I just noticed that I had forgotten to click PUBLISH on this post – It is from Oct. 17, 2023
Juan and I took a drive today down to Exeter to the Handkerchief Company – an odd name for a fabric store that’s been around for 78 years. I’ve been wanting to go there for months but it’s a long drive and we’ve put it off.
My GCF aprons and Bibbity bibs have been selling well and I needed some more of the indoor/outdoor fabric I use for them. Winter will make the trip challenging and Juan had some business in Portsmouth, so we took the back roads and it took 1 1/2 hrs. But the foliage colors made the drive very enjoyable – and as world news becomes more and more heartbreaking, I really cherished this time with my husband, just appreciating the beauty and peace of where we are so fortunate to live.
I had read some reviews of the fabric store where customers complained that the owner was very grouchy, so I tried to steel myself to deal with him. The place is huge! And the building was old and musty – I worried it might affect my allergies. There were 2 flights of wooden stairs I had to manage to get to the third floor where the remnants were. But when I saw the selection of outdoor fabric, rows of rolls of it that went on and on – all at $10 a yard… well I would have climbed another 10 flights of stairs for it. It was hard to limit myself to my budget, but reassuring that there was so much there, I could always come back for more when I needed it.
Fortunately, the measuring table and checkout were on the 2nd floor, so only one flight down, and Juan was there to carry down the rolls I had chosen. The owner was the only one there and seemed pleasant enough. I thought about the negative reviews and wondered if maybe the guy just needed someone to SEE him buried in all of this fabric. So I struck up a conversation and found out that he was the third generation there, it was not what he had planned for his life, but somehow 30 years had gone by. I listened and cared. And I thought how lucky I am that I DID do what I wanted to do with my life. It didn’t make me wealthy or even what most people would consider successful. But I have no regrets.
My husband was looking at me with a smile and said he enjoyed doing this with me, watching me touch each roll of fabric, considering how it would look as an apron or bib, and what my customers would want…
We don’t know what is down the road, but with so much suffering going on, most of it inflicted by other human beings, at that moment, I was so glad to be me.
Here’s what I picked out – what do you think? I already added them to the Good Clean Fun Apron and Bibbity Apron options on my website – byjeeni.com
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