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So my first blog post will be part rant, part Exotic European adventure tale. Try to follow me....(it should be stated that I'm writing this while drinking a glass of Vino so it may be somewhat brazen).

No one ever says, “Hey, look at what I found at the mall in Rome”.  It always starts something like this: “We were wandering around the streets of Venice and after some time, we got quite lost.  We then stumbled on this tiny shop with an old man and pieces of olive wood.  He passionately told us the story of how and where he found each olive branch and according to the grain made a spoon or a sculpture or the form of an animal depending on what the wood gave him.  When you're traveling around Europe you never buy anything noteworthy or memorable from a giant big box store so why would you do the same here in the US if you had a choice?!?!? When there are, believe it or not, still artisans and small boutique type businesses.  So what does all of this have to do with selecting limestone flooring or marble for your project or your client's project?  Everything actually.  It’s up to us to combat the phenomenon of the impersonal giant corporations and keep the artisans in business.  After all, wouldn’t you like to talk with the owner of a business that has traveled to countless stone quarries & factories all over the world?  An owner that knows the nuances of natural stone and knows what to look for in a factory?  99% of the time when you walk into a large tile or stone showroom, the salesperson has never set foot in a factory let alone the quarry…

Actually most of this content came to me when I was doing Yoga and in a clear mental state..... wait, what?!?! Yoga?!? Yea right. I don't even know what a chakra is. Anyway, it really came to me when I was doing something far superior and in a true zen state... I was smashing/patina-ing some large chunks of rock to create a limestone floor with a hammer as chunks would fly and bounce off my safety glasses like shrapnel.