GROWING THE SHOP || a little update

The shop has been open for a little over a year now!  I am continually amazed at how time flies. I especially see how fleeting time is when I look at my babes.  Sweet growing girls are 6 and 4 and it feels like they were both just itty-bitty yesterday!

People have asked how things are going at the shop.  Are things busy?  Have you found your rhythm?  I have realized, opening a shop (for me!) has been much like having a baby.  That first year is new and exciting and exhausting.  A little after a year and I have my rhythm.  Just like you figure how to go grocery shopping between naps and how you can be productive (or totally relax) during naps!  I am at that stage now.  It's good, and we have a healthy balance of work and home life.  I look back at last year and I honestly have no idea how I opened the shop, worked at the shop, had two little girls by my side (except for two mornings of pre-school) took on decorating projects, managed the cottage and still helped Matt.  God's grace carried me through!  If you asked me to do it again, I don't know what my answer would be.  Again, just like having a baby.  You ask a mama if she is ready to give birth again and it depends on how fresh that memory of childbirth is :-)

Savanna and I have our routine and we are at the shop together Wednesday mornings.  I also have the best shop girl, sweet Natalie, who is at the shop all four days that we are open.  That is a game changer for me!  I love working at the sho.... seeing customers and friends, helping customers with paint colors and decorating questions!  However, I soon realized that being at the shop all of the time was sucking my creative energy.  Plus, I missed being at home!  I am very much a home body and I missed working in the garden and puttering in the kitchen.

Now that I have my creative energy back and a good home/work/play balance, I am so excited to announce that we are expanding the retail area!  We are moving the paint upstairs so the entire upstairs space will be for creative workshops, paint mixing and creative inspiration. We are growing the retail downstairs and I am so excited for what's coming!  

So, for the next few weeks the shop will look sparse and a little mis-matched as we are busy painting furniture and moving things all around.  And hopefully finding new ways to inspire everyone who walks through our doors!  In the mean time, thank you for the kind notes and emails and I look forward to continuing to share tidbits of our shopkeeping and remodeling journey with you.

xoxo-Darci