Follow Your Heart

It is Sunday night and our weekend has not gone as planned. First,on Friday we had some truck problems that resulted in our need to cancel our trip to Ann Arbor this weekend. We were very excited about doing the Ann Arbor show so we were sorry to have to scrub our trip. We are realizing that as well as my truck has served me it is time for us to begin looking for a replacement. Second, a nagging sore tooth that I have been nursing for a couple of weeks took a turn for the worse yesterday and I ended up in the med center this morning looking for something to relieve the pain that had taken on epic proportions. A visit to the dentist is the first item on my list tomorrow. 

As I am sitting here nursing my sore jaw I am thinking about this business that CJ and I do together and feel very grateful that I get to do something that I love so much. I believe more than ever that if you do what you love and follow your heart you have the foundation for building a great business.

First, I get to do this business with my creative partner and best friend, my wife CJ. That would be reason enough to do what we do but there is more.

Second, we both love history and collecting vintage items. There is a real rush in hunting and finding all the treasures we come across and getting those items into the hands of people that are as excited about them as we are.  When you love to buy and collect vintage/antique items it is a natural to turn that love into a business.

Third, there is a hands on, restoration side to the business that is really appealing to me. The below pictured apothecary style cabinet I hauled home from an auction in many pieces.

Most of the drawers were in pieces and a number of them were missing. So I had to reassemble what drawers I had and than made up the ones that were missing to match the original. I than finished the cabinet in  one of the new distressed white paint finishes I have been experimenting with the last few months.

Fourth, there is a creative side to the business that both of us love. There is the design work that CJ gets but there are also the items we get to create. Such as the pillows pictured below that CJ made out of a find I made of some antique French ticking.

There are also the various furniture items I get to create out of the vintage parts and piece that we find. This side of the business feeds our artistic side on so many levels.

Fifth, there are all the wonderful people we meet doing our business. We have been privileged to meet so me people who have been so interesting to get to know and have been so affirming of us and our many finds and creations.

So we have decided to continue to follow our hearts and look forward to whatever adventures and roads that may take us down. This year promises to be a big year for us so we will hopefully have some exciting news about our business as the year unfolds.

So having to sit home today did result in me being able to finish a great book I have been reading about Andrew Wyeth and the Wyeth family.

I really enjoyed reading this book about an American icon and creative artistic family. So if your looking for a good summer read I can not recommend this enough.