We have decided that we will open on Feb 1st whether all the merchandise has arrived or not.
That is just next Wednesday. One week from today.
If we don't make a date committment we will just keep coming up with new projects.
Like this sewing machine table and the hand held light. Somebody stop us.
We have so enjoyed all the comments and emails, my blog friends.
Just a reminderfor all of you who have been emailing me about workshops:
Information will be on our new website Feb 1. I am still waiting on a few workshop instructors to get me their info. We are also waiting on tech stuff to get the store open. Internet and credit card capabilities are taking so long. No quick fix for either of these. We are planning a Feb 1 opening of the store too.
I was hoping to be open by now but we are having quite an issue with product fulfillment. I will order 30 things from a company and when the order comes, usually weeks instead of days later, there might only be 10 items delivered. This is absolutely the worst time of year to order. We are between end of year low stock and 2012 new stock.
Remember I showed you the entry to our classroom? I had this vision of using my vintage corbels and a vintage gable pediment. When John put them up, the gable looked wimpy to me compared to the corbels. I mentioned it to our friend Josh and he took it home and look what he did. I am thrilled! Isn't it womderful? Don't you want to come and play in a room that beckons you through this portal? Please say yes.
Here are a couple more new photos of the shop.
And our own high quality private label bookbinding PVA.
WooHoo.
We are getting close.
The floor has been cleaned and refinished:
The slatwall has been installed and painted:
The classroom is coming along:
Ribbon is getting delivered:
New and Vintage stock is being sorted, priced and put in place:
It won't be long now, not long at all.
Thank you Aimee Kluiber, Josh Lorian, Greg Porter, David Simon, Hunt Hooker (and crew) for all the help and encouragment.
Small Studio Workshop Series information will be available on our website in about two weeks. Patience, my friends.
So excited. Our sign was installed last night!
Can the store be far behind?
The new store project is moving along with, well, more projects. John and I are having fun. In fact John is getting so into the spirit that he is coming up with ideas and projects on his own. This started out as Ginny's project and now is both of ours equally. I love that.
We found this beat up old table a few months ago and really liked the bits of detail on the apron of the piece. It is about 4 or 5" shorter than a regular dining table, but it is perfect to be a display table. As you can see, John is painting it black and it will be the base for these cubbies below which will hold our ribbons.
Then we decided to enhance the entrance to the classroom. The shelf will get trim amd paint, but I am liking the direction it is taking. What do you think?
There have been other issues and projects..no heat yesterday, but the landlord was great and got someone out immediately. We are still waiting on the sign guy to get going after many promised and broken dates. The new fireproof back door is taking longer to get installed. We need it so that we can go out the back entry when the wood flooring by the front entrance gets refinished next week. Still waiting for approximately 30% of the new inventory to be delivered.
But all in all, life is almost stress free and going along happily. The only real stress revolves around my oldest son who now works as a civilan at the Pentagon after working there while in the Army. He left today for Afghanistan for 3 months. Everyone in his office is doing a 3 month rotation and it is his turn. They all returned safely so we know he will also. Shouldn't everything be all right in the world when you drive into your driveway and the earth greets you with this?
We went to a fabulous party last night. There was the usual great food and drink and interesting people and talk, but where this party differed was it was all about family and music. The party was at Chris and Gayle Pritchard's. Chris has been singing and songwriting and strumming the guitar his entire life. He has passed on this passion to his two childrem. Even his son-in-law is musical. I asked if one had to audition to be in the family. The SIL answered a resounding and quick "YES!"
So last night, even though the only thing I play is the radio, John and I were invited to be a part of the Pritchards' "Fam Jam". John and I got to hang out with the cool kids.
There were not one, not two guitars in the room...below is Chris and Dave known locally as the "BackBay Boys".
No not just two but five guitar players and singers.
There was Chris and Dave plus son Brian, son-in-law Rob and the well known blues singer, Cletus Black.
Not shown is daughter Hailey who also sings and strums a bit of guitar.It was a great time with great music and definitely interesting people.
How fun to watch one guy start just playing a few chords and then everyone else picking up on the chosen tune. The passion for music was thick in the room, the non-musicians singing along and wishing we played too.
Chris and Gayle are good friends and many of you may know Gayle from Art Continuum and the Creative Block workshops, She is a wonderful instructor for quilting, collage, assemblage, etc. She also is a generous friend. She introduced Susan Lenart Kazmer to teaching at the first Art Continuum. Gayle will be teaching at our new store.
I wanted to clean everything up before I took photos for you, but we just didn't have any energy left. It was a great two days thanks to Josh Lorian our handyman angel. He came to the rescue for us. He is young, strong and full of energy. He and John knocked out the other display units and the classroom tables and Josh put together classroom chairs. Note to other entrepeneurs: Only buy furniture that is already assembled. We spent this entire week putting together stuff and we have the aching joints to prove it.
We couldn't have accomplished as much in two weeks as we did in 4 days with Aimee and Josh's help. Thank you from the bottom, middle and top of our hearts.
So now we have tables:
Chairs:
Trash:
Countertops:
Installed paper racks:
Installed paper racks with some paper (premature, but I was just needing to see some product in the store)
And more trash. It pleases me that everything is so well wrapped. It upsets me that there is so much waste paper and boxes. This is off to be recycled.
Thank you for your comments!
Former employee and friend, Aimee Kluiber, has spent the last two days helping us out at the store. She and I got our tool belts on and started building displays and tables. Nothing cements a friendship like a few power tools. I cannot thank Aimee enough. She is stronger, has great stamina and reads directions far better than I. And she is fun to be around.
We got quite a bit done while John continued the never ending paint jobs. We also had the lights over the cash counter installed. Love them!
We had a visitor yesterday, Wilson, who just wanted to get out of there. The power tool noise scared him.
Tomorrow, the countertops get installed and maybe the sign in front of the store.
It is moving along. Excitement builds for us.
Nine years ago my son Wes and his wife Wendy had twins. Ryan and Rachel are wonderful kids (as all my grandkids are), but Ryan and Rachel created such a change in the life of Wendy and Wes who up to then had only Alli, that Wendy started a business and named it after them. At Yikes Twins, the inventory includes many different hooded towels for babies and kids. There are super heroes, animals and princesses.
Wendy has worked very hard at making her company a success and it definitely is. Yikes Twins Towels can be found in stores all over the country including Barney's of New York. Vogue (magazine) just named Yikes Twins Hooded Towels the NUMBER 2 2011 TOP GIFT FOR KIDS!!!!! Congratulations, Wendy.
It has been 20 days since we took possession of our new store space. We have had a few ups and downs, but things are turning out to be running along fine again. We were not able to postpone delivery of our display units and most of them arrived today.
Paper Racks....check...built by Josh Lorian
Display Units and workshop tables...check...these have to be put together and there are 23 boxes.
Beautiful big distressed display tables and really tall display units...check
Here is a peek at one of the lovely legs:
John is still painting. He has started doing all the cabinets.
We cannot unpack the boxes and build the display units until the carpet is laid. The carpet can't be laid until the new wall is finished and that will hopefully be in a few days. The inventory cannot be unpacked until there are display units to put it on. And on it goes. Excitement is building for us. We are seeing progress and we are having fun.
Thanks again for all the interesting comments. You are the best.
I met Bobby Hansson about ten years ago through a mutual friend, Keith Lobue. Bobby had been a mentor of Keith's and Keith was very fond of Bobby. Lucky for me and a number of students, Bobby taught metal art at an early Art Continuum event. He brought some heavy duty equiptment and several of the students worked all night, long after the workshop was over, learning from Bobby.
Bobby Hansson'smedium is the tin can and he is a master of the art. You might be familiar with Bobby through his best selling books, The Art of the Tin Can and The Fine Art of the Tin Can.
I haven't seen Bobby in years, but tonight he will be on American Pickers at 9PM EST on the History Channel.
My new contractor, Hunt Hooker, has performed a few miracles. I think he feels our disappointment and I think he is just one of those great guys who likes to be the quiet hero. The new wall is up and has been approved by the inspector. Now we have a week of drywall guys coating, sanding, recoating the new wall to prep it for painting.
It may not look like much to you, but it is beautiful to me.
The inspector was really kind to us, too. He could have been otherwise, but we were very lucky.
We were treated to this lovely sunset out the front store window. Life is good. Oh, and I finished the Christmas shopping today. I am woman hear me roar!
Thank you for all the wonderful comments you have been leaving here and on my email. I really appreciate it all.
No, but close.
Years ago, I went to teach an art workshop at a store in another state. I worked diligently to be prepared for the students, but nothing prepared me for the store's classroom. The walls were gray and the cement floor was painted gray to match. The tables were fold-up tables with folding chairs all in the same color of gray. There wasn't any art on the walls, in fact there was nothing on the walls. The store did not provide anything to inspire the student in that classroom. I felt every bit of creativity drain from me.
My last store, The Creative Block, had a riot of color in the classroom including eggplant and cantaloupe. Maybe the painter and I were hungry that day. This new store will be no different from the old one when it comes to color. only this time we have reds and yellows and greens.
John has been working hard trying to get the painting done before the carpet goes in. There is now color in our new classroom. The students will either be inspired or suddenly long for mustard and ketchup. I hope it is the former.
We also have a wall now to divide the front store from the back classroom.
I have been busy while John is painting. I am learning the program for our cash register which is actually an IPad and really fun and easy. Putting product into the system and tagging it all is very time consuming, but it is moving along.
There has also been a bit of shopping and Christmas decorating thrown into the mix. Putting together a store and a new lifestyle all set to Christmas songs makes for a happy experience.
We have the first color on the walls! Yesterday John began the giant painting process.
I am the luckiest woman to have John who actually loves to paint walls. Who knew when I married him that he brought along this bonus.
The plumber was there yesterday, too, and plumbed in the new sink for the classroom where there was none. Progress.
Today, as I write this, John is still painting and the drywall guys are drywalling the new framed in wall.
Me? I am watching soaps and eating bon bons. HA!
Yesterday's rubble has turned into today's promise.
We have a wall...well the beginnings of a wall. This creates a classroom for us and you!
Cabinets were installed today, too. These will be workstations for workshops. We are ready for Keith Lobue and Michael DeMeng to come and put us all to work with tools.
Now this is beginning to be real fun!
You know that old saying that sometimes things need to get bad before they can get better? Well, that is definitely true in the case of fixing up the new store.
We actually got possession on Dec 1 and that is the day that the floor guys came to remove the old carpet and much damaged floor. As often happens, they ran into trouble and did not finish until today. So the construction crew that was scheduled for today had to be rescheduled. In the meantime cabinets, a sink and faucet have arrived ready to be put in place for work stations in the soon to be classroom.
We have ordered a few display units. An IPad based cash register system is on the way. Paint colors have been picked out and mixed, tables for the classroom have been ordered, but we have not found chairs that are both sturdy and reasonable priced.
And two Christmas presents have been purchased. Before you clap your hands in approval, take into account that we have 31 people in our close family that we like to gift.
Be happy!
So, Tracey, a regular commentor here on my blog, emailed me and said that she was enjoying my comments about the process of opening a retail store and wanted to hear more. She asked about inventory and was I ordering it yet. The answer is both easy (yes!) and complicated.
Tomorrow and Friday is demolition day. Then over the next week to 10 days our contractor will build out the changes we need such as a new wall to divide the store from the workshop area, sinks and cabinets in the workshop and a cash counter in the main store plus other mundane stuff. Then the painting begins. John has already spent a few days repairing dings and gouges in preperation for the 17 gallons of paint that we need (we can't have white walls, can we?) When that is done, the new carpeting can be laid and only then can we begin to add display units for the new inventory.
A new point of sale cash register/computer needs to be programmed to account for all the new merchandise and then price tags need to be put on each and every piece. We are planning on carrying about 200 different designs of large sheet decorative paper. Manufacturers require a 25 sheet purchase of each design which adds up to 5000 pieces of paper that need to be priced. And that is just the paper! It will take lots of space to do this funtion and the most efficient is to have the display racks ready and in place for the paper. Plus we need to do the same process for all the other stuff that has to be priced out and displayed. Fortunately for me former employees Aimee and Cari have offered to help me out. Thank you, thank you both! Since we are not yet at the store on a regular basis, we cannot have boxes delivered there yet. Anything I order right now has to be delivered to the house. So, I have not ordered the paper yet. Can you imagine transporting 5000 sheets of paper between our house and the store?
There is another consideration. We are at the retail in-between stage. It is the end of the year and manufacturers do not carry much inventory since they have to pay tax on what they have at the end of the year. I want to open before they begin restocking, so I am buying and ordering things I really want to have in the store right away. I am finding that about 20% of each order I receive is backordered for the above reason.
It is such fun to open the boxes and see all the new stuff that I have ordered as I check the items off against the packing slips to make sure I received everything. I told you it was complicated.
Thank you for all the great comments. I am really excited about seeing so many former customers and meeting new ones.
Stay tuned!
