Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Did I say "later today"?

O.K. I know I said "later today" and yet somehow 2 weeks
managed to get by me. Nevertheless, I want to introduce
you to my newest grand-daughter Mallory. The proud Mom
in the photo is my daughter Katie. Both Mom and Mallory are
doing well and for that we are thank-full. Mallory joins
her two sisters, Monica and Laura and for Kevin and Katie, and all of our family, they are a "hat-trick" of the best kind.
Here at the shop it is busy, as usual. Although we didn't make it to Houston this fall, Melissa and I always take in Tri-State. The local trade show. We attend the meeting which this year featured a presentation of new and great from this years Market. It was then followed by an open forum discussion of business management techniques and marketing ideas. The "giveaways" are always great, the vendors really step up and donate from their product lines to entice the shop owners. We have been going often enough now that most faces are recognizable and names come much easier.
Back at the shop, we are cutting fat quarters until I could do it in my sleep. Make preparations for the "Fat Quarter Scramble" next tuesday. Arrive early, when they are gone, they are gone! New fabric arrives daily and although Fall fabric is still #1, we are seeing customers searching for last minute Christmas ideas. To help them out, Melissa has kitted table-runners in 3 different combinations. They are cute, fast and inexpensive. We've placed our Moda order from the new lines shown at Market. This fall we asked for help from the customers because it was all lovely and very hard to choose. We got some good advice and look forward to the new bolts arriving starting after the holidays. Open sewing is held all tuesdays, join us whenever you have the time. We have some modified hours our the long weekend of Thanksgiving. I will be working on Friday for any of you that don't participate mega-shopping craziness.
And then there is this:
After we leave Tri-State it has become tradition for us to go over to IKEA. We love that store and like to just follow the trail through the store gathering ideas and picking fun stuff up along the way. We reached the check-out area and the lines were long. Melissa was holding Nolan and very untypical for him he had fallen asleep in her arms. A woman waiting in the next line came over to Melissa and told her how she envied the fact that Melissa was able to hold that little boy and how you never forget how great that feels. She said her son is now eleven and no longer stands still for any affection, much less getting held. And then she said this. "I wish I knew when I was doing it, that it was the last time that my son would let me hold him like that. I wish I would have known it was the last time"
This is what I know. You never want to know the last time of anything good. You do not want to know.
Till next time