I'm Cold and Crabby, But It's a Swimming Day, So That's One Good Thing

I'm still crabby, but nothing to be done about that. At least today is a swimming day, so that's one positive thing. My friend and fellow swimmer Rosemary is up in Ely with her extended family, celebrating the holidays with her three sons and their wives and children. It's an annual thing for the family. They fly in from all over and gather in the Icebox of the Nation for a week. It's a massive group of people sharing a large lodge, enjoying catching up with each other for another year. 

Rosemary's family rents a cabin similar to this one for 
their annual week's Christmas gathering. Rosemary 
brings up lots of food, and everyone else flies in from 
all over the nation. I know one son lives in Florida and one 
in Pennsylvania. I forget where the third son lives. Each 
of them are married with children, so it ends up being 
quite a lot of people. A week of merriment and catching 
up, and everyone's happy to return home afterward. 

That means Rosemary won't be at the pool this week - she'n normally a Monday through Friday swimmer. Lane 5 will be unoccupied, so I might shift over for my three days this week. People generally don't like to share that lane because the other side is a wall side. I know I don't like to swim on the wall side of a lane. I end up with too many bruises on my arms and hands from hitting the wall. Gail is the swimmer who usually will grab that side, but she's recovering from a hip replacement three weeks ago and won't be swimming until after the New Year. 

I hit my hands on the lane dividers often enough. They at 
least give a little. Hitting the concrete wall, however, isn't 
comfortable at all. I've swam in the wall lane before, but 
it's not my preference. 

I'll be finalizing my email announcement of our "After Christmas Sale" flyer today. I would have worked on it yesterday except DH forgot to bring it to the shop for me. And I was relatively busy, yesterday. Not super busy, but I did have customers and they were fun ones - lots of interesting projects they were buying for. 

Next week, Tuesday through Friday, will be our 4-Day 
After Christmas Sale. This week, I'll need to change the 
delivery date on one Amazon order that should be 
delivered on Saturday because I'm closed this Saturday
(and next Saturday as well). 

So I'm going to plug in some pictures for today and head out into my 5 F temperatures. At least it's not sub-zero, but I'll still have to bundle up. It's cold. But it's the Frozen Northlands, and cold is part of what we are up here. Have an excellent Tuesday and Slava Ukraini. 

Clocks Are Ticking But I'm (Almost) On Time

I'm actually somewhat on time for sending out my holiday cards. My list is complete, and the cards and envelopes are almost finished. I'm super happy with this year's holiday cards. I think they are festive and cute and very much one-of-a-kind. My goal is to have them out in the mail either Wednesday or Thursday next week. I think I'll manage to succeed in that. 

What a cute image of this little girl straining
to mail a holiday card. I love her muff
and the bow on her hood. 

I have a bunch of items residing in my Barnes & Noble on-line shopping cart. Most of those are e-books that I've put in for myself, I tend to purchase those about once a month. There are also calendars for the upcoming year which have to be ordered soon. Then I'll have to revisit the website once again and order DVD's for DH for Xmas and his birthday. With his serious hearing issues, the captions on DVD's allow him to enjoy movies. Captioning options in the movie theatres haven't been as successful. 

I really loved this Holiday Card image. Isn't that
the human condition - always believing that
something wonderful will happen? If it's
not, then maybe it should be! We all need a
little magic and hope in our lives. 

I have eight repairs pending, including the pearl restring that I've been fighting with. I tried a medium -thick silk and wasn't happy with it. Although the pearl holes were small (they traditionally have among the smallest holes), I still needed to double or triple-knot between each pearl to get the right look, and that would have been crazy difficult over 42 inches of length. I grabbed a thicker silk from the shop yesterday and started restringing them onto it last night. This will work better, but offers other challenges including my having to redrill three or four pearls to allow for double-passage of the thread where the strand will be joined. However, that's something I can do. I have the proper tools. So onward with this repair. 

I loved this holiday card featuring the line of kids waiting
their turn to mail their card at the old-fashioned
mail box. Delightful! 

Between the repairs and the usual end-of-the-year deadlines, tax reports, inventory checks, etc, I now work on Sundays. Only three Sundays and only four hours, but still, I'm away from home and in the shop. Usually we're not busy, but you never know. I'll get two three-day spans of days off at the end of the year for the Christmas holiday and the New Year's holiday, but those are broken up by our massive end of the year sale. Ugh! 

I have always loved this card. In fact, I actually
had one of these sent to me in a prior year.
It's elegant and uses negative space
beautifully to make the form of the
woman clear against the fencing behind her. 

So, here I am. It's Saturday and I'm wrapping up my blog for the day. It's been a fun week, and even though I still have to put my nose to the grindstone, I am actually seeing progress. I can't wait to send out my cards for the year to all of my friends and relatives. So much fun!!! Have a great weekend, I'll be back on Monday. 

Working? You Must be Joking!

Yesterday and today have been filled with mail orders, some of them international, so my time to read, write and play any computer games has been overshadowed by ... WORK!!!!! Oh no!!! I'm totally laughing at my desk right now, and it's just 4:00 am. I'm hearing the echoing "Voice of Doom" moving through my head as I laugh at the idea that I'm actually supposed to be working while I'm at work. What a concept!

Mark Laub does some of the most amazing furniture
of any wood artist I've ever met, and he's local!
Unfortunately, he's also WAY out of my price range.
But his works are totally amazing and so beautiful. 

I had a spare slice of time yesterday and quickly fleshed out my SWG story. I'll take a bit of time today to review, edit, and edit a bit more if necessary, but I think I'm almost ready to go with it. That's a good thing, because I have to download the darned thing no later than Sunday to squeak in under the deadline. I'm REALLY trying to do the full year and get all of the writer's stamps. I'm not guaranteeing the reviewer's stamps, my time is spread thin.

Suellen Parker works with glass, and she's producing
some very complex fused and folded pieces. This one
is exceptional. I can't wait to look at them closer, since
glass is one of my media and I love working with it. 

My "Audible" membership is almost ready for renewal. Do any of you listen to audio books? I had a period of time there when my vision was more challenged, also, I was listening to audio books while I was on the treadmill. I rarely listen to books any more, but I can still see myself doing that in the future, so I always keep a current membership. It does mean I'll have to buy and download a bunch of books before the end of the month to finish out this year's membership, though.

Catherine Schoenherr makes bracelets in the "Sami" style,
braided and stitched hair on top of reindeer hide. Her work
is beautiful, intricate, and I could actually wear a lot of
it because there is no metal. She teaches in the area and
we occasionally have her students come into the shop
looking for supplies. Unfortunately, we don't sell reindeer hide. 

I've added a few more photos of items I'll be looking at while attending the ACC Show on Sunday. Such pretty things to brighten your day. Have a wonderful Friday!

I Owe So Much to So Many, So I'm Apologising

I owe birthday wishes and e-cards to so many of my friends and cyber-buddies and I'm seriously behind in sending them. It's one of the few things I can't do with my laptop, only my desktop will work for Photoshop work. And I've been absolutely swamped at work so I'm way behind.

I'm drowning in work. Just as well it's a Drowning Guppy day for
me at the gym. 

Normally I would be able to do some catch-up on my day off. But not today. Today is filled with appointments (driver's license renewal, checking out carpeting samples at the decorator's in the early pm, and of course the usual - the gym, the grocer, laundry, and my weekly chat with Aearwen). I suppose if I get into a real bind on time, I can postpone the driver's license for another week, but I have a feeling my life will be overtaken with carpeting and window treatments for the next appreciable time frame.

I only have to get a new license every few years, but mine expires
in a few weeks. I'd better get going and get it renewed. 

So here's a general "Happy Birthday" for my LJ friends. I promise that your individual cards will be coming sometime this week, but I can't promise when *sigh*.

So here's a trio of assorted cheesecakes (because cheesecakes taste SO GOOD) to
celebrate the birthdays of several LJ friends and acquaintances. 

Happy Birthday to Huinare, Stormwreath, Wheelrider, Jordan_C_Price and BSLarner, I'm head-deep in thousands of things right now, but I really need to get some beautiful e-cards out to each one of you. Here's hoping your birthdays were celebrated with style. Have a glorious and unhurried Wednesday and I'll be back, trying to catch my breath, tomorrow.

So Far Behind!

We got two huge shipments into the shop within the past two weeks and I just can't catch up. I'm the proverbial hamster in its wheel, running and running and seemingly getting nowhere. I have hundreds of bead samples waiting for me to string them so that we can actually sell the beads we brought it, and I have hundreds of new and restock seed beads that are getting packed up and need to be labelled appropriately so that they too can be sold. Chickie is packing large quantities into smaller ones, my Manager is packing the seed beads, and I get the labeling and putting away aspect. Between all of this, we're helping customers who seem to be needier than ever. I'm falling farther and farther behind.

That darned list of items on my "ToDo" list never gets shorter. Maybe
I need a smaller wheel?  

In other years I would probably have pushed all of my efforts, before and after work, to stringing, etc. But my schedule has shifted this year and I've included myself in the nix. I've allowed myself to say that I'm every bit as important as the commerce I engage it. So I'm super far behind and I don't see light at the end of that tunnel anytime soon. And I'm actually OK with that in many respects. I need several days just to string the new beads so that I can actually sell them. I think I'm finally caught up with the reprices now, and as the new seed beads come my way, I can catch up with them. But it's those darned pressed glass samples that's really holding me back. Argh!

Stringing beads improves motor skills. I guess, after the thousands
of bead samples I've strung for the shop, my motor skills are pretty honed. 

Topping it all off, we actually had snow coming down in fat, water-laden flakes as I was leaving the shop yesterday. I warned DH that I'm not shoveling even if it stays on the driveway. It'll be melted by the end of today since we seem to be moving back to Spring now. The joys of spring in Minnesota.

My view from inside Minion as I was leaving work last night. Spring
snows don't last long, but it was obnoxious to see the flakes come down
with enough power and size that they stayed on the grass and the cars. 

I'm off to swim today, so I hope each of you has a wonderful Friday. I'll be back tomorrow. Want to meet at the virtual bar tonight after work for a quick drink? LOL.

Working Men - A Photo Blog

I'm running very tight on time today, but I'm finally caught up with my email backlog from the previous week. Now to catch up with individual posts on LJ...  Because I'm so far behind and tight on time, I'm making this a Friday Photo Blog - Let's see where my mind takes me today...

I'm starting this out with this vintage photo of Ironworkers at lunch. Now,
I don't know about  you, but having lunch sitting on an I-beam this high
up would make me nervous. I like the guy at the left lighting his cigarette from
his colleague's, as well as the man on the far right holding what appears
to be a liquor bottle. What a job! 

There was another picture here, but the person who took it took exception to my small number of people actually taking a look at it and perhaps commenting on it. So here's to you, Milton Moore, Enjoy your five seconds of poorly-deserved fame.

Men at work again - this time with machinery. Now I'd be a bit
worried about catching that long beard in some of those cogs and
wheels - just sayin' ...

Here, two men in India are taking a break from their jobs
in an automobile factory. The conditions they work in would be
at home in Victorian times. If you want to see more photos
of this area of India, or a part that isn't seen as frequently,
here's the link to the website Squalor to Scholar. 

Here, children are mining an artisanal gold mine in Mali. Looking at
an image like this when school just started here again after summer
break, makes me so happy that more and more of our children around
the world are able to be educated when they are this age,
not forced into dangerous, hard labor. 

Back to the US for my final two images. Here is a group of modern
black cowboys looking plenty comfortable in the saddle. Cowboys
were workers I was a bit more comfortable with, growing up in the
western US. Want to know more about the history of Black cowboys
in the US? Follow this link to a CNN exploration. 

Here's a Florida cowboy after a hard day's work, kicking back with
a cup of coffee before turning in for the day. Yes, cowboys are found
in all states. (Photo by Carlton Ward)

So there you have it - a variety of pictures of men at work, and what a crazy assortment my mind brought to all of you today! I hope you have a wonderful Friday and a productive day at work, no matter where you are or what you are doing.

It's Friday, Right? - MEH!

So, it's Friday and I'm very "Meh" about today. I feel fat and old, I feel uninspired, and I have no real desire to go to work and sell things to customers. But - like so many of you - I really don't have much of a choice. I have to sell things to put food on the table and pay the mortgage.

Maybe I just need some Happy Feet of my own today...

I haven't written anything original in more than a week which is a real dry spell for me. The Tolkien Weekly drabble prompts for the "Birds" series just really didn't do much for me. I have some basic ideas jotted down, but haven't been motivated to actually settle down and compose at all.

I'm just burned out today. 

Maybe I'm experiencing a bit of burn-out, or maybe I'd rather just have my head in a book and leave the writing to those who do it better than I do. At least for a while. I'm a bit frustrated on the writing end, though, because I'm feeling that practically every author does a much better job at the craft of writing than I do. It's a momentary depression and I'll really concentrate on not allowing it to take over my mind, but it's my daily struggle pushed to the next level.

Why stay with one flower when so many are calling out?

I think that part of why I'm struggling is the knowledge that I am not a unidirectional creator. I know people who work in one media and through that one media, they fine tune and eventually achieve success. I bounce all around like a ball in a pinball machine. I write, bead, paint, craft, enamel, and draw, and I'm sure there are other media that I enveloped into the above list or forgot completely like book binding and silk painting. I find it difficult to stay with a single flower when there is a field of blooms standing before me.

TJ and Eric - two people deeply in love whose world
crashed down within the past year. The highest highs
followed by the lowest lows. 

I think one thing affecting me this morning is the total destruction of a Happily Ever After that was so deserved, and so looked forward to and supported by so many. A love affair of several years that was due to find its culmination in marriage later this year crashed and burned because of the serious illness of one of the two partners. I'm stunned that the illness of one which now seems to have resulted in paralysis below the neck has been followed by a nervous breakdown in the other causing him to pull back to rebuild his own psyche. They have friends, supporters, and a network of people behind them, but their own physical realities have caused them to have to pull away from each other and their best support, their love for each other, may well not survive this blow. I've been reeling from this for the past few days and I guess I just have to think and internalize a bit more before my own balance is returned and creativity can come back.

In the meanwhile, it's Friday, the weather is beautiful, and a passing owl gifted me with a gorgeous feather which sits on my desk in front of me as I type this. I know things will improve, and apologize for using my blog as a toxic waste dump today. Back at you tomorrow and have a fabulous Friday.

Cobblestones, Laundry and Work...

Stage Five doesn't have a lot of topography, but oh those cobblestone
roads! There are nine separate cobblestone stages in today's race which
will be a real test of both man and machine. I just hope the weather
is fair. If they have rain or even mist on top of the stones, it could be
quite dangerous. 

Today is Stage Five of Le Tour de France and it's a cobblestone stage. The boys had one small stretch of the stones yesterday and that was bad, but today they have nine separate stretches of cobblestones to ride over in their quest for a stage win or points for themselves or their team, and it may be brutal. They will be using heavier bikes with broader wheels, but I think everyone will breathe easier after today is behind them. Of course, they still have many days ahead of them including the Alps and the Pyrenees, so there's lots of bike riding remaining.

This is the German squad for the World Cup. I love the
multi-colored shoes. Like other kinds of sports, I only
get interested in the finals. I wonder who will face them
in the final game? 

On the World Cup front, bravo for Germany! Very well done seven times over. The other semi-final match will be played today between the Netherlands and Argentina. If the Netherlands prevails, it will be an all-Europe final. Having been born in Germany, I guess I'll have to cheer for them, but I'm not a big soccer fan so anyone winning well deserves it and congratulations to all.

Mark Twain had it right. Seize the moment, take the chance! 

Usually Wednesdays are my day off, but Chickie is off gallivanting on her vacation which leaves me to pick up the slack *sigh* - LOL. No ... she well deserves her vacation and so far she seems to be having a wonderful time. I'll drop by her place again this morning to take care of her cat.

I dodged a bullet with my insurance costs, for sure! 

I finally got the updated insurance cards, etc for Minion in yesterday's mail. I was quite pleased to see that my insurance premium is only increasing $28/year for the new car. I had feared the insurance would be much more, so this is very affordable. Dodged another bullet with that one!

I can't cook - at least not today. I have to work at the shop instead.
Day three is upon me, only three more days after today! 

Of course, since I have to work for Chickie today, I can't do grocery shopping, can't cook dinners for the next few days, can't do laundry except at odd hours (one load is in the dryer as I write this and it isn't even 5:00 am yet) and, unfortunately, can't chat with Aearwen today. It's a total bummer, but sacrifices have to be made every now and again and this is necessary. I'll be glad when Chickie is back working again, though. I miss hearing Aearwen's voice when our schedules don't mesh.

Words don't have to be complicated to be magnificent. I need
to remember that as I craft my stories and novels. 

I'm finally catching up on some of my backlogged story assignments, but I have to keep my eyes on my deadlines for Ardor in August too. Pounding out a drabble a day is great, but I have less than two weeks (approximately) to finish my Ardor story and submit it and I know I'll need some serious editing time. I may have to shelve the drabbles again for a short time to do some get-down work on Ardor.

Posts are born from small ideas and they grow and grow. They're
alive with words and pictures by the time I hit post. They expand
to fit the space of my thoughts for the day. 

So here we go - a post where I thought I had nothing to say grew and grew again. It's rather like possessions in a house - they tend to expand to fit the empty spaces. At least they do in my life - LOL. Have a truly wonderful Wednesday filled with positive things and beauty. And for my friend from the Netherlands - Go Netherlands!