Warning: rambling post about house and home and store without the influx of pretty new photos
Well it looks like it is going to be one of those days. My inspiration has been solely focused on store stuff as of late and therefore I haven't had too much to share on the home front. I got brackets in the mail for a great new shelf project but haven't dragged myself to the hardware store to get the wood yet so, on the counter they sit.
I think they call it the February blues.
Anyone else similarly afflicted? I love snow and the blanket of white outside, it is my lack of proximity to it at all times in the outdoors that depresses me I think. I am a serious outdoor person and spend most of my free time out there from spring to fall so in the winter with the -22 C temps that we see I can't stay out there to enjoy it, snow and all for any length of time and just get crabby. I recognize this problem as it is one I inherited directly from my dad. February is not a love month for us, we are snippy and short tempered and just need to be with nature. As my dad says, "I need to move to Arizona" that's his solution anyways.
I try to find safe non-snowplow non-ice covered hazardous places to go for short walks.
Last week was a huge first for me and my little business. I went to my first gift show! Ra Ra! You can conclude your own thoughts about why I would be needing to go to a gift show but it probably means exactly what you might be thinking. We are getting so very much closer to being a reality for locals. My lovely business partner of a husband even went with me. We have done this whole haul together and the giftware side of it is no different although he does fink out of things when the boring bookkeeping side of things needs work.
The show was amazing and eye opening in so many ways and also foot killing but that was to be expected. Many of the great companies that were there to show product would just not work in our area. I was cringing at some of the wholesale prices and that isn't a good sign for moving product in the Niagara Region.
I guess after eye opening prices my next thought when walking through the booths was how amazingly creative the companies and their booth stylists are and in that same respect how amazingly uncreative some shop owners are because the displays are copied right from the show. I guess if it ain't broke don't fix it but it was kind of disheartening to see. I suppose a good copy of inspiration is a sign of flattery though.
I was hunting for unique product for our business as we are mostly a vintage and handmade company so we don't want to get too crazy with the giftware per season and a common problem I see in stores I have been in, is buying similar if not exact product available in big box stores i.e. Homesense, Marshall's etc and expecting to compete with those prices.
I want to be different!
(if that isn't the quote storyline to my life I don't know what is)
I want people to come to me for that item they have been hunting for, for high quality pillows that aren't the mainstream, for that special gift for someone they spend time shopping for. I want people to come in and start to hum because they like the music, the smells and they want to stay awhile. It's lacking in our area a store like this. I had this conversation with a local body store owner around the holidays. She agreed we just don't have that store that you just want to stay in whether to sit and stay or to shop.
This little rant reminds me of a post I read last week on Apartment Therapy. Our store will be targeted at the people who in some way embrace this philosophy.
5 'French Women' Strategies for a Healthy Home
The inspiration for the following words is actually based on books the author of this post is reading on french women and their lives and the simple pleasures to a healthy life. This is not to say only french women do this or have their lives organized, it is just based upon these books.
The author continues on to show how these philosophies from the books can be reflected in ones home in the statements below:
It never ceases to amaze me that the bravery of people who put their homes, their personal spaces into magazines and online because the rest of the world is set to pounce and kill. From the below photo most people deduced that I am destroying art, like creepy men staring at me and want to electrocute myself with a sconce.
If you are one of those people out there wondering, I dust these shelves maybe 3 times a year. I have had them for a year now and have dusted them twice. They aren't gross or slimy, they aren't covered in cobwebs and the artwork still feels kind of elegant to me. I think some people must get an allergic reaction when they are suggested to need to dust with their obvious severe reaction to it through their computer keyboards. The gorgeous antique sconce I so painstaking picked out and chose cloth cord for is not dangling in the tub, gets plugged into a GFI and isn't usually on if I use the tub because I am dark person. It presents itself as more of a mood light for people to go in the bathroom and not have the ceiling light blasting them. The old cooters keep me company.
I also think that we have gotten so used to seeing amazing spaces in all of these outlets we forget that not everyone has a money tree that grows in their backyard. Renovations are exactly that, a renovation. Those of you out there that have a toilet in a weird place or have a doorway that you would love to move but it's in a supporting wall. Work it in. Any space can be beautiful with creativity. Our taps on the bathtub were not in the best place when getting in and out but the original owners of our home put them there. It would have cost huge money to get a new tub to fit a new space and move the taps somewhere along the back wall so we worked with what we had and get in on the side of the tub instead. Small sacrifice I say.
Now on a final note, if you made it this far in the rambling. This next bit is for other store owners so feel free to skip: I need an opinion from you other store keepers. I have just fallen down the rabbit hole of POS vs cash register systems and there truly doesn't seem to be a system that suits me at all. All of the POS systems seem to enforce inventory which is a ridiculous notion in the vintage world. I price my vintage items as I bring them in the door. I keep all the receipts and know I am making the $$ I want. Having to enter an item into inventory only to never carry that item again seems silly. I really want to use a computer/ipad system with a cash drawer and printer but all of these setups require a pos system with a monthly fee. I would love to just have a cash register program, type in the item name and price tally it up and bada boom a receipt pops out. Kind of like the old school using paper method with a receipt pad but a swig of technology thrown in. Anyone aware of a program like that out there? Antique malls use something like this where they type in the item, dealer codes etc but that is a bit more that I need with only 1 vendor. Please feel free to pass along this post to your store owner friends if you think they have some information for me. I need it.
