Beginnings

So, the first blog! I’ve thought of some great ideas for future blogs and also had people suggest some too, but I like a good story and a good story has to have a beginning, so the first blog is about me! Well, more so, how I ended up running this fantastic (I think so!) shop…

I guess you’d say I’m a ‘nester’, I love my home. I’m that person who goes on holidays and doesn’t feel comfy until I’ve found out where everything is, have spread out all my things, set up the bedside table and all the benches with my items and then surveyed the area to make sure it feels just right! I know there are some of you saying you do the same!

I’m a dreamer. Not in a dopey way, but in an ideas way. I love ideas! They go round in my head constantly, and pop up at the weirdest times (but as you know, Einstein thought of his theory of gravity while soaking in a bubble bath). I’ve been known to wear people out with my ideas – there’s too many they say – but one thing they can be sure of is that each one will be ‘out the box’ ( because you’ve got to keep things interesting!). My husband loves reminiscing about my various ideas…I think his favourite was when I sold the pile of wild cacti in our garden on Ebay and ended up making over $2000. There’s been flops too…but let’s not go into those too much!

Also, I love people, they’re all so different and they all have great stories and great ideas. And all of these people have homes. Whether it’s a caravan, an old house, a new house, a transportable, a mansion… all these people have a place called home that needs to be ‘nested’ in!

So first I used my nesting, my love of people and my endless ideas, to be a teacher – creating lessons, forming relationships with kids, parents and other teachers, and turning my classroom into a second home. It was great! But without going into it too much, over the six years I was there, the demands from the department and the reforming of the teaching guidelines, meant there was less and less room for creativity, I was getting squished… so it was time for a new idea!

And there it was! A shop! Hadn’t I entertained the idea of being my own boss before? And it had boundless opportunities for creativity, it had constant contact with people and it was a nester’s dream! I could make my shop into a nest and use it to help everyone else nest in their homes too!

So I did it.

And four years have gone past in a flash! Now let’s not make out it hasn’t been hard – after all, what a learning curve – the first day I cowered behind the counter thinking ‘what have I done? I have no idea how to run a shop!’ There were bills to pay, accounts to keep, reps to meet, companies to find and form relationships with, a whole overhaul of the stock I wanted, constant unpacking and moving of pieces, constant searching of the latest styles, and (luckily) a constant stream of customers to keep happy. 

And I love it! Mostly I love the customers (you guys!). There’s so many of you now who drop in for a chat and look for that perfect piece, and if I don’t have it, we discuss your home and your style and what you’re after, and I look for it… its great! And there’s nothing better than the smile on someone’s face when you find what they want and you know you’ve helped make their house a home – a nest they love to get back to, from work, or holidays, or just life in general.

So that’s my story, the moral is, and I tell everyone this – DREAM, dream big or small, you can never do too much of it – but the key is to not just dream, it’s to DO IT, to just get out there and have a go, and remember there are no mistakes, there are only lessons.

Renovating our new building ready for The Miners Couch!