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Looking Back at a Grand Opening!

May 8, 2012 By Leave a Comment

This past Sunday we celebrated our Grand Re-opening in the new location.  When I look back at the past few months I can’t believe we were able to get the new store up and running as quickly as we did.  In fact, when I look back it’s hard to imagine just how far I’ve come since opening Sewtropolis over 2 years ago!

I started out with just an idea and a deep desire to do what I loved!  Back when I first opened  I did everything myself from teaching classes to ‘manning’ the shop 6 days a week!  I eventually met a couple of women who wanted to be a part of what I was doing and offered to help me out by working a day or two.  That help has now grown to four women including 2 other single moms!

Laura, Harriette, Nikol, Alyssa and Avery (Raina – not pictured)

Laura watching the show!

Harriette manning the cutting table

Avery greeting each customer with a totebag.

To each her own… shoe

Looking back I see that I had already outgrown the old space and that I now have enough momentum behind me to grow into the new space!  I am excited to watch my business grow, but even more excited to share it with all of you!

 

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Ibsen Festival

April 20, 2012 By Leave a Comment

A couple of days ago I talked about going on a roadtrip with my girlfriends.  Our destination: Lanesboro, Minnesota to enjoy shopping, dinner and a play.  I had never even heard of Lanesboro, but I definitely want to go back.  We stayed in a B&B above the Lanesbro Art Center – it was so enormous and wonderful!

The part I enjoyed the most was visiting the Lanesbro Commonweal Theatre to see Pillars of Society by Henrik Ibsen.  The play runs till June and I encourage everyone to see it.  Before the play though we walked around the theatre and explored all the wonderful displays.

Open up the mailbox and you’ll see a drive-in theater.

Peek in the birdhouse and you’ll see a poker game in progress (I always knew those Chickadees were up to something)

Along one wall there are a series of glass jars.

As you get closer you can see that the jars are filled with all kinds of trinkets, each chosen by those who contributed to the theater.

Like these bikes….

Or this Baby grand piano and chandelier - lit up nonetheless.

Up above on the ceiling there are all these ‘tools’ from work to play, and attached to each piece is a set of wings, which I was told were replicas, carved and cast from various regional birds and bats.

Unfortunately I didn’t remember to take pictures of the other sections of the ceiling before we left.  Next time!

Needless to say it was a fun weekend and I can’t wait to go back – hopefully this summer with a bike so that I can explore the area via the miles and miles of bike trails.

Thanks Jen, Harriett and Pat for inviting me!

 

 

 

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Road Trip to Pyrex Heaven

April 18, 2012 By 3 Comments

Over the weekend I went on a little road trip with my friend Jennifer, her sister and mom.  Our destination:   Lanesbro in order to see a play – more on that later.

On the way down and back we stopped to do some antiquing I found quite a few things:  some I brought home, some I left at the store.  Here are  just a few things I left at the store:

A creepy, life sized doll completely made of cloth with a angry scowl on her face…. or maybe that’s just over plucked eyebrows.  I do have to say I love how her hair is done, but not enough to want to bring her home.

Loads of vintage hats, gloves and purses.  I loved these hats, they were all so colorful sitting on this shelf, remnants of a past era when it was very fashionable to wear a hat.  Not so fashionable anymore, but who knows, maybe it’s a look that may be on it’s way back.  Until then I’ll enjoy visiting them.

A basket full of Pez dispensers.  Was it Seinfeld that collected Pez dispensers?  Do they even sell Pez candies anymore?

 

A ceramic peach, sitting on a plate.   It stayed, enough said.  (If you laughed for a good 5 minutes then you got just as much enjoyment from it was we did).

Heaven.  I didn’t bring home everything – but I did bring home …..

A set of 4 bowls and three serving dishes – one divided – in my favorite color: Turquoise.

I am putting these bowls away for now, if I don’t one by one they will be destroyed by my two boys who have systematically destroyed pretty much everything I own.   I only have a couple of years before they move out, in the meantime I’ll work on building a nice display for them in the dream kitchen they’ve inspired me to build.

 

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A Revealing Invitation

April 16, 2012 By 2 Comments

We’ve been in our new location for about 2 weeks now and I can’t tell you how much I am enjoying it.   Everyday for the past 2 weeks time has literally flown by!   Today the store was closed, but I still went there to grab a few things and found myself just sitting behind the counter, enjoying everything that Sewtropolis has become.

If you haven’t stopped by since our move, I encourage you to make the time this Thursday night as the businesses of 48th & Chicago will be having a Spring Ladies Night event.  It starts at 4p and there will be so much going on including:  10% off all merchandise at Sewtropolis;  hair, makeup and skin consultations from our neighbors at Rue 48.  Spark Clinic will have chair massages and yoga classes, Pepitos is offering Two-for-One margaritas and if that isn’t enough to entice you to come out, the Minneapolis Modern Quilters will be having their April quilt challenge reveal.

All the quilters have been busy making quilts from recycled materials – myself included.  We started this challenge in January so I’m expecting there to be lots of beautiful quilts being revealed.  The meeting starts at 6:30 so stop in, grab yourself a beverage and appetizer (provided by Turtle Bread) and make your way to our Party Room to enjoy the show.

Did I mention that I love our new location?

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New Year Goals: One For Me and One For You

January 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Happy New Year!  My how I missed you all!  My life has become just a little bit busier and I’ve had to do some shuffling of priorities – one of the things that I had to temporarily let go is keeping up with this blog.  But, having not blogged for over a month I missed it and am going to work on making it more of a priority.

This past month I have been pondering a lot of things, mainly the changes I want to make for myself and my business in 2012.   The main thing I want to work on is being better about making the time to do the things that make me happy, and sewing, or more specifically quilting, makes me happy!    So in 2012 my goal is to schedule more time to quilt.  Remember when I started to run?  For the past 15 weeks I’ve made running a priority and so have found the time to do it – even if it’s late at night.  I really want to quilt so now I’ll be penciling quilting time in my schedule before scheduling anything else.  My Quilting Plan (or QP) for 2012 is to:

First, remember this post last October where I set a goal of cleaning out and working on my stashed projects throughout 2012.  I’ve done a pretty good job of organizing those projects.  Not 100% done, but enough to know what I’m dealing with.  My first project to tackle will be quilting this quilt that I’ve had for 3-4 years.

January Quilt

I’ll share more about it when I’m finished – maybe (with any luck) it will be tomorrow’s post.

Second, I want to offer one quilting class per month at the store, which means I need to make samples for each of those classes, beginning with this Tokyo Subway quilt.  (I’m already working on my larger queen sized version).

Tokyo Subway Wall Hanging

By the way – this second idea seemed like such a good idea that I rallied the girls at the store and asked them to do the same thing with things they love to make.   Laura is our expert skirt maker so she will be offering a different skirt class each month.    Annie is our professional knitter so she will be offering a new knitting project each month and since Raina is so talented in all areas she will be offering a variety of projects – including up-cycled projects.   Keep an eye on our website for a listing of the classes each month.

To encourage everyone to make 2012 a year of sewing/creating I am offering a Sewing Class Bundle: Buy 4 classes, get the 5th class free.  This offer is good now till January 31, after that you’ll have to wait till 2013.  The cost is $200 and is good for any of our classes.   Once you take 4 classes your 5th class will be free*.  All classes must be taken in 2012.  You can purchase your Sewing Class Bundle online, by stopping in or giving us a call 612-827-9550.

I can’t wait to see all the projects everyone creates in 2012.

Happy New Year everyone!

TTFN (Ta Ta For Now ~ Tigger)

 

 

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