In my never ending quest to find cool stuff for crafty boys I’ve found what may be an all time winner.

Marshmallow shooter

YouTube How To

NOTE: This is a project that isn’t limited to boys. I know a particular 11 year old girl that had a marshmallow gun on her birthday list last summer and had a blast with it when she got one!

Well, I didn’t really get a summer vacation this year so instead I’ll tell you what I learned at CHA two weeks ago.

The most valuable seminars I took were run by Kizer & Bender. Georgann and Rich are retailing gurus of the highest caliber. What I didn’t realize going into this was that they are also neighbors. Their office is also located here in St. Charles.

The two seminars I took with them were all about appealing to “Generation Z” those wonderful creatures the rest of us call ‘tweens and teens. This just happens to also be my favorite age group of people to work with so I knew I was sure to come away with some great ideas. The Friday seminar was a panel discussion with a dozen actual in the flesh Zeds. We had the opportunity to ask them what they liked and didn’t like in crafts, stores, etc. My only complaint was that the group wasn’t very diverse as far as demographics. Fortunately for me they did match my store’s particular target market but if I had been there from a more rural or urban area I may not have gotten quite as much out of it. The Saturday seminar was more about how to take what we now know about this generation and making it work in our stores. How do we reach them? How do we offer events they’d be interested in?

These seminars were where the idea for the “Twilight Party” came from in a way. We were discussing what was hot with different age groups. I had come home Friday very excited to share with my family what I had learned and I took the opportunity to poll my two in-house Gen-Zeds. Sarah brought up how popular the Twilight series had become in her school and with her peers. On Saturday I brought this information back to Georgann & Rich and it snow-balled from there.

They were so impressed with Sarah’s suggestion they even mentioned it on their blog. So I sent them information about our planned party and they posted that too!

What I’ve also learned this summer is that opening a store and planning cool events isn’t like “Field of Dreams.” You can’t just build it and they will come. I’ve been pounding the keyboard and the pavement trying to get the word out about this event and the business in general all in the hopes that someday the crowds of mythical creatures called customers will find me. I wonder how much rent Kevin Costner had to pay on that cornfield of his?

 
Latte came home from the animal hospital yesterday after work. He peed all over the inside of his carry crate so I guess his plumbing is all working again.

Poor guy must be embarrassed (or is that bare assed?) because they had to shave his bits. Imagine how funny this looks on an all white cat. Sorry, no photos for you pervy types. I’m thinking I should sew him up some little pants or something.

The final bill wasn’t as painful as I had originally feared. I was gaging my guess on what it has cost for the dogs to be hospitalized overnight. Fortunately cats are cheaper. Note, I didn’t say “cheap”. I have a saying, “Nothing costs more than a free pet.”