I'll be back on Monday!

Happy Friday All...

I've been away from the shop for almost two weeks, on business, and looking forward to being there again on Monday. I've received over two truckloads (or van loads) of consignment treasures and can't wait to get them ready to put out on the floor. Hopefully, I'll get pictures up on the website by Tuesday for online browsing...

Spoke with a few customers while I was out of town...one was a neighbor that thought something had happened to me and the other a consignment customer...sort of what I like about where my store is located; people actually notice when you are not around...

Well, I'm packing up and getting ready to go back home tomorrow...in the meantime, I'm going on a Disneyland outing with family which should be pretty fun...I haven't been there in over 20 years! Enjoy your weekend everyone...

Friday Musings

Hi Again -

I am setting behind my counter looking out of the large plate glass window in front of my store, watching the Friday noon activity. Fridays are different around here...you can feel everyone beginning to relax, except for us shop owners, because the end of the work week is near...in addition to others, I've two regulars come in so far...a young student with a very sweet demeanor (I'll call her Maya) and a man in his 30's (I'll call him Marcus) who has been coming in since I opened two years ago. He's lived in the Pasadena/Altadena area most of his life and has a very close and strong family...when he came in I noticed that he had lost weight in the few months since I've seen him last and then found out that he father had passed in May after a long illness...although bittersweet, it was a pleasure to hear him talk about his father and his life...it made me think of all of the fathers that don't realize how important and irreplaceable they are to their children's lives...and how much THEY themselves miss out on when they are not around...

Another customer came in looking for a trunk; she's moving to Iowa in a month and thought that would be the most sensible way to pack - just throw everything in a trunk and go...alot of the things I sell here are like that; items that have become so-called obsolete but actually have more utility than their more modern counterparts...when I look at hand egg beaters, for instance, I wonder, just how much do we really whip things so that we need an electric appliance (that takes up room, uses electricity and more time to clean) to do the job?

Mostly my customers are very agreeable people and great to talk to...every once in a while someone wants me to lower a price because of a scratch or imperfection on an item, which is a little amusing...I sell old stuff and old stuff has been used...on the other hand, I will practically give things away to people that fall in love with the craftsmanship or age of something. I figure things that stand the test of time deserve respect and I love it when other people feel that way as well.

Duty calls...must get back to one of the 20 things I want to try to get done before I leave today...

Gearing Up For This Week!

I'm back! Busy week...but more about that later...here are current pictures of Conya's Cottage...with a bit of elbow grease and help from friends and family, it is now a comfy fun place to shop and/or just hang out and browse...

Now that it is that weird period between Spring and Summer in Pasadena when it feels and looks like Fall, surprisingly more people are coming out and discovering the fairly new businesses in North Lake Village...we have a new barber shop, The Wisdom Cafe, which has some of the best priced GOOD sandwiches in the area, and a costume shop under new ownership. Conya's Cottage has been busy stocking some very interesting items on consignment so the selection now is even better than ever. I now have dozens of cookie and biscuit tins from England and Germany, in just about every size and color that you can imagine that would be great accents to a kitchen or bathroom. There's also a funky antique player piano in great condition with plenty of player music rolls that would be great in a family room and mountains of silverplate serving pieces that can easily be mixed with other silver patterns for a warmer less formal tablescape.

One thing that I really enjoy about this shop is that there is always something to do, so I never get bored...if I'm feeling creative I can design vignettes, if I want exercise I can continue to clean out my back storage area (which I've been doing for two years now with no end in sight), and I never get a chance to feel lonely because I normally have a steady stream of regulars who stop by to just hang out and talk and usually shop. I'm also getting visits from new people that are coming from surrounding cities like Glendale, La Crescenta and San Marino and some parts of Los Angeles. I'm also subletting part of this large space to a medical uniform shop that is run by a family from Peru. There are about 5 sisters, 2 brothers, their mother and about 4 or 5 cousins ranging in age from 2 to about 12 years old. Each day brings a different staff composed of about 4 of the above...some days can get pretty lively when all the kids and many of the sisters show up for work...as I said...I'm never lonely...

Well, it is time for me to come up with a natural concoction to remove the mold on my roses outside...tomorrow is my work from home day...so I really need to take care of that today...so long for now!

A Little More History

This is where I decided that Conya's Cottage would be born. I chose the name from two things I love - cottages and my grandmother Conya Williams Chapman. I love my other grandmother as well, but this grandmother spent most of her life being called a nickname version of her name (Connie) so I thought that now that she has moved on to another life, I would honor her by using it now. At the time this picture was taken in April of 2007, it was a neighborhood thrift store with quite a following. The owner at that time was looking to move from the area and sell, I had just been bought out of my half of the restored house and so the timing was right.

Giddy with excitement, I signed the final papers on May 15, 2007 and immediately put up a sign and opened the doors. My plan was to operate during renovations which was an idea that served well...I was able to immediately make sales while my vision took shape. However, I had over 4,000 sq. ft. of area to clean, arrange and sort inventory to make this space into a cozy, comfortable and fun place to browse and buy furniture and interesting items from the past.

I should add that I got married two weeks later which gave me a pretty full plate during that first year, which is now a blur of paint, rags, cleaning liquids, dirt & dust. Nevertheless, I had fun discovering treasures in the boxes of inventory that I had purchased, meeting the other shop owners in the area and doing things that I wasn't sure I'd be able to do when I started them. I also made a fair amount of mistakes but I always looked forward to going to work, even though I always came home exhausted, dirty and sweaty. I had a daily routine for months where I would arrive home, walk straight to the bathroom and take a shower before I did anything else. That routine lasted most of that first year.

Now that Conya's Cottage and I are older and wiser, things do actually run pretty smoothly...most of the time. A bit of advice for new small business owners: never make a decision with another firm or person without giving it at least a few hours thought, and doing a little due diligence even if the offer starts off with something for 'free'. You'd be surprised how many things you WON'T do that will save you alot of grief and time that you'll need for other things if you follow that one rule. That especially applies to anything connected to marketing or business services.

My next entry will bring us up to the present with recent photos and more...see you then!

I Never Thought I'd Have A Blog, But Here It Is

Welcome to my first blog entry…Conya’s Cottage just had it’s second birthday (on the 15th), and like I understand parents of toddlers feel…it’s exhilarating to see how my “baby” has grown but also exhausting on a day to day basis…instead of losing sleep because the ‘baby’ won’t go to bed, I lose sleep thinking about all of the things I want to do, need to do and forgot to do...

I think I should start with where I’ve most recently come from…which might explain my drive to see the vision in my head of Conya's Cottage appear in material form for others to enjoy.

I’ve loved architecture, gardening/landscaping, historic preservation and most old things for as long as I can remember…my professional training background is in business, design and urban planning so starting Conya’s Cottage was a perfect fit. The beginning of this journey started when my husband took me to a resale shop in Pasadena because he knew I liked to browse in them and he needed a highboy. Well, he found and bought the highboy and I bought the business after falling in love with the architecture of the building and the business potential. I had just finished a three year project of restoring an English Cottage (or baby Tudor as I liked to call it) in Southern California with a friend and having recently moved to Pasadena, I guess I needed another huge challenge.

The highlights of the project involved new plumbing, electrical upgrades, re-roofing, the replacement of windows and doors, painting and complete landscaping. Here are some before, during and after exterior pictures of the Southern California House:

Now that you've seen where I've been...my next post will talk about the beginning of the Conya's Cottage journey...see you then!