What a year it's been so far! It's been a constant flow of ideas and new products flowing the past few months here. Our boutique store is shaping into place since the remodeling and expansion in the interior of the shop two years ago. I have opened up the space and I've created wonderful pockets of intrigue here. A bright new paint trim has been added outside, as well as new furnishings and fixtures inside showcasing so many of our new designs. I am always adding new and taking away old as well. I planted sturdy, drought free cactus at our entry which adds to the new life of what has been in store for us. This was a start. And, on a question of how do you engage the creative mind...for me, it was the obstacle of major construction outside my store the past couple of years. It caused me to take charge in being more creative in my presentation and in designing my hand crafted products. Only in mid-summer, most of the huge debris, trucks and hauling equipment that was parked right smack in front of the store are now cleared. This is a major artery through the city and clogged much of Van Ness Avenue for this city corridor project. Also with this, I am so grateful the very large fence and giant plastic construction barriers are gone. During this time, I engaged my creative mind in focusing on the products, photographing them in our studio here and creating some video dialog to add to our Instagram handle and to the website. So, my answer to engaging my creative mind on this last skill of tasks was putting a challenge of learning something technically new in front of me. Something I knew would take many hours to test, yet a skill I wanted to learn. I chipped at it more and more and now I can say I am delighted to do this kind of work. I will be hosting some new events at the store for 2020 after the holiday season. Meanwhile come visit us for a weekday visit and maybe find a gift or two, or #treatyourself. Also, follow us on Instagram to see what's new. @courtneycollection . How will you engage your creative mind now? Thank you for reading. - Kathleen Courtney
