Gearing Up and Looking Back

Today is the second day of our 2-Day After Thanksgiving Sale event and it should be very busy. Yesterday panned out to be twice our normal volume of people, so that was great. We had a good time with our customers, everyone was very happy with what they purchased, and miracle of miracles, I didn't make any errors on the sales register so the drawer balanced at the end of the day. The transactions were complicated and had to be performed in a specific order or they wouldn't give the proper discount amounts for sale items, so I felt fortunate that everything worked like clockwork. Today will be a bit easier - 20% off all Japanese seed beads. We'll be pulling a lot of product for people and, as usual, I'll be tied to the register. But I'll be really happy to see five-o'clock come around when we can lock the doors.

It will be a relief to lock the doors tonight. It should be a very busy day at the shop. 

My final word count for NaNoWriMo is 63,470 after this morning's writing. I may still get another 500-1000 words in before I open the store this morning, but I do have some fanfic to work on too, so I may push over and work on that instead. I also need to get my photographs for the week taken. I know what I want to take, but time has been an issue for me this week. I don't want to fall behind with the themes, though, so I really need to get this going.

I used Scrivener software for my novel this year. Great software!
I highly recommend it. I'll be buying it when my trial period is over in
a few days. It's well worth the cost. 

I'm thinking more and more about just getting a new washer instead of getting my old one fixed. I really want a washer large enough to allow me to wash my bedding. Right now, to do my bedding requires a trip to the Laundromat, and that's something that I rarely have the time/effort/spare change to do. Additionally, I'm just not that fond of sharing washers with other people, although I have used laundromats throughout my life. I have started researching possible replacement washers, though. If anyone reading my blog in the US who has bought a washer in the past five years has any input for me, I'd appreciate it.

Front Load vs Top Load seems to be quite evenly
divided. Does anyone reading have a subscription to
Consumer Reports and would be willing to do some
research for me on good washing machines? 

I have to work tomorrow, only noon to four, but still work. I am starting to design my Solstice cards in my head and will be doing serious work on them on Wednesday. I'll be putting my first "call out for cards" post out on Monday, so make sure you get back to me then if you want to be added to the list.

This is similar to what I'm thinking for this year's
Solstice cards. Well ... kindof similar. Well ... 

In the meanwhile, I hope all of you have a totally amazing weekend. Be kind to your local salespeople this weekend, they're under lots of seasonal stress :-)

Turkey Day and Black Friday

So we totally pigged out on our Thanksgiving meal. Today I'm back to the diet, but it was really decadent to just totally throw it all away for one magnificent day of food. We had a large turkey (which still has more than half of it remaining for meals for the rest of the weekend), and we had all of the fixings - cranberry sauce, stuffing, mashed potatoes with gravy, corn, and my DH did a lovely baked broccoli in a sauce with cheese and bacon that turned out really good. For dessert, an hour or two later, we had pumpkin and apple/cream cheese pie slices. OMG! So good!

French Apple Cream cheese pie. OMG! So good!

I spent the day at my computer, writing. My characters are in the middle of the Rocky Mountains now, heading to the next place where they will spend a bit of time. The journey has been hard, but good, and they are still characters with things to say to me, so I'm happy at 65,000 words and still writing. My goal is to continue writing each day, and I've been sticking to it. I want to tell this story, then finally, after I have resolved it to my satisfaction, I can go back and begin the editing process. It's going to be a slog, but so worthwhile. I'm happy with what I've done and where I'm at.

A miner and his mule. This picture is from Orient, Colorado which
is located near Moffat, Colorado. 

Today, of course, is Black Friday. Many stores opened last night instead of early today, and that's OK. I know there are many people up in arms over the fact that stores would open for shopping on Thanksgiving Day. I'm not planning on doing that in my own business, but I can see why those stores who have long lines of people wanting to get in and shop the bargains would be interested in getting them through the doors earlier. As for my own store...well I was supposed to get a list of the things that we were putting onto our "unannounced items on special sale" and the list never appeared. So now I'll have to make up some template signs while I'm home with a printer that can handle the heavier stock I use for signage, and then I'll have to make up my own mind about what I want on sale and how much I want to take off. I'll hand-write the signs and put them up before my doors open at 10:00 am.

It used to be that doors opened at 5:am on Friday. Then that got pushed
back to midnight, now many stores were open at 8:00 pm on Thanksgiving
Day. I know I didn't have the energy to shop after eating my turkey, but
I'm sure the popular stores were wall-to-wall people. 

We are running one of the two sales that we offer a year for Black Friday and Small Business Saturday. For my Friday, I'm offering deep discounts on Swarovski crystal items and high-end stone, and on Saturday we're doing our annual Seed Bead Spectacular which usually has us hopping like total idiots. I'm hoping that the sales will be well attended and that people will be patient as we pull and process their choices. Usually we don't have problems, but sometimes there have been shoplifting issues or people who needed a lot of specialized help, and those can be problematic.

One of the items that we'll be running special deep discounts
on are our Swarovski Crystal Elements cubes. They are
so lovely and flashy, but expensive, so we want to
sell some and lower our stocks of them a bit. 

So, if you're out and about today, shopping anywhere, spare a smile and a "Have a nice day" for your sales staff. They are probably stressed to the max, today. I know I will be.

Does any kid really need that many toys? REALLY? 

Here's a Black Friday Bingo card for those of you heading out to shop.

Here's hoping you have only good things happen to you
on your personal Black Friday experience. 

Have a good Friday, everyone. I hope you get the bargains you've been looking for!

Time Compressed and Happy Thanksgiving

My best intentions fell apart yesterday. I hit the ground running, having to do a load of laundry before I left the house at 6:00 am. My goal was to get my writing in first, then continue with the rest of my chores. I had to decorate the store for the holidays, post our holiday hours signs, cut the bag inserts that we put in to inform people about our expanded hours for the next four weeks, and pick up milk, bacon bits and the two pies I had ordered. After this I needed to get a mop that DH needed for the ceilings in the house we've been fixing up, and I hoped to get to Groundswell to get some more writing in. Somewhere in all of that I was going to write my blog.

Stay flexible, that way you can sometimes land on your feet.

Best laid plans, etc, etc.

Remember...Save Your Work.

I got the groceries and baked goods and the mop. I wrote BUT - BIG BUT - I forgot to save. Yikes! I arrived at Groundswell to continue working on the portion I had started that morning, and realized it was nowhere to be seen, nor were the pictures and links I had put into my research section to give me visual cues as I wrote. I was appalled! I was astonished! I was quite frustrated. So even though Amy showed up to write, I sat with here for a little bit as I put my laptop away and finished my coffee, offered my apologies, and left. I hoped that the original chapter was still on my desktop, but no. It wasn't. I ended up rewriting most of the chapter yesterday afternoon *sigh*. Not the end of the world, but it was annoying.

I totally ran out of time to post yesterday's blog! I'm SO SORRY!

I also didn't get my blog posted yesterday AT ALL! I'm so very sorry. I'm usually better organized than this, but time has a habit of compressing sometimes.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving Day.

So today is Thanksgiving Day here in the US, and I have my turkey in the oven, my stuffing and mashed potatoes ready to go, my corn and broccoli ready to cook, and my pies, picked up yesterday, ready to eat. Someone can just roll me to work tomorrow morning - LOL. I'm going to get some writing done and relax, letting the oven do the work for me until I start basting the bird.

There are many views on Thanksgiving, but I subscribe to the viewpoint
that a gathering of friends and family sharing a good meal is always a
wonderful thing. Happy Thanksgiving to each of you. 

I treasure my friends and I am so thankful for the opportunity I have been given to meet each of you on-line, and some of you in real life. I am grateful for all of the help, comments, and assistance you have given me with my writing. I am grateful for the small windows into each other's lives you have allowed me to share, and I wish each and every one of you a wonderful Thanksgiving Day.

Spinning Tales

In my life, the term spinning tales can encompass many things. It can mean that I'm talking about spinning a tale as in writing my fiction. It can mean spinning as in spinning wool at one of my spinning wheels or from one of my drop spindles. Or, it can mean what it means today - that the spin cycle of my washing machine isn't operating properly. Of the three possibilities, this last one is the one I like the least and the one that is keeping me from enjoying this wonderful day fully. AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!

This is a lovely picture of an old Irish spinning wheel. It is
similar to a basic wheel that I learned to spin on.

I have an old washer. It's not as old as the first washer I had when I moved up to Minnesota. At that time we were poor - very poor - and the only washer available to me was my DH's grandmother's old wringer washer with the mangle on top. OK, for many of my readers, this will be a mystery. "What's she talking about? Didn't those like die in the Depression? How did they even work?" Questions such as these may be flowing through your mind. Be assured that yes, washing machines of that era actually do work, although they are hell on permanent press. This particular washer leaked oil whenever I used it, and so I did get into the habit of visiting the Laundromat on a weekly basis, I still used the old washer when I needed a quick load done and didn't have the time/money to go to the coin-operated laundry. When my DH gave me a new washer for Christmas it was one of the best days EVER. I'm not a great fan of receiving household appliances for holiday gifts, but this was a good one. I like clean clothes.

My wringer washer was quite similar to this model. It wasn't much,
but it beat having to run to the Laundromat every time I needed
something cleaned. It did the job, but it was so labor intensive!

When we moved into our current house, the washer/dryer models were similar. The washer was a bit more upscale, but the dryer was actually the identical model to what we had at our old house. I was pretty happy. I knew the brand and knew they were reliable. And so they have proven to be. I've been in my house for more than 25 years and I've never had a repairman out for my washer or dryer. But that will soon change.

This isn't my washer, but it is my washer model. See...it's old!

The washer is not spinning/rinsing well. When I open it after the cycle is complete, the towels are still soaking wet. I watched the spin cycle today and it just doesn't have the strength to deal with the clothes any more. So I'm down to two choices. (1) I can call a repairman and get the washer fixed - probably $200 or so, maybe more, or (2) I can purchase a new washer. DH offered to buy a new one, he fully realizes how old the equipment is and doesn't begrudge the expense. But the new washers out there don't have very good ratings for cleaning clothes or for maintenance issues. So I'm really hesitant about buying a new washer and am coming down on the side of repair.

The lonely Maytag repair guy. I'll be happy to give
him some business.

I think I'll call a highly-rated repair dude today and see if he can come out next week to take a look. Something has to be done - I need clean and fully rinsed clothes and this just isn't happening right now. So there you have it - spinning tales for the day.

Yes, I did it. Now to actually finish the novel (which I'm still writing
every day for at least 1000 words). 

Oh, and by the way, for those following these kinds of things (LOL), I validated my NaNoWriMo manuscript this morning at more than 57,000 words (although the novel isn't even CLOSE to being complete yet). But, another year's NaNo has now been successfully completed. Yeah me! - LOL.

Procrastination and Pictures

My NaNoWriMo Pep Talk in today's in-box was about procrastination, and that's basically what I'm going to be doing here in my own blog today. Because I really shouldn't even be writing my blog today. I should be on Constant Contact pounding out my mailing that will be sent to my customers tomorrow to advertise our Black Friday and Small Business Saturday sales event, what items will be on sale, and how they can take advantage of some amazing bargains. And, they actually ARE amazing bargains that anyone working with those products will turn somersaults over. But I can't seem to get into the groove of actually writing the text, and Constant Contact is fussy - hard to work with and frustrating. Nonetheless, I am making this post a quick one because I really can't procrastinate any longer.

I work well under pressure, but this is pushing my edges...

So I'm going to offer you pictures ... because I love picture blogs occasionally.

Christmas tree balls give a festive look for the holidays.

The shopping malls will be crowded with people trying to find that one perfect gift.

Even guys will get into the shopping frenzy, although a lot of them
are experts at procrastination...

People will decorate their homes and businesses with colorful lights, sometimes
a bit overboard with computerized musical accompaniments.  I actually
enjoy the festive lights. 

Cities decorate also. Here is a picture from Berlin with lighted
trees on Unter-den-Linden Blvd. So lovely. 

So there you have it. A few pictures to fill my blog and brighten your day. Now I can procrastinate no more. Time to get to work on my mailing....*sigh*. Have a fabulous Monday...