Busy time of year

Whoever said, "Summer time and the livin' is easy", must have lived in a different world! 

There is nothing "easy" about this summer for me anyway.  Life is incredibly crazy at the Riendeau household (as it usually is) and summer time means added craziness at the store as my ladies all take vacations.  Below is a rundown of some of the things happening at the store, but first a few updates on my personal craziness.  Feel free to scroll down if you are not interested, you won't hurt my feelings!

First off, a huge relief and sense of pride this week as my youngest son, Adam, graduated from high school.  For those of you who know a bit about my son, and the struggles he has had over the years battling a disabling combination of Asperger's syndrome and mental illness, you know that we weren't sure we would ever see this day. As difficult as the last few years have been, the really hard work now begins as he tries to find his place in this world. If you believe in prayer, I ask that you keep him in your prayers.  He has a very hard road ahead of him, but today we celebrate this achievement.

A peek into our new living room

Now onto my house...  We are moving along much quicker on the construction than I was anticipating!  That is a good thing, especially after the nightmare we dealt with while building the barn/garage last year.  However, now is the time that I am required to be more involved in the day to day of the construction and decision making.  The electrical and plumbing passed inspections this week and insulation and drywall are set to begin as soon as the temperature drops below 90-- insulation is bad enough on a cool day but in this heat and humidity it is downright torture!






Of course, moving along quickly means I have to sell my current house...  See my previous post for my lament about that.  If you know anyone looking for a great property for horses, equipment storage, or just an enormous amount of space, the house is listed with Coldwell Banker and our agent is Pam Moriarty.  She's awesome.

Here's a look at some of the shopping I've been doing!

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So, now that you have seen some of my crazy life out side the store I suppose you want to know what's happening IN the store.  Well, we are joining forces with 7 other stores in Mass and CT for a Summer Stroll from July 1 through Sept. 8th.  More details can be found in my previous post.  It's a great way to spend a couple of days with your girlfriends taking road trips!


Speaking if road trips, how would you like to take a road trip but leave the driving to someone else?    Take a break this summer and join Right at Home Scrapbooking, The Inspiration Station and Papercraft Clubhouse on our Summer Camp Bus Tour.  On Sunday, August 19th the Camp Bus will pull up at each of these three fabulous stores, do a roll call and then you and your camp counselor will begin your adventure packed journey!  This is a unique trip since you will be able to travel to both MA and CT stores on the same Camp Bus.  You will not want to be left behind.   More information will be posted tomorrow.


We also will be running a Kid's Kamp for children ages 8 and older.  See details here.


Of course, summer time also means Christmas in July and this year the classes will fall on Sunday, July 15th .  Donna has all sorts of fabulous ideas but as always, they are still in her head so I have nothing to show you!  I will keep on her though and hopefully will have some samples for next week's newsletter.


Now, to clear up something we have been getting a lot of calls about.  No, we will NOT be doing a Customer Tag Sale this year.  The tag sale is an enormous amount of work for us and we just cannot do it at this time (read the above!)  I know many people look forward to it, but with all of the other things we have going on (me in particular) it just is not a good use of our time and resources.  Will we ever do it again?  Probably.  But when we do we will be doing it differently.  It will need more vendor involvement in the way of set up and take down to free up our staff.  I am still trying to find a happy medium between having it and doing away with it completely.  When things settle down I can give it more thought.


I'm sure there is more to catch up on but I need to get to the store to take over while Donna teaches her Tim Inspired Tags class so it will have to wait for the next post.  If you want more frequent updates please go to our Facebook page and "like us".  That is much easier for me to update ( I can do it from my phone!).  Also, when you are in the store, be sure to "Check In" on your smartphone.  That helps keep us showing up in your news feed.