Furniture Repair 101

This has a nice collection of information on basic furniture repair. The reason we like it is that it stresses doing only that which needs to be done for a fix, and no more. Kind of like a carpenter's version of primum non nocere. The article can be read at howstuffworks.com.

You Touch It, You Buy It...It's Not Our Fault

An interesting article by Andrea Thompson, Senior Writer at LiveScience.com (for the full article, follow this link.) One observation of note is the following paragraph:

Previous studies have shown that many people begin to feel ownership of an item - that it "is theirs" - before they even buy it. But this study, conducted by researchers at Ohio State University, is the first to show "mine, mine, mine" feelings can begin in as little as 30 seconds after first touching an object.

I think we've all experienced that feeling that something we see in the store is a perfect match for one's desires. We remember a mother and young daughter (say, 5 years old) in a year or so ago. Daughter found a little silk diary that she liked, and mom told her she could have it. They wandered around the store for twenty more minutes, with the little girl holding the diary close to her while they walked through our showrooms. Jamie asked her why she was holding the diary so close, and she replied that she was feeling the energy from it.

That's a pretty amazing response from a five year old. Clearly, this young lady felt a connection to this item, and the tactile sensation of clutching this diary strengthened the connection. Sean recalls that he never once felt that way about his Lego set or his Star Wars action figures. Probably because he never got to touch them before purchase.

Happy New Year...Almost

Happy New Year...in a couple of weeks. While we're with everyone else in flipping the calendar over to 2009, the New Year really gets started for us on January 26, when we say goodbye to the Year of the Rat and hello to the Year of the Ox. Actually, this is a pretty good deal for us at the Monkey, since it gives us a chance to celebrate a little bit longer. After all, the Chinese New Year is celebrated for 15 days. It's something we've experienced in working with our vendors in Beijing. Suffice it to say, none of our Monkey business in China gets done for about a month around the New Year, because workers are too busy partying, celebrating their birthday (traditionally, birthday celebrations for everyone happen on the 7th day of the Chinese New Year) and getting ready for the Lantern Festival which happens on the last day of the two-week period. More importantly, our vendor's employees are getting some well-deserved REST. So, file this under travel tips: Chinese New Year isn't the best time to be a tourist in China. Unless you want to see how China celebrates it.

For those who have followed the saga of the sale of our building, we finally have resolution. The building finally did sell, and the new owner will be using the back warehouse space for his own enterprises. So, The Monkey is now located in the front two showrooms we've always had, without the warehouse space many are used to seeing. We had fun fitting everything into our smaller footprint. Think 3-D Tetris with a tape measure. The feel of the second showroom is much more interesting, as the way it is arranged hides many pieces until you turn a corner and are face to face with the exact item you've been looking for.

Now, we're not making any promises, but we've got some ideas we're working on for the whole New Year thing. Stay tuned...