Five-ish Things on a Friday Afternoon

I love our new letter board sign from Letterfolk. The quote possibilities are endless although yesterday I found out the hard way that the letters are in fact, finite. I ran out of “T”s on a Mary Oliver quote and then out of “I”s on a different quote. I selected a shorter Pinterest quote in a huff and ordered another set of letters.

It’s Friday afternoon and I have had the shop staffed all day which means I can enjoy my newly cleaned off desk upstairs, tackle my to-do list and keep an eye out on everything. I feel like the Wizard of Oz, or at least very important, up here. Most customers don’t realize I am up here and yet, I can see and hear everything.

Construction on the big room upstairs is mostly finished. We are still installing handrails and a few other finishing details like hanging heavy curtains over the doorways and fixing the second skylight. On to the fun part of lighting and decorating. I think I have said this before but we are planning to put in a small kitchen area and a long table for events and small groups. It’s going to be beautiful and I think the obvious next step for the business.

Have you heard of the Bullet Journal? This week I have been trying it out in my new Shinola journal (we stock the journal at the shop in case you want one). These Muji pens are also my current and longtime favorites. So far, so good. I think it works for my brain. I am still very much a pen and paper person and have struggled to figure out exactly what works for me. I love how flexible and personal this system seems to be AND I love that you don’t have to have anything but a regular notebook or journal. Curious to know if anyone else has tried it…

My parents were here from Sunday through Wednesday and we had a really good time. And of course I did not take one picture of them with the girls. Telfer made us an amazing Valentine’s dinner and my parents hung out with Cate on Tuesday as she didn’t have school. A long side note: This is the last year that the girls will go to different schools. Can you imagine one drop-off and one pick-up? I estimate that I spend 40-60 minutes a day on Jane’s drop-off/pick-up alone. I could use that time. At Jane’s school, holidays are a big deal. There are parties and tons of sugar and special movies and celebration. Another side note: a parent actually brought TWINKIES for the kids in Jane’s class for a birthday celebration. Jane thought it was a kitchen sponge! Cate’s school, on the other hand, does not celebrate holidays. No sugar, no decorations, no fuss. You can imagine that this causes friction. We have had a lot of talk about fairness (or the flawed concept of fairness) at our house this last week.

This was Jane’s outfit of choice for her Valentine’s party last week. It’s too good not to show off. Cate and Jane both worked together to create the details (down to the bun in her hair). Both my girls are fond of stripes.

I am having the best reading year and it’s only February. At the bookseller conference that I went to last month the attendees were asked to bring a backlist favorite (basically any book that hasn’t been published within the last year and is still in print) and swap with each other. I took The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson to share and I picked up Four Seasons in Rome: On Twins, Insomnia and the Biggest Funeral in the History of the World by Anthony Doerr. The subtitle is a little silly but I loved the book. Accepting a writing fellowship, Doerr and his wife and six-month-old twin boys (!) move to Rome for one year. It’s such a fascinating account of a year in another culture, parenting young children, and the process of writing. The novel Doerr is struggling to work on during his fellowship year is of course All the Light We Cannot See. The reader knows all about the success the novel will have eventually have – it’s a fun construct and there are some really lovely moments in the book.

I am hoping for a quiet weekend. The girls have a pajama party tonight at our gym (Indian takeout and Netflix sounds just about right). Telfer is working most of the weekend and I am hoping to keep the girls at home as much as possible. We are going to putter and bake and do little projects together. Happy Friday friends!