Dreams to reality

Hello!
Long time no post. It's ok life happens and it's just happening very rapidly for me again. This past month has been yet another flurry of activities at work. We were given unexpected notice to vacate out donated gallery space. I won't get into details but Columbus Underground did a good post about it here.  It was inconvenient timing considering it was also during the peak of my grant writing season and strategic planning for the board of trustees. Amongst some other karfluffel that had to do with grant writing.  Not the best situation but overall for the best. It was just very draining and exhausting of course and mentally not very good for my positive vibes.

In other news we found a store front! A glorious store front! My dream of having a yarn store has finally come to fruition! Through all this mess at work and stress I can turn around and smile because I see the progress on my store and can't help but smile at the work ahead of me for my own business.  It probably won't be ready for at least a month. I need to still get my vendors in order and even then it will be a soft opening. I can't do a grand opening till after the next TNNA (The National Needleworks Association Convention) and when I get back from my trip to Korea. Oh did I not mention that the Hubby and I will be going to Korea?! (we'll get back to that in a moment).

Here are some pictures of the interior space as we are working on it.

So this is the view from the back of the store. Big open spaces. We are keeping this counter type thing, especially since it has outlets built into it. That area will be perfect for classes and setting up sewing machines. We'll be painting it all white and adding oak counters for the knitting machines to mount and for the ball winder and swift to be located.

Here is another view of what will be the class area. You can kind of get a feel for the dimensions by the huge cabinetry sitting in place that is waiting to be taken out to the dump.

By the front window there were these built in benches. Lovely but messed with the height for the window displays. We moved them out about two feet from the window to give me some room to work with. I will need to paint those benches and make cushions for them. Brilliant front windows with lot's of light and will be a joy to make visual displays in.  I will be channeling my days working at the 5th ave Anthropologie visuals in NYC.

Finally here is a view from the front door looking in. Tons and tons of space which is both scary and exciting to fill. Lot's of work ahead for me and the hubby.

No for reals this is the last store related thing.  A mock up of what our outside will potentially look like if approved by the Landlord.

OK now that is out of my system let's talk Korea.
So hubby finally agreed that if we didn't go to Korea now when would we go? Certainly not when we have a little one or two. We also didn't know the store would happen so soon. We also booked the tickets before we knew all the work move/grant writing got crazy.  Anyways it's been another beacon of light in my life to look forward to.  I'm so nervous I haven't been back to Korea in 14 years and this is the hubby's first time ever! It will certainly be an adventure. We are staying in Seoul as I don't have very many relatives that we keep in contact with over there. We will mostly be on our own as my bestie over there will be busy with work. I've found a lot of friends that will be there at the same time which will be nice.  I could take a whole other post about just Korea. So I think I will.  OH and we are also going to Japan on the way back from Korea! This will be completely new for me as I have never been able to spend tourist time in Japan. All I have seen of Tokyo is the bullet train and the American Embassy to renew my passport between countries for my brother's wedding in 2000.

I will try my best to be more diligent about blogging.  I miss it dearly and really should make more time to do this and read up on the blogs I used to follow.  For now good night and CHEERS!