The swoop happened at the weekend.  Friends had been promising a swoop – and they delivered.  Paint brushes, old clothes, fan heaters, humidifiers, new kettles and homemade soups and bread arrived along with willing bodies.  And, it is starting to look like it could be a coffee shop.  Still more to do (and the snow had better start to behave itself) – but if nothing else, there will be coffee on Saturday.

So – a big thank you to all the helpers and an especially big thank you to WH Buck and Son, the builders who took the damp and sad old solicitor’s office and tranformed it into a special space (with loads of storage) where you can sit and drink a coffee, have a bite to eat, listen to some music, check out some art and crafts and make your own masterpieces.

It turns out that actualising a dream is a group effort – even when it’s not a group dream.  Lots of skills are required and I don’t have lots of skills – but I know people who do and, luckily for me, they are very nice, skill sharing people.  You will need people who listen and encourage and give out the occassional slap (metaphorically speaking) when you fall apart and wonder if dreaming is a good thing.

A word to all your dreamers – pick your friends, family, builders, electricians, architects, drawing creators, web designers, interview panelists, plasterers, artists, art tutors and tap posting people carefully.  You’ll need people who can listen and make sense of your senseless ramblings (cause your brain will cease to function), build extra cupboards under the stairs cause you said you need lots of storage space, get their artwork ready and wait patiently for your call – and accept new class dates without batting an eyelid, pop round just when you’re about to crawl under the covers and never come out, then make sure you have envelopes and a short-list, arrive ready to do whatever needs doing – supplying their own tools and food for the next 3 days, make a space that looks too small come to life with 3D drawings, put balloons on your web site to announce your opening, help you to come up with a name, knock on doors and fill in questionnaires, buy tapered tap attachments and hand over $30 to the post office, drive through the snow to put in track lighting cause you should’ve ordered it earlier and you didn’t, stand on the bannister to paint the unreachable bit of wall, email you words of wisdom, hand out tissues, spend their week off work decorating, let you put your bin in their drive, go without Christmas presents and just generally stand in your corner and listen to you and refuse to believe you when you tell them that you don’t think you can do it.  They’re all out there (If you need names and telephone numbers, I’ve got ’em.).

We’ll all be learning for the next few weeks and the menu will be developing while we grow into our skin.  But you’ll get the idea.

Karen

PS   Don’t forget the open evening on the 9th of December (5.30 – 8.30).  We’ll have stained glass and fabric decoration demonstrations – and you can try some sweet potato pie.