Oops, Catch-Up and Future Goals

Yesterday's clean-up day was a very good thing because I remembered I hadn't paid my property taxes for the first half of the year yet! That was a serious OOPS! I admit that I'm not used to this. We've been paying mortgage for 30+ years but it got paid off early this year and not having a mortgage changed a lot of things. One of those things is that I now have to pay the taxes that were paid through the escrow account before. Of course property taxes were due in mid-May and it's now mid-June. Damn! I'm sure they'll assess a late fee penalty and I'll totally deserve it. I've signed up for email reminders and I'll have to put the second payment onto my calendar. I can't mess this one up again! 

Our property taxes aren't massive, but they should be
paid on time. I really messed that one up! 

I didn't get everything done that I wanted, but I did clean up one very important bag. (The second bag can wait a week - it won't hurt anything because it's pretty recent stuff.) I did get the laundry done, and even had a chance to catch up with Aearwen. Last week's conversation ended up totally messed up because of my trip and things going on with her life, so we're back on track. What a relief - LOL. 

We have a lot of turquoise cabs that we've purchased
through the years. We're going through them,
getting them priced and ready to put out for sale. 

We've been going through a lot of drawers and unknown envelopes at the shop and have found a LOT of turquoise cabochons that we purchased years ago for repairs and for our own work. We've been weighing and reviewing them and I'm a bit shocked by today's prices on comparable stones. After a lot of discussion we decided the price point to put on ours and we're going to start getting them out onto the sales floor over the next week or two. There are some exceptional cabs in the group, so my jewelry makers will be quite happy. 

We've been sold out of the three most popular gauges in sterling silver
wire for several months. We're getting that back on order today and
we should have it back for sale by the end of the month. Yippee! 

We've also restocked our sheet metal selection and should have our sterling silver wire in the three most popular gauges back in stock within the next two weeks. We've been sold out of this since before the Holiday season, so it will be wonderful to have it back for our creative customers. 

I love Andy Cooperman's vision. He works in a variety
of metals with unusual combinations and joining methods. 

I've figured out that if I want to take Andy Cooperman's Master Class at next year's Bead & Button Show, I need to try and save $50/week just for that purpose. That's a lot, but I'm going to give it a good go. I'm hoping I get a lot of repairs through the shop's doors because those $20/minimum charges are an important way for me to earn a little extra. 

I've been wanting to work for a few days under the tutelage of
Andy Cooperman for more than a decade. I'm determined to
try and achieve this goal. 

It's Thursday, I'm slightly ahead of schedule (I awakened a bit early and decided to just dive into the day) and I'm looking forward to my morning swim. I'm listening to a good audio book in the pool, and the weather has been great. We're heading back into sauna weather for the weekend, which isn't as great, but I'll worry about that when it happens. Have a great day and I'll be back tomorrow!