Catching up after a vacation

So, another week ends. This one was kind of nice tho. For the last 9 days, hubby has been on an actual paid vacation. Not that we had funds to really go away, but it was nice to have the time together even at home. We totally did not do several things we talked about doing. Figures. We did go back to a place we had not been since 2008. That was nice. We visited Deception Falls which is located just on the west side of Stevens Pass, in the North Cascade Mountains.

The first Saturday we went & bit the bullet of getting new tires put on our Escape. This alone would have not been bad. But, as it often goes once you begin to have something done, more things make themselves known. That was the case with the car. Wasn’t bad enough we had to spend just over $800 on 4 new tires. Nope. Now we have to spend another over $900 on tie rods, struts, brakes & ball joints. Tho we can’t really complain too much since the car is paid off & we have not done much to it in the years we have had it … it just hurts when it all comes at once. At least we’re safe again when we drive.

clear coated & stenciled. big hit!

We also took a trip down to visit with my dad & his wife. They live down in the Tri Cities, as its known. It’s about 2.5 hours south of us, along the Columbia. There are 3 cities that all kind of run into each other. Was a nice visit. It’s really strange too … for the first time, there was no feeling of anxiety or stress or anything. It was calm & fun. We talked about it on the way home. How if it had felt that way a couple years ago, we probably would have more eagerly looked to move there. Will we now? I don’t think so… not right now anyways. Aside from the freaky landlady we like it here, and the way things are. But anyway … I shared my new venture of making wrap pants with them & Neva now wants me to make her a pair. Nice. We got to go fabric shopping too! And, hubby brought the wine box we made for my dad. He loved it. And, asked us to make one for his brother in law. Cool. Nice visit & not one but 2 paid orders for stuff. We both have a deadline of the 25^th for these.

gotta love peanut butter in a kong bone!

We got back from the visit Friday afternoon. Left the dog at the local Club Pet … its affiliated with & connected to the local Humane Society, which is where we got her to begin with. Anyway… it was her first time being away from us since we got her. When we dropped her off on Wednesday afternoon, the one gal was pretty nice & understanding. The one at the desk tho, left much to be desired. Not sure if she was new or what … but her people skills, need serious work. Then when hubby went to pick her up, the same girl was at the desk & another gal was the one to bring Caeli back out. No notes on how she did or anything. Again, no people skills from the front desk gal either. Very disappointing. In the past we have had nothing but good service & communication with them. It makes me sad to think we might want to find elsewhere to board her when we need to. I think I’ll email someone in charge tho & voice my concerns …

Sometime earlier in the week I did something to my left knee. Not sure what but it hurts. It’s not really swollen tho. First night in the hot tub at dads was alright ... second night tho, kinda made it hurt more. Then Saturday while chatting with our upstairs neighbor, I put my right foot down to get from the upper drive to our main driveway & messed up my ankle. Lovely huh? So here I am with a bum right knee & left ankle. The ankle is a bit swollen but not bad. Walking with a normal gait hurts, but if I walk on the ball & toe of that foot I can hobble along nicely. LOL It’ll get better & meanwhile I’ll work to not be on it so much if possible.

I’m hearing again of my stepfather’s father being in the hospital. Not cool. He’s always been Papa to me. The only grandfather I’ve had. He had gone in several weeks ago for something & came out with knowledge that he not only has several medical issues, but a bone cancer. Funny how you never think of a man who has always been such a strong family leader as being able to be sick. He is old too, born in 1928. I always just thought they both would die of old age. I guess we all just hope that for our elders.

I am really not liking this whole phase of life where a woman goes thru menopause. Nope, not at all. And of course I can’t be one of those women who just have their cycle come to an abrupt halt. Nope … mine has to become a bit erratic & give me even more of an emotional roller coaster. And I’ve read that this whole process can take over 10 years to completely pass… that, is way too long. I am so very thankful to have such an understanding husband. Tho I think he’d be more understanding if I could be in the mood a bit more often … I do not like this decrease in the libido thing. Not that it’s gone, just more erratic.

So here I sit, on another Monday, trying to figure out what to do first. I should be hearing from the landlady sometime today. I need a shower, to do a load of laundry, wash a few dishes, vacuum, plan at least dinner for tonight & I’m sure several other things involving the computer. Oh yeah … & I need to figure out how to get the slick fabric to cooperate so I can get another pair of wrap pants sewn for one of the girls who works with my hairdresser… then I can start on my step mom’s pair.

I know I need to get my business back into high gear too. The holidays are coming & I want to get some stuff made & lots of stuff sold. Gotta make time to get a few new calendars designed for next year too. Wow. Lots to do & what am I doing? Sitting here farting around with my thoughts. LOL Guess I should get this posted & get a move on….

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 ...