{"id":1387,"date":"2013-07-13T11:25:24","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T18:25:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/box5710.temp.domains\/~pippinst\/blog\/?p=1387"},"modified":"2013-07-13T11:35:35","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T18:35:35","slug":"good-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pippinstudio.com\/blog\/2013\/07\/13\/good-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Good times"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Image<\/a>Well I’ve had a pretty fun week with Pippin. \u00a0Friday afternoon I sat in a sunny office, cranked the good tunes, put my feet\u00a0up,<\/span>\u00a0and thought back and grinned just a little bit.<\/p>\n

(You knew I’d have hot pink pants right??)<\/p>\n

I’ve been painting pretty hard and Thursday I had an opportunity to leave it behind for a day and drive across the border down to Everett, Washington, to visit a shop there called\u00a0The Needlepointer<\/a>. \u00a0They are about to celebrate twenty years in the business and I had just finished my first order for them. \u00a0Everett is only a few hours away and with the local stitching store here closing a few years ago it seemed like a great chance to meet the owner, who is delightful, and to have a taste of that juicy stitching environment that I miss. \u00a0And I love a road trip<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Before I went I thought, hey, maybe I should take some pillows and things down. \u00a0I haven’t got to figuring out trunk shows yet and with no local store all of my samples have been living in big zippered bags under my bed. \u00a0I loved the thought of them being out and about. \u00a0Checked with Jill of the Needlepointer and that worked, so early Thursday morning I threw a bunch of them into the back of my car and headed out. \u00a0A few hours to just let thoughts play in my head. \u00a0Chai in hand. Tunes playing. \u00a0Big peaceful sigh. \u00a0It always comes down to the little things doesn’t it?<\/p>\n

Except no!\"Image<\/a><\/p>\n

These things here? \u00a0These cushions and pillows? \u00a0These troublemakers just about landed me in the slammer.<\/p>\n

Turns out it’s not as simple as just taking my things down to hang out in a store for a while. I had my first opportunity to go inside that building at the border that I usually just drive past. \u00a0Lots of questions. \u00a0Have I ever been to Hong Kong? \u00a0Am I sure? A purse check (Oh man. So many beach cookie crumbs. \u00a0Sorry!) \u00a0A car search. (So much sand!) \u00a0I was starting to feel like a bad seed. \u00a0A rogue. \u00a0Rapscallion. \u00a0Was picturing my Instagram picture of wrists in handcuffs with the caption “So this happened.” \u00a0Wondered if it was poor form if the first time I ever met Jill she was posting my bail.<\/p>\n

But it was OK. \u00a0A few things to do differently next time, a gentle finger wag and they let me on my way. \u00a0Whew.<\/p>\n

I was a bit out of sorts, I’m a wee timorous beastie inside, but I shook it off after a bit and enjoyed the drive. \u00a0Got to The Needlepointer, which is such a nice space full of good things, really well thought and laid out, and met Jill and her wonderful workmates Mary and Brian. \u00a0It was delicious<\/em> to see the threads all hanging on the wall. \u00a0So<\/em> delicious that I forgot to take a picture. \u00a0But I drooled. \u00a0Oh my goodness I drooled. \u00a0 I miss just standing drinking in the colours. \u00a0I had the best best time hanging out, soaking up the environment, and making some new friends. \u00a0We all got revved up on some ideas and sat and brainstormed and planned and inside the whole time in the back of my mind I was thinking, “I am SO lucky!” \u00a0I’m doing something I love, getting to meet such nice people, learning so much. \u00a0Someday I hope to do a few longer road trips and get to some of the other shops who have been so encouraging to me. \u00a0Me and this Pippin venture are sort of living the life right now, and I’m so grateful. \u00a0A lot of growing pains, bit of a steep learning curve, but a lot of fun. \u00a0Finding myself sitting on the floor of the shop with Jill was one of those ah hah moments. \u00a0Yup, I’m liking this a lot. \u00a0She and Brian and Mary were all so encouraging and generous in offering up ideas and hints and opportunities and energy! \u00a0Love that energy!!!<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/a><\/p>\n

After that nice afternoon I slipped out but drove around Everett a bit before heading back. What a funky place. \u00a0I fell in love with all of the old houses with their friendly porches. \u00a0Some of them look like they’ve had a time, but I get that. \u00a0They felt warm.\"Image<\/a>Can you see all of the wind chimes on the porch of this one? \u00a0How cool is that? \u00a0I want to be there on a summer evening after a hot day when you feel that first little cool stirring of a breeze, and hear all of the chimes move just a little. \u00a0And I want to be there when there’s a howling gale and the noise of those things makes it all just a little more frantic and you feel like you had better hold on or be blown away. \u00a0I wonder if the residents of 251 are lover or leavers of the chimes. \u00a0I’m going to imagine that they love the sound of them, and keep an ear out for them. \u00a0I have a neighbour who scuba dives and every Sunday afternoon I keep an ear out for the whistle that he makes when he’s back home and fixing up his equipment. \u00a0I love that whistle. \u00a0Makes me feel like all is right in the world right that second.<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

These trees reached out and grabbed me, and I had to go around the block and go back to look at them some more. Aren’t they wild? I think they were even better in real life. \u00a0So funky and witchlike. \u00a0In the end, though, I decided they look like backup singers in an old Motown band. \u00a0Ladies for sure. \u00a0I was so thrilled to realize there’s actually a microphone there too. \u00a0Right? Threw me a minute that it’s behind them, I’m pretty sure they’re facing the other way, but I made that work. \u00a0They’ve turned away for a minute doing some cool dance movements and are about to turn back and jump back into the song. \u00a0Love it!<\/p>\n

I didn’t need a lot of toys when I was a kid.\"Image<\/a><\/p>\n

I have no idea if I was guilty of this. \u00a0Is it something fun? \u00a0Would $1000 be worth it?<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/a>I stopped at the outlet mall on the way back. \u00a0They have beautiful stuff to walk on there.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

It was a gorgeous summer evening when I stopped to soak up that ground and have another chai.<\/p>\n

I have a confession though. \u00a0It was a gorgeous late afternoon<\/i> when I got there. \u00a0Oh man. \u00a0I had a big splurge. \u00a0There were a few sales (serious understatement) and I was happy happy happy from my great Pippin day and there followed a few lost hours of purchasing debauchery. And all for me! \u00a0It was decadent and fun.<\/p>\n

So guess what. \u00a0When I headed back across the border I got to go and discover that other building at the border, the Canadian one this time. \u00a0Not traumatic as I just had to pay a bit of duty, which was expected and not begrudged at all. \"Image<\/a>\u00a0Driving back I went back in my head to my time in the shop, and of how great that all felt, and of the encouragement I’ve had from so many of you. \u00a0You’re all such nice people. \u00a0So many of you go out of your way to compliment my designs, that feels so good, and I’ve got such good advice over things like inventory and trunk shows and all sorts of things from a lot of you who own shops. \u00a0Really generous.<\/p>\n

The sun was going down, and shining off the fields along the road, and I felt so good about the day and Pippin and me that I had to let it out, and let loose my best rock concert cheers all by myself in the car.<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/a>I came back to my desk yesterday refreshed and determined and sneaking a peek every now and then at a few newcomers to my closet nearby. \u00a0Feel like such a girl.<\/p>\n

All good.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well I’ve had a pretty fun week with Pippin. \u00a0Friday afternoon I sat in a sunny office, cranked the good tunes, put my feet\u00a0up,\u00a0and thought …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88890,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,1,39,11],"tags":[34,7,12,47,23,25,93,60,45,61,31],"class_list":["post-1387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-designing","category-uncategorized","category-inspiration","category-needlepoint","tag-coast","tag-colours","tag-inspirations","tag-juggling","tag-just-having-fun","tag-life","tag-needlepoint","tag-road-trip","tag-taking-a-breath","tag-visiting","tag-yum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pippinstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pippinstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pippinstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pippinstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88890"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pippinstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pippinstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1387\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pippinstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pippinstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pippinstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}