April 7- Hofstra Flower Show- Day 1

Hofstra Flower Show-Day 1

Well because C was gone for work I didn't want to make the drive out to Long Island by myself in the morning so I drove out on Thursday. Good thing- I got lost three times and it took me almost 4 hours to make it to the hotel by the time it was all said and done. I was starving when I got in and was very happy to see that I had cookies in my room and a bottle of water. After I swallowed them down I left to find some dinner. There is a steak place down the road that caught my eye and I had a mice (oops, nice...) salad and prime rib sandwich. Nothing special but good food. After that I went back to the room and worked on schoolwork and some accounting that I needed to catch up on.

Friday: After a terrible nights sleep-these walls are paper thin, I got up, had a nice breakfast, and went to find the show and load in. I was expected around 9 am, and I gave myself 2 hours for a 30 minute drive. So I got to load in early- only four trips down the elevator with the big carts they had available. What amazed me the most was load in. I knew I was early so I parked over to the side of the loading dock so as not to block it for someone who had an appointed time, and the one other person who showed up while I was there had to keep blocking my path up the stairs- they had a whole dock to use! It's amazing how some people just don't notice or care- just proves no good deed goes unpunished.

My neighbors are great people. I have learned about some new promoters and some shows that I have been interested in that they all do. Although sales were slower than I had hoped for- I didn't make my goal for the day-I had some great conversation and great customers as well.

The quality of the stuff at this show is top rate It is a relatively new show which I did not know (about 4-5) years now and it is growing each year. If I can make my sales goal I may be back next year- it certainly has potential.

C landed about 9:30 and made it to the hotel about midnight. Words cannot express how glad that I am that he is home and safe. I feel bad, I need to wake him up so we can leave soon.

March 27-April 2- Week 13

At the end of last week I instituted a new way to attack my two do lists. Now I first work on my daily routines- things that need to get done every day. Then I move on to the list of things for the business that need to happen in the workshop. Hopefully by after lunch I can move upstairs and attack homework, business things to do on the computer, and personal things to do. After this is all done I go to the MASTER LIST. That list of things that seem to never get done, the one that hangs out for months at a time, never getting any shorter. Now I try and do one thing a day. 30 things- 30 days. It still isn’t getting any shorter, but the list is at least changing and things get deleted and added. We’ll see how this goes for a month.

I’m a little stressed about my upcoming show. It’s at Hofstra University- a flower show. I’ve never done it before and I’ve never gone out on Long Island for a show before either. I have to go set up and do the first day by myself because C is on a business trip to Mexico and won’t get in until late Friday night. I don’t know where I’m going, what kind of neighborhood the hotel is in (or the University for that matter), and what kind of turn out the show is going to get. I may sit there and twiddle my thumbs, I may be swamped. I just don’t know.

Last week as I finished my entry the heater had broken. It was the coupling that attached the motor to the pump for the hot water baseboard system. It got fixed quite quickly on Monday. Also on Monday I had a great experience with a new display vendor- one came broken and it was a pleasure to get a new one sent out- no hassles. How cool is that! I also got the recall on my car fixed and my oil changed on Monday. I hate my dealership- I always feel lied to and that it is impossible to get good honest service from them. I don’t know how they keep they 5 star rating. All I know is from now on when I get called for my after service survey they’re gonna hear it from me for sure.

Tuesday I just took some time to do some paperwork- a few things from my MASTER LIST that were costing me money month after month and I was just too lazy to call and cancel. Also went to the post office and mailed out the April newsletter. I finished homework for my classes so I could start new ones on Wednesday.

Wednesday: new classes- Advanced HTML and Business Success Seminar. The seminar seems like it will be pretty easy as log as I can keep up on the writing. The HTML isn’t hard per se, just labor intensive. I have a cool final project so I hope to redo some of the web site in a much more easy to update way- using CSS.

Thursday- I got the newsletter (e-mail version) ready to send and finished hemming the new fabric I bought for the tables in my display.

Friday: errand day and I learned to decorate eggs using Pysanky. It is an easy technique to learn, but hard to master. It involves layering dyes and wax to draw a design onto an egg. B and I went, it was her idea and I am so glad that she came up with it. It was uber-cool! You can learn more at http://www.learnpysanky.com/getting_started.html.

Saturday: C and I set up my display with all of the new elements that I have bought lately. We took pictures so I can remember how to set it up the first few times. It really adds a lot of height and color that I hope helps attract customers. I just need a few banner signs now and I’ll be set for a while. We also went to BJ’s to get me a new table to work on since the ones I was using go back to being part of the display and we emptied the van of all the stuff that I picked up at my old storage unit about a month ago when I emptied and closed that.

Sunday: House hunting. We are going to have to take a few weeks off because of shows and Easter so we tried to fit in quite a few this week. More and more we learn how picky we are and hard to please. Lets see, the first two we didn’t bother going into- either they looked really small or weren’t in as good an areas as we though they’d be. The third one was cool, if I won Powerball and had enough money to renovate it the way I want to. The fourth was pretty awesome, but didn’t have any off street parking- a deal breaker. The fifth was not as nice as the fourth and way over priced. And finally number 6 was just not what we were looking for. I’m tired of looking and I am glad that we have a few weeks off.

March 20-26- Week 12

First, I would like to address a comment that I received- that I make a lot of soap. I do, and most of the time when I do my daily breakdown I don’t even bother listing it as something I’ve done because it is so second nature now to be multitasking- soap and something else. On average I make about 120 bars a day when I make soap- that is three of my batches and all time involved takes me about 9 hours. Because I rebatch, or hand mill, it takes quite a while for the soap to melt down, and then I need to clean my crock pots and start all over again.

Second, this week ended up being a revelation for me. I have labeled myself as a procrastinator for some time now, but after talking with B at this weeks UWBW meeting I really for the first time realized that I am not a procrastinator. I do accomplish a ton of stuff each day- sometimes it is not what I planned to accomplish- or as much as I wanted to accomplish- but I still do a ton of stuff each day. I’ve changed my routine since then- to do what I HAVE to do each day (which really is quite a bit) and then 1 thing from my master list of things to do that needs to get done. Then I need to take some time for me each day as well- no more folding flyers while watching TV at night, or knitting bath mitts during CSI, not unless I take time all for ME someplace else. I have done this well for three days now- I have already learned two new ways to cast on (knitting) and a new way to control my yarn that keeps my hand from cramping up. I got as far as I can get working on a sweater (need to learn button holes) and started a scarf with this great yarn that I have been dying to use.

As for the rest of the week it was a blur. C was away on business, this means that I slept lousy all week and just wished for it to end. I did send out some show applications, got my April newsletter ready to mail, finished a mailing to potential wholesale customers, finished making 50 bubble bags (they just need labels), worked on homework, sent out a few orders, FINISHED MY TAXES!!!!, and my federal student aid forms, looked at houses, cleaned the house and the basement, and went to dinner at B’s on Tuesday- all this while making soap and the usual daily routine.

Last night the heater started acting up, we had to shut it down, I think it’s the pump, off to call the repair service- wish me luck!