Wednesday, January 30, 2013

SUPERBOWL SALE....starts Friday

We are gearing up for our annual Superbowl Sale and we're so excited with our first event in 2013 getting underway.  Debbie Liming and Phyllis Yurack, part of the Pennsylvania crew and retreating here this weekend, arrived this afternoon with lists, and projects galore to work on.   We're all working on Sherri Jones two class pre-stitch pieces but Debbie and Phyllis brought many more projects to work on and finish as well.  Phyllis has many of her 2012 Jackie DuPlessis pieces finished, but Debbie isn't as far ahead and poor Sara, well she hasn't completed one piece yet.  But I have high hopes for her and Debbie and Sara are suppose to work on Jackie's pieces this weekend so I'm praying she gets at least one piece finished, just to kick start her stitching again.  She did finish a Sweetheart Tree piece, I must admit,  this week....beautiful and will be on display in the shop.  Unfortunately for me, Sara's falling in love with knitting so it's hard for her to get back to counted cross stitch.  Her finished piece is not framed yet, but at least you can see her beautiful work.   I'm on the downhill side of Hare Pyns, and would have been finished if I didn't have to tear out the entire back panel...darn it all.  Lesson learned! But the most important thing I have to say now is....get out your lists, e-mail us, call us, we don't care how you do it, but let us know your needs by Sunday 4:00 p.m. and you will see a savings.  Anywhere from 10% to 30% off you entire purchase.  30% applies to all purchases $50 and over. 

Friday, January 25, 2013

Snow Day....Perhaps!

While our winter has been very mild...it snowed tonight and we will probably be closed tomorrow, Saturday...January 26th.  It's been an unbelievable two weeks for me...as you read in my last entry I fell last Friday and was laid up at home last Saturday and Sunday.  I hobbled into work on Monday and Tuesday but Wednesday stayed home just to get some stitching done.  I got nothing done as I felt a cold coming on so I was a lump on the sofa and Thursday I woke up and felt terrible so I again didn't go into work, and also didn't pick up a needle.  It drove me crazy that I sat here for 2 days doing nothing.  I mean I could have gotten so much done on Hare Pyns.  Since the temps are down...around 11 degrees here in Ocean City with the wind chill figured in...brrrrr...it was decided I should stay home again Friday since I still was hacking and feeling just not right.  I was beginning to wonder if I was ever going back to work.  But since it was so darn cold I didn't want to go out anyway.  But I was going to brave it Saturday when low and behold the snow fell tonight.  So Sara called me and said, "Snow day tomorrow"...so I'm passing that along to you.  Call first...but I really think Saturday will be our first official snow day of the year.  Update on my Hare Pyns...I finally made the decision and have torn out the middle panel (which is the bargello back of the piece) and will start it over.  I'm tearing out a line of bargello then doing a background stitch on the back panel because both things are really boring to me.  But I know I'd never be able to live with this if I didn't do it over.  This sucks !  I can't wait to get this finished, at this point...nothing worse than thinking you were done with a piece and then finding a mistake and having to redo.  And I've got so many more projects to get to.   Well, I'm going to go back to stitching...hopefully I'll have this done in a few days.

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Things can always get worse

As some of you are already aware, the city is tearing out all the old boardwalk and replacing it with new reinforced boardwalk...a good thing, unless your business is on the boardwalk.  Back in August we were informed this was being done, and forms were sent out to all businesses for us to fill out, letting the city know if we were going to be open as they were going to see that we had ramps build to our business during the weekends...Saturday and Sunday.  They fell behind and got to our street two weeks ago.  They were suppose to be ripping out one week, two weeks to put  the new boardwalk down.  When we saw them coming up towards our street, 3 weeks ago, Vernon went out and spoke with them to remind them (as we were told we better do) we needed a ramp..."no problem" was their reply.  2 Fridays ago Greg Osche came in and said, "Sally you should have told them to put a ramp up for you (as they finally got to our street and ripped up the boards).  I said "They already know about the ramp here and are set to do put it down."  Then he said, "Well they've already put in one for Malibu's...a business beside us...in place."  So I went out and yes, they  had put one for them...and they weren't even open.  So as I'm standing there looking grumpier and grumpier one of the workman came by and asked if there was a problem.  You can imagine what I said to him and he said, "No problem...no one told us you needed a ramp."  O.K., how many people do we need to tell?  Anyway, he put the ramp in and we were good to go.  Because I've dealt with this city before we were proactive, had signs made for back doors here and a sign put up on the on the street...that everyone would have to gain entrance through the back of the shops or hotel and I have to say  our stitchers have been wonderful.  Sara put the information on Facebook and I added it to our website.   Everyone has found their way to our shop...all doors have been used so you never know where they are going to be coming from, so it's make it a little more exciting.  The city was suppose to put the ramps which are taken away during the week, back in place Friday  before they leave.  While Malibu's was definitely in place for the weekend, ours, big surprise, was not.  And this weekend was the Camp Wannastitch weekend.  While this is not one of our sponsored events, it is a wonderful event for our shop.  We are in touch with the group and the organizer let the stitchers know as well how to get in our shop so we were thrilled they found us and it was fun to have so many stitchers, many old friends by now, and meet new friends.  Friday was busy and we were tired at day's end.  We were closing and I wanted to make sure the office was closed up so I said good bye to Sara and went into the office.  This is where  things went wrong.  I decided to use the restroom, didn't turn on the lights as I went through the bedroom to the bathroom, ran into a trunk which threw off my balance and sent me crashing to the floor on my knees.  The screaming all the way down was enough to scare me to death, but when I realized my situation I began to panic.  I was alone, it was freezing in the room because there is no heat...Sara and Mary were both gone, so no one was around, and I didn't have my phone with  me.  After the screaming stopped, after a few minutes, and I evaluated my condition for anything broken...blessfully nothing was...I  realized I had better try to figure out what to do.  Because of my size I have difficulty getting off the floor normally, having fallen on my knees made it impossible for me to get on my knees as the pain was too great.  I really thought I would be there all night so began to evaluate what was within arms reach for warmth, etc.  I was able reach a pillow and there was a blanket so I felt a little better...oh yeah, my need for the bathroom was over as the fall made me pee all over myself...which wasn't helping my situation.  Anyway, I tried to scoot on my butt to the door where there are steps thinking perhaps I could get up there, but I simply didn't have the strength to get there.  Then I knew I would have to get  on my knees to get up or I would be there all night.  So I put the pillow down, just grit my teeth and did it.  I was never to glad to be on my feet in my life.  I knew I  would be able to get home... my knees were hurting, especially my left  knee which was really in pain, but able to hold my weight.  I keep a change of cloths for emergencies such as this in the office so I was able to change my clothes and get the hell out.  Unfortunately when I hit the back door the walkway was icy because of the rain, snow and freezing temps so walking was a challenge but I made it home safely.  I collapsed on the sofa and thanked God for the warmth.  I thought I was home free until I tried to get up to go to the bathroom later in the evening.   I need to find an alternative to going to the bathroom I think.  Anyway, I couldn't get up which paniced me....how the hell was I going to get to the bathroom?  After probably 1 1/2 hrs...I finally rocked myself  off the sofa with the help of one of my canes which I had grabbed on the way into the house.  Because I sometimes have balance issues in the morning I keep canes all over the house.  Debbie Liming gave me a wonderful traveling cane which has become invaluable during the time.  Anyway, once I saw I had a problem getting up  I began to worry about getting to work on Saturday with the major event in town.  At 5:30 a.m. I knew I was in trouble and to add to my problem I had left my phone at work.  So I e-mailed Sara and Mary and explained I had a problem.   Sara finally saw the e-mail around 9:00 a.m.  Meanwhile I spent at least 2 hrs trying to get up so I was really panicing over the bathroom issue as well as getting to work.  Sara called Mary and asked her to  come downstairs to check on me.  I was never so relieved to see someone.  I explained that I was late for work and had to get off the sofa.  She just laughed and said, "Mom, get serious...how are you going to work?"  But I had figured that out....if I could just get  there (and I hadn't really  thought this through) I could sit on the high   stool and be behind the counter ringing up the sales, and answering questions.  Mary asked how I intended to get up the stairs...which made me see I had a bigger problem than I originally thought.  Needless to say I didn't go....but Mary and Brian got me ice  packs and a knee brace and I found that by the end of the day I was able to get off   the sofa in 1/2 hour...Whoppee!!!  Sara sent Michael over with my  phone and I asked him to stay with his mother and help her until Mary could get there.   I felt guilty but relieved that the shop was being taken care of.  Sara did a wonderful job, with Mary's  help and we had a great day thanks to Camp Wannastitch.  Today it's still taking me 1/2 to get off the sofa and Sara is alone today, but I know she can handle it.  As for my Michael, he drove Sara crazy after 1/2 hr. so she sent him home yesterday so thank God Mary was  able get there for backup.  And that's how our weekend is going, how's yours.  And the final insult....I have been trying to get the pre-stitch for the Sherri Jones Hare Pyns class done...and realized as I went to do the final panel I had a misstep on the second panel and while I thought I would be done today...I have to tear out the second panel and start it over....and I ran out of silk to do it.  Yes, just when I think it couldn't get worse....it always can.  Hope your day is going better than mine.  Talk to you later