It Was a Good "Day Off" - At Least, A Busy One

As is often the case, I didn't get nearly as much done yesterday and I had hoped for, but it was still a successful day. I did find time in mid-afternoon to run over to my framing supply place and pick up the two frames I had ordered two weeks ago. They're lovely, fit great, and weren't a horrible price. Of course, it was a smaller, thin frame for small pieces, but I'm pleased. I also spent time late yesterday afternoon before chatting with Aearwen, to re-do the mats for another larger art piece that I was having MAJOR problems with the other day. That also was much more successful, and I'm happy. I need to mount the artwork into it with better than removable tape, but that's all I had time to do. Still, I count it as a win. 

I have aa C&H professional mat cutter. It's been 
cutting slightly crooked, however (or maybe it 
was just that day because yesterday's cuts seemed 
just fine). I purchased two new sheets of black 
matboard to replace what I ruined two weeks 
ago, and was much more successful this time. 

My major job yesterday was cooking my next batch of baked fruit for my breakfasts. I had only a single container left from the old batch which will be eaten for breakfast today. It was a LOT of fruit for the new batch - apples, peaches and pears mostly. I was going to add fresh blueberries to them, but simply forgot to add the blueberries into the mix. So I'll be sprinkling each container with fresh blueberries as I get ready for breakfast that day. I can live with that. 

I love my baked fruit for my breakfast. I make it in huge 
batches and just grab a container, toast a couple of pieces 
of my gluten-free bread, add a cup of tea and I'm set for 
a nice breakfast after I'm done either swimming or working 
out on the treadmill. 

I've got Sharon coming in at the end of the month, and I need to do a serious housecleaning. Speaking of Sharon ... did you send me your flight information yet? Glanding at my various notes that surround my desk, I'm not seeing anything, although it's possible I attached it to the bottom of the calendar. In any case, Sharon, send the deets to me again so that I don't leave you deserted at the airport - LOL. 

If you sent me dates (and you probably did), please send 
them again. My desk right now is looking like The Bomb 
just went off - papers everywhere. Ugh! 

Apparently some of the items we shipped to the Auction House in Santa Fe, New Mexico, are up for auction. At least, that's what DH said, and he wasn't very happy with their placement or their photographs, etc, etc. Well, I went onto the website this morning and didn't see anything of ours up for bids. I'll have to take another longer look later on today. Perhaps I opened the wrong auction of theirs. It'll be easier to see things on the laptop in any case. 

We're trying a test-run with Santa Fe Art Auction. I thought 
we were supposed to have some items in the current auction 
that just opened, but I wasn't seeing anything of ours when 
I looked through the offerings this morning. I'll look again 
with the laptop if I have time later today. 

On that note, I'm off to the pool. We've been stuck indoors so far this week (and today may also be that case). We had a huge storm come through on Sunday/Monday and it knocked out the power to the pumps, etc for the outside pool. They've got things back up and running (maybe), but it will take a few days to get the chemicals back into balance and the heat back into the water before they allow us back into the outdoor pool. In the meantime, summer is quite quickly moving along. Too quickly. LOL Have an excellent Thursday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

We're Driving Ourselves Crazy - Who Would Think It Would Be So Hard to Quit?

It's June, almost July. We're on a tight time schedule, and we're SO behind. *sigh* I've been working on my first tale for the current LJ Idol, and I'll get something posted today, but will it be my best work? Highly unlikely. Still, I'll have put something out there, and hopefully it will be enough to get me to the next round. I know I can't devote the time I would like to writing this time around, but I've always been good at coming up with something under pressure. I hope that continues to be true because my pressures are only going to be increasing over the next few months. 

I have no idea why I chose this quote today, but it 
seems to just fit, so here you go! 

The goal is to be out of the store by Thanksgiving. That means a LOT of bits and pieces are going to have to fall into place before that can happen. We'll also probably end up renting a temporary storage room for items we'll want to bring to the Southwest for auction. We'll have to see how the first auction goes - I don't recall which dates we sent items down for, but we did do that. 

We sent a variety of items down to Santa Fe Art Auction 
for an auction scheduled for this summer. I have no idea 
how they will sell, but if they do well, we have a lot more 
items that we would like to bring to them. Many of those 
would be better if we rented a truck and drove them down 
ourselves. Items that are too fragile to really ship with 
any confidence. 

Our problem is the artwork. We'll be able to sell or donate the beads without too much problem. Beads are very popular and everyone loves a good sale. Of course, we have 1000's of types/styles/colors and materials. As I said in an earlier post - beads just started taking over from the artwork. 

We've sold down a lot since this photo was taken. This was 
from 10 years ago and it's on our Google page (along with 
many other photos). A couple of the photos even have me 
(blurred, but with hair and no tattoo!). We still have a lot 
of materials available, but it's nowhere near as packed 
as it was then. 

But the artwork is varied, both framed and unframed. We have signed limited-edition prints, we have serigraphs, we have originals in watercolor, gouache and acrylics, and we have some very well-known Native American artists in that collection of items. DH spent a solid three days looking for the invoice for two Amado Pena watercolor and pen pieces. He knows which gallery he purchased them from, but needs information about what he paid for them and the exact media the artist used. No luck. He drove himself crazy with it, and it's simply nowhere to be found. 

We have two lovely Amado Pena pieces and just 
can't tell if they're originals or lithographs. We 
can't find the invoice, so it's a very uncertain 
valuation. *sigh*

I, in the meantime, have Etsy which is suddenly becoming a bit more active for us. My customer from the West Coast who ordered the MASSIVE amount of crystals has received her box and is happily unpacking everything. I had a smaller Etsy order yesterday morning and mailed that one out on my way home yesterday night. I don't always check my Etsy page daily, but happened to catch this order right away. Yeah! Sometimes I do things right - LOL. 

On that note, I'm off to eat breakfast and start a busy Friday. Have an excellent day and I'll be back to wrap up the week tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

Short of Time - A Quick Post Today

Just a very short check-in today because I'm running very late. I'm fighting with computers again *sigh*. I'm trying to get my next audio book moved over to my Open Swim Headphones for swimming, which means I need it loaded before Tuesday morning. It's always a fight now that Audible is owned by Apple. I've got the book (and hundreds of others) already purchased and in my library, it's getting the files converted to MP3 and loaded that makes things a bit more challenging. 

I use Shokz Underwater Audio headphones to listen 
to my books. I absolutely adore them and when my last 
set died, I was at the store buying a new set immediately. 

In that quest, I've purchased three different programs over the years, because none of them are predictable or dependable *sigh*. It's a tremendous loss of funds and time, but I need my audio books to swim, so I continue to fight. I'll pick the fight up again either tonight or tomorrow. 

We sent the heavier items via UPS - they should arrive 
on Wednesday. We sent the lighter items via Priority Mail 
and the USPS, and they'll be there no later than Wednesday 
also. I'll be contacted when they arrive at their destination. 

I've sent two boxes off to the auction house. DH and I decided to auction off items from our collection, we have too much stuff. So, we're giving them a test drive and two boxes were sent off last night. They should receive them no later than Thursday, and I look forward to getting confirmation from Janda. The actual auction dates for this shipment will be in the later part of the summer, and in the meantime, we'll start prepping for the next shipment. As I said, this will be a test run, but it's been an experience already! A good one, in most respects. 

So, I'm off and running (figuratively). I'll be back on Monday morning and I hope you have a great weekend. Slava Ukraini. 

It's Saturday and It'll be a Busy One

Just a short post today, wishing you all a wonderful weekend. I spent yesterday in the kitchen, cooking two different types of pork chop (with and without bone) and a batch of my cooked fruit mix. I'm set for the next couple of weeks with my fruit now, and have plenty of dinners for the next few days as well. I felt quite accomplished - LOL. 

I got a lot done in the kitchen yesterday. It was my kind 
of day - I love spending the day cooking. I made two kinds 
of pork chops, my alkagizers for the coming week, and 
baked a HUGE batch of my baked fruit that will take 
me through the next two weeks or so. 

I also spent a fair amount of time on the computer working on photos that DH has been doing for store items that we're putting into auction at Santa Fe Auction House. We're putting in a lot of things that we think will have a good market in the Southwest, and each item needs to be photographed, described, and evaluated by their assessor, Janda. She's been fabulous to work with, I'm enjoying the experience. 

In this auction tryout, we're mostly sending jewelry and some 
collectibles - antiques and more modern. There's a lot that 
we would rather sell in this way if this works out for us. It's 
a test run, and I think it will be successful. At least, I'd like 
to think this would be a good secondary outlet for our harder 
to sell items. 

We're looking at this as a test run. We have a LOT of stuff - could probably populate one or two auctions solely on what we have available at the shop. Eventually, we'll also need to look at divesting our personal collection as well, so this is merely one toe in the water and the water is deep and wide. 

I adore Republic of Tea herbal teas, and my cupboard is 
filled with their canisters right now - LOL. I have two 
cups every morning - one in my mug, and one in my 
travel mug. I also drink it at the shop. I do love my tea. 

So, I've got the kettle on, and have to rescue it before it whistles loud enough for DH to actually hear it (that takes a lot of sound these days). I hope all of you have a wonderful day. I'll be back on Monday, so enjoy your weekend. Slava Ukraini. 

Habits, Health and Plans - It's All Coming Together

It's going to be a busy day today, so I got it off to a good start by 45 minutes on the treadmill. I had been feeling like an absolute slug, so it was a relief to get some exercise in once again. Next Tuesday I return to the swimming pool. I'm totally out of shape for swimming, but hopefully will be back on form within a reasonable time. It'll be great to see all of my water friends once again. 

It would be so kewl to run virtually in my den, 
but I don't think I really want to (1) spend the $, 
and (2) totally trust my balance in this case. 
The wise decision is to stick with my treadmill. 

DH and I are working on getting some items to an auction house in Santa Fe. We've had some of these since shortly after we opened the shop, and they have't sold. So ... time to try a different venue. We've been working carefully with an assigned agent, and should have things packed and sent off within another few weeks. DH decided to add some other items to what we had already proposed to them, so photos and descriptions are getting sent today, probably as soon as I get back from the grocery store. 

We're committed to a list of items that have been curated 
and will be shown and auctioned off by Santa Fe Art 
Auction. The representative we've been working with has 
been awesome. We don't want to send breakables, and this 
is just a test run. We have a LOT of items we'd love to send 
down and have sold, even though we might not make what 
we want for them, at least they're out of our inventory. 

The weather's been cooperative, and I appreciate that. Instead of one of those winters where we have snow almost every day, we've only had snow a few times, and then long periods of sunshine. It's still cold, but not sub-zero cold. This is definitely MY kind of winter (especially with driving back and forth from the various clinics over the past few weeks). 

It's fascinating how brain studies and understanding 
have progressed over the past few decades. The 
different areas of the brain and how they work were 
speculative when I was young, and have been 
isolated by now. There are still surprises - it's what 
happens in medicine and brain work - but it's such a 
vast improvement since I had to put Mom into an 
Alzheimer's facility. 

The next major event I have coming up is my extended memory test in Minneapolis on the 17th. That's a four-hour event, and DH has to accompany me. We'll both be interviewed, and I'll have various tests, etc. I have no idea what's really entailed in this. I don't think I'm nearly as bad as DH and Chickie think, but they're looking from the outside, and I'm looking from the inside. Our perspectives are dramatically different. Chickie Mama will come in to work with Chickie while we're at the clinic. Then I have a phone consult on the 23rd, and something else on the 30th. I think my phone calendar isn't 100% up to date. I'll have to check the printout to make sure. 

When I really thought about this statement, 
I realized it's actually pretty accurate. I've 
tried to accumulate positive habits for 
several years now, and I think I'm healthier 
for it. 

It's a crazy life I lead, and in spite and despite it all, I'm here posting six days a week. Habit - it's a hard thing to break - LOL. I hope you have a wonderful Friday and I'll be back tomorrow to wrap up the week. Cooking and computer work sound like the perfect combo for me today. Slava Ukraini.