Well hello there! Yes, it has been a while since I have written here, April I think. Time just marches on, because here we are in July already, and the year has just been jam-packed full so far. If I blink I am sure it will be Christmas.
I hope you have been well, and life has been treating you kindly. We have been well, and being kept quite well out of mischief.
So the shop at Paper & Stuff is going well. Many familiar faces have been re-visiting us lately, some of whom we haven't seen for ten years or so. Many have been re-discovering their love of paper – whether through their card making, scrapbooking or mixed media. Plus we have been meeting lots of new folk who have moved into this ever-expanding area of Cooranbong, Morisset and Peninsula, and Lake Macquarie. New stuff keeps hitting the shelves, and thanks to our lovely customers, it marches back out the doors. We try hard to keep our prices good, and have a flash of new, plus plenty in our half price bin, to keep our customers happy.
John and I have had some exciting projects on the hop.
I have been re-building the wedding stationery website over the past few months, which is starting to look good, have a look: www.paperandstuff.com.au and once this is complete, I am going to build another one…
John and I have been really busy with Cooranbong Printing – experiencing a very busy pre-June 30 rush – we have both been at work for the past few weekends getting things out the door before we have two weeks holiday in July.
Our winter and spring couples have also been keeping us busy with reception stationery, and plenty of wedding invitation packages going out our doors in the past month. We have exhibited at three wedding expos so far this year, and have another two to go – these are fun, we enjoy flashing our wares.
In April we attended a really fun festival in Lithgow called Ironfest, and came away all inspired. Those of you who know us from Stitches and Craft days know we love to dress up and have a bit of fun while we work, because life's too short to take seriously… So we have signed up for some creative leather workshops with one of the few remaining tannery's left in Sydney. John wants to learn some new skills and to add leather into his bookbinding skills. I have ideas of a costume for next year's Ironfest.
Our really big excitement this year is that the renovations at home are progressing. Slowly. Really slowly. We are hoping that the next six months to 12 months will bring us a new bathroom, complete with flushing toilet! Our current bathroom now only has one functional item in it. The shower – everything else has gone 'ping' – so we are sort of camping in a house. I still cannot believe how many ducks you have to get in a row with a bathroom. We are sourcing all the materials ourselves, then getting people who actually know what they are doing to do it. As we can afford it. Thus the slowly bit.
One thing that has amazed me with renovating a timber cottage is how much painting there is. Every spare moment – painting, filling, sanding, and then painting all over again. Exciting. We currently have six sets of windows to paint, one set of doors, one room to fill, sand, undercoat and top coat, and then four more doors coming…
Still it is exciting. We have lived in our house for 25 years.
While we have been busy I decided earlier this year that to survive a renovation something has to give. So while my kitting table at home is under a stack of boxes, and we have been working in different directions at work, that we would take a break for a while with the monthly kits. I know that the will disappoint some of our customers. But once the painting is done, and the table has been found again, we will start them up again Promise. Too many ideas running around my head…
Anyway, stay safe, have fun, and remember,
Life's too short to take seriously…