DH Dropped The Ball and a Piece of Coral - ARGH!

So, I happened to be in the back of the shop yesterday afternoon, and noticed a copy of a handwritten list that DH had put near the television. I assume he did that because he's the one who always has the TV on all day (set to CNN because I refuse to listen to the financial station all day). BUT ... if it was him who had put the list there, he taped it up and then forgot about it. And we're screwed. So his assignment today is to get this taken care of. I'll just have to work on my "day off" - a day that I sorely needed because my refrigerator is BARE. 

I really didn't need this additional stress. And if we 
can't get the City license, we can't hold the sale! 

But, apparently,  the City needs to issue us a license to hold our Closing Sale, and that should have been issued to us a week ago (2 weeks before the sale commences and it's scheduled for April 8th). I'm so pissed I can just scream! We have to have a physical inspection, and a close out affidavit. I think some of this was taken care of when he was last over at that office several weeks ago, but this was HIS area of responsibility, and if he dropped the ball on it. ... well. GRRRRRR

The last thing I needed was for DH to drop the 
ball for the one item he was responsible for 
in the outside world. GRRRRR

The postcards announcing the sale have started arriving at places because we've already had a phone call or two about the sale. The ideal time for the postcards to arrive would be in another day or two, but it's close enough, and no-one controls the US Post Office - not even the US Post Office. 

So, my stress levels are through the roof, and I really don't have time for shop BS today because I won't have my "day off" for the next seven weeks and I really needed cooking time today. Maybe I'll get some - but I'm not counting on it. Oh, and of course, DH has been working on jewelry repairs, and managed to fling the final piece of pink coral inlay up into the air at his repair desk, losing it. Totally. He spent a half-hour or so looking, without success,. and I spent a bit of time this morning looking again, also without success. Of course, the desk is a total mess - containers and piles of materials everywhere. It would be really nice to find it within the next week or two - I'd love to sell the damned bracelet. 

I'm both angry AND frustrated. This was the one thing that 
DH needed to take care of for us. He apparently really hit 
it off with the head of the department when he was downtown 
a few weeks ago. BUT, I'm not sure that will save us now. 

So, I'm off to swim off some of my anger and frustration. GRRRRR I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

I'm Overtime and Have to Get Going RIGHT NOW

After having finally rescued my Dremel from the shop, I'm taking it back with me today because I actually need it in the framing area. I'll be taking it back and forth with me, however. I don't trust DH to not grab it and use it and have it disappear for a month or two, and I can't take that chance. I need it at hand while I'm framing items. 

This is a bit more modern than my Dremel and case, but it's 
similar enough. The tool changes over the years, but the 
accessories pretty much stay the same, and the case is 
super convenient to keep everything together. 

I also have an attack of sciatica down my right side. I've never had this before, and I'm NOT very happy about it now. Sitting is painful, lying down is painful, and standing isn't too great either. *sigh* I don't have a lot of choice - it is what it is. My clock keeps on running down and time is most definitely NOT my friend. 

I have never had sciatica pain before, and have no idea 
why it suddenly decided to crop up now. I suppose I might 
be leaning differently while working on framing, but that's 
really the only different thing that's going on in my life right 
now. It hurts, and I don't recommend it to any of you! 

But, I'm off to the swimming pool today, and hopeful that I can get my usual workout. Yesterday's treadmill didn't happen because of pain, and I can't stand not exercising. It makes me feel like a bump on a log if I'm not active. 

I have a lot of picture frame chops that I purchased for artwork 
many years ago, but didn't use. When I find a piece that will work 
with what I already have, it's great! It saves us some $, and I 
can work on it without having to drive back and forth to my 
picture supply company. 

I have one frame in the process of being assembled at the shop. I got two sides glued properly yesterday and I'll drill and nail them today, then I'll glue the other two sides and get those drilled and nailed on Thursday (or maybe I'll take a quick run to the shop before opening on Wednesday to wrap up the frame and bring it home for mats and assembly). It's going to be on my King Kuka original gouche, which is a stunning piece and retails for a LOT of money. He was a good friend, and I was happy to support his artistic skills. 

Again, this isn't the piece I'm framing, but it's 
actually close in viewpoint. I adore his work. 

So, I'm off to the pool. Hopefully I can swim without issue and get a good workout in. I need it - when I'm in pain, I actually feel my age and I have NO intention of giving in to that myth! LOL Have an excellent day and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

Framing Continues, and a Super Glue Saga

Yesterday was one of those semi-frustrating days - a lot of wasted mats while trying to frame several pieces, and a few tossed razor blades which were causing the wasted mats. But, I also had myself to blame - sometimes my measuring skills just aren't up to the job. I did finally get a smaller piece done to my satisfaction, only two mats instead of the three I had wanted, but I'm happy with the piece. I also wanted to get the mats cut for a very expensive original artwork by an old friend - King Kuka. 

King Kuka was a Blackfoot artist working in watercolors 
and acrylics, as well as handmade paper. His wife, Sandra, 
was from the Twin Cities, so he was familiar with my area 
of the Cities. We always got along really well. I love this 
larger piece of his and want to frame it properly so that 
it really sparks the love. 

King was a Blackfoot artist, who actually lived in the Twin Cities for quite a while. His wife, Sandra, was from the Cities. I loved his smaller works of softly colored pressed paper pieces, but I have a large gouache of his that retails for $1200, and I want to get it properly matted and framed. That didn't turn out well - I couldn't seem to cut a straight cut, or measure properly, for anything. I finally gave up for the day, took a quick run to Michael's for a frame for the smaller piece, stopped by Chipotle to pick up our dinner, and called it a day. One of those "OK Great/Not OK Ick" days. 

King's bread and butter items were these smaller 
pressed paper, hand painted pieces, just flat matted, 
or framed. I sold a BUNCH of these, as did other 
dealers I knew. They were priced right, really attractive, 
and very distinct. King used heavy watercolor paper 
for the base on these. They were marvelous. 

Between everything in the framing area, DH came up to me mid-afternoon with his tube of super glue attached to his finger. We hunted for a small can of acetone, but only had half-gallon tins. So, off we went to the garden with a huge amount of acetone to get the glue and DH separated. Fortunately the acetone did exactly what was needed, and the tube of glue was separated from his finger quite quickly. He's been working on a lot of small repairs for various items that we sell at the shop. It's already the end of March, and it's not very much longer before we start our official Going Out of Business Sale. I'm petrified. 

Super Glue is great stuff, but it can be touchy to use on 
very small items. I guess DH was working on gluing at 
his workbench yesterday afternoon, with an almost empty 
tube of glue. He managed to glue his finger to the tube. 
NOT good. Acetone removed the two, but a new tube 
of glue was purchased while I was getting a picture frame 
at Michael's. After all of that stress, we decided on 
Chipotle's for dinner. 

On that note, I'm wrapping this up. My largest challenge over the next months will be keeping my stress levels under control. I just need to reach the finish line and close the door behind me. But until I can get there, there is SO much that still needs to fall into place. I just keep reminding myself to stay positive and trust in the system and the people that I've hired to help us. Our signs should arrive this week, and we'll be one step closer to removing my wrought iron gratings and locking the doors behind me. Scary! 

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.