The big adventure?

This is the view from my son's office window, most days.

This is what he is driving to get to work. The truck, combine and the trailer are all one 'train', about 80 feet long.

This is what he drives when he gets to work.

We have one like this at home that I like to call 'the house with the pool', because that's how much they are worth! In this picture you are looking at $800,000 worth of equipment.

These belong to a 'Custom Harvest' crew that work from Texas to the Canadian Prairies. He left in May and comes home in November...he is 19.

We miss him!

But it's a great adventure, once in a lifetime kind of thing (we hope), and his dad is really jealous because he wants to do that too!

Funny!

Daughter is home! She didn't bring her ipod charger with her because we have one in the car. I remembered taking it out of the old vehicle, but couldn't remember where it went after that. So we spent quite a long time looking for it.

Finally she texts her brother (who is away on his big adventure):

'have you seen my ipod charger?'

Reply: 'about 2 miles south of Onida, South Dakota!' . I can't repeat what she replied.

Even when they are 2223 km apart they can find something to fight about!


She is happy to be home for a couple of days, we have enjoyed having her at home, my front garden is weed free and she trucked dirt for her dad for one of his projects.

To add to her adventure home, we went out for supper and on the way home stopped into the barn to check on a cow. She was about to deliver and was having a difficult time..so husband and daughter dressed in 'going to town' clothes delivered a very big headed calf, ouch. I played coach from outside the pen.

For those of you with small children, even though we were told all the time, "they grow up so fast"...they really do!

Demographics!

When you write a business plan one of the things they want to know is who you want to have as a customer. Describe a knitter (*the term also refers to crochet and spin). The only thing that knitters may have in common is the fact that they knit*.

My youngest customer on my list is 12, the oldest..90ish. They are female and male, single and married, working and retired. I have Professional people, University professors, stay at home moms and self employed and a few unemployed looking for work.

I have knitters that only: knit socks, prefer fine lace, love making mittens, create felted objects, knit blankets for animals or knit baby things for the hospital. I have knitters that follow patterns to the very last letter and others who interpret it their own way. (Well I didn't like the lace design so I put in a cable, made it longer and shortened the sleeves and made the collar into a hood...but I used this pattern)

Customers that only use natural fibres, some that use only acrylics.

Try and explain that to the bank!

I have met so many wonderful people in this adventure. Everyday is a new surprise!

I have people!

You know the phrase, 'my people will talk to your people' or something like that, well today I have people...or at least I have Dana!

You have to understand that our family does stuff, everything. We paint, paper, refinish furniture, landscape, build things, sew and knit! My husband fixes everything, even people who fix stuff for a living ask him for advice. So to have someone do something for us is a big deal.

Today, Dana is painting the store front. This is how she makes money, and she is very good at it. A couple of weeks ago she sanded the front of the store...12 layers of paint.

Before:

and After:

can't wait till its done!

Its nice having people!

Weddings!

Today there is a wedding, I know the couple and even though I have not been invited I am going to be there. No I am not a wedding crasher. For the past 15 years + I have been one of the Church staff members that 'help' at weddings. We open the church doors and windows when needed, put the pew bows up and basically tell the wedding party "where to go and how to get there". Its a very interesting 'job'.

Trinity United in Bowmanville is a lovely old church, with a beautiful sanctuary and we do a few weddings a year. Not as many Church weddings these days, some years we had over 30, every once in a while we would do 3 in one day. I enjoy meeting the bride and groom and a bonus is when they are part of the Church Family and you get to be there for them.

Most weddings are pretty basic, go very smoothly and then there are the ones with the 'memorable' moments. The bride who didn't get the veil fitted by the hairdresser and I literally pinned her veil to her hair with long boutonniere pins. The wedding that they forgot all the flowers at home 40 minutes away. I raced down the street and the florist whipped up a bunch of red and white carnations into a bouquet that bride carried the down the aisle. The flowers arrived in time for the pictures after the ceremony. One usher decided to run home to get his boutonniere only to miss the first 10 minutes of the ceremony. We don't wait for anyone but the bride, we have never cancelled a wedding, never lost a bride, one groom fainted, ring bearers went pale and needed to lie down, flower girls that were complete angels during the rehearsal had a complete melt down during the procession, and those that were terrors during the rehearsal were angels during the wedding.

Getting married? What would I recommend? Simple. The more extras you try to do, the more that can go wrong. Real flowers, live music..but simple.

So today, I will be at a Wedding!

Leaving at 2:30...back on Tuesday!

Somedays its tough being me!

Yesterday, well you know I just had to break down and get right to work! For 3 hours I forced myself to look at and fondle new yarns. It was tough..it was rough..but someone had to do it and it may as well be me!

I really wanted to show all the shade cards all over the floor, but the nice rep had put them all back into there travelling cases. So this is just a small view of what I had to deal with.

Soft alpaca yarns, mohair, silk, bamboo, cotton, merino wool. The fumes were making me dizzy!

I hope you will like what I have chosen. There is some Cobweb lace coming, washable merino wool, a lovely washable wool for baby and alpaca sox. This is being shipped in September.

Coming this week, Marble Baby and Lopi Lite. 100% acrylic vs 100% wool, something for everyone!

I forgot..Saturday (July 18th) I am closing at 2:30, there's a wedding!

Windows

One of the reasons I had to have this location in Bowmanville, was that it had lovely windows. (South facing are not so good for fading..) Actually the whole store front is quite pretty. I am having someone paint the front, we think there are at least a dozen colours of paint on the woodwork around the windows.




Windows are great advertising for the shop. They work all the time, don't really complain and they are included in my basic expenses. Its just up to me to keep them interesting. I am always looking for new ideas. So far I have had floating apple blossoms, window boxes with yarn flowers, bamboo poles and of course knitting.



I am really pleased with my current east window. I found in my son's room a very large Tonka Truck,(I wasn't snooping, it was on a shelf!) then I found some sturdy rope, another truck..a little dirty from being outside and a couple of rocks...instant 'boys/men' window. It just happens to work with the new selection of men's patterns that arrived last week. Norah Gaughan has created some very clever men's pattern in a new booklet.

The picture doesn't do it justice, its hard to get a good picture through the glass. Come a see for yourself.

I'm Baack!

Holidays at 'home' are always fun! We have a lovely home, a great back yard and we haven't seen much of either this week. For the past 4 days we've been travelling around the area. We went to Haliburton one day, Picton the next and Collingwood today. Lots of driving, and getting lost in the beautiful Ontario countryside.

Waiting for me at the shop in the morning are two large boxes from Berroco, filled with brand new yarn. There will be a lot of shifting and sorting being done in the shop as these are the first of many new shipments arriving over the next 6 weeks.

More details later.

Enjoy the sunshine, remember when you want good weather for your holidays wait until after I have had mine! It always rains when we go away!