Warm Thoughts from Cool Heads
“When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.”
--Franklin D. Roosevelt
In retail one thinks a lot about the holiday season. We start to prepare in May. There's a lot of pressure; I know people who spend weeks decorating their stores and they look beautiful, as in Martha Stewart Magazine beautiful. They create these magical worlds with scents and music and lights. This gives me heart palpitations, honest. I'm enchanted the moment I walk in and then, the next moment I think CRAP! I don't have that! My store doesn't smell like gumdrops and hot cider!! Why didn't I think to knit 6000 tiny Christmas stockings? QUICK!! Where can I get the hot cider spray??? The cinnamon scented candles????!!!! CRAP! CRRRAAAAPPPPP!!!! OK! Cool, Lynn, next year I'm gonna start early and get the perfect music and candles and if I knit 2 Christmas stockings every night starting in February and, and.... and I go spiraling down into some deep dark very un-holiday-like place. Now I'm useless to myself, to my family, to my friends and to my customers. In a nutshell I feel inadequate and crabby and fat and I'm not doing that to myself this year. It feels bad, so forget it. Gift to myself: Sanity. I'm not even gonna wrap it!
I'm not saying don't shop -- please, come to the store, we have great stuff! Beautiful yarns from Shibui, Malabrigo, Dream in Color and Skacel; fun and easy projects for you or to gift; lovely and lovingly-handmade project bags with funny cotton prints that make us laugh; pretty crochet hooks that feel so wonderfully smooth; brand new Rocket needles from Addi. But we're not gonna be crazy -- no all-night hours or Black Friday Door Buster Sales and for sure -- no tiny Christmas stockings -- we're just going to be us: here to help you with your projects whether they're for you or for a gift. Or, you can just sit at the table and knit and crochet.
So this year we have a gift for you that you can't buy. I'm not sure what to call it (feel free to submit ideas). Sanity Claus?
Lynn
--Franklin D. Roosevelt
In retail one thinks a lot about the holiday season. We start to prepare in May. There's a lot of pressure; I know people who spend weeks decorating their stores and they look beautiful, as in Martha Stewart Magazine beautiful. They create these magical worlds with scents and music and lights. This gives me heart palpitations, honest. I'm enchanted the moment I walk in and then, the next moment I think CRAP! I don't have that! My store doesn't smell like gumdrops and hot cider!! Why didn't I think to knit 6000 tiny Christmas stockings? QUICK!! Where can I get the hot cider spray??? The cinnamon scented candles????!!!! CRAP! CRRRAAAAPPPPP!!!! OK! Cool, Lynn, next year I'm gonna start early and get the perfect music and candles and if I knit 2 Christmas stockings every night starting in February and, and.... and I go spiraling down into some deep dark very un-holiday-like place. Now I'm useless to myself, to my family, to my friends and to my customers. In a nutshell I feel inadequate and crabby and fat and I'm not doing that to myself this year. It feels bad, so forget it. Gift to myself: Sanity. I'm not even gonna wrap it!
I'm not saying don't shop -- please, come to the store, we have great stuff! Beautiful yarns from Shibui, Malabrigo, Dream in Color and Skacel; fun and easy projects for you or to gift; lovely and lovingly-handmade project bags with funny cotton prints that make us laugh; pretty crochet hooks that feel so wonderfully smooth; brand new Rocket needles from Addi. But we're not gonna be crazy -- no all-night hours or Black Friday Door Buster Sales and for sure -- no tiny Christmas stockings -- we're just going to be us: here to help you with your projects whether they're for you or for a gift. Or, you can just sit at the table and knit and crochet.
So this year we have a gift for you that you can't buy. I'm not sure what to call it (feel free to submit ideas). Sanity Claus?
Lynn