These are my “innocent” sleeping grand dogs, Ace and Ludlow.
Ace, the wire fox terrier, races to my sewing machine when he hears me turn it on. He sits beside me waiting patiently for what he hopes will be a new squeaky toy falling from the sky.
I’ll admit it…I spoil them rotten.
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Zoe is THE sweetest dog ever. We take her to doodle romps, she lays around in the doodle pose, which is on her back, all 4 legs flopped open. We are on the way to the lake now, she loves riding on the boat. I’m hoping she will learn to swim this summer !
This is our very gentle 13 year old dog “Ashes.” She is easily intimidated by bold cats and is very gentle with small animals. She was one of 13 pups who’s mother took off one weekend and obviously had a good time because it was quite a mixed litter. We think Ashes is a mix of beagle, retriever and 
shepherd.
Ashes has always loved sitting and sleeping on the stairs in my workroom and I could never figure out why she didn’t fall as she is definitely not a small dog. She is very proud to be the latest Hounds of Helser inductee!
Sincere thanks to Melissa Hunter of MW Hunter Custom Interiors in South Carolina for introducing us to your cute little dogs, Lilly is on the left and her husband, Horatio is on the right. The pretty girl holding them is Melissa’s daughter, Morgan.
We are real dog lovers here at HB. Send us a photo of yours, and you will receive one of our “I see drapery people” t-shirts!
Ralph Quinn, best friend of Heather Quinn and one of the original “hounds of Helser” spent the day with us on Friday. As you can see this big fella, at over 100 lb., needed an extra large “I see drapery people” t-shirt. He was so much fun that we have decided to implement “Hounds of Helser Fridays.” The Office staff will be taking turns bringing their pups to work for the day.
Please send a photo and a few lines about your pup to hounds@helserbrothers.com! He or she will be honored with a “Hounds of Helser” blog post, and you will receive one of our “I see drapery people” t-shirts just for being a good sport.
Some of you more devoted whyhelians may remember a previous post in which we hand-forged a finial prototype that turned out to be a bust. Apparently the designers eyes were bigger than her clients stomach! We didn’t want t0 just banish this poor guy to the island of misfit finials, so we asked for ideas to repurpose what became affectionately known around here as “Finialzilla.”
Super-client Sue Sifakis, aka Boston Sue, won it handily with her “garden-hanging-planter-hook” idea thirteen %$?! months ago and has finally gotten around to sending a photo, bless her lil’ heart 
It sure is nice to see that this former misfit has finally found his calling as a happy supporter of beautiful foliage. Thank you very much Sue, for playing along with us and being so wonderfully tease-resistant. You are a great sport!
Fans of the movie “The Last Mimzy” will be glad to know that the title character has a namesake alive and well in Scottsdale, AZ. Mimzy is a two year old Standard Poodle and the faithful sidekick of Elyse Risinger, owner of Arizona Custom Drapery Store & More. Elyse recently stopped by to pick up an order and graciously allowed us to snap some pix of Mimzy and his very favorite person.
Jocelyn brought her “A-game” to the ballpark this weekend and caught herself a nice souvenir.
I was going to say something about how reliable and accurate she is when processing Tableaux orders and work in some reference to how she never drops the ball, but that would be extremely cheesy, so I won’t.
Isabella drapery hardware is made entirely from wood. We just kinda thought you should know that….. in case you were wondering. Thanks for reading.
Associated Press Feb 2010: Jane Helser sews together the full ball in the process of making the official game balls for Super Bowl XLIV. “I take a lot of pride in the job I do,” Helser said.
Helser client Cindy Lewton of the AZ Design Group, and author of the Cindy Elle Design blog, showed up for her drapery hardware order in the most unique vehicle to ever grace our parking lot. this very interesting vehicle was made to accomodate three wheelchairs by the Checker Automobile Company and served as a special service taxi cab in New York City. A total of only 98 of these were made for three years in the early seventies. It is so rare that Google hardly knows about it. Most of the Medicar search results were for Medicare typos!
We are not sure what a recession sounds like because there is too much racket in here! Hearty thanks to all of our wonderful clients for keeping us busy.
We love you! Jay and Mark
EEEEK I love it! Can I make you a sandwich?
Drapery installers and interior designers provide a service that makes people happy. When people (usually guys) ask my brother and I what we do, frequently they respond with a “huh?’ It never occurred to them that there is actually a window coverings industry in existence. While some folks just consider window coverings a necessary evil, some save and dream for a very long time before they can get the window treatments they’ve always wanted. I have countless memories of homeowners literally squealing with delight, sometimes even with tears of joy, when they see their new draperies for the first time. Drapery installers and designers are frequently greeted at the door like Ed McMahon with a Publishers Clearing House check, and doted on like a rockstar during the installation. Can I get you a soda? Would you like a sandwich? Anything to catch a glimpse of the draperies as they went up. When you consider the reception that plumbers, roofers and transmission repair guys get, I think we can count ourselves pretty fortunate.
uncle rico from Napoleon Dynamite
Did your dad or uncle ever offer to pinch your arm so your stubbed big toe would not hurt any more? Yeah, that’s just flippin’ hilarious when you are suffering with acute toe-pain, right? That ancient paternal diversionary tactic is not even marginally effective and just leaves you hurting in two spots.
Not a big fan of that one, but we did, however, discover a psychological head-fake that works, and thought you design professionals may find it useful…..
Do you have a client who is a little lean in the pocketbook and languishing in the interior design doldrums? Her home desperately needs your touch, and she would love nothing more than to hire you, but she says she just can’t quite afford it until her financial portfolio recovers. What do you do? Direct her to this website. After a few minutes she will look up from the computer screen feeling significantly better about her surroundings. This temporary illusion is the perfect weapon for todays interior designer because your client will be eternally grateful that you helped her through a difficult time, fostering goodwill and consumer loyalty, and it buys a little time till she is ready to cut checks again!
If you find that after the economy recovers that she is still nervous and reluctant to spend, simply direct her to this website. This should reverse the effects, reminding her how badly she needs you, and have her spending with excessive abandon again in no time.
HB Helps Win 2001 World Series
Baseball fans are a notoriously superstitious bunch.
I don’t consider myself superstitious, but am definitely a baseball fan, and on November 7th 2001 at game 7 of the World Series when I spilled soda on the guy in front of me…..I was not taking any chances! I went right to the pro shop and bought him a new shirt…..The Diam0ndbacks proceeded to win the World Series, and the guy in front of me just happened to be a big-time designer and has spent over a million dollars on Helser Brothers drapery hardware….Ok, I made up the designer part but that would have been neat.
True, the World Series analogy is a shamelessly rediculous stretch, but we do feel very strongly that in life and business good things happen when you man-up and take responsibility for your actions.
Profit Blinders
Accountability in business gets lost too often when business owners operate with profit blinders. Have you ever ordered one thing and received another only to be interrogated like a suspect when you request a replacement? Have you ever been granted ”just enough” restitution in an impatient and reluctant tone? I have, Mark has, Anita has…..everyone in our office has, and we all agree that it makes you want to strangle the perp and make it look like an accident.
Of course you can’t do that, but you can take your business elsewhere and hit them in the wallet! Did Circuit City go under because they wouldn’t cover my VCR that broke two days after the warranty ended? Who knows? Perhaps they treated every customer like they were the only electronics source in the universe creating a massive army of dissed and pissed ex-clients like me. 
Just throwin’ it out there……
My point is this; When it comes to professional accountability, we at Helser Brothers “get it.” We promise that if we ever muck up an order (which is rare) we will always “man-up” and never ever leave you feeling that we could have done more.
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