I feel bad, sort of, that on Tom’s vacation he has to load a truck, drive, unload a truck, move boxes, unload inventory, fill shelves, and at the end of a long weekend refill boxes, move boxes, reload a truck and drive again, unload, etc.  I think he’ll then leave the reshelving to the rest of the staff.  This is on his VACATION!  Now, he is telling me I plan these things to happen on his vacation, seriously, I don’t even have his vacations on my calendar to call the organizers of these events and tell them this is when they have to have Stitches Midwest, because Tom is on vacation, you know <LOL>.  

Our first shipment to load is Zealana Yarns, over 300 pounds of yarn!!  The second shipment that came in that is now at our house is ten boxes of display fixtures, each weighing 60 pounds — you do the math — he said not to stack it all in one place on our living room floor, wonder why.   Today we’re making the trek to Karen’s to load the Knit Happy boxes, I don’t even want to count how many we’re talking about, but I think it filled half of her garage when I saw them the other day and it took her weeks to price/tag everything.   On Tuesday we’re going to haul the trailer — oh, thank you to my neighbor Steve F who is a bread man who just upgraded to a box truck and has loaned us his 20 foot trailer so we can load in increments instead of saving it all until Tuesday night <wooh, what a sentence!>– over to UPS and wait in their parking lot for the unload to finish and snag my boxes.  Now I know why I married a UPS man, a direct line to the center and my son who works unload there (he would help but he’s on vacation too).  Nine boxes are arriving from Stonehedge in every color of their yarn as well as more patterns for felted hats, clogs, and, hmmmm, I know there is 15 boxes we have to pick up at last count.  Then back to the store to finish loading the display pieces.  Tara has made a list of what she needs to add,  complementary shirts, necklaces, and I don’t know what else, to fancy the mannequins up and make their sweaters stand out.  I have samples from Noni patterns, Heritage Spinning and Weaving, Zealana, and our in house samples of Shepherd’s Wool and Zealana yarns.   I’ll have to take a picture of everything before it is boxed up so we know how to put it back together. 

Well, on this Labor Day, since we’re working; I hope you get in some knitting time.  Tom is taking a few minutes to cast his line into the water.  A couple of blue gill yesterday and he’s on a morning stroll down to the lake this a.m. to see what is happening down there.  I should have thought ahead and outfitted the cottage (across the street from our house on Pretty Lake) so we could stay in it last night, at least he would have felt like he was on vacation one day — oh well, next time!  I have to get moving and get stuff done . . . have a great day everyone!!  Comment and tell me what you did today, and we’ll pick a winner for a Knit Happy notebook in your color choice after we get back from Stitches. 

If you want to see all the Knit Happy products we’re taking, click here. And, don’t forget to stop by Booth 329/331 at Stitches Midwest and tell us Hi!!