My shop on the corner

I have spent a lot of time driving in my car over the last six months, more so than usual for family reasons.

I love driving. I love plugging my phone in to my radio and listening to my personal music collection, music I love. (When my loved ones are with me, I also love them asking if they could skip that song or even plug their music supply in just for a change and yep, that is fine too. As they say, variety is the spice of life.) Yes it is true that I often break into song in my car and pretend to be Gaga, The Beach Boys, Cher, Michael Buble and so many more.

I used to work for a pathology company and was in charge of answering a plethora of phone calls from hospitals, doctors, nursing homes, our clinic rooms etc and can say quite honestly the job was very stressful at times. Theatre rooms calling to order more blood urgently ‘stat.’ The process of making sure you had the correct patient name, date of birth etc, relaying that info to our cross-matching lab and getting it to that hospital urgently was a real challenge. Some days it seemed that everyone in the city needed urgent blood and the end of my shift was very welcomed. I often looked over to our courier department which was just across the corridor from our nurse’s station and thought how nice it would be to be in a car and picking up pathology products from clinics, hospitals, surgeries etc and not have to deal with the urgent medical side of my job. I have digressed..

These many many trips over the last six months brought me day after day passing a particular shop on a corner which is quite dilapidated but at the same time quite appealing. Quirky, eclectic are certainly words I would use to describe this shop. It is dark brown in colour, two storeys and has a wonderful large window in the front of it allowing us to view the contents. It is a book shop but not just any book shop. It sells antiquated books including military and historical books and I am sure many others. The shop has what appears to be living quarters attached to the rear of it, also looking like they need a bit of love but I guess this is clearly what makes it look more appealing at the same time.

As I sat in my driver’s seat, day after day, taking the same route taking me past this shop, I would often imagine myself (and still do) as the owner of this lovely eclectic shop. However I am not selling military or historical books. No, I am selling my lovely handmade wares; my lovely up cycled bling denim handbags (made from preloved jeans I source from our charity shops); my hand made cushions; my hand made cards featuring gorgeous origami dresses and ladies in gorgeous hats; my hand painted coffee mugs and tea pots lovingly painted with designs which make my heart sing. These are the items adorning this lovely shop as I stand behind a small but welcoming counter, fussing over the appearance of my shop and ensuring that visitors feel very welcome and always greeting each with a smile and welcoming words.

My dream expanded with the idea of having the shop not just as hand craft shop but also as a cafe where people could come, admire and relax, have a cup of tea or coffee (yes, served in my hand painted mugs and tea poured from my hand painted tea pots) accompanied by some fabulous home-cooked food of their choice.

Naturally this leads me to needing to dream about the cafe menu. What would it include? Cooking has always been a huge part of my life and I have developed some fabulous recipes over the years, I have tried and tested recipes found in my plethora of cook books, as well as recipes which have been handed over to me from friends and family. In fact I am about to commence my third recipe book of hand written recipes I continue to accrue and which my girls continually debate amongst themselves as to who will acquire which book when I am no longer walking God’s earth. I take all of this in good stead naturally hoping that this event will not occur for a long time yet.

Back to that menu....I couldn’t possibly commence my menu without scones, jam and cream which are always a winner  with a lovely hot cup of tea or coffee and I can admit that I have a fabulous recipe for scones which rise so high they nearly touch the clouds. I would even attempt to make my own jam with berries which were in season. Next would have to be chocolate cake. Not just any chocolate cake though. It would be my chocolate and orange cake with genache.  An entire navel orange is cooked then processed, skins included to give this magnificent cake a flavour to remember and my oldest has often requested it as a birthday cake and yes, has even requested it for her eventual wedding cake. My youngest has become the best bruschetta cook so I am hoping she would allow me to follow in her footsteps and include it as some savoury offerings into my menu. I wouldn’t be happy if I failed to include some gorgeous finger sandwiches made with the freshest bread, delivered each day (oh now I must consider finding a baker who delivers maybe?) The fillings for these would include my chicken with tarragon mayonnaise; tabouleh and lovely leg ham; sundried tomato, walnut and ham; smoked salmon, cream cheese and dill and for those vegetarians and royalists good old cucumber sandwiches would be fun too. There, I think that would do.

I would ask my gorgeous loved ones to help me out on those days they could spare me. They are both great cooks and very attractive and would be nothing less than a huge asset to my dream. I think I would make the tablecloths and put my helpers in gorgeous handmade aprons. These would not be able to be too over the top and I know they would like to be included in the choice of fabric.

A dilemma whilst dreaming was if I should also offer classes in craft making? Well clearly I would need someone to manage the cafe/shop section whilst I tutored my classes. Yes, good idea. These would include basic knitting and crocheting leading to advanced classes. Basic sewing then leading to creating cushions and I may even touch on basic clothes such as pyjamas and shorts (it is quite a while since I constructed lined blazers and skirts –this was all during my pre-mother days and some time ago.) Anyway, that would be a good start.

Yep, I like this dream very much. Life would be very busy but fun too. May be I would build the business up so well that reservations would be required for this very busy cafe. Wow, reservations......that would be amazing.

That very important name for my shop, well it would have to be Creatively Couture, my current business name. I thought long and hard about this name prior to my decision and I think it sums up my work beautifully.

You would all be most welcome. Please come along with a good heart, the willingness to have a good giggle and a chat if you would, and I hope it would be a place you would enter possibly with a few of life’s troubles niggling in your head but then leave with those troubles feeling a little lighter. I hope a smile would adorn your face along with the memory of having had a wonderful experience and wanting to return soon. That would be my dream for all of us at my special shop on the corner and you have to be able to dream.