Manifest Beads

Ahhh... high speed internet. Laptop. Wireless. I'm at my boyfriends's house, drinking his coffee, using his internet connection. I have dial up at home. Dinosaur age, I know. It makes it impossible sometimes to check my email, let alone upload or download anything. Someday I will remedy this.

Any way - I need to tell every one about Manifest Beads! Manifest is a bead store in Milford, Ct, where I have been working for three years. Mostly what I do is teach classes, three days a week, with the occasional day or two of working the store. This is also where I started designing and selling my handmade wire findings.

Earlier this year, we were looking for a change. While our location had been very functional, we weren't in a very busy area of town. Knowing our lease was going to end in May, we found a new place to move the store! An amazing location, right in the heart of the downtown, and twice as big. We scheduled the move, giving us a week and half off to get everything together. New stock, and some minor facelifts.

Then the city screwed us over. We were supposed to open on May 9th. Today is July 11th, and we're not open yet. We had planned to re-face the bathroom: new sink and toilet, new tiles etc. The city said, "Hey, this bathroom is not handicap accessible. It needs to be made so before you can think of opening." Okay, no problem. Plans were drawn up by the city architect, and the permit for construction was applied for. 30 days later, after much complaining to the city and politcal battles, we FINALLY got the permit to be LOOKED at. And it was failed. Permit application resubmitted. 30 days LATER it was looked at again and approved. It took TWO months to the go-ahead from the city to do the work they told us to do. Now work is STARTING VERY SLOWLY. It's been painful. For all of us. Manifest Beads has been my main source of income, and I haven't been able to work for over two months. My bank balance is hysterical.

This "lay off" is what prompted me to look into selling on Etsy.

It will be fabulous when we can get the store open again. By the end of the month? Most likely, and if not, then something is seriously wrong. I think we have to apply for an occupancy permit once the construction is done, and knowing how much the building department hates us.....ugh. I don't want to think about it.

www.manifestbeads.blogspot.com for more on our story.