Love that free publicity

Today Mimi and I were interviewed for the Halifax Chronicle Herald business section. Of the two daily papers here, that's the better one ... the one that is comparable to the Toronto Star, as opposed to the Sun. It was for part of a series of articles featuring local small businesses, craft-based businesses I think. I'm not sure when it will run, but when it does of course I will place a link here! It's exciting because you can't buy publicity like that. (Assuming that they write good things about us!)

A word about my knitting. Right now I am doing one of many projects I've been doing with other people lately. I'm making a hat for a fisherman from New Brunswick who does a lot of good work for the endangered right whale. Among other things, he risks his life to disentangle right whales from fishing gear. Someone asked me to make him one of these hats that has whale flukes on top.

Here's one I made for someone else.

I couldn't say no. But once I'm finished it, and then finished that one thing for my Mom and that scarf for Bill that I started last year and then the sweater my 8-year-old niece asked me for - then I have all sorts of plans for things to knit for me. New Year's resolution - make things for myself :)

It just occurred to me that a more interesting post than this would be about my 90-year-old friend Gwladys. (Yes that's really how to spell her name.) But it's late now, so I'll save that for next time. Anyway I'm going to visit her tomorrow, so before too long I will write a little about one of the most interesting people I know.

Random control

By the way, I realize that the snowglobe link over there to the right is duplicated. This Blogger interface is kind of annoying, because parts of it seem to operate in a somewhat random way. The place where I can arrange the elements you see here on this page (profile, link list, etc) is not always visible when it should be. So sometimes I can't add a link in when I want to. Now I can't get it back to delete the duplicate. If anyone reading this knows how to deal with that, please tell me!

An embarassment of snow

Today Halifax had that embarassing first-snowfall-of-the-year when everyone realizes they should have put their snow tires on a couple of weeks ago, and all hell breaks loose. The city experienced the worst rush hour gridlock in its history, apparently, because of a few (10 - 20) cm of snow. The buses basically stopped running for a couple of hours. People were stuck in traffic for an hour or two, because of accidents and abandoned cars. I personally stood for an hour in a bus shelter as three schedules buses failed to show up. For most of that hour, no buses came, even though the streets were pretty much deserted. I was wondering if all of the buses had slipped into the ocean or the Bedford Basin or something. I was reading a book about Mexico, where it was warmer. My Value Village eskimo parka with the real fur hood trim was also helping to keep me warm.

This is my bike, in the snow. Not from today though ... this is a few years ago on Thanksgiving weekend, after I had ridden to visit friends in Mount Albert. Tonight my bike is out in the snow again, but with a cover on. I was worried the snowplow guys would knock it over, but no problem. I sure hope it's warm next Saturday because that will be the day I should take it away for winter storage. It will spend the winter in a barn in Upper Musquodoboit, Nova Scotia. Bill's grandmother's barn. It's an hour ride to get there. So I will likely become reacquainted with my electric vest.

I have sacrificed my personal digital camera for The Loop. My camera lives at the store now, because we often want to take photos to put on our website. So that makes it a little harder to have up-to-the minute photos handy. Hmm maybe The Loop should think about buying their own camera. Meanwhile, here is an older photo that represents what Clark, Ruby and I are doing tonight.

So I'm still figuring our just what I'm going to do with this blog. Right now my life doesn't feel interesting enough to make it like a diary. But I will probably write different entries at different time about different topics. Like about my crappy beautiful motorcycle. Or about knitting. Or about melting glass and making it into jewelery and having people give me money for it! Or about becoming a business tycoon (hah). Maybe about my boyfriend Bill, but he probably wouldn't care for that (though he would secretly be flattered). Definitely not about doing goverment consulting work, because that is a) boring and b) top-secret.

But I hope some of you will find some of that interesting once in a while.

Hmm I should be doing something else.

First Post

Alright, I'm going to join the masses and try this blogging thing. The impetus came from a friend who moved far far away and lost touch, then created his own blog to get back in touch with people. (Good idea Donald!) I, too have gotten worse and worse at communicating with family & friends, so I will try this. Hopefully it's a little better than mass e-mails.

In the past year & a half, I gave up a secure job of ten years to start a new business (with two business partners). It's been a real adventure. I've learned a lot about business and bookkeeping and people ... things I never would have imagined just two years ago. The business is The Loop, a cool modern knitting shop in downtown Halifax, Nova Scotia. We cater to everyone, but the majority of our customers seem to be young professionals and students who are enjoying being in touch with their creative sides. The store's website is www.theloophalifax.ca

In the past couple of months, I've also started another business - I'm making fused glass jewelry and selling it. This started because we need hand-made glass buttons to sell at The Loop. I took a workshop and realized I really like the fused glass work, and now I'm selling stuff to The Loop along with a few other customers. Very fun! After everything it took to start a retail business, it was a piece of cake to get the glass business up & running. I've been told that being an entrepreneur is addictive ... hah! I can see that in a way, but this one was easy. I have 4 retail customers established, one more ready to buy my stuff in the spring, and one wholesale customer. When I get the time (hah!) I might try to sell some online at www.etsy.com.

And even more recently, I've started to do some consulting work for DFO (the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans). This is a perfect addition ... it will help pay the bills while providing a different kind of mental stimulation than running the store. And of course I'm really glad to get my fingers back into the world of conservation.

Oh and I'm volunteering on the board of my condo. Not very exciting but it's yet another use of my time.

With this big life change, I have a lot less time (and money) to travel. This is one of the hardest adjustments for me. But I'm still happily riding my motorcycle (1998 BMW F650) around town as much as I can. Hopefully next year I'll be able to go on a good road trip with my handsome and handy boyfriend Bill. Bill bought a used Suzuki DL1000, also known as a V-Strom, this past year. He loves it.

Well this was a night I was going to try to go to bed early. I seem to be allergic to going to bed early lately, with all the stuff going on in my life. But I miss being in more contact with all of my dear friends (in Canada, the U.S, Europe, Australia ... ) So maybe by updating this once in a while I can be better at being in touch with you, and hear from you too!

Cathy