Sugarskull7's Artblog

pressure cooker

2011-04-10T12:02:00.000-07:00

*sigh* I guess there's just no point in vowing to update frequently when we all know how it really goes. Since the last time I wrote, let's see...screenprinting is picking up a bit. We printed shirts for our local sushi place and we have two orders for upcoming Rotary Club events. Still haven't listed the shirts with my artwork in our other Etsy shop because the pictures we took came out blurry. We need to re-take all of them. I don't know what it is that makes us procrastinate so much when these are things that could be bringing in much-needed money.
I'm still hooping like crazy, as you can see. The above picture was taken on Venice Beach last month. Today we're attending a hoop jam in LA that's a benefit for Japan. All donations will go to help the Red Cross effort in Japan. This is my first "big" hoop jam, should be fun. I'm excited that Jim is going with me.
Yesterday we went to a dock party (exactly like a block party but on the dock!) in Ventura to hang out my friend Keith. Keith was one of my best friends in High School. We parted ways after graduation - he joined the Coast Guard, I moved here to California (I grew up in Virginia Beach, VA.) and lost touch for years. We finally found each other again via Facebook last year, and got to see each other when he was in Ventura. His friends Julie and Mike have a boat there, so they (Keith, his wife Amy, Julie and Mike) drive from Arizona to Ventura and spend weekends on the boat pretty often. It was fun to see them again and meet some new people. We got to tour a few of the boats. I'm not a boat person, I get seasick, but it was really cool to see all the different layouts and configurations of the cabins and such. I brought a pile of hoops to the party and those were a hit! Lots of people tried them out. Hoops = instant laughter and happiness.
On a not-so-happy note, our lender has now put a sale date (May 5th!!!!) on our home. If our lawyer doesn't come through, it looks like we'll be losing the house. I don't even want to think about that. The notice was taped to our gate on Friday and of course even though I called the law office about 500 times, no one called me back. I'm trying not to completely freak out. I know they're busy, and their receptionist did acknowledge that they received our fax (of the sale notice) and told us we'd be getting a call back. If I can't talk to someone tomorrow, though, I'm going to start to panic. We've been ripped in the past by a one of those "loan mod assistance" companies. They took our $3,500.00, screwed up our loan mod and then disappeared, leaving us worse off than when we'd started.
This time we're going with a legitimate law firm who has been practicing real estate law for a long, long time. It's all they do. STILL...I'm getting scared. I've read mixed reviews about them online. It seems they've helped a lot of people, but possibly dropped the ball on a lot of other people's cases. I really hope they're not going to bail on us, this is our last hope of keeping our house.
And yeah..this wasn't one of my most eloquent blog entries (not that many of them are) but I needed to just get it written down.
Don't know what the future will bring, but today I'm going to hoop my ass off and hope for the best.

I got the beat, I got the beat, I got the beat, YEAH!

2011-02-24T21:45:00.000-08:00

Alright, I've already driven everyone else in my life crazy with this, now I'll annoy my blog readers with it too! There's a hooping move (and the type of hooping itself is often called "poi" hooping, done with two smaller hoops of equal size, using hands rather than body, for the most part) called the three beat weave that I've been obsessed with since last summer. I saw someone doing it in a You Tube video and immediately got myself some poi hoops and started watching every tutorial I could find. NEVER got it! I understood the mechanics of it, and could do the move one-handed with each hand, but as soon as I incorporated the second hoop, chaos ensued.
Last weekend I bought a larger (and thus slower spinning/easier to handle) pair of minis and decided to tackle my obsession again. Yesterday, I got it!!! Soooooo happy! It's a little rough yet (as you can see in the video), but I can do it, so I'll only improve from here! I think aside from stamp carving, hooping is the only "hobby" (or whatever you'd call it) I've stuck with the longest in my life. I haven't gotten the least bit bored with it. I think the fact that there is endless room for improvement and endless new moves to learn and different styles to explore makes it impossible for me to get bored. And the fact that I CAN master a move if I practice enough, even if said practice goes on for months keeps me motivated.
Achieving goals. Yeah, I kinda like it.

back to normal..whatever that is

2011-02-21T07:47:00.000-08:00

Alrighty, splint is off, stitches are out and I'm feeling far more human. I'm so happy the surgery is over. As long as nothing weird happens while I heal (sometimes scar tissue can develop and cause things to deform), that should be the end of that. My nose looks pretty close to what it looked like before the break, finally, and I'm happy. It's never been perfectly straight to begin with - my mouth is actually slightly off-center and my nose sort of curves to follow it, so if the doctor had made it truly straight, it would actually have looked more crooked. But he fixed the damage/assymetry to the cartilage and I feel like my old self again. This surgeon is really amazing - he managed to do all of that (and this surgery was quite invasive) without bruising my face at all. Less than two weeks later, it pretty much looks like nothing happened (except that my nose looks better)!
Not much else to report. Billy got to go home from the hospital with a drain coming out of his back to relieve pressure on his kidney. I think he's supposed to find out today if they're going to go ahead and remove it, so there's probably more hospital time in the near future for him - but at least he's not in pain. He's hoping they just remove the troublesome organ, so I hope so too.
No new news on the will-we-keep-the-house-or-not? situation. We did hear from the law office last week, but there wasn't anything new to report. I'm glad that it seems like they're on top of things, though.
Had a great weekend - went to a party at a friend's house Saturday night. She's someone we both REALLY like but had fallen out of touch with. I'm glad we're back in tough again. I made her a hoop and brought over some of my own hoops, and gave an impromptu indoor (due to rain) hoop class.
She says she's addicted now, so yaaay! I always love bringing someone else into the hoop world. We also met a really cool couple who happen to live right near us. The husband is a professional sculptor..an AMAZING one, it turns out. It's funny how we keep meeting artists and creative types now that we've chosen to point our lives in that direction. A good sign, I guess. I look forward to getting to know them better.
Now I really should get up and make some stamps before heading out for my get-out-of-the-house day. :)

VD

2011-02-14T16:48:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day! The picture above is Jim's first stamp design. Pretty cool, huh? Hrmm..is he trying to tell me something?
We spent today in Ventura having a few silkscreens made of some of my designs - finally! Hopefully in the next few days I'll have some t-shirts to list in our other Etsy shop and we can get that part of our business rolling. We had lunch at Brophy Brothers..YUM! Clam chowder, garlic baked clams and blood marys. Then we ran around and did a bunch of errands. Now we're both exhausted and not feeling very Valentine's-ey.

We don't really buy into this particular holiday anyway. It was fun when we were a new couple, but after 13 years together, I think we've pretty much established that we love each other. I'd rather express that in small ways each day than make some big, contrived gesture when Hallmark says we must.

I'm worried about my very good friend Billy. He's had a bad kidney all his life due to a birth defect, but now he's in the hospital about to have it removed. It's been causing him a lot of problems, so it's probably a good thing, but knowing someone I care deeply about is in pain makes me really unhappy. Plus he doesn't have health insurance (a predicament Jim and I are about to be in, actually) and this is going to cost a fortune. He's got an amazing girlfriend and I know she'll be there for him, taking good care of him, but I hate that they're going through this. Billy, by the way, is the guy responsible for most of the artwork on my body. It pretty much impossible for me NOT to think of him at least a little each day. :) I'm praying for his quick recovery. The worst part (for us..obviously the whole thing's much worse for him) is that they live on the East coast and we can't go visit and be there for them.
Sending prayers and reiki your way, my good friend.

nobody really nose

2011-02-12T10:50:00.000-08:00

Alrighty, so, surgery went well. I have to say I have a really amazing plastic surgeon. This is the second surgery he's done for me, and the second time he's managed to do it without giving me black eyes! This surgery was more invasive than the last one, with him having to cut the septum for an "open" procedure, so I was expecting the worst. I woke up surprised to find myself breathing through my nose - no packing!! Usuaully with open procedures, the surgeon will pack the nose full of what are basically tampons, and you spend a week or more breathing through your mouth, totally miserable. He'd warned me he'd have to do it this time, but then he didn't!!! I was quite happy. So..I've got the stitches, splint and a faceful of tape, but at least no black eyes or torturous packing.

The day after the surgery was kind of weird - I woke up with pretty severe pain in my chest and back. It felt like all the muscles were in total spasm, as though I'd been doing crunches the entire day before or something. It was hard to breathe or move and I spent the day knocked out on codeine. It's unusual for me to use painkillers at all. I had major surgery on my spine a few years ago and never took anything stronger than Tylenol. I have no idea what that was all about...did something weird happen while I was under? Ugh, that was a bad day. By Thursday, though, I was up and about, making stamps and getting work done. I still have to take it easy and I've got a ways to go before I look normal again, but I feel much better. SO glad that's over. I hope the results are what I've been hoping for and that this is the last time anything has to be done. It's amazing what a dragged out mess that 30 second second encounter with my dog's head became.

Not much else to report. I've been making and listing quite a few new stamps, the shop is pretty busy. On Monday we should be having some silkscreens made of a few of my designs, and will start making some t-shirts!! Finally! We really, really need to get that end of the business rolling. The shop being busy is all well and good, but it doesn't pay all the bills by a long shot.
So here's to LOTS of new, sucessful business ventures and a totally healed-up, straight nose in the very near future.

Hoop, there it is!!

2011-02-07T09:58:00.000-08:00

Alrighty, so much for my brief-but-frequent blog post plan. It's been a wild month, capped off with a rather trippy trip to Vegas. I completed the 30/30 hoop challenge, and as you can see above, even hooped in the desert enroute to Vegas. When it comes to hooping, I'm apparently very dilligent and devoted. That photo was taken on top of the post of a burned out (or perhaps just fallen down?) house just off Pearblossom highway. I have a weird obsession with that house. I can't seem to find out anything about it, but I love to see it when we're in that area. There's something really lonely and beautiful about it. It was really fun to hoop there.

The shop is busy busy busy, and it's a pleasure to be able to easily keep up with it. We still don't have much going on in the way of screen printing, but we're getting closer. The house is still in foreclosure and our lawyer is on top of it, in theory.

Tomorrow I will be having surgery number THREE (or is it four..depends on if the break/re-set sessions count) to repair my broken nose. This is going to be a more invasive surgery than last time and I admit I'm a bit more nervous than usual. I'm going to try to keep myself distracted today, between hooping and work, and just generally enjoying the goodness in my life. Hopefully tomorrow will go well and I'll heal up quickly, and the whole dog-induced nasal nightmare will be a thing of the past.
Cross your fingers for me!

wiggles, jiggles, lumps and bumps

2011-01-20T17:45:00.000-08:00

Oops, I haven't been keeping up with my blog the way I intended. I need to go back to short daily entries. Meanwhile, the shop's been busy and the novelty of not having to carve stamps still hasn't worn off. Every sale is a "Yaaaaay!!!" moment instead of "Oh lordy, how will I ever carve all these???"
Today is day 13 of the 30/30 hoop challenge and I have hooped for at least thirty minutes every day. I love it! I think I'm going to try to keep the habit even after the challenge ends. It's just becoming part of my day. I notice I'm always in a better mood after a hoop session. I also just started going to a hoop class on Wednesdays in the park right by our house. It's good to have an instructor and other hoopers there to give feedback - all this time, I've been sort of hooping blind. There really isn't a mirror in my room large enough to see myself when I hoop and I haven't had the courage to film myself yet. Anyway - it's been great fun. I've also lost about 7 pounds, another happy side effect. :)
I'm noticing something else that hooping is doing for me. It DOES change your body if you do it regularly and vigorously, for sure. But what I've noticed has changed even more is just my own view of my body. As I push it to do new things and gain new skills, I look at it differently. The lumps and bumps, dents and flaws that I usually despise don't seem to matter quite as much. My body can do cool stuff, and that's sort of sexy. So yeah...hooping, it's a good thing all around. Ha, get it? All around??
Lots of other things have been going on - we worked the merch booth for Toad again last Friday night. This time we had dinner with them beforehand..another of those forehead smacking moments for me in terms of trying to wrap my head around becoming this familiar with my favorite band.
Okay, this entry is getting disjointed and I have a lot of things to do, so I'll end it now.
Feeling grateful lately for so many things.

whooooaaaaahhhhh!!!

2011-01-13T20:55:00.000-08:00

Wow, so sales have picked up quite a bit and continue to do so as I add new stamps. I've been working at a frenzied pace - the minute Jim prints out a new sheet of negatives for me, I make the stamps and go through all the steps to post them in the shop. Not an easy task when you have as many stamps as I do! And speaking of not-easy tasks, poor Jim! He's pretty much been at his desk all day, every day, scanning my images, cleaning them up in photoshop and converting them to negatives. I could NEVER have made this switch from carved to polymer without him. I'm lucky to have such an excellent business partner. He's an excellent husband, to top it off. I'm feeling pretty grateful in general right now. Life is crazy but quite good.
OH, and speaking of Crazy Life, tomorrow night is the Toad show in LA!!! We're working the merch booth, which always makes me insanely happy.
So yeah, new way of making stamps, sales picking up, hooping every day, great husband, great friends in my life, great kid...and TOAD!!!!
Right this minute, everything is perfect.

gaining momentum

2011-01-10T17:30:00.000-08:00

Wow, it's Monday already?? I'm so happy it didn't start out like last Monday with no internet! Instead, sales are slowly picking up as I add more polymer stamps to the shop. It is SO gratifying to see an order come in and know I can ship it immediately, instead of mentally groaning about having another stamp to carve. You know things need to change when instead of being happy about a sale, you're cringing because the workload is almost impossible to handle. Now I can actually get excited again!! C'mon sales, keep rolling in, I need ya!!!
This week (well, it officially started this past Saturday) I committed to the hooping.org 30/30 challenge. I will be hooping for at least 30 minutes a day, every day for 30 days. Today was day three. So far, so good. I really want to complete this challenge and make hooping more of a daily practice. It'll be good for me in so many ways. Not to mention it's just a lot of fun.
Today was my "play date" day. I went to Ventura and attempted to find a letterbox, but it wasn't where the clues said it was. I spent a long time looking because I'm stubborn and I HATE it when I can't find one. Then I went to Salzer's and listened to a bunch of African drum cds, and finally bought one. I came home and hooped it up for 30 minutes and now I feel like a wet noodle. *whew*
Okay....that's all for now. Bring on the sales!!!!

in my absence...

2011-01-05T10:18:00.000-08:00

OHMYGODIAMSOFRUSTRATED!!!!! I’m actually writing this entry as a word doc because I haven’t been able to get online for two days. Yesterday morning I awoke to discover the Fios wasn’t working. I knew I was late paying the phone bill (we’re broke, this happens often) and that it was probably suspended pending a payment. I called in and made a payment and was told our service would be restored in 4 hours. That was already bad, because I had several stamps I needed to ship, and with no internet access, I had no access to the orders or to Paypal shipping, so no way to ship them. Frustrating, but worst case scenario was that I’d have to pack them up in the afternoon and drive them to the post office that evening.

I went out and did my Monday getouttathehouseday thing, picked up some graphic supplies and checked out a couple of stamp stores in Ventura, got home at about 3pm……and stillnoservice!! Jim has already been on the phone with Verizon for a half hour and they wouldn’t help him because he didn’t have our account number. I got on the phone the minute I walked in the door..and remained on the phone for two and a half hours. I was sent to about seven different departments, NOBODY knew what they were doing. It turned out that not only did they suspend our service….they cancelled it altogether, as if we’d decided to switch to another phone company. Now a brand new order would have to be written and we’d have to wait, as though we were new customers waiting for an installation. Um…….WTF??? The last person I spoke with last night said she’d send an email to the department that escalates this sort of thing and I should have service by morning, if not that night.

Well….guess what we didn’t have when we woke up this morning??? Yep, still no service. I called in, and of course was transferred around to several people, none of whom knew what was going on. Everyone told me different things. Thankfully Jim has a friend who works in the orders department in another state, and she said she’d be able to expedite it. HOURS later….still no service. Turns out the person who wrote the order last night (the last person I spoke with that night) wrote it WRONG. So our friend had to re-write the order and is now trying to get our service restored.

Meanwhile, all of the orders that I told customers would be shipped on Monday have not, and anything ordered yesterday or today has gone totally unacknowledged (I always send the buyer a message thanking them, and letting them know when their order will ship). Not only that, but anything that has sold is now invisible to other potential buyers because I can’t relist the item. So I’m losing sales and probably have some customers that aren’t very happy with me. PLUS, I made several new stamps today and can’t list them in the shop – more potential sales lost. TWO freaking days of work lost so far. I’m more pissed off than I even have words for (well, words appropriate for a mixed audience, anyway). I’m totally helpless and at the mercy of stupid Verizon. So….let’s see, four years ago Verizon laid me off, thus taking away my job. And NOW…I’ve made my own job, and they’re losing business for me. THANKS, VERIZON, AGAIN!!!!!

Okay….well, I can’t even post this in my blog yet, because I can’t go online……….
(UPDATE: we finally got our internet back at 10pm last night, after yet another hour long call to Fios support, and I spent this morning frantically packing up LOTS of orders for shipping)

the factory is open

2011-01-02T17:13:00.000-08:00

I was busy today! Got several more stamps made and listed in the shop. I had far more successes than failures today, so I'm feeling encouraged. I've had a few sales already, also encouraging! Jim's learning a LOT about photoshop and how to clean up and duplicate my images before creating negatives of them for stampmaking. Go Jim!!
It's been raining all day, which is making me feel sort of down. I hope it clears up tomorrow, I want to go to hoop class - or at least to get out of the house for a while. There's a stamp store I want to check out in Ventura. I need to start figuring out what types of stamps are selling well, how they're packaged, things like that.
Since it's Sunday, there's not much to report in the way of the house situation. I'm sure now that the holidays are over, the upcoming week will bring some sort of nastiness from the lender. I hope I'm wrong about that.
Alright, nothing really exciting to say. I'm totally distracted right now because I've got the new Oprah Winfrey network on in the background and Dr. Oz is giving a really graphic, detailed description of how one's bowel movements should look. I mean reaaaaaally graphic. Yikes. An "S" shape, really? Does that involve some sort of maneuver? A hip circle/belly dance technique of sorts?
Hmmmm..much to ponder.

Happy Lucky

2011-01-01T10:53:00.000-08:00

Wow, first post of the year! I like to think we celebrated it in a manner that welcomes a healthy, happy, successful 2011. We had sushi with friends - complete with lucky black soba noodles, then (after much playing and hooping at home), walked to the labyrinth and made it to the center by midnight. We all sat together, drinking champagne and listening to all the horns and yells and fireworks. I think it was a great way to start off what will be an amazing year.
Now today it's Twilight Zone marathon, the 80th birthday of a dear friend, and hopefully a nap.
Happy New Year.

assembly line!

2010-12-31T12:50:00.000-08:00

Another day, more polymer stamps! I'm having more successes than failures today, so that's something. No real plans for New Year's Eve - so far, today feels like a regular workday. We'll probably go out to dinner with a couple of friends, then hang out here. I'm thinking it'd be fun to be in the center of the labyrinth when it turns midnight, but we'll see. I might wimp out due to the unusually cold weather!

So, wow...last day of the year. It's been another tumultuous one, for sure. Many ups and downs, a total change of life for Jim, growing pains for my business, lots of changes in Lauren's life as she grows up, family drama, broken bones, Toad, more "are we going to keep our house" stress than I ever thought possible, hooping, reunions with some old friends and a few really great new ones. That's a pretty weak sum-up of a whole year of life, but it's all I have the energy for today. It's impossible to capture it all in words anyway.
I'm excited to see what next year brings!

I'm a spaz!

2010-12-29T15:18:00.000-08:00

Well, well, I experienced something new this morning. I bent over to pick up my polymer exposure unit and was hit like a freight train by a spasm in the middle of my back. I actually dropped to my knees and couldn't breathe or talk for a few seconds, then had to remain in a fetal position on the floor for a while (superdignified). Once I got up, I found I could only walk if I remained bent at a 90 degree angle. Awesome. Now, I'm no stranger to back and neck pain - a car accident in 2001 lead to my having two of the vertebrae in my neck fused. It was a major surgery during which they took a piece of my hipbone and grafted it where the herniated disc was removed, and reinforced it with a titanium plate and screws. (yup..I'm literally screwed up) Recovering from that was tough, and I still experience a lot of spasms in my neck - but I'm USED to those! This is something totally new and so far I'm giving it two thumbs down. I won't actually perform the thumbs-down, though, since it'll probably set off a new spasm.

I worked on polymer stamps all day, despite the stupid back thing (another joy of working from home..you can crawl from place to place and no one gives you a funny look) with much success! I've got several new listings in the shop and one has already sold, hurray! I'm starting with all my heart designs since Valentine's Day isn't far off. Crafters usually purchase these items a bit ahead of time. Little by little, I'll be converting all my stamps over to polymer. It's fun, now that I've got the process down (for the most part) and I'm excited about it. It's nice to not sit at the desk carving all day long. It will be VERY nice to not keep customers waiting for weeks for their stamps.

I'm hoping the back thing lets up soon and that this isn't going to be a new way for my body to torment me. I can't hoop today and that is not cool. C'mon body...isn't the neck crap enough? Let's not add "bad back" to the roster, mkay?

Thanks.

Little Poly Stampmaker

2010-12-28T16:00:00.000-08:00

Alrighty...so, still running into a few bumps in the road as far as the polymer stamps, go, but I'm getting there. Today I finished carving my last large (multiple stamp) order! I've got a few more single-stamp orders to finish, but not many at all. It's really strange to actually be reaching the end of the carving list.

I REALLY need to get the polymer stamps cranking, though, and listed in the shop. Valentine's Day is coming up and I have a lot of cool heart stamps that usually sell well. Jim got them scanned into the computer today and is working on cleaning the images up and making them into negatives for me. The hard part about all of our endeavors of late is that we have to learn EVERYTHING! Not only do we need to learn the process of screenprinting - we need to learn how to create the graphics. That means having to totally learn Photoshop, along with learning how to use each piece of equipment we've aquired. I'm having to learn to use the polymer stampmaker - there's a lot of tweaking of exposure times and stuff, depending on how detailed the stamp is.

Jim made his first hot press transfer t-shirt today, success!!! That's the other method by which we want to produce t-shirts. It looks similar to screenprinting, but is a lot less expensive to set up initially (for the customer, not us..the equipment was outrageously pricey) for someone who just wants a single tshirt or short run of shirts (like for a small business or a team). Otherwise, the setup charge to burn a silkscreen is pretty high and isn't worth it unless you're getting a large number of shirts made. This method lets us create the graphic design, print it onto a special transfer paper and then use a heat press to transfer the image to the shirt. Basically a really high-tech iron-on. Anyway..there have been many trials and tribulations just learning to use the printer itself, and today he finally got a finished product! (see photo above)

Okay....now back to work!

the between holidays lull..

2010-12-26T13:07:00.000-08:00

Well, despite being broke and stressed out, we had a great Christmas. I might have to wear this hat every day, it makes me that happy! Heheheh. Today is Christmas with the Ex-Laws, also known as SecondChristmas. Every year we get together with Lauren's grandparents, dad, stepmom, brother, stepsister, aunt, uncle and cousins shortly after major holidays. We do the whole big family dinner thing, get caught up, let all the kids play - it's noisy and fun! It took us a long time to reach a place (mentally and emotionally) where we can all do this comfortably (and it's probably more comfortable to some of us than others), but I'm glad we can do it.

I tried to make another batch of polymer stamps this morning. Still running into learning curve issues, but I can see that it will work. I made a few successful ones the other day, and actually sold two already. Today..meh, I think I know what went wrong but now I'm out of polymer and have to wait for more to be delivered. I NEED to get the shop up and running again, we're definitely hurting without that income.
Time to go get ready! Stay tuned..

the storm before the calm

2010-12-22T08:07:00.000-08:00

...so, we're apparently in foreclosure, according to our lender. The lender called a few days ago (despite having been told during three other phone calls that they do NOT have permission to call us, and having been directed to call our attorney) and informed me that our status is now foreclosure with no sale date. They can't put a sale date on the house until sometime in February. I of course sent a panicked email to the law office and was reassured yet again that this is just part of the process and that they will NOT let us lose our home. It's nice to hear those words. I very much hope they are true.

Meanwhile, we finished the print job I wrote about a few days ago, and delivered the goods to our friend in Santa Barbara yesterday morning. Glad we made it through that with relatively few mistakes! We also gained a little more experience. I really like the process of screenprinting, actually. It's so satisfying to squeeeeege that ink through the screen, then lift it up and see the print. The cleanup is sucky, though.

Today I plan to start making some polymer stamps with my new machine, so this could be an exciting day. Or it could be another day of shit fits and meltdowns if I run into a bunch of learning curve issues. I've found that I REALLY fall apart when these things happen. I guess I've always been this way - but haven't had Jim at home to notice it (and point it out) before. What I mean is, I can't just try something, fail, take a deep breath and try again. When I fail at some attempt, I apparently need to get extremely pissed off and let loose a torrent of appalling language, as well as rant about how I'm NEVER going to get this right and I might as well go get a job at McDonald's or something. Then I usually try it again, figure it out, succeed, and skip around like a happy first-grader. It's all part of the process.
I hope today brings more skipping than melting down.

go with the flow

2010-12-17T21:14:00.000-08:00

So after yesterday's comedy of errors, today we strolled into the garage/shop and cranked out a bunch of sweatshirts, printed on the front and back, with ZERO casualties. Not a single sweatshirt was ruined. It took us maybe 2 to 3 hours to do those, a few aprons and a handful of t-shirts without messing up a single one. Crazy.

Now we're hanging out, listening to the rain, and I'm hooping to 80's music. Oh, and there might be a martini or two and one lucky corgi involved. These days are going to be crazy, but some of them are going to be perfect.

Misshaps and Meltdowns...an album title, or just a typical day in my life?

2010-12-16T18:08:00.000-08:00

Things that I expected to go wrong during today's bout of screenprinting: a few mess-ups, some unwanted ink blobs, moments of frustration here and there. Learning curve stuff, all part of the deal.

Things I did NOT expect to go wrong today, but did anyway: a huge puddle of spilled acetone, screwing up five sweatshirts before realizing it's not US, it's just bad ink, a note on the door from a SoCal Edison contractor telling us they're going to chop off the top of our palm tree, causing it to die, because it's near a power line...but they will leave the rest of the tree, and we'll need to pay someone to remove it., Arguing with aforementioned (and English-challenged) contractor about aforementioned tree in order to prevent its decapitation, a jury summons.

At least our lender didn't call or send scary certified mail.
Time for wine.

let's get physicals

2010-12-15T18:17:00.000-08:00

Half of today was spent in doctors' offices. Since our insurance benefits run out in February, Jim and I decided we'd better use what we have while we have it, and went in for physicals today. We really need to look into getting a health insurance policy, and I've talked with an agent about it, but I keep putting it off. It's just hard to face. Another expense, more paperwork and qualifications...bleh. I have an aversion to paperwork after two years of trying to get a loan modification.

It's hard to face the reality of the situation - we've deliberately chosen (by means of Jim leaving his job) to give up the security of health benefits, when we both have health situations that can't go untreated (I have bipolar disorder, Jim's got some digestive and cholesterol issues)..we HAVE to get some sort of insurance, but we're broke. Yikes. Yikes yikes yikes.

Meanwhile, I did hear from the lawyer today and they reassured me that they're working on our case and that it's just a long, stressful process. They say they can postpone a sale date once the lender places one on the house (which will happen sometime in February). It's just scary, having to wait until things are juuuuuuust about to fall apart before being able to take action.
Oh, and we have about 30 sweatshirts that we need to screenprint for a friend (the friend who is lending us the screenprinting setup) before Christmas. And NO Christmas shopping completed yet.
I've managed to knock my stamp carving list down to about 31 left before I'm totally caught up and can start producing polymer stamps.
Ugh, this entry is kind of going nowhere. I wish I could write more eloquently about the situation, but the minute I start writing about it, I get anxious and any decent writing skills go out the window.
Time for dinner. And wine.

just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not watching you...

2010-12-14T13:13:00.000-08:00

This whole trying-to-keep-the-house business is turning us into nervous wrecks. My stomach clenches whenever I get the mail, anticipating some new nastiness from the lender. I cringe whenever I get a phone call from a number I don't recognize. Today, Jim and I were eating lunch at the kitchen table when we noticed a woman outside taking a picture of our house. Great, we thought, another "independent field inspector" or something like that. Jim went outside to see what she was doing...and it turned out she was just taking a picture of one of the trees in our yard, whose leaves have turned a gorgeous red-orange. Jeeze. Sorry, lady.

This week I'm feeling really edgy. I'm worried that this lawyer will turn out to be just another person looking to take our money and rip us off, and that we'll still lose the house along with a substantial retainer fee. Oh yeah....and Christmas is coming, wheeeee!!!

I'm trying to focus on carving, getting caught up so I can kick my stamp shop into high gear. We've got pretty much no money coming in right now, it's all pretty scary. We're trying not to wallow in negative thinking, though.
Trying.

Hoop it up!

2010-12-13T15:57:00.000-08:00

Today I spent the afternoon in Ventura and oh, how I love California! Sunny, clear, around 80 degrees, two weeks before Christmas. I'm making a point of getting myself out of the house once a week, just to avoid becoming a total recluse. There's a lunchtime hoop class in Ventura, so for now that's my get-out-of-house-free card. Today I also stopped at Coast Graphic Supply to pick up more printing supplies and went to a really cool Dia de los Muertos themed store to get an ornament for an ornament exchange party tomorrow night. Now I'm home, drowsy but happy, and it's time to get some work done. That's the one problem with getting myself out of the house - the stamps don't carve themselves, and I still have so much more to do before switching to polymer.
Jim's been working hard every day to teach himself Photoshop so we can create the graphics we'll be printing. I'm proud of him, he's really following through on this stuff. Normally we're both HUGE procrastinators. Turns out the prospect of being completely broke if we don't succeed is a great motivator.
Who knew?

the Tube

2010-12-12T18:59:00.000-08:00

Today was spent participating in the filming of some short YouTube films with our friend James. I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but he and I made several YouTube films together back when I was first laid off. They actually hit one million views a few days ago..so yay! I don't talk about filming very much because it pretty much makes me squirm in agony to watch myself on film. So despite having filmed for hours with James, I've probably only watched each film two or three times. I only play a bit part in the ones we did today, so maybe they'll be more bearable.

Nothing new going on with the house today, since it's Sunday. We'll see what tomorrow brings. Tomorrow I plan to work in the morning, attend an afternoon hoop class, then probably work some more once I return home. And yeah....nothing interesting to say today, but nothing bad, either...so there's that. :)

Who's fault? Default!

2010-12-11T17:03:00.000-08:00

I promised to blog a little each day, so here it is. Today's main thread of thought has been centered around the utter joylessness of cleaning a house that might not be yours for much longer. Cleaning in general isn't much fun...but cleaning a house the bank is trying desperately to take away from you is reallynotfun!

Today a realtor came to the door - apparently our house shows up in the system as being in default, which makes it fair game for realtors to try to "entice" us into doing a short sale. This will probably become a routine activity, since short sales are realtors' bread and butter these days. Good times, good times.

Meanwhile, whenever I speak to the negotiators at the law firm, they assure us "We will NOT let you lose your house, you are protected!". It's hard to trust anyone anymore. We've been ripped off in the past by a company that swore up and down they could absolutely help us. What if this is another scam? We're out of options if it is, because there's no more money to pay lawyers. Our credit is horrible, so if we do lose the house, we're going to have a hell of a time finding anyone that would let us rent from them. Oh yeah..and we have 4 dogs we refuse to give up (well..there's a yellow lab I can live without) and an entire print shop in the garage by which we mean to make a living. It'll hard to squeeze that into a teeny apartment. Or trailer. Or tent.

Some days I wonder if we even deserve this house. We bought more house than we could afford - but everyone kept telling us "This is how everyone does it, the real estate bubble is NEVER going to burst, you'll just keep gaining equity - you'll never owe more than what your house is worth.". We were stupid. Didn't do our homework, loved this place so much, we just went for it, confident it'd work out. Now here we are upside-down, in default and pinning all our hopes on something a law firm is telling us.
Leap and the net will appear. No net in sight so far.
Maybe it's just further down...

Invisible Net

2010-12-10T18:04:00.000-08:00

Wow.....I've severely neglected this blog! Let see..where did we leave off? Jim was either about to leave or had just left his job with Verizon. After working for the company for almost 20 years, the last few of which were spent commuting about an hour each way, they moved his job even further away! His commute would have gone from an hour each way to two hours each way. The cherry on top is that the company wouldn't change his hours to accomodate carpooling with anyone. Yup, with almost 20 years of seniority, he was still being trumped by people with even more seniority, and had pretty much the worst hours in the department. So he'd have been getting off work at 6:30pm and not getting home til about 8:30pm. Anyway...the company offered a voluntary separation package and he decided to take it.

Paging back a bit - I also worked for Verizon, for 17 years. I got laid off due to company-wide cuts four years ago. After a couple years attempting to run a dog training business in a bad economy (FAIL), I'm now selling hand-carved stamps full time in my Etsy shop. Now Jim and I are going to try to make a go of BOTH of us being full-time artists. Yes....we're on the verge of losing our house (yup, that's still going on), are broke.....and we're risking it all in the hopes of being self-employed doing something we both actually enjoy and care about. I know. Crazy.

We've obtained a good screenprinting set-up on a sort of indefinite loan basis from a good friend - and we print tshirts for his resturant in return for the use of it. So that's one avenue. We also just spent a large chunk of Jim's severence money on a really high-end printer that's capable of producing professional grade art prints. It can also print transfers that can be heat-pressed onto tshirts. We also got a vinyl cutter for making custom decals. So....we're apparently going to be doing tshirts, decals, screenprinting...in all sorts of forms. Plus I'm still doing stamps, but am moving away from hand-carving them. I just bought a new polymer stamp making machine (a way better setup than the first one I tried last year) and am going to start producing all of my stamps that way, with the exception of custom hand-carved items. Right now I've actually stopped taking new stamp orders so that I can catch up on the orders I already have, then I will begin producing the polymer stamps.

We're working with a law firm trying to keep our house, since we got denied for a loan modification for the THIRD TIME now. So let's see.......neither of us has a stable job with benefits and a predictable income, we're trying to start a new business (incidentally we have to learn to USE all the gear we just bought..not a simple task by any means) and our future in this home is uncertain - and we NEED the home in order to run the business, AND I'm changing my method of stamp production totally. Adding to that is some really aggravating family drama that we're trying our best to not get sucked into. Oh, and Jim's dad's alzheimer's continues to get worse. We try to get up there and visit/help out every couple of months. No stress here!!!!! No sir.
So..from here out I'm going to try to blog a little every day, to chronicle our adventures as we try to build a life out of the various pieces of wreckage left from our "old" life. Stay tuned, it should be interesting...

end of (Verizon) days

2010-08-27T08:11:00.000-07:00

In the spirit of following one's true path, I finally got around to carving a labyrinth stamp.

And speaking of following one's true path, it's official, today is Jim's last day at Verizon. Starting Monday, until his new venture (more on that in the future) begins, he's unemployed. We'll be living on half of his former income..which was already a stretch since my Etsy income is considerably lower than MY former Verizon income. *gulp* Oh, and our loan modification still hasn't gone through...so if they ask for new paperwork, we'll probably have to start that procedure all over again (for the..fourth time, I think..) because our income will have changed. *double gulp*

We might be about to start an amazing new chapter in our life together. Or this might all seem like a colossal mistake, if things don't work out the way we hope they will. Still, leaving a job that keeps moving further and further from home (and they've already hinted that this latest move won't be the last) and offers zero personal fulfillment doesn't seem like a mistake. Turning down a commute that's going to be twice as long as the one that's already unbearable, that will cost us close to half of Jim's paycheck in gas doesn't seem like a mistake. It all seems more like a sign that it's finally time to take a leap of faith and try to live life the way we want to live it, doing things that actually mean something to US (not to a giant corporation who doesn't know/care who we are).

Of course our feelings fluctuate by the minute from joy and excitement to panic and despair. Here's hoping the leap will end with a perfectly executed landing.

times, they are a' changin...

2010-08-10T18:14:00.000-07:00

So much is happening. In the interest of not spending too much time blogging when I have a lot of work to do, here's a brief rundown. We just got back from our annual camping trip in the Sierras. It was a perfect trip. No time to elaborate now, but it was just perfect.

Meanwhile, back at the homestead, we discovered that Jim's job is being moved even further away - meaning his current commute of an hour each way will become two hours each way. Four hours in traffic, plus eight hours at a job he doesn't like..yeah, not a happy prospect. The other option, which we had a week to decide upon, is a voluntary separation package. Jim can leave the company, it would basically be the same as a layoff. There would be some severence money and six months of benefits. That would give him some time and startup money to start a business of his own. We have an idea of what that's going to be, but I'll hold off on writing about it until (if) it happens. Well...the practical thing to do would be to keep the job with the reliable pay and benefits. Unfortunately, we're human and the prospect of Jim doing that commute - the money spent on gas, the wear on the vehicle, the wear on his SOUL...it just isn't a reasonable option. We can't move closer for various reasons (daughter in school..shared custody with her dad - can't move her away, upside down on our home, no credit with which to purchase or rent a new one...). SO...he's taking the plunge and leaving the company. More on that as it develops.

Meanwhile - a bit of news regarding my rubber stamps. I've had four of my more popular designs reproduced as red rubber. The goal is to eventually convert most of my stamps over to red rubber. I'll be able to ship them as soon as they're ordered and offer them for lower prices. This will save me time and hopefully increase the volume of sales in the shop. It's exciting and I hope it's the begining of a lot of growth for this business. Here's a picture of the first one to be listed!

The peacock plume is probably my most popular stamp - and also one of the most time-consuming to carve. Since it's often used for wedding related projects, the wait time was becoming an issue as well. So now buyers can still have the same hand carved images, but in red rubber form, available immediately! I'm excited. Things are definitely changing, but I think this time it's for the better.

lab(yrinth) work

2010-07-21T18:12:00.000-07:00

Oh blog, I've been horribly neglectful and I hope you can forgive me.
The Cambria trip was perfect. I've been back for so long that it seems futile to try to recap it now, but there was wine and moonstones, lots of food and good times. Exactly what we needed. We also explored Carmel and Monterey, met quite a few sea lions and elephant seals and a very cool bartender at Duffy's Tavern. Lots of good stuff.

We're about to leave again, actually. This time we'll be heading up to the Sierras for our annual camping trip. This year we will not be bringing the camper or the dogs, in the hopes of avoiding last year's string of near-disasters. Back to tent camping. There are pros and cons to that. All in all, it should be more relaxing if slightly less comfortable. I'll actually be closing the shop for this trip. That's a first for me. There is NO cell service up there, no wireless, no way for me to check the computer, so I have to close it down. I'm a little worried about it, but there's nothing I can do. I'm catching up on as much carving as possible before I leave, in the hopes of not falling TOO far behind. We'll see how that goes.

Yesterday I did something new, with a new friend...two phenomenons that are rare in my life these days. I went to a meetup for women artists in Pasadena. The new friend is a woman I met at a party a couple weeks ago. It was one of those serendipitous moments where the more you talk, the more obvious it becomes that you were meant to meet for some reason. She's an artist, among many other things, her beliefs (spiritual and otherwise) are strikingly similar to mine and I just felt instantly comfortable talking to her. So..she told me about this group, Artistic Women Inspiring Artistic Women, and invited me to the meetup. So I drove to her house yesterday and then we carpooled to Pasadena.

The meeting itself was nice - the group was pretty diverse - writers, musicians, photographers, visual artists, and it was interesting to share my own artwork with a group of people. LIVE people. I'm used to sharing it on the Internet, but it's a whole different thing to have a group of people who are not your friends (and thus not obligated to praise it) view it, and to see their reactions. The stamped images (I made a little portfolio) seemed to be well received, so that was nice. The rest of the day was spent at Chantel's (the aforementioned new friend) house, talking, talking, talking, drinking tea, talking, eating cookies, and talking. It was great!

One thing we talked a lot about was labyrinths and labyrinth walks. I had no idea that labyrinths had a purpose (in fact I mistakenly believed they were just hedge mazes) or how far back their use goes. She's actually a facilitator of labyrinth walks. She got out a whole bunch of books and showed me many of the classic labyrinth designs and explained their meditative and spiritual purposes. Ironically, the park that's practically right next to my house just "built" a labyrinth recently. I'd seen it when they first began work on it, and since I was expecting some sort of topiary maze, was puzzled to find just a spiral-ey design painted on an expanse of concrete. I kept wondering when it would be finished.

Anyway, I won't go into loooong detail about all the various meanings and uses of labyrinths, but if you google the word you'll find a lot of information out there.
Which leads me to today. First of all, despite having had a wonderful afternoon yesterday, I was in a really bitter, pissed-off mood for some reason by the time I got home. I occasionaly get really frustrated with my life - with the way we can't seem to move forward on this loan modification, how Jim can't finish any project he ever starts...ugh, just lots of things that are building up again right now. Things I can't change, that make me very unhappy.

I was fixated on all those things today, yet I couldn't stop thinking about the labyrinth in the park. I decided that after a few hours of carving and filling orders I'd go take a look at it, maybe walk it. So I did, not expecting much. In fact, I was annoyed to see bike tire marks all over it, indicating that mostly it's used as a place for kids to play. There were some annoyingly loud teenagers nearby and I felt self-conscious when I first started to walk. Little by little, though, my surroundings sort of melted away. I could hear the teenagers still, but they seemed further way. I could hear wind blowing through the trees, and the slow, gentle turns of the labyrinth were soothing, almost hypnotic. I wended my way to the center and then just sat there for a while. It was nice. I retraced my steps back out and walked home a little while later. And now? Right now I feel better. Not like anything is solved or fixed, but better.

I guess one function of the labyrinth is as a metaphor for life. There's one path, and it leads to the center, but it winds its way there - so sometimes it looks like you're headed straight for it, then a turn leads you far away from it, then you start heading toward it again, but another turn leads you away. Or what seems like away. But the path inevitably leads to the center. It's not a maze, so there are no tricks or dead ends....but some of the time, you are walking in what seems like the opposite direction of where you're trying to go. But you wind up there. You just stay on the path, follow all the twists and turns, and you wind up there.
So maybe all of these frustrating moments that seem to be taking me further away from where I want to be are just twists in the pathway. Maybe I'll wind up where I want to be.
It's just not a straight path.

(not) workin' nine to five...

2010-06-03T22:33:00.000-07:00

New stamp alert!

So, when I used to have my 9-5 cubicle job, I could not WAIT to go on vacation. There was nothing I wanted more than to forget my job for a few days and just enjoy my life. I never, ever dreamed that someday I'd have a job I love so much that it makes me slightly panicky when I know I'll be off for a few days. Not that I'm not looking forward to the vacation we're about to take!!! No no!! It's our 10 year wedding anniversary, we're going to Carmel-by-the-sea (how can you not love a city-with-dashes-in-its-name??) and Cambria for a few days. I've never been to Carmel before, but have been told by many people that I'll love it, and of course Cambria is one of my favorite places in the world. There will be wine, there will be art, there will be rockhounding, there will uninterrupted time with my husband. It will be GOOD.

However. When I had my hated-but-well-paying (there was a sale on dashes today..) job, it didn't matter when I was gone. All of the other drones that did the same job I did could take over and seamlessly mask my absence until I returned. I hated what I did, I was simply a cog in a really large piece of machinery and as long as another cog took my place, the wheels continued to turn. Now...notsomuch. I LOVE what I do, I'm the only one who can do it (for MY business, I mean. I know there are other fabulous stamp carvers out there.), and the work will NOT get itself done while I'm gone. This means that, despite having an immensely wonderful time, there will be a small piece of my brain worrying that someone is mad at me because their stamp has not arrived yet. I will be thinking about how far behind each day of not carving is putting me. I refuse to let these thoughts in any way interfere with the amazing time I know I'll be having, but it's weird how much my life has changed.

On that note, I spent three hours today with a CPA doing my final corporate tax returns for the now-defunct (There are those dashes again!!) dog training business. I just spent $500.00 to show the IRS that my corporation operated at a loss and has now dissolved. Awesome. No regrets, though. I met so many wonderful dogs, learned so much about them, and the franchise ownership experience bridged the gap between my being a 9-5 corporate employee to a small independent art business owner. It's a place I never, ever dreamed I'd be in.
I am grateful. Anxious, but so, so grateful.

at the zoo...

2010-05-30T16:31:00.000-07:00

I spent most of today on a really fun project. A very good friend of mine works at the Philadelphia Zoo and asked me to make a set of stamps for them. They are doing zoo camp this summer and the kids will learn about endangered species in different countries. They'll have passports which will be stamped with the animals they learn about, and I got to make the stamps!! Yaaay! So, here they are!

Clockwise from left we've got the Orangutan, Micronesian Kingfisher, Gorilla, Golden Lion Tamerins, Harlequin Toad, Humboldt Penguin, Polar Bear, and Diamondback Terrapin. And of course the one in the middle is the Zoo Camp stamp.
I can't believe I got them all finished in a day. It helped that I had all the drawings done already and was able to transfer them to the block and carve. And now Jim is on his way home and it's time to relax!
Oh wait - I carved a new stamp yesterday too. Here it is!

Got almost the entire thing done while my daughter was in the shower. That's either a testament to how quickly I can carve when I want to, or how much water a teenager can waste.
I'll let you guess which.

I've got sun...flower on a cloudy day

2010-05-27T09:52:00.000-07:00

This is the first bloom of a sunflower that sprouted under the bird feeder in the back yard. I'm so excited about this thing, it's not even funny. I've tried for years to get sunflowers to grow in our yard and have always been thwarted by squirrels. They always ate the buds before the flower could bloom and the whole thing would die. This one happened by accident and it's perfect! It's about four feet tall..maybe a bit taller, and has buds all over it. It's going to be so pretty when they all bloom!! It's probably weird to be this happy about a flower, but for the most part, I'm pretty easy to please.

We're having the strangest weather this Spring. Here it is almost June and it's cold and cloudy. Usually by mid-May it's HOT, but this one has been chilly and gray. I know once the hot weather hits and I'm baking in the bedroom with the portable air conditioner pointed directly at my face, I'll miss this. For now, though, it just seems weird. Hmm....I wonder if I should do a carving of the flower??

Okay, back to work.

impressed

2010-05-25T11:50:00.000-07:00

I just have to say I have the best job ever. See the beautiful pendant above? It was made by Brianna of MrsPetersonPottery using my anatomical heart stamp. She's been making pendants with this stamp and thought I should have one. How cool is that??? I'm so lucky to be doing what I'm doing, creating things that I love and meeting people like Brianna in the process. For every dishonest, greedy person in the world (ahem, Rescue Rooter..), there is a person like this - willing to give something beautiful to someone they've never met.

That's something I need to remember.

snakes and snails....er, I mean scorpions...

2010-05-22T06:41:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was busy and discombobulating. We spent Friday through Sunday at Jim's parents' house in Coarsegold, helping out. Jim did chores that his dad needs help with, I spent time with his mom. I also managed to get ten stamps carved somehow, which made me feel less panicky about being "off" work. I couldn't ship them, but at least there were done and I could ship them as soon as I got home.
On our first night there, we were greeted by a scorpion on the guest bedroom wall.

On Sunday there was a beautiful California kingsnake in the yard! I love those and it was a treat to see.

When we got home we discovered two of last week's problems were still in existence. The plumbing backed up again, and Lucy (the dog with the thousand dollar tummyache) has worms. I wasted much of Monday waiting for the plumber to show up, since the work has a 90 day warranty. He said he'd be here between 9 and 10. He arrived at 1:30. *sigh*
Got deworming medicine for Lucy, so she should be okay. I can't believe that a thousand dollars worth of diagnostic work didn't cover testing for parasites. In a dog who eats all kinds of disgusting stuff and was having stomach problems.
On Monday a little goldfinch crashed into my bedroom window. I looked outside after hearing the thud just in time to see him hit the ground. I ran out there before Lucy could snap him up and found that he was only stunned. I put him in a little metal tub on the side yard til he came around. Poor little guy. It gave me a great photo opportunity though.

We're dog sitting again, so we have a total of six dogs in the house. I'm not sure, but I think these two dogs might overlap a couple days with two more dogs we're watching next week. So...at some point we will have eight dogs in the house. That'll be delightful.
Oh, last night I carved a new stamp. It was nice to finally add something new to the shop. Not much time for that these days.

Okay, it's Saturday and I have a ton of work to do. Time to get up!!

I don't want to start any blasphemous rumors...

2010-05-11T07:37:00.000-07:00

Seriously, we're being punk'd by the universe. Someone has been made aware that we got some money from our tax refund and has decided it must be rapidly taken away from us before we go and do something crazy with it. Something rash and irresponsible, like taking a short trip for our 10 year wedding anniversary next month. Just a local trip, mind you. Not back to Maui, where we spent our honeymoon and promised ourselves we'd return for our 10th. No, no! No way can we afford that. But we got a small chunk back from taxes, enough to go up to Big Sur and Cambria for a few days.

So...first thing to happen is the fuel pump in Jim's truck breaks. That was an expensive fix, but we were relieved that it happened during the only time of year when there's a chance we could pay for it.

Then the plumbing incident occured. Last Thursday, just before Jim got home, disgusting brown water began gurgling up into the shower and bathtubs in the house. Awesome. So Jim tried to snake out whatever might be causing the backup. No luck, better call a plumber. Crap. I don't know a good plumber, we've never had an issue before. So I look online, pick one called Rescue Rooter because it looked like it was a big corporation - must be trustworthy, right? And they had 24 hour service, and it was after regular business hours..and we needed help right way. So they came and tried to snake out the drains....and were unsuccessful. The guy told us he'd have to send a crew the next day with a snake that had a camera on it so they could find the blockage. This, he announced, would cost $425.00. Just for them to look, then we'd have to see what they found and go from there. *gulp* So they arrived on Friday (2 hours late) and I sequestered all the dogs in the bedroom so the crew could go in and out of the house. They come back to me with this news: they found the clog, but it's in the sewage pipe under the front yard. They will need to dig down to it, replace the section of pipe and put a release valve on it. This, they say, will cost $2,250.00 - possibly more if they find other issues beyond the clog. I had to call Jim at work to tell him we might as well kiss our vacation goodbye because we were buying a piece of sewer pipe instead.

So....the day dragged on. They had one guy here digging the hole, the rest of the crew went off to other jobs. At 4pm Friday the guy tells us he's leaving, they'll be back tomorrow. So...Saturday. The crew arrives and since Jim's home, I just hole up in the bedroom with the dogs, TRYING to get some stamps carved (oh yeah, did I mention how little work I was able to get done Friday?). The crew puts their camera/snake contraption into the pipe beyond the leak and lo and behold! Another clog is found! Under the street! But still in "our" portion of the pipe. And it's going to require blowing the clog out with a power washer and replacing thirty feet of pipe with something called permaliner. This, my friends, was going to cost TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS. So we were both freaking the f*ck out. Complete meltdown. We don't have anything CLOSE to that much money. The $2,250.00 we were already looking at was going to break us. We don't have credit cards anymore - last summer I went through debt settlement, paying all our credit card debt off for about half of what we owed and ruining our credit. We had to, though, we were getting buried in debt. SO...yeah. No credit card to put it on, nothing close to that amount in the bank. None of our parents would have been able to lend it to us. Maybe we could have taken it from Jim's 401k..but it was Saturday, there was no one to talk to. Oh - and I forgot to mention, I just had the surgery to fix my broken nose last Tuesday..so I've still got a splint taped to my face and I'm feeling like crap anyway..before this happened.

SO...I called my friend just to freak out about it, and she saved the day. She gave me the number of her good friend who happens to be a plumber. I called him and told him what was going on he said "STOP!!! Don't let them do anything, you're being ripped off!!!". None of what they were saying we absolutely needed was necessary. And these people were watching us freak out when they first told us about it. I was in tears, Jim was just about having a heart attack, we were running around trying to make phone calls about the 401k..it was very obvious we could NOT afford this - and they would have happily taken the money we'd have put ourselves into debt to get. Anyway, Frank - our Fairy Godplumber, told us to just tell them to stop, pay them for whatever they did (which was basically to put a snake in the pipe to look for a clog, dig a hole, and take a chunk out of our wastewater pipe). We asked them how much all of that cost and they said it would be $1,100.00. !!!!!!!!!!!! Frank had already told me he could do the entire job (not just what they'd done so far, but to dig up the yard and replace the entire pipe) for under a thousand. I called him back and he told me not to pay them that much. Offer the $425.00 the originally quoted for snaking the pipe and maybe $200.00 for digging the hole. They argued with us. We called and spoke to a supervisor and told him we knew they were upselling us on thousands of dollars worth of work that didn't need to be done. Suddenly they were able to unclog the pipe and replace the section they removed, and put in the release valve...for a thousand, total. Amazing, no? Frank came by to check their work (as they were working..so they could see we had someone watching out for us). Thank GOD for honest people. I can not believe this company was just going to stand there and rob us. So.....despite having had to spend a thousand dollars, we felt like we got off easy all things considered.

Sunday managed to be a nice day and no catastrophies occured. Oh wait, except one of our dogs, Lucy, seemed a little off. She threw up after she ate breakfast (very unusual - this is the rabbit killer, who NEVER lets food get away from her). She was acting sort of weird. Ears down, walking kind of slowly (again, weird - this dog does everything in fast forward). She acted reluctant to jump up on things that she normally leaps and bounces across. She usually treats our house like an agility course, leaping from the pass-through, down to the couch, onto the coffee table and out the back door. Something was wrong. Then I fed her dinner and she just stood there, looking at her bowl. Again...wrong. This dog is usually finished with her food before I've managed to put the other three dogs' bowls on the floor. She finally ate..but really slowly, and only because she didn't want the others to get what was hers. I worried all night and knew I'd probably be headed to the vet on Monday.

Monday comes along and yep, she's definitely not feeling well. She did the same thing with her breakfast - just looked at it, then reluctantly ate it. She was walking really gingerly, like something hurt. She's a corgi, so I was wondering if it could be a back issue..but I also noticed she went outside, tried to poop..but didn't. Uh oh. Blockage? She does eat all kinds of weird things - sticks, dirt...rabbits, lizards. Off to the vet we went. There they did an xray (cha-ching!!) and gave her fluids (cha-ching!). The vet read the xray and didn't see any obvious blockage, but he seemed to feel something firm in her abdomen. That might have just been the food in her stomach, though. He did notice she seemed tender in one area of her back. The conclusion - her back is probably hurting and maybe that's making her just reluctant to eat. They gave me an anti-inflammatory and said to have her rest in her crate for a while to rest her back. But they'd call me after the radiologist looked at the xrays, since he's the one who really knows how to read to them. So..I get back home (oh..I forgot - my morning was already eaten by the doctor appointment to remove the splint from my nose). It's now around 1pm and I can FINALLY start to work. I'm panicking because I'm late on so many stamps and I'm getting lots of angry Etsy convos to that effect. I start on a stamp...and the phone rings. It's my vet. The radiologist read the xray and thinks Lucy has an intestinal blockage called an intussusception- where the intestine sort of telescopes into itself. Very dangerous, life threatening, requires immediate surgery. I'm sent to an animal hospital in Ventura, where they're waiting for me.
Jim raced home early from work to go with me, and I was freaking out. The vet warned me the surgery would cost between 4 and 5k!! I'm sick with worry about my dog, and also wondering where the f*** we're going to get this money, once again.

So we arrive at the hospital, they whisk Lucy away and give me papers to fill out - in which I need to decide what degree of resuscitation I'll permit if she codes during sugery. I'm crying again. That's twice in one week! And I'm not a crier!! I'm thinking I might lose my dog - or even in the best-case scenario, lose a lot of money and have a dog who has a long recovery and lots of pain to go through. They tell us they need to do an ultrasound on her first, to determine if there is indeed a blockage. We wait. They come out after a long time and tell us they've found.....................wait for it............................absolutely nothing. They didn't manually feel anything, they didn't see anything on the scan. She most likely ate something questionable and has a bad case of gastroenteritis, and that's why she's not wanting to eat. And that's probably why she's walking funny - she has a bellyache. Grand total for the vet visit and the hospital visit combined: just over a thousand dollars. Which, again, seemed like we'd gotten off easy after facing the possibility of the 4-5k surgery.

So...tax refund? All gone. We will spend our 10th anniversary marvelling at how well our toilets flush and petting our dogs, appreciating their good health.
And now I need to get up, feed the dogs (Lucy, by the way, was running, jumping and generally acting like a maniac when we got home from the hospital. As though nothing had ever been wrong. She farted the entire way home, making it necessary to ride with all the windows down..) and somehow carve, like, 200 stamps today.
Could somebody please point out the hidden cameras?

Can you hear me from under this avalanche?

2010-05-03T07:27:00.000-07:00

Auuugghh!! Okay, here I am now, officially franchise-less and focused solely on my Etsy business. And I'm freaking out! My wait time has become so long, because orders keep coming in and I can only carve so many stamps in a day. I know, I know...this is NOT something to complain about. And I'm certainly not unhappy about the growth of the business. I'm thrilled. But I'm also worried. Will I start losing customers as the wait time increases? I'm definitely fielding a lot more "Where is my stamp, it's been three weeks?!!!" messages. I've tried to make it very clear in my shop policies and in the item descriptions that due to being handmade, there is a wait time for the item. Still, not everyone reads descriptions, and I occasionally get someone who's placed an order for a gift or to use in their wedding invitations (LOTS of that going on right now) who is shocked that the stamp didn't arrive a few days later.

Adding to the fun, I'm about to have surgery, finally, to fix my broken nose (see entry from last September) tomorrow. While it's definitely possible to carve stamps while splinted and black-eyed, I'm sure it's going to slow me down. I'm trying to decide if I should close the shop for a few days in order to try to just catch up on the orders I already have. I worry about losing traffic if I do that, though. Plus the ad I placed in Rubberstampmadness has just come out in the Summer issue - and I'd hate for someone to see it, head over to my shop and find it closed.

I think I'm just going to have to suck it up and keep plugging away, dealing with the occasional irate customer. Too much work is definitely a good problem to have, I just hope I can keep up with it all.

Oh - in other news, remember the bird that kept showing up at my bedroom door/window? He's STILL here!!!! I didn't see him at all last week and I thought he'd finally gone away, but nope, he's back. He wakes me up every morning, frantically tapping away at the window, or perching on the doorknob. He seriously looks like he's trying to tell me something, but I have no idea what it is.
I hope it's good news.

I think I've figured it out

2010-04-13T14:57:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been trying to figure out why it's so hard to get caught up on orders. My turnaround time these days is around 3 weeks, which I hate. I'd love to be able to get things to people much more quickly, but orders have been steadily coming in on pretty much a daily basis. The carving list is long and I can only carve so many stamps in a day. Still...I can't help feeling like I should be getting more done each day. Sometimes eight hours pass and I'll only have 3 or 4 stamps to show for it. What happened?

So..I started paying closer attention to things that happen throughout the day. Here are a few recent days - none of which are particularly out of the ordinary in my life;

Saturday - got up early (Jim had to work), fed the dogs, had breakfast, put finished orders out in the mail. Headed to my "office" (corner of bedroom I've overtaken) and began carving. Answered various convos (Etsy messages) as they came in, while still working on carvings. Took a shower. Upon exiting the shower, noticed 3 of my 4 dogs were acting sort of weird. They all had that "somebody did something bad but it wasn't me" expression on their faces. I walked into the livingroom to find the dog in question (Lucy, our rehabilitated, formerly dog-aggressive corgi) standing over a half-eaten rabbit on the sofa. She was showing her teeth to any other dog that tried to come near her and the room smelled like blood. I had to pick the poor disemboweled thing up with a plastic bag, bring it outside and bury it. Then back inside to finish the post-shower activities that were interrupted by the rabbit killing (finish dressing, dry hair, etc..). Then it was off to the store to get a few necessities. By the time I got home it was 4pm and I'd gotten maybe two stamps done. Then I got a phone call about a family member who has been a constant source of worry and stress for months now - with the news that they've made yet another stupid, self-destructive decision. This phone call of course went on for a while and I then had to tell Jim about it. More time wasted. Then Jim came home and we had dinner. By then I was too wiped out to carve any more stamps.

Monday - Didn't get up as early as I'd hoped thanks to the next-door neighbors blasting hideous Mexican dance club music til rather late (requiring a call to the local police to shut it down) the night before. They apparently had a wedding. In the yard. In the pouring rain. On a Sunday night - who cares if other people work early Monday morning and need to sleep? So..got up, fed the dogs, fed myself, put orders in the mail and rushed to complete one more before the mailman arrived. When the mail did arrive it contained a distressing letter from our mortgage company (the same one dragging this loan modification out for over a year now) requiring a phone call to figure out what the hell was going on. Then came another phone call about the aforementioned family member. Then I realized that some ink I ordered STILL hadn't been shipped - more phone calls to find out what was going on with that. Back to trying to carve. Phone call from someone I'm buying a vacuum cleaner from - they're ready for me to pick it up. So..shower, off to the bank, pick up the vacuum. Once home, I HAVE to try out the vacuum, so I clean the entire couch, blinds in the kitchen, and floors in two rooms. By then Jim gets home, followed shortly by an unexpected drop in by a friend who wants some stamps made. That turned into a visit that lasted an hour or so. Then dinner. Then exhaustion. I think I got maybe 3 stamps carved that day.

Today - up early, off to a good start. Fed dogs, fed self, put orders in mail, got another one carved before the mailman came. Back to carving - and answering a large influx of convos on Etsy (surprise - many of them from people wondering where their stamps are). Then a phone call from my doctor to schedule the surgery to finally fix my broken nose (thanks again, Molly). Then another phone call about The Family Member. Grabbed some lunch. Lucy comes sauntering into the bedroom as I'm eating, with a bunny in her mouth. She plops it down on the floor (instantly attracting the attention of the other 3 dogs of course) and settles in as though she thinks I'm going to just let her eat it there on the carpet. I rush over and get her away from it - she immediately begins to fight with the nearest dog, who is attempting to sniff the bunny. I grab Lucy's collar, and she slips out of it. A three-dog fight begins, and I have to bodily tackle Lucy to put a stop to it - while using my hula hoop to whack at the other dogs, who are over by the bunny. Meanwhile, the bunny, who looked very dead upon arrival, gets up and starts to toddle across the floor, toward my bed. I quickly muzzle Lucy and grab the rabbit, praying it doesn't bite me and if so, at least isn't rabid. I put the rabbit in the side yard where it recovers with miraculous speed. Now adrenaline is racing through my veins and my hands are shaking. Can't carve. Took a shower. Now the daughter is home from school and is distraught about something. And we need to go to the store.
Hmmm.....I can't understand why I don't get more stamps carved in a day.....
Another of life's great mysteries.

Giveaway Alert!

2010-04-09T13:07:00.000-07:00

Sorry I've not been posting regularly - I've been too busy carving! I'm really excited that the shop is so busy, but feeling guilty for making people wait for their stamps. I wish I could carve them faster.
Anyway, I just wanted to share a really nice blog interview by Meg of Paper Jot. Check it out - if you leave a comment, you'll be entered into a drawing for a free stamp! :)
Oh - I've also listed the first in a series of one of a kind sugar skull stamps, as pictured above. I'm testing the waters, if this sells quickly I'll keep releasing them.
Back to our regularly scheduled program...

a little bird told me

2010-03-23T07:33:00.000-07:00

The first "official" (even though I haven't signed all the paperwork yet) week of not being a dog trainer (or you could say the first week of being a full-time artist!) is going well. The shop is very busy, I'm on par with my financial goal for the month, things look good.

Yesterday a little bird hung out on the doorknob of the french doors leading from my bedroom/office out to the back yard. It was so funny. He'd go off and do his little bird chores for a minute or two, then he'd come back to the doorknob and sort of peck at it. He was there all day! Was he trying to tell me every little thing's gonna be alright?

Okay, must get up and start carving.

new interview

2010-03-18T07:37:00.000-07:00

I woke up this morning to discover that try handmade posted an interview with me! I'd done it several weeks ago - they have a "DIY interview" feature in which you respond to their questions, submit photos and then wait to see if they approve and post it. I didn't know it was approved - thank goodness for Google Alert. Hehehe! Anyway, check it out, they did a really nice job. It was a happy way to wake up.

In other business news, I've officially quit my dog training job. I'm taking the steps (and oh, there are MANY) to close down the business and turn it back over to the franchiser. I'm a little sad - I'll miss the other trainers I've met and the great people in the home office. I'll especially miss the dogs. But I won't miss waking up most nights with my brain churning, panicking about the business costing me more money than it was making me. It was a really interesting chapter in my life, but I'm happy to be jumping into my stamp business with both feet now.

cover girl

2010-03-10T08:45:00.000-08:00

My work has found its way onto another album cover produced by Perhaps Transparent Records! This cover is for the band United Bible Studies . Click the link to see the cover. I probably didn't need to provide instructions, you know how the link thing works. ;)

This was quite an undertaking - text is always tough to carve, and the image itself was very detailed. I like how it came out. These cd cover projects are a fun departure from my usual work. Not that I don't love my usual work!

The shop's been a little slow this week, which is the first time in a while. I should be glad for the time to catch up on orders, but I worry whenever things slow down. I'm just about ready to take the leap to making this my "only" job. My dog training business is pretty much dead and I don't have the marketing skills/time/desire to try to bring it back to life. It's costing me far more money to own and run it than it's making for me. I'm going to be talking to the CEO today and more than likely will be turning the franchise over to the corporation. I think it's time. It's scary, though. This means I'm totally dependent on the success of my stamp business, or it's job-hunting time. And we all know what the job market is like these days. Not to mention the thought of having an office job again makes me want to swallow caustic chemicals. I just don't think I could do it again. Seventeen years was more than enough.
Another hurdle to getting back into the mainstream job market is my tattoo collection. With a half sleeve on one arm, tattoos on both forearms and now one on my left hand (one of my best friends, Billy, is visiting - he's the one who did my sleeve and the swallows on my hips - and I couldn't resist letting him mark me up a little more), I'm a less-than-desireable candidate for a traditional office job. That was actually calculated on my part - when I lost my Verizon job, I decided to continue being tattooed for two reasons: 1.) because I love tattoos and 2.) because I knew that being more tattooed would force me to pursue alternative career options. It was a way of reminding me to be true to myself.
Hopefully it doesn't backfire, but I think it's all in the attitude. I'm going to make it, doing what I love, because I have to and I want to.
So there.

new stuff

2010-03-02T07:20:00.000-08:00

I've been too busy to write lately! The shop is still busy (yay!!) and I've added a new line of ink pads. I've been a huge fan of Colorbox ink for as long as I've been carving stamps (about 14 years now), so I'm really excited to have been able to start carrying their products. So far I've just added small ink pads and a couple paintboxes (multiple-pad ink pads), but I plan to add more when I get a feel for what sells the best.
My dog training franchise has reached the point where it's costing me more money to run it than it's making. It's pretty depressing. I've put the franchise up for sale, but the odds of it selling are pretty slim. I may wind up being forced to just give it up.
SO...it's a time of reckoning for my Etsy business. I have to get really serious about it and keep growing it to make up for the income I'm NOT making training dogs.
We're still waiting to see if our mortgage loan will be approved for a modification so that we can keep our house. Things have been so incredibly stressful for us financially for so long now that if it ever lets up, I won't know what to do with myself! Seriously, what will I do with all the space in my brain presently reserved for constant worry about money?? I really hope I'm in a position to find out very soon.
Oh - I experienced a first on Saturday: I met one of my customers in person. I was making a hand painted sign for her and there was a bit of a misunderstanding between us about payment/shipping times. Luckily she lives nearby and we were able to meet up so I could deliver the sign. She was really sweet and I would have liked to spend more time talking with her, but Jim and I were in a hurry. In a text exchange with her a bit later, she mentioned that she felt a bit like a kid in Kindergarten and I knew exactly what she meant! There was this awkwardness - we'd had so many email exchanges online, yet we didn't seem to know what to do with ourselves in person. I don't know why it's so easy for me to communicate in writing but not in person when I meet someone new.
Ugh...nothing I'm trying to say is coming across the way I want it to right now. Not a good idea to write when I first wake up, I guess - and I'd better get up and start working now.
Maybe I'll be able to write something more articulate soon.

I heart this project

2010-02-19T11:01:00.000-08:00

I was perplexed when I opened the mail today. I received an envelope that was obviously used by me to ship a stamp - I recognized my little signature stamp on it. What the? At first I thought one of my orders had been returned for some reason, but I noticed the recipient's address had been covered up and replaced with mine. Inside the envelope was a tag. On the tag was my anatomical heart stamp and a silver charm (milagro) affixed to the bottom. There was a web address on the bottom of the tag, so I followed it and here is what I found.
This is so cool!! Random acts of art! I'm really happy that my stamp is a part of it.

Perhaps...

2010-02-06T14:25:00.000-08:00

One of my custom stamps has made its way into the music world! I was given the opportunity to make this stamp (seen on the cd sleeve above) for Perhaps Transparent Records - a Jersey City, New Jersey based independent record label. Steve, one of the two founders of the label approached me via my Etsy shop with the custom request. He was going for a very rustic look to be used with walnut ink on cd sleeves made with recylcled material. I really like how it came out! Thanks again, Steve, for the opportunity. :)

Meanwhile, sales have slowed to almost a halt this week, I have no idea why. I should be grateful for the chance to catch up on work, but no independent artist likes to see sales stop!! I hope it's a very temporary lull, because I was just about to start purchasing ink pads to add to the shop and now there are no funds. Yikes.

OH - I created a fan page on Facebook for my shop, come check it out and become a fan! I'll be posting exclusive sales for fans from time to time, so it's worth checking out.

Okay, back to work!

new and improved

2010-02-02T20:30:00.000-08:00

Still busily trying to catch up on orders. For some reason sales have been sluggish the past few days, I wonder what's changed. It's a little worrysome because I've just opened a few wholesale accounts so that I can start adding supplies to the shop...and now there's no money with which to purchase them! Hopefully things will get back to normal soon. With the dog training business still dying a slow death, I've come to depend on the income I get from my shop.

Anyway, I'm sure it'll be okay. Meanwhile, in between filling orders, I've been weeding through the shop, removing stamps that don't sell well or are just way too time consuming to carve. I've also updated a few. I had a small swallow stamp that used to sell really well. It still sells now and then, but it's popularity seems to have waned and I'm tired of carving it. The one you see above is the new, improved swallow! I also had a wine bottle stamp that was sort of rough looking, so I updated it and added a wine glass.

Those were pretty fun to carve. My local scrapbook supply store just moved to a larger location and is going to start hosting monthly indoor craft fairs. The cost to rent a table is pretty low, so I'm thinking of giving it a try. The problem with doing any sort of "live" sales for me is inventory. I'll have to somehow find the time to carve a number of stamps ahead of time in order to have enough to sell. Even if I just do one each of my most popular ones, though, it'll be a good way to network. I'll have to be sure to have a portfolio of all the stamps I offer, along with cards with my website address.

Oh, I'm also hosting a stamp carving workshop at a local children's museum the end of this month (click the link and scroll down a bit for the workshop info). I'm participating in Disney's "Give a Day, Get a Day" program. You volunteer at a participating location for a day and get a free ticket to Disneyland. Since Jim loves going there for his birthday, and we're far too broke to pay $70.00 apiece to get. This way we can both volunteer (he'll be my lovely assistant) and get into Disneyland free! Plus it feels good to volunteer, and I can try my hand at teaching a stamp carving workshop. That might be something I can offer in other venues if it goes well. :)

Okay, time to stop working for today.

"Well I woke up this morning, rainbow filled the sky..."

2010-01-30T18:22:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I promised an entry about the trip to Coarsegold and the cool double rainbow. As usual it's taken me a while to deliver. That's a theme with me lately. I had quite a few sales in December and January and now I fear I have quite a few annoyed customers wondering where the #!!%$#! their stamps are. Auugghh!! I've been working 12 hour (and more) days trying to get caught up and have only just managed to finish up the December orders and get partially into January. And here it is almost February. It's hard when you sell made-to-order items, because they're not physically in stock. They are created in the order they're purchased..so when there are lots of orders (yay!), it takes a while for everything to be finished and people become unhappy (not yay!). So that's where I'm at right now.
The trip to Coursegold was overwhelming for me for some reason. Jim was a little more prepared this time for the way his dad is and the fact that he tends to forget who he is. He handled it well. I had a really nice time with my mother-in-law. When we go up there, my job is to basically get her out of the house so she can have a break from being a caregiver 24/7. We have fun together and I really enjoy being with her. For some reason, though, this trip had me dwelling a bit too much on growing older and the inevitable illnesses and disabilities it will bring.
Anyway...I'm too busy right now to delve into that. The rainbow - that's what I was going to talk about. It was weird. The weather was totally clear when we arrived, stayed clear all day, no rain in the forecast. All the sudden the wind started kicking up and a big cloud blew over the area. It sure LOOKED like it was going to rain. So we all out went out into the back yard and wow....huge double rainbow! It seemed to span the entire sky and it just came out of nowhere. It started raining, rained for maybe 15 minutes, and then it all just blew away.

There's probably a message in there somewhere.

Hippie Valentine's Day

2010-01-13T20:52:00.000-08:00

Yaaay! My newest Valentine's Day stamp was featured in Craftzine! Come see by clicking right here! I was going to wait a while to post a picture of this stamp, but since it got featured today, I figured I'd just do it now.

We just got back in town after spending a few days at my husband's parents house in Coursegold. It's really, really beautiful up there, and I've got some great pictures of a double rainbow that formed the first evening, but I'll post those in the next entry. Right now I'm too tired to write about it in any coherent way. As if I ever write anything coherent.
Back soon.

end of the line for 2009

2009-12-31T07:28:00.000-08:00

As evidenced above, I am not too old to play with dolls. This is a paper art doll I created with the hand carved paper doll template I made a few days ago. I'm having way too much fun with it!

The last morning of 2009 finds me nestled in bed, laptop on my stomach, browsing the net and listening to the morning news.
It's been a turbulent year. It started off perfectly, with me standing onstage with Toad the Wet Sprocket, popping open a bottle of champagne and wishing them all a happy new year. Definitely an excellent way to begin a year.
After that, though, things got a little more difficult. The main struggle for us has been with finances - trying to get a loan modification so we can keep our home, reeling with disappointment after the company who was supposed to help us with said modification (Green Credit Solutions, who became Guardian Credit Solution before disappearing with a LOT of our money and never getting resolution for us...google them, you'll see lots of stories about people who got burned by them) left us high and dry. Our lender is still working with us, though, and I think we'll be getting this worked out soon.

Then there's the dog training business. I've owned it for about 3 years, and each year I've made less money than the previous. I bought it just as the economy tanked and it's been a source of a lot of heartache and stress ever since. I love the job itself, but trying to run a business in a bad economy, especially when you aren't really a business/marketing type person...yeah, notsomuch. We'll see if things pick up in the new year.

The Etsy business has been good and continues to grow. This year I intend to get my resale license and add more stamping supplies to the shop to go with the stamps I sell. I'll also be adding the choice of clear polymer reproductions of my hand-carved stamp as a quicker, less expensive option for buyers. I think things will continue to go well in that area of my life, and it makes me really happy.

More recent struggles have been my SIL's suicide attempt in September and the fallout surrounding it. She's getting her life together now, and we were really grateful to have spent Christmas with her, rather than grieving her loss. An ongoing family crisis is my husband's father's battle with Alzheimer's. He continues to worsen and we'll be heading up to Northern California to visit next week. That's always stressful and saddening.
Less of a crisis, but still not real fun for me was my fractured nose courtesy of our thick-headed yellow lab, also in September, while my SIL was still in the hospital recovering. What a sight we were, her in bed with tubes sprouting from various locations, me with black eyes and a swollen, crooked nose. I still need surgery to repair it, the two closed reductions (read; breaking and resetting) didn't work. I hoping it'll get approved by our insurance company, otherwise I'm stuck this way for a while. It really bugs me and I'd like for it to be repaired.
So yeah, all in all a fairly rough year - but interspersed with a lot of happy times as well. A couple trips to Cambria, lots of rockhounding, the trip to Florida (okay..not a totally happy time, but still fun), many great moments with my daughter, husband and dogs, some great concerts (Toad,Glen,Gin Blossoms..) and plenty of things that have slipped my mind but still enriched my life. Friends, laughter, art and music.
Here's to this new year being filled with far more joy than pain, success than failure, abundance than need, laughter than tears.
Bring it on.

and may I just mention..

2009-12-29T07:15:00.000-08:00

Yay!! My shop was mentioned in the blog today at CraftGossip.com! Here's the link to the blog, but check out the site too, it's really cool: http://stamping.craftgossip.com/2009/12/29/shop-sugar-skulls-hand-carved-stamps/! So, that was a nice way to start the day. :)

Pictured above is a mixed-media painting I finished yesterday. I carved the stamp that created the paper doll parts, the rest is painted with acrylics and collaged with a few choice passages from some religious texts (read; propoganda) that were pressed on me by a well-meaning family member. I'm not a religious person, but I do consider myself spiritual and I have a strong set of beliefs. Since I wasn't swayed by booklets claiming to be the one true faith (don't all faiths seem to think they're the only true faith?), I decided to make good use of the paper. Recycle, reuse, reduce. And have a nice day. :)

happy anyway

2009-12-24T15:04:00.000-08:00

(photo included for proof of happiness)

Well, it's the day before Christmas and we're broke, but hey...it'll be okay somehow. I'm grateful that we're healthy, that we're still here in our home, that I'm doing the work I love to do. Oh..and yesterday I was told by a client that I look like a teenager! There's still a lot to be thankful for and hopefully the new year will bring an end to money worries. I don't know specifically how - whether more money will come in, or our cost of living will lessen, or both, I just want life to be free of the constant worry.
I've got a lot to do - the house needs cleaning, the laundry needs to be done, gifts, the few I could manage to get, need wrapping, but I just feel like sitting still for a while.
I'm sure the motivation will kick in soon.

December Sale - BOGO!!

2009-12-08T06:37:00.000-08:00

Alrighty folks, it's time to drum up some business. For the month of December, I'm offering a buy one item get the second (of equal or lesser value) free! If there are stamps or other goodies in my shop that you've had your eye on, now's the time to pick them up. Mention the BOGO sale in "message to seller" when you make your purchases, and I'll refund you via Paypal.

And enough of the promotion stuff. I woke up at about 4am worrying about money..for the millionth time. Oh, if I had a dollar for every time I worried about money...I'd never have to worry about money again! Oh wait..maybe I would, because otherwise the dollars would stop coming. Right? I'm not sure. Hmmph. Well no one's offering me a dollar for my worries, so it's a moot issue.
I just sent out emails to everyone who's ever contacted me through my dog training website, letting them know about a special I'm running for the month of December. Let's see if I get any jobs out of it. In past month I've gone and visited all my vets, done a free of charge lesson for a vet tech, spoken to a group of a about 100 pool cleaners (to promote our bite prevention program, since pool guys tend to encounter problem dogs sometimes..and in the hopes of getting some referals), and done a free of charge lesson for a dog rescue employee. She has offered to let me do group puppy training classes there at the shelter...but I haven't heard from her in three days. Not sure what's going on there. I've already called her once and emailed her, I don't want to stalk her. That would have been a really good opportunity. I hope it hasn't fallen through.
Seriously..right now I owe so much money for various business expenses that I'm going to have to go bankrupt in about a month or two if I don't get some work soon. It's gonna be an interesting Christmas. So far I've bought one gift, for my daughter. I've got to get her a few more things somehow.
Come on dog owners...I know you can't all have perfectly behaved dogs.
It's gonna get better. It's gonna get better. It's GOT to get better soon...

lean winter

2009-12-07T15:46:00.001-08:00

Well, we're into December now and still no dog training jobs. It's normal for things to be slow around the holidays...but not completely dead. My business bank account is overdrawn, there's nothing I can do about it and no relief in sight. It's crazy. I've done some free of charge work - one session for a technician in a vet office in my area, and one for an animal rescue employee. That one is promising because she wants to refer clients to me and there's a chance I might start doing group puppy training classes there at the shelter. If that works out, it'll at least be some steady work me, and a very good referal source. Still..as things stand right now, the next few paying jobs I get will only serve to help me pay various business-related bills. I'm pretty close to packing it in. If the puppy classes don't pan out, that's probably going to have to be it for the dog training business. It's a shame because it's something I really enjoy, and I'm good at it.
My Etsy shop is plugging along pretty steadily, and that makes me happy. It's still not generating enough income to depend totally on, but I hope to build it up a bit more in 2010.
Meanwhile, it's freeeeezing today! It's raining and I'm wishing for a big bathtub that I could fill with steaming, sudsy water and just soak for a while.

Cyber...Tuesday?

2009-12-01T06:43:00.000-08:00

I'm extending Cyber Monday in my shop! For today, buy any two items in my shop, get the third (of equal or lesser value) free! Refund will be given via paypal after your purchase is complete. Take a look, several new items have been added, including a few clear polymer stamps!
Meanwhile, life's been busy and still fraught with family drama. Hopefully that will start to mellow out soon.
The dog training business is still struggling to survive, but I did a free lesson for an animal rescue employee yesterday and was invited to the shelter tomorrow to do an assesment on an aggressive dog, and to meet the shelter owner. If I make a good impression, they could be a valuable source of referals for me. Keep your fingers crossed!

going under

2009-11-17T07:19:00.000-08:00

Well, I planned to start posting regularly again, but that didn't work out too well. I can't even say it's because I've been busy. I have been, but not any more so than usual. I've just been really depressed. Stressed about money and my dog training business. I only had two jobs the whole month of October and nothing booked this month at all. The phone isn't ringing. I've only had two inquiries in the past 3 weeks and both are being wishy-washy, so I don't hold much hope of them booking. Yesterday Jim and I went out to visit the vets in my area. Most of them say they refer people to me all the time. I think people are so stretched for money right now that they don't even want to call for pricing. They can't afford anything, so they don't even bother asking. It's killing me. I actually want to sell the business, but the catch-22 is no one will buy a business that's not making money. And if it was making money, I probably wouldn't want to sell it. Not a good position to be in.
The Etsy shop is doing pretty well, and I've managed to finally figure out how to use my polymer stamp machine the correct way (using a negative print of whatever image I want to make a stamp of). Yeah, the mold making method didn't pan out very well. I tried different materials for making the mold but could never get it quite right. I finally started doing a lot of reading on the net and saw a few things that made me think perhaps the instructions that came with the machine are having me over-expose the polymer, thus losing all the details. So I messed around with exposure times and holy smoke, made a stamp!! So..my hope is that soon I can offer less expensive polymer stamp versions of my hand carved stamps. Hopefully they'll sell well, and I can make them quickly, and my Etsy business will grow to make up for the lost income of the dog training business.
I think the meds I've used for years (I have bipolar disorder) have finally stopped working. I've been going into major tailspins over relatively minor things for a week or two now. I'm also having trouble turning my brain off at night, and tend to lie awake for hours with thoughts racing uncontrollably, paired with really horrible images sometimes. Not fun. I might have to break down and try a new medication. I HATE doing that. Dealing with side effects, waiting to see if it's working, moving on to another one if that one doesn't work. It's a nightmare. But if this medication isn't working anymore, my life will be a nightmare anyway, so I don't have much of a choice.
So...yeah. Today I'm stressed because I have a lot of carving to catch up on, but want time to master the polymer stamp making so I can start listing those before the holidays. Guess I need to get myself caught up and then perhaps close the shop for a day or two while I get some stamps made.
Better get to work!

If at first you don't succeed..do it a different way!

2009-11-03T13:43:00.000-08:00

So..several months ago I purchased a stamp-making kit. It allows you to make clear acrylic stamps using photopolymer and a negative of your artwork. It sounded so simple. You just photograph the artwork, then use the computer to "flip" it to make a negative image. You then print that with a laserjet onto a transparent sheet. Then you use damming tape around the image, pour the photopolymer over it, expose it to uv light and poof! acrylic stamp.
Well...turns out it's not so simple. Is anything? First, the dark areas of your image have to be totally black or the stamp won't develop. When you print on a transparency it just doesn't come out totally black. So someone suggested making two copies and laying them over each other. I guess a lot of polymer stamp makers do that. I tried, it didn't work. After many frustrating, gooey attemps, I gave up.
So today I was looking at my long carving list and thinking once again that I really need to find a way to offer manufactured versions of my stamps. I mentioned it on Facebook and one of my friends said I should make a mold and melt down my carving material and pour it into the mold.
This got me thinking. I don't think the carving material I use will melt...but what about making a mold and using the photopolymer? So I did! I took polymer clay, pressed one of my stamps into it, baked it - mold! Then I poured the polymer into the mold and let it "bake" under the uv light. And lo and behold, a polymer stamp was born! I'll definitely have to tweak the process a bit, improve the quality of the mold. This first stamp is not perfect, but it's a polymer stamp. Above is a picture of the original stamp, the polymer clay mold, the polymer stamp (which is actually clear but is backed with a red rubber cushion and mounted on wood), and an impression made with it.
I'm not sure how practical this method is..but really, once I got the molds made, it wouldn't take long to produce the stamps. Much less time than it takes to carve them. I don't want to give up carving entirely, but it'd be nice to be able to offer a less-expensive choice in my shop, and be able to make it quickly!
That said, I still have a long carving list and spent most of my day messing with this polymer process, so I better get to work!

RUBBER STAMP SALE!

2009-11-01T09:30:00.000-08:00

Come visit my virtual convention booth at Rubberstampchat.net! If you link to my shop through that website, you can participate in the "buy two stamps, get the third one free" convention special. You will also be able to visit lots of other great booths, so if you're into rubber stamps, this is something you shouldn't miss!

pin up ghoul

2009-10-31T16:11:00.000-07:00

Well, I think I managed to look somewhat like my carving (see previous post). What do you think? Last night's party was fun, everyone was very enthusiastic and well-costumed. Jim and I got prizes for "grossest food" (we brought a jello brain), "best all around couple"..and one other one, but I can't remember what it was. Maybe best costumes? I'm not sure. The details are hazy. It was a fun party.
Got flu shots today. Just thought I'd throw that in there.
Happy Halloween!

All Hallows

2009-10-30T13:36:00.001-07:00

Wow, it's been a while! Time to get back into the habit of regular blog posting. Today I'm getting ready to go to a Halloween party. I'm really into Halloween costumes and makeup, so getting ready is usually an all day affair. Not that getting into costume takes an entire day, but there are all the little details - painting nails, gathering costume pieces, doing hair, finally putting on the costume, doing the makeup, putting in contacts. It's a process. This year Jim and I are going in Dia de los Muertos costume. I plan to do my hair and makeup similar to what you see in the artwork above. That's one of my newest carvings, carved for a swap last month. We'll see how closely I can match that look!
Alrighty..time to get back to getting ready. I'll try to get back to regular posts.
Happy Halloween and Day of the Dead!!

my happy place

2009-10-08T11:04:00.000-07:00

Got some good news yesterday regarding our home loan modification. Well, tentative good news, anyway, but I think things are finally going our way. We're eligible for a modification that'll save us a lot of money and allow us to keep our house. In two weeks we'll know if it's been approved by our lender. So any prayers, reiki, good vibes or well wishes you feel like sending our way would be deeply appreciated. Things are turning around. Finally.
I spent this morning rearranging my "office", above is a picture of it. This is the place I'm happiest these days and I'm determined to never set foot in an office that's not in my home ever again.
Alrighty, must get to work now.

hello dolly

2009-10-07T17:14:00.000-07:00

I've been painting a lot lately! It's a nice escape from the other things going on around me right now. Painting is soothing and fun, sort of zenlike in the way it clears my mind. I finished this painting today. I'm not sure what's up with the weird dolls. They're something I keep doodling and carving. I don't know if there's any real deep meaning behind them, they're just entertaining to look at.
Or maybe there's more to it. ;)

branching out

2009-10-05T12:40:00.000-07:00

I just listed this painting in my shop. It's so funny, every time I paint something and put it in my shop, I have to argue with my daughter about selling it. She gets offended, as if I'm selling off a family member. At the same time, she used to constantly tell me (back in my Verizon days) that I should quit and be an artist. So now that life's twists and turns have allowed me to actually sell some of my work, I have to convince my daughter to let me!
Alrighty, time to jump in the shower. Lots to do tonight. Family stuff that might be a little difficult. We've been dealing with a lot lately - not myself or Jim or my daughter, but still, close family. Being vague - but there's been a suicide attempt, a restraining order, divorce papers, locksmiths and much angst and frustration going on in the past few weeks.
I'm really tired of drama.

brushing up

2009-10-03T13:30:00.000-07:00

Well, yesterday after carving a bunch of stamps I realized I was out of shipping envelopes. I have an order in for more, but they haven't arrived yet. I decided to work on a painting I'd started a few months ago and haven't had time to get back to since. It was nice to paint again. Sometimes it's good to take a break from one medium and go back to another. This one's fun - I'm obviously not shooting for realism here. It's almost finished. I'm going to paint the sides (it's on a wood panel) the same checkerboard pattern as on the owl's belly. Then I need to decide whether or not to sell it.
Tonight we're going to party/breast cancer fundraiser. Should be a good time. It's being hosted by a woman I used to work with, so I'll see a lot of my former Verizon coworkers. That's always weird because my life is so different now than it was when I still worked there. Seventeen years in various corporate cubicle drone positions...ugh. If I had to it again I think I'd implode.
I may be poor now, but I'm a lot happier.

there goes my modeling career

2009-09-30T16:36:00.000-07:00

Hahahah!! (I'm laughing at the title) As if!! Ugh. I'm not a particularly good-looking girl, I don't harbor any illusions about that, but I'm really not digging this whole broken nose thing. Here's how I look today. It's straighter than it was, for sure, and the bruising is clearing up...but, eh. I don't know. It still doesn't look right. I know I have to wait for the swelling to go away and for things to fully heal, but right now I'm worried that I'll always look like this and I don't like it. Even if surgery is what it will take to make it right, that can't happen for at least six months, maybe a year. The bones have to fully heal in order to be broken the "right" way and reformed. So....however this heals, I'm stuck with it for a while. No cameras, please.
OH - I do have to say, if you ever want to experience true bliss, let a doctor pack your nose, leave it that way for four days (this isn't the bliss part) during which you'll discover there are nerves inside your nose that, when pressed, make it feel as though a needle is scratching the back of your eyeball, inside your ear, and inside of some of your teeth (still not the bliss part). Then......let him remove it. Now, the removal itself is shockingly uncomfortable (the doctor actually told his nurse that if I'd been a man he'd have had me lie down first, because men tend to drop like flies during the removal of packing, ha!), the sudden absence of the pain, combined with the novelty of being able to breath through one's nose again...pure bliss. So yeah, that's one good thing, I guess.

in memory

2009-09-28T17:24:00.000-07:00

Three years ago today our much-loved corgi, Cecil, was hit and killed by a car. I thought the grief would rip me to shreds that day and I wondered if the feeling would ever end. Turns out it never really goes away. I still think of him all the time, still miss him, still keep his collar under my pillow. Grief mellows with time, I guess. Or you grow some sort of emotional scar tissue around it so that the edges seem dulled. But it doesn't really disappear. I spent a lot of time looking at my four beautiful dogs today (yes, even the bonehead who busted my face) and reminding myself to be grateful for every minute I have with them. You just never know how long you get to have them. I hope and pray that I have many good years left with them, but I understand (and I wish I didn't) that you just never know.
I still love and miss you, Cecil. Always will.

and it's not even that time of the month

2009-09-25T12:21:00.000-07:00

I have what looks suspiciously like a tampon shoved up my nose right now. *sigh* Last night the splint on my nose came off, the adhesive just wasn't holding. I noticed that my nose looked crooked again, so I called the doctor first thing this morning. They had me come in and yep, the bones had moved back to the broken position. Awesome. So he had to reset it again - same process as on Monday, only with an added treat today; packing!! In order to prevent the bones from shifting again, the doctor had to pack my left nostril. Packing entails shoving what appears to be a miniature (and not really THAT miniature) tampon waaaaaay up your nose. Like, further up than you thought possible. Sounds painful, huh? Well guess what? IT IS!
So now my nose looks really fat due to the packing, there are strings protruding from it (to keep the mini-tampon from slipping down the back of my throat) that are taped to my nose. Talk about adding insult to injury. I'm not fit to be seen in public. The doctor actually apologized to me, saying "This is what I was hoping I wouldn't have to do to you...". I get to endure this indignity until Tuesday morning. He warned me that I might wind up needing surgery anyway, after everything is healed. It just might not go back into place without it.
I'm so bummed out today. I'm in pain, I look disgusting - I'm supposed to be helping out in the beer booth at an Oktoberfest this Sunday, but I don't think that's going to happen. I'd frighten away the customers.
I actually made the stamps for the beer booth - the ones they'll stamp peoples' hands with when they buy their beer tickets. I was really excited about getting to see my stamps in use - they're really cool, little beer steins with the initials of the organization running the Oktoberfest. They bought six of them from me! :)
Alrighty, time to get back to wallowing in self-pity and painkillers.

in a fix

2009-09-21T10:34:00.000-07:00

Welp, just got back from the doctor's. He was able to set my nose. It was broken in two places, so I got to enjoy the sounds of it re-breaking twice. *shudder* It's a rather brutal process. They shove cotton soaked with numbing solution waaay up your nose and leave it there a while. Then when your nose is numb, the doctor inserts a metal rod up there and just WRENCHES it with all his strength until crrrrack! it goes back into place. Then he did it again on the other side where the smaller break was. That side wasn't numb. Um...ouch. He handed me a mirror and I could see that it was straight. Then he splinted it and sent me on my merry way. Now that I look at the pic it seems crooked to me, but I think that's the swelling setting in from today's festivities. Whew. Hopefully this will be a one-time deal because it wasn't fun. Now I'm sitting around with a tissue crammed up my nose because it's bleeding. The numbing stuff is wearing off and OUCH!! Doesn't look like I'll get a lot of carving done today. I hope it heals straight!! And that's all for now.

just around the bend

2009-09-19T17:14:00.001-07:00

I had to go do a dog training session today with my face looking like this. I'm sure it instills a lot of confidence in an owner when a dog trainer shows up with a broken nose courtesy of her own dog! Heheh. No, it went well, actually. The day after tomorrow is my appointment to get my nose straightened. Oh please please PLEASE let it not be too swollen to work with this time!! I know I'm probably going to look even worse when the doctor gets done with me, but at least I'll know that my nose is healing straight instead of bent. Bent is not a good look for me. Neither is purple/yellow/black-eyed, but I know that'll go away on its own. The nose, though, won't go back to normal without assistance. So the sooner the better! Come on, Monday....

to spite my face

2009-09-17T14:58:00.000-07:00

Wow, another day, another color blossoms on my face. This is how I look today. *sigh* Look at the top of my nose and then at the bottom and you get a good sense of the curve in it. Nice, eh? And I'm sure the re-setting process is only going to add to the bruising. A case of things getting worse before they get better, I suppose.
Today's the first day I've felt well enough to sit down and carve stamps, so that's good.
Back to work..

get bent

2009-09-16T19:43:00.000-07:00

Today I went to the specialist to have my nose re-set, but it's still too swollen to be manipulated. I have to go back on Monday. At least I got to meet the doctor and hear about the proceedure, so it's not as scary. Sounds like it will be gross but relatively pain-free. Meanwhile I still look like a freak (more so than usual, that is) and feel like everyone who looks at me thinks I'm a domestic violence victim. I even skipped my daughter's back-to-school night tonight because I don't want her teachers' first impression of me to be that I look like a battered woman. Mmmm...batter.
I've carved a lot of new stamps since my post about the camping trip. Here's a picture of one.
More to come.

why couldn't she just have eaten my homework??

2009-09-14T19:52:00.000-07:00

So, my dog broke my nose. And gave me a concussion. Yup. I was getting ready to leave the house and go for a hike, bent over to pick something up off the floor, and she jumped up to get on the bed. Instead, she smashed her giant yellow lab head into my face. I blacked out for a second and hit the floor, my nose gushing blood. Jim said he actually heard it break. Niiiiiiice.
And this isn't even the worst thing that's happened within the past week. We have a very close family member in the hospital right now after attempting (and very nearly succeeding at) suicide last Wednesday. I won't go into those details here, but we've been at the hospital daily dealing with that. Tonight's trip to the hospital for ME was actually our third trip there today! At least our family and friends didn't have to come to the hospital to visit..they're already there!!!! Ahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!
It's sort of funny, really. Or maybe it's the concussion.
More as it happens...

the number one cause of stress is reality

2009-07-28T18:23:00.000-07:00

**Pictured above: if you find yourself using duct tape to repair the bag of Fritos exploded by the altitude of your campsite, you might be a redneck.**
I'm back after another nerve-shattering vacation. These seem to be the theme this summer. I expected Florida to be difficult, but I didn't expect the camping trip to be such a nightmare. It's usually our escape from everything, all peace and granola. NOT THIS TIME!! I'd call it a comedy of errors except none of it was funny.
Let me preface this by describing our RV. It's about a millon years old (I think it's a '76) and is pretty much a heap on wheels. We were insane to take this thing hundreds of miles away from home to a remote Sierra campground. We did manage to sucessfully take it up there two years ago (skipped it last summer due to gas prices being so high) but it leaked oil the entire way up and back. Way to pollute the environment, campers! We thought the leak was fixed, turned out it was NOT..but that was the least of the problems.
The first problem occurred before we even left the driveway. We planned to leave at 1:30am on Sunday the 19th and drive through the night/morning while it was cool. The RV has no air conditioning, of course, and doesn't do well in heat, so it was a good strategy. Except that the battery that runs everything inside (lights, water, stove, etc...) decided to stop working just as we were about to leave. Panic ensued, but luckily it turned out that it needed water and was quickly resolved. Whew.
So off we rolled at 2am and met up with our buddy Andy (who will from here on out be know as Saint Andy due to the patience he exhibited on this trip). He followed us in his truck.
Six hours into the drive, we stopped for gas in Madera, California. The AM/PM we stopped at is always our last fillup before heading up the mountain to the campground. It was about 8 in the morning and the RV had just made an ominous sound a few minutes before we stopped.
Know what? I'm boring mySELF writing this, so let's abbreviate.
1. We discovered the water pump was broken, rendering the RV undrivable.
2. The temperature was rapidly rising and we had 4 dogs in the RV.
3. We were rescued by a mechanic who lived near the AM/PM - this man allowed us to plug in the RV and use his power at his home as he fixed the water pump! We were amazed by the amount of kindness he and his family extended to us that day.
4. After the pump was fixed we had to head up the mountain in triple-digit heat. Three hours of bone-rattling uphill switchbacks were spent with me frantically holding frozen water bottles on the dogs' necks to keep them from dying of heatstroke.
5. After a normal night at the campsite, we awoke to find our youngest corgi unable to walk. She'd been fine when we'd gone to bed...but woke up broken. Saint Andy let us use his truck to drive over two hours back down the mountain to find a vet in the nearest town (Coarsegold). The vet determined that she must have injured a disc in her back because she wouldn't bear weight on her rear legs. Oddly, she displayed fairly normal reflexes in her hind legs, she just had a lot of weakness. We were given muscle relaxants and an antiinflammatory and instructed to head home if she didn't eat and drink normally by that night. Well, not only did she eat and drink normally later that day - but by that evening she was running, jumping, scaling small boulders. It's a mystery.
6. Our male corgi, who'd managed to injure his shoulder the day BEFORE this wonderful trip, re-injured it and began limping. Perhaps he was hoping for a trip to the vet. We suspect that Lucy, the one who hurt her back, bragged about being fed a few bites of my cheeseburger on the way back to the campsite out of sympathy.
7. The battery decided to stop holding a charge, causing us to have to run the generator every so often to charge it. This is a lame thing to do in a quiet forest camping area and we were embarassed.
8. Our other female corgi started limping toward the end of the trip. She's still running around on three legs.
9. On the way home (we left at 12am Saturday the 25th) we kept losing the headlights whenever we stopped for gas and restarted the RV.
We did make it home, though. And we did manage to squeeze some fun in. I did some fishing (caught five rainbow trout), we went on some nice hikes, swam in the creek, enjoyed the beautiful surroundings.
We definitely will be selling this RV and looking to buy something smaller and more reliable. I don't think we'll be bringing the dogs camping up there again. It's just too far from town. If they'd gotten into severe medical trouble, the two and a half hour trip down the mountain would have been way too long. And while they did enjoy themselves, they were also pretty stressed on the long ride there and back and seemed really thrilled to be home. It's too hard to relax when you're trying to keep track of four dogs in such a remote area.
We've been back for a while now, it's just taken me forever to finally write a blog entry. There's been so much work to catch up on, I've been going nonstop since we got back.
And now I'd better get back to it. :)

bite me

2009-07-07T20:25:00.000-07:00

Something decided to crawl into bed with us last night and have a feast. On just ME. Jim somehow remained unscathed. I woke up at about 4 in the morning, really itchy, and found bites on my calves, belly....and inner thighs! WTF?? I actually got out a flashlight and looked under the sheets to see if there was a bug crawling around. *shudder* I never found anything, but I did remember that it's time to put the dogs' Advantix on, so I suspect it was a flea. If there's a flea around, for some reason, it'll find me. It's weird.
I had to call the police two nights ago because our next-door neighbor's dog was barking NONSTOP. This has been an ongoing problem for about a year, really. It sucks - they won't let the dog in the house, he just lives in the back yard. No one pays any attention to him and he barks day and night. And he's a large dog with a VERY large bark. It's more like a baying/howling sound and it's awful. We've gone over there probably three different times to ask them to please let him in at night, at least. I think the third visit (last winter after listening to the poor dog cry in the rain all night) resulted in them letting him in the garage at night and things were quiet for a while. I guess they got tired of that, though, and lately he's been out barking again.
We don't have air conditioning, so in the summer our windows are always open. This means that the dog basically howls into our bedroom window all night long. All kinds of awesome. Sunday night was particularly bad though. By about 2am I couldn't stand it anymore. His timing was such that whenever I started drifting off to sleep he'd let out an abrupt howl-bark, scaring the sh*t out of me. I was pissed. So I finally called the non-emergency police number and asked if they handle noise complaints. They sent a deputy out. She of course told me there's nothing she could really do as far as citing them, but she would go knock on the door and tell them they need to quiet the dog down. It's really Animal Control's jurisdiction, and I knew that, but I figured having the police wake them up (because by some miracle they are able to sleep through the racket every night) at 2am might get the point across. I guess it did because we haven't heard a peep out of him at night since then.
I don't understand why they even have the dog. No one pays any attention to him, it's like he's a lawn ornament. I feel really sorry for him and wish they'd give him to someone who wants him. He's a sweet dog, he's just lonely and miserable. Unfortunately, his misery is driving us insane and I will be calling Animal Control if the nighttime silence comes to an end.
In other events....eh, nothing else is really happening. I'm carving, carving, carving all day long. I had to put the shop on vacation mode just so that I can catch up. A good position to be in, for sure, but very exhausting.
I leave you with a picture of me and my younger sister. I'm the brunette. Hahahah.

decompression

2009-06-30T16:40:00.000-07:00

Made it back from Florida in one piece. As long as we're not counting my brain, that is. This is an art blog, so I'll skip the dysfunctional family rant - but eight days with my mom.....

ANYWAY, so I've hit the ground running. Got back on Saturday, had two back-to-back dog training jobs on Sunday, spent all day yesterday carving, spent today carving except for an hour to take one of the dogs to the vet* and then to PetSmart to buy new collars and tags**.

The Florida summary: My mom's new house is really beautiful. There is a screened-in patio looking out on a pond, a family of anole lizards that come in and eat gnats as they climb the screens. There's a huge softshell turtle in her pond and we got to see him come out twice. The second time we filmed him. Found some agatized coral on Honeymoon Island beach. Saw sandhill cranes and ibises. Did NOT see the alligator that lives in the neighbor's pond, which was disappointing. Met several great dogs. Saw my uncle. Made necklaces for my mom, sister, and two neices - pictured above. Experienced the craziest, loudest thunderstorm of my life - and I grew UP on the East coast!! I've never heard thunder this loud, ever!! And...yeah, that's the Reader's Digest version.

I'll post some pictures soon, right now I've got way too much carving to do and not enough time to do it. I have another dog training job tomorrow, platelet donation on Thursday and am hosting my book club meeting Thursday evening. Friday, more carving!! Auuuuggghhhh!!!!
*I forgot to mention that our oldest female corgi picked a fight with our youngest (the dog-aggressive one) the day we were leaving for Florida. She wound up with three staples in her ear. Awesome.
**Jim and I went out for dinner Sunday and arrived home to find three of our dogs in our front yard, which has been enclosed by a gated fence ever since Cecil was hit by a car. The front door was not open. I freaked out...how the h*ll did they get there, and where was Dewey??? Luckily Dewey hadn't left the house. The only thing we were able to figure out was that the gate to the back yard must have gotten left open earlier when Jim did yard work. The dogs must have wandered out of the yard while we were gone. Our neighbor said a girl found them (I'm not sure where, whether they had stayed close to the house or not..) and asked if they knew who they belonged to. He told her they were ours, and she closed them in the front yard.

I am SO grateful that none of them were hit by a car or ran away or anything. We got so lucky. We could have lost them all, and there's no way I could live through that again. I mean I know they're all going to die one day, but Cecil's death put me over the pet tragedy threshold. The worst thing is that none of the dogs wears a collar - yes, I realize how idiotic that is, especially since I train dogs. So today after Ellie's trip to the vet, we went to PetSmart and got the collars and tags.
Alrighty, over and out.

touchdown

2009-06-14T11:25:00.000-07:00

Well, we're back. Briefly. We'll be leaving again on Thursday for our trip to Florida to visit my mom, brother, sister and her two kids. A mini family reunion. It'll be fun, but it's hard to have just gotten back in town only to be leaving again in a few days. I've got a few dog training jobs scheduled, have many stamps to carve, have several errands to do, plus there's laundry and packing to do! I also hate that we have to leave the dogs for another long stretch.

Anyway, Cambria was wonderful. Above is a picture of just a small area of San Simeon beach to give you an idea of the vast variety of gorgeous beach rocks that line the shore. We spent several hours each day rockhounding on the beach, it was great!! On Monday morning we drove straight to Willow Creek and looked for jade. We didn't find much, but did find a lot of beautiful jasper and some nice agates. We went up to Big Sur for lunch and got a couple good pictures of a Stellar's Jay.
I always get excited when I see them because we don't have them down here. Up there, they're just pesky local jays that bother the people eating outdoors, but to me they're beautiful birds and I was happy to get a decent photo. OH - we also got a good shot of a Turkey Vulture enjoying some tasty carrion.
That was actually on Sunday afternoon at the Laetitia winery in Atascadero.
I can't remember if we hit San Simeon beach later on Monday, or if it was Tuesday morning. Either way, we hit that beach every day from Tuesday on. We found a LOT of nice rocks! Agates, moonstone agates, fancy jasper, variegated marble, jasp-agates and many other things we have yet to identify. I'll post pictures eventually - there's lots of sorting to do. My tumbler will be busy this summer and I plan to get a lapidary machine as well, to do some serious shaping and polishing. Of course none of this can begin til after the Florida trip, which is frustrating.
When we weren't hunting for rocks, we enjoyed the town of Cambria, did some wine tasting, had some great meals, checked out our favorite galleries and shops and just enjoyed the time together.
It's nice being married to my best friend.
I'll try to more about the trip before we leave for our next one, but right now there's way too much to do, as always!

vacation anticipation

2009-06-05T16:53:00.000-07:00

We're leaving on Sunday!!! Actually, we won't reach our destination, Cambria, til Monday morning. We're going to spend Sunday night in Atascadero, which is fairly close to Cambria, so that we can drive to Willow Creek Monday morning without being all tired from the drive. We did it this way last year and it worked out well. In the meantime, I've had an extremely busy week trying to finish up all the orders still left from May. I've been putting in really long days of carving and it's catching up to me. My wrists are really fatigued today. I got a bit of a "break" this morning because today was a platelet donation day, so there was no carving most of today. Still, there was the long drive to UCLA in the rain (the minute water hits the road in California, everyone turns into a horrible driver and most drives take twice as long as usual), the donation and the long drive back. I just woke up from a long nap and now it's time to carve again.
Tomorrow morning and Sunday morning I have dog training jobs (yay!), and there's still packing to do, but in just a couple days the only things on my schedule will be rock hunting, wine tasting, looking at art and enjoying my husband. The 9th marks our nine year wedding anniversary. :)
Right now it's time to groggily return to the regularly scheduled program of carving like mad.

wired

2009-05-29T14:41:00.001-07:00

I've spent most of today working on a birthday gift for a friend. We're going out to dinner tonight and I wanted her gift ready by then. One problem is that I've been so busy carving lately, I haven't had time to do anything else. The other problem is that I don't really know HOW to make what I wanted to make. I've mentioned my rock collecting addiction more than once here, so it stands to reason that my friends are forced to admire the fruits of my tumbler whenever they're at my house. Last summer this friend chose one particular rock from a recently tumbled batch, and I told her I'd make her a necklace sometime.
SO...a couple weeks ago after we got back from the gem and mineral show, she remembered the rock! Since her birthday was coming up, I decided it was time to finally make the necklace. The plan was to make a simple wire-wrap cage for it. The problem is that I don't really know how to do that. I did it once - I made a necklace for my daughter and I just sort of winged it. It came out nice but it took a LONG time. I tried to wing it again today but it just wasn't happening. I finally broke down and went to the local bead store to get a book and some better supplies. So, above is the result of my first book-taught wire-wrap. Not the greatest piece of jewelry ever created, but it was fun and I think she'll like it. It's a nice way to display a pretty stone.
PS: I have no idea what type of stone it is, probably jasper. It's from Moonstone Beach in Cambria. Any rockhounds out there who can shed some light on it?
Okay, back to carving. My fingers hurt.

rock on

2009-05-18T15:51:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a lot of fun. We walked over to the local community center to see the gem & mineral show. I've been a little bit of a rock hound all of my life. That's not to say I'm any good at it, I just really love stones and minerals. Whenver I'm doing something outdoorsy, you'll see me looking at the ground a lot. I touched on this a little bit when I wrote about our little side trip to Cambria a couple weeks ago, but didn't go into detail. I have a rock tumbler and one of my favorite things to do is gather stones and tumble them. I've got a knack for finding moonstones, which is why I enjoy Cambria's Moonstone Beach so much. I don't know why, but I have an eye for them. I was also like that with four-leaf clovers as a kid - I could just spot them as I was walking by. Once I even spotted one while I was riding my bike, and I skidded to a halt and picked it. It freaked my friends out! Hehehe. That was when I lived in Virginia. I don't seem to find them out here in California.

Anyway, so the gem and mineral show is put together by the Conejo gem and mineral club, which I didn't even realize existed. I met some of the members and got membership information. Turns out members can use their lapidary and polishing equipment, learn to cut cabachons, and go on all sorts of rock hounding field trips!!! I had a moonstone in my pocket, and one of the members actually ground and polished it for me on their machine, it was so cool! Is it becoming clear how much of a nerd I am yet?

There were also some odd coincidences yesterday. One was that we met a Corgi (and her owners, of course) who came from the same breeder that two (actually three, but one is no longer alive) of our Corgis came from. That may not sound weird but this breeder is really far away from here in Riverside - like a two hour drive. We talked to her owners for a bit and figured out their dog is most likely related to the two we got from that breeder. Weird. (I know, this is all really riveting blog material, isn't it??)

Another chance meeting was with a woman who owns a shop in Ventura that teaches classes in PMC (precious metal clay) jewelry making. What was weird was that one of my dog training clients kept making me promise her that I go into this shop and meet this woman, because she thinks I'd be very good at PMC crafting. And lo and behold, there she was at the show. I got some information on classes, I think it's something I really need to check out. I've had several artists order my stamps specifically for their PMC jewelry creations, and I've always been interested in trying it myself.

The rest of the day was spent tipping back margaritas with one of our good friends, and eventually playing trivial pursuit (second nerd alert).
Etsy business is really good right now. Almost too good because I have no idea how I'm going to keep up with all the orders. Again..NOT complaining, but I hate when I have to keep people waiting longer than a few days, and my turnaround time gets slower as the orders pile up. It's so funny, because once I've got a certain number of stamps to carve, each time another orders pops in, I panic a little. It's like "Oh no, another sale!". And then I smack myself for thinking that at all, because I'm SO freaking grateful and lucky to be making money doing what I love.
So, so lucky.

avalanche

2009-05-15T15:32:00.000-07:00

Auugghh! I'm buried in work! That's a very good thing, but as usual it all poured in at once and suddenly I have way too much to do. I've been terrible about blogging, but it's mainly due to the aformentioned workload.

Today I drove all the way to UCLA for platelet donation, only to be turned away because my freaking iron count is down again. CRAP!! Why??? I'm careful to keep my diet iron-rich and it's been two weeks since my last donation. I don't know why this keeps happening and it's frustrating.

Yesterday my dog Lucy ate an entire book of postage stamps. Today she ate the head and tail of a lizard and left the rest of him on my bedroom floor. Tell me again why I have dogs??
I've posted a lot of new stamps in the shop lately. The image above is one of my favorites.
Oh - I forgot to mention that on the drive home from Cambria last week, I was running my fingers through my hair and found a big fat tick just about to chomp into my scalp. Niiiiiiiice. *shudder*
Okay, must go back to work.

moonstone madness

2009-05-06T10:33:00.000-07:00

I'm back. We had to go out of town somewhat unexpectedly last week. My husband's dad has alzheimers and isn't doing well, and his mom asked us to come see him. They live in Coarsegold, which is about 4 hours north of us in the Sierra foothills. They're about 30 minutes from Yosemite. Anyway, Jim hasn't seen his dad in a long time (long story there) and to see him now with his memory failing was really hard. He kept confusing Jim with other family members, couldn't quite remember that he's his son. It was painful.
There were aspects of the visit that were really enjoyable, though. It's beautiful where they live, lots of amazing scenery. I got to know his mom better and that was really nice.
We were there for four days, we left on Monday. We decided to go to Cambria on the way home and spend Monday night there - sort of a mental health break. Jim needed a little time to compose himself before going back to work. We needed to be someplace that makes us happy, and Cambria is one of our favorite places to be. We spent most of our time on Moonstone beach looking for moonstones and agate for our rock tumbler. I'm a little bit of a rock hound and I get really obsessed when I'm there - I have a good eye for moonstones and tend to find a lot of them, it's so much fun. So we did that, and had a nice dinner and just sort of pulled ourselves together. This is going to be a really difficult thing for Jim to adjust to, and there will probably be more visits in the future, so we'll see how that goes.
Alzheimers is a terrible illness. It robs the victim of their memory and eventually their ability to function at all - and family members are left caring for someone they love who know longer knows them. It's like having someone you love die, yet a shell of them remains, requiring all your care and attention with very little reward for the caregiver. His mom is losing her husband more each day. He's losing his dad - yet they can't mourn and move on because he's still here, needing help.
Anyway..we're home now and I'm trying to catch up on work I've fallen behind on. I feel out of sorts, worried about Jim, stressed because I've been gone and now have lots to catch up on.
Guess I'd better start catching up now.

a murder-free week

2009-04-23T19:44:00.000-07:00

Welp, since the bunny incident, we've had no additional killings. We've also had far fewer bunnies in the yard, word must have gotten out.
Last week I was able to donate platelets - I was deferred for low iron again the week before. Now my friend and I are alternating weeks instead of going together weekly, so that we don't keep having issues with low iron. SO..last week was the first time I've driven myself to UCLA. I probably haven't mentioned this, but I hate driving in unfamiliar places, so I was all proud of myself. Go me!
Not much else to report. Much of last week and this one was spent catching up on stamp orders. I'd somehow gotten pretty far behind. Carving is a lot less fun when I HAVE to do it for hours on end. I'm NOT complaining, though, because if I have a lot of carving to do it means I've had a lot of sales. Sales are good. I just hate it when I get behind. I had good reasons - my neck being all jacked up, a whole day lost to platelet donation, most of another day lost taking my daughter to be fitted for a new brace (she's got scoliosis), dog training obligations...but having good reasons doesn't make customers any happier about having to wait too long.
I'm relatively caught up now - just have some custom orders to do. What's weird is that the shop itself has been dead all week. Hardly any new sales, after things being fairly steady the past few months. Not sure what happened but I hope it's only a brief drought.
OH - just as my neck was starting to get better, I messed it up again. Well, it wasn't ME who messed it up exactly. The dogs (Dewey and Lucy, not all of them, thank goodness) got into a fight for the first time in a long time Monday morning. Pulling them apart was a nightmare, and earned me a nice puncture wound on my left wrist. Later in the day I realized I'd pulled a lot of weird muscles in various places during the struggle. The worst, of course, was my neck because it was already tender from the last time it went out. It doesn't take much. Since then, each day it's felt worse. I think I pinched a nerve. Or one of the herniated discs that wasn't repaired in the surgery I had a few years ago is getting worse. I really hope it's not that.
Okay, enough rambling. I need to get back into the habit of writing about artwork and creative endeavors. Now that I'm nearly caught up on work, perhaps I can create something new!

there goes Peter Cottontail...

2009-04-14T07:40:00.000-07:00

Welp, Sunday started off sort of badly. We don't really celebrate Easter (not really into organized religion), and apparently our dogs don't either. They started the day by catching one of the little bunnies in our yard. I walked out of the bedroom and found my husband in the garage holding a partially-skinned bunny wrapped in a towel. The bunny was still alive but obviously severely injured and he didn't know what to do. We brought him inside, cleaned his wounds and wrapped him in a clean t-shirt. Then we placed him in a shoe box and put him next to the space heater in the bedroom. Luckily, I found a nearby wildlife rehab volunteer online and within a few minutes we were headed to her house. We left there feeling a little better knowing that if nothing else, he'd die more comfortable than he would have if the dogs had finished the job.
Yesterday I found out that he actually survived long enough to be taken to surgery. The vet attempted to suture his skin back on, but too much of it was missing to completely close him, and he was euthanized. That made me sad. I would have loved it if he'd survived. I feel really guilty that my own dogs caused his demise.
Other than that, it's been fairly uneventful here. My neck is still a little messed up and it's making it hard to carve at my usually pace. That means my work is getting backed up and I've got a LOT of carving to do today!!!
Time for breakfast and then I need to get to work!!
~Kim

congratulations I'm sorry

2009-04-07T09:05:00.000-07:00

So - the good stuff of late; 1.) I was NOT rejected by UCLA last Friday, and so was able to donate platelets. 2.) We saw the Gin Blossoms last Saturday night! What a great show. I've loved them for sooo long (they were in constant rotation in my car when I was pregnant with my now-14-year-old daughter) but haven't ever seen them live. I was NOT disappointed! I now officially have a crush on Robin Wilson. 3.) The Etsy shop's been pretty busy.

And..the not-so-good stuff; 1.) Still in massive debt, trying to get a loan modification in order to keep the house. The process is dragging on and on and on. 2.) I managed to hurt my neck (not hard to do, I have a titanium plate in there fusing two vertebrae together, so it's touchy) while doing some cleaning on Saturday. It's really hard to turn my head and it hurts all the time, so I can't go to spin class. It's hard to do anything, even carve stamps.

I've been having bouts of middle of the night insomnia all week and it sucks. I wake up at around 1am and my brain starts spinning out as I watch the hours go by. Here's a little exerpt from my in-head dialogue last night.
"Okay...go back to sleep. Crap, did I call that client? I'll text myself so that I'll remember to check tomorrow, where's my phone? Crap, it's charging. Dammit. If I go get it, he'll (husband) wake up. Ugh...(thoughts directed at husband)..STOP snoring!! *At this time husband actually does briefly stop snoring, during which time I realize I can hear our renter snoring in his room. Awesome.* *Renter stops, husband resumes.* *A mockingbird starts to sing* Oh, good, nothing's more soothing than a bird who mimics from car alarms and cell phone ring tones. Why can't I think of the lyrics to Train Wreck (Glen Phillips song)? I know I know them. 'She looked just like a train wreck that could've been avoided, in a third world country by a long stretch of farmland where the....' Crap! What comes next? Why am I trying to think of this??? *I'm aware that it's stupid to lie in bed fuming over forgotten lyrics but I'm powerless to stop myself.* 'By a long stretch of farmland where the....??..run the topsoil down the river so that.....' CRAP!! UGH! Stop snoring!!!! *insert multiple financial worries here*".
Yeah...that's pretty much a constant loop repeating for hours.

This morning I was happy because I found all my Gin Blossoms cds, so naturally my car decided to hold my favorite one hostage. It does this thing now and then where it won't eject the cd, but won't play it either. It simply holds it hostage for a few days, always during a time when you most want the cd, inciting much (and always futile) pounding of the dashboard with fists. *sigh*
I'd better get back to work.

reconnecting

2009-03-30T07:43:00.000-07:00

There's nothing like spending some time outdoors to put my head back together. It's been stressful around here lately - trying to get our home loan modified, trying to get out of debt. My husband and I are both feeling the strain and we both show it in different ways. Yesterday we decided we needed to take a nice, long hike together. We woke up early, fed the dogs, then headed out to a local waterfall. Spring was evident all around us - poppies carpeting the hills, wild flowers lining the trail, trees dripping with birds. It was a really beautiful day. We packed a bottle of wine and some trail mix, hiked to the top of the waterfall and settled in next to a quiet little pool. We don't usually (read; never have before) bring wine on our hikes, but we were going for a sort of romantic mini-getaway theme. Hehehe. Of course the minute we opened the bottle, three girls came hiking up the trail, emerging right where we'd settled in. *sigh* More people began arriving soon after. We realized the peaceful morning we were hoping for wasn't going to happen, and headed back down the trail. On the way back we kept passing Chinese people! Dozens of Chinese people!! Coming up the trail like ants!! What the? I heard one of them explaining to some hikers that they were part of the Conejo Chinese Cultural Association on an outing.
So..it wasn't the peaceful retreat we'd originally intended it to be, but just being out in nature, soaking up the sunshine did a lot for my well-being. When we got home I carved a new stamp set, as you can see above. True, cherry blossoms aren't part of our local flora, but they're such a good representation of Spring!

reject

2009-03-26T21:09:00.000-07:00

If this week had a theme it would be "wasted time". And that would make sense in more than one way, but mostly in the got-nothing-productive-done way.
Today was supposed to be a platelet donation day, but I wasn't able to donate. I only found this out after making the hour-long trip to UCLA and having two of my fingers pricked to reveal a low iron count. CRAP!!! This wasn't an issue the last 3 times, but I guess the process of donating can sometimes have that effect. If I'd known I was getting low, I'd have started taking iron supplements. The friend that I always donate with was still able to, which meant I had to sit around for a couple hours waiting for her and feeling useless. It was really disappointing. I'm going to try again next week, and in the meantime will be taking vitamins and eating a diet rich in iron.
That was pretty much four hours of my day that I could have spent carving. I'm behind on custom orders and it's driving me crazy. Tomorrow morning I have a dog training revisit, so that's another couple hours gone. Once I get home, I'll have a little time to carve, then I have to attend my daughter's school play. Not that my daughter is IN it, but her best friend is, and we can't miss that. I want to see her, of course, she's like family to us...but things just keep preventing me from working. It's weird. It's just the way the week is going. I have a dog training session on Saturday, so even that day isn't entirely free. Sunday and Monday will have to be reserved for carving.
I did finish one custom order today, pictured above. This was a fun project - a bit different, a traditional Korean Dojang (name) stamp. So...one stamp down.
Many many more to go...

hooray for Hollywood

2009-03-25T19:10:00.000-07:00

I got nothing done yesterday, I'm so frustrated. A couple of my husband's co-workers from Missouri (his department interacts with theirs via instant message all the time) were out here on vacation. We planned to meet them in Hollywood for lunch but it turned into an all-day thing. They wound up having to change hotels, which took all day, and they didn't meet us until the evening. That meant we had to hang out in Hollywood for hours..which of course resulted in stopping for drinks at a bar or two. Or three. Long story short - the drinks caught up with me and I got nothing done most of today as well. *sigh* I'm so annoyed with myself.
Tomorrow is a platelet donation day, which is a good thing, but it's also another day in which I won't get much work done. I've got several orders I need to catch up on, auuuggghhh!!
I did managed to get one stamp of a 3-stamp custom order carved today, as you can see above!
I need a few extra days to be tacked onto this week.

Sunday, inky Sunday

2009-03-22T17:05:00.000-07:00

Lots of ink was flung in our house today. I spent the day carving stamps as usual, which of course involves ink. Today was different, though, because for once I wasn't the only one with inky fingers at the end of the day. While I sat and carved, my husband tattooed himself. He's been learning to tattoo for a while now, and practices on himself sometimes.
The weather is weird today! This morning was cold and rainy, now it's clear but really windy. Not very Spring-like, at least for SoCal.
Unsurprisingly, I haven't heard back from the woman who called the other day trying to sneak an extra dog onto her contract. I hope I don't. I don't even want to do a paid lesson for someone so willing to rip me off.
I added another new stamp to the shop, as you can see above. This one stemmed from a joke we have about our dog Dewey. My daughter, despite being 14 now, still wants me to read to her at bedtime every night. The dogs seem to enjoy it too, and they all pile into her bedroom when we read. Dewey, our male Corgi, usually listens from over by the bedroom door, but for some reason he's REALLY into our current book. It's about a mermaid, and whenever I start reading it, he gets into the bed, wedging himself between my daughter and me, nose touching the book. We've decided that, being a Corgi with no tail and stubby legs, he loves the idea of being able to grow a tail and swim gracefully in the ocean.
This stamp represents Dewey's wish - to be a fish!
Happy Sunday.

om...I hate people sometimes...om...

2009-03-20T15:55:00.000-07:00

So yesterday I got a phone call from a woman needing help with her dog. Yay! I thought, a job! Unfortunately, she was already a client of the company. Let me backtrack - I own a dog training franchise, so it's a large company and each trainer owns their own franchise territory. We offer a lifetime guarantee, which means a client pays a flat one-time fee and is guaranteed as many follow-up visits as they need for the rest of the dog's life (with some exceptions, but I'll keep this short). That's all well and good - the training techniques are effective and most people don't overly take advantage of the guarantee. If they're doing what I've taught them and truly need my help, I'm happy to go back from time to time and help. One big drawback of this guarantee (for the trainer, that is) is that sometimes a client will move to your territory from someplace else. You, the *insert corporation name here* trainer are now obligated to follow up with them despite the fact that you will not make a cent for your time. It's a bummer but it doesn't happen often. On the rare occasion it has, I haven't minded much. I'm happy to help out and they usually don't try to take advantage. This time, however, was different.

This woman called me yesterday saying she'd moved here from out of state and had been trained by another *insert company name again here* trainer, and needed my help. One of her dogs was having trouble adjusting to the move and was showing aggression toward other dogs in the household. At first she just wanted phone advice and I was glad, because she's in the farthest area of my territory and it's a long drive. I listened to the issues and gave her some good advice, told her to call if she needed further assistance. She called again later, problems had escalated, she decided I did need to come out. So I asked who her former trainer had been so that I could contact them and get some insight, see what issues had been addressed, etc. She was rather vague, couldn't remember, didn't have her paperwork, it was still packed, blah blah. But she of course made sure to schedule a time for me to drive out and help her. Oh, and she also decided I need to sort of "train" the people she's moved in with so they can understand the methods as well.

Today I tracked down her previous trainer, only to find out that the dog she's describing isn't even one of the dogs she had our company train! She didn't even HAVE this dog yet. I also found out she's moved twice since her initial training and made sure to contact trainers in those states and use their services. I talked to one of them and she knew for a fact that the breed of dog she is asking me to come train was not one of the dogs she paid to have trained. She had just gotten it as a puppy a few years AFTER her initial training. So this woman was going to knowingly make me drive to her house, almost an hour away, knowing I wasn't going to be paid and that I'd lose money in gas, and basically steal my services by making me train a different dog. Um.....Idontthinkso. I left her a polite voicemail saying that I'd spoken with two of the trainers she worked with previously and that there seemed to be a discrepency in the information she'd given me. I said I'd be happy to train the dog she is currently having problems with, but would have to charge my training fee, as this dog was not included in her initial training contract with us.

You know....I'll be 39 years old this year, I'm not new...but I'm still always blown away when people do things like this. And man, was she playing to my sympathies...telling me how desperate she is, how upsetting it's been to have her dogs fighting all the sudden after this big move from out of state, and I was all set to run to her rescue. In this freaking economy when small business owners are struggling for every penny they make, she was going to knowingly rip me off. And from what I hear from the previous trainers, she's not shy about asking for follow-up visits, so she would have had me driving out there several times, I'm sure.

Okay..must settle down. I added a new stamp to my shop today - the photo says it all. Om......let it go...om...karma will kick her butt...om....why do people suck sometimes?.....om......

bunny harbinger

2009-03-17T16:09:00.001-07:00

Judging by the sudden boom in bunny population in my back yard, I'd say Spring has arrived. There is the tinniest bunny outside my bedroom door right now, he's sooooo cute! Yes, I realize that by nature of being a bunny, he's supposed to be tiny. This bunny, though, is tiny EVEN FOR A BUNNY! As a point of reference, despite it being someone gross, note that he's sitting by some average-sized dog poop. **Note to bunny-sorry, my daughter obviously didn't do her chores.** Due to his small stature, I've named him Tinybunny. I'm really good at coming up with creative names.

A couple days ago we were also visited by a gorgeous merlin falcon. In the first shot, notice the dove that was caught in action about to land on the power line near him.
In the second shot, I caught him just as he took off.
I wish the picture hadn't blurred the way it did, but it's still a pretty cool action shot.
The presence of the falcon doesn't bode well for Tinybunny, but that's just the way nature works.
Again, sorry Tinybunny.
I posted a brand new stamp in my shop today, by the way.

I originally carved it for an eraser carving swap I'm participating in. Now that the swap is complete I decided to offer it in my shop.

And there ya have it. Happy St. Patty's Day!

Lucky 13

2009-03-13T22:11:00.000-07:00

Happy Friday the Thirteenth! For some reason that's always been a lucky day for me. While I can't say anything particularly lucky happened to me today (oh wait, I did get a discount on dog food at my local pet store because I'm a trainer), nothing UNlucky happened. Plus I had a dog training job today and still had time to fill stamp orders when I got home. Yeah, finances are still pretty bad - but my two jobs are carving stamps and training dogs, and I love my little family. All in all I have to say I'm lucky.
Oh - another dog training perk for which I'll always be grateful is that sometimes vet technicians are willing to do me very kind favors. A HUGE favor was done for me by one of my favorite vet techs a couple days ago. He cleaned my two olders dogs' teeth at a very deep discount, saving me hundreds of dollars. I can't convey how much it meant to me, they needed it SO badly and I'd been putting it off and stressing over it for months because of the cost. So now they've got nice clean teeth and no longer have horrible breath, and I didn't have to go deeper into credit card debt to make it happen.
Yup, I'm feeling lucky right now.
Good night!

Happiest Place

2009-03-07T16:32:00.000-08:00

It's been a busy week! Had a dog training session on Tuesday, went to Disneyland with my husband for his birthday Wednesday, we spent the night there and went to California Adventure the next morning, came home that afternoon and yesterday was another platelet donation day. I'm tired! This morning we had a training re-visit and this evening we're going to a friend's house for a little birthday gathering for my husband.
Disneyland was awesome because it was a cold, rainy day. That might not make sense at first but when you factor in how many people that deters and do the math regarding the crowds, it does. If you're prepared to suck it up and carry an umbrella, a rainy day is the best day to go. We walked onto every single ride we wanted to with barely a wait. Because we had a hotel room, we were even able to go back to the room for a short nap and then hit the park again. This is the first time in a long time that we've stayed til it closed. Usually we're so daunted by the prospect of the drive home, as well as dealing with the cattle drive to the parking lot upon closing, that we leave early. This time we got there when it opened, rode several rides, went to House of Blues in Downtown Disney for a cocktail or two, went back to the room, then back to the park til closing. It was awesome! And right now they're offering "two-fer" tickets - which means on a different day (within 30 days of the day you visit the first park) you can visit whichever park you didn't visit, free! Since we knew we'd never have the time or inclination to go back to Anaheim within the next month we decided to briefly check out California Adventure the next morning.
What we did, basically, was walk in, go straight to the Tower of Terror (which we've never ridden and I've been dying to check out), rode it, LOVED it, turned around and got right back on it, then left. It was perfect. And Tower of Terror is my new favorite ride. I LOVE freefall rides!!!
Yesterday's platelet donation was my least favorite experience of the three I've had so far. The person who inserted my needle didn't place it well and had to keep coming back and f*cking around with it because it was hurting me. With platelet donation, they actually separate your platelets from your blood, then return the blood to you. The machine draws blood from you, separates the components, then returns blood back to you in cycles. So each time I was on a "return" cycle, I could feel the fluid blowing against the wall of my vein. It was quite unpleasant, and no one seemed able to fix it, and then the fixing itself hurt and I made them stop. I just dealt with it for the hour and a half. Bleh. Maybe next time I'll try my other arm, I've used the same one the past 3 times.
AND...so hopefully I'll be back to my normal schedule this upcoming week. I've got a LOT of carving to catch up on, I got behind this past week with everything going on. And...okay, that's all for now. I should be working!

stamp in the box

2009-02-28T15:39:00.000-08:00

So no comments on the alcoholic-or-not post? Either no one cares, no one thinks I am, or everyone prudently decided not to anger the wino by offering an opinion. Just kidding - I know no one really reads this! ;)

So today I experimented with a new stamp presentation - the matchbox stamp! I posted the one above in my Etsy shop to see how it does. It'd make a cool gift for stamp lovers. I'd love to hear your opinions about whether or not it's something a potential buyer might want. Of course time will tell, too.
Happy weekend.

pick your poison

2009-02-24T20:56:00.000-08:00

I love wine. Just had to get that out there. I'm also a big fan of the cocktail - love a dirty martini or SoCo manhattan, but wine is a necessity. It goes on the grocery list; bread, milk, cereal, wine..
Does that make me an alcoholic? I don't tend to drink a lot of anything in one sitting these days. I was a binge drinker for a while in high school, but that's a whole different Oprah, and not something that's followed me into adulthood. Funny how that works - leave the dysfunctional, F-ed up family home and like magic, heavy drinking loses much of its appeal. Still, I'd be sad if my doctor told me to kick the evening glass of wine habit.
So what do you think consitutes an alcohol problem? Liking it? Incorporating it, albeit in small increments, into one's daily lifestyle? Or does there need to be some level of negative consequence/dysfunction in order for it to be a problem?
I'll let you all mull it over while I pour myself a glass.

Bloodletting

2009-02-20T16:25:00.000-08:00

Today was my second platelet donation. I feel better than I did the last time, so maybe my body's adjusting to it. Or maybe I knew what to expect this time..or maybe a bit of both. I think I'll be doing it regularly, even when my friend's daughter stops needing the transfusions. It's such an easy way to help other people. I'm lucky to be so healthy, I've got a high platelet count, so why not? Or maybe I'm just in it for the cookies and juice. Not really. Those are nice, though. :)
Naturally, I didn't get much work done today. Just getting to UCLA, then the procedure itself, then getting back takes a few hours. And although I'm not as wiped out as I was the first time, I'm still tired.
Think I'm going to try to carve something now, though.
Oh, I was featured in Knitberry's blog today! She did a really nice job on it, check it out if you like. Definitely check out her Etsy shop, her work is beautiful!
Okay, better try to get a little work done before the sun goes down.

dragging

2009-02-16T20:44:00.001-08:00

Ugh. I'm soooo tired lately. It's the rain. And the stress over money. And the occasional forgoing of meds, on purpose or not. And family stuff. My husband's dad had a stroke over the weekend. He's okay in that it doesn't seem to have had lasting effects, but still...having a stroke isn't an indication of good health. It's scary. Watching my husband agonize over it is scary. Worrying about the day I hope never comes, where it's my husband, not his dad, having the *insert health crisis here* is scary. I don't like being a grownup.

But...on the hopeful front; the Etsy shop's still humming steadily along, our loan modification is in negotiation now (as opposed to the three previous months in which it sat in limbo), I'm donating platelets again on Friday (mental, if not physical feel-good activity) and...well, that's all for now. Oh, we got our heater fixed!! Soon I hope the stuff on the "hopefull" plate outweighs the stuff on the "oh shite" plate.
Meanwhile, here's a set of stamps I carved yesterday. :)

neglect

2009-02-11T17:01:00.000-08:00

Ugh. I'm guilty. Blog neglect. I'm in another blah/antisocial/depressed/overwhelmed phase that doesn't warrant a blog entry. Too much of the same whining I always do, so I'll spare the general public the repetition.
I carved a really cool new stamp that I'm excited to show off - but it'll have to wait until the swap that I carved it for has been published to all its members. Seriously, though, I think it's one of my cooler designs. Do any of the artsy types that read this ever participate in swaps, or it that solely a stamp carver thing? Swaps couldn't possibly be exclusive to just stamp carvers, there's no way. Tell me about other swaps that are out there, I'd love to hear.

Are you reading this and mumbling "I have no freaking idea what she's babbling about.."? Oh wait....do you always mumble that when reading my blog? In this case, though, what I mean by a swap is this; a group of artists sign up and mail in (to the person running the swap) a number of pages (usually limited to around 21 or so) of artwork. For the swaps I participate in, the pages must contain at least one hand-carved image. The person running the swap then takes one page from each artist and binds them, creating a little booklet of artwork that is then sent back to each participant. You wind up with a bound booklet containing a bunch of really cool original artwork (or in the case of the "Swapzine" I particpate in, printed copies of the artwork). It's fun and inspiring, plus you get the satisfaction of feeling published, albeit to a very small public.

Anyway..yeah, so when that swap is distributed, I'll post a picture of that stamp. Meanwhile..the Etsy shop's keeping me fairly busy. The dog training biz is sucking, as usual. We're waiting for the outcome of our loan modification attempt. That means we're waiting to see if we get to keep our house or if our entire wold is going to fall apart. Wheeeeee! And I'm boarding two dogs, which means we have six dogs running around right now. Wheeeeeee!!! And I'm so broke I have to decide which bills are imminent and which ones can wait awhile before various privileges/utilities are taken away. Wheeeeeeeeee!!!!
And that is why I'm not writing much lately. But here's a fun, cute picture of one of my dogs.
You're welcome.

blood sisters

2009-02-03T17:00:00.000-08:00

I spent most of today donating blood platelets at UCLA and now I'm very tired. It was an interesting experience. My first time. I've donated blood once, but it was for my own surgery (I had surgery on my spine a few years ago - we'll save that story for another entry) but I haven't given platelets before.
I belong to a book club that consists of 7 really cool women, most of them from the gym I belong to. One member's daughter is really sick right now and needs platelets, and Diane (my friend, spin teacher and fellow book club member) and I had the right blood type and wanted to donate. So yeah, it's quite a process. Donating whole blood only takes about 30 minutes, but platelets takes a good two hours or more. They remove your blood and run it through a machine that spins and separates the platelets, then they infuse the rest of your blood components back into your body. They also give you fluids and an anticoagulant - and this comes into play shortly. It was an unexpectedly fun experience, the staff were all amazing and the atmosphere in the donation room was cozy and jovial. I guess because everyone donating is healthy and doing something that's helping someone else, there's a very different feel than the typical hospital experience. I'm really glad I did it.
When it was over I felt drained and woozy, but still, it was a great experience. Once we were both finished we got cookies and juice, then headed home. Back at home I decided to lie down for a bit because I still felt groggy and a little weird. Just as I was drifting off to sleep I got a call from Diane, who was laughing hysterically. After she dropped me off, she'd gone to the grocery store. Before going in, she decided to take off the goofy bandage (in her case purple with a bright green heart) off. She walked into the store and then noticed she was bleeding. Steadily. And it wouldn't stop. They'd told us to leave the bandages on for a few hours because of the anticoagulant..and I guess they weren't kidding! So there she is bleeding all over the grocery store. She had to go to the first aid section and open a box of cotton balls and gauze and wrap her arm up right there in the aisle!! The cashier was a little puzzled when she checked out and told her "I had to open this, so I'm paying for it." while sporting a freshly bandaged arm. Awesome.
So I'll be keeping my bandage on for a while longer.
And...yes, a totally non art-related post. I did not accomplish anything artistic today because the donation process took such a long time and now it's time for dinner.
That's it for today - look into platelet donation, it's a good thing. But follow the aftercare instructions to avoid embarassing public bleeding.

I know a good place for this boot

2009-01-28T20:01:00.000-08:00

I've been meaning to update, but I've been busy this week! I worked on Saturday, Tuesday and today - dog training. Meanwhile, Etsy sales picked up again and I'm falling behind on stamp orders. I just got home from spin class and I am TIRED! So, no big update tonight, but I wanted to check in and avoid Blog Neglect.

Oh, one thing - spin class. Okay....a room filled with 30 adults cycling madly for 45 minutes gets really hot. That's a given. There are fans in each corner of the room, and even at full blast, they barely do more than keep us from passing out. They. Are. Necessary. But there's this one guy who doesn't like the fans to blow on him. Now any normal human being would simply choose a bike that's not in the direct path of one of the fans. That's pretty easy to do, in fact, if you sit in the back row the fans don't reach you at all. But this guy likes to sit in the front row, directly in front of a fan. Since he doesn't LIKE the fan, he tilts it upward so that it faces the ceiling when he first walks in. Um......Idon'tthinkso. When you are the only one in a group of 30 people working out at full tilt who doesn't want to feel the fan, you're in the minority. So I said something. And the fan was tilted back toward the masses, as it should be. It just irks me that this guy would do this to begin with!!! WTF??? If you don't like the conditions under which the class is conducted, especially when said conditions are necessary in order for people to, like, NOT DIE, then don't take the class!!! Go get yourself a stationary bike and a space heater and enjoy killing yourself in the comfort of your own home!!!! Sheesh.
Okay, time for me to start carving some stamps!
'Night.

movin' on up

2009-01-23T11:30:00.000-08:00

I've finally managed to upgrade my workspace from the floor to an actual..well, workspace. Up until a few weeks ago, I carved stamps while sitting on my bedroom floor, where the light is best. Nothing seems to beat daylight when you're carving stamps - although I did buy an excellent full spectrum magnifying light that works pretty well at night. Until then, I couldn't carve after dark, which limited my production time. One Saturday it occured to me that I've had a drafting table for, oh...probably 20 years. I bought it when I worked at Aaron Brothers, and it's moved with me everyplace I've gone since then. In this house, however, it was never set up, and sat in the garage gathering dust. "Hey," I thought, "why not actually USE it???". I'm smart like that. So we moved things around a bit, and my art corner was born!! Here are a few shots of it. Nothing grand, but it sure beats the floor.

Above, you can see the table, complete with magnifying light and beloved new chair.

Ahh, a nice clean desktop, so inviting....

My dubious co-worker. I don't know if I've mentioned him. Shhh...I think he has an eating disorder.
And that's pretty much it. If you look, you can see the super cheap Target-bought storage drawers under the table. It doubles as art supply storage and footrest. It's also a strangely powerful dog hair magnet. Made of pressboard, cardboard and cheap laminate, it generates a forcefield of static that could power a small neighborhood. My hair always stands out a bit when I'm sitting here. There's a bit more storage in the closet - mounting blocks, mailing envelopes, the ink pads I sell - but we won't look in there today.
You can imagine how messy it is, since there's obviously not even room for the skeleton.

leave me a loan

2009-01-22T17:11:00.000-08:00

Ugh. Long day. This was a day filled with little frustrations scattered throughout, making it seem very long. First there was the gym. I take a spin (cycling, not turning myself in circles) class a few times a week and I love it. Today, however, notsomuch. First of all....to whomever had the gas, maybe skip excercise class til it, um, passes? Thanks. And then my stupid bike, the one I always use, betrayed me by being all wobbly!! Someone must have moved it, or something, and one of the little feet it sits on was shorter than the rest. It was really annoying. All in all, spin class stunk today.
THEN, back at home, more frustration. Like most of the homeowners in the nation, we're trying to get a mortgage adjustment so that we don't end up homeless. We're using a company that deals specifically with this sort of thing and is negotiating with our lender...or is supposed to be. I've been trying since yesterday to get someone to call me back with an update and it's like trying to get blood from a turnip. Or something. I kept reaching voicemail after voicemail. Then I called the person who initially took my case and told her all the trouble I was having. "Oh my gosh! Let me talk to them, I'll call you right back!". An hour later I got tired of waiting for her and hopped in the shower. I finally got a call from someone an hour after that. He had very little information for me. Greeeeat.
Then I had a dog training session at 1:15pm. This was to a be a free of charge session for a vet technician at one my referring vet offices (I get most of my business by establishing relationships with veterinarians, who then refer people to me, so I offer them and their staff free training sessions). About two years ago we had a session scheduled, I showed up at her house..and no one was there. I sat in my car for a while waiting, and she finally called me. She was stuck at her daughter's softball game, she was totally appalled and embarassed about flaking on me. No problem.
SO...here we are two years later and she finally decides to reschedule. I show up. No one is home. She calls me. Oh my! The meeting at the vet office ran late, she's on her way!!! Forty-five minutes later she shows up and I wind up giving her a really rushed, abbreviated version of a normal session, because I had to pick my daughter up from school. She was totally apologetic again, and I really believe it wasn't her fault, but ugh. Frustrating.
But hey, at least I made ZERO DOLLARS!!!
There's always a silver lining. Always.
On a more pleasant note, I carved a new stamp this morning, see it up there?
Yeah, right there, the tree. Like it?

she got the chair

2009-01-21T14:58:00.000-08:00

It's a big day today! My new chair arrived!!!! And....yeah, that should give you some persepective on the degree of excitement present in my life. I seriously get way too excited about getting things in the mail. In this case, though, you can probably understand my excitement to some extent. Pictured above are my old chair (metal stool torture device) and my new chair (whose generous seat size I'm grateful for). Snappy green apple color and shiny chrome aside, the thing is just WAY more comfortable. A seat that accommodates an actual butt as opposed to one and a half cheeks! Back support! Pneumatic height adjustment!!
Ironically, I got caught up on all my carving earlier today before it arrived. Hehehehe!
The best part - it was under fifty bucks with free shipping, arrived fast and only took me five minutes to assemble! I got it from bizchair and I'm impressed. I'm not affiliated with them in any way, just thought they deserved a shout-out. Thanks, bizchair! My rear end is in your debt.

no pests

2009-01-20T21:37:00.000-08:00

Welp, I heard back from the pest control company. It seems the bait stations that have been placed in the wash are to control the ground squirrel population in the area. They burrow, and in the event of a flood, if the flood channel fills, the levee walls can break down due to their tunnels. The pesticide is an anticoagulant that causes them to die of internal bleeding. According to the company, it's an extremely low concentration with very little risk of secondary intoxication (the poisoning of an animal who eats an animal who eats the poison). They said each station only holds two pounds of the bait, and that a dog would have to eat five pounds of it in order to get sick. It also has little to no toxicity to birds, so wouldn't affect a bird of prey if it caught a poisoned rodent. Rabbits can't fit into the bait stations and don't tend to go after it, so it's unlikely that the bizarre bunny miscarriage had anything to do with that.
SO...I don't need to worry too much about my dogs, the local coyotes, or the hawks and falcons that hang out back there - but I feel kind of bad for the ground squirrels and rats that will die. I see the reason, in a sense, for the need to control the population. I just wish poisoning wasn't the solution.
I'm ALMOST caught up on stamp orders for now. Sales have slowed again, but I hope they'll pick right back up.
And....that's all for now.