Phew...

Well, after what I think has been about a week, I have finally gotten some stuff together to ship off to Maine. I am sending some bookmarks, books, notepads, and some cards to see how well they do in an honest-to-goodness retail setting.
Package is going out tomorrow, fingers are crossed, and hopes are high.
That is all...

I'm beaming...and busy!

Well, I'm taking a step into the un-known. For me, anyway. I have got some serious work to do in the next couple days...better branding and packaging for one, more product for another!
I am excited to have been approached by a shop in Maine, called Kindred Gifts, to have some of my stuff sold not only on their website, but also in their brick and mortar store! Other than the few craft shows I have taken part in, this will be my first 'touch and feel' exposure to the public.
I really want to do it right, too. So I have some serious work to get done!
Here, we are suposed to be in the middle of another 5 day stretch of rain, rain, rain. And that would be great for creating, as I could hunker down in the studio and work all weekend. However, I see sun. But that's okay...I have work to do and this will be a real test to see if I can do it. I'm pretty sure I can...I'm awfully excited!
Duty calls...

10 thing I like about today

A list of things keeping my chin up today:
1. My mail order plants seem to be doing well; almost all have poked through the soil with their promising green leaves.
2. My veg beds are doing great! Now I'm just waiting on some blossoms to go with the greens, and then a magical mix of squash, cukes, peppers, tomatoes, and so on to liven up my dinner plate this summer!
3. Sunshine! Even if it stays chilly, I'm happy to see the sun. Grey days are just grey days when it doesn't even rain. (Although, we have had a lot of rain...which is great for the gardens!)
4. A day off from work.
5. The neighbors are still asleep...ahhh! quiet morning.
6. I found coffee beans I forgot I had and so didn't have to go without my 'day off, in front of the computer' cup o' joe.
7. A quick clean of the house and a load of laundry and my chores will be done for the day.
8. I don't have to clean my dad's house, after all; instead, I get to play with my sister.
9. I had a great night's sleep, last night.
10. I have no plans for the weekend!

A quick post ...mostly a pix post...

This was yesterday...the one sunny day in a week...and now it is raining again.

Hubby bought, broke, and lay slate in this path to our shed. An on-going project that is still on hold due to today's rain. We're getting there.

Moxie and I ate radishes fresh from my garden!!

All in a day's work

Yesterday proved to be quite a success. After my little pity party, crying about how I just don't know what to do with my life, I got off the computer, saw hubby off to work and promptly got down to the business of Wednesday's chores. My main goal was to get the gas company out to see about that nasty little gas leak around our meter. That took all of 5 minutes once he showed up (funny how quickly things get done when toxic fumes are spewing into the neighborhood). A quick clean of the bathroom and kitchen (both tragically small rooms...20 minutes to clean both, I'd say...the 'luxury' of having a thimble-sized house). While the gas man was taking care of business, I decided I'd finally put up the poles for the beans. My little beds are coming along quite nicely. I believe we will have our first peas soon and my radishes, while they are probably way to thickly planted, should start to fill out soon, too.

I love how green everything is getting with the day after day of rain we've been getting.

This doesn't have anything to do with yesterdays shenanigans, but here's a shot of one of my peonys, too.

It was the only one without any bugs in it...yuck!

So, after my short list of 'must-do's' was completed, I got to the business of getting back into the studio. Or, as it is also known, the tiny room in the basement next to my workout room. I pulled out a stack of my handmade paper and stared at it wondering, 'what ARE you?' Just to get my hands moving, I made a couple sheets into those adorable little 'matchbook scratchbooks'! They turned out SOOO cute (I think).

That made me want to make tiny little (business card size) envelopes for enclosure cards...which then made me want to make tiny envelopes for these darlings.

It was nice to do some crafty stuff...just sit and see what happens. I think once you get into the habit of 'needing' to get something done, it just never comes out quite the way you hope.

My next step is to list some more (read: 'new') stuff on etsy and hope for the best!

Hope to see some of you there...and good luck to my fellow 'yartisans'!!

to yart or not to yart

I've decided to participate in Etsy's 2nd annual Yart Sale.
My shop is full of cute handmade cards, original screen printed tees, eco-friendly bags featuring my original art, and other fun gifts made with my very own handmade paper. And, for your yart saling pleasure, I am offering FREE first class worldwide shipping! On everything! Plus, I still have my tees and bags at their reduced 'what a great deal' prices!
So stop by, take a look, tell your friends...Don't miss out.

It's Wednesday...that's just great!

I love having days off from work. I am finding it harder and harder to get my a** out of bed at 4:30 on the mornings I work. My 'professional' life has always been a string of jobs that I keep until I get bored and need a change (usually I can go a year or so before I need to change things up). I have a degree in Accounting that I got just as everything was changing over to computer-based accounting, so everything I learned is out of date and useless in today's field. Not that accounting software is hard to learn, but after 2 years of school, I had exhausted my interest in the subject. So now I flit from retail to food service, basically, year to year. I have been at my present job for a year and a half, but it's just not logical to leave a job in today's economy, until you have something else lined up. Which I don't. And that's partly because I have been less than motivated to get out there and look for something. My days off have been spent...well, doing everything except what they were meant for.
I recently cut back to 4 days of work so that I could tolerate my job enough to stay. It's working for the most part, but now I really want to not work (well, 'GO' to work...I'm not completely lazy, I just get tired of the 'having to be somewhere' day-to-day). The problem has been managing my time on my days off. I get up super early everyday anyway, but hubby is in bed til 9 most days. So I bide my time in the morning, trying not to wake him, until he gets up and we go for coffee and a walk to the beach. By the time we get home, I am ready to do nothing for the rest of the day. And having the same days off leads to me getting nothing done on these days. HOWEVER, hubby has a new little venture he is trying out, which has him out of the house on Wednesdays, now. So here's the real test...will I actually use my time wisely today? I have not made one new thing in months! (Well, aside from a batch of pretty blue paper I made last weekend...maybe I'll do something with that today?)
It has been nice heading over to my sister's place to play Rock Band, but now that hubby is working more, I am starting to feel guilty that I am using my days to play. (Even though that is silly and he doesn't care.) I guess I just need to find some inspiration or decide if creating is really something I still want to do with my free time? I do love making stuff, but I wonder if my history with jobs and my trying to make money at my crafting are converging and making my craft 'unfun'?
There has been a strange shift in my life where everyday I feel like I want to do more. Cook more, clean more, create more, learn more...but then I think about the time one has in a day and realize I could never do all the things I want to do AND still remain sane and happy because I will always be 'chasing my own tail' and never have time to just sit and relax. Will having every waking minute accounted for make me happy? Or will it simply leave me no time to think about what's not making me happy? Maybe I am happy doing what little I do, but feel looked down on because I don't have a 'career' or because sitting quietly in a room is enough for me? I guess that is what makes us humans so complicated...we are all different and we all have different goals and opinions. There's no one answer for everyone...we all must do our own soul-searching.
And so that is what I will continue to do. We shall see what today brings...maybe a fab card for my etsy shop, or maybe I'll decide to sell everything I own and start over? Who knows? All I know is that it's Wednesday, and I have a whole day by myself...the first in months!

Rain, rain...saves me the trouble

It has been raining, minus a few chilly morning hours this Wednesday, pretty much the rest of this week. I work inside. It really doesn't matter much to me if it is raining, and to be honest, it saves me a lot of trouble (and extra water) to just have Mother Nature take care of my (well, HER plants). I was beginning to worry about my little garden beds again this year. Last year, only one of them produced anything (some snow peas, one jalapeno pepper, a couple mini bell peppers, and a ton of pear tomatoes-my least favorite crop), while the other bed had a pH balance issue and gave me nothing but grief. Of course, that is only because I am NOT a gardener, I only wish to be one, so I could not be 'bothered' to remedy my situation with the proper additives. (such a lazy girl)

This year, I have a lot of green going on out there!

This is a couple weeks ago...the rain has really brought things up. I am desperate to get out and add the supports to my pea poles (which are up but not in this shot).

My peas, radish, carrots, broccoli, beans, corn and several of my herbs are all started out there from seed. This year I broke down and bought starter plants for my basil, squash, peppers, cukes, and hubby's Roma tomatoes.

Specifically this year, I was worried about my beans. I bought new seeds, but also threw in a bunch of my leftovers from last year. I am trying the 'throw as much as you can in those little beds' method of gardening this year. Maybe I will discover some crazy hybrids and become rich by accident? I guess I will just be happy if i get something to grow. Baby steps, I guess!

The reason for my bean worry (as I have gotten off-track with this commentary, somehow) is that when I went to check their status, just a week after planting, I noticed something had been digging where my bean seeds had been planted. I suspect squirrels...nasty little rats. How can something so cute be such a nuisance? I saw beans at the surface and some were even beginning to sprout. So I pushed the little devils back in and hoped for the best. Well, this week...Thursday, to be exact....I saw some lovelies popping through the soil's surface!!

And just a day later, and I am not exaggerating here, after non-stop rains, I now have these beauties...
two sets of leaves, in one day!

My corn didn't do much last year, and I know you have to have quite a bit planted to insure proper pollination, but I just couldn't resist trying again. They are now little 1-inch green spikes poking out, so we have at least some potential there.

I am always slow to start gardening projects because I never get great results, but once stuff starts to grow, it's just too satisfying to stop. I am thinking of grabbing a few more plants to stuff in there to be sure I get more delicious end product. I am sure it all boils down to my lack of desire for children battling my female hormones.

(please forgive the quality of the photos, I forgot to photoshop before posting...oops!)

Curiosity isn't only for cats

These past few weeks have been SO ...well, ridiculous, for lack of a better word. There was the trouble with my internet connection that REALLY set me back as far as my blogging and etsying and general keeping in touch with friends. Luckily, the friends part was counter-attacked with some crazy, over-the-top levels of actual IRL socializing. (other people have faces too?? who knew?)
But, as I've probably mentioned, I am back online and password protected! I feel so much better a)having a secure network to use; and b)not using someone else's connection. So it's back to the plan. I was in such a groove, too. I was back into blogging and crafting and making time for every little thing. I have kept a clean house, made dinner every night, worked out every day, and had some social outings. I'm still just working 4 days, so that helps, but not being online really through me for a loop. I was ready for the next step...cross promoting.
I LOVE to read other blogs where people are tuning me into other things that are going on. I love to see what others are doing and viewing in THEIR daily lives. My hubby is not into 'the blogging thing' because he doesn't feel he needs to know what others are doing. I am one of those people (are there 'those people' or maybe it's just me?) that when I am out, I will see a person, and for some reason I will just think: I wonder what that person will do once she gets home and puts her groceries away? will she read? paint? call a friend? dig a hole for fun? sit on her porch and shoo away the neighborhood kids? None of it really matters in MY life, but I find it interesting how others choose to fill their spare time. Possibly because some of my spare time is spent sitting, staring, and wondering 'what are other people doing right now?'
And of course, none of that really matters...my point is to say that I like blogging, but I am on a mission to find things a little more interesting to blog about. I have been saying for years that I need to get back into photography and carry my camera EVERYWHERE. I am still going to try that, and maybe post some pictures some day.
For now, Hanzo the cat is begging for some attention, so I had better give it!