Friday, March 27, 2009

"I'm in a ditch"

Those are words to make a mother's heart skip a beat when spoken over the phone from your daughter.

And she said them so calmly --- almost with a little laugh ----

all I can say is thank goodness for cell phones and for her having a great husband and good friends to come to her rescue

For those of you who live where it doesn't snow, we are in the middle of pretty typical weather for spring in the mountains.

On Wednesday it was beautiful, clear, warm.

Yesterday a big, cold storm blew in and dumped a lot of snow --- the operative word being BLEW!

My daughter (who lives at the other end of the state) had to go to work, but at 10:30 she headed for home. As she often does, she called me and we chatted briefly when she left work, telling me that she was headed out and would let me know when she got home.

Half an hour later, I got the call -- I answered the phone and said "are you home?"

That's when I heard "no, I'm in a ditch!"

Seems the road conditions and people around her driving crazy had combined in a bad way and she slid off the road into the ditch rather than being hit in the rear end --- a better situation to my mind.

Several hours later, after spending some time at a co-worker's house and having a good friend help her and her husband haul the car out of the ditch, she finally got home.

She's alright.

The car is alright.

Tomorrow it will be in the 50s and the snow will all melt away like it was never here.

geesh!

Monday, March 16, 2009

Can we skip this month?

I have decided that I do not like the month of March.

Now that the sun is shining more, it's warmer than it was, the daffodils are coming up -- and I'm in a funk

oh yes, did I mention, my birthday is in a couple of weeks

I have a love/hate relationship with my birthday

They're fun when there is cake (chocolate!) and perhaps a present or two involved

They're also a reminder that I'm another year older

The counting isn't the issue --- it's the lack of accomplishing that is

It's like reading other people's blogs --- I love hearing about other places --- but wish I could go there too

{sigh}

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Why we hate the beginning of D.S.T.

for those of you who sail through this annual torture known as "springing forward", I say "good on ya"

I for one wish we could just set the clocks somewhere (ANYWHERE!) and just leave them alone

Seriously, this whole Daylight Savings Time thing makes me crazy --- I love having more sunlight in the evening -- that's a totally cool deal as far as I'm concerned

But the adjusting is messing with my routine --- I mean by the time I get through the emails and all the other things I do every morning on my computer (checking bank balances, etc.), here it is after 10:00! and there's been no breakfast yet, and then it will mess up the eating schedule for the rest of the day, as in "oh, it's 6 pm and we haven't even begun to think about starting dinner"

This morning at 7:30 (!) the dog decided it was time she was up and greeted me with loud squeeking of one of her toys. A week ago this would be 6:30, which would have given me a whole hour more to get everything done at my desk before moving on to upstairs projects

geesh ----

never mind, we'll adjust in a week or so --- I hope

Sunday, March 08, 2009

Photographic Schizophrenia

Sounds like a scary disease!

Let me explain.

When I apply to art shows with my jewelry, I must go through a jurying process.

To do jurying you are required to submit photos.

To get through a jury, those photos must be of only one object, with a plain background and tightly focused on the object so the details of the work show.

I'm getting pretty good at taking those photos.

Like these, for example.



I have noticed, however, that a lot of the pictures that are now appearing on places like Etsy have been "fru frued" --- that is they are are "busy" backgrounds, or they include things in the picture that do not come with the object for sale.

Hence the schizophrenia ---

I'm wondering if my sales would be better if I did THAT kind of photos to put out on Etsy.

For instance, this photo.

It's clear, nicely cropped so that you see the details of the bear.

It would be a great shot for a jury photo.

But is it a good one to advertise Miss Cupcake is for sale?

Would it be better if I had a glass cake plate to sit her on? Or some other assorted props, even though those are not part of the deal when she is sold.

I'm confused, and frankly, don't know which is better.

My old fashioned eyes tell my brain that I should apply the K.I.S.S. principle, but I'm not sure that still works in today's advertising.

What do you think?

Friday, March 06, 2009

Struggling with "why bother"

The economy has had an impact on most every one (except perhaps for those ubber rich folks that are only worrying about maybe having to pay their fair share of taxes with the rest of the folks!)

One of the things that I'm struggling with just now is the impact a really down economy has on the one place I have been able to make a little money.

Let me explain.

This is the time of year that we apply to shows.

Today, I was online trying to find the application for a show that we have done in the past that was pretty reasonable to do and had a educated clientele (ie they know that artists can't work for a nickle an hour) that liked my pieces.

Not only is there no application for the show, their entire website is gone --- folded their tent in the night and just disappeared

This is the second show this year that we had done before and planned to do this year that no longer exists

We had applied to a show in Iowa, but this week received the "thanks, but no thanks" letter

The inability to find shows to take my jewelry to is really frustrating. I enjoy making the pieces, playing with the beads, working with the stones. But without a market for them it becomes more difficult to get excited about starting new stuff.

As I said, it's the "why bother" issue

Sunday, March 01, 2009

Some good news!

Our local grocery store did a free health screening thing yesterday.

I was all prepared to have it be like the big health fair I go to in late April, where you stand in line practically all morning and then you have to wait for a month to get the results.

What a pleasant surprise when I walked in and there were only 4 folks ahead of me and I was told I would have my results on the spot!!

So, aside from the total lack of hassel, I was pleased to be told that the medication for my cholesterol is working!!

All of the "bad" cholesterol numbers had dropped a lot.

Now if someone could just tell me what I need to do to make the "good" cholesterol number go up, I would be a very happy camper.

Oh yeah, the fasting glucose number was real good too

Yippee ---- happy (virtual) cartwheels being turned here!!