As you’ve probably noticed I’ve been a bit preoccupied this past week. Missing two blog days and a ton of sleep, I don’t know what bothered me more. I love writing about my days, don’t know why I never entertained keeping a journal or a diary.
I’m pretty tired and my brain has been misfiring like crazy, forgetting simple things. Even when I went to bed at a decent hour sleep eluded me so I stayed up late to get things done, more productive than tossing and turning and being angry and frustrated with myself. A bus load of hookers rolling up to your door is a novel opportunity that doesn’t happen often so I wanted the shop in tip top shape.
Moving into the back room took a bit of time to arrange and set up. Then we had to fill the space left vacant from the pattern shift so there was lots of work to do. My aunt came in and commented that I was working too much and the place looked good enough with all the furniture we filled the space with so it wouldn’t look bare in the interim. She suggested I should take a breather and my comment was, “I’m in the business to sell product, not antiques, so yes, we have
to work late hours, I can’t just twitch my nose and make things happen, we have to work to stock the shop with product, it doesn’t arrive on a truck all finished and ready to hang.
I get a bit frustrated at times. The shop is viewed in two different ways. One, it’s a craft business, a little mom and pop shop that isn’t a real business because there is no university degree needed to operate it. I could site unlimited stories of things said and done to prove I’m not looked at as a serious business. And then on the flip side, there are those who treat us too seriously, like a Walmart, where they expect everything to be available at all times as if we just bend over and product hits the shelves or comes from China. Pretty much everything in our shop is hand made and that takes time and there are only two of us so I'm impressed we do as well as we do.
Sometimes people frown when they want a pattern that isn’t available but considering it takes five minutes to sell a pattern and anywhere from one half hour to a couple of days to reproduce and replace, that doesn’t balance any way you stretch it. We will always be behind in pattern production; it’s never going to change, we don't have the area to stock several of each design so once the one is sold, it takes time to hang another. Besides, as far as I am concerned, the shop will never have every pattern in stock at any given time.....we'd have to be robots on a production line to keep up. So I recommend, if you are coming this way, and have your heart set on a certain design, email or call ahead so we can make sure it's available or you'll have to take your chances.
So once I finally fell asleep last night, I shamelessly slept in until 10:30 this morning and now I’m doing a fry up…bacon slow cooked to crispy perfection with my eggs. This past week it was grab something and go, but today I’m going to sit and savour breakfast on the back deck and take time to smell the flowers…well not many of those left but the grapevines are dripping with blue and will be ready for jelly production soon. Nature is always showcasing some miracle or another, what a fine job she’s doing! The sail boats are out taking advantage of the last leg of summer; there won’t be many of these brilliant days left with fall and it’s unpredictable weather coming. Our front yard is like natures television, there’s always something flying, swimming or tacking by. What a fantastic day to be on this beautiful planet!
So today is all about last minute stuff. I won't get everything done on the list for tomorrow but no one will know except me. I'm making sure things are all priced and labeled. I heard a customer comment under her breath "I guess everything in here is free because it isn’t priced". It wasn't the words, it was the way it was said, like the store was flawed and not worth shopping in, as if a few unpriced items could make us substandard! Guess I'm a little touchy about my shop, it's like my kid. But I used it as constructive criticism and made sure those few items that weren't priced now are.
Then I have a few patterns to whip up and do a thorough clean and try to relax a bit this evening, hopefully with some snoring at the end of it. But, chances are, I'll probably be too excited to sleep, like a kid waiting for Santa with visions of rug hookers dancing in my head. I wanted this chance to shine, show off our products and beautiful store. I don’t even think about sales, just showing off the shop, like introducing a beautiful child to the world.
Funny...I look around my shop and smile with chest expanding pride, and then look around my house and frown. What a friggin mess I live in. I can’t serve two masters concurrently so I’ve done nothing at home for over a month and it shows. The spider webs are taking over the ceiling beams again, the dust bunnies have produced like rabbits, dishes cover the counters instead of stocking the cupboards and there’s no clean flatware to speak off so I’ll be eating with my fingers tonight if I don’t buy plastic. With my busy life, maybe paper plates are the way to go. Chinet has a blue flower pattern, a temporary substitute for Blue Willow. I could eat and then dump the garbage to keep the kitchen tidy enough to see the blue counter tiles that are now completed covered.
I won’t go into the laundry predicament. Hidden behind the closed door it’s easy to forget, but I’m finding it increasingly difficult to score something clean to wear to work. Today I won’t have to worry as the shop won’t be open while I’m there so the best dirty shirt will do.... I feel like I'm in a Kris Kristofferson song. I’ll pop a few loads in this evening…if only I’d been born rich, I'd hire someone to help around here and take care of me in the style I was obviously born to explore. I've said it before, somehow the stork dropped me in the wrong spot. I’m sure Buckingham palace was the destination point, obviously something went terribly wrong with the bird’s internal GSP or it was tipping the winged elbow.
If I ever win the lottery there will be hot, gourmet meals on the table, freshly ironed clothes waiting for the taking, bathrooms that smell like lavender and bouquets of fresh flowers in every room of the house. This princess would swoon in after a long day at work and put my feet up and feel no shame being waited on. But...I would draw the line on squeezing my own toothpaste, shame on you Charles!
But you can’t win lotteries if you don’t play so it’s never going to be a reality. Besides, I’m lucky, but not million dollar lucky. The universe takes care of me nicely but not to extremes and that's okay.....I really do have a great life, I just need a little help sometimes........
Well, I must get the show on the road. Shane just called to find out when I was going to work so he’ll join me and do a bit more dyeing. He’s done so many beautiful bundles it’s a colour feast for the eye. There’s some pretty scrumptious pumpkin colours just in time for fall. He likes the shelves stocked as much as me, a nut that didn’t fall far from the tree…
I’m pretty tired and my brain has been misfiring like crazy, forgetting simple things. Even when I went to bed at a decent hour sleep eluded me so I stayed up late to get things done, more productive than tossing and turning and being angry and frustrated with myself. A bus load of hookers rolling up to your door is a novel opportunity that doesn’t happen often so I wanted the shop in tip top shape.
Moving into the back room took a bit of time to arrange and set up. Then we had to fill the space left vacant from the pattern shift so there was lots of work to do. My aunt came in and commented that I was working too much and the place looked good enough with all the furniture we filled the space with so it wouldn’t look bare in the interim. She suggested I should take a breather and my comment was, “I’m in the business to sell product, not antiques, so yes, we have
to work late hours, I can’t just twitch my nose and make things happen, we have to work to stock the shop with product, it doesn’t arrive on a truck all finished and ready to hang.
I get a bit frustrated at times. The shop is viewed in two different ways. One, it’s a craft business, a little mom and pop shop that isn’t a real business because there is no university degree needed to operate it. I could site unlimited stories of things said and done to prove I’m not looked at as a serious business. And then on the flip side, there are those who treat us too seriously, like a Walmart, where they expect everything to be available at all times as if we just bend over and product hits the shelves or comes from China. Pretty much everything in our shop is hand made and that takes time and there are only two of us so I'm impressed we do as well as we do.
Sometimes people frown when they want a pattern that isn’t available but considering it takes five minutes to sell a pattern and anywhere from one half hour to a couple of days to reproduce and replace, that doesn’t balance any way you stretch it. We will always be behind in pattern production; it’s never going to change, we don't have the area to stock several of each design so once the one is sold, it takes time to hang another. Besides, as far as I am concerned, the shop will never have every pattern in stock at any given time.....we'd have to be robots on a production line to keep up. So I recommend, if you are coming this way, and have your heart set on a certain design, email or call ahead so we can make sure it's available or you'll have to take your chances.
So once I finally fell asleep last night, I shamelessly slept in until 10:30 this morning and now I’m doing a fry up…bacon slow cooked to crispy perfection with my eggs. This past week it was grab something and go, but today I’m going to sit and savour breakfast on the back deck and take time to smell the flowers…well not many of those left but the grapevines are dripping with blue and will be ready for jelly production soon. Nature is always showcasing some miracle or another, what a fine job she’s doing! The sail boats are out taking advantage of the last leg of summer; there won’t be many of these brilliant days left with fall and it’s unpredictable weather coming. Our front yard is like natures television, there’s always something flying, swimming or tacking by. What a fantastic day to be on this beautiful planet!
So today is all about last minute stuff. I won't get everything done on the list for tomorrow but no one will know except me. I'm making sure things are all priced and labeled. I heard a customer comment under her breath "I guess everything in here is free because it isn’t priced". It wasn't the words, it was the way it was said, like the store was flawed and not worth shopping in, as if a few unpriced items could make us substandard! Guess I'm a little touchy about my shop, it's like my kid. But I used it as constructive criticism and made sure those few items that weren't priced now are.
Then I have a few patterns to whip up and do a thorough clean and try to relax a bit this evening, hopefully with some snoring at the end of it. But, chances are, I'll probably be too excited to sleep, like a kid waiting for Santa with visions of rug hookers dancing in my head. I wanted this chance to shine, show off our products and beautiful store. I don’t even think about sales, just showing off the shop, like introducing a beautiful child to the world.
Funny...I look around my shop and smile with chest expanding pride, and then look around my house and frown. What a friggin mess I live in. I can’t serve two masters concurrently so I’ve done nothing at home for over a month and it shows. The spider webs are taking over the ceiling beams again, the dust bunnies have produced like rabbits, dishes cover the counters instead of stocking the cupboards and there’s no clean flatware to speak off so I’ll be eating with my fingers tonight if I don’t buy plastic. With my busy life, maybe paper plates are the way to go. Chinet has a blue flower pattern, a temporary substitute for Blue Willow. I could eat and then dump the garbage to keep the kitchen tidy enough to see the blue counter tiles that are now completed covered.
I won’t go into the laundry predicament. Hidden behind the closed door it’s easy to forget, but I’m finding it increasingly difficult to score something clean to wear to work. Today I won’t have to worry as the shop won’t be open while I’m there so the best dirty shirt will do.... I feel like I'm in a Kris Kristofferson song. I’ll pop a few loads in this evening…if only I’d been born rich, I'd hire someone to help around here and take care of me in the style I was obviously born to explore. I've said it before, somehow the stork dropped me in the wrong spot. I’m sure Buckingham palace was the destination point, obviously something went terribly wrong with the bird’s internal GSP or it was tipping the winged elbow.
If I ever win the lottery there will be hot, gourmet meals on the table, freshly ironed clothes waiting for the taking, bathrooms that smell like lavender and bouquets of fresh flowers in every room of the house. This princess would swoon in after a long day at work and put my feet up and feel no shame being waited on. But...I would draw the line on squeezing my own toothpaste, shame on you Charles!
But you can’t win lotteries if you don’t play so it’s never going to be a reality. Besides, I’m lucky, but not million dollar lucky. The universe takes care of me nicely but not to extremes and that's okay.....I really do have a great life, I just need a little help sometimes........
Well, I must get the show on the road. Shane just called to find out when I was going to work so he’ll join me and do a bit more dyeing. He’s done so many beautiful bundles it’s a colour feast for the eye. There’s some pretty scrumptious pumpkin colours just in time for fall. He likes the shelves stocked as much as me, a nut that didn’t fall far from the tree…
Dear 3 A.M., We have to stop meeting this way, I'd much rather sleep with you.....
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