behind, as always

Well, I was doing good about keeping track of my days. Here it is now almost a week since I wrote last. Oh well right? It just seems some days I don’t have anything of interest to write about. Or, I just forget to stop to jot things down.

Even now, I’ll be interrupted. The daughter has asked for a ride to work tonight. So, I’m here for a few, then I’ll take her, then back here. Once she’s at work, I’ll sit here while listening to 2 of today’s soaps. Yes, I laugh too. I can’t believe I still find myself caught up in the drama of their lives. I love it. It’s an old habit that I most likely won’t break for a long time.

Ok, back home for the evening. I think the daughter is tiring of the trek to & from work. She needs to get her bike tire fixed. But even then, with her hand right now, she can’t ride it. She has said that she enjoys the job, just not the hours & the getting there & home part. I certainly don’t mind taking her, but picking her up is another story. Sorry. I’m not up at 6am. I tried going to bed earlier & getting up earlier, but it’s not working.

So on Saturday morning the hubby tried to help me get the place a little picked up, by vacuuming for me. Right. The dang vacuum we have likes to clog. A lot. That morning was no different. Not only did he have to fight with it a couple times, but he stubbed his thumb real good & busted a blood vessel. Lovely. The living room & part of the hall got vacuumed. That’s it. I think the vacuum is on it’s way out as soon as we can afford to replace it.

Saturday afternoon we tried to have a get together of the group from the mall. Only 2 ladies were able to make it. Plus me & the daughter. It was nice, but we were all kind of disappointed. Both ladies brought one of their girls so that made it seem like more, kind of. It was short, since it started later than planned. But, we made the effort. So that was cool.

Sunday afternoon the daughter & I went in search of some sunshine. Sound silly? I imagine it does. Living in a valley, it’s not impossible tho. We’ve had this inversion hanging around here well over a week now. It’s a system with stagnant air. No movement so the clouds hang around. Well, we figured we’d try going higher to see if we could get above the clouds. We headed up to Mission Ridge, the local ski resort. It’s just across the river & 12 miles up into the canyon. The base area up there is at about 4200 feet or so. The top of the mountain is 4500. I think that’s how it goes.

OMG it was beautiful!! The sun was shining & it felt like heaven. Warm heaven. Blue skies as far as the mountains let us see. There were so many people & families up there too. Wow. I could see why tho, it was a bright place above a dreary valley. We stopped up at the lodge wandered around & took a few pictures while enjoying the big beautiful sun in the sky. We then stopped at the first place that had a pull off to take some more view shots. It’s a spot we’ve stopped at many times in the past. I could have stood there for a long time. Just taking it all in. It was just so gorgeous. So perfect. Even in those brief moments we were there, I felt so connected to the Earth.

And back down we drove. In the place between the warm sun & dreary bottom was an equally breath taking place. The place where frost formed. On every living thing. Not snow, but just frost. I had wanted to get some pictures, but with the cold, my battery was dying fast. I love how pine trees especially, look when they are heavy with snow. It’s beautiful. But this coat of frost. Wow . . . it was breath taking to me. To see that Mother Nature had every detail of her creations outlined in frost took my breath away. The hubby is at a higher elevation where he works so he has gotten to see some of it every day as well. This is another side of the inversion. It keeps the cold air here. And the cold is below freezing so the frost stays. I’ll have to get some pix of it before it’s gone.

Our short trip up into the canyon, above the clouds was just what I needed. I felt so light & joyful the rest of the day. It was exactly what was missing from my life over the past week or more. I think I’ll make another trip up in the next day or so. Perhaps with a fresh & full battery in my camera. Perhaps with just my eyes. I haven’t decided yet.

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.

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 …

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.

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.

What a fun & full weekend we had

What a fun & full weekend we had.

Friday evening we went over to our friend Joy’s house. She hosts a get together once ever other week or so for all us like minded folks who have felt kind of lost since our local Pagan store closed last year. We got to chat, visit, play show & tell… it was allot of fun. We watched a bit of The Secret & chatted briefly about what we watched. In all, it was a great evening. I now want to learn more about vortexes, RFID tags, & a few other things that slip my mind now (figures).

Saturday we did end up going to the falls. It was the 3 of us along with my girlfriend, her 3 kids and one of her girls, girlfriends. Was a long ride to get there, but so worth it. We all had a great time, broke the rules, took many pix & made a great day of it.

When we got home, Tim & I changed & headed over to Leah’s for a birthday party for her boys. We didn’t stay too long since we were both pretty worn out from the day. Was nice to go & relax a bit & visit tho.

Sunday we ended up going to Chelan. Chelan has a spiritual store called Spirals. We had talked about going when we were at Joy’s on Friday. Joy wanted to come along if we went. So did 2 of the other people there, whom we are friends with. So, a few phone calls after breakfast, & we were gathered & ready to go. It was a beautiful day to ride up there. It takes about 45 minutes riding along the river for most of the trip. We had a wonderful time browsing thru the store. Tim fell in love with the various singing bowls, as well as the drums & wind chimes. We both got our first pendulums. How totally cool to actually see it work in your own hands. I found a gorgeous necklace that was just perfect for me (only $10) too. Joy, Cliff & Krystal all enjoyed finding treasures to take home too.

Afterwards, we stopped at a fruit stand, then at the dam and finally at Krystal’s grandma’s house, before heading back home.

The Dam was a total impromptu stop. Joy mentioned she had never been there. So, we stopped for a short look-see. She enjoyed it. We’ll have to go again when we have more time & energy to enjoy it all more slowly. The gardens they have are so pretty & full this time of year.

Krystal’s Grandparents house. Wow. It was built back in maybe 1900 or so. Not past 1915 for sure. It is for sale, but in sad shape. Unfortunately, we are not in a position to take on the love work it would take to return it to all its glory while enjoying living there. Was awesome to be able to see it tho, & hear her tell stories of when she was growing up. I may have to have her take me back thru so I can take some pictures. There is a good chance it will get bulldozed instead of renovated by who ever buys the property.

After everyone left, we ate, & just relaxed. What a fun & full weekend. Monday turned out to be a good day too. I’ll write more on that after I sleep, it’s already almost 1230 now. *y*a*w*n* I think it’s time for bed.

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 ramblings

Six days since I wrote. Again. I think about it all the time, yet always find myself distracted & then the day is gone.

Last Tuesday Connie & I went back up to Chelan. This time we spent our time in a fun shop called Spirals, & then headed to the Wal-Mart Super Center. We don’t have one here in town. Over a hundred bucks later for each of us, we headed home. I did get a nice new pair of earrings and a nifty rock called Modavite. Oh the money I could have spent in Spirals. Wal-Mart… well, we split the bill since it was mostly food, & each of us spent about $100. Money sure goes quick these days.

I don’t recall what I did last Wednesday. That’s sad.

Last week on Thursday I got together with a friend for some girl time. We got to know each other a little more, which was nice. We learned we have more in common than either of us ever thought. Kinda cool.

Friday my honey had the day off. Nice. We ended up having to replace the starter on his car that morning. Finally, it runs right again. Then he worked on replacing the fuel hose on the bike. Oh what an ordeal buying that thing was. Installing it was easy in comparison. I had taken the formed hose down to the Honda shop. They couldn’t find the hose in their computers. We had tried ordering the 2 formed hoses that the computer showed, but they ended up being the wrong ones. We finally just got plain old bulk fuel hose & used that. Thankfully, it made the bends we needed it to make without a problem. So now the bike runs well again too.

Friday evening we went to a friends for a small BBQ party. Come fireworks time, we ended up along the river in a fairly decent spot to watch. Was nice, without crowds or traffic issues. Granted it would have been allot nicer if it had been just me & my man, but all in all, it was okay. We had our own fireworks Saturday night so that made up for it somewhat. J

Saturday morning Connie & I went to the market. We both sold almost the same amount. I was happy for her that she sold some of her wood burning stuff. I sold more cards(7) & book marks(4) than I have in quite awhile. Still only made like $34, but even that was better in relative terms than the whole Chelan weekend. And I had more people wander thru & look in the first 2 hours than I did all weekend in Chelan. Granted, we had a beautiful day weather wise too. In all, not a bad market. Not great or truly worth the time, but not bad.

After getting home & unloaded, we relaxed a bit. Connie headed off to work & we headed out to take some pictures & just be together. I took some of the dam, so I hope they came out decent. I haven’t looked yet. Bad huh?

Sunday Tim went off on a motorcycle ride. He figured he’d only be gone a couple hours. No biggie, we’d do something together when he got back. Well his 2 hours turned into 4 ½. He ended up visiting a bit longer than expected with a few artists we know up in Leavenworth. He had a good time tho, & that’s what matters. I just kinda hung out here & relaxed. After he got home we decided neither of us felt like cooking, so we went out to have Chinese. Then afterwards, we tried finding me a new bathing suit. Yeah, that was fun. Not. There’s nothing left. It’s only July & the suits along with all other summer things, are already on clearance & going fast. What the heck? Even some of the stores garden centers are clearing out stuff. Marketing people are crazy. Back to school stuff is on the shelves already. Sigh.

So there is a quick rundown of the past week. I spent some time today packing some boxes. No, we don’t have a move date yet. But some things we just don’t need out, so they can get packed now. I didn’t feel like sitting here all day so I figured I should be constructive. 9 various sized boxes later, I’m good. Almost all my nick knacks are packed. The photo albums are packed. The bar stuff, a few kitchen things, all packed. Hey it’s a start. A small one but a start.

Well, now it’s just about time for the man to get home. So a shower, and some dinner then relaxing & he’ll be off to bed just after 8. Not sure what I plan to do with the rest of my evening.

Time Flies

Well look at that. Another week has gone by with no writing from me. I meant to sit & write several times. Yup, then life came in & time got away. Not that it was anything exciting.

I really haven’t spent as much time as normal in front of the computer this past week. It’s kinda weird & nice at the same time. There are many gaps in life that I could sit here and write about. I don’t even know where to start.

Since we had gotten some money from his parents to fix the car & bike, we decided Tim needed a new helmet. We had the cash leftover, so that seemed a good thing to spend some of it on. He found a nice, but simple one at the local Harley Shop. It’s ordered & should be in next week sometime. I also had to go order some hoses for the bike. Seems the expensive little buggers we bought last week didn’t fix the leak. They did need to be replaced tho, so that’s done. The hoses were much less expensive & should be in on Tuesday.

My friend Kati who makes the silver jewelry, told me to come with her for the weekend & do the Chelan Street Fair. We ended up stretching her 10x10 space to 10x20 with my stuff near the back end. It would have been okay, if there weren’t benches in the way. But, it was a free space. The foot traffic was not too bad, although much less than normal. The buying tho was down considerably. Some vendors did alright, but most, didn’t. We were on the “didn’t” side. I know Kati made her booth fee back, but not sure how much more than that she made. The fee was under $200. Wanna know how much I made all weekend? Forty one dollars. Yup. That’s all. Sold 2 things. We were there 11 to 8 on Friday, 10 to 8 on Saturday & 10 to 3 on Sunday. I had hoped for a decent weekend, so that next year I could think about getting my own space. I don’t think that’s gonna happen. I could have spent 5 hours on Saturday morning & maybe made that much. Instead I spent the whole weekend 40 miles from home. Round trip from here was 80 miles. That’s 240 for the weekend. So even tho my space was free, I actually made nothing when you consider the cost of gas. Lesson learned.

Saturday while we were up there, we took turns wandering off to see things. Not like we were missing anything by just sitting in the booth. So Connie & I got to walk a few blocks away & check out the Chelan Farmer’s Market. It’s small, but nice. Not much for produce yet, like here in town, but they had some nice crafters, & cherries. We saw a couple vendors who usually vend in Wenatchee there. They said they needed a change of pace & wanted to try something different. Sales are down for everyone. We found a local organic herb person there too. That was kinda cool. They live in nearby, but up on a plateau, Waterville.

So one day last week, another part of my one tooth broke off. So, I had a sharp edge on the inside. Well, it rubs against my tongue & hurts. The tooth didn’t hurt, just my tongue. I was talking funny and using gum to cover the tooth during the day. Well, Friday while we were at the Street Fair, my filling fell out. My 30 year old filling. So now, I have a sharp tooth with no filling. Yuck. I spent most of the weekend with chewing gum over it so I could try to eat, & talk. It’s amazing how we don’t realize how much we rely on something, until it’s compromised. Not letting your tongue just “be”, makes it hard to talk right. The side of my tongue has toughened up a bit & I spent today without gum at all. I can even talk a bit better. I still have to eat slow tho, so I’m careful not to stuff the tooth with food. I’ll be calling around a bit tomorrow (cuz today got away from me again) to find a dentist to either just pull it, or see about rebuilding it. I got a name of a good dentist who focuses on pulling teeth, so now I just need the name of one who does the rebuilding. Seems from what I have heard, word of mouth is the best way to pick a dentist. So that should be fun.

Geez. A little writing, a few distractions, & it’s 1030 now already. Where has the last hour gone?

I think we’re heading back up to Chelan tomorrow to wander thru the big Super Wal-Mart. We’re also going to find the Spirals store. It’s a cool place, from what we hear. And since we don’t have our own Super Wal-Mart in town, every once in awhile, we head up to the big one, mostly for fun.

Man, even tho it’s only just after 1030, I’m tired. Guess the weekend did take a bit out of me, even if I wasn’t busy selling stuff. Could be the 100 degree days we had. Could be that I spent allot of time just outside. Could be that today was another 100 degree day too.

I think I shall quit here & just continue this next month. I can’t believe Tuesday is July already. I swear this year is going by so incredibly fast.

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.

I'm alive

Again, here I sit at an oh so odd time for a weekend. I’m so sick & tired of being sick & tired. What I thought would only be something I could knock out in a couple days, still hangs on. It moved from my head to my chest. I sound like a frog. I just want this to go away. I’ve tried to take it easy, so I don’t overdo it and pass out. I’m tired of doing that. I want to do things.

I guess it’s kind of running its course. The worst times now are mornings & evenings. Days aren’t too bad. And I'm actually sleeping thru the night (with medicine tho). I hate having to take medicine. But without it, I’m even more miserable.

So anyways… I haven’t read much on anyone’s LJ this week. I’ll catch up… or you can fill me in with a comment.

The bike & car are still out of commission. I pretty much stayed home other than the bus outing on Monday. Friday I took him to work because there were a couple things I just had to get done. I was up at 515 to down some coffee, take him to work, and get back home. Had another cup, checked my email, and went to lay back down for about an hour or so. Ran my errands early, so I wouldn’t be out all afternoon. Came home, watched my soaps & rested, & went back out to get hubby at 530.

Looks like I’ll have to go run out again today, or take him in the morning. He did not have much luck with the car. Now he’s changing gears & giving the bike a look over. Let’s hope that gets him somewhere. I hate how it frustrates him when he can’t do something, or figure something out. I know he hates it too, & he even told me at times like this he misses his brother. He’s a mechanic, but in FL. The frustrating part about the car was that to get the starter off, he needed a 15mm socket. He doesn’t have one. Figures. And the close by friend, who would have one, is out fishing today for Father’s Day. Guess what I’ll be buying him soon? Yup, another socket set that includes that 15mm one.

So I’m still feeling crappy. My honey is frustrated. What a lovely weekend.