April Memories

It's a new month, and some things end while others begin. One of my favorite daily visit sites is calling it quits after more than four years. I've probably clicked to visit every day for most of  those four years, have survived their move to a different hosting platform as well as a change of daily hosts, and it will be a sad thing to open my email in-box on Monday and not see it listed. A lot of memories there.

I'm going to miss COP, it was one of my daily
visits for years and I really enjoyed it. But, all
things must come to an end. 

I'll have a new alarm system at my home. Our house system has been on the dying side for the past four months and finally died completely early Wednesday morning. Our company will be out early this morning to upgrade us to the newest version and install all sorts of new things. It'll be nice to have a functional security alarm again, and it spurred DH into doing some serious cleaning of the den yesterday, so all is good!

The old panels will now be bright, clean, and
functional. What could be bad about that? Yippee! 

March and April always bring my parents to mind. March was the month of my father's birth, April is the month of my mother's. Of course, they are long dead now, but they still live on in my memories and I was/am very fortunate that my inheritance after Mom died is still managing to help me out and still pays for things like my monthly car payment. A lot of very careful investing there and I'm stretching it out to the max.

I'm very fond of lilacs, so I'm looking forward to their
wonderful, colorful perfumed blossoms. 

As one of my readers noted yesterday, April is the cruelest month. Although the quote is from T.S. Eliot, it has basis in reality. March and April were hunger months. The winter stores of food were becoming exhausted, but the new growth hadn't come in yet. The promise of food was there, but the reality wouldn't really hit until late in the month, or even into May. This was the time when the weak would die while watching the world come to life around them. Cruel indeed.

So as I head off to the pool today, having not lost (or gained) a single pound for the entire month of March (that's me sighing a frustrated sigh), I'm hoping that April ends with the same light of promise that it is beginning with. It's going to be a very busy month for me. Have a wonderful Friday!

Progress?

So, I've been working on this E-newsletter for the past two weeks.  I wrote the first one, then showed it to my manager who promptly tore it apart and rewrote it stating, "I don't know how you managed to get a master's degree with writing like this".  I've always claimed that I am not an author, I am an editor (and not that good at editing either, but much more comfortable with the red pencil than composing the original work).  So I then edited what he wrote, input the changes, and printed out a new copy for him to look over.  More changes ensued.  We've gone through this several times now and have finally declared the newsletter ready for release.  Tonight it will be sent to my E-mailing list from the shop and we will see.  We are doing two intense coupon sales, one on Friday and a different one on Saturday.  The savings for those using the coupons are substantial.  We'll have to see if these will work.  The business has been very depressed and we are losing money for the first year since the 1990's.  At this rate I won't be able to keep my employee employed, will have to switch to a five-day week so that I can work the shop with my Manager only, and basically it will be hell for two years until I can close.  I am looking forward to that like I would look forward to a tooth extraction without anesthesia - NOT.  Sometimes I just hate this economy.  But if this coupon sale helps our dollars, we will have a bit more light at the end of our dark tunnel.  We'll have to wait and see what happens. 

Love that green.  Now we just need some of that
coming OUR way. 

But, I also made some creative decisions.  I got Iris' next chapter betaed and sent back to her and I Emailed Sadie and told her, with contrite apologies, that I am unable to accept her as another beta.  I returned the work I had done on a one-up story for her so far, and said that looking realistically at my time, I simply could not accept another beta right now.  I like her stories, but they will take too much work on my part to bring them up to my standards.  Iris and I have gotten to a good working relationship since we started in May, 2009.  I like her writing style and we are comfortable with each other.  I try hard to allow her voice to sing through in our work, probably not being as picky as I should be, but we are both happy with the end result.  I don't mind helping her out and if I get time crunched, she is fine with having things delayed a bit.  The pressure isn't there.  Taking on another person would eliminate another 1-3 nights of personal time and I decided that I needed that time for my own pursuits - I decided to be a bit selfish.  I actually think that's a good thing for me at this time. 

Instructions Bru-ha-ha

I don't particularly enjoy doing projects that are designed by other people, but I don't have the time or clarity of thinking right now to design my own and a couple of projects had appealed to me.  The second of these projects has now reminded me of why I don't enjoy doing other people's designs.  Aside from the really poor directions which only work well for the first half of the project, they also are lying like crazy when they say that it "works up quickly".  Now, I've been a beader for more than 40 years and am considered to be very good at the craft.  I know there are people out there who are better at it than I am because they focus on beadwork as their major craft.  I do not focus on beadwork exclusively and my skills, therefore, are not directed towards a single goal.  But I was feeling a bit frustrated with the directions in this project when I got into the second half of it, things were anything but clear.  Then, discussing this with my co-worker, I heard that one of my customers who is a very accomplished beader had come into the store on my day off and had complained about the very same thing - that it was neither quick nor easy.  I suddenly felt better.  I do want to do the project, though, so I'll string up beads again tonight and try for a second time.  I'm sure it will go together easier...at least until that second part. 

E-newsletters are SO much easier to prepare and send.

After working on it for several days, I think I have my E-newsletter for the shop pounded out.  I printed two copies out last night to run by my Manager and the Chickie and we'll see if they agree with what I am saying and my time schedule.  Everything that I had planned to have happening this weekend has been pushed off to next weekend.    I'm just not timely on this one, but I also knew that I had a bit of time.  However, I have a quick and dirty one that needs to go out the week after this for a special one-day sale and I have to get to work on that quickly.  Then I always send one for the Holidays and that's the next one to work on.  I really need to send this more regularly, at least one a month, so I'll focus and do writing that has nothing to do with Middle Earth - a bit unusual for me over the past few years.  Have a wonderful and creative Friday. 

Goals and Goal Setting

Tonya posted the following today, and this was my response to the primary paragraph:

"What is it that you want to attract into your life? How can you expect to achieve anything if you haven't asked for it. You are a magnet of energy. If you don't know or ask for what you desire how can that energy come back to you?"

My response to the quote above was:

That's the key, isn't it. To be able to focus on a goal and ask for it. But how to do that? You can ask the proverbial aether, or you can ask yourself to step up to the plate and perform for yourself instead of someone or something else. When you do that, you are often perceived as being selfish, self-centered, and a traitor to the corporate or family goals. The key is to walk this tightrope and get to the platform at the end of it. Only one person can stand on that platform - it should be the platform of your personal artistic goals and it should be you standing on that platform.

Catching that Rising Star

I'm often accused of being selfish because I take the time I feel necessary to work on my art instead of spending all of my time, 24/7, thinking about and working with my shop. But I've found, over the years, that my artistic side HAS to be a part of me. So, having my studio days are absolutely essential to me. Yesterday was quite productive. I got a lot of BronzClay formed and drying for the kiln, I painted a lot of copper-conductive paint onto beads and several skulls so that I can start electroforming them next week, I started working on the neckline of my cloak, and I started polishing a wonderfully layered slice of aggregate stone for the front of....something (haven't quite figured that out yet, but ideas are percolating). I just dove right into it when I got home in mid-morning and didn't come up for air until I left for the grocer in the late pm. And I was happy and have a good outlook on my upcoming day.

Oh, and I started working on my E-newsletter for the shop (Stormcloud Trading). I want to send one out every month at a minimum. It's not quite as easy as I had hoped, but I think I'll be happy in the long run. It's going to take some getting used to the software. I really wanted to have it out by the end of the week, but it will probably be next week before I really have it pounded into shape. If you are reading this blog and would like to be included in the address list for my E-newsletter for Stormcloud Trading, feel free to Email me and request to be added to the address list.