Tag: #Justacard
Day 2 #justacard
Here’s my shop door, and I fully support the #justacard message. If we want to be able to visit nice shops in the future, we need to support them now. And what can we do? We can make a purchase every year, no matter how small. Just a card, or just a book, or just a coffee will do the trick. We can recommend our favourite shops to our friends. We can buy the things we can locally, instead of looking elsewhere. I can’t expect the small grocery store up the street to keep carrying the products I like if I buy them somewhere else.
Last year, when Newfoundlanders were told to staycation at home, Norton’s Cove Café was discovered by many locals who had never been in our region before. They enjoyed their visit, and they told their friends. And their friends came this year. I heard from customers over and over again, “my next door neighbour was here last summer and they told me I just had to come!” Recommending to friends really is a huge help to small businesses!
I really appreciate every dollar I earn in my business so that I can keep growing and adding new products, new services, and offerings in my hometown.
Just A Card Indie Week Starts Tomorrow
This campaign has been taking place for a few years now, and I am very happy to participate. The founders of the Just a Card campaign are in England, and were interested in promoting shopping in small independently owned stores after seeing a favourite shop close. There was a sign on the door of a gallery that told folks that if they had bought just a card, perhaps the store would still be open. As a small business owner, this notion strikes hard and true. There are thousands of people in my hometown who have never made a purchase in my shop, or go years without purchases, and I have gone years without a salary. It is only because I am too stubborn to quit that I am still operating my studio after almost 20 years. I do realize that I am offering products that many local people do not need nor want. But I’m sure most people buy at least one greeting card a year, and it would make a huge difference to my business if I could sell an average of one card a year to everyone in town.
So don’t think that your small purchase at any of your local shops isn’t making a difference- it really does! #justacard or just a mug or just a coffee or just a pair of socks- whatever it is, it’s important to support small businesses if we want them to be there year after year.
I’ll be taking part in the Just A Card INDIE WEEK challenge this year, so you’ll see my posts each day this week according to the following plan on twitter, instagram, and facebook, as well as this blog:
I’d love to hear from you- please share your favourite small independent businesses this week more than ever!
This Week at Norton’s Cove Studio
Next!
And now that #printapalooza is complete again, it’s time for signing, scoring, folding, matting, chopping, tasseling, and packaging Norton’s Cove Cards, Mini-Prints, and bookmarks! And the weather is perfect for such indoor work! 👌
Blue-Green
Blue-Green is the #printapalooza colour of the day!
I am blue, wishing it was green! There’s a bit of white winter weather out there today- nothing new- I expected exactly this, but it’s still disappointing to see the ground covered in snow again when the last little hummock was just leaving.
This time of year I’m dreaming of gardening and boating, and a spring snowstorm always feels like a big step backwards. We’ve been making plans to improve our deck space, and I’m really itching to get at that project! It’s already gorgeous in my head!
Happy Saint Patrick’s Day ☘
Orange 🍊
Orange is the #printapalooza colour of the day!
Back in Black
Printing black cards, mini-prints, and bookmarks took two days, as there was a power outage on the 2nd day of #printapalooza, and while I did get some printing done in daylight, after a couple of hours without heat I could feel a chill creeping in, so I went home and parked myself next to the wood burning fireplace in my kitchen. Toasty…
Did you know that it takes about 3 seconds to make a perfect piece of toast by holding a piece of buttered bread inside the wood-stove on a big steel fork? 😋
Day One: Just a Card – Indie Week
It’s all about me today! For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Janet, an artist and entrepreneur here in beautiful Brookfield (part of the municipality of New-Wes-Valley), Newfoundland, Canada. Here’s a little slide-show of me doing my thing over the past seventeen years…
As an artist, I’m inspired by the things in my environment. The sea and all its creatures, landscapes and its flora and fauna, as well as some artifacts from the days of my grandparents. These all hold my attention year to year. I never get tired of looking at the ocean at my doorstep.
I am spending lots of time thinking about ongoing and upcoming projects, even while creating pieces that make up my bread and butter each year, especially my UNDERNEATH project which looks under the surface of the ocean, getting to the bottom of things. The project will speak of mental health issues that we struggle with, how easy it is to sink to the bottom from the sunny top, and how we all need to have lifeguard skills to work together and save each other from drowning.
Here are some other tidbits about me…
- Born just up the road from my studio at Brookfield Hospital to proud parents Bruce and Ollie 47 years ago
- I have 3 brothers: Steve, Trevor, and Mick. I’m child #3
- Schools I’ve attended: Newtown Elementary, Memorial Academy, Lester Pearson Memorial High, Avalon Community College/Cabot College, Nova Scotia College of Art & Design
- Married Duke Kelloway 21 years ago at the Greenspond Courthouse
- Duke and I have 1 son, Fred, who is by far the greatest thing I’ve ever created
- Started Norton’s Cove Studio in 2002
- My favourite band is the Novaks
- I love hiking, sailing, eating food I didn’t cook, binge-watching British shows on Netflix, and Christmas with my family
- Added Norton’s Cove Café in 2017
- I don’t have a favourite colour. They’re all good
- I can play a few chords on the guitar and my ukulele
- I mark the 7th generation of Davis’ living in the Bonavista North area of Newfoundland since William Davis left the dock at Portsmouth in the 1700s
Today’s prompt for Indie Week is You: Share your story. Show your face or place. Tomorrow’s prompt is Make an image. Say what the message means to you.
The View from Norton's Cove 