Fun with Mary

Wow, how can I say this? WOW! WOW! WOW! I just left Mary Fenders frame shop "Frame Nation." Not even 4 WOWS can express how much I loved her shop and her! Frame Nation is another shop, along with Rob Markoffs, that should be a destination for all framers. Mary thinks outside the box on just about everything. Creativity is so common in all she does that I imagine it comes as easy to her as breathing. Oh, and by the way, her personality is just as WOW! if not more so.

If I have not conveyed well enough that I was more than impressed, then let me say I was blown away. For all her ideas and time spent updating facebook and twitter as well as her website, newsletter and live web-cam, she should have customers lining up at the door. I will be sending business her way, too.

I would like to tell you about all the cool stuff she has in her shop, but I love her uniqueness and would hate to see it randomly copied. So if you want to know, you will have to go see for yourself. She does have a knack for frugality in her shop design, but with her charm and creativity in dressing it up, one might think differently. There is a tangible hip and fun theme throughout.

I will tell you about one of the competition pieces she did for the PPFA in 2009. It is the same necklace I framed and mentioned in a previous blog entry. Mary took this framing to new level and placed the necklace around the neck of a cut out of Marilyn Monroe. The funny thing is that upon looking at the framed piece, it was not the necklace I was noticing. As a picture framer I am always looking at the framing first. This framing was spectacular because it was done in a manner I had not seen before and probably never would have thought to do myself. Mary placed a wood frame around the base of a deep metal shadowbox frame in which Marilyn and the necklace was housed. The cool part is that the metal frame is removable to allow access to the necklace! Awesome! I apologize for the bad photo, but at least you can see the necklace.

Many of you know that Mary Fender had an article written in Decor Magazine about her talents of networking and social media. If you have not read the article, you can do so here. She has the cyber world at her fingertips. And people are watching and getting it. While Mary and I were chatting Mary decided to do an impromptu interview with me on her live shop web-cam. FUN! The idea of a shop web-cam is terrific. I had actually thought of this before and am very happy to see it working at Frame Nation. Marys web cam is also interactive. Her viewers can watch and chat along. You can watch our chat here.

If every frame shop I visited was this much fun, I would have to find a way to make a living by visiting them all. It is addictive. Thanks Mary!

-Becky