Monday, May 12, 2008

Blue sky

The sun is playing peekaboo today. The sky goes from brilliant blue with just a few puffy clouds, to slowly dark - one large dark cloud covering the sky and chasing the warm away.

The shop last week was a grand success. Now, I did NOT get bitten by the bug that says "you should get a shop of your own." But it was certainly fun for a week or so, and I am scheduling dates in October and December to do it again. But I am not now entertaining the idea that a retail storefront is the way to go from here, just in case you were wondering. What I've learned about myself is this: I must have complete control of my time and my schedule or I go crazy. Like prison, or that awful time years ago where I had to go a real job every day. It freaks me out to have to be someplace every day for certain hours and beholden to a clock. Yeah, I'm weird that way.

I took some time this weekend to chill. Before I even had the car emptied, I needed to get out in the garden and dig around. Move stuff, clip stuff, plant new things and just get my hands in the dirt. It made me feel normal again. And I slept in, played computer games, went out to eat with Mom, drank wine and watched a murder mystery. I think my brain is back in working order now. I've steam cleaned the carpets this morning and put everything away, made lists for this week, started working again.

This weekend is the U District street fair and the forecast is super hot and sunny - the first really good weekend in forever. I think that means we'll have an amazing time, but I need to get more stuff ready to sell. I'm doing inventories today to see what I'm missing and figure out what I have time for.

Lots of things to catch up on. One of them is the photos for the web site of the new summer bath salts. I was a day or two behind on getting them labelled before I could take photos, and then completely lost track of it during last week's hullabaloo. So they are up on the web site now and you can see what they look like (here too). These are the same glass jars that I've used for salts last year too. I'm going to switch to plastic, I think. I'm not sure. I've ordered some that look (in the teeny photo) almost exactly like these glass ones, only they are plastic. I would feel better about shipping plastic, and I think the customers would too, not to mention the savings on shipping charges, since they will be lighter. That's in the works anyway.

I'm working on show applications for fall and winter today too. I guess I forgot about them a little bit. I was waiting until I had money. Booth fees will kill you if you don't watch out. This month there is a little more money coming in, and deadlines are looming, so I'm going to figure out the whole fall thing. I'll be updating the website calendar tomorrow with the Oct-Dec dates, just in case you are planning ahead. There will be a few less shows overall because of the couple more weeks at the Group Health retail space. Well, that and the general shuffling around that I always do, depending on what worked out best.

The fall Best of the Northwest show has settled on dates and location - it's moving again to Seattle Center. No more Qwest Field (yay!), and back to Seattle Center, where it was located long before the move to Sand Point. It's strange to be homeless with that huge show. And dates are Nov 14-16.

Hmm, have I covered all the little stray bits and pieces from the last week and today? Well, it's all I can remember for the moment.

No comments:

Post a Comment