(First, thanks for the comments of support and understanding on my previous post.  I’m currently guiltily consuming the full-strength Pepsi, but only because it’s (a) raining and (b) I’m powering through bookkeeping/taxes).

I’m sure you are wondering, What’s official? So many options:

(1) It’s officially spring.  We just had our very first thunderstorm, completely with lightning, thunder, and intense rain.  For a few minutes we couldn’t see the trees out our west windows.  It blew through quick, though, I think it took me longer to shut off and unplug the computers than it did for the storm to actually happen.  Mark took his motorcycle out to the farm today.  He thinks he’ll wait until things dry up a bit before he even considers coming home, but I’ve offered to go get him. (Like that minivan commercial…”Daddy just had to get a motorcycle,”  only we don’t own a minivan…)

(2) Today is one of those days when I officially love quilting for other people.  A customer brought me the CUTEST quilt with circles and polka dots…and Oh. My.  I forgot to ask if I can share pictures, I’ve sent her an e-mail asking permission, hopefully she says yes, so I won’t just be a big old tease.  (And yes, some days I officially hate quilting for other people, but you take the bad with the good and it works out in the end. Mostly.)

The thing that’s upper most in my mind, though, is this:

Yesterday was officially my first day of being out of my lease on the shop.  Although, I do still have keys.  Hmm, have to work on getting those back to my landlord.

Technically, I’ve been moved home for the better part of 2 weeks, but yesterday it was official and I still feel good about it.  I do still have a monster of a mess here at home, but we’re making progress.  For instance, I no longer have garbage bags full of yarn in my bathtub. (They’ve been moved to a great big pile in the basement…)

I still need to figure out where the online shop fits into my future, and you’ll like be seeing some more sales now that I’m getting closer to being settled in.  (And I’ll especially be hoping to clear out some things like knitting needles and patterns, oh and everything else, too…).

Mostly though, you guys will have to be on the lookout for me to start putting into motion a bunch of things that I’ve waiting/wanting to do for ages, but have let go until now.  A 3rd self-published book, patterns, TWO new online freehand quilting classes, and oh yes:  making more quilts.  ANd probably some more knitting, too.

And probably more blogging.  For the last 2 years, there have been a lot of stories I haven’t shared because I didn’t want to get in trouble for telling whack-a-doodle retail customer stories.

Here’s one:

Did I ever tell you about the lady that walked in the door, stopped right inside and stood, staring at the yarn.   “Well.  This isn’t the kind of store I was expecting to find.  I thought you were a hardware store!”

And then she proceeded to give me a 5 minute lecture about how KNOTS AND BOLTS was a hardware related term.  Because it’s like Nuts and Bolts, you know.

Um, yeah.  Got it.

I’ve now pretty much forgotten nearly all of my wacky customer stories, but I’m sure I’ll have a bunch of new wacky-Suzanne stories to share.  The boys will still make guest appearances, but they’ve gotten even worse about letting me take their pictures (they now ask “You aren’t going to post that, are you?”), and…even though I feel it’s my job to embarrass them as much as possible, I do think it’s important that I respect their privacy.

Okay.  Time to push publish on this entry and get busy.  I’ve got patterns and books and classes and quilts and a bazillion other things to work on.

Happy Spring!

Suzanne

p.s. Sorry for the lack of pictures.  I’ll do better next time.