grounding

there is nothing like digging in the dirt for getting you grounded. i may have over done it a bit but i'm having a good time getting my yard ready for spring. i got some little green house things to get some seeds started for the garden, i planted some strawberries and wondering if these berries will like it here in colorado?! i'll have to water them a lot but it'd be cool to have some berries. hoping we'll get some peaches this year too! lots of pretty bulbs for my flower beds in front. some are coming up but i have some patches so i got some to fill in around them. i was out pulling weeds while the ground is still somewhat soft. . . feels good :)

vent

So I hope you don't mind I have to vent about what is going on. It involves this picture above, one of my locations of my business, The Massage Spot in Whole Foods Market South Glenn. It's a new location, opened in June. I've been working very hard since then to build our business while the store itself has built his business. I've purchased all materials. I've fully staffed and maintained constant coverage since we've opened, having to had to pay out of pocket at times to get therapists in. When the store first opened they had started bringing another company in to offer free chair massage during events. Only one time have they invited us to be involved with any events going on. I've maintained communication and offered our services without response. I've had ideas about marketing and signage and been met responses ranging from intense negativity to receiving no response.

With all this our sales have grown 80% to 138% since our first few weeks. Pretty great numbers when you look at it.

Yesterday I was called in for a meeting. I was a bit nervous but always happy for any feedback that will help better my business. This is what I thought was going to happen. I've never really gotten any feedback from the store in all this time so I thought maybe there had been an issue with a therapist working for me that I needed to take care of.

Not what happened. I was essentially fired. The reason given: the store is struggling and another company has proposed a great marketing plan and they are going to go in another direction.

Period. I was never once given any idea or feedback letting me know that there was a problem. Our sales have grown. Slower than I had hoped but imagined that the economy was just a contributing to the slower growth. I opened with the Belmar location 4 years ago so I have some idea of what to expect. Despite the economy my 2 established locations, Belmar and Cherry Creek have had record years in 2009 and 2010 is starting off to beat last year.

I was in shock yesterday. The day was a blur. Today I'm mad. I know life isn't fair but I've worked so hard and put so much money into this to be thrown out for no apparent doing of my own without ever having received any indication that anything was wrong or needed to change seems cruel and unusual. I don't know how to tell the 10 therapists who have been working so hard to help grow this business they are out. The store is going in another direction.

To grow a business that was shoved under a flight of stairs 138% in 9 months seems like quite a success to me.

today

i forget where i got this from, i need some happy today
my dad emailed me this picture of me and my little sister. it reminded me of our old deck, it was surrounded by that greenery. . . so pretty. i wish i was playing in the water with my little sister today!

spring snow

gotta love colorado expecting 5 to 10 inches. i'm having a very trying day. . . watching a friends kiddo, my son sick, therapists flaking, therapists in jail!, CPR class falling apart I scheduled for tomorrow.

i went and saw a kabbalah rabbi for a reading and blessing the other day and he gave me a card with a prayer of thanks:
thank you for my periodic difficulties, my occasional setbacks, and for the times when i don't feel happy, because everything is for my ultimate benefit, even if i don't see that it's always for my best. . .

landscape

i've been working on this watercolor and colored pencil for a couple nights. i'm not done yet it kind of remdinds me of the colombia river gorge. . . abstracted of course

xcel

i have stayed up very late creating a very complicated, very helpful spreadsheet to help me with my payroll. . . i'm so proud of me for figuring it out!

best mail day ever

i had the best mail day! i got 2 massage chairs that i ordered, new people (favorite guilty pleasure), a card and pictures of ian and palmer taken at christmas from my mom, a lot of feather earings from ebay (99 cents!) and a lil'package from anna of freeplay (we did an exchange)! freeplay was the first blog i started following and she's been a huge inspiration. i was tickled to recieve a little copy of a print of hers too!

and not one piece of junk mail or a bill. . . i wish every mail day could be like today. i don't think i'll ever forget it!

first friday

this was at artists on sante fe, ceramics by kim dufford. i really liked her stuff. there are a bunch of artists there and some of the studio spaces were open. . . oh what a dream!
these cool wood blocks at chac. it's chicano artist, i love it! kiko and i were going to have our reception there, before our surprise ruined our plans! it's a great patio with the little white lights! love it! (mike penny artist)
(by mike penny)
these were really cool like found art/mixed media collages by suzanne martino


i forgot to write down who this was, i loved the tile on the left!

grandma w. put pamer down on friday so kiko and i could go out and look at some art and have a little date. we went down to sante fe art district here in denver

then we had a drink at sputnik and had yummy buffalo/mac & cheese fries and lamby joe sliders at jonesy's eat bar. we were home and tired at 10:30! we're so old!

scores

i got some cool books at the thrift store the other day. . . i just need to start DOING

emerald green

thanks tyler! loved your lil' package!

love it

this is so my style
(reed krakoffs as seen here)