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Thanksgiving dinner was at my sisters house and also shared my moms 80th birthday. After sitting for a delicious meal we said grace then each of us (9 total) gave personal thanks to my mother.

My message was;

1st I thanked her for teaching my sister to cook. And if you could have seen the spread you would know what I meant.

2nd I thanked her and my dad for moving us to Florida when I was a child where later I met my wonderful wife.

Then I told a story that happened at work these last few weeks,

There is a fellow I work with who is a real PITA. And for several week he kept telling me I must have lived a sheltered life. So the last time he mentioned this here is what I said.

Whats the matter Joe, did you have a rough child hood? And before he could answer I said, because I had a great one. My parents moved our family from Michigan to St Petersburg Beach when I was 10 years old. They always kept a roof over my head, made sure I had clean cloths to wear, and got a good education. They made sure I hung out with the right kids, went to church on Sunday and kept away from drugs and alcohol.

When I became a teen they gave me more freedom but I always knew if I ever had a problem I could depend on them to give me guidance and steer me in the right direction.

Then I told him, I think I turned out pretty good don't you.

I know this isn't the "sheltered life" he was talking about but in the end he was speechless.

This is a true story and everyone had a good laugh.

Happy Thanksgiving all.

3 years ago my wife and I looked at our finances and decided we needed to do something. We were slipping backwards as far as income and building our nest egg.

We tried several things such as building a website and selling restored furniture with some success. We attended several antique shows and met hundreds of potential customers with some success. We bought a house in St Augustine and expanded our business there. I tried working for several different upholsterers but it just didn't work out.

Two months ago I was contacted by a former employer and good friend. His upholsterer was retiring and he needed help. I started working part time but the hours have gradually increased to where last week I worked 44 hours. I've been flat out busting it and they reciprocate with good pay and bonuses.

Two weeks ago I about worked myself out of a job and they weren't sure where the next piece of furniture would come from. I told them if they want me to keep making money for them they need to sell the jobs and get some furniture to do. They did. Their now stacked to the rafters with work ready to do. (Law of attraction? Maybe)

Their well established and have a showroom with about 500 bolts of fabric. I've been sending all my customers there to buy fabric.

At the same time my wife got a part time job bookkeeping for a veterinarian. We still work weekends for our treasured customers. So basically working 7 days a week. And if everything goes as planed we will have one of the best years in about 5 years.

I think what helped the most was changing our attitude from everything is the economy and governments fault to one of screw the economy were going to figure out a way to dig ourselves out of this hole. And no were not making gobs of money but its a start. It sure feels good.

Last week we delivered a sofa and wing chair expecting payment at that time. While the lady was writing the checks (two) she asked if she could post date one for five days and one for two weeks. Of course we wanted to say no but the furniture was already in the house and the only other option would be to remove them and store them till she could come up with the money.

We were going to cash the first check today but we called her first to make sure the money was in the bank. She said something about wiring money to her account and leaving for her fathers memorial service tomorrow.

I've got a funny feeling this is going to be a drawn out ordeal. Am I jumping to conclusions.

What would you do? Wait a couple weeks till things in her life smooth out? Repo the furniture? Threaten legal action? Now we find out you need a driver license # to take a worthless check in to the district attorney in Fl.
This is only our second encounter with bad checks--help.

Talk about a hump. One I'd rather not be in.

Having issues with my Ford van. Went online to find answers. Can't find any chat rooms like this one. They all want to charge $$$. I'm not going to give a CC # to someone I don't know. Any ideas for an amateur mechanic that needs help?

Seems like its either drought or deluge here lately. Last week we got over 13" of rain with the tropical storm and today another 4" so far.

The ditches are all full and on my way home my van got stuck going through a puddle on our dirt road. A kind neighbor pulled me out with his 4X4.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=471366

Too funny not to share

Check out this article by Andrew P. Napolitano, a former judge of the Superior Court of New Jersey

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/04/26/social-security-iisi-ponzi-scheme/?intcmp=trending

This is the real reason the gov. doesn't want you to invest your own SS money.

All the money I "invest" in SS (including what I match) will not be there when I retire.  >:(

Every person who says, I paid into SS and now I deserve the money I get from it, should read this.

What was the last thing you were listening to today when you knocked off.

I just looked at mine and I'm a little embarrassed to say Happy Anniversary by Little Feet.  :-[

But the next song is Hard to Handle - Black Crows.  8)

Hay Sofadoc and all our other Texas friends. Lot's of nasty weather in your neck of the woods. How are you doing.

Hope this week starts off better than last. Whenever I get down in the dumps I just listen to this guy and it picks me right back up.

http://video.pbs.org/video/1415187976/

Home for good. If I ever say I'm going to work for someone else will somebody please come and smack me in the head.

Why do I do it? This is the second time in the last year I went to work for another shop and all I can say is, theirs nothing like working for yourself. Don't get me wrong, both shops were good places to work. Nice shop, good boss and friendly co-workers. But you lose some self esteem, power, control. What really did it this time was the one hour drive at 6 o-clock in the morning and gas prices are a killer right now. My shop is a 5 second walk from my house.

From now on its do or die. The wife and I have some good ideas to bring more business. All we have to do is implement them. While I was working these last 3 weeks my wife was taking orders and we now have about 5 weeks worth of work.

Sofadoc asked several months back, if you have the ability to work for yourself, why would you work for someone else? I can now see his point.

A fellow I worked for 10 years ago needs an upholsterer and asked if I would come work for him, at a fair wage, but 1 hour away. I'm going to have to turn him down.

Worked all day Sat and today in my own shop. Felt good.

2-10-2012
Woke up this morning at 4:00 AM, one hour before the alarm. Showered, shaved, ate breakfast and off to work at 6 o'clock.  One hour drive into Jacksonville to be at work by 7 AM.

Work till 3:30 PM then rush back to St Augustine to pick up the wife and kids (dogs) and by 5:00 off to our home in Live Oak. After a 2 hour drive we pull up to the shop and empty the van of cargo and dogs.

7:30 head out again to Ceder Key to pick up a sofa and two wing chairs. Arrive at 9:30. Customer leaves for vacation next day.

From the Atlantic coast to Live oak to the Gulf coast in 4-1/2 hours

Return to our home in Live Oak at midnight. Love this job, never a dull moment.   :)

My wife has a drawer full of estimates that she has given out. Don't know what the deal is but lately people just aren't following through. I consider her a good sales person and shes good at calling back to keep in touch. It seems lately were just not getting the deal closed.

I can't see where were doing anything different. Prices, service, turn around are all the same.

Does anybody have any suggestions to get the customer to follow through?

Just finished a repair on a leather sofa. When we went to look at it the back of the simi-attached cushions appeared to be falling through the springs. It looked terrible. The husband wanted to junk it and buy new but the wife wanted to have it fixed because it matched a loveseat that was in like new condition.

There was a small hole on the back of one of the cushions so I stuck my hand inside to see what was going on.

The seating area had no springs just elastic webbing. But the foam felt fine so I told the homeowners I could fix it for less than $200. The hubby was still skeptical but the wife prevailed.

I added more webbing to the seat and did some work to the simi-attached cushions and in the end built a much stronger seating area.

My question is how do you convey to the public that it is more economical to have their furniture repaired (even the cheap stuff) rather than buying new? How do you get the message out there?

We just posted this add on craigslist,

Need repairs to your upholstered furniture? I can help. I have been upholstering for 30 years. Most serious structural repairs (broken wood in frame, new firmer cushions etc.)can be
remedied under $200.00--including pu/del. Other less serious repairs can be done also. Email me
to see what your repair would cost. If you do your own pu/del then it is way less.
References gladly furnished.

Are you finding cheap furniture becoming a new source of revenue because of repairs that look (to the lay person) hard to fix but are often simple?

I'm just thinking instead of complaining about all the cheep stuff coming out of China this is a great way to make some extra cash. And there is plenty of it.

Spent 4 days last weekend at the Altusa Clubs 41st antique show. Held at the Mark Lance National Guard Armory in historic St Augustine Fl. This was our second show and first at this location.


Thursday was set up and after 3 hours we were ready to go.


Our main goal was to meet new customers and sell enough merchandise to pay for the booth and maybe walk away with a little cash in our pocket.

Normally when I think of an antique show I think furniture and I found it odd that we were the only booth with furniture as the main theme. The other booths were glass/china, silver ware, jewelry and two booths selling vintage post cards. And of course there were antique tools scattered through out.

Friday morning we were raring to go. My wife sat inside the booth answering questions and I stood outside handing out cards and telling people about our business. Around 10:30 I spied a sight for sore eyes. Mojo's wife is not only pleasing to the eyes but interesting and personable also. Chris ain't half bad himself. Unfortunately they had to get home the next day so our visit was cut short. But I enjoyed the meeting and hope to see them again real soon. We sold a few items including 1910's brass surveyors instrument in original case.

The interesting thing about handing out cards was everybody said St Augustine could use a good upholsterer.

Saturday was a little better in that we sold this chair


We delivered it Sunday morning to a nice historic house. And when we did the lady there asked for estimates on 6 or 7 pieces of furniture. We'll start them in 3 weeks or so.

All in all it was a good experience and the chair paid for the booth. Would we do it again next year? Can't. When we got there the lady running the show said this would be the last one.

In hindsight three questions to ask before entering a show.
1. Will there be many furniture venders there? They should know.
2. What kind of gate traffic have past shows experienced? There were times that got very slow.
3. How many venders do they expect? This one had 18. That seems small to me.
4. How do you advertise. We asked this question and she was vague in the answer. They had no web site which was surprising to me.

Using the fireplace for the first time this year. Didn't get over 50* today and down to 24* tonight. Burrr!

Merry Hooters Christmas.

http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/iouaFpAgdVE2QLOs

Its worth the wait.

Courtesy of TWC.

http://www.weather.com/outlook/weather-news/news/articles/weather-wit-slideshow_2011-12-21?page=6

When do you say just leave it there.

Merry Christmas y'all

http://www.cracked.com/video_18297_stuff-that-must-have-happened-pitching-mt.-rushmore.html?cp=1&wa_vrid=18298&pid=1&wa_vlsrc=continuous

Many months back someone asked about fixing springs that were hanging out the bottom of a chair. Normally I would say its time to reupholster the chair and fix the springs the way they should be. That is to reweb the bottom and retie the top of the springs.

Every once in a while I get a customer who just wants the springs stuffed back up into the chair and no matter what I say, doesn't want the expense to do it right.

This customer is 84 years old, shes the mother of a friend of ours and she has more (good) jobs to do. Here's what I do.

This is the mess I started with,


First I striped the old burlap off. When I did I found thin straps holding the springs together with hog rings instead of the usual 8-way hand tied.
 

Next I 4-way tie the bottom of the springs to hold them in place and pull them down somewhat.


Then I web the bottom and pull everything tight.


Its a neat old chair but could use some TLC.