Where has the time gone again??

I can’t believe I haven’t written a regular blog post / journal entry since the first. Allot of my time & energy has been in getting this bra collection thing off the ground. I haven’t even thought about writing just because. Weird. That I can recall right now, there isn’t too much in the daily life to write about. More of the same for the most part.

We had our first meeting of the minds for the mall store on Saturday. 2 of the girls who did show up only stayed a little while. The other girl, Amy, stayed beyond everyone else. We ended up talking about many other things after we went down the list of things for the store. I’m kind of bummed that not everyone showed. This has been planned for a long enough while that if this was important enough, you think they would make the effort. I understand why 2 of them didn’t come. They both contacted me to let me know too. One other one … just didn’t even bother contacting me. She called long after & asked how things went & all that. Sigh. I know things will be fine in the end tho. I’ll have to work on some things for that this week sometime & get them out to everyone.

Connie & I went down to the market again Saturday morning. This time we were on a mission tho, to help recruit people for the Safeway craft bazaar thing she is helping organize. Was nice to see everyone again. Next Saturday is Taste of the Harvest. That’ll be fun to go to, as a spectator this time.

My friend Joe has worked on getting him & the groups he supports into more local events & functions this past week. He got into not only the Taste of the Harvest, but also Wings & Wheels. So that is very cool for him. While I was taking him a few places one day, we ended up in the office of Annette Pennington. She is someone I know I’ve mentioned when I was still all involved in the market. She really is a nice lady. She was happy to help Joe, & knew she knew me from somewhere. I told her where, & then told her I was no longer affiliated with them at all. And of course, after asking why, I told her. She was in complete agreement that there are WAY too many politics going on with the market & the board. She was amazed at the amount even. For such a small town, it was unreal. I agree. But anyway, she told me that I should be selling my work down there. I told her I couldn’t afford it. She offered to give me a better rate, but I declined. I have too much on my plate to spend the money on a booth in hopes of making some money. We’re looking forward this year, to being just people for that weekend.

I now have a lot of my stuff in the Drop Dead Fabulous shop. Laura is so excited to have me there too. She’s been such a wonderful & supportive person not only with my photography, but with the whole bra thing. It’s fantastic.

I worked hard to get 100 samples made for a Pagan Pack event. I made 100 magnets, like the ones I made ofr the Friendship box our Etsy team is doing. Only for this one, I wrote Blessed Be on them all with a silver sharpie. They look cool. I also donated a couple 8x10 matted prints & a few cards. The big event is the Salem Witches Ball in Salem, MA. It is the biggest event of this nature in the US. Let’s hope my sites see some traffic from these things.

My mind is racing but I don’t know what to say. Figures. There is more I could write but it’s a lot of stuff business related. I know that gets boring. And .. I’m working on keeping some of that stuff separate so I can post about those things in my Blogger business blog. As for personal stuff… money is tight. The dog is weird as usual. We’re getting excited about the trip to FL. Love is good. Time is going by too fast. There aren’t enough hours in the day to get things done.

With that, I’m done! I’m tired today … could be from the afternoon fun . . . Or just cuz I’ve been going 90 to nothing all week.

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.

Friday evening & I’m sitting here enjoying a beer

My honey is on the laptop playing pool with Joe. He’ll have his new to him computer whenever we have the space ready. Joe is even giving him a desk. Tim is really blown away with all Joe is doing for him. So am I.

The car is packed for the market in the morning. I’m going lighter than normal. My heart may not be in the market anymore, but I’ll give it my all to sell what I do bring.

I took a few shots of the full moon tonite too. Joe had mentioned that he was reading up on shooting the moon last month. Said the first thing to do with a camera like mine is to turn off the auto focus. So I did. I still had to play with my settings, but hand held, they did come out better. I was impressed. I’ll have to try tomorrow nite with the longer lens & the tripod.

Now I’m sitting here taking a break form making a few more magnets for tomorrow. I have several of my “Celebrate Life … it has an expiration date” fireworks pictures. I made them wallet sized some time ago to use as keychain pictures. Well, that didn’t go so well; so I had pix left. Now I’m adding some matstock backing to them along with a magnet strip. Poof! A nifty fridge magnet.

Earlier Tim got the dryer control panel thing taken apart & put back together. The dryer works now!!! Woo Hoo … I get to do more laundry now. Yay? Yes… yay. I’m gonna play with the panel guts tho. Maybe take a few close up pix of it or something. Might be fun.

I found out that Sunday afternoon there is a big send off thing for some of our Guard troops. We were told by one of the photo group ladies, whose son is one of the ones leaving. She said it might be a cool photo opp for anyone who wanted to come. I think I might like to go. I know I’ll get all emotional, but too bad. It’s not like in Pensacola where we lived in a military town & cool things like this were happening all the time. Not that our troops leaving is a cool thing mind you … but you know what I mean.

Have I mentioned I am happy the dryer is fixed? I’m so thankful that replacing that part worked. If only everything were that easy to fix. I should go toss in a load & get it in the dryer before bed.

Ok, done.

I guess I should go back to making those magnets. I’m just relaxed …. Yeah .. we got some together time earlier tonite. I’d rather just go to sleep afterwards … but sometimes you gotta just go with it when it starts …

Here I am again.

Still feeling rather weird. But, as with everything, we deal.

So today my honey comes home saying he has news. Well, instinct makes ya blurt out “uh-oh” without thinking. I mean, consider the news we’ve had recently with his job. So he tells me his schedule is being changed, effective Friday. In my mind, I said oh shit. Then he tells me “now wait, it’s not that bad. It’s kinda good actually”. Ok. They are gonna try having him & another guy do a slightly later shift, but still working 9 hours. Hmm… ok, that doesn’t sound too bad. At least he still has some OT. So his new hours are from 8 to 545. He now gets to sleep in til 630. We can get up together! Nice. He can go to bed around 10. Again, nice. So all considering, not too bad.

Then earlier this evening I spent some time online trying to find out some ownership info on that house we’re looking at. There might be hope yet. I found out a little. Seems we should have most of the bargaining room we need. We’ll see how bad they want to sell. I told our realtor & she’ll do more research. She’ll get back to me by Monday. Cool. Meanwhile, there is still hope of renting the house my girlfriend has. No idea when the guy will finish his house & move out tho. But, it’s something to keep in the back of our minds.

EDIT: got email back from her with not too positive news, but, we’ll see.

Our friend Joe is building a computer for Tim. It’s something, which even given all his physical limitations, he can still reasonably do. It’s to repay him for all the help he has given them. We try to tell him it’s what friends do, but who are we to argue a free computer for him? So looks like we need to do some rearranging around here and find a small desk for him. So far he’s been using my laptop & been just fine. But now, he’ll have a desk top to use & be able to start playing his Flight Simulator game with Joe. I know he’ll have a great time with it. A little rearranging now, and some more when we move. No biggie right?

So anyways… I get to go pick up the dryer control panel part Friday morning. Hopefully it won’t take long for the hubby to install it. Then in the evening I get to load the car for market Saturday morning. I’ve been feeling really weird about that whole thing too. I think I may have to insert my foot in my mouth & clear the air somehow. I’m not always the best at figuring out how to approach things like this, so no telling how it’ll turn out. Worst thing? I leave the market. Not all that bad in my eyes anymore, but …. Yeah.

Ok, I started this at 1030. It’s now 1115. I think I’m done.

Just Monday ramblings

Why is it that when people don’t reply to your posts you feel lost? Or forgotten? I don’t know. Really. Most people I know who have an online journal, write for themselves. So who cares if anyone replies? Allot of people tho, blog for interaction with others. I think I’m somewhere in between. I enjoy the interaction with my online “friends” but I also write to get the thoughts out of my head. It allows me to keep track of the daily goings on in my life where I otherwise might forget them. Then why do I get the little feelings every now & then of … why do they get all kinds of comments & I get none? Am I an outcast with my online people too? I know, it’s dumb. Sometimes I envy the fact that it appears that several people seem to have a real connection with the people on their friends list. I used to feel that way about a few. These days, it seems I am all alone again. How sad is that?

I have been doing way too much thinking lately I guess. Way more than I could ever take the time to write out on here for the world to see. But anyways ….

So the weekend was alright. We ended up not doing the market Saturday morning. Photography & rainy weather are not a good match. We ended up down there saying hello to several of our people & they all commented on the bad weather in the morning. Glad we skipped it. Was nice to stop & visit with some of them tho.

The 3 of us went out & hit a few yard sales instead. What fun we had. I think we all found a few treasures for way cheap. Been a long time since we got to enjoy going, much less actually finding fun stuff for cheap.

With Tim now being online, we didn’t spend much alone together time Saturday. It’s okay tho, I know the newness & novelty of the computer will wear off for him in awhile. He now has a Facebook page tho. I’m wondering if MySpace is next. We’ll see. He does enjoy being able to chat with his friend Joe on there. Next thing you know, they’ll be playing the Flight Simulator game together. We just need to get him a better system put together from the parts around here to handle the gaming stuff better.

We got a little of our alone time on Sunday. Wasn’t the same, but nice. We totally ended up not doing much of anything all weekend other than the Saturday morning outings. In a way, it was nice.

On the house front, the news is not promising. Well, not in the way we’d hoped. We got all the info to the mortgage guy. He ran credit reports, numbers & figures. We can’t go VA like we’d hoped. We’d have to go FHA. To do that we’d need at least 3% down. There are 2 programs that offer assistance with that. We’d have to get the seller to agree to stuff to be able to use that. You know how the legal mumbo jumbo goes. Funny thing.. with our combined incomes, we can qualify for that house we’re looking at. The house payments would be .. are you ready? Oh, only about 1300. Yes, One thousand and three hundred dollars. A month. I don’t think so. Nice to think the bank thinks we can handle it tho. That in itself is actually cool. To get the payments down to where we’d feel comfortable, we’d have to get the sellers to come down about 40 grand. And pay the closing costs. Right. I don’t see that happening. I know it’s been empty a long time, but I don’t think they’ll come down that far. But …. You never know till you ask I guess.

So, we’ll either keep looking for another place that’s smaller & cheaper, or just tough it out here until the place that Kati has is ready. I’ll email her about it again tonite too I think. We got the letter that says our rent went up effective with the September payment. Another $25 a month. May not seem like much, but when you watch the units around you get remodeled, and you still have the same old crap … it doesn’t feel right to pay more. I really would understand the yearly hikes if we got some improvements.

Oh, to make today a real Monday, I had dryer issues. Yup. Did a load of the man's work pants. Went to put them in the dryer. Closed the door. Hit the start button. Nothing. After finding out it was the washer we had the extended warranty on, I made an appt with the place we bought them from to come out & fix it on Tuesday. Told the man when he got home. He says let's see if we can find out where the possible part is that could be the problem. get online, Search. Find part. He proceeds to try to remove it only to have it be the wrong part. Hehe... I show him what looks like the right part. He gets that out. we try what another repair place said to try. Nothing. Dammit. So, canceled the appt with the first repair place & made one with this other guy. The other guy was much more helpful even on the phone, and more friendly. Oh, and cheaper. So yeah ... I've listed a few things on our local craigslist to see about trying to get the cash to cover the repair bill. We're all in the wrong business. They get anywhere from $80 to $100 just to come to your house. Finding & telling you what’s wrong, is more. Installing it .... more. Geez.

I’m really getting hopeful about the whole mall store thing. I hope that I can sell a bit more before then to make some cash to buy more stuff to make more stuff with for the holidays. Think positive …

I’d love for any of you who read this far to go check out my Etsy shop. See the stuff I’ve listed… do some shopping? Tell your friends? I’m working on promoting … it’s hard on a $0 budget tho. Free is good, but without it seeming like a full time job in itself, it’s next to impossible.

Ok, enough for now I think.

I think the summer temps have finally found us up here

So Monday we celebrated my honey’s 33^rd birthday. I made a nice pork loin in the slow cooker for dinner. It was super yummy. Connie & I got over to Joe’s to pick up the toolbox that morning. He already had it out of the shed & even cleaned up a bit. Cool. When Tim got home & saw it he pretty much called us sneaky brats.

Tuesday Connie & I spent some time in the garage cleaning it out. What a chore. But it was getting so bad, we barely had room to walk from the front to the back & into the house. It looks much better now. Not like a well organized garage could look, but better than it was before. Besides, we wont be here much longer anyways ….

I’m not sure what else I wanna ramble on about. I think I’ll make the house stuff it’s own entry.

Oh, we got the signed contract back from the mall today. That’s cool. Now we can get excited about that. We peeked in there today & the display stuff we get to use looks nice. Having something like that already in there will help make whatever we put on shelves & walls, look much better. Display & presentation is half the battle right? I’ll get back in there prolly around the first of September to take some before pix and reference shots so we can figure out whose stuff will go where.

After 2 weeks away from it, I’m not super excited about the market this week. I’m going, just not with bells on so to speak. I still feel like the outsider, so we’ll see. There is a part of me who’d be fine with not going back. But, I’d like to do the Taste of the Harvest in September. To do that, we are supposed to be “regulars” in the market. After that, I may not do much more, but we’ll see how life goes.

The hubby is enjoying his new found internet freedom & email stuff. It’s just funny to watch him. The man who used to come home & just relax watching TV, now goes to the laptop & checks his email. Then he wanders aimlessly for a bit till dinner is ready.

I’m slacking on my Thoughts on Whole Living stuff. Figures. Life distractions will do that I guess.

After getting Tim set up with a Yahoo ID & matching Gmail account, I started thinking about my own. I wanted something that matched too. I was tired of my Yahoo name. Having many emails is getting old too. I like using Gmail more than the emails that came with my domain too. I don’t have to worry about storage or anything either. So, after a week of thinking & trying to find a name that worked in both … I came up with HerbsnChocolate. That’s me. I’m into herbs allot … & does the chocolate part even need explaining? So now I am slowly working on changing things online. I was even thinking of changing my LJ to match. But you gotta pay for that huh? Not sure I wanna do that then. We’ll see. I kind of like having a Blogger blog. I don’t like the whole lack of community thing there tho, so I’ll keep LJ for that aspect alone. I’d miss my friends.

It's easy to write when the words just flow ...

Here we are in the dog daze of August. We have had some of the best weather this past week. Guess summer is coming this week tho. I hear the forecast is calling for triple digits. Fun. I have enjoyed having the windows open so very much. No A/C. No having the house all closed up & keeping the stale air in here. We’ve had some nights so cool, you wake up chilled. Yup, nice. Guess it’s coming to a temporary end this week.

So Saturday we packed up & went to Ellensburg for the first ever Etsy craft show. I could focus on the one bad thing & be bummed. Or, I can look at the positive that came out of it. The main reason we went was obviously to make some money. This was the area were unsuccessful in. Connie & I shared a bigger than normal space. She had lots of people look at her things, but sold nothing. I had lots of lookers as well, & managed to sell $40. The space cost us a combined $55. The gas to get there was … I don’t know exactly. It took about a half a tank (fully loaded Escape, 90 some miles each way, from elevation of 600 to 2600 and back down some). In the end, money wise, we’re in the hole.

On the flip side tho … we got to see a new town. Ellensburg is about an hour and a half away from here. The drive was a pretty one. We even got to see Mt Rainier in the distance when we made a quick potty stop at a rest area. It looked beautiful in the early morning light, but we were on a schedule to get there, so no pix. While we were there, Tin got to experience some of the wonderful small town feel by exploring the local farmer’s market, a few galleries & a museum.

Connie & I walked away for some lunch & also got to wander quickly thru the market. Nice. I wish we had the support of the city that Ellensburg has. They set up on either side of a local street, & the city shuts it down for the time the market is open. Wonderful! We got to check out the local Safeway supermarket. This is where she works (here in East Wenatchee) in the deli. It was somewhat of a shock to see the difference. She was amazed at how sad a few of the hot case items looked, & at how much smaller the deli in general was. Yet, the Starbucks seating area was ALLOT bigger. Guess that’s what happens in a college town.

We got to meet some of the people we have only known online that day. Most of the vendors there have a shop on Etsy & are part of our Eastern Washington Street Team. We all finally got to put a face with a name. That was a fun thing.

Most of us got to expose ourselves to a whole new venue of people. Granted, this would have been a lot easier if more people had actually shown up. The time of year for this was just off. School was not in session (it’s a huge college town) and there is no real reason to go to a craft show in August. So, they’ll try again no November 15^th. This will be geared as a holiday show & should do quite well. Unfortunately, I won’t be at that one. That’s the time to open the mall store.

I got to talk with the lady set up next to us. She paints some really cute birdhouses & stuff. Nice work. She lives in Wenatchee. How cool huh? Well, we got to talking & I told her about the mall store. She may be our final person to “buy in”. That’ll give us 7 people & bring our cost down to $215 a person. She’s really excited & we’ll talk more about it this week.

Then, on the way out of town, we passed a rock & crystal shop. With a quick turn around, we were off to ooh & ahh over rocks. Oh the fun we had looking around. Tim didn’t find any that really spoke to him, but Connie & I both found a few treasures to take home.

See? In all, we had a wonderful day. We just didn’t accomplish the main objective of making money.

So last night we celebrated the good of the day & went out to eat. Came home and relaxed a bit & Tim & I were in bed by 1030. Long day.

Today has been relaxing. We had a nice breakfast before Connie left for work. Tim & I went to Costco to get a couple things like doggie food & TP. Then over to Big R to get him some more work gloves. I’ve spent time just laying around napping or watching some TV & poking around online. He went off to see Joe for a bit. It’s been a nice weekend.

I hope tomorrow Connie & I can get over to Joe’s & get the toolbox for Tim. It’s his birthday. On a Monday even. Joe is selling a craftsman toolbox. Tim could use it but thinks we have more important things to spend the money on. So, Connie is buying it for his birthday. I hope he likes it.

Ok, I think the words have ended their flow for now.

Life ramblings, again

Funny how fast life changes. Didn’t I just recently say that? Well, here we go again.

Tim came home Thursday & said there will be no swing shift, for now. Just when both of us had made peace with the fall out it would present. So, never mind. Right. Guess it’s a good thing tho, in the big picture. One crisis averted.

So then comes all the mall stuff. I made brief mention of it. Tuesday Connie & I got to see the inside of the store at the mall that we hoped to turn into our own store for the holidays. We want to open a all hand crafted, made local store. Most of the people participating will be people who also have a shop & sell on Etsy. The thought of Wenatchee Valley Etsy was born.

I talked with the Asst. Mgr for the mall, Stacey. We know each other now, from the “crafters corners” the past 2 years. I asked how much the store would be to rent, for either a month, or 6 weeks. She asked how many people I was thinking, I told her possibly 4 or 5, maybe more, depending on a price. So she quotes me a price of $1500. Insurance & power included, for a full 6 weeks. Wonderful. I began to get in contact with people. We all figured, the more people we have, the less per person it would be. In total, it looked like we’d have 7 of us.

Now, our plans for the store, which I made very clear to Stacey from the get go, was to not have individual marked off space, but intermingled displays, like any other retail store. In the “crafters corner” we all had our own 10x20 area. This is definitely not the case with our plans.

So all of a sudden Stacey tells me I can only have 5 people. That makes it 300 each, which was keeping it fair for the others. Well, the “others” are all a part of the “crafters corner”. We are not. I tried to tell her that telling me I could only have 5 people was like telling any other tenant how many suppliers they could have in their store. All she could come back with is that it wasn’t fair to the others. It’s not my fault! We came up with this idea on our own.

We were going back & forth via email yesterday. We left it unsettled, as she is out of the office today. Come Monday tho, we have got to find a way to settle this.

What else?

I’m playing hooky from the market this Saturday. We’re going to go out & get away for a day. We’ll be taking Connie & friends, but it will still be nice. About an hour or so away from here is a waterfall. Snoqualmie Falls. I’m looking forward to it. I hope I can do justice in pictures like other photographers have.

Saturday evening we have the opportunity to go to a party. Not sure if we’ll go or not, as Connie was kind of not invited. So, we’ll see.

Last night (Thursday) I finally got to spend some time with an old friend, Leah. Someone who we all thought had become a horrible person, thanks to someone else. Wow, the pull some people can have on others is amazing. I was one of them who got pulled in. I'm still not sure I understand it all, but anyway. I’m so glad I got to clear the air with her and begin to mend fences. It was good. I had intended to stay for maybe 2 hours, as I knew she had to get to bed. I got there just after 8 & it was after 1130 I think when I finally left.

So the work news started out bad & fixed itself. The mall thing started out great & is running into brick walls. Mending fences with a friend. Working on another line of bookmarks. Being excited about the show next weekend. Feeling close to my honey. With good thoughts, I hope everything works out for the best.

Oh yeah… our November vacation. Almost forgot to mention that. Another one of those things that we had planned for one way, that’s turning out to be another way. Sigh. But I think we both will be okay with it. Guess we kinda have to be.

We had planned to have this be a true vacation. We’d stay in a motel, rent a car, & be free to do what we want. Sounds doable right? Wrong. Tim’s mom & step dad had offered, way back when we first mentioned this, to pay or help pay for our tickets down there. Awesome. That meant our savings would go further. Well, with that said, it was made known that since they were pretty much footing the airfare bill, they expected us to stay with them. After all, they hadn’t made the trip out here this year, so they wanted to be able to see as much of Tim (& *gasp* me) as possible. We made mention that if we had planned to stay with anyone, it probably would have been Tim’s dad, since Tim had not seen him at all since we moved up here. Well that didn’t fly with his mom. Neither did staying in a motel. She said that if we’re going to go somewhere where there is family, it’s just not right to stay in a motel. Then the sob story of Chief’s (Tim’s step dad) health got thrown in. No telling how much longer he’ll be around. We’ve been hearing this for over 3 years now but anyways … It would mean so much to him just to know we were sleeping in the same house. So, of course, we had to give in. We’d never hear the end of it if we didn’t agree. Dammit. Sleeping at my in-laws was not even on the list of things to do on my vacation. Tim said the same thing. But he’s such an easy going, pleasing guy… he just goes with it. Ok. Whatever.

So, once we know money is there we’ll buy the tickets. We’ll be leaving here on Halloween, and returning the following Sunday. This week was chosen to make it easier to get the mall store going & open earlier. So, I may wait a week to buy the tickets to see if the mall thing can be ironed out first. If it turns out it wont work, we may move the vacation to a week later.

Ok, I think that’s all the thoughts I wanted to get out. You get a cookie if you’ve read all this.

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.

Monday Monday

Good morning. I know, it’s Monday, but it’s still a good morning as long as we all wake up on this side of the dirt right? Right. I figured I’d sit & write, then go comment a little.

I mentioned I was so ready to move furniture last Thursday. Well, I still am. Nothing has been moved yet, except in my mind. I’ve come up with a few fun ideas, but not everything has a place yet so I’ll wait. Maybe one of the days this week that Connie has to go in later, we can work on it. Or not. I have something else to spend some time getting ready for this week. Then it’ll be next week some time. Who knows. I’m telling ya tho, I bet once I get everything moved around, we’ll get a call that we can move in a month. Just seems to be how it goes.

So I went & picked up Tim’s motorcycle parts on Friday, along with running some errands. You know how big a snack size sandwich baggie is? Well, half that. That’s how big the baggie was, which cost $94 plus tax for the parts inside it. Then … times two. But we think it’s fixed, so that’s cool. The car is running again too. YAY!!

I had taken the hubby to work on Friday so I had to go pick him up too, obviously. Well, I got a call that I needed to come get him from … the new shop! Too cool. I brought my camera & took some pix now that there is actually stuff in there. He got Saturday off (which is when he worked on the car & bike) & went in on Sunday to help get more things into place so everyone can come into work on Monday & be pretty much ready to go.

I went up there on Sunday & brought him lunch. Hey, it’s a Sunday & we usually get to spend it together. So, I brought him lunch & we sat & ate some together. I was back up there about 430 to take pix of the new sign after he called me & asked me to come up. Got to hang out for a few with Marv & Russ too, so that was cool. Marv is Tim’s direct boss & lead man of the weld shop, when he’s able to be there. Russ is the big boss, the owner.

Oh this was cool. Just as I pulled up there in the afternoon & stopped the car, a commercial that Russ had done came on the radio. It was too weird!! What are the odds that right as I pull up to take pix of their newly finished sign… their commercial comes on? Weird & cool. It was just a blurb about how the company is moving to their new location, with a bigger shop & all that. Gave directions on how to find them & said effective today they’d be there. The company has been in this town for a long long time. His dad started the company when Russ was just a wee kid, if not before. So that’s about 30 years or more.

Because it was ‘our weekend’ that work was cutting into, I also got up with him, sat & had coffee, & made him breakfast. I told him if he got his hours changed, I’d do this for him allot more often. Instead of having to be there at 6, he didn’t have to be there till 7. So we were up at just after 5 & he was out the door at 630. It was really nice to spend that time with him.

So on Saturday, I went to the market. It was a nice day. No real wind, just a slight breeze, & mostly overcast so it didn’t get hot either. I ended up having my first decent day sales wise. I was happy indeed about that. I did a real “feel good” thing too. This lady & what looked like her mom, were browsing. I have this pic,

which I love & it gets lots of attention. Well, the younger lady was interested in it, but not for herself. She works for the Hospice Care at our hospital. They felt it was just the most perfect thing to hang up there. But, she could not afford the price, just to donate it to them. So, I took about 40% off. It felt like the right thing to do, so I did. But then it got even better. She wanted to know if I would be interested in letting them use that image for their Hospice flyer. I told her that I would like that, just give me photo credit. She was so excited. She told me she’d have the lady in charge contact me. I also got her info in case I don’t hear from her. For an organization like that, I’d love to help.

Then I had another lady, that because I told her I would not be there next weekend, bought something. She saw a couple small things, but had no cash. She asked if I took checks. I told her yes, as well as credit cards. Oh cool. So, she bought something & wrote a check. Another lady got 4 bookmarks to give as gifts to friends. I ended up with a just under $100 day. I was a happy camper indeed.

My market newsletter went over a big hit. I’m so glad. It feels good to know people like what I created. I’ll be mailing out a few today to those members who do not have email. I spent time on Saturday going around to all the vendors there making sure they got their email newsletter. Picked up a few new emails, corrected a couple, & handed out hard copies to several as well. Now we’re (or rather I’m) gonna work on one geared to the public. It’ll come out at the beginning of each month. I think they just want it to have things like what produce should be available this month, what the market entertainment is, any promotions, & things like that. Should be fun to put together.

Well, I’ve been at this almost an hour. I’ve finished my second cup of coffee. I guess it’s time to have some breakfast & get started on my day. I’m sure I could ramble on & on about other things, but I’ll stop for now.

An array of thought

Thank the Goddess I’m finally feeling better. I actually slept with only 1 pillow last night. Since I’ve not been able to breathe well at night, I was sleeping with 2 pillows. It helped. It feels so good to be feeling better. It’s been a very long time since a cold whipped my butt for a full 10 days. Now if this stupid cough will just go away, it’ll all be good.

So I spent today working on the June issue of the farmer’s market newsletter. This is the second one I’ve done. I totally gave it a face lift. I’ve already shown it to the market manager Julie, & she loves it. That was worth the work. I’m just waiting on an email back from her, then it can go out to the members. Whew! The next one now will be allot easier. It even has a name now … Home Grown News. Before it was just the Farmer’s Market Newsletter. Boring …. I think people will like the new version. It certainly reads easier than the other ones.

Not much else to write about that’s not redundant. I still have this urge to rearrange furniture here. I really think it’s because I thought I’d be packing to move by now. I lost control over that. Something I can control is where the furniture goes. I have a part of the living area figured out, but not all. Soon as I have more of it figured, look out. Since it does involve a bit of shoving, lifting & moving .. I had planned to do it on a day Connie was off. Well, that’s what’s left of today, & tomorrow. We don’t know yet what she works next week so it might be another week or so of me thinking.

I looked at the date when I started this entry. In 1982 on this date, I got married for the first time. I was pregnant with Connie. I was only 17. Wow. That was a long time ago. If I stop to think about it, it brings back allot of memories. Most of them are happy ones. I tend to block out the crap unless I really think long & hard. Then it has no choice, & surfaces. Is it strange that after all the shit, I think about him now & then? Every once in awhile the thought of him pops into my head & I wonder how he is. We don’t hear from him at all anymore. Even if I wanted to write him or something stupid, I couldn’t. I have no address for him. Maybe that’s the way it’s supposed to be for now. I don’t know.

Since I haven’t been feeling good, I have tried to eat a little better. Not much, but a little. The habit was so hard to get into last year, & so easy to get out of this year. Something about eating lettuce & such in winter just feels wrong. But anyways, we haven’t gotten back into salads just yet, but I have been trying to eat a better breakfast. It’s a start. I used to sit in front of this thing & just have some cereal or whatever. Now I sit here & read emails, enjoying 2 cups of coffee. Then I go fix something for breakfast & actually sit at the table & eat. I’ll get my morning pills, pour me some OJ, & have some hot cereal, eggs, or just a bowl of cold cereal. But I do it in a more relaxed way. Not in front of this thing, eating mindlessly. I sit there & enjoy it. I leaf thru a magazine, the paper, grocery ads, or whatever. It’s a nice little “time for me” kind of thing. I feel very fortunate to be able to do that.

I have neglected so many things while feeling like crap. Trying to get back into things, is hard. I read up on all of your happenings, but just didn’t feel up to commenting. I’m glad my friend list isn’t any bigger. I can’t imagine how long it would take me to catch up!

Connie has about 2 weeks between her online classes. I’m hoping during that time we can get more stuff up on my site. I’ve been trying to rethink things a bit. Hey, it’s what a slow economy will do to you. On some newsletter thing I get, or from somewhere, I got a nifty idea to possibly help generate sales. Everyone is big on saving gas these days. So, if it wont hurt me too much … why not offer people a free bit of gas? Someone came up with the idea to offer a free gas card with a purchase. Like, if they spend X amount with me, they’ll get a gas card with X amount on it. If this is online, they would still pay shipping, so you’d only be out a bit of profit. But ya gotta figure that if they get their free card, they’ll tell friends where to shop so they can get free cards too. I was thinking of offering a choice of cards in case not everyone has say, a Walmart gas station in their town. Hey, there are still places without them. Well, it’s something I’m thinking about. My thought is to kick it in at like $50. Spend $50 with me & get $5 gas card. Or maybe something like any purchase over $50, get a gas card equal to 10% of your purchase. I can afford to offer a 10% discount.

Ok, I started writing at 10. Now it’s 1035. The dryer just went off. I suppose I should go fold the clothes in it. I’m still not tired yet, but I don’t think I could sit & read a book. That makes me yawn, & get tired. Hey, maybe I should …