Cross Country Grumble Visits

The Wavy Framer

SGF, Supreme Grumble Framer
Joined
Feb 4, 2009
Posts
2,263
Location
New England / Northern California
Early next week I will be moving away from the San Francisco Bay area. I will head South to Santa Barbara, LA and San Diego before heading to the East Coast (New Hampshire), to be with my family once again. It would be great to visit as many Grumblers as I can.

It is also my hope to find some framing work along the way. As it stands right now, I do not have a specific time frame to arrive on the East Coast, it will all depend upon what interesting adventures I can find along the way. I would love for the Grumble community to share in this adventure by helping with suggestions, ideas, opinions and hopefully some invitations to work for a few hours, a few days or a few weeks at any frame shop in need of a little extra help. So if you or anyone you know could use some help from a 15 year veteran framer, please contact me.

This adventure is not being planned to "just find work" along the way, but more as a way to get to know and learn from some of my framing peers through work, story telling and quick stops just to say hi. I am very passionate about framing and I love the people who make a living at it. I am very excited at the prospect of meeting many new friends, and writing about it as I go. Please help me fill those pages.

I will post contact info on my Grumble page. If you want more information about me, please ask.

Thanks, looking forward to meeting you!!

Becky
 
If you plan to cross Ohio on Interstate 70, you would pass within 1/2 mile of my shop at Exit 112-Reynoldsburg/Pickerington/Route 256.

If you'd care to stop for a visit, I'm pretty sure we can promise you a worthy entry for your diary, as well as a nifty souvenir.
 
I'm right outside of Philadelphia in what they call mid county. The shop is easily accessible from 76, 276 & 476, all the major highways. Have a great Time on your grand adventure.
 
Buffalo NY - right on the Interstate - you would be welcome to stop in and see the world's smallest frame shop and probably the world's least organized shop.

Warning: I will talk your ears off! ;)
 
When you get to NH, you'll be in New England PPFA territory!
Make sure you look us up! We can meet at one of our Chapter meetings.
Of course, you're welcome to visit as you pass through MA!
 
COME SEE ME NEAR CHICAGO!!!!!!!!! :D :D

I'll take you to lunch and we can have a SLEEEPOVER!!!!!! :D :popc:
 
on your tour, when you pass through North California, be sure to swing by my place -- I could always use the free labour! Just off the 29. Plenty of good places to eat and taste wine around here ;) hehe

(except wednesday, won't be in then or most of Saturday this week -- see you soon!)
 
Well, if you visit MA, please make sure to come in and say hi! I'm a bit out of the way, there is no through way to/from Gloucester.

Keep us updated on your trip! Where in NH are you headed???
 
Are ya going to Disney World?, I am right next door...
It's probably outta the way, but I will make waffles!
I always have work, and will probably learn more from you...but treat you badly nonetheless, except for the waffles, they are kickin'!
Oh and if Mar don't talk your ears off, when you get to my shop you'll wish they were gone, I talk a blue streak.

Have a fab journey Becky! You should video the stops along the way, the ones in the shops and youtube it!
 
While going thru MA if you want to swing out to Cape Cod you can catch the ferry out to Martha's Vineyard and visit our island.
Enjoy the trip.
 
We are about 5 hours from Jim Miller and we will offer you an overnight if you take I-70 east. But you gotta like dogs...
 
Once on I -95 in northern MA, get off at Rt 133 in Rowley; I'm two miles down the road.
Karl
 
Stop on in!! Ohhh... wait. I'm at the end of the Earth up here so almost no one drives by the shop. If you decide to keep on driving once you get to NH, then.... Stop on in!!!:thumbsup:
 
Thanks for the responses!

I don't yet have a route planned out, I will play it by ear, at this point. But due to the weather at this time of year I will be taking a Southern route. Most likely: Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. After that, I am not sure which direction I want to go in. So if anyone can recommend some places east of the Mississippi that I shouldn't miss please let me know.

Nicole, as much as I would LOVE to stop and see you and buy you a birthday drink, I don't think I will be driving through Illinois :(

Jim, you have me very curious about the 'souvenir". I just may have to stop in, now. Especially since Ellen has offered up a nights stay in Ohio!! BTW, Ellen, Thanks SO much for the offer. Yes, I do LOVE dogs. Although, my traveling partner (see pic below) likes big dogs who like him, he is not so keen on small dogs. Weird!

Mar, I would love the opportunity to have you talk my ears off! Hopefully I will be able to make it your way.

I will be taking lots of photos of my travels and Grumble friends along the way. I will update this thread as I make my way, so if you know I am with in a half days drive of you, please let me know!

My traveling companion, Sabastian John, AKA, The Brat.........

IMG_0058.JPG


.
 
Sebastian is beautiful and pleased with himself as all Siamese are...is that right Siamese?
I am not so good with cat identities, I am allergic, and Duncan thinks they are all delicious!

But the waffle off still stands!
 
You could stay overnight at my house but it is in Canada so you would need the right kind of ID to get back and forth across the border. Sebastian would be more than welcome - he looks like he could kick my cats' butts. I bet I could find you accommodations with friends in Buffalo also - people who cook - which I don't. :)
 
Sounds like so much fun!!!! If you come by way of Michigan, let me know. We are just a bit North of I94.
 
Wow, looks like you have lots of offers on the East Coast. Here is another. if you are ever in Ontario Canada, stop by (After Framar of course) Stratford. Its beautiful in the summer, and really sucks in the winter.

I haven't been grumbling since the WCAFS because I'm actually really busy right now. (A very nice surprise) In fact I'm here at my store after hours getting ready to put in a few hours work. If you can be here tomorrow I could use the :help: for a day or two. :thumbsup:
 
Buffalo NY - right on the Interstate - you would be welcome to stop in and see the world's smallest frame shop and probably the world's least organized shop.

Warning: I will talk your ears off! ;)

I beg your pardon, Mar!! Unless your shop is smaller than 280 Sq. ft. I have you beat by a mile with the last shop that I worked. I had larger closets in my own galleries than what this shop was and you had to side step to get by the workbenches, there was only about a foot between them! It was such an afterthought when the owners did the build out that I thought they were joking when they first showed it to me!! There was so little wall space, I had to build a 2x4 framework in one of the exterior windows to mount my wall cutter on!! Anything longer than 40" had to hang out into the middle of the exterior door space so I could fit it onto the wall cutter. But I had a gorgeous view of the bay and a few pretty young things who would jog or rollerblade by the shop each morning.
 
Hey Becky,

Where are you ending up in NH?
My shop is in Hanover, please come by for visit I will also talk your ear off (my High school prediction was "rob finally shuts up." lol)
Plus the way things have been going I just may need an extra hand!

All the Best

Rob
 
I AM about 5 hours away from Jim Miller, just not in Ohio. You have to go through three other states (they are much closer together here on the East Coast). First you go through a little bit of West Virginia, then Pennsylvania then Maryland where I am... Hagerstown is at the crossing of I-70 and I-81. That's why "you've driven by here"
 
Thanks for the responses!
Jim, you have me very curious about the 'souvenir". I just may have to stop in, now. Especially since Ellen has offered up a nights stay
.

I've been to both Jim and Ellen's shop......you won't be sorry that you stayed on I-70 to see them both. Once you get through Ohio, you'll start hitting the mountains....very pretty ride through Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Maryland. (and Ellen's right, they're close together at this end of the country).

Sounds like a marvelous trip!
 
Either on your way or after you've arrived in NH you are more than welcome to come visit us and see how we make our mouldings. But not to make you feel tooo special - anyone is, any time :)
 
It's going to take you months....

Becky,

Too bad that you're leaning towards the Southern route across the U.S. I've made the drive from Appleton, Wisconsin to New Hampshire multiple times, as my parents owned an antique shop in Center Harbour on Lake Winnipesaukee.

"One Northern Route" would take you through Minneapolis - Dieau2 and Pat Kotnour,

onto Appleton, Wisconsin - John Ranes,

south to Milwaukee - auntiesarahjayne,

continuing south to Chicago - Jay Goltz and Black Iris,

east into Indiana - Dave,

continue into Ohio - James Miller, jPaul, GUMBY, GCF, johnny, Creative Chicks and many others**,

east across upstate NY to Buffalo - Framar and into Vermont - David M Waldmann, before arriving into NH.

You did say you were located in Northern California so.... ;) You'd better leave part of your trunk empty for gifts and souvenirs received along the way! How much time are you allowing for this journey?

We are Here!

John


** I think Ohio rivals North Carolina on Grumbler counts!
 
Thanks, Mar for the overnight invitation. The kindness of grumblers is amazing! BTW Mar, I love your mini frame shop!

Cathy, the waffle breakfast sounds yummy. I have an Aunt in the Orlando area I would love to visit, so if I find my self that far South, count on making those waffles!

Rob, my family is in Deerfield (20 miles or so Northwest of ManchVegas). I am not likely be so far North as to make it to your place, but I will certainly visit another time!

Ellen, I don't know why my brain read 'Ohio', but Maryland will be much more likely a place to stop, so thanks again!

John, I hope it does take me MONTHS!! That is my intention, anyway. I don't want to arrive on the east coast during the winter. So if I can stretch it out until May, that would be awesome! SO PLEASE, GRUMBLERS...... PUT ME TO WORK!! :)

.
 
Hmmm, this just gave me an idea....

Well Becky, if you time this well, I might let you take over the place for a few days while I take a few days off, either at the beach or to hit Seattle for another oysters vacation. Or both!
 
Monday and Tuesday visits

Tuesday. The beginning of my journey has taken on a slow start. I drove a total of 70 miles on Monday. 240 miles today.

I made a grumble visit, today, to see PaulSF in San Mateo. My first thought upon walking into his shop was "Wow, very nice place." It's a beautifully laid out shop and pleasant to be in. If I were to own a frame shop, I would want it to be very much like that. Rob Markoff would be pleased to know, there was almost no framed art on the floor!

Paul is a very likable guy. It makes me sad that I will not be visiting him again. Also, Paul does more than picture framing. He makes some very cool pens. Check them out:

http://www.thegrumble.com/showthread.php?t=44794&highlight=pens

Lets go back to Monday for a moment. I made another grumble visit. Although, it was much less of a grumble visit than it was a visit to a friend to say so long. Doug, aka W.C. Framer, who is one of my fellow Napa grumblers, was in his shop eating lunch. Why do I have this knack of interrupting others during lunch? Anyway, I will miss Doug. I have enjoyed getting to know him in person as well as on the grumble. His sense of humor is like a dip in the hot tub after a long hard day; a relief. Thanks for all the smiles. And thanks for sharing some of the cookies sent to you from i-m-chickie!! They were yummy!

Another Napa grumbler, Carol Collins, will be missed, too. I was just getting to know her. I think we could have been good friends with a little more time. Carols frame shop is in the same shopping center as the frame shop I worked in. She was a welcoming respite during my walk back from coffee break.

The world of picture framing has some wonderful people in it. I have been fortunate to get to know so many of them.

To read more, click on the link to my blog, there are photos, too.
 
Wednesday visit

I had not planned to stop in any frame shops in San Luis Obispo, but I happened to pass by Frame Works just before entering the freeway. I did a u-turn and stopped in to say hi. I was very glad I did. It's a very nice shop ( http://www.sloart.com ).

After being greeted by Sara Egerer, the first framed art I quickly noticed was the 2009 PPFA competition piece, an antique necklace replica. It was beautifully framed and adorned by 3 ribbons! I had framed the same necklace. That was my first PPFA competition entry which placed 3rd in our local chapter! I won't mention that there were only 5 entries. But in defense of my design reputation, it was a last minute decision to enter. I had just 8 hours to design and complete.

Sara was very welcoming and happy to speak with a visiting framer. And then I met Ali Semon, Frame Works proprietor and member of the Grumble. She is a lovely lady who purchased her business from her parents. So, I bet she knows her framing stuff!

Car troubles. That was next in my journey South. I knew it was a possibility. My little Toyota RAV 4 has just over 150,000 miles on it. So there I sat on the side of the highway waiting for Triple A to tow me to the Toyota dealership. About the only good thing was I was only a few miles from my days destination of Santa Barbara. Oh, and the fact that I had just purchased my AAA membership two days prior!! Phew!


Stay tuned,
Becky

P.S. if there are any Grumblers between Santa Barbara and San Diego, please let me know, I would love to say hi in person.
 
Dang. Wish you were comin up north a bit, it would be nice to meet you. I'm a little jealous of your trip too.

My Grandparents have a place on Long Island on Lake Winnipesaukee, in NH. I'm trying to plan a trip there in June. Maybe we can catch up then!
Have a great trip!
 
Dang. Wish you were comin up north a bit, it would be nice to meet you. I'm a little jealous of your trip too.

My Grandparents have a place on Long Island on Lake Winnipesaukee, in NH. I'm trying to plan a trip there in June. Maybe we can catch up then!
Have a great trip!

Anna, HECK YES!! I would love to meet up with you on the Lake!! You spelled it right!! For those of you who don't know, it is pronounced win-ah-pah-sockey.
 
Mark is just south of you in Camareo, near where the insane asylum used to be..... hmmm :rolleyes:

Frank is in Van Nuys 810 Orion

Andrew is in Tustin

PPFA is in Anaheim

Rob & JRB are in Diego.
 
You did say you were located in Northern California so.... ;) You'd better leave part of your trunk empty for gifts and souvenirs received along the way!

You mean fill it with good NorCal goodies to be bartered along the way, right?
 
More NH connections...

annaluna said:
...My Grandparents have a place on Long Island on Lake Winnipesaukee, in NH. I'm trying to plan a trip there in June. Maybe we can catch up then!

Anna,

Unfortunately I will probably not be able to join you and Becky in June, but I probably mentioned that need to get back to Lake Winnipesaukee soon. My parents had an antique shop from the 1980's through 2005 right on Bean Road, as you head out of Moultonboro. From their bedroom window, you could look out over the lake. The big red barn is still there, now owned by my sister-in-law who rents it out during the Summer.

Trying to recall the picture framer (Will) who had a shop in Center Sandwich, NH and used to always stop by the New York shows to say hello.

I'll have to Google Map Long Island to see what part of the Lake it is located.

Happy travels Becky - Hope the car trouble is minor!

John
 
Was very nice to have Becky visit the store and spend some time here. She brought along a traveling companion, too -- a beautiful siamese cat. I can't imagine driving all day with one of my cats in the car. They moan and whine just on a 5-minute drive to the vet!
 
Let us know if you are going to be near Yellowstone, you can drop by here for some Bison burgers if you like (they are my daughters favorite).
 
Hi Dan! Thanks for the offer of the Bison Burger... Yum! Unfortunately, I will be driving a Southern route through Arizona, Texas, etc.

I Drove the Northern route from New Hampshire to California 7-1/2 years ago and drove through Cody back then. Had I known about the Grumble then, my trip would have been more fun! :)
 
Paul, I am still waiting for the car to be fixed. They replaced a fuel sensor (or something like that), but the problem didn't go away! Then they were stumped!! They just called me a few minutes ago and they "think" it is the crank shaft sensor. Ugh!

I think my next career should be an auto mechanic. :)
 
Make sure you don't pay for time they spent investigating and getting stumped!!

My car mechanic is crying the blues too in this economy....better stick with being the Traveling Framer!!
 
So, last Thursday I visited another Grumbler, David Beardon, Owner of Santa Barbara Frame Shop & Gallery (www.santabarbaraframeshop.com ). Another beautiful shop with some wonderful original paintings adorning the walls. From what I could observe, his location is top rate; A downtown street with lots of traffic. David is a friendly guy who is always willing to help out a fellow framer. We didn't have much trouble talking about framing and business. His framing competitors are many, the closest is across the street from him! There are 28 shops for a population of 86,000 people! And I thought Napa had too many with 13 shops for 75,000 residents.

I love how small this world is sometimes. As David and I were talking, I mentioned a gallery frame shop in San Rafael and how at one point earlier last year I had wanted to purchase it as it went up for sale. I was not able to do so but as I mentioned the new owner who had recently taken over, David said he had met her while she was in his shop asking questions. San Rafael and Santa Barbara are approximately 300 miles apart. That is very cool!

The Frame-Up in Goleta (just North of Santa Barbara) was my next stop (www.theframe-up.com). It was an unplanned visit, as I saw it while I was looking for lunch. I walked in and introduced my self as a framer passing through. Lance immediately asked me if I wanted a job!! I was so surprised that I stuttered a bit and replied "I could stick around this area for the right offer."

Actually, it was not Lance looking to hire a framer, but the gentleman who is about to purchase the business from him. Yes, you guessed it, Lance is giving up his long standing career in framing. The economy has gotten to another one! But don't feel bad for him. It's what he wants and he is excited about his new future. Best of luck to him!

Also, I want to thank a two Grumblers, Mark (artrageous) and Cathy (i-m-chickie), for such kindness. I am in awe of of your generosity. :)

Please click on my blog below to see photos of David and me and more.

Thanks,
Becky
 
It was a pleasure meeting you last week Becky. I know we talked about quite a bit while you were here. There is something I think I should edit so people don't get the wrong idea about Santa Barbara.

The population is closer to 180,000 if you include all the surrounding areas. While the bulk of all the frame shops here are centrally located, there are a fair number in the other local communities. Somehow it seems to have worked out for everyone. There has little change in the number of shops for 20 years or so.

So sorry to here about the continued car problems. Interesting news about Lance, but he has been at the game for many years. I'm sure he knows what he's doing. So will you be sticking around?
 
It was a pleasure meeting you last week Becky. I know we talked about quite a bit while you were here. There is something I think I should edit so people don't get the wrong idea about Santa Barbara.

The population is closer to 180,000 if you include all the surrounding areas. While the bulk of all the frame shops here are centrally located, there are a fair number in the other local communities. Somehow it seems to have worked out for everyone. There has little change in the number of shops for 20 years or so.

So sorry to here about the continued car problems. Interesting news about Lance, but he has been at the game for many years. I'm sure he knows what he's doing. So will you be sticking around?


Thanks David for clarifying the population of Santa Barbara. I thought that seemed unreal. Which is why, I guess, I commented on it.

I am in Anaheim now, attending the PPFA convention but will return to SB Tuesday to pick up my car and will be there until Wednesday. I LOVED Santa Barbara! You are fortunate to live in such a beautiful place!
 
Yeah, the Santa Barbara/Goleta is really nice. I lived in Isla Vista for a while and really enjoyed being able to bike along the beach all the way into Santa Barbara. And swimming at Red Rock... yeah. It definitely is a nice place to lay out your roll for a while.
 
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