A Catch Up Day with Lovely Weather - How Time Flies

It's a perfectly glorious day today. It might be hot, but that won't really matter to me. I'll be spending a bit more time in the kitchen than I'd really like, but after I get my mangoes cooked and my "Ogre Juice" made, I'm free to pay bills, work on the computer, and hopefully spend some time in the garden. That's the plan, at least. We'll see if it actually works out. 

Time Flies. When I looked for a good image for that, 
this one came up, and I loved it. I absolutely had to 
pick this as one of my photos of the day. 

I was originally going to treat myself to an extra day in the swimming pool first thing this morning, but looking at my hands last night, I realized that an additional day of chlorine wouldn't be doing my skin any favors, so I changed my mind and stayed home I'll be back in the water on Tuesday, so that's OK. 

Here's another really lovely image for "Time Flies". I 
love the lighting on this one, and again it's clocks 
in a group, instead of the single version. 

On Monday I have a rather late (8:45 am) appointment with my orthodontist. I'm actually going to show up MUCH earlier, in the hopes that they can envelope me in earlier. I have too tight of a time schedule with an 8:45 am appointment. Getting to the shop on time if there's any serious traffic issues might be next to impossible. I can't imagine what had been going through my head to agree to that timing for an appointment on a work day! I must have been brain dead. 

No wings here, but the juxtaposition of the hour glass 
and the multitude of clocks makes for an interesting 
view of "Time Flies". At any rate, time progresses, and 
we're all along for the ride. 

For an unknown reason, my thoughts have been turning to Seth in Colorado toady, so I'm hoping that things are OK with him. Not everyone is as lucky as I am - to have Seth still be a friend after all of these years, and after we almost married each other, is rather remarkable. We're not in constant contact, but we aren't out of contact either. It's a comfortable arrangement of friendship at a distance - he has his life - his lovely wife, the horses and other animals, and the mountains of Colorado. I have DH, my garden, my business and the weather swings of Minnesota. It can be crazy for both of us, but if we reach out a hand, the other person is there to catch and hold on. That's what a good friend can be and can do. I'm very fortunate in my Colorado friends. Both Seth and my "sister" Sharon are always in my corner. 

I liked this quote for today. It's a good reminder that what's 
past will affect our future, to one extent or another. Not 
all shadows are large, some are mere slivers, but they 
still affect our perception of the light. 

So I'm going to wrap this up. I'm hoping to get a lot done today, but I'd also like to spend some time in the garden, enjoying the plants and keeping the squirrels away from DH (who has taken to wearing a cap when he's sitting outside in the early mornings reading his newspaper). Have an excellent Friday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

I Want to be Selfish

It's warmer, but I feel colder. Go figure! There's no real reason to it, except it's mid-November and I have time ticking off in the back of my head. Still, my cards are progressing and, all things considered, I'm actually almost on schedule. Almost. 

I would love to be selfish tomorrow and spend my Sunday
on my own personal projects. I know for a fact that it
won't happen, so I'm already resigned to not even mentioning
it to my DH. Sometimes I have to choose my battles. 

I had my security alarm person back at the shop yesterday morning before we opened. I wanted him to be able to work without having to have things unlocked or unarmed if he needed to test something. We altered the system a bit, pulling off the WiFi portion and switching everything over to an older, but more reliable format. I'm much happier, and really hope that my technician won't continue to be my best friend over the next week or two. Three visits this week was quite enough. 

I'm pretty sure my security alarm technician was
starting to feel like entering a revolving door whenever
he looked at his scheduled stops. I think we finally
isolated and excised the problem, but what a
nightmare to achieve success. 

Along with everything else, I received one of two large shipments yesterday. This one, mostly of crafting products, has to be prepped for sale and ready to go ASAP. We're running out of time for holiday shoppers and crafters and need to have that product out for sale. I'm expecting a second shipment, this one of smaller jewelry items from my Southwestern US Native American crafts people. I usually prefer to hand-pick my products for jewelry, but no time this year. It's mostly smaller items - earrings and pendants, and that shipment should arrive next week. It's going to be a busy week ahead. 

I'm bringing in a bunch of smaller Navajo and Zuni
earrings. We're super low on stock at the shop, and
need some for the holiday season. I'm not stepping too
far outside the common styles with this shipment.
I prefer to hand-pick, and didn't have the time for
a quick flight out to the Rez this year. 

My cards are progressing, though. I'm ready to begin impressions of the interior panel, and just finished one of two stages for the card cover detail. This clock is ticking, and usually I'd spend my Sundays painting or working on them. I can't do that right now - DH is determined that our merge of my studio at the shop with my studio space at home will be complete by Thanksgiving. There's still quite a lot that needs to be completed on that, and that's where my Sundays are going. 

My personal hamster wheel is alive and well. 

So, the hamster wheel is in good shape in my household. I'm running full out and feeling as if I'm barely getting anywhere. Frustrating. but becoming the norm. 

Be good, be kind, and make some time for yourself. Have a great Saturday and weekend and I'll be back on Monday. 

Sharon Arrives Tonight - State Fair Awaits

I was busy yesterday. I cleaned/finished cleaning the upper and main levels of the house. Today I tackle the lower level. The very lowest level is on hold until after Sharon leaves, we are awaiting some storage bins that DH had me order for him last night. I have photos to share, so this will be a photo blog today, and tomorrow through Labor Day I'll be off-line. It's vacation time with Sharon and it's time for the Minnesota State Fair - YIPPEE. So ... photos. Here we go. 

Sharon's room is complete and ready for her. The
sofa bed is pulled out and made (I have a air mattress
on top of the skimpy, icky spring mattress of the
sleeper). Her robe is folded and ready for her use. 

From another view, everything is in waiting. The TV
works, the clock radio is set properly, I did add one
more pillow to the bead after this photo was taken,
as well as a small gift for her. 

The craft room is on hold until new storage bins have arrived. Apparently
the grey top bins of mine will fit DH's space (the far left section), but
the new bins will be less than an inch too large. We'll trade bins
after they arrive and he'll be happy. This is the lower left of the new build. 

The upper left is also starting to come together. The six leftmost
alcoves are the newest construction and they're for DH's stuff.
Magazines in their holders take up a good portion of the left of
my section, and then I move on to books on the right. 

So that's half of the new construction in the craft room. Here are the right hand sections. 

The right section on my side drops to a long credenza/work space
with a centered light and room for my materials in multi-compartment
bins above. You'll get a better view of the upper right in the next photo. 

I still have a lot of organizing to do in the upper right, the area that
will be directly over the credenza. Behind me is my original work desk
that is piled with WAY too much stuff and works in progress. I will
start to clear and organize that after Sharon's visit. 

Two more photos of where we are at now. Here's the breezeway. We only have the soldering table up so far, but just look at how wonderful those new blinds are. They make the dark room so light. He also mounted a shop light directly over the table to increase the light. I have two photos to share with you. 

The table is up and both shades are now installed. They aren't
perfect (slightly short for the width), but they are a VAST
improvement and lighten the room a lot. 

For even more light, he mounted a shop light above the table. We're
getting a plug strip which will be mounted at the far left to make turning
on the light easy, and allow for other items that need power. 

There are times when I'll have TOO much light in this room, but that might be a really nice change. So ... we always look at Sharon's annual visit and the State Fair as the bookend of a summer that starts with my trip to Bead & Button in Milwaukee. What did we get done this summer? A LOT! Almost everything is due to DH's single-minded dedication to getting things done. We'll continue to work on this room and move over as much as possible, but winter is coming and I suspect, because we've had a colder spring/summer than usual, that our winter might be longer and colder than usual. I hope not, but it's a possibility we're all whispering here in the Frozen Northlands. 

So - I'm on radio silence for a few days. Don't post too much - LOL. I'll be back to posting next week Wednesday, so have a wonderful Labor Day holiday here in the USA, and enjoy your extended weekend if you're from elsewhere. *Hugs* to all and I'll share food and people photos when I return. 

Sharon's Gift and An Emo Post - Apologies In Advance

I'm grateful that my Sundays are now my own again, and really, only one of the three Sundays I was open was actually worthwhile, but it's a customer service. Necessary. Still, I'm happy that it's done and I can move on. Of course, Christmas is in a little more than a week! Sharon's holiday gift is being sent to her today (keep your eyes open - Priority Mail should have it to you by mid-week, Thursday latest and it's wrapped inside, although poorly - LOL). I had to do a major stuffing job to get Sharon's gift into the shipping box, so fancy wrapping and bows and such were skipped. 

Sharon's gift will finally hit the mail today. It's
wrapped and boxed, only needs the Priority Mail
sticker attached and to be handed to my mail person. 

I had a really rough day yesterday. Apparently I've been misunderstanding DH when we discussed retiring from the shop, and what I thought would happen in 2019, actually won't happen until 2020. I'm not really sure I can hang in there that long, and I know he just doesn't get it - how incredibly difficult it is for me to show up for work all "happy, happy, joy, joy" every day. So while I'm rather devastated at this new time frame, he's just puttering around wondering why I'm in such a bad mood. Yeah - right! ARGH! 

Total ARGH!!!

Something is going to have to give, and I'm not really sure what. Changing hours, insisting that he work another day, I'm nor really sure, but I know that something has got to change. I'm suddenly more grateful than ever for the pool - I need to work out some of this stress today. 

Recognize this antique? Because my inventory and sales
software is custom and proprietary, and because it would
cost more than $12,000 for an upgrade of the software to
a current system and we would still have to hand-enter
every inventory item we have, we're sticking with the
original system and original computers. Crossing fingers
that it holds on for another year-and-a-half. 

I think my biggest fear (aside from my general "crap" feelings about the extended time frame) is the store computer system. It's old - like almost Paleolithic old. I'm running proprietary software from the mid-90's on a Win 98 system that has had the hard drive replaced in the main computer once - because my Computer Guru, Dale, is a genius and actually had a spare drive in his assortment of components that we were able to ghost things over to when the original drive crashed. I'm not so sure I'd get lucky a second time. I think the computer is as tired as I am. 

I'll be better tomorrow. I'm normally an optimist, I just
need to get back to that mindset again. It's almost
Solstice, I need to get myself together before then. 

So, since this post is turning into a really depressing one, let me assure all of you that I'll pull through this. It's a set-back and an emo blow, but I'll get it worked through. I think I'll go and swim off some of my anger - it'll probably take me a few days of hard work. Have a great Monday - I hope everything goes really well for you and that you share your smiles. I'll be back tomorrow. 

Thinking About Time

Today is my "day off" and my plans are five loads of laundry, grocery and sundries shopping, cooking dinner, restringing a necklace for a shop repair, and maybe, after I get all of that finished, a little time for my own beading. Or not. Time does seem to slip away from me. I know that Aearwen won't be able to chat today, and next week is the 4th of July, so we'll have problems hooking up next week too. *sigh* Life happens. 

Time slips away. No matter how hard we may want to
hold onto the moment, it's already gone before the
thought has passed through your mind. All you
can do is celebrate each unique moment as it comes. 

DH has been heavily involved in the eastern bank portion of the Backyard Project. We had some stiff rains yesterday, which enabled him to see where erosion was happening on the new bank, and where he wanted to move the waterflow. A few hours of no rain enabled him to put down a section of black dirt and some sod, as well as reshape another portion of the bank into a steeper grade. It's getting there. Once the bank is stable and secure and the waterflow has been stabilized and controlled, he can get to work building the wood shed. 

I think DH should use some of these for parts of the bank. The
city and county use them when they reconstruct the water
catchways along roadways and they work really well. 

I can't believe how quickly this summer is rushing by. I'm certainly not ready to see the 4th of July in my immediate future. The 4th signals the half-way point of our summers up here in the Frozen Northlands, and within a few weeks thereafter, we'll be attending Renaissance Festival and getting ready for Sharon's annual visit for the State Fair. Then comes Autumn and Halloween and cold weather once more. Ick! The cold weather is easier on me in many ways, but I adore swimming outdoors in the summertime. 

Our greenery is fully green now, and our lakes are
hosting all kinds of wildlife. I get to see an egret
or two in various ponds and lakes almost every day
now. It's a high point of my day whenever I do. 

Of course with yesterday's storms, the outdoor swimmers had to be moved to the indoor pool. So after a half-hour of being able to have a lane to myself and practice my lane turns, I suddenly had a much faster swimmer next to me. It's the way things happen. I'm not a fast swimmer, but I am constant - once I hit the water, I don't stop unless I'm putting on or taking off equipment. I suppose that's a look at general life too - we pick things up and put things down 1000's of times in our lives, but we never truly stop moving forward. 

We don't have a choice, we have to keep moving
forward because that's how time flows. Still, we
can make that movement positive or negative. I try
to concentrate on the positive. 

Here's hoping your Wednesday is marvelous and terrific. I'm just hoping for a minor miracle - that I won't forget something important when I'm at the store later today. Last week I forgot my calcium supplement tablets. Fortunately, I don't run completely out until tomorrow, so guess what's heading up my shopping list? LOL I'll be back tomorrow! 

Tempus Fugit - Thoughts About Calendars

Yesterday was very productive - in the card-making department at least. I got my errands done quickly and settled down to two different aspects of the cards - the interior coverpiece and the insert which most cards will be getting. It was a huge job, but it's progressing nicely. Now I have to make sure I get as much done at work in the early mornings as possible since my next full day won't come until next week's Wednesday and the clock is ticking.

DH wanted Alphonse Mucha for the computer room calendars last year.
It was very pleasant, and I enjoy his artwork very much, but two of the
same artist just didn't work for me. I hope I get better variety this year. 

It's so odd to look over at my wall and see calendars with December as the frontspiece. Do all of you like calendars? I have been buying my 2016 calendars for more than a month now - every 20%-30% coupon for Barnes & Noble I've received has gone towards a calendar. (Well, there was one adult coloring book, but I'll just let that one slide - LOL.)  I usually have two calendars behind me in the computer room, three in my guest bathroom, one by the entryway and my DH has one upstairs in his bedroom.

DH adores his Luis Royo calendar every year. This one is a hard one for
me to get. I order it in June or else I don't get it at all. Very limited print
run and limited availability as a result. 

I look upon calendars as portable art - mini pictures of beauty that I can change each month. Sometimes a calendar will be a disappointment, but usually I am enthralled and notice something new about the image of the month each time I look at it. I do have standard calendars that I buy every year.

I adore the artwork in the Witches' Calendar. She's a talented scratchboard
artist who colorizes her scratchboard art. Some exceptional craftsmanship
every single year. 

I always buy the Witchcraft calendar and Gardens of the Spirit because I love the art in the Kraft calendar and the total zen of the Japanese gardens shown in the Spirit. My third one in that room is always up for grabs. I don't recall what I've ordered this year, but I hope it will be equally pretty.

My "Gardens of the Spirit" calendar is very zen and features photos of
Japanese gardens and thoughts for spiritual grounding. It's an immersion
in beauty to start every day. 

My back room at the store always gets a dragon calendar and the front room gets a smaller calendar featuring beautiful photos of various natural places across the US. That's the calendar that gets written on a lot - vacations, appointments, and other items that need schedule changes have to be on that calendar.

I do enjoy scenic calendars, such as this photo of Niagara Falls in New York state. 

What do you think about calendars? Do you have more than one in your house? Do you keep them afterward because you love the pictures or do you toss them along with the old year when you replace them in January? Happy Thursday to all - it should be a good day today!

Expanding Time

The pundits of old have claimed that time is a construct, and in some ways I agree. Although it has been proved, scientifically, that there is a measured amount of time in a day, a solar year, and other temporal divisions, my problem is always too many things to fit into too few hours. I am running against that barrier again today and it's difficult. So, I'm standing loud and proud and stating that "It is totally unfair that I have 20 hours of projects/assignments/repairs that have to be done and only 4-6 hours in which to do them!" UNFAIR. 

Slow motion photography can show us amazing things such as this image. 

I should be able to expand time as needed. Want to finish reading that book before beginning work? No problem, just dial a few more hours. Want to edit this story before diving into artwork? No problemo - again, step up to the magic time machine. Want to draw, paint, apply glitter, and maybe work on some photography projects? Well, we'll just carve out another slice of time here. 

It would be wonderful if we could manipulate time, but would
we do it wisely? 

The difficulty comes from a rather terminal number. In this nation (the US) with our average life span, the total number of hours we walk this earth is 683,806 hours. That's it! No million hours to while away stuck in traffic jams. No hundreds of thousands of hours to work at jobs we hate and kow-tow to bosses who are horrible at their own jobs. No - we only have 683,806 hours to love, live, and spread joy and happiness. 

The Doomsday Clock is currently approaching five minutes before
annihilation. This really doesn't bode well, so why are we wasting
our precious time on silly things like warfare and conflict? 

We're wasting a very short amount of time. We're standing with weapons against other people with weapons. We're waging wars of words in Congress and carrying placards up and down the streets of our towns and cities. We're involved in protests, we're involved in demonstrations, and we're involved in conflicts. Why? 

We encourage our children to become independent and walk on their
own two feet. Why do we then allow them to embrace hatred, cause harm
or waste those precious minutes and hours of life? Because children
grow up and since each person is an individual, they make their own decisions. 

We should be cherishing a child's first steps, dancing with others to great music, walking through the parks and fields of the world marveling at the amazing diversity of Mother Nature's beauty. We should be sharing lives with loved ones, encouraging kindness and honest behavior between peoples, and attempting to heal this planet we all walk on. 

There's something wonderful about bringing joy to another living being.
This bulldog is nothing but happy. 

What are you doing with your 683,806 hours on this earth? Are you making the world a better place today, causing a child to smile, telling a thrilling tale, or scratching a puppy dog's belly? Are you hearing the laughter of a loved one, carrying someone's burden up a set of stairs or buying a cup of coffee for a homeless teenager? How will you make your limited hours count! 

Happy Wednesday everyone....

NaNo Flip Day 5 - Crunched for Time

I'm super crunched for time tonight, so only a few pretty pictures to entertain you. But the writing is going well and I'm so happy to be back in my mental space and back in my beloved mountains.  I think pictures of music will be appropriate tonight since one of my characters is a cellist...

These are elderly musicians of the Naxi Orchestra, playing traditional
instruments in China. 

Music speaks to people of all ages. Here is a young musician
from the UK playing her violin. 

Here is a traditional musician from India branching out into
some studio music. 

Here's a group of medieval musicians playing on
traditional instruments. 

Music has always been a part of human life and celebration, even in antiquity. 

Celebrate the joy of music. Here, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment is
aloft with happiness. Let music into your lives. 

Have a wonderful day and listen to something special tonight.

Do I Really Have to Work Today?

I've had a new novel perched in my brain that I really need several uninterrupted hours to whip into synopsis form so that I can see if it is something that has legs or not. I have a picture in my mind that I want to find the models for so that I can arrange them and ink them for coloring. I've had a desire to continue my spring cleaning by organizing my craft room area (before my DH decides to do it on his own). I haven't taken my kiln out for a run for more than a year!!! I want...I want...I want.

Me time. Oh my but that sounds wonderful...

Well...I want time. Time without interruptions. Time in good weather so that I don't have to worry about snow shoveling, rain flooding or sun baking. I want what I will probably never have. It doesn't stop me from wanting it.

The jeans I was wearing are beaded and so pretty. Not as nice as these,
but really fun. A friend sold them to me for cheap! SCORE!

Sunday I actually did exactly what I planned to do. I slept in and after my shower put on a pair of pants and a t-shirt. The pants were really loose, so I pulled out a pair I haven't been able to wear for more than five years and put those on. Comfort! Whoo-hoo! I was really pleased because the pair I can now wear are one of my absolutely favorite pairs of pants. So, attired we started our errands.

I'm not counting calories, but this is a good number and
the sandwich is REALLY GOOD! Highly recommended.

Breakfast at McDonald's - really good! I tried one of their new Egg White Delight McMuffin sandwiches and it was marvelous! Just the right blend of flavors. Add a cup of coffee and I was good to go. After dropping business cards off at a store that has been referring customers to us, we went to Mills Fleet Farm.

Mills Fleet Farm - Wal-Mart with a Western edge. No blue coats here - here
orange is the color and camouflage is a fashion statement. 

Why to Mills Fleet Farm? Because MFF is like a Wal-Mart for farmers and ranchers and DH wanted something to help catch or kill our mole. The mole that we have is digging near our house foundation, endangering the house. If it was in the middle of the yard we wouldn't care. But I can't take a chance on foundation problems because of him, so he has to go. After searching he found some kind of contraption that, if it doesn't kill the poor critter, might frighten him enough to get him away from us. I'm on the side of scare him to death because I hate to see animals purposefully harmed.

I own a Hoover SteamVac Ultra. Why I own a carpet cleaner is a long story
that I may tell one day if I'm searching for a topic. It was a gift from the
gods of Tequila and I am grateful to them for it.

Then I started my house cleaning. I vacuumed like a mad woman for four hours. I even steam-cleaned a section of really filthy carpeting that I had been wanting to tackle. I dusted, I swept and I scrubbed some of the floor coverings and carpet protectors. The only thing I didn't get back to was washing the slate tiles of my entryway. I swept them but forgot that I wanted to return with a mop and bucket to get them really cleaned. But the house is nicely clean and I made a good start at spring cleaning. Now...can I avoid work today? Unfortunately...no.