Time continues to fly by

And just that fast the end of August escaped me & here we are in September already. I had planned to write a bit more about our Labor Day weekend, but it seems the month ended before I had a chance to get it logged in the August file.

We had quite a nice weekend. After a slow start Saturday morning we ended up deciding to go to Deception Falls. Pack some snacks, load the car, & off we go. Dog in tow even. It was about a 90 minute ride to get there. We even had to pass thru a bit of rainy icky stuff up on Steven’s Pass. But things leveled out & we had wonderful weather when we got there. Well, I say wonderful … it was mostly overcast & it did try to drizzle once. But to me it was perfect. I had one of my kids, & my hubby with me. I had great light for general pictures of the forest & the falls. No bright sunlight to try & compensate for when snapping off endless pix.

So the falls were nice. The forest loop trail was even better. I think I enjoyed myself more in the forest walk than just seeing the falls. As we wandered thru the forest, I felt a photo book coming out of me. So, we’ll see if I can make that materialize.

After the falls, we headed back towards home but made a stop at another place. It was called The Iron Goat Trail. What a cool place. It is a trail built right over what used to be where a railroad ran. I’ll have to get more info on it so I can write about it correctly. The walk we took there was really cool. We got to see what was left of a wall from an 1800 foot long snow shed & part of a tunnel. Neat stuff. We plan to go back to explore other parts of that trail too. Some of the other areas have more cool “ruins” from a time long ago. Like 1916 long ago!

We hung out Saturday evening doing not much, after our long day out exploring. Oh .. I took 169 images at Deception Falls and 62 at the Iron Goat. That also includes taking the same scene multiple times while changing settings. So afterwards, I took 139 & 45 respectively. I haven’t gone thru them yet to see how many of those I’ll end up keeping.

Sunday Connie worked. We went to the Unitarian service. It was their annual drumming service. Oh how cool that was. My friend Amy was there, with her daughter. We saw Johnny from the market but didn’t get to say hello. He’s such a cool dude. Nicknamed, or known as Johnny Bamboo, he is working on getting his own clothing line (I think) of clothes made from bamboo. Not everyday that some nice looking guy tells you “here, feel my shirt!” The service was really neat tho. It wasn’t the same drumming feeling of a Pow-Wow, but it was cool. Afterwards Tim was chatting with the guy who heads the drumming group during the week there. I think he may try going to see what it’s like. Makes me happy. I like seeing him make new friends & get involved in stuff.

After some lunch, we ended up wandering into town to get a couple things from Wal-Mart. After that we met Joe & his family down by the loop trail on the Wenatchee side. Was nice to have a reason to go take the dog out. Tho after her very long & exciting outing the day before, she had plenty of exercise for the weekend already. Took a few more pix …. I know, as if the well over a 100+ wasn’t enough right? I seem to go thru spurts.

Today was another good day. After a quick & easy breakfast, Tim & I worked on cleaning out our other fish tank. It was time for a complete tank cleaning. But hey, knowing that fish water was good for plants, I knocked off “outside plant watering” from my to-do list!

Before the fish tank stuff, as we were sitting here at our respective computers in the morning, I got a wonderful phone call. Laura had a chance to see my websites & check out some of my work. Who is Laura? She is the Life Coach who owns In Touch Life Strategies & Drop Dead Fabulous (we'll have to get her online, or at least get some pix up there). We had stopped & chatted with Laura & Rhonda, the wonderful lady who makes her own scented lotions & also runs the store the day we wandered the sidewalk sales downtown. They have transformed what was our old Metaphysical shop. So she is a lady who deals with a higher end clientele, & likes nice things. She likes my work! We had talked about me bringing some stuff by in a couple weeks. Well, she wanted to see them now! When she called this morning, she said my stuff was “stellar”. How cool is that? So I spent about an hour getting a bit of everything together as samples to show her. From 1 this afternoon, until 330, we sat & talked while I showed them my stuff. I have a feeling my stuff is going to sell very well in their shop.

I’m excited. I feel like I’m turning a corner here. I have finally closed the farmer’s market chapter of my business life & now I’m opening a whole new chapter. She is offering me a great commission rate. For that I also get her “marketing the shit out of my stuff”. Her words! We have agreed that she will be the exclusive carrier of my items in town. She wants people to have to come to her to get my artwork. And, my prices are too low. She has some of the same feelings that Marshal was trying to get across to me before. If your prices are much lower than other artists, people will indeed wonder what is wrong with yours. Got it. She will be helping me figure out a better “in range” price for a few of my things.

After all that excitement I got home to my honey being in pain. Damn. Not good. I hate when he hurts. He had one of his lovely shooting pains in his lower back that then shoots down his leg. We were supposed to go to Joe’s for a BBQ. I told him if he wanted to cancel, we would. No biggie. Joe would certainly understand. But, being the guy he is, we went. It was nice to go visit. The food & company were both good. We only wish our trip home was as easy as walking next door into our own house. But, that’s another vent.

So, I have my work cut out for me between now & the holidays. I need to have stock not only for the mall, but for Drop Dead Fabulous! What a fun & exciting problem to have. Looks like my week is shaping up to be busy. This post has links ... I'll have to make the next one with some pictures ...

And quick as that it’s Friday already.

And quick as that it’s Friday already. Last real post was on Monday night. Funny how fast time goes by.

Got my hair trimmed on Wednesday I think it was. It’s back to being shorter & cuter. I like it. Some of the bounce is back from my perm too. I think I’m ready to color it again. No idea exactly what color tho.

Thursday evening I went to a belly dance class. It is designed for weight loss. Slow & easy. Made for folks who are recovering from surgery, or are shy or just want to maybe lose some weight. OMG what fun. This was my second week going. I feel like such an uncoordinated person. I’m determined to learn tho. I love this. It feels fantastic when you’re doing it. Not to mention the thought of it turns my honey on!! A couple of us are going to try to get together outside the class to practice more. The class is only once a week, but hey for $2.50 a class… you can’t beat that. And it’s put on my one of the ladies who is very active in the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. She’s also the lady who does the Buddhist meditations. That’s something else I’m thinking of looking into down the road a little.

This morning Connie & I went to the local Costume Shop. What a fun place. It’s full of not only belly dance stuff, but actual costumes & ballet stuff too. Oh the money I could spend in there. Since we are students we get a 10% discount on our belly dance outfits. Hey, it covers the tax so that helps. Connie grabbed a hip scarf for herself but I could not decide on one I liked. So I’m going to go back in there wearing an outfit I would like the scarf to match. Figure that may help me decide. Once we buy one, we’ll check into just how hard it would be to make our own. That could be so much fun, especially with all those jingly coins!!

So Thursday morning we lost the reed fish. Not sure exactly why. Everything in the tank was perfect. Even took the water to be tested. It’s possible he just stressed out & didn’t make it. Major bummer. Everyone else seems fine for the time being.

.....Insert a 3+ hour break ……

Oh my, oh my. Gotta love it when the man comes home an hour early ….. and the house is empty …..

Afterwards we splurged & went out for Chinese. Now he’s sitting in front of his puter … & here I am. Again. I’ve now totally lost whatever else I had planned to write. Funny how sex will do that. Hopefully we have a fun & full weekend.

Sunday Sunday ...

Ok, so I skipped the photo opp send off today. I just was too hot to go anywhere.

Saturday morning at the market was interesting to say the least. No, I didn’t make enough money to have it be worth it. But I did learn something interesting. I’ve mentioned how I feel like the black sheep, or red headed step child or what ever you wanna call it. Well, I learned part of why.

Terry (spouse of a vendor & also a board member) told me that what he had heard was that some of the vendors were coming to me complaining that Betty & Derl were providing most of the produce for the share program. (Betty being the lady in charge of it & her hubby Derl a grower) Umm… excuse me? Well, after these said vendors came to me, I then went around & spread the rumors further or something like that. WTF??? I haven’t talked to anyone about the share program. Vendors have never come to me. When it first began, I was thrilled at the turn out of subscribers, & wished her the best of luck with the program. Connie even offered to help her bag stuff if she needed it. I helped spread the word about the program to people I knew, & also had flyers in my space to help promote it. What’s funny is that Tim & I were friends with Betty & Derl before this.

Then there was the whole day that Julie (normal mkt. mgr who runs the mkt. & assigns spaces) was not there & Derl was “in charge”. Well, when several people were not showing up & we were faced with having huge space gaps, I helped to minimize the effect. Terry & I were also trying to help Derl keep up with getting vendors in their spaces. Terry had the list in his hand, which he handed to me. I saw some gaps & made a couple adjustments which hurt no one. Apparently, I “snatched” the list from Derl’s hands & just started moving people around so I could have a different space. OMG!!! I didn’t care what space I had. I was trying to prevent the very thing that again happened on Saturday. Huge gaps. It looks terrible when there are a bunch of vendors, then huge gaping gaps then more vendors. Between me & the next vendor … was 6 spaces. How big is a space? A parking spot size. I should have taken pix.

Well, a few weeks back I was “talked to” by Julie. I don’t recall if I wrote about that or not. She basically snapped at me in a very “not nice” tone. Told me how dare I move people around & that I needed to watch my attitude. WTF??? I’m sorry, but that day, she caught me so totally off guard I was speechless. She had Derl with her, sulking behind her while she told me off. Tim was right there when it happened & even he was like WTF?

So Terry was the one filling me in on things Saturday. He’s the one who felt strongly enough to let me know what was being said. And even he was hearing it second hand. He was telling me that he feels Julie keeps a list of “nice” & “not nice” and somehow I moved form one to the other. I have no idea what is going on. I have not talked bad about the market to anyone. I have gone around each week I’m there & talked to most of the crafters. Just to see how things are going & if I need to bring any concerns to the board.

Part of me has to wonder if they are trying to find a way to get rid of me. People in this valley are weird. Small minded. Not that Julie is from this Valley, but Betty & Derl are, & the 3 of them have become quite chummy. I have to wonder if it centers on my personal spiritual beliefs. I don’t flaunt pentacles or anything all over the place. But, I have been known to wear my favorite ring, & on occasion my necklace. Most of the time, the necklace would be under a shirt tho. This is the only thing I can think of that they would not approve of. Not that they have to approve. But, yeah ….

Maybe it’s a pick on the new member who wont see it coming. Maybe it’s because someone didn’t like the fact that we denied membership to a few crafters & now they want to find a way to get back at me like it was all my doing. I’m grasping at straws. I’ve tried to do a good job as secretary. One minute everyone was happy with all my efforts. Then the next, I am totally snubbed. When that feeling started, I was so shocked, I didn’t know what to do so I did & said nothing. I became quiet. I didn’t know what exactly was going on … & come to find out, I had no clue how much was being said about me behind my back.

More little things I’ve noticed since all this began … I’m supposed to put together a monthly newsletter for the vendors. I’m supposed to get input from a few people as to what needs to go in said newsletter. Remember me spending so much time on making it all new & revamped? Yup. Got tons of compliments on it too, including from Julie. Well, time comes to make the next one. I send out emails & ask for input. Nothing. I ask Julie to send me info for the newsletter, in person. Ok. Nothing. I was also asked to see about making a monthly newsletter for the public. More of just an info sheet that would tell what produce is in season this month, what entertainment & special events were happening in any of the markets, etc. I told everyone on the board that I would be happy to do this, all I needed was the info. I would put it all together. What did I get? Yup, nothing.

Whew. Ok, I feel a little better just sitting here typing all that out. Maybe now I can face the board better to get all this cleared up. Because yeah, this is stupid. I’ve been keeping track of my sales so far this season. For the time I put in, I would like to get minimum wage back out of it. Otherwise, it’s not really worth my effort. I don’t make minimum wage (for WA). Will I do the market next year? Probably not. Will I be a board member? I’d love to be one, if we can resolve this BS.

What else can I ramble on about? Well, that might take another couple pages. I’ll save that thought for another day. Today has been a super lazy afternoon here. Connie is at work. Tim is at Joe’s. Tim & Joe are working on getting Tim’s computer up & running & fully loaded. Connie walked to work this morning because it was already to warm to ride her bike. She’ll be calling here when she’s done for me to go get her. No biggie. It’s about time for her to buy another tank of gas anyways. Meanwhile, I’ve had the whole afternoon to myself. I kinda felt bad about not going out to the park but dang it was too hot.

This morning tho, after we ate breakfast & were figuring out what to do today, I made mention of the fellowship down the road we’ve been meaning to check out. I quickly got online & checked the calendar …. Today it was all about pets! Wanna go? Sure. When does it start? 10:30. What time is it now? 10:24. We got dressed, grabbed the dog, and the Sam necklace & were out the door. The Cascade Unitarian Universalist Fellowship is right down the road so it only took like less than 5 minutes to get there. The group was open & welcoming to us. Talk about nothing like a church service. It was really cool. Today’s thing was about blessing our pets & being open to learn from them & all that cool stuff. We did a little candle lighting thing for all the pets we’ve lost then she said a little blessing over each of the dogs who was there today. It was really neat. We chatted with a few people afterwards, & headed back home. My new friend Amy told us about this place. We were next to each other at the market one day & just got to chatting. It was fun to hear her be all excited about it. Kinda made us excited to go check it out. That was about a month ago. We finally went today. And on a whim at that. I think I’ll be checking this out a bit more.

Well, now it’s almost 530. That’s when Connie gets off work. I should get this posted & be ready when she calls. Of course there are cookies for everyone who read all my babble.