It Was a Here and There, This and That Kind of Day

I had two prints to frame yesterday morning, The first one was no problem and looks great with a triple nested mat around the print. But, the second one required a quick trip to my mat supply store around 10:30 am because I had completely miscut the twin mats for this one. OOPS. So, $26 later, I had two new matboards in the same colors in my car, heading homeward again. I had worked out a schedule with DH where I could work on my framing in the morning, and come into the shop about 2:00 pm when he could go home and work on his repairs. 

The first piece, which I chose a triple mat for, turned out 
great. 

It actually worked out pretty well, except he stayed at the shop until about 4:00 pm. But I was in the framing room in the basement, and we weren't very busy, so Chickie didn't need to call me upstairs. I put one piece together and it's stunning. I'm very pleased. The second piece, however, I had cut too short on the width opening. The actual full size of the mats was perfect, but the cutout was incorrect. *sigh* I was back at my detail cutter at home at 6:00 am this morning, and by 6:30 am I had those mat cutouts lengthened, smoothed, and the completed items back in their bag ready for transport to the shop. I'll assemble them today, get the frame onto them, and I'll be ready to put in the nails and attach the hanging wires. 

The first picture, that turned out great, was this one - "Evening 
on the Washita" by Donald Vann. I chose a triple mat with a 
gradience from the peach to the light blue, and then black  
for the mats. The frame is almost a driftwood color/feel. I really 
like how this one turned out. 
 

The clock, of course, is ticking towards our big sale. On one hand I'm grateful that we're on a schedule, on the other hand I'm frightened to death. It's rather like "What if we hold a sale and nobody comes?" on the right hand, while the left hand is screaming "What if we have too many people to actually be able to handle things on our end?" It's the same nightmares I had when we ran our big Swarovski crystal sell-down sale last year. That ended up manageable (barely), but this one ... well, we've never had a sale like this before, and won't have one again. It's virgin territory for us and we're all petrified in our own ways. 

I have to keep reminding myself of this, even though we 
are actually on a rather strict time schedule. But, there are 
times, like now, when we're just hanging in there until 
the next surge. 

So I'm going to end this here and hope that maybe I'll get a "day off" tomorrow (although I doubt that - there's still a LOT that has to get done at the shop, so I'm sure I'll be there for a few hours, no matter what). Have an excellent weekend and I'll be back on Monday morning. Be kind and enjoy life. It's the only one you get, after all. Slava Ukraini. 

Catching Up a Bit - Full Steam Ahead

Remember that huge snow storm we had a couple of weeks ago? The one where I was shoveling the driveway for almost 90 minutes until I finally got to the point where my wonderful next door neighbor had snow blown the bottom quarter section out for me? I totally tore up my upper right thigh muscle moving the snow that morning, and it STILL hurts. Today was the first day I was brave enough to use the treadmill, and I only made it for 30 minutes. Still, that's better than nothing. But I'm achy, and can't believe that my thigh is still in a lot of pain after almost two weeks. 

Basically, that middle red spot is pretty much 
where I'm hurting. The rest of it has nothing 
happening, and the front of the leg is also fine. 
I just really tore that muscle while shoveling the 
snow a bit more than a week ago. 

Although I'm supposed to be at the shop today, I'm probably going to stay home for a lot of the day, working on two pictures I'm in the middle of framing. I got the glass cut for them at the shop yesterday morning. I have the triple mat for one cut out on the exterior. I still have to do the cut outs for each piece, then get everything assembled. The second one hasn't had the mats cut at all for it, but that one is only a double mat, so not quite as complex or time-consuming. It's inconvenient working from two different locations, but that's how it is right now. A lot of back and forth. 

Our various store signage is on its way to us. We 
are required to return these when we're finished 
using them, so we'll have to unpack carefully so that 
we can repack things properly. 

Our store signage for "Going Out of Business" is on its' way. Travis emailed the dimensions of the exterior sign to me because we need to get a license for that one. I'll be sending DH downtown early next week to get that taken care of. Then I need to double-check and triple-check the dates he's got our sale scheduled for and make sure I have them written on the main calendar that we all refer to. It'll be "All Hands on Deck" once that starts. 

It'll be "All Hands on Deck" for us once the sale 
actually starts. We're not quite there yet, but it's 
getting closer and closer. 

So, that's about all I have for news and chit-chat today. I'm going to have breakfast and plan how I can most efficiently use my day. I have frames that I need to match up with artwork so that I don't waste either one. That takes more time than you would suspect since the frames were made for different pieces, so they're all playing substitutes in a square dance that's becoming a bit crazy. Have a great Friday and I'll be back tomorrow to wrap up the week. Slava Ukraini. 

Rusty Skills But At Least I Still Have Them

I received a quick note yesterday afternoon that a fellow Tolkien-based fiction author and good friend had passed. Dreamflower was a friend of many years, a talented author, and a fellow enthusiast who was an active member in the Tolkien fan-fiction community. She read other's writings avidly, commented when she felt moved, always was positive, and she'll be missed. Travel safely to the West, my friend. I hope to meet you again someday on that far shore. 

Another friend is sailing into the unknown - heading to the 
Western seas. Travel safely, my dear. You'll be missed. 

Yesterday was also a very busy day in the kitchen, and I even got an hour to spend cutting mats for two pictures I need to get into their frames. I wish I had gotten a bit more completed, but it was a good start and I'll try to get some more work done on them on Sunday. My workspace for framing at home isn't the greatest space. It's small, it's crowded, and it doesn't work super well for the larger cuts. It's fine for the finer detail work, but the big stuff is a bit of a PITA. But, it's what I have available, so I'll just have to make do. No choices. 

My Fletcher glass cutting equipment takes quite a bit 
of space. And the sheets of glass are often quite large 
too. Tiny shards of glass also accumulate beneath it, 
so if I bring this home, I'll have to be very careful about 
where I mount it. 

I will have to take interior measurements for these also - I need to get glass cut for them, and my glass cutter is on the wall at the shop. I've been running through possibilities of where I could get it set up here at home, and I haven't come up with a decent location for the cutter yet. I'm running out of time - I'll have to get it pulled and mounted somewhere here ... but where??? 

My framing skills are a bit rusty, and the space I have available 
for my equipment isn't the best. Nonetheless, as the saying 
goes ... I'll persevere. No real choices here - LOL. 

But, at least it was a day when I did get something accomplished for framing. I didn't get nearly as far as I had wanted, but anything is an improvement over nothing. Part of the problem is I simply haven't done a lot of framing over the past few years, and my skills are rusty. They are still there, but everything takes a bit longer - it's less intuitive. On that note, I'm going to the swimming pool to work out some of my basic frustration. Have an excellent day and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

Etsy, Framing and Cooking - It's a Wednesday, So It's a Busy Day

Yesterday was crickets at the shop. The weather was beautiful, and I guess people just didn't want to think about indoor activities, so we had minimal sales. It allowed me to get a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff done, but not everything I needed. One of the things we wanted to do was pull all of the African trade beads from our Etsy listings. I tried at the shop with the laptop, but since the laptop doesn't talk with Etsy on my shop name, only my personal name, I gave up and quickly did it this morning before starting this post. I didn't have a lot of trade beads still listed, but we'd rather have them at the shop for final sale instead of on-line. Etsy, as an experiment, has been OK, but nothing spectacular. 

These are NOT the trade beads I had listed, but I've had 
this type in the shop. DH had quite a while there where he 
was a bit crazy about them, and bought them whenever he 
saw them. We had African traders coming in to the shop 
to unload their vans and show us some truly marvelous 
things. They're gorgeous, they're antique, and they're 
copied these days, so buyers do need to be careful. 

I awakened about an hour early before my 3:00 am alarm, and decided I might just as well be relaxed and not in a rush today, so I took time for an extra long meditation, got the first load of laundry started, pulled those items off the Etsy listing, and got a few other things managed. I'm right on time for my daily blog, and ahead of the game in other aspects. Hopefully I can get some framing done today. I have two prints that need their mats cut and fit into their frames. I can't cut the glass until I'm at the shop, but I can do everything else, so they'll be almost complete by the end of today if I can get this done. 

I've got two pieces that I need to get into their frames. I've 
got the mats (at least for one of them, I do), so I just need 
to make sure I set aside an hour or two to get them cut and 
fitted. 

It's also a cooking day and I need Ogre Juice. I've pretty much given up on getting any time for lunch at the shop - it's not that we don't have the time, it's that DH NEVER thinks about me getting any time off the sales floor for my lunch. He never forgets Chickie's lunch - will even come to the sales floor to remind her that it's time for her meal. He just never thinks about me. So, I started eating my Ogre Juice with my breakfast (since I find if I don't eat it, I really feel that lack). That's been working out quite well, so I might just stick to that schedule. As I recall, when I first started WildFit so many years ago, it was two alkagizers a day (although I might be mistaken about that). My body most definitely is happier if I have one a day for most days - at least four a week. 

I find when I don't have my alkagizers, I simply don't feel 
on my game. I don't have one every day, but I do have 
them four days a week. When I first started the WildFit 
program, it was a minimum of one alkagizer a day, sometimes 
more. I've learned how to make them pretty tasty over 
the years - LOL. 

So, I'll take a quick run across the street from the YMCA to pick up vegetables at my local store before returning home today. It's so convenient, and even though they're not 24/7 any more, they open at 6:00 am and I'm usually not out of the gym until 6:15 am or so. It works out very well. So, have an excellent day and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

Etsy and Travis - My Stress Boils Over *sigh*

I got a notification from Etsy about a sale yesterday, so I went on with my home computer last night. (Apparently the only way I can access my Etsy sales is through my desktop, not my laptop.) Anyway, the order was for a strand of antique beads that I had sold a few months ago - and it was marked SOLD. So I attempted to contact the purchaser and let them know that it was unavailable and that we did have two other strands that might interest her, but I couldn't contact her. *sigh* I suspect it was a feeler order in any case, not a real person, but it was frustrating to not be able to actually get in touch with her. But I also can't sell what's owned by someone else already, so it's simply not happening. 

Etsy usually isn't a problem, but I have no 
idea how this person was able to even place 
an order for the item she did. It was sold 
several months ago, and it's marked as "Sold" 
on the website. Weird. 

The business sale is moving along and I'm starting to become really frightened about how this is all going to happen and come through. It's just the three of us (and only two on Mondays and Wednesdays), and I'm not at all sure how well this is going to happen. Will we actually be able to sell to the bare walls? That's my goal, and I have absolutely NO idea if that's going to happen. I've spent a BUNCH of money with my RetailSalesPro guy, and I'm counting on him to bring the people through the door. But we're still just three people on the sales floor and if the people flood in, we're sunk. We want and need sales, but I don't need "After Christmas Sale" panic in our customers. I think closing the business is more stressful than treating my cancer was. 

I'm putting my faith in Travis - someone I've 
never met, and may never meet. I've paid 
him a LOT of $, and followed his instructions to 
the letter. We're getting as ready to clear things 
out as possible, and it's absolutely frightening. 
It's really all on us - Chickie, DH and I - to make 
this sale work and clear things out. ARGH!

So swimming today will be a relief. I need to work out some of this stress. It's a good thing that I lost my hair years ago, I'd be tearing it out (or it would be falling out on its' own) from the stress. Have a wonderful Tuesday and I'm off to the swimming pool. Slava Ukraini. 

Good Intentions Meet Reality - LOL

I had every intention of being on the treadmill this morning, but my thigh muscle is still bothering me, so I'll give it until Friday, swim my usual Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday, and give myself this one additional day to recover and heal. It's a LOT better, but I think that being on the treadmill might set me back in my healing. Friday gives me a few more days to heal, and my swimming exercises my muscles quite differently than the treadmill does. 

I always have my hands on the side bars when I'm 
using my treadmill. I'm also fast-walking, not 
actually running. I'm not allowed to have that much 
impact on my crappy bones, but getting some is 
actually a good thing, so we thread the needle for 
what's good and what's too much. 

I wanted to re-do the master for a reporting sheet that we use daily at the shop, so I brought a copy home to reproduce. I was certain that I had a type-font ruler here. But, I was mistaken. So, I'm taking the form back to the shop with me, and I'll have to see what I can do off the cuff on my laptop instead. I had a clean master copy of the form that we used for years, but it's disappeared *sigh*. It's not the end of the world to reproduce the form, but it's a lot harder to do without the font-size ruler at hand. If I can find one that doesn't cost a lot, I might buy it on Wednesday. 

I used to have a typefont ruler. The fact that I can't find 
it isn't a surprise - I haven't needed it for many years. 
But ... I need it now. So, I'll end up buying a new one 
because it's rather essential for what it does. 

I made one of our favorite dinners last night - a request from DH who wanted my pork loin. It's easy enough to do, although I do have to be careful when basting the roast in the last hour of cooking - the glaze that I baste with is sugar based, and if that falls onto the oven door, it can be a total PITA to get scrubbed off. So I always use a sheet of foil that I pull under the baking pan when I'm applying the glaze every 10 minutes during the final stages of the roast. The one time I didn't do that took a LONG time to get the drippings cleaned off my oven door and base. I learned quickly. LOL

I love making my braised pork loin recipe. It's 
easy - it starts out in the crock pot for several 
hours and then finishes in the oven where the 
glaze is applied. It cleans up quickly, it tastes 
fabulous, it's a total winner. 

So, not a lot else to discuss. I'll be pulling our trade beads off our Etsy sales offerings at DH's request. He wants to have them available back in the store again, and I'm absolutely fine with that. We'll leave the Swarovski crystals up for the time being, but eventually we will pull those listings also. 

So, not much else to chat about today. I hope all of you have a wonderful Monday and I'll be back tomorrow - hopefully with a bit more to say on my way to the swimming pool. Slava Ukraini. 

Progress, My Attacking Loon & A Book

I finally got my Dremel back from DH yesterday. He "borrowed" it from me several years ago and took it to the shop for repairs, etc. He doesn't take great care of his tools, and he has a Dremel of his own, but no ... mine was nicely packaged with all of the various bits and wrenches, and it was convenient for him to just reach into the drawer where I kept it and grab it. So, I haven't had my Dremel for quite a while, several years, and I haven't been pleased about it. 

My Dremel is older than this, and not everything pictured 
here came with mine, but it's as close as I could find. 
I love the hard-shell case. Everything is in one place and 
that's what I needed when I was taking it with me to 
various jewelry workshops. 

Yesterday he came up from cleaning the basement and deposited a mess on my desk. My Dremel, and the various tools, drill bits and other assorted things. Apparently I could take it back now. Whoot! I carefully got everything back in order, wrapped the cording around properly, and viola! Everything fits beautifully and it is now back at my craft desk where it belongs. 

I love my Minnesota We Stand United Sweatshirt. It's 
super attractive, light enough weight that I can wear it 
for several seasons, and it's our attacking Loon - the 
symbol of our resistance to Trump and his immigration 
policies. It's perfect! 

I'm wearing my Minnesota Loon - We Stand United sweatshirt to the shop today. It's a beautiful hoodie, and I'm very pleased with it. Chickie has a t-shirt that proclaims her solidarity with Minnesota, but I think my hoodie is much prettier. It's lightweight, so no problems wearing it through the day, and I can always layer if we have serious cold (which isn't the case right now). I'm pleased with the purchase, and I'm quite sure DH will grumble about it. But there's no text, just a wonderful, beautiful Minnesota loon, wings spread - a quiet statement of resistance. 

When I first spoke to Travis, several years ago, he sent me 
a copy of his book to read. (I certainly didn't just purchase it - 
it sells for MUCH more $ than I could spend at that time, or 
even now). I've poured over it several times, and it's coming to 
work with me again today because I want to check out some 
timelines and prep details. 

So, it's Saturday. Maybe I'll be lucky and able to take tomorrow off from work. I'm bringing Travis' book along with me to the shop today so that I can read ahead and get a better idea of whether we're on track for our closing schedule. The dates are coming up quickly, and there's still a BUNCH of things we have to get done before the licence is obtained, the banner and signs go up, and we're ready to go into the final stages of closing out the store. It's nerve wracking. It's so much easier to just turn in your notice or, in some cases, simply declare "I Quit" and walk out the door. It's much harder when you actually own the business. Have a wonderful weekend and I'll be back on Monday morning. Slava Ukraini.