As I wrote the title for this post, I thought, you know, I'm really not a girl.  But, then again, Shop Woman Diary sounds ridiculous and, while Shop Gal Diary sounds a little better, I'm no gal.  So, Shop Girl Diary it is.  It reminds me of the first summer that I opened my store in Pentwater and two other shop owners and I got together for Karaoke on Wednesday nights at The Belly Up Bar.  We dabbled with different songs alone, but then deciding that there was strength in numbers,  we decided to sing together, dubbing ourselves the Shop Girls.  Our standout (and by standout I mean the only one that we could actually sing all the way through) song was Build Me Up Buttercup and I don't want to tell you how many times we sang it that summer.  Enough times that the audience audibly groaned when we got up there to sing it, yet again.  But there was that other guy who always sang that Johnny Cash song every week, so we didn't feel too bad.  Anyway, I digress.

So, back to what's going on at The Happy Woman.  It is always amazing to me how quickly this happens:

I mean, one minute you're going along, minding your own business, not wearing socks and all of a sudden, BAM, you're shoveling sidewalks (and believe me, wearing socks while you're doing it.)   So, it's winter here in Suttons Bay and yes, it's pretty.  I am working on my attitude toward winter -- as Steve says, we are going to "embrace" it this year.  I'm not sure exactly what that means, but I hope he comes up with something good.  The village of Suttons Bay is completely dressed up for the holidays, complete with twinkling lights and Christmas trees.  It is VERY pretty, so if you can come here during the holidays, you should because you will love it.

Business is slower this time of the year, so I don't usually invest too much money in holiday decorations to sell.  I figure it's better to have a lot of fun gifts.  But, I want things to look festive, so this year, Mary and Linda and I made ornaments from these stacks of sheet music I had stashed in my basement (you can't believe the stuff I find down there).  I admit that Pinterest was a factor, but, frankly the ideas there were just plain too time-consuming, so I dumbed one of the recipes down and we did our own thing.  I think that they look pretty cute, but you can be the judge.

 We have some fun things planned for Black Friday and Small Business Saturday.  If you are in town, please stop in because we are giving away 22 door prizes.  And, it's instant win -- just sign up for our mailing list and you have a chance to draw for one of the prizes.  And, we're also passing out $10 in Happy Bucks.  The $10 can be used on any purchase over $50.  Our hours on those two days are 11am to 5pm. 

Whatever your plans for the weekend, we wish you a happy Thanksgiving!  And, if you're in Suttons Bay, please stop in and say hi!  Thanks for reading!

Linda @ The Happy Woman store