I'm Leaving.. on A Jet Plane...

Word on the street has it I am off to Hollywood very soon... Wow maybe a little TOO soon.. So much to do.. If it was just myself and my stuff.. then no problemo.. but I am also taking my knee Highs (Descriptor word stolen from a good friend..thanks Gigi)..

So not only am I running around trying to pack all my work items, but I am also trying to pack for my children who seem to have grown 3 feet each (and by feet I mean the things they walk on as well as height) since last summer.. Good thing Grandma lives near excellent shopping in perma summer Palm Springs..

Today is get er done day.. About to go pick up the kids and take them to my cousin Jenny's place so I can hopefully.. fingers crossed... get 100 lbs of stuff into a 50 lb bag.. Finish a few last samples, and lose 50 lbs this afternoon.... Might need to cross my toes as well..

Anyhow, I will try to be posting all my updates and photo's to my facebook fanpage: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Aly-Dahl-Designs/235097213785
While I am away and would love for you and your friends to be come fans. So if you are not a fan, please become one and then at the bottom of the page (left hand tool bar) click share and ask your friends to become fans to.   I am so excited to be sharing this experience with as many people as I can.

I will try to post here as well, but not sure how that will work out from my black berry.

See you in Hollywood :)

The coveted Invitation

Have I mentioned how excited and thrilled and honoured and and and...

Well, to be honest.. For the first 36 hours that I was considering this I was sure I was being punked or dooped once again (long story but it seems I have been involved in a scam since December - I will likely blog about this once I am back should things not get resolved soon)

Anyway,  Here it is the very exciting and exclusive invitation to the event.  Only the top celebrities, media, stylists and High end Baby boutiques will be getting one of these.. 

Here it is for me to share with you (click on it to make it bigger..)
There I am under the Mommy Lounge .. I might note that I will be in the wonderful company of Spanx, hopefully I meet them the night before as I need some help for the day of!

There are some wonderful vendors that are also involved.. my little pony, Leap Frog, Giggle, Char-Lynn Baby n Belly. 

I have been fortunate enough to have made contact with the owner of Char-Lynn Baby 'N Belly and it seems all my fears, and excitement are shared.. which makes me feel totally normal and ready to take this on.  Check out her Char-Lynn Baby N belly at http://charlynnbellynbaby.com/, they have some great stuff & they are even involved with Extreme Home Make Over. Great business and Heart!

Times Colonist Article on Aly Dahl going to Hollywood..

Big thank you to the Times Colonist and Sarah Petrescu for doing such a great article for me.

My brother called me this morning, very excited to see that I was not only in the paper but full front page of the Life & Arts Page.  (My brother is an extremly talented artist, I think he was proud of his big sis)..

The whole page is about me!!! How cool is that!

Here is the link to the article:  http://www.timescolonist.com/life/Jewelry+uniquely+yours/4282406/story.html

And now the article: 

The universe couldn't have sent Alyson Johnson an opportunity at a better time.

The 34-year-old jewelry designer and mother of two was wondering if she'd have to go back to her day job to make ends meet. Her husband, an elevator mechanic, had been out of work for 18 months, taking jobs here and there.

"We were probably months away from going in the red or selling the house, or me having to go back to work full-time," Johnson told me from her home in Burnaby.

Then a few weeks ago, the Island-raised designer got an email from celebrity gift suite maven Jayneoni Moore inviting her to an exclusive pre-Oscar showroom, the Baby Boom Boom Room.


"Apparently, her assistant found me on Twitter and was obsessed with my stuff," Johnson said. Johnson's line, Aly Dahl Designs, is custom-made fingerprint silver jewelry.

The Boom Boom Room is invite-only, with about 85 vendors set up in the Beverly Hills Hilton Ballroom where the Golden Globes take place. It's a marketing gifting suite, where celebrities are given samples of the hand-picked brands in hopes that they will model and endorse the wares.

"At first I thought I couldn't do it, but then I thought of the investment. I thought, 'This is it,' " she said. Similar shows, without the same cachet, were charging up to $10,000 for a vendor spot.

Celebrities who have come through the Boom Boom Room include Jessica Alba, Halle Berry, Ali Landry, Heidi Klum and many more. The event is also covered by celebrity magazines and shows like US Weekly, People and Entertainment Tonight.

"I'd love if the Beckhams came through. They're fashion icons ... If Angelina and Brad show up with their kids I might go broke," Johnson joked.

She believes the high-profile exposure is just what she needs to launch her unique line, which was inspired by a request from her husband.

"My husband had asked me to make him something with the kids' prints," she said, there being a lack of unique men's jewelry on the market. So she made him a dog tag necklace with their toddlers' prints and names.

"He absolutely loved it. Now every guy in our complex wants one."

The line evolved to include paw and nose prints for pet lovers, pendants, tags, rings and earrings. Each piece is made with a kit, sent to the customer, to take their impression on a putty-like substance. From that, Johnson casts a mould and can make to-order pieces from the print, ranging from $125 to $350.

Johnson was so committed to her idea that she took a buyout from her job in the investment industry in 2008 to pursue her own business and has been working at it full-time since 2009.


She said she's been enthralled with fashion since she was a young child, growing up in Courtenay and then Victoria.


"I watched Jeanne Beker on Fashion Television religiously," said the Victoria High School grad. She credits her art teacher with motivating her to try metalwork. The eight years of Sundays she spent working at the high-end consignment boutique My Sister's Closet honed her eye for design.


While Johnson's pieces are mail-order only, stars at the Academy Awards are not the only ones who can get a firsthand glimpse. Aly Dahl Designs samples and kits are available in Victoria at Brandi Wein for Hair at Shoal Point, 15-21 Dallas Rd.



Read more: http://www.timescolonist.com/entertainment/Jewelry+uniquely+yours/4282406/story.html#ixzz1E4CHyKkK

Burnaby Now Article

http://www.burnabynow.com/entertainment/movie-guide/heading+Oscars/4271919/story.html



Star power: Alyson Johnson, a custom jewelry designer from Burnaby, is going to the Oscars with her work.

Many people dream of making it to the Oscars, but one lucky Burnaby resident will make that dream come true this month.

Alyson Johnson, a custom jewelry designer based in the Forest Grove neighbourhood, has been invited to showcase her creations at the pre-Oscar Baby Boom Boom Room event.

"I'm super excited," she says.

The suite is set up for celebrity parents attending the Oscars prior to the Academy Awards.

Johnson's company, Aly Dahl Designs, was invited to be involved by the event's host Jayneoni Moore, whose assistant follows Johnson on Twitter and contacted her.

"Social media can pay off," Johnson says, laughing.

The opportunity is the kind of thing she dreamed about. When she was just starting her business, she had a conversation with a friend about how great it would be to feature her wares at an event with celebrities.

"I never expected it to happen," Johnson says.

Her one-of-a-kind jewelry features fingerprints (and, in the case of pets, nose and paw prints) set in silver.

While she originally had the idea of marketing the jewelry for new mothers, to preserve baby fingerprints, she's had a lot of response from parents of older children as well, she says.

Husbands and wives also come to her for anniversary gifts, best friends exchange her pieces, and pet owners get jewelry made from imprints of their dogs and cats' noses, according to Johnson.

She attended the self-employment program at Douglas College in New West in September 2009.

She had been in finance for 15 years, she says, and felt dissatisfied after returning to work after having her son. So when the recession hit, she took the opportunity to go back to school and learn how to run her own business.

Johnson had been making jewelry as a hobby for 10 years, using the fingerprint concept in her designs.

But some people still have difficulty envisioning what it will look like, she says. She hopes her foray to Los Angeles for the Oscars will change that.

Johnson heads to Hollywood on Feb. 22.

She is taking her two children with her, she says, and they'll be staying with their grandmother in Palm Springs.

"They're so excited," she says of her five-year-old daughter and three-year-old son.

"Normally they get pulled along for mom's work, and it's so boring, Johnson says, "and now they get to go to Disneyland."

She plans to showcase samples of her work and give out 250 impression kits at the Boom Boom Room in Beverly Hills on Feb. 25 and 26.

The Boom Boom Room is a pre-Oscar marketing and gifting suite where Oscar contenders and attendees who are new parents can peruse merchandise and sample gifts.

See www.alydahl.com for more on her work.

Taken from the Feb 12 On line version of The Burnaby Now

Burnaby Newsleader Newspaper Article on Aly Johnson & Aly Dahl Impressions

For a link to the article: http://www.bclocalnews.com/greater_vancouver/burnabynewsleader/news/115518329.html

You Tube Clip of A Channel News piece

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQuh4S_RciA

Here is the link to one of the News pieces that was done about Aly Johnson and Aly Dahl Designs on going to the Oscars!

Burnaby Newsleader

A Big Thank you to Wanda Chow & Mario Bartel who did a great job on a recent article about Aly Dahl Designs going to the Baby Boom Boom Room as part of the pre-Oscar 2011 events!

http://www.bclocalnews.com/news/115518329.html

By Wanda Chow - Burnaby NewsLeader

Published: February 07, 2011 3:00 PM

Aly Johnson seems to have a knack for good timing.

It was shortly after the North Burnaby resident returned to work from maternity leave following the birth of her son that she started to question her situation.

"It was the realization someone was spending more time with my kids than I was, it was making a hole in my heart," said Johnson, 34.

As if in response, the economic downturn happened and she found herself being offered a buyout from her employer, after working 15 years in the financial services industry.

She took it as an opportunity and launched her own business, Aly Dahl Impressions, turning her longtime hobby of jewelry-making into a full-time venture.

Now, only months away from having to take a regular job again after her husband had to take on lower-paying work, the Forest Grove resident has received another boost.

She's headed to Hollywood to take part in the Baby Boom Boom Room, a pre-Oscar event Feb. 25 and 26 where A-list celebrities and their young children will peruse the latest and hippest family-oriented products.

Johnson (her married name), will be showing off her signature items—custom jewelry featuring clients' fingerprints. She'll be handing out kits that will allow the celebrities to create impressions of their family members' fingerprints (or toeprints, for babies whose fingerprints aren't deep enough yet) which will then be sent back to Johnson to incorporate them into silver pendants and rings.

She said being chosen was thanks to Douglas College's Self Employment Program where her instructors stressed the importance of using social media.

Indeed, organizers of the event first spotted Johnson's blog about her business and being a mom, then followed her on Twitter.

Even then, she almost didn't see the email after it ended up in her junk mailbox.

Again, with her knack for timing, she just happened to have a look at the mailbox and spotted the message.

"At first I thought it was a scam," she said with a laugh. She asked the organizer to call her and when she got off the phone she was just ecstatic.

"This is huge. There's probably no better way to grow my business and it couldn't have come at a better time."

While she's somewhat daunted by the prospect of meeting stars from movies, TV and music, she's more nervous about being introduced to media such as Entertainment Tonight.

Then there's the thought of rubbing shoulders with icons from the fashion industry.

"When I was booking my hotel room they asked me, 'Are you part of the Tom Ford booking?'" she recalled.

Stifling a gasp and a sigh, Johnson managed to reply in the negative.

Meanwhile, her four-year-old daughter and three-year-old son don't really know what all the excitement is about. In the past, they've tagged along with mom to work only this time, "they're excited about going to Disneyland."

Info: http://www.alydahl.com/.
wchow@burnabynewsleader.com