05.15.06
Prelude to Mother’s Day
We received most of our mother’s day goods in february. We sold out of most of it in april. I scrambled to order some gloveables, jewelry, purses, aprons and other fun girly things. I got most of these things last wednesday and thursday (two days ago). So, I assembled my grand Mother’s Day display on friday night… while listening to jackfm and cursing at my shoes. I always wear the wrong shoes. I guess I’m not a very practical girl.
I loathed getting up on saturday (may 13). I was up until 3 am assembling 2 special orders, which were duplicates of the bracelets shown here. I had to abandon ship on one order because I couldn’t handle a dry mount heat press and a scroll saw at 3 am. I still very much enjoy my digits. So, I got up late and got to the store at 3 minutes after 10 am*.
*sidenote*: Sometimes, I’m 3-5 minutes late opening the shop. I’ve always been this way. As I’m making the left turn into our parking lot I can see if people are pacing out front of the store. I have nightmares about this. I do try my best to get my act together but these all night craft fests are… well… frequent. I do my best work at 3 am (notice the blog publish times) well, at least I think it’s good ;) hehe. Long story short… sometimes, I’m late. My punishment from the universe usually involves 20 large boxes delivered to my neighbor down the hill from me (since I wasn’t there promptly at opening). I should name my dolly “tardy slip”.
Anywho… the last 3 mother’s day sales have been just above average… higher traffic… nothing to sneeze at, but it would be a two or three on my shin and calf meter. What is my shin and calf meter? Well, since you asked… I stand all day. Not only am I seeing the start of some fun little spider veins, I have leg pain at the end of the day. I try to get the right shoes, but for some reason, they don’t help. I know I know… those thick mats the cast members use at Disneyland. Yes. I will get one. soon! Back to my story… I can usually tell how well we did on any given day by how sore my legs are. I usually have a scale of… 1 to 5. A “1″ would be a day of paying bills and sitting at the computer. A “5″ would be the day after thanksgiving or two days before Christmas. Today, May 13… my legs hurt… like a 4 or 5. We had a great day. Lots of new customers, people who saw our new window, ladies who got gifts from us and this was their first visit. I am in awe. It’s 1:23 am on saturday night/sunday morn and I am still in awe. Grateful. Very grateful :)
I took a different approach to our front window at violets are blue east this time. I put baby clothes in the window on one side with clothespins and on the other I did a similar ribbon swag with aprons and gloveables held with clothespins. What have I been selling a ton of? Gloveables and baby items. Rotate the windows. A lot. It works :)
Tomorrow we are going to Disneyland for Mother’s day with my Mom, Grandma (Nonee) and Pam from Santa Barbara. I’m hoping it won’t be too crowded. Fingers crossed. We may go and draw a bit. We’ve done the castle several times… I wonder what we’ll sit in front of this time. Ahhh, the corndog cart. Those things… shouldn’t be as good as they are. We are going to have dinner at Granville’s, see some firework action then head home.
Curse those corndogs and cheesedogs with their battered and deep fried goodness! If you see this cart on main street… stay far away!