January at my place is an interesting month. While everyone else is out there celebrating the New Year, I am contemplating being open in our business for seven days a week until the end of the first month of the New Year. I find this quite difficult having been a teacher for most of my adult career. This is the time of year when I am usually looking forward to a Summer break. It fills me with mixed emotions.
My first, and sometimes overwhelming, emotion is, "Can I do it?" Can I last four weeks straight, seven days a week, without a day's break. After all, I'm not a young'un any more, I am in my sixties. I become quite anxious between Christmas and New Year.
Other emotions come as the days pass. This year, Peter and I came up with what we thought was a brilliant idea to run kid's classes every day from 2 till 4 p.m. every day. I wasn't really sure, even a little apprehensive about every day but Peter convinced me. We brainstormed how we could set it up on a trip home from Sydney at the end of November. We were excited!
Over the next couple of weeks, we put together all these cutesie little kits that kids could use to learn eight different crafts. Peter designed and made French knitting dollies, cut up lengths of dowel ready for stick weaving, stuck pop sticks together for Ojo de Dios, designed a kit to make Jacob's Ladders and experimented with Paper Marbling. While he was busy, I worked how much wool was needed for each of the French knitting, Stick Weaving and Ojo de Dios kits, designed and produced some simple Paper Tole kits using some gorgeous cartoonised Australian animals.
With the kits all prepared, I waited apprehensively for the first day to see what would happen. We weren't expecting many as we had not been able to publicise it extensively, but we were quite happy to start quietly. We had a booking for two kids the first day, who turned up with mum and grandma. As they arrived, 6 more kids with 7 adults came too. I panicked! But they all started with Paper marbling and Peter in his usual manner just went with the flow and it all happened. Possibly not as quickly as possible, but all the kids and adults had a great time. Several of them also did the second craft session and completed several Ojo de Dios.
The classes have been slow but we are getting the word out there. The B&B has been busy and I am sometimes so tired that I cannot think any longer. The gallery has been reasonable particularly post Christmas which is often slow. The cafe has been its usual unpredictable self.
January is passing and most days I am coping, happy and feeling fulfilled in our business. It is moments rather than hours or days, that I have doubts, I feel I can't cope, I crumble and hide. Halfway through the month and I think to myself, "Yes, I will survive, yes I will actually enjoy, yes I will be here till the end of another January.
