Day-to-Day Concerns

What you are thinking about when you come into the shop is perhaps something like, "Wow! Look at their new shipment of Kid Silk Haze! I must have some!"



Or perhaps (although this is less likely since you have yarn fumes affecting your brain), you might even notice our new yarn shelving:


Or maybe you will see nothing but the new Kaffe Fassett Ikats. Which I kind of forgot to photograph. So you should come in and see them.

But even before you come into our store, I am there, behind the scenes doing everything I can to make poor Kim go insane. This behind-the-scenes work means that I am thinking about something entirely different from what you (or Kim) would expect. I am always concerning myself with ways to make our business run more smoothly.

Like having the right kind of staplers.

It's true that I staple at work a lot more than I knit or quilt. And frankly, this has been a source of frustration. The not knitting and quilting I can deal with. It's the bad staplers that make me nuts.

I think this is because I am spoiled.

I love the stapler you see below. It is my own. It is about 20 years old. I got it at the Logan Valley Mall--long, long before the lizard-heater device in the pet store caused the fire that led to the rebuilding of the entire mall and made it better, but killed the poor hamsters.

I'm sorry, but if you remember this story, you are pretty old.

Where was I? My good stapler that I will not take to the store because it is mine and probably Kim would not want to touch it anyway, because this is not one of those kitschy "vintage" styles. It's just old.

As old as those of you who remember the tragedy of the dead hamsters.

While it looks a bit tattered, it's still going strong. So in my mind, this wonderful stapler looks more like this:

You will never believe it, but they don't seem to make staplers like this anymore. (And we ran out of that fabric you need to finish your quilt. And the yarn you need to finish your hat. The fabric and yarn, they are no longer made. Like this stapler.)

So I have been searching. This has led to our having 3 different staplers on our desk.

Stapler #1
Over the past few years, I've bought a couple of the staplers shown below because theoretically they are such a great idea that I continue to think that they are a great idea. They are "power staplers." You barely touch them, and they sound as if they could staple your arm to a bolt of fabric.



Doesn't it even LOOK strong and powerful?



But honestly, they don't work too well. The first one I bought simply died. This one is still on our desk, but unless you press on it really hard (I know, that is counter-intuitive), it doesn't staple properly. You're left with a partial staple that you have to pick out of the papers.

Stapler #2
The other stapler on our desk is this little number that I couldn't resist:


It actually works fairly well, but the little blue gems (do you think they might be real sapphires?) kind of hurt your hand when you staple with it. It was only $1.70 on clearance a few weeks ago. Apparently a lot of other people (who were not me) could figure out that it would hurt to use it simply by looking at it.

Stapler #3


(top view)



(side view)

This stapler is kind of interesting. I got it because it was made by Oxo, and I have had a number of Oxo kitchen utensils that worked well. I was hoping that the Oxo engineers would transfer some of their Paring-Division expertise into the Stapler Division.

It works well, but do you see how that thingee on the side slants? The way this stapler works is that when you press down, it comes forward toward you. It is functional, but frankly a little odd. It is okay if you staple while it's sitting flat on the desk. But sometimes I like to staple up in the air. And it makes my hand feel weird when I do that.

Business Take-Home Lessons from this Blog Report

1. People often think that our business just magically runs itself. I bet you never thought about how we need to staple your receipts together. I hope that now you can see we put a lot of thought into making our little operation run smoothly and seamlessly. I also hope you can see that staplers are more difficult than you think. Even though the other customer at the hairdresser that I discussed staplers with yesterday rolled her eyes indicating that staplers are actually not that difficult, and told me with a little bit of disdain in her voice to get an electric stapler.

2. The Rowan people are really cool because they have shipped us both Kid Silk Haze and a Kaffe Fassett fabric, all in the same week.

3. We are behind the scenes, working hard for you.

4. Yes, we are open Columbus Day. Only my brother Alex thinks it is a holiday.