Name Your Top Three

[SHHR]

I'm going to look ahead for my top three investments. Plans are (knock on wood) sometime next spring or summer will be to add on to the shop. I do all types of work in there and waste alot of time moving things around, cleaning and setting up for something other than upholstery. So #1 will be an addition that will have a dedicated clean area for cutting, sewing, and storage plus a small office and bathroom. That will eliminate a lot of trips back and forth to the house. #2 Installing a Central Air unit. My shop in very well insulated and has a good gas furnace, but summer time in the midwest can be brutal for heat and humidity. I have fans to move air, but is a royal pain when patterning or cutting material. They end up blowing things around and gets on my nerves, not to mention when doing a dusty operation, it gets blown everywhere too. #3 I think will be a toss up between better advertising in ways like getting out on weekends during car shows, boat shows, and bike rallys, or getting more/better business training from somewhere. It looks like there will be some new tax laws next year that may end up being a pain to figure out, plus any training or advice that will help with productivity is always a plus.
Kyle

[Mojo]

I did forget to mention my Hoover / press die tool. It seems that 80 % of everything that goes out my door has snaps on it and this tool is a huge time saver.

Great $ 120. investment. :)

Chris

[sofadoc]

In my earlier reply, I couldn't come with a 3rd one. Then I read Mike's reply.
I was skeptical about even making a small investment into a website. Since I only have 2 hands, and there are only so many hours in a day, I'm always backlogged as it is. So why spend money on something that probably won't put any more in my pocket?
Just last night, I sat in front of the TV, while swapping e-mails with a customer. By the end of the evening, I had a confirmed order, complete with credit card info for deposit. A nice sized job, that will keep me busy for 2 weeks in January.
Customers e-mail photos of their furniture, and I e-mail back with an estimate.
Beats the heck outta going from house to house after work. It also helps to weed out the "tire kickers".
Sure, I can't ALWAYS give an estimate based on a photo, but the website does expedite the process.
So, my 3 are: Sewing machine, cutting table, website

[Darren Henry]

A handheld vacuum with a power head for cleaning aluminum filings from boat carpet. Like this;
http://www.vacuum-cleaners.me.uk/handheld/electrolux-z61a-handheld-stair-and-car-vacuum-cleaner/

A turnbuckle punch. The easy cutter kind not the hammer kind.

I've got an old hoover similar to that vac. Works great but sometimes hard to reach ( like between seat box and hull. I also have a powerful one with an opening like a bottom feeding fish and a 18" hose that can be stuffed in there too for tight spots.

You've been here long enough to know what a cheap sod I am , but I didn't flinch when I sprung the $350 for an easy cutter. It wasn't just the time saving ; what it shaved off my bar tab paid for itself in a couple of sets of porch blinds. LOL.

[kodydog]

Third is my old singer sewing machine.  I bought it 20 years ago and it must by about 70 years old.

i also bought my old singer when I started some 20 years ago used ans gave no idea how old it really is.
I like it alot more then my new juki copt.
So to trouble with town. Codes on the shop

That's great mike. Maybe we could start a club. Call it the Ella Fitzgerald club. (Old black singer).

[bobbin]

Ella Fitzgerald is considerably more than "an old black singer". 

In fact, she was a teenage phenom from a broken and dysfunctional home.  She fronted the magnificent Chick Webb Orchestra back in the '30s.  Her range was amazing, the old Memorex recording tape ads from the '70s where her recorded voice was used to shatter crystal was based in fact.  She was entirely capable of doing it!  Moreover, she was an extremely capable business woman.  She hired a fabulous manager to be "her voice" in negotiations with the very segregated and sexist recording industry of the 1950s.  Her career was carefully managed and it made her a very rich woman at a time when being black and a woman meant you had 2 strikes against you before you even got a chance to bat.  Many other talented black women succumbed to the gruelling schedules and poor management.  The wonderful Billie Holiday died of a drug overdose. 

Her recordings for the Verve label at the reknowned Capitol Recording studio are without peer.  Her "songbooks", recordings of the top jazz composers (the Gershwin Bros., Cole Porter, etc.) are simply amazing.  They are a some of my very favorite listening when I'm working in my own shop.  Do yourselves a favor and order:  "Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas" if you want to own one of the finest Christmas albums ever recorded. 

I defy the likes of Mariah Carey, Christina whatshername, Whitney Huston to duplicate the body of Fitzgerald's recorded work.  Not that they aren't capable vocally, but they likely lack the interest to step outside their limited style or their contracts preclude such a thing.  Moreover, none of them have ever put in the "road time" that was part of the scene in the '30s, '40s, and early '50s..  Ella sang 6 and 7 nights a week, sometimes more than one show a day in the '30s and '40s., she rode on trains and in buses.  No jets, no plush hotel accomodations... she stayed in the "black part of town" because regardless of her talent, her skin color and "laws" dictated it.  And she performed live in limited, small venues where the lost delight of ballroom dancing featured prominently. 

I grew up on jazz.  And I love it, everything about it!  But I digress...

[kodydog]

Ella Fitzgerald is considerably more than "an old black singer".

Like you I also grew up listing to great artists like Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole and Aretha Franklin. My parents still play their albums when I visit. I also remember the old Memorex commercials. When Mrs. Fitzgerald passed in 1996 we lost an American icon.

I agree the civil liberties has come a long way in the last 60 tears. I think it is a shame that people like Al Sharpton, Jessie Jackson, and Barney Frank have taken Martin Luther Kings words and twisted them to fit there own agenda for monitory gains. But now I to digress.

I didn't make that statement in a derogatory voice. I love my old sewing machine and think Mrs. Franklin would have gotten a chuckle out of it. And you must admit she was black, she was old and she was a singer.

If it would make you feel better I'll paint my machine white and we'll name our club The BS Club. (Barbra Streisand)

[Mike8560]

BArbara  striesand what hPened to her ibsonder
I remeber seeing her picturess as a teen.

[kodydog]

Remember that movie from the 70's The owl And The Pussycat?
Woo Hoo.

[bobbin]

Kody., I don't go around looking for "deep hidden meanings/messages" in posts.  It just got me thinking about her and what a consummately professional and talented performer she was, and for so many years!

I've been listening to Christmas music in my own shop for a couple of weeks now (making Christmas decorations and presents) and so "Ella Wishes You a Swinging Christmas" has been getting a workout, right along with Louis Armstrong and the Commanders and his assorted guests (Lena Horn, Louis Jordan, Duke Ellington). 

It's absolutely fabulous music.  (we have been ballroom dancers for several years now, too). 

[sofadoc]

As a kid, while my friends were rockin' to the Beatles and the Stones, I was into Nat King Cole and Perry Como.
Then, when my kids were jammin' to Hoobastank, and Linkin Park, I was rockin' to the Beatles and the Stones.
I just can't seem to catch up with the times.

[bobbin]

Ya know, Sofa., I have only recently begun to appreciate the wonderful Perry Como, and Andy Williams (remember those Wonder Bread white Christmas shows??), but they were (are still!) terrifically talented performers.  Another group I've recently started to really dig is The Lettermen.  No kidding.  I heard an interview with them on NPR not too long ago and the tunes they sang live in the studio (!) were just unbelievable.   The harmonies were amazing. 

I grew up in a home with lots of classical music (Mum), and jazz, jazz, jazz (Dad), and my brother was totally into The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, The Byrds... the list goes on and on. 

In the past 10 yrs./so I've been turned on to Texas Swing... Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, Asleep At The Wheel, George Strait, Leon Rausch, Curtis Potter... they're fabulous.  And the music is all about dancing!  Love Bluegrass, too. 

I love music and the American music scene is chock full of unbelievably exciting stuff.  I don't play an instrument but the husband was a music major and a professional musician for a lot of years, so there's a lot of variety in our library!

[sofadoc]

Ya know, Sofa., I have only recently begun to appreciate the wonderful Perry Como, and Andy Williams

They're probably gonna' revoke my "mancard" for saying this  :(  but Rod Stewart does a great job with the old standards.

[Mojo]

I will see your jazz and raise you the blues. :)

I climbed onto my first stage at the tender age of 8, playing the drums for my older brothers rock band in the 60's. I was a kid act at the time and did sets with him and his band. I later switched to the guitar playing in my own rock band when I got older and then once again switched to blues and boogie music playing the blues harp, guitar and singing for a band out of Lansing, MI.

My entire life has been music from country to big band to rock, soul, R & B, blues and classical. ( Sorry Bobbin, I never got in to Jazz ). :)

Growing up with a lot of blacks you can see where my musical influences came from. Their parents had it playing at their houses as did my buddies and I learned to love it. It also didn't hurt growing up 80 miles down the road from the Motown studios. :)

One of my all-time favorite blues performers was Muddy Waters. I got to see him live when I was 15, thanks to my fake ID and as luck would have it, Pinetop Perkins was with him that night.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myJ0wN7piP4

I still listen to a lot of blues and boogie music, soul, old R & B, Motown and 60's classic.

Chris

[bobbin]

Nope! no revocation demanded, or would one offered be accepted.  :)  I know the  album you're referring to and it is terrific.  Natalie Cole also had an amazing album covering many of her father's hits.  So did Linda Ronstadt.  I love it when recording artists are willing "take on the oldies".