Just when you think life is good ...

Funny how life can change in an instant. Just when you think life is going along just fine, wham.

I should elaborate.

Life has been going along the past few weeks on fairly positive notes, with a few kinks here & there. It seemed the kinks were nothing any of us couldn’t handle.

I’ve mentioned how I feel like the red headed step child when it comes to the market. Well, Saturday things went rather well on a personal note at the market. No, I didn’t have anything cool like record sales. I did get some of my new bookmarks made. I even sold one. Got many compliments on them as well. My day was good for a few reasons. I saw the cold shoulder I was getting from “them” but it didn’t matter. I was in a fantastic mood for no particular reason. To start the day, I located my assigned spot, which was on the opposite side of the row from normal. Wow. I wanna be on this side always. The energy on this side felt so much better. A record number of people came into my space. People noticed, commented on & asked questions about my coasters. I sold 2 smaller sale prints, one new book mark and 8 of the other ones! It only amounted to $36, but I was happy. Along with the sales, came some nice conversation, visiting with my market neighbor who turns out we have allot in common, some friends came to hang out, the sun was shining… a good day. Money wise it still wasn’t worth my time, but all the rest more than made up for things.

One of the things I got to talking about with my neighbor there was the idea of having our own store at the mall for the holidays. All Etsy crafters. She loved the idea. Mention was made to another fellow Etsy crafter who also sells at the market. She loved the idea too. Both are ready to take part, give the time required and the money. Things were ready for me to move forward with. This felt great since Connie & I had sat & brain stormed about the thought of this last week. We talked about details, big things, options, everything.

After the market, we (me, Tim & Connie) went to a newly discovered, small, hippie vintage clothing store. We brought along 2 of the friends who had spent time with us at the market. It was fun. I didn’t buy anything, but Connie & one of the girls we brought did.

So … I had a wonderful weekend. Saturday evening was … Oh My Goddess good.

I spent allot of time recently thinking about how things have been going. I was looking forward to talking to the people at the mall. I was happy to have such a positive response to my new book marks. I was making new connections in various things. Life was good. We’ve even been thinking about truly checking into the house next to our friend that has been empty & for sale for quite some time. He seems to feel he has some connections that may help us out.

Today was a good day too. I was again in a good mood for no particular reason. Things were going well. Life was good for the most part. Connie & I went & ran some errands this morning before heading to the mall to meet with Stacey. We got to go in & see the space, walk thru it, & ask questions. It looked like everything was falling into place & going to work out well.

We came home, relaxed a bit & I headed out to water the plants. Moved a few from the too sunny back deck area back to the side & front where the rest of the potted plants were. Cleaned up some that were dying, in hopes that they are salvageable. Got the hose out & watered the heck out of everything. Connie came out & helped to get the huge hollyhocks cut back. We have a bunch of seeds saved for next year when hopefully we have our own yard to plant them in. We have plenty to even share with friends. This is the only way our big ass trash receptacle ever gets full. We put bunches of stalks in there. So in cleaning everything up, we found that there are new shoots coming up!! YAY!! What a fun surprise. We cleaned things up so that some of the self seeded sunflowers could have room to grow.

Then as we were cleaning up … Tim came home. Our lives were about to change. Fast.

After the typical Hi honey I’m home stuff… he asks me how I’d feel about him working a swing shift. Possibly from like 2 to 10. Sounded good to me. But … what about all the overtime?? No more. No more overtime. Gone. 3 months before we were ready. We knew that come late fall, the overtime would pretty much disappear until spring. But we had plans in place for that. By the time the OT went away, the mall money would cover it. Then income tax time comes to help us thru till the OT kicks back in. Well. Guess not.

I’m kind of in shock. I haven’t spoken more than a few words all evening. To anyone. I know it’s not his fault. Whether he went to swing shift or not, the overtime was going away. Now, they are trying this out to see how it works. Neither of us can see any reason why it won’t work. They have some huge jobs that need to be done so they are hiring 3 new guys and splitting everyone up into 2 shifts. I asked if he asked for a raise since he was the one out of the group who was turning his life upside down with the shift change. He said he hadn’t asked. I said he should. So he says he will. He even felt it was worth a shot to ask. Even a $2 an hour raise won’t make up for the OT he’s been getting but it would help make the transition a bit easier. We’ll see.

Right now I’m ever so thankful we have Connie here to help. Without her help, within a month we’d be up shit creek, without any paddles.

I know something has to change. I just have to figure out what & how. How do I find work that’s temporary … since the beginning of November we are supposed to go on vacation to Florida, and then I’m supposed to do the mall? So I look for something and say I just need something from now till the end of October.

One thought is to actively pursue the Leavenworth Art in the Park. But I don’t have enough stock to get started right now. And obviously, don’t have the money this moment to make more stock. This rock & hard place crap is getting old.

Somehow, this has happened for a reason. Somehow, we’ll make it thru this too. I’m just not sure how right now.