Huib was busy gathering information on the Internet about setting up his own business. It didn't feel like a business to him yet, but to himself he was sure it would become. For Margreet and Elly it could be different. For them it seemed more like a hobby. Nice to be busy and then occasionally sell something. That did not yet sound like a business. Maybe later...

After reading all kinds of information on the Internet, he decided to call the Chamber of Commerce. He presented the employee with their plans, emphasizing that for himself it was certainly the intention to make a living out of it, but that for both the women it was a different matter. He was advised to register himself with them within a certain period of time. They would then pass on his details to the tax authorities. A business email address and a business account number were necessary for himself, a separate account for the ladies was not necessary, a business email address only if they themselves found it convenient or nice.

All the information he got, he wrote down, so he could share it with Margreet and Elly. He sighed deeply, supporting his head in his hands. It all sounded so simple, but it felt like he was going down a very complicated path himself!

He called Elly and told her what advice he had received. "For myself, I understand that I just have to do this. I am beginning to believe more and more that I will get assignments and thus make money. How do you experience that for yourself?"

"I can be brief about that," said Elly, "I love that I've rediscovered this, I love doing it. But the business daunts me, I just can't imagine that people will give me commissions to paint their walls. Okay, I get to do yours in your building, and I think that's cool. But then what? What else? Yes, I know you made the website and that we can start promoting our work on Twitter and Facebook, but somewhere along the line I can't imagine that anyone will respond to it. It creates tension in me and I have the urge to throw in the towel. Oh Huib, I hate that, because I was so happy, so enthusiastic, and now I am only afraid and insecure!"

"Intense Elly, those are nasty feelings. Do you have an idea where it comes from?"

"Yes, that's not so difficult. I never thought about myself as someone who would have possibilities. I never had very positive feelings about myself. And the stupid thing is, I did have that when I was working on your nursery."

"It's really something that suits you. But I understand the other side, too. I think it will come, I'm sure, but you have to go through those negative feelings to get rid of everything that feels so heavy around the business. Then it will be reassuring to you that, at least for now, business-wise, you don't have to deal with much. A new email address if you find that convenient, and that signup on social media to point to the website. And what we had already talked about, creating a price list for yourself. But other than that, basically nothing is needed. No hassle with the Chamber of Commerce or the Tax Office."

"That already feels so much better! That actually takes a lot of pressure off. And that email address and social media, that's fine by me, although I don't really know how to arrange that. Can you help me with that?"

"Oh yes, I think it would be handy to do that together with the three of us. Do you think it would be a good idea if Margreet and I came to your place tonight?"

Elly sighed audibly, with relief. "Very much so Huib, what time do you think?"

They agreed to meet around 7, at which point Elly promised to provide cake, to keep the tradition of Bloemenhof alive.

.

Elly had kept her promise: she had bought a hazelnut pie. They decided to wait with that because they had just eaten. But they were already in the mood for coffee.

Margreet had brought her shopping bag from that afternoon. As they sat comfortably together, Margreet showed them the things she had bought that afternoon.

"I got home so late, I didn't even have time to show them to you earlier, Huib. I went straight to the kitchen to help Annerieke. Anyway, this is it."

She took the pieces of fabric, neatly folded by an employee at the thrift store, from the bag and placed them on her lap. "How do you like this green one? It's a curtain, but the fabric is so pretty, even for a skirt."

Elly felt the fabric, "It's a goofy idea to make a skirt out of a curtain, but I wouldn't know why you wouldn't do it. The fabric is nice, not too thick. It's linen, so nice and airy for the summer soon."

She peered through the fabric. "It doesn't really shine through either. Perfect Margreet! And beautiful, especially that! Don't you think so, Huib?"

Huib had come to sit on his crouch next to Margreet. He felt the fabric and nodded after Elly's question. "You have succeeded well Gretha! And with that brown one here too, it looks like there's a golden glow over it. I think that's a different kind of fabric, it feels different. I suspect it will fall nicely smoothly."

Elly confirmed Margreet's suspicion, "It's cotton, or at least something very similar. Beautiful colors, Margreet, you'll feel like royalty soon!"

"Oh, I feel that already, I've had to spend so little money, but at least I can make two long overlap skirts out of such beautiful fabrics."

She remembered the other fabric, "We also saw a green cloth with ferns. That one was so cute! But when I held it in front of the mirror, I couldn't see myself walking in it. I felt it, Huib, that rag was fun, it was nice, but it was not the fabric I would like to have."

"I'm proud of you, sweet girl, that you are committed to feeling that way. And I'm happy for you that you were able to make the most wonderful choices this way. Well in need of yarn and buttons I guess? Or do you already have plenty of those at home?"

"No, I don't think I have them yet. And if I do have them, it doesn't matter. Then someday I can use them for other clothes or for the wall hangings. I had thought of that for the fabric, too. I have way too much fabric, but what I have left over I can incorporate into the wall hangings."

She explained again, just as she had done in the store for Lisa, how she envisioned it. Then she fished the spools of thread she had found with it out of her bag.

Without her explanation, Elly already understood what she was going to do. She took the two green bobbins: "With these you can assemble the green skirt and then sew the seams with this darker color. And you can do the same with these two brown ones. Is that right?"

"Yes exactly! That was my plan, it gives just that little bit of contrast to make it even prettier. And I also found buttons, so nice!"

Margreet added them to the fabric.

"These are just ones you will like, Huib, those little decorations on it, I immediately had to think of you. I took them all, while I think I only need a few at the waist, but I'm considering attaching some more of those buttons somewhere on one of the seams just for decoration. I still have to figure out exactly how that will work."

Elly thought along, imagining it a bit: "If you make a skirt of five or six strips, then you have more seams, and then you can fasten the buttons on the seam that will be approximately on your thigh. Then they're nicely visible. And if you need to widen the skirt, they'll only shift a little."

"Good idea, Elly!" Margreet envisioned how Elly meant it. "For example, if I fasten them on a seam that will be on my left thigh, that seam with buttons will still be a little right on my thigh in the beginning, and over the course of the pregnancy it will shift a little to the left. Something like that… Funny! I thought at first, that I could slide the skirt along too, so that the buttons would stay in the middle of my leg, but that's not convenient because a skirt is not the same length at the front and back, in my opinion. What's behind at the beginning is best left behind."

"That seems like a good idea. I think you have more in that bag, is that right?" asked Elly.

Huib grinned at the enthusiastic women, silently enjoying himself with them.

Margreet put the yarns and buttons back in her bag and put the fabric next to her on the sofa for a moment. She took the boxes of beads from the bag and showed them. "I'm planning to incorporate them into the wall hangings. And Lisa then asked what I was going to store them in. Well, those boxes from the store are already almost falling apart, so not in there!" She grabbed a small weck jar from her bag, "These seem better, handy and fun! I bought about twenty of these, so that every time I come across nice beads, I can keep them together in one of those jars, sort by sort."

Huib picked up one of the boxes: "How funny, these long beads look like they are made of glass. You could make one of those wind things out of them, you know, those things they hang outside and then they start jingling when the wind blows."

"Oh yes, I see what you mean. That's what I like about those things. It sounds so cozy. Wind thing... hahaha, I'm sure that's not what they're called. I have no idea what they're called. Well, doesn’t matter, I understand what you mean. But those beads are really too small to make a wind thing like that. Only... I could sew them onto a tapestry like that, so it would look like such a wind thing. Although then again, that's not abstract."

"That doesn't matter anyway. You're completely free, Margreet," Elly thought, "so you can sew them on as you like. If you work with blue sometime, waves suggests, then somewhere you could sew on those beads like some kind of wind organ. That's one of the names they give to a wind thing like that. Sometimes they call it tingle things, or a wind chime. Just make it up, as long as we understand each other!" thought Elly.

Huib chuckled, but Margreet did not respond to what Elly said about the name of such a wind thing. She sat in thought and in her feelings at the tapestry Elly was sketching.

She looked at her as she said, "Your idea of those waves with such a wind thing...I can totally see it, it seems beautiful. It's sort of abstract, but just not quite. And indeed that doesn't matter, it just feels right."

With a satisfied feeling Margreet put all her purchases back in her bag and looked at Huib. She nodded at him, as if to encourage him to start with the business sores.

"What shall we do, ladies?" asked Huib, "For myself it is convenient to arrange a business email address and an account number. The account is not necessary for you ladies yet, since yours is more of a hobby. A separate email address is also not necessary, but maybe you just find it convenient or fun to create one. And maybe tonight we'll also manage to create an account for each of us at Facebook and Twitter, or some other form of social media."

"Huib, I really don't know a thing about it. I'd really like it if you took charge!" suggested Elly, to which Margreet nodded in agreement.

"Fine, I want to do that. But will you take a piece of paper or your mobile phone and write down everything you need to keep? The name of your new email address, your details of your accounts on social media, passwords."

Margreet got an idea: "I'll put it in my mobile phone for now, then I'll make a folder at home with such things. Does that seem handy to you, Huib, to create a folder, one of those little multi-folders or something like that, and then write down all our business data, what you just mentioned, in it? Maybe also handy for our private passwords and such," Margreet thought.

"That seems like a good plan." Huib nodded at her kindly. "Just do that! Now, shall we make a business email address first? Let's think of something that also points in the direction of what we're making."

They came up with all sorts of ideas and finally chose HuibsWoodworking, MargreetsTapestries and EllysWallPaintings. Huib went to work on them and created email addresses at Hotmail. "Do you have any passwords in mind?"

Margreet immediately came up with "Firebird963!"

Huib thought that was a great idea: "We are like firebirds, powerful, fiery. How about we all take that same password, but with different numbers?"

Elly and Margreet nodded, with which Huib arranged the sign-ups in succession. They all wrote down their email addresses and passwords.

"A business account only applies to me. I'll take care of that at home. Are you already thinking about what you want to call your accounts at Facebook and Twitter? Just your own name? Or something else?"

"As far as I'm concerned just my name," Margreet said. "If I remember correctly, you can attach a message to the top of both. In it you can put the information about what you are making, with a picture and a reference to the website."

Elly nodded: "That seems to me the most convenient, let’s do that."

Huib started working on it and in between asked the ladies for data he needed.

It was almost 8 o'clock when Huib started with the social media.

"Nice time for another cup of coffee," thought Elly. "Do you fancy a piece of hazelnut cake with it?"

"Oh yes, delicious!" came Margreet enthusiastically, while Huib nodded unintelligibly humming. Margreet gave Elly a wink and walked with her to the kitchen.

"Where is Martin, by the way? At work?" asked Margreet as she divided the pastries into four pieces and put them on saucers. Martin's platter she put in the refrigerator.

"Yes, he's on the late shift. Did you hear from Lisa yet, that Martin found a security agency?"

"Yes, Lisa told me. It all sounded so special, like the right people were being shoved to her. Tonight she has a visit from the lawyer and probably that woman from the security. Those two seem to remember each other from their college days."

"Well, I guess that's no coincidence! I enjoy stories like that, and for Lisa's sake, I'm glad. Now for the right judge..."

"Yes..." sighed Margreet, "a fair one, a judge who listens to his heart..."

To chapter 173. Ellen and Marieke

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