The all-new FREE Flute Pro Shop App is here!

So I was sitting at my desk last week, minding my own business (really) and the phone rang.  It was "One Box Apps" on the line.  Did we want an App for Flute Pro Shop?

Did I ask anyone else?
No.
Did I take down the information and contemplate the expense vs. benefits?
No.
Did I consider that this could be a mistake?
Nope.

What did I do? I said. "Yes!"

Then I asked the price, and was pleasantly surprised at how reasonable the whole process would be.

Lucky me.

Only then did I check it out with everyone in the shop.  Again, lucky me, they agreed.

The App is available on Google Play today, July 27, 2012.

Within 2 weeks, it will be available on Apple's App Store.

You can do cool things with it:

Check out our locations with maps and turn-by-turn directions.
Record your playing and let us tell you if it is the flute, or you!  Great for scheduling repairs.
Schedule an instrument trial, lesson, or repair.
Call with a push of the button.
Search the web site for music, accessories, or instruments.
Upload a photo from your flute event into our gallery.
Access our video library.
And more....

Please download the Flute Pro Shop App and join the fun!

You know the best part of  the whole thing?  My (grown)  kids think it is "awesome"!

REFLECTIONS

So it has been a week since I have ventured back into the water and re-started my swimming routine.  Take that, Lime Disease!  And it is also a month that I have been really practicing the flute, and I am very happy to say that my technique is rebounding!  Imagine, at my age!

Reflecting on what it was like not doing the things that make my life so much better has allowed me to appreciate both activities on a deeper level.

I began doing both when my pediatrician recommended them as an antidote for asthma.  I was 5.  To this day, I have a tendency to wheeze when I have had to suspend them both for any amount of time.  There was a fair amount of wheezing going in winter and spring this year.

I began competitive swimming at age 12.  That summer, I lost 20 lbs and grew several inches.  I showed up to 8th grade a different person than the shy, overweight, depressed girl of the previous school year.

A couple of years later I began private flute lessons, and threw myself into them the same way I did the swimming pool.  I may not have been the best, but I could work harder than anyone else, darn it!  And, I did.  Typical afternoon/evenings I would practice 3 to 4 hours.  Swimming had to take the back seat, although my summer jobs in high school and college were lifeguarding jobs and coaching swimming.  I made enough at the summer jobs during the college years to put myself through undergraduate school AND buy my first Haynes.  Back then it was $1,160.00.

Flute playing became the center of my life.  I got married still am to the same wonderful man),  I went to graduate school, and had two children all in my late 20's early 30's.  I got back into the water again at 44.

And, that autumn I lost 20 lbs.  Didn't grow any, but the change in how my body felt and in how my flute playing sounded was astonishing.

This past winter, Lyme Disease struck, and the major symptom was crushing fatigue.  I could not keep my exercise regimen going when there was no telling if I could have enough energy to get through the day.  Sadly, I hung up my goggles and reduced flute practice to maintenance.

So it is with great joy that I pick up the two activities that have been so central to my life.  Only this time, I am approaching them with a spirit of gratitude that I have these skills, wonderment that I can still do them, and peace knowing I don't have to be the best.  It is enough to just show up and do my best.

Maybe Lyme taught me something.  Hmmm...

Debut at NFA

In the past, I have watched flute-related businesses prepare for the National Flute Association Convention, and observed that often July and August were spent in a frenzy of activity for this one event..

And now all of us at Flute Pro Shop are doing the same thing!  The excitement is growing as we assemble all the various elements that go into such an undertaking: we are doing everything we can to make the most of our debut at NFA.

So I asked an architect I know (my husband) to design a fabulous display for FPS, and voila!  We will have an eye-catching display that is as practical as it is gorgeous.  So the surprise isn't ruined, we will post photos of it on the web site and on Facebook and Twitter once we have it all set up on the exhibit floor.

New table runners, table banners, and floor banners are all here and ready to go.  Plants and furniture rented from the convention service.  Internet accessibility assured. 

Clothes are at the cleaners, the all-important hair appointment and dog-sitting all arranged.  The search for comfortable shoes is progressing.  (Do let me know if you have any tips in this department, please.  When the puppies are aching, everything else does too!)

Not only is FPS exhibiting at NFA, but our own Dave Kee will be continuing his fine repair work at the Muramatsu booth.  He'll be hanging out with Erv, Susan, Val and Anthony.  BTW: Anthony and I will be exchanging swimming workouts.  Hope I can keep up!

Can't attend this year??  No worries! We will interview some of our favorite people at NFA: Alan Weiss from Haynes, Jessica Watts from BG France, Di Zhao from New England Flutes, and Erv Monroe from Muramatsu America.  They will be posted on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

We have kept things small and simple this year, exhibiting at   have only one table, and what we will be exhibiting will be the very finest offerings we have.  14 K Powell flute with silver mechanism, Susan Milan's 14 K Pearl Headjoint, a Burkart 995 flute with 1/2 off-set G.  The gorgeous platinum-clad, engraved Muramatsu flute that is waiting for just the right person.  A Powell grenadilla wood piccolo that was played by a top Philadelphia freelancer.  Have you tried the Haynes 5% gold flutes yet?  Amazing!! David Chu headjoints and other silver and gold headjoints. We'll have a full supply of BG France instrument care products in their stunning new display bag.

What else? Happy Hour specials!  You don't need alcohol for these:  significant discounts will be available from 4 to 6 daily, a different instrument special each day.  The Happy Hour specials will be announced each morning so people can be prepared.

And then there is the fun of seeing colleagues, meeting new friends, and sharing meals with people who are flute geeks just like me.  Fun!