Just an update

Man! Will life EVER settle down to "normal"? Ricky was on vacation all last week, Erin spent a couple of days with us and we all worked at the shop. It seems like it's never ending just to get the place presentable. Well, we'd have been just about ready to open if we hadn't decided to use that last room. I'm glad we did, though. It promises to be the favorite room.

It was a glorious day today. I love our house this time of year. Which is precisely why I don't want a shop that's open every day - or even almost every day. I like being at home. Our house has tons of natural light coming in and I can sit in the den with the windows open, warm - or cool - air wafting in, sometimes with the smell of honeysuckle or roses, the morning sunlight filling the room and wonder how beautiful Heaven will be if it's better than this. I hated to leave, but I had to. Went to the shop and scraped up peel-and-stick tiles. Some were completely loose, others needed a little muscle with a scraper, and way too many had to be chiseled with a hammer hitting the scraper. Ugh. But all that's done now. In a day or two we'll rent a floor cleaner and I'll be on my way to finishing. The end is in sight!! Still lots and lots of work to be done, but it's getting there.

I've started pricing things when there was nothing else I could do. Pricing may prove to be the hardest thing of all. What price is too expensive or too cheap? I've always used eBay as my guide when I had booths, but now..... I'm not so sure I want to do that. Or even can do that. So many of the things in the shop don't have a comparable item on eBay. Then there are things like a nice, floral, crackle glaze creamer. On eBay it might get $5.00 if it sells at all. If I put $5.00 on it for the shop, would people think it was junk? Even though it has decorative value? What if I put $20.00 on it? Would they then look at it and think I was nuts for putting such a high price on something in that condition? I could also look at it like $5 on eBay would have almost $5 shipping on it bringing me to pricing it at $10 which could still seem cheap. Or not?

You see, my biggest problem is that, as a shopper, I look for the bargain. Always looking to resell. I don't know how to see things through the eyes of people who shop the shops instead of the sales. I don't know what "they" think is too expensive or too cheap. When I shop in a shop, I think everything is too expensive and wonder if they ever sell things or if the items sit there forever. Sigh. What a quandry. (That's not spelled right.)

And what about the name of my blog? Does that mean I should be less expensive on everything? I'm not really wanting to change the name. Fun. That's what I want the shop to be. A fun experience. The blog name fits that. I think my stuff is fun, but is it cool enough to demand a higher price than I'm inclined to put on it - which is what I think I'd be willing to pay? I have no idea! I'm so corn-fused!

So, in a week or so I'll have the gang over to take a look and let me know if I'm too cheap. I'll have to feed them well, because I want them to look at everything. Think to themselves what price they'd expect to see then judge how far off I am. I might be too high on some things, too. This is so not like retail where you just double your price. That doesn't work in this business.

Background music was purchased tonight. Frank Sinatra, Bobby Darrin, Ella Fitzgerald, a compilation of "The Great Crooners" and...... Bob Dylan. Had to get a little of me in there! If it was all me, there might be Led Zeppelin or Korn or Pink Floyd or Nine Inch Nails. Or any number of contemporary Christian artists or some bluegrass. I went for sexy music. I think. Isn't it? Sex sells, don't-cha know? LOL

So that's where things are at the moment. Catch-ya later.