Singing the Fabric Blues

There are never enough hours in the day for my day off. I spent a very productive day working on my budget, printing out materials for my upcoming income tax appointment, and of course having a delightful conversation with Aearwen, as I do every Wednesday afternoon.

The shopping center for my local Hancock Fabrics
isn't very upscale, but they've been there for a very long
time. I remember shopping here when it was still
called Minnesota Fabrics, before it was purchased
by Hancock. They're closing three Twin City stores,
Bloomington, Woodbury and Roseville. 

My local fabric store is closing and I'm quite sad. I happened to be driving by that part of town and saw signage covering the front windows that they were closing. So sad. However - closing also means bargains and I wasn't one to turn down opportunity. So after the groceries were put away and another load of laundry was put into the washer, I headed over there to see what might be on sale that I could use.

That leaves JoAnn Fabrics as my only choice for standard
fabric stores in my area, and that really isn't a choice at all. ICK!!!

The biggest thing I ended up with were several excellent patterns. They were already sold out of the Steampunk patterns I wanted (weeping - they were really excellent), but I was able to get one superb corset pattern, two skirt patterns and a dress pattern. I've been busy washing and putting away long lengths of calico fabric that I've had for years and I wanted some patterns I could use with all of this fabric. 50% off the pattern price (patterns normally retail for anywhere from $16 to $19) was a total SCORE. Add in a few excellent buttons for 40% off and a new thimble and double needle for 30% off, and I walked out with a small bag of deliciousness.

There's also Treadle Yard Goods, my primary source for
fine silk and extraordinary buttons, but they're small and
rather pricey. They almost closed two years ago but were
bought out by one of their employees. 

Of course, the fact that I spent an extra hour shopping (instead of just doing the grocery and the household shopping) meant I had no time to write. I think I've determined where I want to go with this year's B2MeM, though. Hopefully I'll have some time to write this morning. I'm changing my schedule up to have more eat-in breakfasts and less eat-out ones, which gives me more computer time between the gym and when I unlock the store.

There also is SR Harris, but as you can tell from the photo, this
is warehouse shopping - not easy to access and it also is a
serious drive away from where I live. It can be a treasure trove, but
not for me. I'm glad I have a good stash of fabrics stocked up
through the years. Don't think I'll be shopping for material anytime soon. 

Another nice thing about yesterday's workload was a refund I had been expecting. I had purchased and returned an item for more than $100 in mid-2014, but the refund had never appeared back in my account. I found the original email confirming that they had received the returned items and would refund my purchase price and sent it to them inquiring about the money. I received an answer today stating that the money will be in my account within 7-10 days and apologizing for their computer glitch. Not happy about the delay, but will be very happy when I have the money back.

It will be nice to have that money back in my account. I'm not
happy about the delay, but am happy that I caught it and
they were fast to respond. 

Happy Thursday, I'm off to beat the elliptical back into shape (yeah, right! Like that will EVER truly happen). Enjoy your day and be creative!

Budgets - I Hates Them!

I hate working on budgets - numbers are not really my friend. But due to a minor financial crisis in my personal funds earlier this week, I need to figure out what I am really spending my money on and how much I really need each month. I did a rough look yesterday and will do more in-depth analysis today while continuing to assemble my income tax preparation numbers. It looks like it'll be a numbers day. Ick!!!

I'm trying to stretch a fixed amount of money just a little
farther. It isn't working very well *sigh*. 

I'm not talking about household income stuff here. Even though I build in monies for groceries, it's only the small weekly shopping that comes out of my personal budget. But there are inescapable expenses such as my monthly car payment that just have to be made. I'm not sure how well I can economize, but I'm going to have to try.

Sometimes the numbers just don't make a lot
of sense. I hate trying to stay on a budget, but
I guess it's time to grow up. SO not fun! 

People in the know suggest keeping track of all expenditures for a week to get a better idea of where your money is going and where you can truly cut down. I can do that, even though I have a pretty good idea of where I spend my money. I rarely carry or use cash, I live by plastic - my debit/credit card, so I can just track my monthly expenses that way.

I pushed money into my checking from my savings yesterday and
scheduled a payment to wipe out my credit card balance, bringing
it back to zero. That won't last long, but gives me the ability
to control and watch what I put on there. 

Since I need to print my bank statements out for my tax appointment in two weeks, perhaps I'll just see if I can flesh out my budget after I have the paperwork in front of me. I suspect I won't be housecleaning today, but maybe I can get my financial house in order.

This numbers picture was just too pretty not to share with my
readers today. It's always best to end with something pretty
 to help color your day. Happy Wednesday! 

Jumping to another subject - are you writing for B2MeM? I'm very tempted. The first thing that appealed to me was the 2013 challenge that I skipped because of other commitments. Maybe I'll throw a chapter or two of my Bilbo's Bingo Card(s) in the mix and one or two market stall prompts. It's nice to have choices this year in case my muses get stubborn once again. Have a great Wednesday - I'm off to the pool and breakfast.

The Future in Writing, Music and My Budget

My eye is still bothering me. It looks really awful, but there's not a lot I can do about that. I'm using hot compresses and that's helping (maybe only psychologically, but that's at least a small help), and I'm trying to set up an appointment with my eye doctor for Wednesday. In the meanwhile, I just get to look more like a stereotypical witch, (which given that Halloween is in just a few weeks, isn't out of character). I really would like this cleared up by then, though.

I'm not at 100% and that's not a good thing right now. 

I have several writing assignments on my desk, but no energy to write. I'll get to them, but I'm not happy that I'm this far behind. I have a writing app on my smartphone, so at least in theory could get shorter works started and stored for additional editing via that method. Unfortunately, I'm really a keyboard person and we've been so busy at the shop (which is a really GOOD THING) that I haven't had much chance to write at all. NaNo is coming up quickly and that will have to change - dramatically and drastically.

I need to create my NaNo calendar and schedule my daily word counts. As
usual, my schedule for my blog will be changing to accommodate writing in the
morning. I'll clue you in as November gets closer. 

The reset of the NaNoWriMo website is complete and I checked in today to make sure my information was still correct. I have several of you as NaNo friends but if you want to be added, just let me know who you are in the NaNo universe and I'll be happy to add another friend onto my list. I need to transfer the first half of my novel over to Scrivner so that I have all of my text in a single location, and then I'm ready to go. I really want to finish this novel, although who knows. What's the old saying? "You can't hurry art?" My novel isn't art by any stretch, but it's going to take whatever time is necessary.

Yes, the fat girl is singing. It's finally going to be OVER! Call me happy! 

DH will finally get to sign the final tax return for his father's estate on Friday morning. Then he'll be able to close down the bank account and we can look at each other and breathe. After more than a year, we may finally be finished with this thing. It's ridiculous, the amount of time this took to get handled, but it will be a total relief to have it over and done.

I may have to cancel some things. I hate having to
live under a budget, but I have new car payments that
have to be made. 

I'm going to have to put myself on a very strict budget starting in January, and that's going to be very hard for me to do. I tend to buy a lot of e-books for my Nook and a lot of music for my iPod. Now I've got a new phone and Sirius Radio to add to the mix. I'm becoming an expensive date! I'll have to take a very careful look at my expenses.

The PonoPlayer has a unique profile - triangular in shape.
I'm hearing a lot of good things about this equipment, so
I'll keep an eye on it. 

I'm looking with interest at PONO music. I'm an audiophile and have always regretted the compromises I've had to make to live in the digital music age. I love listening to music, indeed I have music playing all day, but digital sound downloads in MP3 or iTunes format compress high-quality recordings to compress the data and allow more songs in less digital space. Some of this can be offset by a great pair of speakers, but not all of it. So there are various Hi-Def digital players out there which work on the FLAC download protocol, allowing for greater depth of sound. Most of these, however, are freakishly expensive. PONO comes in at the price of an iPhone - about $400. It's a bit bulky, but it has a good amount of internal memory (64 GB) and also accepts Micro SD cards that can double or triple the storage. Yeah. I want one. But, I'm going to wait. I think there's a market for a hi-definition digital sound device, but I'm not 100% sure this is the one yet. I'll keep my eye on PonoPlay, but I won't be buying one yet.

Have a wonderful Tuesday. I'm off to put on another hot compress *sigh*

I'm Excited!

So, it took almost three hours to get the budget together and what I got from my DH was an argument about the numbers. Well, the numbers are from the payments made and don't lie. I only have two years for comparison - next year will be better - but the reality is the amount I am given to operate the household is almost 40% too low. Basically, NOT a good situation. But I'll fight the dollar war one battle at a time, and eventually I'll win the war through catapult damage to the castle walls.

I don't recall if I mentioned it or not, but in my ongoing quest to improve my writing skills I enrolled for a course in Advanced Fiction Writing techniques. My first class was yesterday and I think I'm really going to be enjoying this. It's an on-line course, so I won't have serious problems when I attend my annual conference in just a couple of weeks, but the topics cover those things that I find myself wrestling with, and the other students seem to be a good mix. We'll see, but so far so good.

I didn't get time to beta my friend's latest chapter, I'll do that tonight instead, but at least I did get some work completed on my day off as well as a lovely phone conversation with Aearwen. It's always so fantastic to get a chance to speak with her. We have so many things in common and the time just flies. I've never been much for phone calls, but somehow without any effort we talk for one hour or more. It strikes me that there are so many people I consider friends and acquaintances that I never knew a few years ago. Count me as VERY happy to share my life with both my physical and my on-line friends.

Rewrite, Read and Budget

In three weeks I leave for the Bead & Button Show in Milwaukee for a short visit. In two weeks Chickie takes a week of vacation. In the two weeks of "open" time when everyone is in town we have to get doctor appointments scheduled, eye doctor appointments, chiropractic appointments, and we still have to actually work. But who wants to work? I'd rather spend my time writing and/or reading. So... I've been working through my B2ME stories. B2ME was a very hectic 31 days resulting in more than 50 completed stories and six Bingos for me. I already revised and posted my "Immortal Footsteps" grouping, sixteen stories dealing with Maglor experiencing a variety of historical venues/times. I still want to review these one more time before extending where I post them, but they're OK. Right now I'm working through the next series that I want to post - "Feanor and his Family". That is resulting in the complete rewrite of a few stories, and just some smaller changes and polishes to others. Then I can start the final grouping of stories and finish this out.

I'm reading books that my DH actually recommended. Although I do own them in paperback, I purchased them for my NookColor because my eyes prefer my e-reader to the print size of an actual book. These books, the Nightrunner series by Lynn Flewelling has totally entrapped me. I'm just tearing through these books when I have a chance to read.

DH is getting a little tense because I haven't finished my budget yet. That's tomorrow's chore. I hated doing budgets when I was in charge of offices or stores, and I still hate it. But in order to pass some of our tax refund money on to DH, I need to figure out how much of it I need to keep to get us through next year's bills. This year was almost dangerous with less than $300 buffer before our 2011 refund was deposited. "Whew!" I got lucky. Tomorrow I sit down with the bank statements and paid bills from 2011 to figure everything out for 2012/13. I'd much rather be reading or rewriting :-)