Merry Christmas!

It's been a busy couple of months and the blog has been silent for a while - apologies to loyal readers. But the busyness has been all about the business and the family, both of which vie for top billing on a daily basis. The business won out this Christmas season, as we have stayed home to oversee the store's holiday activity. Meanwhile, both grandsons and their parents are in Denver, where they ARE having a white Christmas, just like the one above. Here in Canandaigua it's been almost spring-like and today there is only a dusting of snow on the driveway.

Today in Denver they'll be making cookies, decorating a gingerbread house and getting all geared up for Santa's arrival. Thank goodness for FaceTime - we'll be able to see the stockings hung by the chimney with care right along with them. And then tomorrow morning we'll adjust our inner clocks to Mountain Time and watch the happiness and glee of a 6 year old as he first sees the goodies that Santa brought. His 5-month old cousin will be pretty oblivious to all the excitement of the day, but I know his Mommy and Daddy will be recording every smile and babble.

We wish you all a joyous Christmas and holiday season and thank you again for your support of our efforts to make JOOLZ your special holiday shopping spot. There will be lots of joolz under trees for many delighted recipients this year. Enjoy them all!

happy new year!

2010 has certainly zipped by and it's been a great year for JOOLZ. We moved to a more central location in downtown Canandaigua and have seen a big leap in our customer numbers. We've also seen a resulting big leap in our sales, with December 2010 outperforming December 2009 by 127%. How's that for a good ending to the year? We couldn't have done it without all of you, our loyal customers and friends. Many, many thanks for your support and encouragement...and for returning time and time again.

Many times now, when I'm looking for new joolz, I look with specific customers in mind. It's fun for me to match the joolz to the customer and then to see the smile on that customer's face when she chooses that same perfect piece. Each day is a new adventure.

The adventures will continue and great things are in store for 2011....new artists, new inventory, a revitalized online store and so much more. Here's wishing you all a very happy and healthy 2011!!

merry christmas!

As everyone in retail knows, the weeks leading up to the holidays are frantically busy, with little time for anything other than work. We've worked hard to make our first holiday season in our new location successful and the work has paid off. Today we exceeded last year's December sales by over 100%....and we couldn't have done it without the hard work of our JOOLZ staff, Suzanne and Alice, my quiet, supportive husband who stays in the background but keeps me motivated and excited about the business and all of our wonderful customers.


Here's to a wonderful holiday with friends and family. Merry Christmas and best wishes for a happy, healthy and profitable 2011.

(photo by Arie Pilz, taken one-handed from a moving car)

happy thanksgiving!

The day before Thanksgiving is full of prep work for the big day. At our house we're working on making some yummy apps - our contribution to the family feast this year. Thanks to Cousin P., we'll be relaxing and stuffing ourselves with some of this fabulous bounty:

(image by Ree Drummond)

Best wishes to you all for a wonderful Thanksgiving Day, wherever you are. We are so thankful for your friendship and support.

merry christmas!

The out of town kids all arrived on Monday evening -- easy flights, on time, all luggage accounted for. It's a miracle! We did the annual Mother/Daughter Luncheon together, first time for the 3 of us together, on Tuesday. Today was a work day for me and a play day for the others. And tomorrow we will join the rest of the extended family for our Christmas Eve celebration, followed by Christmas dinner for 22 at our house on Friday.

Our 4 year old grandson is giddy with anticipation, the first year he really understands that Santa is coming....and soon! We hope you're all giddy with anticipation, too, and that each and every one of you has a wonderful holiday, full of joy and love. Merry Christmas!

our tv debut

This ad is appearing on Time Warner cable throughout the Finger Lakes, our first foray into TV advertising. Daughter #2 thinks I've got the royal wave down pat. What do you think?

happy turkey day

We're off to my brother Tom's house for turkey tomorrow and I can't wait. I just love...love...love Thanksgiving dinner - all the good smells, all the wonderful family members, all the things to be thankful for:

• our nephew, Ted, is recently back from Afghanistan - safe and sound
• my year of medical challenges has run its course and all is well
• Suzanne continues to be an important asset at the store and JOOLZ continues to attract new customers and new artists
• our family continues to grow as two nieces became engaged and two others had daughters this year
• my hairdresser, Olivia, is happily pregnant after years of trying...followed by surgery, and her due date falls between those two nieces' weddings!

Count your blessings and enjoy your Thanksgiving Day. I sure will!

all decked out

It was shortly after 9:00am this morning...I was setting up shop when what to my wondering eyes should appear... but a lift truck rolling down the sidewalk, led by eight tiny reindeer. OK, maybe no reindeer, but definitely a lift truck, and it stopped right in front of JOOLZ.

Up went the lift and up went the strands of lights. Our building was being outlined in sparkling white lights, joining many others on Main Street in a new collaborative effort between merchants and building owners to light up downtown for the holidays....just in time for this weekend's Holiday Open House.

JOOLZ is decorated inside and out, from head to toe. Our cases are overflowing with wonderful, unique joolz, the holiday music is ready on the iPod and we'll be serving our yummy, hot wassail and homemade cookies this weekend. Plus, for the first time, we're having a drawing for 3 JOOLZ gift certificates. Register to win and use the gift certificate for holiday gifts; the drawing will be on December 7th, following Art Walk (Friday, December 4) and Wine Walk (December 5). Happy Holiday Fun!

happy fourth

Soft breezes are blowing and our flags are reaching for the wind. At the top, of course, is Old Glory.

On the left is the Marine Corps flag, flown in honor of our nephew, Ted Hubbard, who is in Afghanistan with Echo Company of the 2/8. Recent news reports indicate that Echo Company has seen intense action against the insurgents. We keep them all close to our hearts as we celebrate Independence Day.

On the right is the Hubbard family pennant, designed many generations ago by a sea-faring great-grandfather. It seems appropriate to fly it from our nautical flagpole, overlooking our beautiful Lake Canandaigua.

Happy Fourth to you all as we celebrate this important day and the 100th post on the JOOLZ blog.

groundhog day

It's Groundhog Day, and unfortunately, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow this morning. That means six more weeks of winter, at least in Pennsylvania, where Phil resides. Up here, north of Phil, we are ready for spring...and I mean ready! We've had snow on the ground since early November.

One of our artists, Jayne Redman, creates beautiful floral jewelry, perfect for spring. We'll show you some of her work in the next post....

holiday rewind - part three

December 26th brought yet another family gathering - this time with Larry's side of the family, many of whom have migrated from NJ to Colorado.

We met Krissy's husband, Rob, for the first time. They were married on Maui only a month before Kate and Brian were married last year, and the timing just wasn't right for us to travel then. Here they are with our LA daughter, Marnie, in the middle:

We also met Caroline, Rob and Krista's daughter, who is the same age as our grandson. (Yes, it's confusing. Brother and sister Rob and Krissy married Krista and Rob). Here's a shot of the 3 younger cousins, including Trinity, Caroline's older sister:

There's a famous family picture of first cousins Marnie and Rob sitting in a chair together, ages 4 and 5. Here they are again, 33 years later:

And here are their kids, wiggling into the same pose amidst lots of laughter:

Later in the week, we even were able to fit in some grown-up time by going to the movies and to see "Jersey Boys" in downtown Denver. It was a jam-packed week of holiday and family time and we loved every second of it. We flew back yesterday, only slightly delayed going through Cleveland, and were happy to crawl into our own bed last night. This morning we woke to 12" of new-fallen snow. I unpacked and Larry plowed the driveway. It's good to be home, safe and sound. But it was even better to be with our family for the holidays. We wish everyone a very Happy New Year and all the best for 2009!

holiday rewind - part two

Christmas morning dawned bright and early, but Nana and Poppy tried to sleep in as long as they could!

Once we all were up, the morning's activities began with much laughter and screams of joy from a certain three year old. He was amazed to see that Santa and his reindeer had enjoyed their snack and that there were lots of presents under the tree:

We opened stockings first, all of which were bulging with goodies. Even Bella and Murphy had their own stockings (note new paint try-out patches on the wall):

Breakfast followed, a yummy egg/sausage casserole made by Kate, and then it was time to open presents. Not surprisingly, 90% of the presents were for a certain three year old. Some really heavy ones had even been shipped out to LA for his LA Christmas with his father.

Then it was time to get ready for Christmas dinner with Kate's in-laws, who all live nearby. She made a wonderful dinner, roast beef, ham and all the trimmings. (We were still feasting on leftovers several days later). The table was lovely and Kate and Brian were able to use many of their wedding presents:

It was great to visit with Brian's family again, and to meet his cutie nephew, Derek, and his grandfather, John. Here's a shot of Brian's mom, Madelaine, with her grandson and ours:

holiday rewind - part one

It's been some time since the last post...but with good reason!

We had the marathon run up to Christmas at the store, interrupted on Friday, Dec. 19th with a big, dangerous snowstorm. Then it was back to work for a few days before packing up and heading off to Denver for Christmas. Suzanne held the fort at the store on Tuesday while Larry and I had an unplanned visit to Texas. Our flight to Newark arrived late, it took over 20 minutes to retrieve our gate-checked carry-on bag and we had to take a bus to the other concourse for our flight to Denver, but we got there before the plane had left. Unfortunately, they had closed the flight and had given away our seats.

Off to the service counter, where we were told there was no way we were going to Denver that night, but we could get on a standby list for Houston, with a confirmed flight from Houston to Denver on the 24th. The girl at the desk told us we had "a better chance of winning the lottery" than making the flight....but she was wrong! We got on and had even better seats than we had reserved for the Denver flight. Arrived in Houston without a hitch and went to the airport Marriott to sleep in a bed rather than on the airport floor.

We had an uneventful flight to Denver on Christmas Eve, arriving 24+ hours after we had left home. Not a good beginning to our trip...but we were there! Our LA daughter and her son had arrived on time the previous day and our Denver daughter and her husband were there to greet us. Finally, we were all together.

The house was beautifully decorated and the tree was up:

There was even a Colorado reindeer in residence, who looked suspiciously like Bella, the queen of the house:

Stockings were hung by the chimney with care, with hopes that Saint Nicholas soon would be there. We even provided Santa with cookies and milk, along with some carrots for the reindeer (Bella-deer excluded):

Then it was time for bed, not only for a 3 year old, but also for his exhausted grandparents!

holiday hours are posted

We've just posted our holiday hours, adding to our regular Tuesday through Saturday schedule.

We'll be open extra days on
Sunday, December 21 from 11am - 3pm and
Monday, December 22 from 10am - 5pm

Last chance to buy Christmas joolz will be on Tuesday, December 23 from 10am - 5pm.

Then it's vacation time, and we will be CLOSED on Christmas Eve, reopening on Tuesday, January 6, 2009.

our thanksgiving feast

Our Thanksgiving gathering at Tom and Peggy's house was full of family, laughter, beautifully set tables, delicious food and the telling of several "famous" family stories. To look at the pictures, you'd think the men in the family did all the work, but we women know that wasn't the case. They were just the best photo subjects!

Tom whipping up his famous potatoes

Allison's boyfriend, Keith, creating one of several yummy vegetable dishes

The resulting feast

Cousin Jay, stylishly dressed for KP duty

Aren't those guys something?

turkey day is almost here

We're off to Tom and Peggy's house for Thanksgiving in a couple of days and my cooking assignment is pretty easy - cranberry/orange relish and rolls. Thank you Danny Wegman!

But one woman who really puts on a Thanksgiving feast is The Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond. Our daughter, Katie, told me about Ree's website, and the woman really is a wonder. She writes, she cooks, she takes gorgeous photos and she puts it all together in a fun and very readable package. She shares tidbits about her family, husband Marlboro Man and her 4 kids. Everything she packs into just one day would exhaust most women, but she makes it sound and look easy. Here are some of her Thanksgiving food photos - you can almost smell the food cooking. Go ahead and drool. And Happy Turkey Day!

PS Here's a closeup of that turkey with the Taylor thermometer showing: