Saturday, September 28, 2013

This Blog Has Moved

I'd like to thank each and every one of you for following this blog. But it is time for me to move on to bigger and better things.
Please subscribe to my new blog over at Mercantile 519. I have a bunch of fun new stuff in store, and will be posting it there. I hope you enjoy my new project.

Monday, September 23, 2013

A Giveaway!

As I'm sure you know, I am working on launching the new brand, Mercantile 519. I am hosting a giveaway on my Facebook page for a chance to win a $25 gift certificate to the shop, once it opens. If you are interested, you can check it out here!

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Wednesdays Are For Gratitude

I'm still plugging away on the new site, and I am loving the way it's looking. I still have TONS to do, but it's slowly coming together.
Here is a quick list of things I am grateful for this week
Getting my hair done  /  Awesome friends  /  More awesome friends  /  Awesome new friends  /  My mom making a super delicious dinner tonight  /  New supplies that have come in the mail  /  All of you!
Life is pretty sweet right now. If this cruddy back/hip pain would go away, it would be just shy of amazing.

Monday, September 2, 2013

Another Big Change

It's been a week since the last post, and a full week at that. Something super, super, super exciting happened on Thursday, which I will talk about more at the end of this post.
I worked a few days this week, and got some things done. I met up with Rick on Friday for lunch, and to buy his old external hard drive off of him. He loaded it up with all of Doctor Who, some workout videos and a whole bunch of movies. I was so happy for this, because now I have dozens of hours of things to watch while I knit! My blog feed is becoming stagnant again, so I am going to go through and eliminate a bunch, and find some new ones. If you have a blog you think I'd like, please share it!
After meeting up with Rick, I hung out with my friends Norma and Sarah, and their two dachshunds Pickles and Loki. We went to see Kick Ass 2, which was pretty good. I know I saw the first one, but I don't really remember it, so I have nothing to compare this one to. After the movie, we picked up a pizza and some cider and sat in the car by the river and watched the storm. An amazing Friday night, no doubt.
Saturday, I worked in the morning, which wasn't anything too exciting. Afterwards, I went home, tidied up my room and cleaned all the floors. I wasn't planning on going out, but then came across an event on Facebook where a friend, who is moving to the East Coast tomorrow, was playing a show at Phog with his band. I decided to go with my best friend, Cassia, and we had a great time. There was some drunken hilarity happening mostly involving others, that I got sucked into. I danced with many, many folks, and really enjoyed myself. It definitely beat the hell out of sitting around at home. Cassia and I ended up going back to my friends place with most of his band, and some other friends. I ended up crashing there after talking with everyone for what seemed like hours upon hours. Woke up Sunday afternoon, and went to the Tall Ships Festival at the Windsor riverfront. They played a second show there which was also very enjoyable. Went back to their place again afterwards, along with a whole crew of people. We ran to The Beer Store, which I conveniently remembered was open until 6, and made it there with minutes to spare. That was fun in itself. We drank our fill, listened to everyone (but myself) play wonderful music, and had a blast. I was up quite late again, and slept in today until eleven or so. Took an uneventful bus ride home, and that is where I am now.
Now, onto the exciting thing that happened Thursday. I mentioned it last week as something I knew I needed to do, and that would help light the fire under my ass.
I registered my business!!!!
I am no longer going to be known as Knit, Nicole, Knit! and instead will be Mercantile 519. This is something I have been wanting to do for a long time. I no longer just knit, and I wanted to change the name to reflect that. This name is something that can grow from being just me selling my handmade goods to selling stuff made by other artists and artisans in the 519 area code. I am happy to be from where I am from, and I knew the name had to reflect something to that effect. 519 is the area code for Southwestern Ontario, I have it tattooed on my left hand, and I just thought adding that would be perfect.
After my brother got home from work Thursday, I had him take a couple pictures of me holding my Master Business Licence. This is the best one. Seriously, every other one, my smile was so huge, I looked certifiably crazy.
I am so incredibly stoked, excited, ecstatic, nervous, happy, and every other emotion possible, about this whole situation. There are so many things I need to do, but they are coming together slowly, but surely. I have the Facebook page made, a Twitter account, an Instagram account that has not yet been updated, and I am working on building the site with Squarespace. Once I get some of that last one up and ready to go, I will have a mailing list so you can all join and find out when the launch will actually be. I will no longer be selling on Etsy for numerous reasons, but that's irrelevant right now.
This is such a huge step in my life, and I am so glad all of you are here cheering me on, sending me positive messages, leaving comments, and just generally being in my corner. These last few months, since I decided I was going to rebrand, up until now have been quite overwhelming and stressful. Getting a nice comment on something online brings me so much joy, and I am endlessly appreciative.
I hope you all continue to follow me throughout this journey. I will wrap up this already verbose post now before I start getting even more emotional.