Labor Day Blowout Sale!!! This Weekend Only!!!

Fortunately I don't have the personality of a car salesman (although I do have the lungs), but, like a car salesman, this Labor Day weekend only I would be willing to offer 0% financing on, say, a sheet of Japanese paper. I have sympathy for the customer who appreciates beauty but cannot afford to choose between a sheet of expensive paper and a few trips to Starbucks, all in the same week. Shop at Sycamore Hollow and we'll work something out. Ah...it seems like only a few posts ago that I was talking about Memorial Day, and now look where we are - Labor Day! I should be sad, as Rockport is a seasonal town, and goes from streets filled with naked (or nearly so) bodies on their way to the beach, to streets so empty small clothed children could play entire innings of baseball without having to pause for traffic. But then I would call the truant officer because those same children should be in school. And they definitely shouldn't be playing in the street. I don't actually mind Rockport's quiet season(s), because they provide a nice contrast to the rest of the year, and the town itself is just as beautiful and amazing as ever. Have a great weekend, don't labor (get it?) too hard, and join me for my next post: the Website Saga, part III: Will I Ever Get Photos Uploaded?

Projects Unfinished, Finished, and Destroyed.

The list of unfinished projects is long, and grows longer by the day. At least the list as it exists in the real world. The one in my head has little checkmarks beside each project - done and done. Unfortunately I must occupy the real world and try to complete tasks ad infinitum... I have a terrible habit of getting really excited about a creative venture, starting with a fistful of paintbrushes and going at a job - for about 10 minutes. Not even the prospect of public humiliation (so to speak) will prompt me to finish. Witness the example of the back wall behind my counter. "I'll paint a graphic bird/tree/nest thing!" I told myself in a state of delirium. All went well until I got to the boring part, where the bottom of the tree went on and on and on... I just couldn't take painting another blue inch, so I stopped. You think I'd be a little embarrassed to have customers staring at such a glaring example of non-stick-to-it-iveness, but I'm not. On to the next thing!
I did, however, finish with great diligence my design on the chalkboard wall in the store. The theme of birds, once again, prevailed, and I lovingly looked upon my handiwork every day. Until an enterprising young non-customer smeared chalk all over, destroying my minor masterpiece. I confess to not really considering the impermanence of chalk as a medium - which is the whole point of chalkboard paint - when I spent so much time composing my paisley pattern. Next time I should consider completing the paint job instead of the chalk job. Brilliant.

Speaking of brilliant, I post a photo, for your pleasure, of an amazing light fixture (the gold light, not the EXIT sign - yuck), new to Sycamore Hollow but not new to this world in general. No indeed, this piece of goodness has been around for awhile, as evidenced by a little wear and tear and the patina of the gold-leafed surface. It is huge, and if I had my act together I would post the measurements. It will make an impact wherever it ends up. I only wish it could end up in my house, but I am not in the business of keeping this stuff - most of it anyway...

Still working...

It's 9:30 p.m. and I'm still here at the shop, trying to upload photos onto the website. My broadband service has decided to take a break from its busy, busy workload and has reduced online access to a trickle. A sad reality of doing business online is that you have to do business online. "Oh yes! I'll e-mail that photo to you!" I cheerily say to any interested party standing before my counter on a sunny retail afternoon. "Not sure which color you'd like? No problem. I'll e-mail 20 photos to you depicting your options and you can peruse them from the comfort of your own home!" I'm a genius, I tell myself. Until I find a moment to send the photos at the bleary-eyed (for me anyway) hour of 9 p.m. and my computer freezes. Control, alt, delete. Reboot, resend, re-freeze. And so the cycle of life continues... On to happier subjects: those Japanese papers just keep giving and giving! I decoupaged (yuck - not a good word when used as a verb.) a bunch of shadowboxes, then painted the frames white, and hung the whole group in the entryway to the store. One of these days I'll post the dimensions of the shadowboxes for your viewing pleasure, along with your options of paper with which to cover them, just as soon as my computer and I are friends again. Well, friendship might be asking too much. Just as soon as we are on speaking terms.