December 31, 2010

It's the last day of this year. I had a wonderful 2 hour talk with our CPA.. Lots of work to do for him.
New Years' Resolution. Get more into Quickbooks!!
Due to a friends suggestion, I downloaded Gimp as a photoshop program.
I have been working very hard getting more on the site.
Norm has been working very hard on descriptions.

Happy New Year!!!!

December 22, 2010

Yeow!!!!! I either have to write more or quit this. I can't seem to remember the stupid password. Anyway. Issues: Heitz Handbells wants Microsoft Publisher and/or Photoshop Elements for Christmas. HH wants to know if people know we exist. HH wants people to really use the website!!
Sigh. Can you tell it's Christmas??? I (Carol) always get depressed at Christmas.
So. I have finished adding all the ensemble music we have and yesterday finished adding all of Red River Publishing's music on a spreadsheet. All I have to do now is put the data on the website's spreadsheets. Next entry: worship aids and education.
Then!!! I need to make sure Quickbooks is set up correctly. Actually I'm working on that, reading Quickbooks for Smarties and talking to a person to help me get it all together.

November 22, 2010

Day One of "We're Live!"
Other than being extremely hyper-excited, I am very excited. I can't believe it. Well, there's tons of work to do yet..lots of music to enter. BUT I just can't stop looking at our site. Sigh.... Isn't it pretty????

Help Wanted

MESSIAH UNITED METHODIST CHURCH is looking for a Director of Chancel and Handbell Choirs at the Traditional service. "Applicants should have a passion for music and direction, a proven track record of excellent leadership, team-building, and recruiting skills. Interested applicants should send resume, references, and philosophy of ministry to
jobs2@messiahchurchmn.org".

Messiah United Methodist Church
17805 County Rd 6
Plymouth, MN 55447
763- 473-6968

November 6, 2010

Wow is this a fast year. We are continuing to work on the web site. It is currently being tweaked with new photos and rearrangements and better headlines. We will open before all the music is ready and inputted. But that's life. We are so close though.
I'd like to know how much money people have before they start a business because I feel like a money pit. Maybe we need investors, I don't know.
What I do know is that we are slowly crawling out of the pit we started in and people have been very responsive. We are truly blessed with great friends and support. I really don't care about my own salary, but I'd like to see enough money coming in that the bills are paid.
We are looking forward to the Director's Seminar next July and I hope also to attend the STEP solo/ensemble workshop next July. Every festival we can afford to be present at will be a step in the right direction.
Well, anyway, I don't always say write because I don't always feel I have something to write that is positive and up. It is definitely a hard walk to restart this business.
Prayers and good thoughts toward our getting an SBA loan please.

September 21, 2010

Ha!! Forgot my password and user name. Pretty good huh???? So I had to start all over with that process.
Anyway, I was so excited when someone came into the store and said he had found our blog. Really made my day!!! He not only found our blog, but he found our store because of the blog.
Hey!! We're on facebook too :o)
Anyway...you'd think I 'd be done by now with all the set up and web site, etc. NOT!
Norm is working on descriptions of music...and huge, major big deal and it takes forever. I continue to fill out spreadsheets, spreadsheets, spreadsheets. I sure hope this doesn't take until 2011.
Twyla and Jim came in and put up my Music Room puzzle and the cork board.
Now I don't have to tape comments to myself onto the wall heehee.
We've been selling alot of KidsRing and BellFest music. We really appreciate all the wonderful patronage up to this point. Hope to continue to see new faces.

August 21, 2010

Well, I'm all geared up for this coming week. See what it'll actually bring. The store is looking good. I'm slowly buying containers and display material. We've changed the handbell table as people weren't using it much. We do have the bell tree up with bells. Work on the web site is slowly coming along as is cataloguing all the vintage music. Norm is updating and fixing our Quick books program so all items are the same. We've made so many changes that we have to pull everything together into one style. Getting there though.

August 8, 2010

Norm and I are continuing to work hard at checking and rechecking the alphabetical boxes as well as the level boxes. Norm is doing a lot of the work while I am trying hard to continue with the web site and with cataloging the smaller publishers and the "vintage" music. Life is never dull.

July 25, 2010

Well, things are continuing to improve in our little domain. We are now tweaking our alphabet and level boxes. Tweaking because we get in a lot of music, but I forget to put it out in those areas. Sigh. So, Norm has taken that on now. Tweaking also because I am now into the daunting task of catagorizing all the music that is vintage or from smaller publishers. I've done some separately, but we have quite a bit of music that is "permanently out of print". In and around that we are working hard at getting our lists ready for the web site. We won't have pictures of music or sound files for a while. One of the hard parts for me is to describe a piece of music. I'm slowly getting there.
We're going to have a fall get together Aug 23 - 28. We have music for all the events happening in the cities area for 2010 and 2011 except for BellFest. That is coming. Bill has pneumonia unfortunately.
It's really amazing how computer oriented my work is...Norm's too. Maybe that's just for now and will lessen up as time goes on.

July 4th!!! Happy Independence Day!

Well, it's been a very busy month (of June that is). Norm continued to enter Lorenz products into our catalog. He was finished right before the festival and we were messing around with column changes....and guess what! Let's just say that we're backing up a lot more often. I started my own Lorenz worksheet for the web site and Norm...started....all....over... Well, actually, I had a perfect copy of the Hope information and all the other publishers were happily sitting in my computer, so it is just Lorenz. Ah well.
The festival was a whirlwind of activity. Wednesday the 23rd we spent packing boxes and the cars...5 hours. Exhaustion. Then Thurs, Fri, and Sat were wonderfully busy days. Both of us are quite content. We have some tweaking to do to make checking easier.
Now Norm is working on a customer base and I am continuing with my projects: web site, quick books, Lorenz.
Thanks to all of you who have fought for the freedom of our country and for our rights! If you know a Vietnam vet, give him or her an extra special hug!!

May 23, 2010

Well, the open house has come and gone. It was a wonderful time with friends of ours visiting and customers looking at music. We received flowers (I'm still amazed by that) and cards and well-wishes. We could only smile all week long.
Our process of setting ourselves up is continuing as Norm continues to update and upgrade the catalog (a humongous deal) and I continue to set up accounting and the customer area. We are getting in stock orders and working on the web site. I think that is the slowest in coming. Oh well. We are gearing up for the festival in Rochester, making plans, deciding what to bring.
A customer on Saturday suggested we do another "open house" in fall for those who are preparing for the church year. So we may do that. We are also talking about summer hours.

May 2, 2010

I decided to look around a bit on this page to see how on earth some of my favorites blogs look so neat and mine so.....hmmm. Anyway, I figured out how to add a picture and I'll work on this more each weekend.
In the "what am I doing" area, I am now trying to enter 7000 titles into Quick Book. Sigh. Yes, I know how to paste from Excel but you still have to double check entries. Check me out next year. heehee.
The highlight of the week was when Twyla came back and helped me to decorate the teal wall with handbell notation posters. It's very pretty. My crappy pictures don't do it justice. I'm still working on the alphabetical boxes. Yeesh. I need to put in overtime. :)
Another handbell director came and we had fun comparing mallets. That was really fun!! I need to get some Schulmerich ones there so that people can really try out different kinds.

April 24, 2010

I've been working hard at the alphabetical boxes. I finished the "new" music area. Twyla came over this week and helped me reupholster the piano bench. She'll come over later this coming week to help me put posters on the wall. I'm continuing to create an "ensemble/solo" music area as well as do the alphabetical boxes. I need also to work on the boxes that has everything by level. It's a lot, but I'm excited and happy. I've worked on entering all the accessories in the computer. Our website is still slowly coming along. The open house is May 17-22!!! I hope we get lots of visitors.

April 18, 2010

Hey, I got all my filing finished!! Wahoo!!!!! I've been working on the customer area and it's pretty good. I also have to finish the back room and get it a little neater. It's coming along.

April 11, 2010

Okay like I know it's been a while. We spent Easter at my mom's so there was no blogging that weekend and I haven't figured out how to keep myself busy in the evenings when I'm tired. I have finished rearranging all the files. I am now filing away all the music that was laying around...(of which there are boxes). Sigh. The bells have been polished thanks to Twyla's girls and the postcards have been sent to Norm's customers of the last couple of years. The customer room is not perfect, I have to set up the displays. But the tables are together. Yeah!! We are definitely getting orders, although very few call me (no I'm not crying). We have gotten in a few gifty type of items, have another possibility coming, and my sister/brother have created fair trade/organic chocolate bells. Those are dark, milk. Dark, milk caramel filled. And a zebra mint bell which is dark and white chocolate stripe with mint. BUT only for chocolate lovers who come in!!!!

We are definitely going to Rochester. Yeah! I'm excited, still working like crazy and loving it.

Now some pics.

This is known as Carol's mess.









The red clothed table will hold music for area VII events as well as music for the upcoming season. The table without a cloth will have displays of alphabetical music. You will see the blue clothed table as you come in the door and it will have all the new music that has been published during the year. Then the alphabetical boxes will start. There will also be a place for accessories. In the back you can see 2 6 foot tables. The one on the left will have an octave or 2 of Malmark bells so people can ring if they wish. Plenty to buy too!! And the one on the right will have more boxes of music people can look through.

March 27, 2010

Well. Finally have all the music filed except for miscellaneous and vintage. The rooms are a mess. However, we have the furniture in the room. I need to start putting it together and touch up the wood. We may have some assistance in the bell cleaning aspect. I'm excited, nervous. We want to be able to say, we're open and it looks great!!
I want to send postcards out and encourage people to check us out. I want to see the place done first!!

March 20, 2010

Spring!! Yeehaw!!
Anyway, believe it or not, I have finally finished counting and cataloguing our Hope Publishing and Lorenz Publishing music. They are also newly filed. Now comes the really messy part. I'm amazed that we're even considering the possibility of opening any time soon. HA. Anyway..I basically pull all the music out of each drawer and and separate it according to publisher: Alfred, Beckenhorst, GIA, Jeffers, and miscellaneous (which is actually quite a few small publishers as well as the vintage music). Then, I'm just filing all of this alphabetically (of course). I'm up to the F's. The problem is that it makes a real mess. However, Joanne K came over one day and helped organize some cabinets as well as organize the customer room.
Norm is bringing over the piano this weekend. We brought over the bells from the storage area. Now to neaten and put out music in a nice way. I still don't have a desk. That is coming soon:)

March 8, 2010

Wow, it's been a while. I've been extremely busy keeping it together with directing 2 choirs and ringing in two. Bells of the Lakes had their Bellfest on Saturday and I had a lot to do for that. Plus I wanted to have Heitz Handbells first show at Bellfest. Then we had a concert Sunday afternoon in Faribault.

Amazing! And I wonder when I have time to work on the house!

Anway, I need to catch up on all the things you have missed in setting up our store. I wanted to show you pictures of the move. So, first you have a picture of Norm. He was still really recovering from his stroke and therefore "supervising".

Norm's storage area was filled with 44 - 3 drawer file cabinets and about 13 - 2 drawer file cabinets plus close to 50 boxes of music. These pictures show a little bit of it all. But all of that filled a 24 foot truck to capacity!

After Norm and I spent 3 hours prepping to move, the movers took 3 hours to fill the truck. I drove the truck to Richfield to our newly painted office and our 3 "assistants" took almost 5 hours to empty the truck and put the cabinets in place.

Norm did alot of measuring!! Now we are finally together, inventorying, and trying to get things put into place so we can open Suite S to customers.

February 20, 2010

Well, we are "in". Doesn't mean much when the place is a total mess, but we are there. Both of us took Wednesday off as we were so sore. Thursday we did a little more of extras. Friday, Andrew (Norm's friend) came and helped us organize the large file cabinets so they look significantly better. I then cleaned 3/4 of the cabinets. We started reorganizing the music!! Yeah!!

February 17, 2010

What's moving in like? Sigh. Well, there is fixing things so that the "Professional Movers" can put things into a van. 2 1/2 hours of physical work for me, 3 hours of work for them. Drive this 24 foot truck to our new location. Not that big of a deal, except man did it drive hard. Very sluggish, hard to turn, scccaaaarrreey. I made sure someone helped me back up each time. Went down an alley...whew. Finally, after maybe 45 minutes of trying to position and reposition the truck in the alley, we gave up and I drove the truck into the parking lot. Longer distance for moving the file cabinets, but easier for the 3 guys to move. Two of these guys are friends of Norm and Frank came to help at my request. Yeah Frank. PLUS, one of the 2 wheelers' wheels was flat. Frank went and got that fixed. Brother. 4 1/2 hours of moving into the office. I carried a lot of boxes but refused to move the file cabinets much as they weighed between 100 and 200 pounds. Way too much for me. Finally, at 9:00 pm we were finished. The place is a biggggggg mess. So much work to do. But I drove the now empty and easy to handle truck back to Budget, picked up my car, said bye to Norm, got a sandwich, and went home. Boy am I sore today.

February 15, 2010

This is the first coating of Suite S. Joanne, Ken, and I worked on it Tuesday the 9th. Ken taught me how to trim more perfectly and I'm much better at it now. We managed to first coat three walls.

We finished the first coating and I started the second coating with Twyla on Wednesday. We finished on Thursday and the place is looking great!!

After a couple of false starts and a sudden illness on Norm's part, we hope to begin moving tomorrow!

February 6, 2010

Well, I did it! Actually on Thursday my friend Twyla came to help and stayed all day so that we could get it finished. Yeah!! Suite R is painted and it looks nice. On Friday the rug cleaners came. I will return on Monday to start painting Suite S. Just thought I'd show you some before and after pics.
Carol

ok. I don't know how to do this very well yet. I can't seem to get the pictures arranged right. Oh well. Something new to learn :)

February 4, 2010

Pictures coming soon!!!! I have managed to paint one coat on Suite R. Today my friend, Twyla, and I will paint the second coat and it'll be ready for a rug wash tomorrow. Norm is moving the stock in on Saturday. Yeah!! Next week I want to paint Suite S so we can actually start looking good. Tom V is almost finished with our logo. Yes!

February 2, 2010

I still have a hard time with 2010. I want to write 2110, but we're not in a Star Trek movie :). Well, yesterday we signed our new lease. We officially have keys but can't move in yet as the walls need fixing and they're going to put an opening in one wall. So, yesterday I finished working through music to decide if we're going to buy any. I'm working on a flyer for Bellfest. Kinda of a "let people know we exist type". Tom V is finishing the work on the logo. Today, the Comcast people come and I reaaaallllly want to start painting. Sigh.

Friday, Jan 28, 2010

Sigh. Incredible amount of work to do. Oh well, chin up. I am half way through the customer base (yeah!). I am still tweaking the inventory excel program so it's easy to enter on the website. I am almost through a packet of music deciding which we should buy in quantity and which we shouldn't. Thanks to Carla and Joanne K. for going through the music and giving me their perspectives. Suite R will be ready for us to start our work in on Monday Feb 1. I want to paint it an Oatmeal color before all the file cabinets move in. I am seriously multi-tasking but doing well at it. Not as good as a friend of my sister's who multi-tasks like she has multiple heads! HA. Anyway, Tom V has been working on the logo and gave me two ideas he has been working on. Very exciting!

Wednesday, Jan 27

So. All excitement aside, I am actually figuring out the basics of Quick Book. I've been entering in all of Norm's customer base. That'll take a few days:) Plus I'm working on the catalog trying to get it usuable for our website designer. There's plenty of tweaking to do. The most exciting part of yesterday (other than the panic attack because Norm was a no-show for his appointment with me. Of Course I think of all the worst things when instead he was stuck in another appointment that took longer than expected). okok. I went to Home Depot to check colors. I decided on a vanilla not quite yellowy but not really white and a teal that's brighter and greener than what you'd normally expect. I'm hoping to get help painting starting Monday. At least get 1 room done in a couple of days. Then Norm can move in the files.

Tuesday, Jan 26 2010

Well, we now have a "space". We will be in Suites R and S (combined into 1 suite) at 6603 Queen Ave S, Richfield MN. Not even 1 mile from home. I could walk. Wahoo!! Yesterday I bought a printer that I liked and got it set up. I worked on our expenses so far, started paying for a website to be created.... Oh my. Today, I finally figured out how to get the tops of 8x14 pages printed off so I could have the entire agreement. Amazing. I'm going to look at paint. Work on Quick Books.

Monday, Jan 25 2010

Hi! Carol Scheel here. Norm and I are working on getting Heitz Handbells and Music set up. I never realized how much work there is to setting up a company: website, store front, learn Quick Books, do this, do that. Whew! We are working on getting into a store front at 6603 Queen Ave S, Richfield. Not really sure which Suite yet as we may move to a different one. Meanwhile all the files are still in the storage locker. I'm working on setting up a new invoice in Quick Books. Everything is on a roll, but not a fast one. I'm really excited about all the support Norm and I have from family and friends. Thank you so much!!