Coming back to life

Well I haven't blogged for a very long time indeed, but I plan to get back on line.  Watch this space.

Six word Saturday

Off to see Eddie Izzard Live!


-- Posted from my iPhone

TUTBURY CRAFTS GRAND OPENING (or how to have your faith in human nature smashed and then renewed in one hour)

Well I have been promising this for a couple of days, so here it is. I have bored you all to tears with the build up to the opening of my Craft Shop and it finally happened on Saturday 10th October. Despite a few hiccups it was all I hoped for and we had a wonderful day. But first the hiccups.

As many of you will know, I had been on holiday for a week prior to the opening and was due back on the Wednesday night. I had a full list of jobs to be done in preparation for the opening and so Thursday and Friday were fully scheduled. What I hadn't planned for was our plane suffering technical problems for which engineers had to been flown out from the UK to fix and no other flights were available. To cut a long story short, which included getting on the plane, getting off again, getting bussed to an hotel, getting very little sleep before getting on the bus to go back to the airport, sitting around for another 3 hours before finally getting on the plane and taking off. Suffice to say, we suffered a full 24 hour delay and didn't get back until Thursday night. A great deal of panic texting was involved to my friend back in the UK, without whom we would never have been ready by Saturday morning.

So Friday was spent rushing around trying to squeeze 2 days work into one day and when I finally flopped into bed Friday night I was exhausted but excited.

Saturday morning came and at 8am I walked over the shop. On the way, I noticed that another shop in the Mews had 2 smashed windows, slightly worried I continued around the corner, only to find that all my beautiful terracotta flower pots had gone. But things were a little strange, there was clear evidence of the pots having been removed from the walls and thrown into the middle of the road, but all the plants had been gathered up and carefully stacked outside the shop doorway. The worst of the broken pottery had been gathered and placed carefully next to them. I immediately burst into tears! The planters had been up for 4 weeks, and to get vandalised during the night before opening seemed malicious. However, it was just bad luck, it transpired that a group of drunk youths coming back from a party had wreaked havoc throughout the village in the middle of the night smashing car and shop windows and throwing things around. So just losing the pots didn't seem so bad.

However, I refused to be beaten, so back to the house and raid the shed to see what I could find. I would have planters outside the shop, even if they didn't match and the plants looked a bit battered. By 9am, all the plants had been repotted into a strange assortment of old baskets and pots, ribbons attached and we were back on track.

Then the gentleman who lives in a flat (apartment) above the premises next door to my shop appeared and explained that he had heard a commotion in the street at about 3am, looked out of his window and had realised what had happend. Knowing it was my grand opening in the morning, he had then got out of bed, gone into the street and collected all the plants up, carefully placing them by the shop in the hope that we would be able to rescue the situation. The gentleman in question is Pez (see below pictured with a fellow trader from the Mews, showing off the Grand Opening banner). Our Hero. My faith in human nature was firmly back in place.

At 10am we were ready and I took great pleasure in putting up the 'OPEN' sign. A very small sip of Champagne and photographs followed, but before we could even say Cheers, our first customers arrived!

There follows a whole bunch of photos of the shop (I will admit that the interior ones were taken today as there were too many people in the shop for photos on Saturday). We had a wonderful day, were incredibly busy for most of it and sold loads of stuff.

The best point in the day was when I turned around and saw my eldest Sister, Sue, walking into the shop. She lives 150 miles away and I had no idea she was coming. I burst into tears for the second time that day. Quite a record for me as I am definitely not a cryer.

All in all a great day and well worth all the hard work. I must say here an now, that there is no way I could have achieved all this in such a short time without help, so here is the roll of honour:

My friend Pip who has worked so hard with me to achieve this, put in so many hours and put up with me.

My wonderful husband, who allowed me to take this risk and was prepared to put up the capital. He has also been a great help with decorating, fixing things, putting up with me and served drinks and chatted to customers all day long.

My lovely stepson, who worked so hard to get the shop decorated and ready and who also programmed the till for me (it had beaten me!).

And everybody else, the other traders in the mews, local people in the village, all of you out there who have been so supportive. Thanks!

Now I will stop rambling on and show you the pictures.....

Six Word Saturday

6WS seems to be the only thing keeping me blogging at the moment (normal service will resume soon). I am on holiday in Fuertaventura, in the Canary Isles this week so am attempting to blog via Blogpress on my iPhone, so here it us for this week.

"By the pool on lounger sunbathing"

:-)


-- Posted from my iPhone

Six Word Saturday

Me again - part time blogger, but just scraping in for a 6WS before Saturday runs out!

Midnight and I'm doing stock pricing!

SIX WORD SATURDAY

Hi - I've been off the radar a bit for the last 3 weeks. This is because setting up a new shop is REALLY hard work! Who knew?

I will be getting back to regular blogging and tweeting soon, but at the very least I didn't want to miss SWS again. So here's mine for today:-

A Shopkeeper's work is never done.

SIX WORD SATURDAY

Having spent the entire day with the band practising. I can easily do my six word saturday this evening:-

Seven Hours Singing - Result - Sore Throat

Evolution vs Creationism - A personal view

My attention was drawn today to a video where a group of Atheists and Agnostics had visited the Museum of Creationism. On the whole, everyone was polite, opinions were exchanged and everybody went about their business. But it set me to thinking. What was the point of it?

Having an honours degree in Natural Sciences and having majored in Evolution and Geology, you might think you could guess which side of the fence I sit on, but you might also be wrong. Who knows - I certainly don't. And this really is my point. I believe the only thing I know for certain is that there is a great deal of stuff I don't know and I certainly wouldn't presume to try to impose my beliefs, opinions, faith or lack thereof upon anyone else. I get very perplexed by evangelism, on both sides of the debate. Consider Richard Dawkins, a true evolution evangelist, who I noted recently, takes great delight in any piece of evidence which, in his opinion, disproves the evidence of God. I find this just as distasteful as somebody knocking on my door and wanting to convince me to follow their particular brand of organised religion.

Why can't we have it both ways? Scientific types like myself like to be able to prove their hypotheses, find hard evidence that their suppositions are correct and it could be argued therefore that the lack of any hard evidence would disprove the existence of God. But the whole point of Faith is to not need evidence, just to believe. As Douglas Adams said (and I am paraphrasing heavily here because I can't be bothered to look up the quote) if God did something to prove he existed to all the doubters, he would disappear in a puff of logic, which would rather defeat the whole object of the exercise.

What I think I am trying to say here is why can't we have it both ways. At school when I was a child we were taught Religious Knowledge and we were taught Science. We were not given beliefs or opinions, we were given information, and it was up to us to decide what we believed.

My closest personal friend is an Anglican Priest. She jokes about converting me and I joke about turning her to the dark side. But they are jokes, because we have respect for each other and in particular, she respects that I don't really know what I think/believe and she doesn't presume to try to tell me what I should think or believe. She works as a Hospital Chaplain and has to deal with some really dreadful things. What she does and how she lives her life is an example to us all, but it doesn't mean we have to agree with her beliefs, just respect them.

So there, I think I found my conclusion. Let's all just respect each others opinions.

Tomatoes

I've not had a lot of luck with tomatoes this year. I have three plants in the mini-greenhouse and they have produced about 20 tomatoes between them! So I was quite pleased when I saw that my cherry tomato Tumbling Tom, which is in a basket stand (about 4 feet high) starting producing masses of little cherry tomatoes.

Fast forward to a few days ago, when I kept finding my little Cairn Terrier, Maisie, playing with little green cherry tomatoes. 'Oh No' I thought 'the cherry tomatoes are dropping, they must be sickly for some reason'. I checked and watered and fed and hoped.

Then I looked out of the window yesterday and saw.... Maisie standing on her hind legs picking the damn tomatoes right off the plant.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

My Monday Wordle won't work!

Apologies but some issues with code. Will try again another day!!!!!!!!!!!!

Six Word Saturday

Don't know if this will work from phone (2nd attempt) but here goes.

Having lovely time on our narrowboat






-- Post From My iPhone

Micro Blog - Update

It's been a busy week and not much time for blogging.  So far this week I have put together a 2 year cash flow forecast and P&L statement, visited loads of craft shops in a 40 mile radius of home, purchased a cash register, two tables, 8 chairs and 4 wicker baskets.  Oh and 24 perspex 12 x 12 trays to display scrapbooking papers.   Today I spent an hour and a half with the new commercial business guy at the bank and now have my business banking set up and took out my retail premises and public liability insurance.

So not a bad effort for 4 days.

To celebrate lovely husband and I are taking a few days break on our narrowboat, so will only be able to mobile blog (don't know how successful that will be but I'll give it a shot).   If it doesn't work, I'll have to make do with twittering.

Have a good weekend all.

Guest Blogging - My first time!

Hi, I am really proud to announce that I was chosen as one of the guest bloggers for C.Beth's blog whilst she is on vacation. C.Beth has a really great blog and is also responsible for The One Minute Writer blog that so many of us are fond of. You can read my guest blog here and if you can also visit The One Minute Writer here.

Big News - Dreams on the verge of reality

I will now stop teasing and tell you my big news. As some of you will already know, I gave up my job in June after having been a career person for more years than I care to mention. I had been getting more and more disillusioned and fed up with the daily grind and the extensive travelling I had to do was getting very tiring. I decided to take some time to myself and decide what I really wanted to do next. After a few abortive forays into looking at other, possibly more satisfying jobs, I decided to stop looking at the Situations Vacant columns and the job sites on line and actually really think about what I wanted to do.

I have long held a dream that one day I would run my own business, in particular a Craft Shop. The kind of craft shop we crafters love to potter around in, looking at the lovely card stock, feeling the new yarns, sorting through the latest delivery of stamping blocks and tools. Those of you into handicrafts will know what I mean. There used to be a very successful and lovely craft shop in our village, but the owner moved away to be nearer family and now has a successful business about 50 miles away. We have all missed it terribly and hoped someone would come in and fill the gap.

Well just as I had reached the conclusion that I really didn't want to work for anybody else and I really did want to take a risk a branch out on my own, the perfect little shop premises became available in our village, about 100 yards from my house and in my price range!

To cut a long story short, after viewing the premises, talking with the Landlord, picking the brains of other shopkeepers in the village and several heart to heart discussions with my husband. We decided to go for it and here it is!

Yesterday afternoon, I took possession of the keys and took great delight in taking down the 'To Let' signs. I have put up a 'Coming Soon' Poster in the windows (see below) and now have a great deal of work to do to put together my business plan, redecorate and do the shopfitting, find suppliers and buy in stock and of course, do a lot of marketing in the area to let people know we have a craft shop again.

I have to admit to being absolutely terrified, but also very excited and can't wait to get started.

So here it is, Tutbury Crafts, coming soon. I plan to open in early October, which sounds a long way off but in fact is only 10 weeks away!!!!!!!!!!!

I have had lots of great feedback from people in the village already and hope that is a good omen. I have a lot to live up to as the previous craft shop was really good. It was also in bigger premises, so could keep more quantity and variety of stock than I will be able to, but you know what they say, mighty oaks from tiny acorns grow (hopefully).

I will keep you posted on progress over the next few weeks.

Wish me luck!

Six Word Saturday

Here is today's six word submission to describe life at the moment:-

Getting close to realising my dream

Customer Service Lives!

I mentioned yesterday that my new Wii didn't work and I had to do battle with Amazon about it.  However, directly after posting I found the customer support line number, got all the details together, girded my loins and picked up the phone.   'Hello' I said 'I have a problem' and explained that I had purchased the unit in April, but it had only just been unpacked and despite following all the trouble shooting advice, all I got was a blank screen.   I expected then to go into a lengthy debate about how long ago it was ordered, whether it would have to go back to the manufacturers, how much it would cost etc.,   But no! 

'What is the order number please' the nice young gentleman said.  I told him.  

'Would you like a replacement or a refund' the very nice young man said (he was growing on me now).  

'A replacement please' I responded.

A brief pause and sounds of keyboard tippy tapping in the background.   

'I have ordered your replacement and it should be with you in 3-5 working days.  You will receive an email in approximately 30 minutes which will provide you with a secure bar code returns authorisation and a prepaid returns label which you can print off.  When you have them, just follow the link through the DHL and book the returns pick up for a time convenient to you'

A brief stunned silence from me.

'Thanks!' I say, still a bit too gobsmacked to make proper conversation.

'My pleasure' the very very nice young man that I am now considering adopting says.   'Is there anything else I can help you with today?' he asks me.    'No, no, thank you, really thanks a million, that's great, thanks thanks'  I gush to the extremely nice young man that I am now wondering if he possibly likes older women.

'Well goodbye then Frances'   (swoon - lovely lovely customer services boy said my name)

It was all so easy and lovely and customer servicey.   

I won't tell you about trying to pack all the bits back in the original packing - I don't want to spoil the mood.

Customer Service Postscript.   24 hours after this phone call, my replacement Wii has arrived by courier!!!!!!!!  They're not even collecting faulty one until tomorrow!

Monday Musings

Monday morning and I am feeling a bit out of sorts.  Too much red wine and good food last night methinks.  So I enter my fourth week of voluntary unemployment.   One third of the kitchen cupboards have been sorted out.  The bureau in the dining room is sorted out.  The Wii is out of its box, but doesn't work...  Aaaaarrggghh.   Most of the contents of the study are on the floor.  The washing is up to date, but the ironing isn't.   I haven't started my keep fit regime yet.  I have accumulated yarn, material, patterns for at least 4 projects I plan to start.   I have not yet done my music theory homework.  I have however, spent an inordinate amount of time on line, twittering, blogging, general surfing.

This is all telling me that I need to get me a routine!  I am used to spending a great deal of time in front of a PC at work, so I have fallen into the habit of opening up the macbook with my morning coffee and before I know it I have lost a couple of hours!

This all has to stop.  Today I will work out a routine to make best use of my days.

But first I must talk to Amazon about my Wii.   Aaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrgggghhhh!!!

Six Word Saturday

So it's time for six word saturday again.

Today I have been doing my piano practice and have a lesson in 45 minutes and am feeling very frustrated so here it is for this week:

Wishing I was better at Piano

Oh well...

If you want to play along click on the button below.

One Minute Writer Winner

Very happy this morning to discover I was selected as the winner for Tuesday's One Minute Writer submission. The prompt was "Today, what is inspiring you?"

My winning submission was:

My feelings of inspiration are like the many tendrils of a jelly fish, wafting this way and that in the eddies created by the current. I see so much that inspires me, a beautiful garden, a well written blog, a superbly hand crafted dress, a wonderfully crocheted scarf, a well played piano piece, a tidy house. Each prompts me to attempt something similar and I end up inert, not knowing what to do first.

Oh come on Frances - tidy up the study - you know you should

The One Minute Writer is a great blog and great fun to take part. If you want to know more, follow the link on my winner button!

Be Careful What You Wish For

Today I had lunch with my friend and neighbour. We took advantage of a rare sunny day to eat out on the patio and chat. Very nice it was too. We were chatting about learning to craft as a child and I was saying that I was trying to improve my crochet and would really love to do a baby blanket, but nobody I knew was having or had recently had a baby.

I got home to find an email from my friend telling me that she is pregnant and due in November!!!!

So I have done a little search and will be attempting this:-



Wish me luck!