What JoAnn's Might Have Been: A Lesson For Craft Stores

Many years ago after my son had finished the 4th grade where he learned California history, we decided to take our summer vacation touring California and Nevada following many trails of the 1849 Gold Rush before and after. We went to Lake Tahoe, saw where they filmed the popular TV show Bonanza, Sacramento and even Sutter's Mill where the first gold was found. Nothing beat our experiences with the kids than climbing Donner Pass into Yosemite on a road that had just reopened with huge cliffs of snow still hovering over the highway. 

When my wife, also a teacher, casually mentioned we were on Donner Pass my son's eyes got as big as saucers and he was glued to the window. Luridly describing the Donner Party disaster to his little sister it took all our strength not to laugh out loud. "You expecting to see eaten bodies," we asked?

So many patterns and fabrics and
so little time!

This trip was also my first time visiting a JoAnn's store somewhere in one of many little towns we visited in the Sierra Nevadas. My wife, a quilter, made us stop. She was sure in small towns like this sewing and crafts  were popular and filled to the brim with goodies.

Was she right. The store was bright yet cheerful, squeaky clean with full shelves, lots of customers and many events going on. Sewing classes, a group of knitters and a bulletin board covered with regular and upcoming classes open to all. This was before I became a crafter but my wife spent several hundred on notions and fabric, items she had not seen before. To me then and even more today AS A CRAFTER, I've always thought this was what JoAnn's or any hobby store should be.

Anyone can be an artist! Grandma Moses didn't
start until she was 78 and painted until 
over 100! Never too late to Start!

A craft store should be a destination where you learn how to do things, learn new things and techniques
that open up your horizon's. If anyone looks at my ETSY Store you will find I don't offer just one style but many. Look at your surroundings and be inspired. However, the question remains, where do you get them?

It seems the national chain craft stores have gone from spending money to make money to saving money and going bankrupt.

Any JoAnn's shopper has watched the stores painful demise. The store in Palm Desert, CA looked blasted after Christmas this year. Many shelves were empty or half full with piles of unopened boxes just sitting there. There appeared to be, at best, 3 people working the entire store. The line was painfully long.

Crafting can lead to unique gifts.

If you haven't, and this applies to any person at any age you should consider a hobby. Even if your an outdoors hobbiest there are times even you don't want to face the elements. Indoor hobbies are a wonderful way to relax and relieve stress. Many an artist, knitter, seamstress has said while they're immersed in their project they are in another world. And after a session feel renewed and ready to tackle whatever they escaped from. 

When a project is finished they feel great satisfaction finishing it. There is something tangible that they completed. If you're new to this start simple! Set yourself up for success NOT failure. But to be honest I have always learned more from my failures. Don't be defeated, do it again and learn from your mistakes!!!

This could be the start of something great!

An even greater benefit, especially for seniors is that crafting promotes mental agility. Use it or lose it! Study after study proves being creative AND active keeps our minds sharp and bodies agile. For kids it can be the start of a lifelong hobby.

When we were kids school and parents encouraged us to express ourselves. Most of us lost this spontaneity on the road to growing up. If you're a senior you are freed from a routine and can create another time to express yourself. Try it you may well like it!

I didn't really get my start until I painted my first birdhouse in my early 60's. I started getting serious health problems around 55 any by 62 I was told to retire. I also signed up for oil painting classes so was "crafting" and oil painting at the same time. At 79 I am still going strong and trying new

Trying something new. Here's
a Zentangle beehive.

things. Here I've tried taking Zentangle patterns that are 2D and putting them on a 3D surface. I think this wood and bamboo beehive was pretty successful. Make something old new again.

We all will mourn the loss of JoAnn's but as many other businesses have learned in order to stay viable you have to change with the times. Not only do you find ways to get customers you also need to find ways to KEEP customers. As any successful restaurant owner will tell you, cheapen the food or service and customers just silently disappear. JoAnn's by the end had pretty much fit the bill.

Thank you for reading my blog! Please be sure to visit on a regular basis or contact me at KrugsStudio@gmail.com. New blogs are added all the time. In conjunction  with my store I feel that “design” is an important part of our lives. Everything we use or live by was designed by someone. Please tell your friends, artists or anyone who appreciates design about my blog.

Please be sure to visit my store, KrugsStudio.etsy.com on a regular basis. New birdhouses, craft items, photography and canvas paintings are added all the time. Please tell your friends, artists or anyone who appreciates local handcrafted items about my store.

THE CROWN: Designing A Monarchy

At 79 I grew up through the entirety of Queen Elizabeth II's reign.  I can remember seeing her coronation on News Of The World when we went to the movies and watching it on TV.  We had one of the first TV's in our neighborhood and all the kids came over on Saturday mornings to watch, The Lone Ranger, Lassie, Sky King, Hoppalong Cassidy, Zorro and the Cisco Kid. The Cornation was on the evening news for days.

My parents loved movies and we went frequently. In those days there was always a double feature, news reels AND a cartoon! The Saturday matinee was a nickel.

Despite my mother's family, my grandfather being a direct descendent of the White family on the Mayflower, I never had much interest in British history. I rooted for Robin Hood and during history classes always disliked Britain and agreed America needed to break away from British rule. As an adult I became more aware of Britain's ruling of her empire and liked it even less.

I missed the first broadcasts of THE CROWN on Netflix. Recently friends talked about it but since I no longer have Netflix I went to our library. The Palm Springs Library has 1,000's of DVD's, just about every BBC series that I have watched and love. So, through them I have learned much about English thought and customs.There I found Season 1 of THE CROWN.

Prepared to dislike it I was captivated by the first show. I was not prepared to see first the glamor but the darker undertones beneath the glamor. I especially felt it was out of place first in the 20th Century let alone the 21st! It was BRIDGERTON in the 2000's. The world had moved on, the monarchy hasn't.

DOWNTON ABBEY did a wonderful job showing how life changed for the great family's after WW I. The monarchy however, did not. Did a person need maid's to wake you, bring you tea, open curtains, dress you? And not just one person but 100's? I was amazed at how many people were in the "royal" family and what their upkeep must have cost Britain.

Just a smattering of the Royal family.

Starting with King George VI with frequent appearances of his brother, Edward VIII who abdicated because a king could not marry a divorced women in the Anglican church, as a king or queen are the supreme leader's of said church, you soon understood how marriages were "designed" to optimize the crowns power even though kings or queens have no power today other than by persuasion. It's an archaic holdover from the past that, to me, has no place in today's world.

I was surprised to learn the queen raced horses for money and sired animals for profits that were her's. The most shocking lesson was to find Czar Nickolas II asked the King George V, in 1917, to save them from the Russian revolution by sending them a ship. Nickolas was the British kings first cousin and his wife was Queen Victoria's granddaughter as Kaiser Wilhelm was Victoria's grandson. The request was denied by Queen Mary and the entire family was soon assassinated.

For those that didn't know it Britain entered WW I as the House of Saxe-Coburg-Getha, the German House of Hanover. King George V changed the name to The House of Windsor to deflect hatred of Germans and the monarchy during the war.

We all know the saga of Prince, now King Charles III, and his affair with Camilla. What many may not know is that when Charles was dating Diana but remained close to Camilla a family pow wow made the decision for Charles to marry Diana and Camilla to marry Parker-Bowles. The Spencers ranked higher than the Shand's. Charles had no say in the matter and you watch as their marriages deteriorates. Part of the problem was Charles resented Diana's popularity over him. This family decision doomed both marriages.

I was also surprised to learn that William's marriage was in a sense arranged by Katherine's mother Carole Middleton. They are in fact distantly related. Kate is William's 15th cousin, once removed. This show paints a picture of duty, with disfunction that mirrors the lives of their subject's. The Queen's "stiff upper lip" in all crises and an unwillingness to bend. Prince Philip himself even more.

One of the more disturbing issues with the show was having lived through and seen these people repeatedly all these years. Most of the characters rarely looked like who they really were. The third actress portraying the Queen came close but not so much the other's. 

Fact checking many of the key moments the creators took some license. private conversations are mostly invented  or quoted from letters and diaries. Romantic and sexual affairs were exaggerated, motivations exaggerated for dramatic effect with politics of mixed accuracy. After all this is dramatized versions of real events NOT a documentary.

The photography and detail to locations is splendid, costumes beautiful, residences accurate. It is both a show with a softer more dramatic history lesson whose failures we can all learn from.

Thank you for reading my blog! Please be sure to visit on a regular basis or contact me at KrugsStudio@gmail.com. New blogs are added all the time. In conjunction  with my store I feel that “design” is an important part of our lives. Everything we use or live by was designed by someone. Please tell your friends, artists or anyone who appreciates design about my blog.

Please be sure to visit my store, KrugsStudio.etsy.com on a regular basis. New birdhouses, craft items, photography and canvas paintings are added all the time. Please tell your friends, artists or anyone who appreciates local handcrafted items about my store.