The Lampshade Lady Blog

Dust off those dirty old lampshades......

Bouret Photos

Okay, I am home from spring skiing.. Time to think about spring fabrics, trims and create some fresh new inventory for my shop and beyond. I don't know about your businesses but it always seems like mine goes from being pretty dead to crazy busy all in one day. Shops are starting to get their confidence back, customers are starting to refresh their homes. Me too. I came home from vacation and my house was so dusty. I spent the day after getting home with mop in hand, washed a rug, went through the big pile of mail on the counter. Good thing I bought some daffodils on the way home from Maine. And best of all, my Johnny's seeds were waiting for me at the post office. As I was at the po I heard the spring sounds of chickies waiting to be picked up by their next owners. I love that noise but he postal folks never seem quite as excited... must get annoying after awhile.

Before I left on vacation I ordered lots of new goodies, fresh funky fabrics to make some drum shades, some cool new trims and a few I've run out of, lots of new lampshade frames to restock, more unexciting lampshade materials but necessary..... so, I am trying to get geared up..... yup, it's time. One of the best parts of my business is sourcing out new fabrics, vintage fabrics, embroideries, etc. I just received a super sweet crewel from ebay; it is just perfect. Not too expensive, good colors, nice quality and just the right size. I already decided to make a big rectangle shade with it. Maybe I'll get to it today and you can see it on the next blog entry.

Lampshade Lady Book Teaser

Here's a teaser of sorts. I love this poster! It is a visual quick shot of my book projects for The Lampshade Lady's Guide to Lighting Up Your Life. Looking back over the poster lets me reflect where my year has taken me and all the things I have figured out how to do or at least do wrong the first time... Starting the book process is no romp in the park, but at midlife it gave me a chance to use my design skills in a new way.

In high school I had been yearbook editor one year, about half way through working on my book I realized how similar it was to putting the yearbook together. I am thrilled with my book designers efforts for my book and must say the hardest part was just handing over a years worth of efforts and walking away. The part of me that loves of graphic design was envious not to be in on the design decisions but best let the book designers do what they do best!

Sales and Marketing is the next 101 for me. Keep you posted, I have tried my hand at Facebook and starting to see the potential, perhaps. Haven't twittered yet. Still getting my blog in order; my web guy is just back from a few months of skiing. I've got ideas lined up for him. Thinking about a lampshade kit to go along with selling my book.... A couple cool size frames not available in kit form yet. Oh see, there is still so much to learn as well as a sense of accomplishment.

It's been a great couple of spring days here in Southern Vermont. You know it's spring when I finally get skiing. We had a glorious day of full sunshine and 50's skiing at little Bromley Mountain on Sunday. It had been ages since we had skied at Bromley and how fun to run into old ski buddies.

Yesterday I got to keep my shop door open and come out of hibernation. I was finding all sorts of outside projects at my shop. The yard looks so grungy after the snow has left. I raked up a few of the leaves and campfire wood from the Winter Solstice Party. The bulbs are poking out of my garden, the hollyhocks are looking strong and the birds are yapping at me to fill the feeder again. I do love having afternoon tea on my porch soaking in the warm sunshine. It's makes winter all worth while.

Town Meeting Day and All That Happens in a Tiny Vermont Town

Today is Town Meeting Day in Vermont. What a fun day it has been in my shop. It a couple doors down from the town hall which acts as our voting area. It's a nice sunny, cold day here in Vermont; small signs of spring are peaking through barely. I've been busy filling orders all morning, sipping tea and wondering what happened last night at the town meeting. In Vermont all towns used to have their town meeting today, have a pot luck lunch and a floor vote on all the towns matters. Over the years many town meetings have changed to adapt to busy schedules.

My friend Elizabeth came by after lunch. She told me all the funny stories of her town meeting last night. She lives a few towns over. The small town stories, the people lives, friends, enemies, old grudges, neighbors, pain in the ass neighbors, busy bodies that have their nose in everyone's business. The best and the worst of small town life comes out at town meetings. Elizabeth said she got home around midnight. Yikes... Then my other friends, Monty and Sarah stopped by; they were headed to the poles and had a couple of questions on voting. Elizabeth and I chatted with them on the issues. Who was the lady running for librarian trustee?? what was the #20 question? Who is running for selectman? I knew a few of the issues, but not all.

While we were chatting with Elizabeth, Monty and Sarah, Sue stopped in. She is running for Selectman position. Yay for her. We'll cross our fingers, But she knew answers to all the questions we didn't know and more. Great. We seemed to of solved all the town's issues right here in the lampshade shop. We found out all the negative naysayers at the town meeting last night. I know it went late, I saw my neighbors didn't get home till 11. Oh, how guilty I felt for not going, sort of..... After a few years on our school board makes it really hard for me to attend meetings....especially when you know most of the bad actors and naysayers.

Oh, small town life. But it sure was fun to visit with friends today. Once the gang cleared out of the lampshades shop, I put my "BE RIGHT BACK" sign on my door and went to vote. Small town politics. It is nice to see progress in action at the local level.

Follow Your Passion and a Tidbit of Luck

Follow your Passion and find a niche business. That sounds so easy doesn't it. I did it, but purely by luck. I was a creative kid, always happy puttering around with fabrics or yarn. I did too many paint by numbers kits and was very good at staying in the lines- a very steady hand and concentration; I always think they stunted my painting. Mom always had craft projects for us to do and my friend's mom did, too. And there was Girl Scouts and Home Ec...

I remember lots and lots of paper mache. That kept us busy for days and days. And remember the little enameling kits and oh the reptile molds that you would bake. I can almost still smell them baking. Not all of these are especially creative, but it was the process of DOING. Just writing this I am thinking back to some of the other Saturday projects.

In Jr. High School I took a course in silver jewelry after school at the Y. It could have been a passion, but wasn't "The One". My grandmother was a superb jeweler and continued her studies as a fine silversmith. After the class I did set up a little work shop in our basement and made necklaces and rings, but soon lost interest.

In High School I was interested in learning to Weave. By this time I had left my public high school and headed to a private school in Yarmouth, Maine. I was finally happy in school, we had small classes and supportive environment. I had mentioned to the headmaster that I was interested in learning to weave and he applied for a grant to hire a weaving teacher. This was a critical turning point for me. They hired a wonderful woman, Rosalie. She was a tapestery weaver and a real artist. She expected high standards for us and was very generous sharing all of her knowledge with us. I am forever grateful that I had the opportunity to get the early start on textile design and art history. And she made us listen to classical music just when we only wanted to hear rock and roll! Another piece of the pie.

I continued to follow my textile love in college. I had applied to a variety of schools and especially wanted to go to RISD but had applied under Interior Architecture and needed high SATS...no luck for me, I was crushed. I got into all the other schools I applied, most would have had more professional textiles studies, but my dad and I had visited Vermont and I was sold. The University didn't have the greatest program for me, but I figured I would be happy in Burlington. I had actually had applied into Interior Design and upon arriving for orientation we were informed the program had been cut out. So, I fell into Textile Design. Yikes, I slogged through the first year of HOME EC and beelined quickly over to the Art Department. I found more likeminded students in the Art Department. And here I found a teacher that was my second important mentor in my education. An artist from Shelburne, Elsa Waller would come to the University once or twice a year and teach one tapestry weaving class. How lucky I was once again to have stumbled into such a great class. Each time Elsa taught a class I was right there ready to dig in. This was the 1970's when abstract weaving had it's peak. I loved it.

After graduating with an Art degree, career choices were not so obvious. I continued with my weaving projects but not with intent for a business. I didn't see I would ever be able to live off of my tapestry weaving. I worked a few different retail jobs.... just a job. My last one was to work in a kitchen/gift shop. My friend Laura and I was in our early 20's and we were "the girls". We had fun together and always got our customers laughing, especially after a long day. I learned more at this job that I might like to admit; many of the skills I learned followed me to my Lampshade Shop. Jackie the owner of The Store always said that if you have something so unusual and beautiful that the customer will buy it no matter what it costs. She always tried to carry special treasures in her store and I try to carry this into my business. Why would I make lampshades similar to ones you can buy in a lighting store that were made for pennies in China?

My husband and I moved to Southern Vermont for a career move on his part. I was 28 and just pregnant. I didn't get a job because we were just settling in and now with baby. It gave me a chance to work on my weaving, knit very cute baby sweaters and make pillows and quilts for our new home. There was a craft store nearby that sold lampshade making supplies. I thought it might be fun to make some lampshades for my new house. Off I went to get the needed materials; it didn't take much to get started. I figured I could teach myself and the rest is history. The first years after my son was born I puttered around with making lampshades. They were great Christmas gifts and our new house was sporting lots of new lampshades. I continued on, figuring out how to start a business with little money. I still find it a fun challenge how to market a small business on a shoe string and these days it's a good thing to know. Okay, enough for now, to be continued.