2005 Newsletters

November 4, 2005	December 24, 2005

Back to Main Newsletter Library page.
November 4, 2005 Hi Everybody! It has been over a year since I've done a newsletter, so please, don't beat me up. I'm bad, I know it and you can all flog me when you see me. I know this probably doesn't happen to the majority of you, but when you get real busy in some things, you get real LAZY in others. Newsletters got the lazy part of me. And, you may ask, why am I returning to the newsletter at this time. Well, I have a good reason. So, let me get the reason out of the way, and then I'll chat more about how everything is going. I'm not able to do the Torrance show this Dec. in Wilson Park, we're taking a cruise that happened to fall on that weekend. Again, don't beat me up, it is a chocolate cruise. If it makes you feel better, think of the weight that I will gain, as I surely will. So I was thinking I could do a one day show on my own on Dec. 3rd. In a hotel conference room, a rec center room, a church room, anywhere you guys think that I could set up my booth and have a couple of tables. You know the area, you know what might be available in your own residential area - so please give me ideas. I really need them in the next couple of days, because on Tuesday, we fly to Mpls. to do a show. Nothing like leaving this to the last minute, huh. But, if I could make arrangements, I could send out postcards and let all the ladies in that area know that on that date, we'll be in the Torrance area and they can come see us if they wish. We haven't been able to do any of the shows in Torrance this year,! because of conflicts with other shows around the country. It has gotten harder every year. So, if someone can come up with a place where we could do a little show, we'll gladly pay for space if that is needed. Just contact me at the store this weekend Sat. or Sun. Leave a message if I don't pick up the phone and I'll return the call. Thank you ahead of time for thinking about this and let us know. Now, I remember the last time I should have written a newsletter, because we had just gotten back from War Eagle in Arkansas. You wonder what War Eagle is? It is near Bentonville (home of WalMart), out in the country, an old working mill near a river. Very picturesque, serene and the home of one of the best country craft shows in the US. Also, at the same time, in the same area, there are about 8 other craft shows to go to. So, Barry and I had that weekend off, and we love finished craft shows, we thought we'd check it out. I had to drive, so Barry drove, (because we had big plans of bringing back lots of stuff) and I flew, because I can't wait to get there. The first day of the show, it started at 8am, it was about 40 degrees and raining. We were not quite prepared for that kind of weather. You know, boots, umbrellas, rain coats, etc. So, we were pretty cold and soggy. And then we discovered, and why we didn't figure this out going in - considering location of the show and description 'country', it was full of, duh! 'country crafts'. Not that there is anything wrong with that (over done, huh?), but we are contemporary crafts people. But we did find a couple of things to buy, (I can always find something) and hot chocolate in the mill's store, which helped to warm us up. Then, I had a map to locate all of the other shows, which we found and also bought a couple of things at. Well, you know at these shows they always have the food to sample: soups, coffees, candy, etc. So, I pretty much sampled my way through the shows. Well, that night, I had the worst case of food poisoning I had ever had. In fact, I don't know if I ! had had food poisoning before that. And, of course, it could have come from the evening meal, who knows for sure. I threw up all night long, until mid-morning. There was nothing left. Worst thing I have ever felt, except when I had kidney stones once. That is pretty bad too. Kind of moped around the rest of the day and then we went shopping in Eureka Springs the next day. What a pretty town! Lots of shopping, new stuff to look at, great fun. And then Barry took me back to the airport and I came home and he drove home. He likes to drive, I don't. I think I said that already. After that we did the shows in Houston, Mpls. and Cleveland. All great areas, great shows. We have been really blessed, because many vendors have told us that shows have been down a bit, and we've been hanging in there. Great customers, I say! And, it doesn't hurt that sparkle is on everything. Have you walked in any store lately and not seen some kind of sparkle? Of course, I think Swar. sparkle is the best and longest lasting. And way more fun to do than many other kinds of sparkle. My mom came in for thanksgiving and Christmas and the New Year. She gets out of that MN weather for some time at least. And we get to take her shopping and look for stuff just for her. She drives around her little town, but has to rely on other people to get beyond those borders. But, she has really nice neighbors who do look out for her and to take her places. And, of course, playing cards 4 out of 7 days a week, keeps her sharp. They say crossword puzzles and playing cards are great for seniors, because it keeps their minds active. Mom's is not only active, she wins a lot of the time also! Then we did all the shows in the spring, Phoenix, Denver, San Mateo, Clearwater, Puyallup, Pomona, Atlanta, Cleveland, Sacramento, Pleasanton, Del Mar and Orange Cty. That took us up to about mid-May. A little busy, huh? But so much fun, after we get it all set up though. When it takes you 5 - 6 hours to set your booth up, that gets old, real fast. But, then we get to see everybody, laugh, talk about our projects and stuff. It is just great to see people who want to see us. You can't imagine the thrill when people say they came to the show, just to see our booth. Maybe they're trying to make us feel good and believe me it does. I guess what I'm trying to say is, it is a lot of work, but also a lot of satisfaction to know that being there makes people happy. It's fun to see the product in person and get to pick out what you want, especially when my store isn't exactly just down the street for many people. Top of Page

December 24, 2005 Merry Christmas everybody and Happy New Year, Where does the time go? It seems like I just wrote that other long newsletter. Well, this one will be shorter I promise. (I lied, it is still pretty long). We are really sorry that we didn't make the quilt show in Houston. We had a lot of employee turnover over the year, and we were right in the middle of training 2 new people and we were really busy. I just couldn't leave them to fend for themselves, so we made the decision to not go. It was not an easy decision, but thanks to the people who e-mailed and worried about us, that was nice. Mpls. in November wasn't too bad, the weather might even be described as balmy! and the show was great! Thank you to all of our customers in that area, we had a good time and left just as it was getting colder. But, a lot of good that did us, we went to Cleveland the next week. There wasn't snow on the ground, but it was starting to get colder. The Christmas Connection hours are long, but it is so much fun to come back in the winter, to see our customers from the spring. Thank you for all of your support. We'll be back to both shows this next winter and Cleveland in the spring again. When we came back from Cleveland, my mom came in from Mpls. at the same time, so we met up at the airport. She was just in time for Thanksgiving. We had a small dinner this year, but we did all the important stuff. Except, who knew, that turkey breasts would take as long as the whole turkey! We just ate the dinner in 2 parts. The turkey was desert in this case. Oh well, is anything ever perfect? Then, about a week after Thanksgiving, we flew to Ft. Lauderdale for a cruise on the Radison 7 Seas. Well, I've taken a cruise on the low end, Carnival, and now we've done the high end. Really, the low end of the high end, but that only means the room is smaller and I didn't get a butler. Life can be so unfair, I don't think I can go back to the low end. Marble bathrooms, walk-in closet, balcony and the best food in the world. It was labeled as a chocolate cruise, but aside from the chocolate lectures and demos. There was not a lot of chocolate. But, really, with all the food being consumed, I don't think I really missed the chocolate. We went to the Bahamas as the first stop and saw the Atlantis resort and took a tour around Nassau. It's very beautiful, but there are also many poor areas. We didn't really see the mega mansions, except for the resort area. The next stop on the cruise was San Juan, Puerto Rico. What a gorgeous old town area. Every window has a wrought iron balcony, and they are re-doing all the plaster on the buildings. The streets are really narrow and the sidewalks are almost non-existent. We walked through the old town area, up to 2 of their major forts. Stone and rock so thick, that it is hard to imagine they did it all manually. The entrance to the harbor has one of the major forts and it has natural rock outcroppings and comes to a point. A natural place for the fort and to fight off the pirates and other countries trying to get their foothold in the Caribbean. In fact, the Spanish held everybody off for 300 years. Amazing! A beautiful island, great to visit on its own. Then we cruised for a day and went to the U.S. Virgin Islands. We didn't take a tour and we should have. All we did was get off the ship and do a little shopping. I'm a little intimidated to shop in a foreign area, even though they are a US property. I don't want to buy junk and I'm not always sure of the prices. Everybody was stocking up on liquor and that was the last thing that we wanted to take back, so we didn't shop much. But, it was fun to look around. Then we cruised for a day and landed at Grand Turk. We took the small boats in as they don't have a pier. In fact, they don't have much of anything. I think someone said that they didn't want tourism that much. The funny thing is that they had a lot of pine trees, more than palm trees. And, you would think that they get a lot of moisture, but everything looked really dry. Quite the opposite of what you'd think. Then, we sailed back. We played paddle tennis and a lot of ping pong. Barry finally got the point and beat me a couple of games. I love to play and he loves to hit everything, even when he shouldn't. That is not a way to win points. It is always funny to me to see women who may not wear a swimsuit at home, lay out on a deck chair in front of a 100 strangers with so little on. I kept to the shadows, less embarrassing. I also read a lot. Couldn't talk to the store, so HAD to relax. But, I love my store, so I don't really need to get away from it. It was just fun to have such great food and surroundings. But, gained 4 pounds. The 4 pounds I had lost before I went, so that I could eat. It's a good thing they have the formal night on the 2nd night. By the end of the cruise, it is stretchy pants! And then, 2 days after we got back, Ann and Marc, our webmasters came out to visit. When they went to the airport in Philly, it was 2 degrees. When they landed in San Diego, it was 70 degrees. Much better. We've had fun with them over the last 8 days, shopping and running around. We had our store Christmas party last Sunday at our house and I cooked all the recipes that looked good to me. We made a lot of the food on Sat. and just re-heated it on Sunday. That was supposed to be less stressful. Well, at the last minute we had to fry bacon for a vegetable recipe and boil potatoes for the meatballs. We made porcupine meatballs, so we were also cooking those along with the tomato soup gravy. Now, you can picture that. All those big pans on a 4 burner cooktop. Not a lot of room left and we had 3 people doing it. Was not as stress less as I would have liked. It was more like a potluck that only I contributed to. But, it was fun and we have a great crew now, so it was fun to share with them. The store has been busy up to the last minute, but with only my mom here, it will be a quiet weekend. Oh, we ran our first well water today, and it is clean and clear as a bell with no smell at all. They don't even think we will have to put chemicals in it. Like real well water used to be. After we scraped Barry off the ceiling, he is so tickled and my yard looks like some animal has burrowed through it. But, it will be worth it, because we'll be able to grow anything we want. No xeriscape for us! I hope everyone has a blessed Christmas with their family and friends and a very Happy New Year. Thanks for all of your support through the year and all of the kind words that people pass along. Stay healthy as it truly is the most important thing!
Top of Page