Friday, December 31, 2010

Bye bye Christmas, Hello New Year!

Today is the last day of the year 2010, and tomorrow we greet 2011. We had a great Christmas in the Clayden family, Hip Chick got a zoom lens and photoshop so she can get even more tutu pictures next year! I had no idea photoshop was SO complicated so I will have to take a deep breath, say "Ommmmm" and learn patience and persistence to understand it. My friend Molly came over to give me a lesson and her son was a programmer for photoshop and even he said it's a lot to learn. Note to self, it's ok to not try and get this in 5 mins. or less. haha. So as the Christmas season leaves I happily put away all the decorations, tree and signs of clutter at home while everyone in the family is gone. For those of you who know me my favorite saying is 'when it's time to change you gotta re-arrange'....sha na na na na na na na na, sha na na na na.......Partridge famiy, good times...so Christmas is GONE at home and now it's GONE at the shop as of yesterday. BA-BYE...there was much to pack up and put away, as we all know. Much more fun to put it out then to take down for sure.
Now I have a clear palette for the new year and for my par-tay January 15th. For those of you who don't know, I turn one year old Jan 16th and I thought we better celebrate this occasion with a party. We are having John Richmond play his sweet sounds as he was our maestro last year and we throughly enjoyed it. We will have food, drinks, dancing in Daisy and tutu performances by my lovely daughter and friends. A fun day will be had, so I am stocking the store in the hopes of much support and activity.
Yesterday as my friend Annie and I were taking down Christmas we had some customers come in who made my day. Nick and Michelle with their daughter Olive drove all the way from Fremont to visit Hip Chick Designs! I was so honored! Nick had come by about a month previous and purchased a tin storage bin for his lovely wife, just because. What a guy! He told his wife about the shop and she wanted to come see what was going on, sadly she came on a Tuesday and I wasn't there. So sorry Michelle!! But she perservered and came back and boy am I glad they did! They purchased my metal locker so Michelle can display her collection of Pyrex bowls. Wonderful! I know how fun it is to collect things, being a Fiesta collector for years, and being able to display our collections is half the fun. Hopefully Michelle will share her treasure with a picture and I will post it, it's such fun to know what people do with the things they buy after they leave the shop. It's always bittersweet to part with things, I mean of course that's the point and yet you can't help but get a bit attached to some of the things you love. I do get pleasure knowing things are moving on and giving others pleasure, that's so much why I love having the shop. I love to meet people who are vintage treasure hunters and see their joy at acquiring a new purchase and hopefully see them again and again...that makes my 'job' satisfying. So thanks Michelle for making me feel so good yesterday, it's customers like you that make me feel purposeful.
This weekend is the Alameda antique fair, my playground and paradise. What to get? I'll know it when I see it. I bring wads of cash and never leave with a dollar in my pocket. They also have the best kettle corn on the planet. I can hardly stand it it's so good. So I say good bye to 2010, it was a good year. I started my dream business and had amazing adventures. I look forward to much more fun in 2011 and I hope you will join me January 15th to celebrate this fabulous ride. If not I want to thank you for taking time to read my blog, to cheer me on and to support the journey. Let's kick ass in 2011 together!