bouncing ideas

I had a lovely day yesterday, meeting with Janie Hubble for lunch. I NEVER have business lunches, because usually there’s just no-one nearby for me to have them with. But yesterday Janie was in town, and we got together to discuss our joint stand at the Sydney Craft and Quilt Fair in June next year.

Last year I shared a stall with Kirsten Edwards of The Gift of Stitching Magazine. We really enjoyed our time together, and it worked really well, but given that she’ll have a fairly newborn baby in June next year, she won’t be doing the show. I’d already asked a friend who has a start up business if she’d like to share with me, and then Janie approached me and asked if I would consider sharing with her – the more the merrier!

My lunch with Janie was so much fun. We talked for about 4 hours. We bounced business ideas back and forth, and just talked about life in general. Given that I never get to do this sort of thing normally, it was wonderful to have someone in the same industry to talk over ideas with and discuss the state of the industry. Really inspiring. Yes, I do talk about these sorts of things with my husband, but he’s not in the same industry, so while he’s interested, its not quite the same. As he said, he talks library stuff with me, but its just not quite the same as him talking with another librarian about library stuff.

(He’s just read this over my shoulder and pointed out that sometimes its also useful to talk with someone outside of the industry as they often have a different mindset and can suggest different ideas. Quite true.)

Because Janie and I were in Chatswood and she needed buttons, we visited Tessuti. They have some gorgeous buttons, and of course, they also have gorgeous fabric. I was disappointed with their range of reds yesterday. There just weren’t enough red fabrics. I could have whole walls of red fabrics to drool over. However, it made it much easier to walk out without having bought anything!

I got home very late in the afternoon – the kids were being taken care of elsewhere – with just enough time to make dinner before my husband arrived home with them. A lovely day, with lots of exciting new ideas, and lots to think about and mull over.

Janie, we must do it again! We’ll have such fun in June – I can’t wait!