a nudge from my horoscope?

the project has been humming along. boxes are arriving almost daily. what is coming in now i ordered at my very first trade show in maumee back in march, when this idea was just taking shape. i had a vision of where we were going, but truthfully nothing yet on paper. three months down the road we have a plan. the display cases are being built, additional fabric has been ordered to fill them, trims have been selected, along with patterns, books and notions. i have a work crew waiting in the wings to come into our space come july 1st to replace cabinetry and paint. everything is shaping up nicely. except for one thing...

...what to do at the point of sale. i have been researching this from the beginning. i know it is so important, probably the biggest decision to be made. i am usually very good at making decisions, yet this one had me stumped. i went on a shopping spree to quilt stores in ohio, for the sole purpose of seeing what others are doing. i did make one key observation. whatever you have, make sure your employees know how to operate it. yet i still had no clear direction.

so i did some more research. talked to a few people. downloaded trial pos demonstrations. talked to more folks. had some sales reps come to me. in my gut i felt a pos system was a bit much for our little shop, but it is what many are pushing.

then on june 23, i had a lovely woman come see me from heartland. i had met her at the chamber business to business expo. we clicked. i had been hearing about heartland from others that i had talked to. still i sent her on her way admitting that this decision was somewhat intimidating to me and i needed more time to think about it. later that day while supper was cooking, i signed into yahoo to check my email. for some reason i decided to check my horoscope. not something i do everyday. this is what it read...

the first thing i saw was the quickie, it's hard to be objective with the people you love, so don't bother trying today. that statement blew me away. i have been struggling with some behaviors i have been observing in my daughter recently. the one that has prompted me to open this store. i wrote a little about it on her blog.

what came next knocked me off my chair. literally. try to absorb all the details of your current big project - especially those that are somewhat intimidating. it's a really good day for you to watch, learn, wait and then finally, act. i took this as a sign that i needed to get moving. i talked about it with my family at dinner. they are very good at helping to talk things through. and then i made the decision.

i would purchase a sharp xe-a22s cash register and utilize the services of heartland to process my credit cards. i sent karin, the woman who had been with me earlier that day an email letting her know. the next morning matt went with me to purchase the cash register.

so here i am attempting to program the cute little thing. i'm sure my oldest son would have this accomplished in a few short hours. yet i feel the need to do this task myself so i fully and completely understand it. this cash register and i need to become best friends.

sharing the workload

i posted pictures last week of matt opening a collection of fabric for me. i needed access to most of the bolts as i am creating a sample that utilizes just about every sku. a few days later, sarah was with me when we decided to stop for an entirely different reason. the minute she saw the fabric on the table she expressed her dislike. "this is my fabric," she exclaimed with significant disapproval in her voice.

i was quickly reminded that she has taken great ownership in this project. she does see this as her store and her fabric. i tried to explain that matt was our helper. he is going to help us open boxes and move fabric around because it is heavy and we can't do it alone. i'm not sure she was buying into the concept that sharing the labor makes a lighter workload.

i tried a few different ways to help her understand. i think once the store is open it will be easier. she seems to connect better with visuals. then she will be able to see what is truly going on. it was a learning moment for me. i know i will need to continually adjust my thought process for sarah and the other workers we will employ. i recognize it is no different than what i have asked of her teachers all these years. to think differently. to adjust the curriculum. it's not that she can't understand, it's just a different way of thinking.

then i changed the subject. "sarah, which one is your favorite?" this one. the one with the snowmen. with that she was back to being sarah.

floor plans

the clock is ticking away quickly. we were finally able to get into the store to measure and tweak our original drawings.

nothing too fancy. plan old grid paper and highlighters do the trick. fortunately there is no need to move or change anything electrical or plumbing so we really don't need professional drawings, as no permits need to be pulled.

we do have a carpenter extraordinaire, my father, making some custom shelving for us. he has already been busy at his house knowing we have a very tight time frame to make our grand opening festivities in august. he is at the point of painting so we needed to get busy selecting a color.

who knew there are so many colors of white? my golly it makes it difficult. so sarah and i loaded up and headed over to the furniture store where a few pieces are coming from. sarah decided it was this one, clean white, or super white, or extra white depending on where the paint is purchased.

after that selection we took our drawings to office max to have them laminated so we will be able to draw on them with dry erase markers. it will be a useful tool for sarah and the other students working with us.

our director of the "sew"cial lounge is calling the carpenter to inform him the paint has been selected. she begins with,"grandpa, i have to talk to you." i just love how this project is pulling us all together.

on the receiving end

our shipping and receiving supervisor was beginning to wonder if he in fact had a job.

today he met pete our wonderful ups driver who has been doing all of the hauling so far.

meet matt. he is busy this week as we are receiving all kinds of goodies.

today he is unpacking and checking pick tickets to make sure we have received what we thought we would.

he is finding this job is not too bad. he can still listen to the ipod while working. looks as though he may be dancing with a bolt of fruitcake.

ah yes, the entire collection of fruitcake by basicgrey is in the house. sweet, sweet, sweet.