It Was a Good "Day Off" - At Least, A Busy One

As is often the case, I didn't get nearly as much done yesterday and I had hoped for, but it was still a successful day. I did find time in mid-afternoon to run over to my framing supply place and pick up the two frames I had ordered two weeks ago. They're lovely, fit great, and weren't a horrible price. Of course, it was a smaller, thin frame for small pieces, but I'm pleased. I also spent time late yesterday afternoon before chatting with Aearwen, to re-do the mats for another larger art piece that I was having MAJOR problems with the other day. That also was much more successful, and I'm happy. I need to mount the artwork into it with better than removable tape, but that's all I had time to do. Still, I count it as a win. 

I have aa C&H professional mat cutter. It's been 
cutting slightly crooked, however (or maybe it 
was just that day because yesterday's cuts seemed 
just fine). I purchased two new sheets of black 
matboard to replace what I ruined two weeks 
ago, and was much more successful this time. 

My major job yesterday was cooking my next batch of baked fruit for my breakfasts. I had only a single container left from the old batch which will be eaten for breakfast today. It was a LOT of fruit for the new batch - apples, peaches and pears mostly. I was going to add fresh blueberries to them, but simply forgot to add the blueberries into the mix. So I'll be sprinkling each container with fresh blueberries as I get ready for breakfast that day. I can live with that. 

I love my baked fruit for my breakfast. I make it in huge 
batches and just grab a container, toast a couple of pieces 
of my gluten-free bread, add a cup of tea and I'm set for 
a nice breakfast after I'm done either swimming or working 
out on the treadmill. 

I've got Sharon coming in at the end of the month, and I need to do a serious housecleaning. Speaking of Sharon ... did you send me your flight information yet? Glanding at my various notes that surround my desk, I'm not seeing anything, although it's possible I attached it to the bottom of the calendar. In any case, Sharon, send the deets to me again so that I don't leave you deserted at the airport - LOL. 

If you sent me dates (and you probably did), please send 
them again. My desk right now is looking like The Bomb 
just went off - papers everywhere. Ugh! 

Apparently some of the items we shipped to the Auction House in Santa Fe, New Mexico, are up for auction. At least, that's what DH said, and he wasn't very happy with their placement or their photographs, etc, etc. Well, I went onto the website this morning and didn't see anything of ours up for bids. I'll have to take another longer look later on today. Perhaps I opened the wrong auction of theirs. It'll be easier to see things on the laptop in any case. 

We're trying a test-run with Santa Fe Art Auction. I thought 
we were supposed to have some items in the current auction 
that just opened, but I wasn't seeing anything of ours when 
I looked through the offerings this morning. I'll look again 
with the laptop if I have time later today. 

On that note, I'm off to the pool. We've been stuck indoors so far this week (and today may also be that case). We had a huge storm come through on Sunday/Monday and it knocked out the power to the pumps, etc for the outside pool. They've got things back up and running (maybe), but it will take a few days to get the chemicals back into balance and the heat back into the water before they allow us back into the outdoor pool. In the meantime, summer is quite quickly moving along. Too quickly. LOL Have an excellent Thursday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

Roadblocks and Frustrations - ARGH ... just ARGH!

Yesterday morning a notice had been sent by the YMCA that the outdoor pool would be closed. Apparently the Y lost power on Monday and that allowed the chemicals to become unbalanced in the large pool. I knew I'd be swimming indoors yesterday, but we were all hoping we would be back outdoors today. But no, apparently the pool will take one more day to get all of the chemicals back into balance (and the appropriate heat for the water), so we're indoors again today. Yesterday caught a lot of people by surprise (although I got notified through my app on my phone). Today ... well, we'll see. I'm prepared, we'll see how many others are. 

Hopefully tomorrow the outdoor pool will be available for 
swimming again. We're stuck indoors again today, and although 
I don't mind (I'm in the indoor pool nine out of twelve months, 
after all), I do miss that length of the outdoor one. 

It's going to be a very busy day for me today, though. Not only general cooking, three loads of laundry, and grocery shopping, but also a quick trip to the orthodontist mid-day to re-glue one wire that became unbonded from a front lower tooth. Yes, my braces are off, but my lower teeth have a small fence to keep them in place. This is the second time I've had to pop into the orthodontist to get wires reglued, but in the scheme of things, it's pretty minor and doesn't take time. Except that it's an 11:00 am appointment, so smack in the middle of the day. 

I have nothing to eat in the refrigerator, and 
I'm almost totally out of freezer choices as 
well. I need to do some serious cooking 
this afternoon. 

DH and I realized, to my total dismay, that our projected end date of late this year simply won't work. Not because we can't just put a "Closed" sign on the door, it's because of the city regulations for going out of business. I have a lot of questions for that department, but can't reach anyone there to ask because our city government was hit with a cyber attack early this week and every state agency is closed right now. Not helpful! Our revised schedule has us out of there by May 31. I told DH to "Put It In Writing". I'm going to make his life hell until he does. And then, if he doesn't stick to it, I'm out of here. He can deal with a solo life if my life is messed up any more. GRRRRR

My city requires a COMPLETE printout of our inventory 
before we can have a "going out of business" sale. That's something 
that will be really difficult for us to do. We have thousands 
of small, individual items. I don't think my computer system 
or my ancient printer will be up to the task, and we need to 
go through our computer records and do a lot of deletion 
of out, outdated materials that we no longer carry, but 
that are still in the system. It's a disaster! It seriously 
makes me think about packing everything and moving to 
a suburb just to have an easier time with the rules and 
regulations. 

So, on that lovely "positive" note, I'm out of here. I have an indoor pool to swim in, and I really need to get some of this stress worked off. Have an excellent Wednesday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

Running Late - Just a Quick Post

Happy Tuesday to all of my friends in cyber-land. It's going to be a beautiful day. Yesterday was a bit of a slog, but I was busy and had good sales, so I'm happy. I pulled down all of the sale flyers and informational signs we had posted, and the store looks like normal once again. DH has been spending his time sorting and packaging feathers. We have a LOT of feathers that need to be put out for sale - mostly pheasant of various types. They're lovely but they'd look even better in someone else's handiwork. 

We have a LOT of feathers. DH has spent days 
sorting them by length so that we can get them bagged 
and out onto the sales floor for our customers. They're 
quite lovely, but a bit labor intensive. 

It's a swimming day today, and I'm quite grateful I wasn't swimming yesterday. I got a notification on my phone that my YMCA had closed because of a power outage. That would mean that everyone in the swimming pool would be required to leave the pool, even though they weren't actually inside the building. I'll have to find out what happened today. I suspect it wasn't a long outage, but I'm quite sure it was inconvenient for a lot of people. 

We also have a lot of the Red Tipped Pheasant 
feathers, from Golden Pheasants. It's been days 
and days of sorting, bagging, sealing and pricing 
feathers. *sigh*

It's August already, the clock is ticking down and I was supposed to have received an email from the company I'm thinking about hiring for our final sale. But, I looked through all of my emails just now and didn't see one. I'll have to phone them again later today to find out why. 

So, I'm off to the pool. I'mm try to grab a few breaths and calm down a bit, but it's already looking like it's going to be a very busy day spent chasing my tail. *sigh* I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

It's Going to be a Busy Monday

At first glance, the Swarovski Blow-Out Sale was a success. We sold a lot of crystal beads, although we still have a heck of a lot in stock. Still, I'm pretty happy with the results, even if I did have to work six days straight. 

If you only do a single thing today, let it be something 
that will put a smile onto someone else's face. 

I finally had a chance to discuss the plans for getting out of business with DH a bit yesterday afternoon while we were relaxing on the patio, enjoying the soft breeze, our umbrella table, and some alcoholic beverages. I'll be attempting to contact Cheryl again today. He was somewhat OK with the dollar amount I mentioned, but, like me, would like more details as to what comprises that amount. We're also realizing that we're on a schedule that will push us into November. Not super pleased about that, but it is what it is. 

I have no idea what is included in her advertising 
budget. Radio and TV? Billboards? Print media? 
Newspapers? No clue. I'm going to have to trust 
that Cheryl knows her job well, and I'm pretty sure 
she does. 

DH also asked about the advertising. She's got a separate figure for that, and we have no idea what will be covered in that - what venues and media will be used. Ads at 11:00 pm at night on a secondary TV station won't be very effective, after all. 

I have a lot of questions for Cheryl, and I'm sure she's getting 
tired of my bugging her, but it's going to be a serious commitment 
on our part - physically and financially. We're only got one 
shot at this and it has to be done right. 

So I have a lot of questions, and we're running out of time to get this signed and going. The business simply doesn't have the money to pay up front, but we have no idea if it is an up-front payment or a back-side one. Lots of questions. 

Rather than take two more trips, DH opted to overfill 
the weight limits of his truck and take the last wire over 
in a single trip. I'm quite sure his shock absorbers aren't 
going to be very happy with the decision, but it's out of 
the basement and will be out of our hair shortly. 

I hope all of you had a fabulous weekend. DH and I spent Sunday morning at the shop loading up the last of the wire he's taking to sell at the recycling plant. They're closing for good within ten days, so the clock was ticking on this option. The truck is overloaded on its' weight limit, which isn't good for it, but it's mostly smooth roads. Of course there's a slight glitch - we both have dental appointments first thing this morning for a check and clean. I think mine is at 7:30 am, and DH's is at 9:10 am. Chickie also has an appointment today, but I think hers is after 10:00 am. So he'll drop the wire off after his appointment, then head over to the shop. He'll be late, but I'm rarely super busy first thing in the a.m. 

It's the start of a new week. Let's make it a good 
one today and every day. 

So, have an excellent Monday. I've got to get moving, I have a store to put back together after our sale - signs to pull down, cases to rearrange. The life of retail - LOL. Enjoy your day and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

One Step Ahead on a Winding Road - Happy Saturday to You!

It's the final day of our "Swarovski Crystals Blow-Out Sale" and I'm pleased with the numbers. I'm a bit surprised that we didn't sell more of the exotic crystals, but anything we've sold down on is a win in my book. The end of day sales totals have been good and DH is quite happy, even though we haven't seen some people I was quite sure would shop us. But, there's still today and I'm hoping we'll be very busy with customers today to wrap things up on a high note. 

It's been a fun sale, and we've sold a LOT of 
crystals, but we have a lot still on the shelves *sigh*. 
No way to avoid that - it's our largest single product 
category. 

DH was so exhausted and sore after the tensions of the last few days (although he wasn't working the sales floor, he was doing other stuff - like the wire sale), he came home and immediately after dinner, he went up to bed and went to sleep. He wandered down about two hours later to get some water, and then went right back to bed. Hopefully he'll be a bit more "spritely" today - LOL. 

I'm quite happy that it's the end of the work 
week. It's been exhausting - physically and 
emotionally. I need to get my feet back under 
me once again. 

Of course, today is a Saturday and there are some customers I suspect will be in today because they were working all week. It has the potential of being a very busy day ... at least I hope so. I'd love to end the sale on a high note. I'm going to hold on to the pages we devised for this sale also. I suspect they might come in handy once again when we're doing our store-wide liquidation sale. 

This is a year with a lot of stresses and challenges, not 
least of which will be the actual process of liquidating 
the company and closing the doors. The goal is to have 
everything sold, and I think Cheryl could do some really 
good things for us. I'll just have to dig my heels in regarding 
her fee structure. 

And that's another issue. I've been wanting to hire Cheryl to handle the sale for us, but I need a bit more information about what is included in her "No more than $41,000" estimate for her fees (and that doesn't even count her $15,000 advertising budget). But, I've also been doing a lot of research, and she's quoting us on the low end of business liquidation service costs. If we just run a "Going Out of Business Sale" on our own, without guidance and assistance, I think we'll lose out on a lot of money we could be making. I think it's worth hiring a professional, but we're already WAY behind time with this - she should have been here in July, and we should be ready to jump into things right after Labor Day. We're not. I'm going to have to phone her again. *sigh*

I'm not normally so focused on a schedule, but I 
have to be right now. Ick! 

Well, I'm going to try and enjoy my Sunday tomorrow. It might well be the last day I actually get off for many weeks with the exception of the State Fair when Sharon arrives. I hope all of you have an excellent weekend and I'll be back on Monday morning. Slava Ukraini. 

It's August and I'm Hearing the Clock Ticking Down - Tempus Fugit

Happy August. It's hard to believe the year is going this quickly! I'm just jotting down a quick post today. It's normally a "day off" for me, but I'm at work again because we're running our Swarovski Blow-Out Sale, and it's "All Hands on Deck" for the five days. We've had excellent response to it, although we're still not selling a lot of our specialty shapes. That means I'll have to work on photographing and putting them up on Etsy - a lot of work, but probably the only place I'll sell them. 

Whatever Swarovski components we have left, I'll have 
to make sure I get added to our Etsy pages. We have a 
huge selection of Swarovski pendants that I didn't have 
the time to photograph and add to the site. It might be 
time to spend some time photographing and working on 
getting them posted. 

I have Swarovski pendants, various platforms, rectangles, rivolis (of course), and other shapes; some with holes, others without. All of them are spectacular - gleaming glitz in wonderful colors. And I need to get them sold. So, I'll have to set up my photo corner once again and start taking photos and getting them listed. At least it won't be as difficult to do as when I first started putting our beads onto Etsy. I have a much better idea of what to do and how to do it. It's time I don't have, but it's something I have to do. In the scheme of things, however, although they'll take up room, it won't be as awful as our artwork. LOL

I have many sizes and colors of Swarovski 
pendant-style beads and they're lovely. 
They're not huge, they're subtle. I'll need 
to get those listed on our Etsy site. 

I'll be sending out a reminder "Only Two Days Remaining" email to my customers this morning. Chickie will be in on time (and she's been my main sales person for this sale - she's been a real trooper and I couldn't have done it without her). and DH will be in the warehouse district of Minneapolis, selling some more of his huge, heavy spools of wire. Apparently the company he's selling these to is closing their doors for good within two weeks, so we're getting these in to them just under the deadline. He has at least one more load to take over, maybe two. We had a lot of wire that was used in aircraft maintenance, but we certainly have no use for it now. 

What we're reselling is cable that was used in aircraft 
maintenance. It's copper cable sheathed in a coating, 
spooled on a wooden spool. We have a LOT of it. 

So, I'm going to make myself a cup of tea and try and relax for a little bit before heading to the shop for Day #4. I hope all of you have a wonderful Friday and I'll be back tomorrow to wrap up the week. Slava Ukraini. 

Day Two of our Blow-Out Sale is Complete, Now for Day Three!

Day Two of our Crystal Blow-out Sale had a very different rhythm than Day One. We didn't sell quite as much product, but we sold to more people and worked with them in slightly different ways. The system Chickie and I had invented worked great, and a couple of customers who asked for order sheets to be emailed to them for later, more intense, review got that as well. They'll be back in a second time before the sale ends on Saturday night. 

The sale is going very well. We've never offered 
a BOGO on Swarovski before, and our customers 
are loving it. We're not selling the odd shapes 
and sizes that we have. That's a problem. But we 
are selling down our huge stock of the more popular 
shapes, and that was also a goal. I'm calling this a 
win so far. 

As always, I'd be totally lost without Chickie. DH is busy doing DH crap - he's not on the sales floor at all, except to add more product to various parts that needed restocking. So he's increased out cut-up deer hide, and our available feather packs have increased. He's been on a stepstool quite a bit rearranging things. It's all to the good, but he's still a PITA. 

The North Oaks Rummage Sale is HUGE. I wasn't 
aware of how very large it is before now. It takes 
place at the Shoreview Ice Arena, and the proceeds 
are donated to "Children's Minnesota" which is sponsored 
by Children's Hospital Association. That's a big deal, 
and I'm sure they get a LOT of shoppers. 

I had an odd phone call from the North Oaks Fundraising Committee head yesterday afternoon. Apparently they run a garage sale every year to raise funds for various community events they hold for the rest of the year. They had four Native American items donated that they didn't feel they knew enough about to be able to put them out for sale at the event next month. At least, not without additional information. So, as many have done in the past, they contacted the store. 

Pipestone pipes were available for sale at Pipestone National 
Monument (in southwestern Minnesota) until 2019. At that 
time they finally listened to the tribes and pulled them from sale, 
declaring them sacred items. The stone is also sacred to the Sioux 
people, but at least we got the sale of pipes stopped. I've been a 
pipe carrier for the Oyate for decades now. Pipes are sacred. 

The first item was a pipestone pipe, which I immediately said a firm "NO" to. Pipes are sacred and shouldn't be sold or kept by people other than the pipekeeper. They were (and might still be) sold at Pipestone Quarry as a tourist item, but as I told the lady (when she just wasn't understanding well), it's like taking the cross from the altar of your local church, and putting it onto a table for sale. It's just wrong! 

This set of four sweetgrass baskets with lids is 
on sale at Google for $75. I'm simply not seeing 
where the baskets will carry an evaluation of 
$10,000. The market for basketry is at a low 
right now, but that value is WAY over what it 
probably should be. 

Then, apparently there are three baskets, possibly sweetgrass baskets. They are lidded, and one of then had an evaluation inside it for $10,000. OK, that I sincerely doubt - it's possible, I suppose, but sounds way off track for such an item. I'd have to see them. The last item was arrows and a quiver of a type. Again, I'd have to see it. She might set up a before-hours appointment with me to take a look. The sale is in September, so that should be soon. 

Apparently there also is a quiver with bone-tipped 
arrows. The bone arrows were used before traders 
brought metal arrow tips to the tribes, so this might be 
fairly old. Again, I'm probably not the right person to 
give much of an opinion, but I can direct them to one 
of the museums if I feel it might be worth their while 
to get a more in-depth look. 

DH was all in my face after this conversation, telling me that I had no knowledges of basketry, questioning my understanding of the material it was made from (which he simply didn't understand because he thought it was a material different than sweetgrass). He also was over me on the quiver - apparently the arrows have bone tips, which would be interesting, but might not be legal in this day and age to possess or sell. But, I'll be happy to take a look and see if it's something they can include in their sale or if they'll need to find a different way to get rid of them. I expect they'll phone for an early morning appointment within a few days. 

So, I'm off to the pool to work off some of my frustration. We're entering Day Three of our Swarovski Blow-out Sale, and so far I've been very pleased. Chickie's prep work has really paid off, and we're getting orders filled and lots of very happy customers, many of whom plan to drop by at least one more time before the sale ends Saturday night. I hope your Thursday is lovely. I'm looking forward to a good swim and (hopefully) another good day in our Five-Day Sale. I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini.