Doors Open, Breathing Begin!

(photo by Le Michelle Nguyen)

So the doors to the store opened last Thursday and, despite the one-week-behind-schedule issue (who can manage to open on time ANYWAYS?), the grand opening went off beautifully! Needless to say that it could have NEVER happened without the help of countless friends, family members and kind strangers!
So if you're looking for me, chances are I'll be here, you can see for yourself what Annabelle and I are up to here and read about our adventures inn shopkeeping over here.
AND don't get mad if I promo like crazy over here, k?
THANKS!

Cutting Tables and Lights!

Well the day started off not so productively, with my AWESOME friends (didn't mean to make that sound sarcastic- Monia and Rob ARE indeed awesome) offering to go to Ikea AND Home Depot (um... are they crazy?) for our workstation tables, only to find out that despite ikea.com saying they HAD stock, our legs were nowhere to be found. Urgh.
Anyways, after a long morning at the park with the boys and Jazzy, I got ready to run around: pick up the sewing machines in Laval and try my luck at the Boucherville Ikea for those dang Fintorps. Bad hair and nasty sunburn to boot. Meanwhile, the menfolk were hard at work building huge ass cutting tables and putting up lights.


Anyways, I think it's taking shape quite well! Next up is the bookcase/fabric/wall unit solution, the black wall (which I am most excited for) and the workstations. We will be ignoring the cash counter (who needs one of those?!) until the very last minute- sounds like a plan?

Barn Raising

It's been a heck of a couple of days- where mundane things end up triggering extraordinary emotional responses and where little tasks (like getting the kids to school) take on gigantic proportions. We've had a lot of highs and many many lows recently, but like I've recently learned, I'm really only fulfilled when shit is hitting the proverbial fan.
I've been trying to write this post about the transition that's about the take place: from stay at home mom to working mom with newborn, and unfortunately, my words are failing me. And it's all been said before, more eloquently and with much better grammar.
So instead I leave you with photos from the store- the painful (but gorgeous) floors and the SIGN! I never expected to have such an emotional response from seeing my own name on a storefront! Call me vain...

Subfloor
Dave and Bruno receiving the floor

Floor: installed!!

Storefront!

So yeah, have I mentioned how lucky I am to have such a handy, strong husband? Because seriously, without him, this would have been way more daunting than it already has been!
And also: it really DOES take a village to raise these kids and get anything done... .so thanks to everyone for pitching in...