To Suffolk, To Suffolk...

 ...to buy a car-full of parts

Well, actually 2 cars-full, so we will go back next week for more. Could not have done it without the help and support of my lovely friend HB, who did all the lifting and shifting and only got pork pies and strawberries in return

Retiring mechanic + shed + lots and lots of boxes + sadly, some incoming rain and rust = a Winter's worth of sort-it-out and clean-it and photograph-it and put-it-online!

My Great She-elephant, loaded to the window edges, drives so nicely... And we came back through torrential rain...

How to Behave - Customers Beware!

I have been driven to despair by some people's poor behaviour, and have come this close () to giving up entirely once or twice recently.. You do know I'm the world's leading expert on quite a lot of this stuff? Be nice to me please.

Yes, I know you think you are my only customer, but yesterday I could not answer the emails as fast as they came in. Not the first time, either. It's scary, to answer one, make a note, open the inbox, find 5 more...

I have had to turn my phone off at night because people ring at 7:30 am or 10:45 pm, and want a long complicated chat. Sorry, I want a lie-in sometimes, and long leisurely dinner and a conversation with the cat, so tough... 12 till 6, folks, no earlier or later

And, yes, I can Google for you, but so can you do this for yourself. I'm happy to help by telling you what search terms are required, but then absolutely I don't have time to read a dozen sites for information you will not be particularly grateful to have handed on...

If you ask for something that I have to check, do you want me to drop everything and the thirty-six previous enquiries? Or can you wait a day or so. I have everything in my house. Some of it has not been unpacked since I moved the last of it in October last year, because nursing John and being with him at the end of his life was everything, for quite a long time. And, your machine is old, if you are running a business with it and have no back-up, I'm sorry, I have little or no sympathy...

So, ask nicely, accept that you are in a queue, accept that I am one person, disabled by a back injury, tired, living alone, grieving, sad and sick and so bloody tired. I'll get to you...

And, if you find it elsewhere, for goodness sake, tell me... Save my legs (I have stairs) and then maybe, just maybe, I won't put you on my no-longer-going-to-be-helping-you list...

Notes on the Current Situation, June 2020

I'm busy. I've never been so busy. Some mornings I wake up to 20 new orders from the overnight emails, and then sit over breakfast and watch them roll right in.  And, yes, I'm very happy about this, but it does mean that some of you think I'm not paying attention, or ignoring you, or something

Well, you just need to be a little bit patient.  I'm doing my best!

I have to select things before I offer to charge for them. I have to answer the phone and write stuff down. I have to find, wire or rewire, fix, polish, check, pack, charge and take-to-the-post-office. I go to the PO twice a week - i could not manage once, as the trolley was too heavy to drag and anyway, I kept running out of milk and fruit. I sometimes have to eat, sleep, wash, and do my Daily Ws*

The current situation will not last forever, and I need to make the most of it while I can, but...

...but, I can't do any stocktaking, sorting, photographing, listing, uploading, while I'm doing all the above.. So I'm falling further and further behind...

And, I need you to email me, not Facebook, or Messenger, or TextMessage, PLEASE!

So, I have just eaten supper; back to picking, packing, and scratching-of-head...

*Watering, Wood, Washing, Washing-up, Washing Me, and Work-about-the-House... I think I may have a floor here somewhere

A Tour Around My Room

Actually one of my rooms, but this one is the stock-and-post room, which was John's little hideaway, and which I claimed very firmly for myself, with green paint, pots of tools and about 1000 boxes
You think I'm exaggerating...

Come in the door. There's only room for one, so social distancing (note my topicality there) is easy

Right hand wall, as you come in. IKEA book cases...

Then the postal scales, picking trays, and the sellotape machine - totally essential!

At the moment I'm testing buttonholers and zigzaggers, so I have my old girl on the desk. I really must do something with the forest of wires...

Carrying on round, the printer lurks in a corner. As with all such, it can sulk for an Olympic gold when in the (bad) mood

Shelves above the desk...















The big counter under the window was installed, with some constructive swearing, by my daughter Abi and me one evening. It's a foot short, so under the printer is an ingenious shelf. It's the usual kitchen-worktop, in shiny black (you can't see it, but it's a good colour for this sort of work), and very substantial.. I like substantial. The heap here is all waiting-to-be-tested buttonholers

The lamp corner

Yet more shelves... These are mostly bobbins, bobbin cases, shuttles, and tools

Finally, the Heap by the door. I always seem to have a heap

Not shown, the mess under the big counter, and the little pile of envelopes under the desk

This room is about 8 feet square, and I think it's a masterpiece..

I have been feeling a tad mortal, what with the back and the state of the world. I do worry that all this might go to landfill one day when I'm gone..

Life Goes On

And the boxes do not sort themselves. Been wrangling the  Cams stuff all week, alongside trying to make sense of the current madness and keep myself (and my horrid bad back) quiet...

It's not easy being alone and faced with huge amounts of boxes, but I am just getting on with it

And I need to eat. John's pensions are not paying as much as he was promised, and some have not yet come through. i'm not asking for sympathy, just customers. I do have an awful lot of parts...

Since I last posted, I have remade John's old computer room as a stockroom for the sewing machine stuff, with lots of new shelves in the book-cases and lots of new (smaller) boxes on the shelves.   I'm slowly sorting stuff, and am about to start attacking the boxes of Unsorteds, which probably contain as many items as the ones on the website and the database, so not a small task.

And sorting tools, remaking my little summer-house so that when the world returns to sanity I will have a space to service machines and welcome customers. I installed a wood-stove this week, all by myself. I'm not fond of ladders and was so terrified of cutting a big hole in the roof...

Sooo much warmer

And my old big bedroom has become a sewing-room, and my old tiny sewing room is a cosy bedroom..

So, keep on ordering, please, I do like to eat regularly...
And, if you can't see what you want, please ask!

For about 12 years...

...I ran the business of HelenHowes-SewingMachines with the eminently practical and reliable and strong help of my Lovely Man John Stormes. In May this year he was taken ill very suddenly, and it looked like he might only have a few days to live. He had been having treatment for cancer, and his somewhat-reduced gut was failing badly. So, he had yet more surgery, and survived that, and I was reduced from a Fine Plan to Move the Business  Together and then spend a deal more time in a leisurely fashion, to a situation of having to reclaim, manage, rework, and remove the business from one place to another. Without his help, as he had to retire at once, and with a bad back, and 6 months to get everything right and moved and sorted  and out.

Reader, I lost him. We had a few more months, but he was gently slipping away during all that time, and for the last 8 weeks of his life (and after yet more bloody surgery, on his spine), he was more-or-less all the time in bed, and sinking into a diminishment and reduction-of-life that was extraordinarily hard to behold. I kept him with me, and we were much helped by the visiting nurses and doctors and palliative-care people and all and all, but it was me who got up in the night, emptied his various bags, and washed his shrinking body.. And sat with him as he gently removed himself from the world...


So, bear with me. I'm strong, and I have been mourning for so long that I'm almost done, but the house is an utter shambles, stuff is all over the place, and I'm only now beginning to get on top of the stocktaking. And there's a whole winter's worth of that, I think...

Slowly working my way...

...through the  Big Move Sort-out, and this week I have taken a whole lot of tool-boxes and extension tables, all online and updated (click on the links) - those of you who are subscribed to my Newsletter (click for the page to sign up) get a Special Deal on these...
And I sold a machine today, and one yesterday, and need to sell one each day until the Sculpture Trail is over on the 8th of September, all the machines in the shop have Clearance prices; at least 20-30% off

Still a few left - I don't want to have to scrap any of these due to lack of storage, so now is a Really Good Time to visit
I'm open every day until the 8th, 11 till 5ish each day. And the cafe is open, as is the Trail, so it's all good fun