Shop Closing for a Week in Early September

We're planning on closing the brick & mortar shop for around a week when the baby comes - the official due date is September 2nd, which is... next week! We'll be posting it on Facebook, Twitter and our website, and you can call ahead before you make the trip to check if we're open - 647 461 2426. If you get our answering machine and it's our regular message (it's Wonder Pens, leave us a message), then we're still open and probably with a customer so can't pick up. If you get the "it's Wonder Pens, we're closed until.....", you'll know what that means.

We'll still be shipping out online orders, maybe a few days later than usual, and of course if you're in desperate need for ink (we all know the feeling), just let us know in the order comments and we'll try our best to expedite. E-mails may also be delayed for a few days.

It's Jon's last week at his "real" job before beginning paternity leave, and we are scrambling to organize ourselves here as we prepare to close up shop for the baby coming. Jon has set up a coffee machine in the back, which means he's basically ready to take over the shop. Now that he's going to be here full-time, I think he's laying down some ground rules about candy hoarding behind the counter and boxes of inventory clogging the front half of our very tiny shop.

This past year and a half has been an adventure, and it's certainly true what people say about opening a business teaching you many life lessons. With all the ups and downs of running a business, a slightly anachronistic-seeming shop selling fountain pens and stationery at that, it's pretty exciting for us to reach the point where we're ready to take it on full time as a family business.

When we first started the business, I was working full-time as a teacher, which was a job I loved, as much as there were parts of it that were not as enjoyable (report cards, paperwork, yard duty in the winter). I still would love to go back, because there really is nothing like being in a classroom, but Jon and I always hoped/dreamed/worked towards the goal of being able to work together in the shop full-time, and it's a crazy and beautiful giant leap for us now that it's here.