Goodness sakes where oh where did October go? Well, Happy November. I love the month of November, although my favorite time of year is spring; November has alot of special dates for me. November 1, we have been open in our new location one year today!! November 7 is my wedding anniversary, (26 years this year), November 15, a truly wonderful couple; Shirley and Effie Foster share their 70th wedding anniversary, you read correctly 70th wedding anniversary on November 15, November 22 is Turkey Day and November 24 is the store's anniversary. 19 years this year!
As I look back over the years with Yarn Heaven, I realize it was just like raising a child, we had the infant or opening year, than we went into the terrible twos struggling to keep up with the growth. The toddler and preteen years, just like kids, they were loads of fun, learning and truly enjoying the growth. Then the teen years hit, just like a teenager, there were ups and downs and ups again and downs again, there were struggles, hard decisions to make, changes to be made and a different path started. This is the last of our teen age years and I am going to enjoy every day of it!
Nineteen years, even I have to pinch myself. I can't believe that much time has gone by. I have truly loved most of that time being in business. Being honest; there were lots of things I didn't like also. I didn't like having to put cameras in the store, I didn't like having to move, although it meant expanding and that was exciting, just hated the actual moving part of it. I dislike the part of such great loss when a customer passes on and this year there were many of them, I think of Nedra, Shirley and Karen often. I don't like it when my favorite people move to other states, Nancy, Jackie, Andy, and Danelle to name just a very few. It's all a part of life I know, but it's the sad part and as a shop owner sometimes the grief is overwhelming.
The things I have loved most about our little yarn shop here in Arlington; the fact you bring your pets to see me. I get to love on and meet alot of beautiful animals. The fact, I am teaching the next generation in your families how to knit or crochet. Teaching the first generation was fun and back then I never imagined I would have the 2nd generations of families. What an honor. I have loved watching the people who have learned how to knit or crochet here, grow past me in their skills. I loved watching your skills develop and grow, specifically, Lisette, Stacy, Andie, Vicki H, Sharon J., Amanada H. and Greta. You all bring so much to my life. The thing I absolutely love about Yarn Heaven....is all the wonderful, strong women that I have meant. Most of you still amaze me and I am so grateful to be a part of your lives even in a small way. Thank you for the most wonderful 19 years. It has been and continues to be quite the roller coaster ride. There have been times I want to get off of the ride and other times I just don't want it to stop.
Nineteen years ago there was no such thing as "social media sites". Now there are all kinds of those sites and our industry is right up there with some big ones such as; YouTube, Ravelry, PinInterest, Etsy. It seems like in the blink of an eye, we were a country across a big ocean from lots of other countries, now friends from those countrys speak to us daily; thru cell phones, face time, and skype to name a few. We are now forever connected to one another. The State Fair used to be the place to display your work, now we have our own social media sites which gives us a much larger audience for our finished projects, our daily rants and quicker answers to our questions. I sit back in utter amazement at times. I find it to be both invigirating and initimidating both at the same time. I could go on for days, but I am sure there will be more at the end of the month so I will stop here! Just know, how much I appreciate each and every one of you from the bottom of my heart. I know in 19 years there were many that I have not made happy, probably even made a few angry but as a whole, y'all are the best thing that could have happened to me outside of my husband, so thank you so much for 19 wonderful years!
So in celebration of 19 years, we have decided to draw 20 times out of our Small Business Promotion Jar, this month the small business we are promoting is YARN HEAVEN!! For every $50.00 you spend, not including tax, you get your name in the jar for the drawings! So what are we drawing for? How about 19, $19.00 gift certificates to the store and the grand prize drawing will be a wonderful package valued at $400, the package will include a gift certificate (amount to be determined) as well as other items. If you win a gift certificate your name will go back into the jar and still be eligible for the grand prize. We are doing the drawings on the 24th of November, Saturday at 4:00pm.
We have so much new stuff in the store that I will be writing more about that next week. This small business thanks you profusely! We know you have choices and we are proud to be your choice!
Oh, yes, Stitches and Sparkles have been updated:
http://barkstopshere.blogspot.com/
http://barkstopshere.blogspot.com/
Tarie
