4.24.2007

April 16-22, 2007 Week 16

Monday started out cold, it actually snowed more. In a week where all I wanted to do was get outside and do some yard work the weather was terrible. I worked on my web site some and signed up for my toll free number. I was a little disappointed that I can’t get a vanity number through Vonage, because I thought ANA-SOAP, or GOT-SOAP, or BUY-SOAP, or NAT-URAL would be cool phone numbers. Instead I got what I got and I tried to see if I could do anything cool with it but its all x’s and z’s so no dice….

Tuesday I started feeling pretty crappy. Part of it I think is the pine tar soap I have been making, The heated pine tar gives me a headache and makes me feel a little woozie. But mostly it is my heartburn acting up again. Its getting to be show season and I am feeling overwhelmed and I haven’t been doing my yoga as regularly, and I have been eating bad… all sure signs for some heartburn for sure…

Wednesday: I met B for lunch and we talked about our businesses. But mostly we ate… She was tied because a personal thing had kept her up all night and I was still not feeling right….We had wanted to go to the book sale in Bethlehem, but it was next week, so we’ll do that next week as well. In general the last few weeks I got stuff done, just not anything that was on the top of my list of things to do…I also finally got some orders mailed out…

Thursday… Yucky, Yucky, Yucky. I think I spent most of the day in the sofa knitting. The good news is I am getting lots of projects done. I made a hat, mittens, and scarf for B, I don’t think she’ll like the hat…. I am almost done with a poncho for M, but I ran out of yarn… and I knit three hedgehogs. I still need to stuff them and sew them up and put their eyes on, but they are just adorable. I also ordered some double pointed needles so I can knit myself some leg warmers (bet they help at winter shows), and another pair of socks (B bought me some awesome self striping sock yarn, I think I’ll try toe up this time). I am also almost halfway done with B’s afghan. I tore out my mistake and started the next section. Finally, I went through my yarn stash and figured out my next 6 or so projects- a vest from banana silk, a sweater for M, and a tank top are all in the future. I also have to finish the sweater I started almost two years ago now….

Friday… I cleaned the house up because C will be home on Saturday. I live like such a batchelorette while he is gone. I let things pile up in the sink, and the fridge needed to be cleaned out from all the leftovers, and I needed to bring out the recycling. I figured out my list of things to do next week and tried to stop stressing and obsessing over them all…

Saturday: In the morning I went to a seminar at Whole Foods about how to get your product into the store. I met another soap maker there and although that usually isn’t my favorite thing to do, I really liked her. We have a similar approach and thoughts about what we do, it was refreshing… Trying to get into that store is something I want to try to do but I am a long way of from having the time to accomplish it. It is a process, not hard, but it will take time, and it just may be something I work on later in the year or early next year. No time now….
Sunday: C and I got a bunch of stuff done. We set up my new display and figured out how it should look, we cleaned my car inside (looks almost new), we cleaned out the shed and rearranged all the stuff we have out there, and we took down our blinds so the new ones can be installed on Monday. It was great to be out in the beautiful weather, although I think we have missed spring and shot directly into summer, it was warm out there. We also got air in my bike tires so I hope that I can get out of my basement, off the stationary bike, and get outside riding soon.

4.16.2007

April 9-15, 2007 Week 15

Monday J arrived with K & M. The drive didn’t take her as long as she had expected and the girls were wide awake, and excited. J kept worrying about their behavior, but they were being good, but still being 5 years and 18 months old. We had our hands full.

Tuesday: We took the girls to the Crayola Factory in Easton. K had fun but I think it was a little to old for M and she was bored. We would have stayed longer if it was just K but we had to try and make them both happy. I did by the whole Crayola Store or they (at least it felt like it) and J will put some things away for good report card and Birthday presents.

Wednesday we went to the Lehigh Valley Zoo. What a wonderful place. It was a little chilly, but it was quite and the girls got to see all the animals and really enjoyed themselves. Later that night we drove the girls to their Grandmothers and drove back home. This was so the girls could see their family and so that J could have some peace.

Thursday: During the day J and I made bath fizzys and then we spent the rest knitting. That evening she was in need of some advice, so she and C talked about that stuff while I knitted even more.

Friday: We made fizzys- the fastest we have ever made them! And we wrapped the rest from the day before. The rest of the day was taken to chill and relax.

Saturday: J left right after lunch because of the impending snowstorm (Snow in April, who would have thunk it?). She made it as far as Erie and had to stop for the night. C left for Italy just a few hours after J left. He landed about 1 am EST. Needless to say between worrying about the two of them and waiting for their phone calls I didn’t get much sleep. But I did get lots of stuff done: I did my taxes, picked up cat food, cleaned the fridge, and printed a ton of labels for lip balms.

Sunday: I got up early and made soap all day. I got to watch the NASCAR race and knit some as well. I also started filing. See last year I put all my filing in a box and now I need to go through it and sort it out. It will take days…. But it will get done…

April 2-8, 2007 Week 14

Monday started with C leaving early to go to Virginia for some pointless meeting. That is one thing that frustrates me the most, is the seemingly pointlessness of it all. He can very rarely ever explain to me exactly WHY he is traveling someplace for a meeting. This is not because I lack the capacity to comprehend, or he the capacity to explain, but because it is something he doesn’t understand himself. And always he gets there, goes to the meeting, and then at night (or when he returns) still has little to no idea why he needed to be there in the first place. Usually it is just because someone else that needed to be there (or was there) wanted C to do their job for them. So his presence either spared another person the agony of attending, or the agony of listening/participating.

I took the day and made soap and soap samplers…..

Tuesday: Late in the evening C returned from his trip. Too late for a respectable dinner. I despise when plans mess up my dinner plans. I like to cook, I love to cook, (I hate to clean up), and I like to show my affection through food and through food that is good for you…

I took the day and made more soap….I’m only about a week behind my impossible schedule….

Wednesday….more soap and a few gift baskets that needed to be made to contribute to a few places….

Thursday…. Needed to buy supplies, it may be enough to get me through the rest of the year, maybe not... It is getting to the point of the year where I need an income, my money for supplies and show fees is running slim, and every purchase hurts. In January all the purchases are fun, there is money in the account, credit available on the card, and the year holds promise and delight. By April I cringe with every check, hold my breath as checks clear, and pray for good weather in late April and May so I cam make some money..

After picking up supplies I explored a few yarn stores on my way home. One was cool, so cool, it’s a secret…

Friday: I made soap (now that I had supplies to do that) and made fizzys…

Saturday and Sunday: they were spent getting ready for a visit by J and K&M. And we turned it into a spring cleaning. Saturday we had Blessed Food with B&M. It is the second year of this tradition and I think its better than Easter itself. Some people eat the blessed food on Easter itself, but B’s family it was a day before Easter tradition. Food is made and then brought to mass where it is blessed. There is something about all that food hanging out together and trading fragrance (not to mention the blessing) that just makes it taste better. There is usually bread, ham, kielbasa, hard boiled (decorated) eggs, potato salad, and of course dessert, which B makes from scratch…Yum….

4.03.2007

March 26- April 1, 2007 Week 13

Well April is descending on me. It is the month that I have too much to do, and not enough time to do it in, mixed with a plethora of personal constraints. So it is with this last week of March that I bid farewell to having a flexible schedule, and I start putting my nose to the grindstone…

Monday: Made soap (this will be a recurring theme, as I don’t have nearly as much as I wanted to have completed at this time of the year, so I am stressing). I got orders out, paid bills, worked on my web design (have you noticed?), put on EBay some extra junk I have hanging around here, and then stopped early because of a migraine (see I told you I am stressed).

Tuesday: I ordered supplies and met with Barb for our bi-weekly meeting. I was actually pretty caught up on the things I am supposed to have done, but only because I did most of them yesterday. On the way home I stopped at one of the local garden stores to see what they had (not impressed) and then skipped my Aromatherapy class for the night. J ended up having an emergency doctor’s appointment so I waited forever to get answers on what was going on with her. The good news is that after years of worrying that she had early signs of MS, the demyelization in her brain was just a scar from a head injury she suffered as a toddler. Whew….crisis adverted once again…

Wednesday: I wrapped fizzys and made samplers along with soap. Went to yoga class and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was one of those days where I didn’t want to go, and in not wanting to go I knew that it was a day I really needed to go. And once I got there I realized I did really need to be there and it was good…

Thursday: I ordered new business cards, I hope they come out nice.. took almost all day milling soap- anyone have a salad shooter (professional) they are willing to part with, I just can’t find one cheap, and I go through them like water…I started making travel soaps/sachets so I hope to have some up on the web site soon and have at least some for my first few shows of the year…

Friday: I was MISERABLE, it was like I was possessed. I got wound up all tight and then just couldn’t get unwound. It started because I was making phone call for my dad about some of his accounts. Now I HAVE a power of attorney- which more than half of these places didn’t even want to see, they could care less, because they just need my dad to call them. Now if he WANTED to call them why would I have a POA??? I felt like I was just being ignored, and if I was male I could just call and they’d never know I wasn’t him. Hours and hours of this junk…Then J dropped a bombshell, so now I need to help her dig herself out of a hole too… just not the right day to deal with that too…I finally too a few Simply Sleep so my brain would stop twisting in circles and I could go to bed…

Saturday: My crabbiness remained. It was like it had a hold of me and I just couldn’t shake it. C and I went to the Home Show but didn’t finish the whole thing because I jumped down his throat for something that wasn’t him… I took a nap when I got home and slept it off some and we went for a fantastic dinner that night at the Stoned Crab. Awesome food, but I learned I am now a lightweight, as the wine, well, lets just say I was hung over on Sunday…

Sunday: After a slow start on my part we went to lunch at Boston Market. I like their food (especially the meat loaf) but man their service is terrible.. We stopped at Target for a few things and then we went home. I watched the NASCAR race (C thought I would sleep through it, I just knitted away) and I made burgers for dinner….