the big oak doors

since moving into this old house, we've found the coolest "old" odds & ends which at one time or another were attached and detached from this awesome old home. they are scattered about in the equipment barn or the bank barn or in junk drawers around the house.

from old screws & nails, intricately molded metal hinges, metal & porcelain door knobs to massive old solid oak doors. 4 of those to be exact. found leaning up against the wood pole framing in the equipment barn.

they might be pretty cool looking backdrops for the shops window displays. we also found a couple old beat up chairs & tables complete with peeling paint. and a couple other things that havent made their way out yet - like old paned windows.

so sam & joe dragged the dusty dirty items from the barn, loaded them up in the expert t's van and hauled them up to Pink Tomato, where they hinged two sets together and set them up in the windows. christy & i scrubbed - 4 buckets each, 1 bucket of hot murphy's oil soapy water for each side of each door. gross. man were they dirty - but under all that nastiness are the most beautiful solid oak paneled doors - roughly 8 ft tall each.
they look beautiful in the windows embellished with our tables & chairs, papers, journals, tea cups and our samples of invitations & stationery.

it was just what PT needed...we also made a few other changes to upgrade the personality of the shop, including a small change-up in the wording of our window signs. we are excited about our diversification and about things to come.

it just serves as a bold reminder, never judge a book by its cover...it's what's inside that counts

catchin' UP

i am risking sitting here blogging at 7:00 am when my booty should be up getting ready for work and getting kids breakfast and off to school, but i am justifying that I am having my morning joe (in more ways than one) and as long as i am sitting enjoying that i might as well catch up on my blog.

just a few points to catch things up...

i found that i am using my new blackberry too much. i seem to be keyboarding on my computers like i do on the BB. the shortcuts arent the same.

i am still flip flopping on whether i should use this as a store blog or not - i mean, it is called pink tomato afterall. but for today, this is my personal blog.

kids are back in school now, for a few weeks. it was Fair week this week and the county gives all of the local schools in the county a day off school and a ticket to the fair - how awesome is that?

we officially are full time parents of 3 as of august when my step son, Joey, came to live with us permanently all the way from tallahassee. so far things have been great and we all are adjusting well. its his first yr of HS and he's trying to find his way in this new life. he's settled in and has made lots of friends, and is realizing its a totally different world here in rural ohio. he's also a young man. scary. his first official girlfriend is named lauren. uhm. we dont know her last name. and neither does joey. ugh.

christy is bummed. apparently in that long contract from stampin' UP, you cant be a store owner. so they gave her the boot. even though her sales have increased. go figure. curious though. I just hope there wasn't anyone being catty out there and turned her in. that would be really disappointing. but its OK if you are on a Design Team for another company or if you work at another store. Soooo - i think maybe we will do some sort of stamp club with one of the lines in the shop - perhaps UNITY STAMP CO. or ART DECLASSIFIED (coming soon!)

speaking of the store - we gots lots of new & unique product in and we are beginning our first phase of creating our clearance section, we have some things on sale and we are pulling more this week.

we are unrolling this week custom invitations for parties & weddings and will be showing at a local bridal show on sunday.

finally and in closing - it's 9/11. i remember that day vividly. i remember driving my 30 minutes to work from lake worth to boca raton. i remember distinctly turning OFF the morning radio so that I could get into my head and think about planning my day. I remember coming into the office shortly before 9:00 am and someone mentioning a plane crash in NY. i remember being concerned, but as i was making my way to my office, I was more interested in what was in my morning email. i remember sitting down, turning on the computer and letting it boot up. i remember my chat programs coming up, AIM & YAHOO, and going to get a cup of coffee. i remember sitting down and my mom, in ohio, popping on yahoo messenger typing me a message freaking out about another plane crash in NY. i remember several moments of confusion as to why this could be significant in a much bigger capacity than just a plane crash. as if a plane crash wasnt devastating enough. i remember a little hullaballoo starting to take place in the office and people pulling up msnbc.com or cnn.com to see if there were any stories. as the morning rolled on and two more plane crashes later, i remember everyone trying to figure out what the hell was happening and wondering if we were being attacked. i remember dropping everything i was doing and leaving to run to walmart to grab a TV so that we could plug it in and see the news. and it wasnt good. in the days and months to follow, i remember being glued to my television every morning causing me to be late to work and every night until i fell asleep. i remember every moment looking over my shoulder. afraid to leave the house. afraid to go to a mall. afraid to take my family to disney. because we were all targets. i remember crying. out loud. something i never do. and i remember the day President Bush announced we were going to Iraq. i remember wondering why we were going there, but at the same time feeling like if he said we needed to, then he must know more than me and that i should trust that it was the right thing to do. how naive i was. i remember the horrible pictures on tv of the two dead sons of Saddam Hussein in that tent. i remember jessica lynch and all the other horrible stories of death & destruction.

7 years later. i still choke up thinking about that day and the chain of events that followed.