Lonesome Town

Yay!! The school holidays are over at last and Lily and Violet have both returned to school this week!!  And the reason I am so pleased about this?? No, it is not that I want my daughter out from under my feet (although I have wished for that many times over the past 9 weeks) but rather that I can't bear to be in the shop on my own for days at a time!!

Labourer Lily

Lily has kept me company on a couple of occasions and has helped to open up the shop....although I obviously don't advocate child labour, I can see nothing wrong with instilling a good work ethic at a young age!! Actually, it may look as if she is being really helpful and couldn't possibly get in the way, but believe me, this shot remarkably managed to snap a rare moment in time....

At the start of the holidays me and Lisa decided that we would take it in turns to look after both the girls and be in the boutique on alternate weeks.  At first it was all great but as the holidays went on, I found that I most definitely do not love my own company!!!.... Well, not unless there is sun, cocktails and a good book involved..... And there has not been a lot of sunshine in the past few weeks - and cocktails during the working day are not allowed!!

The biggest drawback of our 'arrangement' is not having a partner in crime to banter with and share ideas and gossip (not that we have any time for that sort of thing!!! ).

Something funny or amusing happens and I find myself looking around for someone to share the moment but there is no one there - sad isn't it??  Don't feel too sorry for me - I am still in the most Totally Gorgeous, Totally Unique shop EVER - but it is so much more fun when there are two of us!!

To keep myself amused during any quiet times, I have taken to singing along very loudly to our fab music - the world is just a great big onion don't you know??

This is especially entertaining when customers come into the shop and they too join in the sing along!! This seems to be a couply thing to do!! - he starts singing along quite quietly and then she
joins in - or if she doesn't join in she throws one of those 'stop it now' looks - and invariably he stops!!

I have now progressed onto choreographing little dance routines to accompany my singing - much to the amusement of the bike shop opposite and slow passing traffic!! My very favourite so far is 110th Street (it is just my key I think!)

My next challenge,( had the holidays not come to an end,) would be to encourage a bit of SSD!!  According to the Urban Dictionary:

spontaneous synchronized dance

An unplanned but obviously pre-choreographed outburst of dancing within a normal, non-party setting by a group of three or more people, usually including singing, as in most films classified as "musicals." Often abbreviated as SSD.

Lisa has now saved me from myself!!  She has a rather special Birthday coming up (don't tell her I told you!) and has decided that the theme will be "I Hate Musicals". 

Now, I personally love a musical and can sing along to just about anything! And I love nothing more than trying out the dance routines in my living room!!

Oh how I wish!.....

Admit it!! - Who hasn't tried being Sandy (or Danny) doing "You're The One That I Want - you are the one I want - oooo oooo oooo Honey!"?!?!?

So anyway, we thought that Lily and Violet would look pretty cool dressed up as the Blues Brothers doing "Shake Your a Tail Feather".  We might not be able to pull this one off though - Lily is practicing songs from Annie all day every day (wearing a red clown wig) and Violet is insistent on being the donkey from Shrek...... Mmmmm not quite what we had in mind!!.. 

If you come up with any good ideas the girls (or us), then please let us know..

Mary & Lisa x