I hope everyone is having a good holiday so far...
We have decided to have a "Boxing Week" Sale...
Copy is as follows:
BOXING WEEK SALE!**
Dec 26 - 31
Stone set jewellery 25% off!
Nag Champa Incense 40g box ½ price!
Everything else 10% off!*
* excludes consignor items
**please note: sale does not apply to items already on layaway or hold. In order to receive sale price, item(s) must be purchased in full before close of business on December 31, 2008
Als0, if you make it in, please be advised that there may be wet paint (we're doing the purple side in piecework fashion...it's a lot harder to paint around the stuff). I'll do my best to flag the wet spots...
Finally, at the last Fireside Chat it was decided that Boxing Day was pretty busy and everyone was okay cancelling tonight's chat. That being said, feel free to drop by and say "hi"!
Friday, December 26, 2008
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
23 December 2008
So just a quick post here to let everyone know that we plan to be open later tonight (Tuesday)(until 8 pm) for any last minute shoppers. We will be open Christmas Eve until 6 pm.
We'll be closed Christmas Day and New Year's Day but *open* Boxing Day regular hours. There may be some sales happening on Boxing Day but right now I'm not sure on what (yes, I'm just that organized right now).
In other news, the painting is coming along. Ceiling's done, walls are coming along. Office is, officially, no longer "icky".
We'll be closed Christmas Day and New Year's Day but *open* Boxing Day regular hours. There may be some sales happening on Boxing Day but right now I'm not sure on what (yes, I'm just that organized right now).
In other news, the painting is coming along. Ceiling's done, walls are coming along. Office is, officially, no longer "icky".
Sunday, December 14, 2008
13 December 2008
Just a quick update...
We've finished painting the new side and have started slowly painting the original side. I've got about 1/3 of the ceiling done. It's tedious because I have to use a brush so that I can jam paint into all the little holes in the ceiling tile because that's how the original dark purple paint was applied. They sure rammed it in there...
We also, for some bizarre reason, decided to start painting just the front wall by the windows. Wasn't really planned. It's hard to explain and I blame overwork mixed with paint fumes.
Anyway, long story short: the store is a bit of mess, quite disorganized, and everyone is a little shell shocked from the speed of change.
Also, apparently, the staff has decided that the very back office space on the new side is "icky". Energetically, I guess, because physically it's a whole lot less gross since we reboarded the walls. I should say "since Cam Marshall reboarded the walls" because he's done the bulk of that work and a whole lot of other stuff. For free. Out of the goodness of his heart. I can't thank him enough.
But the energetic fug in the back office space - I honestly don't feel it. If anything, the space feels revitalized by the removal of the dank carpet, rotting walls, flickery-dead fluorescent lights and the (you guessed it: dusty rose) plastic tablecloth that was screwed over the window.
It's already so bright in there during the day that a couple of times I went to switch the light off and realized it was just natural daylight coming in through the window. And it's December!
I think once it's properly painted, the new floor is in, and there's nice curtains hiding the forbidding array of metal mesh, welded security bars, and the glass break detector hardware on the glass, it will be quite a nice space. I'm putting a lot of energy into this particular space because I know it's where I'm going to be spending the bulk of my time.
That being said, we're still going to do a proper cleansing of the entire place just to remove anything that might be hanging around...well, except for the strange but friendly little creature I've been seeing ever since we took over the space a couple of weeks ago. Of course, that could just be entirely a by-product of my lack of sleep...
We've finished painting the new side and have started slowly painting the original side. I've got about 1/3 of the ceiling done. It's tedious because I have to use a brush so that I can jam paint into all the little holes in the ceiling tile because that's how the original dark purple paint was applied. They sure rammed it in there...
We also, for some bizarre reason, decided to start painting just the front wall by the windows. Wasn't really planned. It's hard to explain and I blame overwork mixed with paint fumes.
Anyway, long story short: the store is a bit of mess, quite disorganized, and everyone is a little shell shocked from the speed of change.
Also, apparently, the staff has decided that the very back office space on the new side is "icky". Energetically, I guess, because physically it's a whole lot less gross since we reboarded the walls. I should say "since Cam Marshall reboarded the walls" because he's done the bulk of that work and a whole lot of other stuff. For free. Out of the goodness of his heart. I can't thank him enough.
But the energetic fug in the back office space - I honestly don't feel it. If anything, the space feels revitalized by the removal of the dank carpet, rotting walls, flickery-dead fluorescent lights and the (you guessed it: dusty rose) plastic tablecloth that was screwed over the window.
It's already so bright in there during the day that a couple of times I went to switch the light off and realized it was just natural daylight coming in through the window. And it's December!
I think once it's properly painted, the new floor is in, and there's nice curtains hiding the forbidding array of metal mesh, welded security bars, and the glass break detector hardware on the glass, it will be quite a nice space. I'm putting a lot of energy into this particular space because I know it's where I'm going to be spending the bulk of my time.
That being said, we're still going to do a proper cleansing of the entire place just to remove anything that might be hanging around...well, except for the strange but friendly little creature I've been seeing ever since we took over the space a couple of weeks ago. Of course, that could just be entirely a by-product of my lack of sleep...
Sunday, December 7, 2008
7 December 2008
So we've got the new side open for business. It's a temporary set-up until we get a chance to paint the original side to match (yes, the purple is going away...)
The fairy/gnome mural that was in the archway has found a new home. It is to be installed in a children's playroom on an acreage outside the city. It will be, I'm sure, appreciated for years to come.
The Grand Re-Opening Sale has been held over until today. We've got 40 g Nag Champa on sale for half price ($2.50/box or $30 for a carton of 12). Any jewellery with a stone set into it (earrings, pendants, rings) is 25% off as well (excluding consignor items).
There is still a prodigious amount of food including chocolates, really good meat and cheese, vegetables, cookies and crackers...
Additionally, the Congregationalist Wiccan Assembly of Alberta is holding their Women's Mysteries in the back room this afternoon around 2 pm. If you're a woman over the age of majority, or a (female) minor with a (female) guardian, feel free to drop by and participate.
The fairy/gnome mural that was in the archway has found a new home. It is to be installed in a children's playroom on an acreage outside the city. It will be, I'm sure, appreciated for years to come.
The Grand Re-Opening Sale has been held over until today. We've got 40 g Nag Champa on sale for half price ($2.50/box or $30 for a carton of 12). Any jewellery with a stone set into it (earrings, pendants, rings) is 25% off as well (excluding consignor items).
There is still a prodigious amount of food including chocolates, really good meat and cheese, vegetables, cookies and crackers...
Additionally, the Congregationalist Wiccan Assembly of Alberta is holding their Women's Mysteries in the back room this afternoon around 2 pm. If you're a woman over the age of majority, or a (female) minor with a (female) guardian, feel free to drop by and participate.
Friday, December 5, 2008
5 December 2008
So no...we're not dead...yet...
It's been what they call "a flurry of activity" the last few days. The last of those nasty wooden shelves has been painted. Very painstaking work, that, because they're made of slats of wood spaced far enough apart that you can't use the roller on them and when they're brush painted, they're prone to dripping paint like crazy. It is my belief that they are the original shelves purchased from Zellers or Ikea or somewhere, for cheap, way back when the store was stil in its infancy. I occasionally think somewhat unkind thoughts at the person who, at that time, decided it was a good idea to them dark purple (what on earth was wrong with the natural wood finish?) Anyway...
My eternal gratitude to Allison Currie, Alexis (sorry, I can't recall your last name right now but as far as I know you're the only Alexis around...), Chris Wityshyn, Craig Sheppard, Alice Borawski, and Cam Marshall for taking on that daunting task. It's taken the better part of the week just to get these done because we have to shift them out, three shelves at a time, so that the product currently for sale has somewhere to live. If you come to the Open House and find something you want to buy has bonded to the not-quite-cured paint on the shelf, please let us know...we'll free it for you using a variety of clever methods that we've already had to work out.
Also, I want to thank Cam twice here because he's given up an entire week of his life to help us out with some really awesomely disgusting jobs. Jobs that *I* probably wouldn't do for any amount money, he's doing for us, out of the goodness of his heart, and I have no idea how to repay him. Example: there is a room on the new side of the store that faces out onto the back parking area. I have no idea what the Leprechauns were using for this space but OMG (yes, *that* bad) was that room a pit from a dark and firey region of Christian Lore. Let me be clear: I don't think the Leprechauns had anything to do with the state of the room. I just think spaces get old and stale and deteriorate all on their own given enough time and an ambivalent landlord.
Imagine a bedroom sized space, painted a dilute Pepto pink, with um...stains...soaked into the walls. There are holes in the wall, including a cat door sized square cut right through into the bathroom hallway in the corner. Actually, I'm pretty sure it *was* a cat door. The carpet, an anonymous dark brown, is nasty. It's also recently been flooded by a mishap involving a handyman who actually thought it was a good idea to fix one of the toilets using rotten plywood from the old Where Faeries Live sign that was out by the Dumpster. I wish I was kidding but I'm not.
And the room is cold...I mean...*cold*....like someone there needs an exorcism or something. But it's not that. It's the fact that, looking through one of the holes in the wall, you can see two inches of airspace and then the concrete cinderblock of the outside wall. There is absolutely no insulation in there except for the still toilet-water-soggy yellow foam that someone has painstakingly and thoroughly shoved in all the cracks where the drywall meets the floor.
There is a window in that room - a steel mesh covered window that has a...you guessed it...pink! tablecloth stapled over it with yellow insulation shoved behind it. Oh, and another layer of clear plastic stapled over that. I shake my head with wonder at the person who did that...could they not feel the icy air whistling in through all the other cracks in the wall?
So...long story short, Cam helped me tear out the carpet, tear down the two outside facing walls' drywall, jam bats of insulation in there and reboard. Sounds easy. Wasn't. Trust me on that.
But that room is going to look SO much better soon.
There's more to write but we are late for an appointment.
Later...
Also, don't forget , our Open House is...ack! Tomorrow!
It's been what they call "a flurry of activity" the last few days. The last of those nasty wooden shelves has been painted. Very painstaking work, that, because they're made of slats of wood spaced far enough apart that you can't use the roller on them and when they're brush painted, they're prone to dripping paint like crazy. It is my belief that they are the original shelves purchased from Zellers or Ikea or somewhere, for cheap, way back when the store was stil in its infancy. I occasionally think somewhat unkind thoughts at the person who, at that time, decided it was a good idea to them dark purple (what on earth was wrong with the natural wood finish?) Anyway...
My eternal gratitude to Allison Currie, Alexis (sorry, I can't recall your last name right now but as far as I know you're the only Alexis around...), Chris Wityshyn, Craig Sheppard, Alice Borawski, and Cam Marshall for taking on that daunting task. It's taken the better part of the week just to get these done because we have to shift them out, three shelves at a time, so that the product currently for sale has somewhere to live. If you come to the Open House and find something you want to buy has bonded to the not-quite-cured paint on the shelf, please let us know...we'll free it for you using a variety of clever methods that we've already had to work out.
Also, I want to thank Cam twice here because he's given up an entire week of his life to help us out with some really awesomely disgusting jobs. Jobs that *I* probably wouldn't do for any amount money, he's doing for us, out of the goodness of his heart, and I have no idea how to repay him. Example: there is a room on the new side of the store that faces out onto the back parking area. I have no idea what the Leprechauns were using for this space but OMG (yes, *that* bad) was that room a pit from a dark and firey region of Christian Lore. Let me be clear: I don't think the Leprechauns had anything to do with the state of the room. I just think spaces get old and stale and deteriorate all on their own given enough time and an ambivalent landlord.
Imagine a bedroom sized space, painted a dilute Pepto pink, with um...stains...soaked into the walls. There are holes in the wall, including a cat door sized square cut right through into the bathroom hallway in the corner. Actually, I'm pretty sure it *was* a cat door. The carpet, an anonymous dark brown, is nasty. It's also recently been flooded by a mishap involving a handyman who actually thought it was a good idea to fix one of the toilets using rotten plywood from the old Where Faeries Live sign that was out by the Dumpster. I wish I was kidding but I'm not.
And the room is cold...I mean...*cold*....like someone there needs an exorcism or something. But it's not that. It's the fact that, looking through one of the holes in the wall, you can see two inches of airspace and then the concrete cinderblock of the outside wall. There is absolutely no insulation in there except for the still toilet-water-soggy yellow foam that someone has painstakingly and thoroughly shoved in all the cracks where the drywall meets the floor.
There is a window in that room - a steel mesh covered window that has a...you guessed it...pink! tablecloth stapled over it with yellow insulation shoved behind it. Oh, and another layer of clear plastic stapled over that. I shake my head with wonder at the person who did that...could they not feel the icy air whistling in through all the other cracks in the wall?
So...long story short, Cam helped me tear out the carpet, tear down the two outside facing walls' drywall, jam bats of insulation in there and reboard. Sounds easy. Wasn't. Trust me on that.
But that room is going to look SO much better soon.
There's more to write but we are late for an appointment.
Later...
Also, don't forget , our Open House is...ack! Tomorrow!
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
2 December 2008
So we've spent the day repainting the former Leprechaun kingdom. The acid green faux brickwork is gone. It took surprisingly few coats of paint to cover it. We chose a semi-gloss paint called "Lemon Pearl". It's a very subtle creamy yellow. It's also very shiny. We could see the lights reflected in it even after it dried. It will be very, very bright in there once all the lights get fixed tomorrow.
With all that drying paint, the humidity got crazy high in Part II. There were rivulets of paint mixed with condensation running down the windows by the time we were done. We had a bit of a dilemma with that and finally solved it by removing the mural in the arch. It had to be done sooner or later. We just chose the sooner option.
Anyway, we managed to get the mural out mostly intact. It is, in case you were curious, painted directly on drywall panels. Two of them, in fact. The mural is in two pieces now (split right down the middle) but should be relatively easy to reassemble and touch up. I'm pretty sure we did more damage to the building than we did to the mural, so careful were we removing it with the intention of saving it. Geepers I hope our landlord doesn't read this.
Sorry, it seems to me I'm very not being coherent much. Blame paint fumes mixed with lack of sleep.
Anyway, the archway is open again for the first time in I don't know how many years. We've got a lot of fixing to do tomorrow.
I want to express my extreme gratitude to the following people who showed up and generously donated their precious time and efforts toward the cause today:
Alice Borawski,
Cameron Marshall,
Allison Currie,
Craig Sheppard
and Rob Swyrd
You guys absolutely rock!
We're back at it tomorrow. Now that the painting is done we're going to clean up and get started on the floor...
On a related note, if anyone has a good recommendation as to how to get paint/primer out of a dog, please drop me a line.
With all that drying paint, the humidity got crazy high in Part II. There were rivulets of paint mixed with condensation running down the windows by the time we were done. We had a bit of a dilemma with that and finally solved it by removing the mural in the arch. It had to be done sooner or later. We just chose the sooner option.
Anyway, we managed to get the mural out mostly intact. It is, in case you were curious, painted directly on drywall panels. Two of them, in fact. The mural is in two pieces now (split right down the middle) but should be relatively easy to reassemble and touch up. I'm pretty sure we did more damage to the building than we did to the mural, so careful were we removing it with the intention of saving it. Geepers I hope our landlord doesn't read this.
Sorry, it seems to me I'm very not being coherent much. Blame paint fumes mixed with lack of sleep.
Anyway, the archway is open again for the first time in I don't know how many years. We've got a lot of fixing to do tomorrow.
I want to express my extreme gratitude to the following people who showed up and generously donated their precious time and efforts toward the cause today:
Alice Borawski,
Cameron Marshall,
Allison Currie,
Craig Sheppard
and Rob Swyrd
You guys absolutely rock!
We're back at it tomorrow. Now that the painting is done we're going to clean up and get started on the floor...
On a related note, if anyone has a good recommendation as to how to get paint/primer out of a dog, please drop me a line.
2 December 2008
Hello all...
The Leprechauns next door have completed their most daunting task and have managed to get all their stuff packed and away by December 1. I honestly would not have believed they could do it in such a short time but they did. They had an incredible amount of *stuff* in that place. I'm not sure where it all went but I do know the empty space now looks positively cavernous, especially with the eye of someone who has to renovate said space in less than a week.
I know the Leprechauns are happy to be moving on to other things (to quell any rumours about a hostile takeover...it was completely *their* idea to move out and it came as an absolute shock out of the blue to us on Samhain when we got the call from the landlord asking if we wanted the space. Trust me...if we'd had anything to say about the timing, we surely would not have picked the cusp of our busiest season to undertake work of this magnitude).
At any rate, our parting with the Leprechauns was an amicable one and I will really miss them both.
On a related note, I realize this doesn't give much time but we've got confirmation of painting happening today, December 2, 2008!
Ed and I and others will be at Where Faeries Live from 9 am onward. The goal today is to get the walls painted in Part II.
We need to move fast on the painting because the flooring we propose for this space is three step process that needs to cure between applications. And the Open House is this coming Saturday. Ambitious timeline indeed.
There is also a large number of shelves that need to be painted, which will be fun because most of them still have product on them. Interesting times but I think we'll be able to figure it out (anyone remember those little handheld games from the 70's where you pushed little plastic squares around in a frame in an attempt to sort them out into a picture? It'll be like that. Erg. I'm betraying my age.)
Anyway, if you've got time and want to drop by to help out, wear your grubby clothes and expect to be worked like a rented mule. The payoff will be a food bribe of some kind. I'm thinking pizza (no beer though...alcohol, ladders, and paint, from my own personal experience, sadly, do not mix well)
The Leprechauns next door have completed their most daunting task and have managed to get all their stuff packed and away by December 1. I honestly would not have believed they could do it in such a short time but they did. They had an incredible amount of *stuff* in that place. I'm not sure where it all went but I do know the empty space now looks positively cavernous, especially with the eye of someone who has to renovate said space in less than a week.
I know the Leprechauns are happy to be moving on to other things (to quell any rumours about a hostile takeover...it was completely *their* idea to move out and it came as an absolute shock out of the blue to us on Samhain when we got the call from the landlord asking if we wanted the space. Trust me...if we'd had anything to say about the timing, we surely would not have picked the cusp of our busiest season to undertake work of this magnitude).
At any rate, our parting with the Leprechauns was an amicable one and I will really miss them both.
On a related note, I realize this doesn't give much time but we've got confirmation of painting happening today, December 2, 2008!
Ed and I and others will be at Where Faeries Live from 9 am onward. The goal today is to get the walls painted in Part II.
We need to move fast on the painting because the flooring we propose for this space is three step process that needs to cure between applications. And the Open House is this coming Saturday. Ambitious timeline indeed.
There is also a large number of shelves that need to be painted, which will be fun because most of them still have product on them. Interesting times but I think we'll be able to figure it out (anyone remember those little handheld games from the 70's where you pushed little plastic squares around in a frame in an attempt to sort them out into a picture? It'll be like that. Erg. I'm betraying my age.)
Anyway, if you've got time and want to drop by to help out, wear your grubby clothes and expect to be worked like a rented mule. The payoff will be a food bribe of some kind. I'm thinking pizza (no beer though...alcohol, ladders, and paint, from my own personal experience, sadly, do not mix well)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)