IF YOU HAD A SHOP...

I was doing a final flip-through of last summer's issue of Artful Blogging (sister publication to my favorite Stampington magazine, Art Journaling) when I came to an article by this lady, which I had dog-eared first time around.

In it, she was describing the process she went through when first envisioning her blog-to-be. She happens to design "modern crochet patterns for old-fashioned crafters", and said she found it helpful to play "Shop Girl", and to pretend she was opening her own little boutique rather than starting a blog. So she asked herself why she wanted this little shop, what types of products would she offer, who her customers might be, and how she would draw them in. Then she envisioned how her shop would actually look.

Know what? It got me to thinkin'. A lot. I finally came to the conclusion that my dream blog-shop wasn't really a shop at all. It was more of a café -- one where I'd meet up with my internet muses on a regular basis, in order to inspire and be inspired, to nourish our creativity, to share our explorations, and to support one another's endeavors -- much like the one where I meet up with my local muses every week, for all the same reasons.

And, the more I thought about my little café and its customers, the more I came to realize that, perhaps, it is time to give these premises a mini-makeover, maybe even tweak the name a bit.  Still thinkin'.

So, what about you? Who among you has never, ever dreamed about having a little shop of your own? What would it look like? What kind of merchandise would it carry? Who would shop there? Go ahead, dream a little!