For example, Easter was a week ago, and I have not yet posted the photo of the oh-so-cute Bunny Head pastries the Carletons made and brought over. Dave (aka "Cob") later explained that they carefully chose the ones that actually looked like bunnies (not pug dogs, or monsters, for example) to bring over. It seems that after awhile making bunnies loses its glamour for 5-, 10- and 12-year old boys, and they tend to get a bit, um, creative.And speaking of creative 10-year-old boys, yesterday Duncan proudly showed me the new handkerchief that he had sewn. Embroidered proudly in the upper right hand corner was the word "snot." I'm envisioning an entire Duncan line for the Mercantile. We can have hankies that say "snot," "boogers," and who knows what else. Ack!
Yesterday we had our first official Milkweed Mercantile staff meeting. Yeah for us! We talked about the business structure. My goal is that it will not be "Alline-driven" but team driven. The five components of the business - Inn, Cafe, Online Store, DR store, Seminars - will each be responsible for meeting its own budget while working closely together so that ALL succeed. We have a GREAT group (I'll introduce them soon) and I continue to feel strongly that if I follow my heart that good things will happen.
The Spring 2008 issue of Communities magazine just came out.My complimentary copies arrived yesterday. I have both an article (Building a Business in Community) and a book review in it.
In the article I talk about how grateful I am for the grant I received from Eileen Fisher (pictured above at a celebratory lunch). We also put in a photo of the Mercantile in its current state: framed and ready for a roof:
That's it for now. I'm going to go make dinner for Mark, Alyson and new baby Cole (I'm thinking calzones, slaw and brownies for dessert), then Kurt and I are headed off to Quincy for dinner with Amy and Juan. More later!
