that. So, yeah, I mean, we went really off on a tangent and that's okay. But I just, yeah. That's what we do around here. Yeah. Yeah. So I love that that's one of your favorite parts of the store. You, I conveniently left that out of my list.

Kristine: 49:45

Okay. Well now that we're, we were talking about like our things we love. Why don't we talk about two things are Yeah. Challenges. I

Carrie: 49:51

also, I also don't want you to not wanna come say hi to me just because I'm awkward. Like, don't Yes. Don't do that. That's not, that's not, that's not good. Yeah.

Kristine: 49:59

If she didn't wanna be in the store,

Carrie: 50:01

she won't be in the store. Yeah. No. And if I didn't want you to come talk to me, I wouldn't put myself out on the internet. Yeah, exactly. You know? So don't, don't think that it's, just expect me to give you the deer in the headlights look and be insanely socially awkward. Have met Christine before. Hey Christine. Go over here if you met this person. I just, I just, I need Christine to flow the conversation. I can, I can talk your freaking ear off. Yeah, totally. But starting a small, like starting the small talk dead. I'm so easy. Like it so I know. So easy to me. I know. I don't even try.

Kristine: 50:36

Mm-hmm. Like sometimes I'll just be like, out and about, like random, like, I don't know, let's call a dentist appointment and I'll just like start talking to Kathy

Carrie: 50:43

beside me. That is my fucking

Kristine: 50:44

nightmare. Yeah. But sometimes they do it to me and I'm like, I don't, I don't wanna talk to you either.

Carrie: 50:48

I could not imagine looking at the person sitting next to me and starting to talk to them. Oh my God.

Kristine: 50:53

Yeah. Sometimes I have to be really like I to move for it, because sometimes like Carol next to me would be like, start talking to me. And I'm like, no, shut

Carrie: 51:00

up, Carol. I'm not there right now. I'm gonna put my headphones in.

Kristine: 51:03

Shut at Carol. Yeah. Yeah. But when I start

Carrie: 51:07

it, it's, it's why my R BF comes in head eat. You know what I mean? Yeah. And I don't look very approachable, but that's a, that's a topic for a whole nother Yeah, it is. Yeah. Okay. So the challenges, the challenges,

Kristine: 51:21

Two, just two challenges of having the, like our online store. Okay. And two challenges of having the brick and

Carrie: 51:28

mortar. Okay. So my two online store challenges, one of them will be the fact that anyone can comment anything they want on any Facebook, Instagram, social media post. Yeah. There's just no way to get away from that. Yeah. And I think that is one of the things I hate most, and it's not because it, it impacts me to the point where I'm upset. Mm-hmm. It's because it gets me ragy. Yeah. Like, when I read that shit, I rage. Mm-hmm. I'm mad. Yeah. You know? Agreed. Like, you're, you've now pissed me off. Yeah. Because I could not imagine writing that anywhere. Yeah. Like, just

Kristine: 52:03

scroll on by, it's like a, it's a mama bear Yeah. Type reaction. Right. It's like you want to protect, this is our baby and has been for eight years. Yeah. So it's like I, and protecting our staff, it's, it's very protective. Like, who are, are you, yeah.

Carrie: 52:19

Like, why, like why did you think you could say that, Lisa? You know, like, don't be a dick. Like, scroll back. Don't be a dick, Lisa. Be like, well, someone commented the other day, she's like, that looks, that looks terrible. Like, that's a terrible outfit. Scroll on by.

Kristine: 52:34

Yeah. Fuck off and die then Don't buy,

Carrie: 52:38

don't buy it. I was so upset. Yeah. And then, um, the other part is not being able to please everybody. Yeah. I'm a, I'm, I'm, I try not to be as much of a people pleaser as I am, but I really do like to make everybody happy. And there just isn't, it's just not possible. It's not possible to bring in enough of something. Yeah. Sometimes, you know, sometimes things will sell out in, you know, five minutes or five seconds and everyone's mad and everyone's upset. I promise you, I promise you. That if Christine and I could have known, we would much rather sell 500 or something than 50 of something. Yes. Like we do run a business here, like I promise you, we wish we could. Yeah. But sometimes you just don't know. Or sometimes you can't get that much. I actually

Kristine: 53:26

haven't written down on my little list here that I made. Um, no crystal ball as well. No, we

Carrie: 53:31

just don't have that. Um, and like I,

Kristine: 53:34

I wish we could, that's one of the biggest things that like has driven us crazy for mm-hmm. The past eight years Yeah. Is that we can't predict. There's no prediction. Like Carrie and I might like something like we are like gung ho bought it, we love it and we put online it. It's, nobody fucking

Carrie: 53:53

likes it. Nobody. And that happens. It does. And

Kristine: 53:56

that's okay. And we'll buy something that we're like, oh, this is like a pretty good filler item. Mm-hmm. This is great. And we'll have two packs of it, so we'll have whole pieces of it. And, um, And you guys sell it out within milliseconds and everybody wants it. And we, and then we can't get more. And when the pitchforks come out and the angry comments mm-hmm. Come out. Mm-hmm. And I get, I get

Carrie: 54:20

it, but like, it's intense. We feel the same. Yeah. We're also upset. Yeah. Like we, we also just missed out on selling 500 of something. Yeah. Just like you said, if

Kristine: 54:30

we would, if we could have 500 of it, if we knew that we could have sold 500 of it. Yeah. We can't do that with every item because No. We'll just, we'll drown and our business will fail and we don't

Carrie: 54:40

have space. That too. And, and a lot of our vendors, like, you know, I know we're ordering from, you know, boutique brands that sell to a lot of boutiques, but we, we do buy mm-hmm. Significant volume. Yeah. On the grand scheme of things for one business. So like, sometimes they just can't, they don't have enough. Yep. I

Kristine: 54:58

not happens. We get what we can and, and we'll still get it, get it if we can't. Mm-hmm. Like if it's available to us, we'll mm-hmm. We'll still take it. But we always try to purpose mm-hmm. When we do our lives that like, hey, like this is going to sell first. We do not have many, we were shortchanged here, like, don't come at us.

Carrie: 55:16

We did our best. And like, you know, we have no option but to launch it. Yeah. Just cause we were shorted doesn't mean we wanna hold onto it forever. Exactly. Like, exactly. We still have to sell it.

Kristine: 55:26

Yeah. Mm-hmm. So yeah, those, that was

Carrie: 55:29

very good. Yeah. What were your two?

Kristine: 55:30

Um, just, there's, there's so many different, like, things involved in the backend. It's not like that. I don't like it, it's just a challenge for me personally. There's just a lot to handle and I don't think anybody knows or understands and sees the back end of it. It's just a

Carrie: 55:47

lot, lots of moving parts. A

Kristine: 55:49

lot of moving parts. Yeah. Yeah. There's a. There's a lot. Yeah. Right. So that's, uh, that's a challenge is having all mm-hmm. All things throughout, um, Shopify or like our staff cetera,

Carrie: 56:05

et cetera. Receiving Receiving

Kristine: 56:06

Yeah. Or shipping. Having it all function so it all mm-hmm.

Carrie: 56:11

Rotates properly. And it's hard sometimes to take in the big picture and figure it out. Yeah. It's a lot.

Kristine: 56:17

That's why I don't think, like a lot of people realize that there's not, it's not just a matter of things coming in and going out. Mm-hmm. There's a lot of backend.

Carrie: 56:25

Yes. There's a lot of steps before that goes on the website and ships out. Yes. Mm-hmm.

Kristine: 56:30

It's, it's a, it's a big mm-hmm. Big challenge. Mm-hmm. Um, and then my other one was the crystal ball. Like that we, we wish we could, um, figure it out, but we. Eight years in, we still haven't figured it out. Yeah, it, well, I mean, we never will. No, never will. Because things change so fast. Mm-hmm. And like, you know, it's mm-hmm. We bring in the current styles, we try to bring in, uh, what you guys are asking for, what you want. Um, but we will never know. No. How many of you actually want that one piece? Nope. And we need to bring in a variety, right? Yes. Like, we can't just bring in the same thing over and over again. We need to bring in that variety for you. So like mm-hmm.

Carrie: 57:09

There's no, the challenge. It, it's a, it's, it's a really big, like, balancing act. Yeah. And it's a

Kristine: 57:15

struggle. Okay. Now what about two challenges for the brick and mortar?

Carrie: 57:19

Um, well one, we kind of discussed not being able to put everything in store. Yeah. That, I mean, obviously we would love to, it's just not realistic. We'd have to start, like, we'd have to open the bay, you know, we'd be the bay. Yeah. You know, like we just don't have the space. And I'm happy with the, what we have in there, but it's, you know, Mm-hmm. It's not that easy. No, no, no. Um, two would be staffing. Yep. I find it a lot bigger of a struggle to staff the store than The Warehouse, because the Warehouse is a very consistent Monday to Friday, nine to four kind of job, and finding people to fill those roles. You know, sometimes it's a challenge, but it's, it's definitely easier to have someone that is consistent and stays. Mm-hmm. Whereas the store, not only is it harder to find someone who wants inconsistent part-time hours, but you also have to find someone that can work in a retail setting. Yeah. Not everyone is outgoing and, you know, can work with people all day. Totally. You know, like me.

Kristine: 58:22

Same. Yeah. Yeah. Like it's, it's not a no all the time

Carrie: 58:26

thing. So I think that's the biggest store struggle, which I think you and I knew that staffing was gonna be the struggle. Mm-hmm. Luckily, you and I can always step in if we need to. Yeah. But we also don't. Have time always to no be filling in, in the store.

Kristine: 58:40

So yeah, I would say that's pretty much, um, on my list as well. Mm-hmm. That's, that covers it,

Carrie: 58:47

I think. Yeah. Yeah. I just, I find it, I, those, those are two main, I just find it so much easier to staff our online business. Mm-hmm. You know? Yep. I agree. Because, and there's also lots of like, room to move and, um, to move up or to move, um, laterally as well in, you know, in the warehouse there's lots of different positions. Positions or Yeah. You know, you have a chance to move up to some, like more of a lead role or whatever. Yeah. Whereas in the store, it's, it's just a store.

Kristine: 59:16

Yes. So, exactly. But yeah. Covered it. This was a, this was a really good conversation. It was, it was nice. It's also a conversation that we haven't had in a while. Mm-hmm. So it was really nice to bring up these things and talk about it. Yeah. Kind of refresh, because we haven't been in the store in a while and it's mm-hmm. It was just kind of nice to

Carrie: 59:36

talk about it. Yeah. And you and I don't have an hour to just sit down and talk about anything. No. So this is always, it's always

Kristine: 59:42

nice. I know. I like recording. Yeah. It's fun. Yeah. It's good. Okay. Um,

Carrie: 59:47

okay. So we're gonna move on to some listener questions. Yes.

Kristine: 59:51

Yes ma'am. Okay. Um, so with the listener questions, um, for the most part, we answered most of the big heavy hitter questions last episode. Mm-hmm. Um, and then there were some that kind of trickled in throughout the week that we actually just answered, like right then and there through our Instagram. So, Carrie actually posted on Instagram today, minutes before we started recording. So we're probably gonna do this again, um, for future episodes. But she posted today asking if you had any questions Yeah. To drop them right then and there, cuz we will be answering it throughout that episode. And I have some, which I think will be a lot of fun. Yeah. It's kind of very, uh, spontaneous. Mm-hmm. And, uh,

Carrie: 1:00:36

so let's do it Harry. Okay. So we're eight episodes in. How do we like podcasting? Kate, we just,

Kristine: 1:00:41

we just said this. Yeah. We love recording. Yeah, it is a lot of fun. I had a friend, actually Taylor just asked me, he's like, how do you, how do you like it? Like how, what's the vibe when you do it? And I'm like, it is just so fun and relaxed. Mm-hmm. And we actually get to talk about sometimes we don't have a minute to like, to talk No. To really like get our feelings out. Mm-hmm. Like, you know, so this is a nice opportunity. It is to do that. Yeah,

Carrie: 1:01:11

because I, I do love to talk.

Kristine: 1:01:13

Yeah, same. I don't know if you knew

Carrie: 1:01:15

I did. Um, so it's, it's just cool for us to like get our thoughts out and Yeah. Just chit chat. Sometimes

Kristine: 1:01:21

we don't, we don't get that opportunity. No. And like, we'll, we'll have some thoughts later on, but we we're so busy doing other things. We can't just focus on our freaking

Carrie: 1:01:29

thought. No, no. So

Kristine: 1:01:31

we love it. Mm-hmm. 10 outta

Carrie: 1:01:33

10 highly recommended. Yeah. What is one piece of clothing in your wardrobe you couldn't do without

Kristine: 1:01:41

currently? Mm-hmm. Ronnie's.

Carrie: 1:01:43

Yeah. Mine's the Grayson Lace. Yeah. Ronnie's. I wear one per pretty much every day.

Kristine: 1:01:48

Yeah. They're just, I hate wearing a bra. Mm-hmm.

Carrie: 1:01:53

So, uh, I'm wearing one today only cuz

Kristine: 1:01:55

you're wearing a, like cream colored white. Yeah. Um, Ronnie's for me. Mm-hmm.

Carrie: 1:01:59

Mine's the grace and lace brownies. Yeah. I wish I got more colors. Yeah.

Kristine: 1:02:04

I wish I got every wish color. I wish I did. I got more colors than those too. Yeah. I have regrets. I have six. I

Carrie: 1:02:08

think I have two. Which is crazy cuz your size is available in almost every color. Well

Kristine: 1:02:13

I'm gonna have to go do some

Carrie: 1:02:14

shopping. Yeah. So I wish I took a couple more big cuz I love them. Yeah, they're so nice. Yeah. They're really, really comfortable. So that's my current. Yeah. Um, but like, if we're talking like all the time historically. Yeah. Moto jacket. Yeah. Grace Place, Moto Jacket, hands down my black one specifically. Mm-hmm. I like all of them and I wear all of them. Mm-hmm. But the black one is like, it's just tried and

Kristine: 1:02:34

true. Mm-hmm. It's like, it's good for

Carrie: 1:02:36

every outing. Like, you wanna like, feel sexy, put that on. You wanna feel casual, put that on. Like,

Kristine: 1:02:42

there's just, you wanna like a sexy, biker babe situation. Edgy.

Carrie: 1:02:46

Yeah. Put it on so many options. So many. Okay. Um, There's another one, but it's gonna take a little bit more discussion. So we'll hang

Kristine: 1:02:54

on it for next week. Next week? Yeah. Okay, perfect. Yeah, so when we do those, we just keep an eye on our, especially on Mondays, cuz that's when we typically record. Mm-hmm. Keep an eye on our social media because we will ask that again cuz it's a lot of fun. Yeah. Yeah. We like answering your questions. Yeah. Good. Okay. Do you wanna jump into

Carrie: 1:03:11

our Yeah. Buck Mary Kill? Hell yeah. Okay. Well you went first last week, so I'm going first this week. Okay. Okay. Celebrities born on April 30th. Oh my God, that's so cute. Yeah. Okay. George Clooney, which I know we've had before. Yeah. But maybe you never know. Different scenario. Willie Nelson.

Kristine: 1:03:29

Yes. He'll, he'll have Good

Carrie: 1:03:30

Pot. And Johnny Ecky. He was Leonard in Big Bang Theory.

Kristine: 1:03:37

Leonard. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not mad at that. Yeah. Okay. So we have what I'm very righty today. Yeah. I have to write everything down. A Willie George Clooney. George

Carrie: 1:03:48

Willie and Johnny

Kristine: 1:03:50

Ecky. Johnny. Okay. Um, I will probably buck George Clooney. Yeah. Good.

Carrie: 1:03:57

I was hoping that

Kristine: 1:03:58

was Case gave. I struggled his name and I checked him off. Yeah. Um, Johnny, I don't wanna kill

Carrie: 1:04:05

Willie. I was Kate. I was the whole time. I was like, I wonder what she's gonna do with Willie. Yeah. You know, cuz he, he's an icon.

Kristine: 1:04:15

He is an icon. And like I said, he'll have the good Joanna. Yeah. Like real good stuff. Yeah.

Carrie: 1:04:21

Yeah. He knows what's up.

Kristine: 1:04:23

And he lives in Maui. He does. Where does his Johnny live? I don't know. Probably go in depth. Probably LA somewhere. Um, you know what?

Carrie: 1:04:33

Where does he live? Yeah. Um, yeah, Los

Kristine: 1:04:38

Angeles. Okay. I'll marry Willie. Yeah, I'll kill Johnny. He's great. Like I, I think he's really cute. He is. I think he's really cute. Like really attractive Roseanne too. Yeah. Great. Um, but yeah, I'll marry Willie and I'll fuck George. He

Carrie: 1:04:52

was born in 1933.

Kristine: 1:04:54

Like Lily. Yeah. I mean, not George or Johnny, but Wow. Yeah, like, so he's 80,

Carrie: 1:05:00

90. He's 90 this year. So you can stay in that house in Maui. You know what I mean? I

Kristine: 1:05:06

do. I winked it.

Carrie: 1:05:09

Yeah. Wow. That was really nice of us.

Kristine: 1:05:11

I, he can braid my hair. I can braid his hair. Yes. Yeah.

Carrie: 1:05:15

Yeah. He'll sing to you. He will. Yeah.

Kristine: 1:05:18

Yes. I'm marrying Willie. I

Carrie: 1:05:21

thought I was hoping you were going to Yeah, yeah. 10 outta 10. If nothing I was hoping for it was gonna be for the weed.

Kristine: 1:05:27

Like that was the first thing I said. He's gotta have great pot. Yeah. Uh, I wonder who's his dealer is out there in Maui? Cuz you can't get it. Maybe he grows

Carrie: 1:05:35

it. He definitely grows it because he lives, um, Nick and actually drove by his in paella. Right. Um, closer to like on the Hana highway, like a little bit more upcountry. Okay. But yeah, like he has a big property and like lots of places to grow weed there.

Kristine: 1:05:50

Yeah. Yeah. How do you get, like, see is the things I think about, like how do you, where do you, how do you get the weed

Carrie: 1:05:56

seed? Well I'm assuming cuz it's legal medically there, so maybe, maybe he's got some glaucoma or something. I dunno.

Kristine: 1:06:05

Maybe. Oh my god. That was really funny. Thank you. Okay. You ready? Okay. So locked in. I'm locked in. Okay. Okay. Um, fuck Mary K Carrie. Okay. This is the Ryan

Carrie: 1:06:16

version. Oh, I was gonna do a crisp version for the other day.

Kristine: 1:06:20

Um, also, I didn't know Willie Nelson's birthday was on my birthday. Yeah. So I think we need to make this a thing every year. Same with George.

Carrie: 1:06:26

Yeah, I did. I picked people that live on your birthday. Was that not so fun? Yeah. Yeah,

Kristine: 1:06:31

that was great. So, okay. Ryan version. Okay. Ready? Fuck Maryl. Yeah. Ryan Gosling. Okay. Ryan Felipe. Oh, oh. Ryan Reynolds. Okay. That's tough. In my opinion, they're all three of them are great.

Carrie: 1:06:48

Yeah. Oh my God. Ryan Felipe is like,

Kristine: 1:06:51

he's a

Carrie: 1:06:51

smoke show. He really is. Yeah. What does he look like today? Is he

Kristine: 1:06:55

still, I think he's still. Bumping. Yeah. I mean, would you kick him outta bed anyway? No, no, no, no. Oh, shoot. Cause he, he's probably better. He probably aged Well. Holy shit. Wow. Okay. He kind of looks like that runner boy you sent me yesterday. Yeah. Wow. Wow.

Carrie: 1:07:15

Yeah. He's a fox. Yeah. And he's in one of my, like, a couple of my favorite movies. Like, I Know What You Did last summer. Yeah. Cruel Intentions. Like, he really just, that's say cruel intentions and, you know, he did marry one of my favorite actresses. Yeah. So, okay. I am going to marry Ryan Reynolds. Okay. Good for you. Okay. The way he treats Blake Lively. I know. Like gold. Yeah. Like I want that. Yeah, that. And I think she's hands down the most beautiful human being in this planet. She really is. Like, I don't think anyone's better looking than her. Um, no. I'm gonna fuck Ryan. Felipe. Yeah.

Kristine: 1:07:49

Good for you. Oh, I don't know why I'm writing everything down today. And

Carrie: 1:07:51

then Ryan Gosling, he like kill, he's fine, but, Yeah. Like his, his physical appearance isn't my typical thing. Like I find him a good looking guy. Yes. Don't get me wrong, but

Kristine: 1:08:04

I find, and I like, I hope this doesn't come off as mean, but like I find that he didn't age well. Yeah. Like I find like he's still really good looking. Yeah. I just, I just, he's just fine. I just like, he's aging as well as I would hope. He's just,

Carrie: 1:08:19

he's just not my, he's pretty

Kristine: 1:08:21

foxy in that photo

Carrie: 1:08:22

though. Yeah. He is pretty foxy in that photo. He's just not my good typical cup of tea totes. I don't normally go for blondes Ryan. Which is weird. Yeah. Well what a fox. Such a fox like I'm gonna look at that again. Yeah.

Kristine: 1:08:37

Yeah. New background on your phone. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I like that. So are you locked in? Yes. You're killing Ryan Gosling. Yeah. You're fucking Ryan Felipe. He is us. So hot. Yeah. If you're listening to right now, I hope you guys are doing some mad Googling. Yeah.

Carrie: 1:08:52

Like, I'll post this on Thursday. Yeah. I'm saving this photo right now to show you what I was looking at A fox, Fox, like a freaking fox.

Kristine: 1:08:58

Wow. And then you're marrying Ryan Reynolds, which I think everybody would

Carrie: 1:09:01

Yeah. The way he treats Blake. Like, I can't Yeah. Like I love the way they banter back and forth. Yes. Like I love that. Love that. And I love how amazingly sweet he is to her. Yeah. And like the way he talks about like they're kids. And I just, it's, it's a lot for me.

Kristine: 1:09:16

Yeah. Really sweet. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And he likes to make babies and I will help him make babies. We, I practice.

Carrie: 1:09:24

Yeah. Yeah. I don't, I don't actually want to actually make one. I

Kristine: 1:09:28

mean, I'd do whatever you wanted. Really. I'm a good sport. I

Carrie: 1:09:32

locked it in. Good. Good, good, good. Okay. Okay. That was a good one. I liked it. Yeah. That was a lot of fun. Yeah. This was a really good episode. Yeah. I hope you guys enjoyed it. Um, tune in next week. Yeah.

Kristine: 1:09:43

Again, we don't know what's happening. No. Flying off the seat of our pants here, our life. Yeah. But yeah, hang out with us next week. Um, remember all new episodes. Drop on Thursdays and we'll see ya'll. See you then. Bye. Hey, bye.

1:09:55

Thank you so much for listening. New episodes drop every Thursday morning. You can download our episodes and listen to them anywhere where you listen to your podcast, as well as our website, www.twobabespodcast.com. That's two with the number two. You can also send us listener questions on our Instagram two Babes podcast, as well as our email hello two babes podcast.com. We love to answer your listener questions each and every week. Have a great rest of your day. Bye.