Last year I wrote about finding the perfect place for a shop/studio but it was WAY out of my price range and as the year progressed and my energy level waxed and waned and Scott was so incredibly busy with his new businesses, I pretty much gave up the dream. After all, if “someday” hasn’t come by the time you are 62, maybe you just better forget the dream and face reality.
But I had forgotten the “God Factor”. You see, I have been praying for years about having my own little shop/studio where I and others could make stuff and sell it. I love the making of things just not the keeping of things! I had thought about EBay and Etsy, and even put some stuff up for sale but my heart really wanted to teach what I know how to do and to have a place where my friends could come and craft with me anytime they wanted (and I would not have to clean my house or make food!). But until I got my “old age” money, I had no income to really rent a place nor did I want to have the stress of “having” to sell stuff to make my rent. So I put the dream on the back burner….
Last summer, Scott started the Lake Superior Furniture Company in addition to his toboggans, children’s old fashioned sleds, and snowshoe company and we tried to make a website ourselves but got hung up on the shipping costs of our products. They are astronomical (at least for common folk) and so it sat, generating no business but costing us money every month. The wonderful older couple that sold us the Arrowhead Wood Products business and property also have an old building that they used for their offices and businesses and they said we could rent the front of the building so we could have a “Showroom” for all of Scott’s products and I could make stuff to put in there, too. So we redid the space 75%, and then it sat and sat and sat, waiting for me to get in there and get things going. I even went as far as moving a bunch of my craft stuff into a side room where I could work without being seen by the public, yet be within earshot of the showroom. But I just could not find the ambition to go there and work. Until……
I was corresponding with a young woman who also has Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and she has a blog with thousands of followers and she even started a petition and got 40,000 people to sign it to get more funding for research into these “orphan” illnesses and she took it to Washington and met with people who might help get the funding. Anyway, I was telling her how impressed I was with her spirit and fight and how I had finally given up my dream and it was a bittersweet decision. Well, she wrote a lengthy reply back and said that I should not give up, that each one of us must make the most of the life we have and how we must encourage one another to try to make our dreams still happen. Long story…short….she really inspired me to rethink my decision.
A few days later, I had some neighbor gals in and we were catching up and I mentioned the showroom to them and it was like I lit a firecracker under them! They were SO excited and wanted to be a part of it and said they would come and help me get it finished and craft with me and maybe even put their things in the shop on consignment. So in this past week, we moved everything that was being stored in there to a different room so we had a “blank canvass” to work with. Scott had already put in a new floor, had the ceilings painted and put up the rusty, old, tin roofing he had bought for me for the top half of the walls. So most of the work had already been done.
I started a new blog for the studio/shop so if you want to read more about it and see the before and during photos please go to: thelumberjackandthegypsy.wordpress.com
The name is obviously, “The Lumberjack & The Gypsy” and I already bought business cards, address labels, a banner to put outside and some other things from Vista Print.
I am so excited to begin this new chapter of my life. It has been a hard three years for me since I quit working….I felt I had no “purpose” in life. No reason to get out of bed every morning. But God was faithful and His timing was PERFECT and I KNOW that His hand is in this venture. Money is not the object here, it is fellowship with other crafters and hopefully, teaching folks how to find their artistic voice.
Please feel free to share the website with anyone who (whom? I do not know the rule for this and it drives me crazy) may be interested. I will be putting photos up there as the shop/studio blossoms into my dream so please stop by the blog to see how we are doing and what we will have to offer for sale and what classes will be taught in the near future.
We are located a half-mile from Black Bear Casino on Old Hwy 61. Super easy to get to and there is a super good restaurant in Carlton called “The Streetcar” so you can shop and eat!! I hope to be open sometime in August and it will be 10-4 on Fridays and Saturdays to start with. Classes will be during the week or on Saturdays (I have the classroom part partitioned off if need be!)
Please let me know what you think of this new adventure for me.
With love from your Queen who now has Purpose
Your Queen of Everything Fartsy,
rantingsofamadqueen 