Just a little over a week ago, we had our show at the Mineola Antique Fair. While we all practiced extra hand washing, had plenty of hand sanitizer, and didn't hug on all our sweet customers, I don't think many of us realized just how serious this was quickly becoming. (At that time, gatherings in Texas were strongly discouraged if attendance was above 250 to 500+, while the building we were at doesn't have that capacity at any point.)
Since then, group gatherings are limited to no more than 10, lots of stores are closing, we can't eat in a restaurant, schools are shut down for several weeks, and the list goes on.
Since this is the week after a show, not too much has changed in our personal life, with the corona virus restrictions. Now please hear me out! I work from home, almost all of the time! The week after a show, I am always working from home, making sure all the recent wedding and online orders are being made and fulfilled. This week has been all about wedding bouquets and I've been in "the factory" (my small bedroom turned work room) making lots of burlap roses. I would label myself as an "extroverted introvert." I was working in public (our show) and on the go for several days last week and now I am happy to be at home working in the quiet. Jeff and I both work from home, so we've really only been in contact with 4 other people (family members) this week, except for a few store clerks, where we picked up the essentials.
We also still have to go the farm and take care of animals and that doesn't change, no matter what the conditions are around us: rain, snow, drought, sunshine, or pandemic... the well being of our cattle and donkeys must still be attended to. A couple of new babies have certainly brightened our week!
Please say hi to Gracie! I ask on fb and ig for name suggestions - there was so many that I couldn't decide. Jeff's mom saw her pic and a video, then I read her all the names and she said "she looks like a Gracie to me," so Gracie she is!
Jeff and I also help provide some care and assistance to some family members, so we are helping them all the same.
We live about 12 miles from town, so we normally only go grocery shopping once a week or less anyways. Tuesday, we did have several important stops in town to make, but we only went into the stores one at a time. He went into the feed store, I went in the grocery store (Have mercy at the empty shelves - it was late in the evening, so it wasn't crowded and I got almost everything I was after.) We've got hand santitizer in the truck and use it before and after entering each location. I cleaned my desk and even found some more hand santitizer that was a freebie from a booth at the Yamboree last fall - it was like finding gold, lol!
We seldom eat out together, so we continue to eat at home, as usual.
Corona Virus has us like "Whoa Nelly!"
A couple of things that have changed for us:
We haven't been in such a rush this week and didn't set an alarm on most mornings. I've been saying "I'm tired" for several weeks, so I'm taking this time to get some extra rest. I've also had a "cranky" sore foot that is bothering me, so I'm trying to be easy on it as well.
Angea and I didn't go junkin' or eat lunch together on Thursday. We usually meet on Thursdays and go pickin' and hunting for new inventory or restock our booths, then have lunch aka "board meetings". We've had a few "phone conferences" but haven't seen each other since we left Mineola last week.
We know our shows scheduled for April will not happen. Vintage Market Days of East Texas has been postponed to June 18-20 in Lindale. The Mineola Antique Fair will not be held in April and we hope we can all gather there in May.
We still have items at Kickin' K Cattle Co. in Quitman - although the boutique is not open daily now, but she will meet for curbside service on appointment and is offering free shipping on most orders over $25, till we get through this pandemic. Kadyn is also doing
facebook sales or you can contact her for items in the store. Kickin' K just joined
instagram too, so please welcome her and tell her I sent ya!
We are taking extra precautions, washing our hands even more that usual! #washyourhands
Even if our clothes don't seem to be dirty, we are washing them after going anywhere. (you know how you wear a shirt for a little while when going to town and it doesn't get dirty, so you lay it over a chair to wear again - now it's going in the dirty clothes as extra precautions.)
What to expect in the coming days from us:
We will continue to work on our wedding orders and ship items from our home on the rural route in East Texas. Orders will still be processed in a timely fashion and shipped out. The USPS says they will continue to deliver! I am ordering more supplies online, instead of going into the store to shop.
I still haven't unloaded my vehicle from the Mineola show and we have some new shirts to photograph and list online. (This is something else I usually do the week after a show, but since we've been getting extra rest plus it's rained a lot this week, we didn't get around to it and my "wagon" hasn't been cranked all week, as we've just been going places in the "farm truck") We are considering doing a live sale on my
Facebook page this week in addition to getting our new things uploaded to our websites. If you are interested in the live sale, please head over to our
fb page and make sure you have notifications turned on.
This is a peek at a few of the new designs to be listed!
We will continue to wash our hands a lot and hope you will as well!
We will still maintain our daily positive words of encourage, fun memes, and pictures on our facebook page to help get us through this difficult time.
We are always, always grateful for your support of our small handmade business and appreciate each and everyone of you!!! We understand there is so much uncertainty at this time and we are so very thankful for everyone who orders a shirt, allows us to design your wedding bouquets, fix flowers for your loved ones or events, or comes to our shows. We couldn't do this without all of you. Thank you doesn't seem adequate enough, but we don't know how else to say it. We do hope all of you are well and we can't wait till we can see you all again soon!
Until them, we still have our
website and
etsy shop that you can find lots of our things (and there just might be a sale happening now!) Send me an email or message on
facebook or
instagram. We are here to help you, however we can!
