Tangible Tidbits 2011 #51: Holiday Season and Year Wrap-up Report

Hello, everyone! I just got back from having Christmas dinner at my sister's house. My younger niece made me a scarf in a weaving class! I keep thinking she will join the "family business" one day...maybe in high school to make some extra money. ;)

We spent yesterday afternoon/evening with my extended family on Mom's side, as we've done for as long as I can remember. I received a couple of unexpected birthday gifts, which was really a nice surprise. :) Mom and I exchanged Christmas gifts this morning before heading out to my sister's. I also received a couple of presents from a family friend in Florida, who obviously reads this blog! ;) She gave me a gift card to Kmart for my birthday, so I can get a couple of items from Sofia Vergara's clothing line there; and a gift certificate to Fire Mountain Gems and Beads for Christmas. I guess she won't ever have trouble figuring out what to buy me ever again! LOL

My knee is much better after a month of using a cane. I was determined to get rid of the cane by Christmas, so I started getting around without it a couple of days ago, and today was the first day I didn't use it at all. :D The knee is still sore...I've got an ice pack on it as I type...but the doctor thinks I may be able to resume working out twice a week with the trainer by mid-January. I won't rush back into my old 3-5 days a week workout schedule, as I don't want to push myself too hard. I will work out with the trainer for a month or so before trying to expand my workouts beyond those "supervised" workouts. :)

Of course, being as accident-prone as I am, I now have a burn mark on my chest from baking cookies with my nieces on Friday. I had just put the cookies on the counter to cool, and I pulled the cookie sheet back from the counter, scraping the corner of it on my chest. I was trying to get it out of the way of the girls, who were hovering nearby. :o I'm putting A&D ointment on it, so it will hopefully heal without leaving a scar. I'm not safe anywhere, even in my own house! :\

As for business, I've completed a number of pieces I started at the Chinese knotting workshop a few weeks ago. I'm really pleased with how they turned out! :D I still have a couple that are incomplete, but I will hopefully get those done sometime this week. I'm working a lot of overtime at the office until the end of the year (we're short-handed again), so I will cut myself some slack if I don't finish them until later in January. ;)

The STOCK'N STUFFrz sale at Woolpunk Studios in Jersey City was extended through Christmas, so I will find out one day this week if I sold anything. Fingers crossed! :)

I'm off tomorrow, so Mom and are are planning to see The Descendents with George Clooney in the afternoon. I worked at the Maplewood Movie Theater in grad school, and the manager recently reached out to me via Facebook. She has some beads she wants restrung and also a bunch of materials she thought I could use, including some 14K gold beads! If she's there tomorrow, we'll chat about it...if not, she will call me after the New Year. :)

I hope you all had wonderful holidays and got everything on your "Wish Lists." ;) Since my next post will be on New Year's Day, I will wish everyone a fun-filled -- and responsible ;) -- New Year's Eve! Catch you in 2012! :o

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Tangible Tidbits 2011 #50: Still Unconnected and Making Changes

Hey, all! Sorry I missed you last week. I had my nieces over all weekend and I'm still experiencing computer problems, even though the malware scanner the guys at work gave me keeps coming up clean. I am writing to you from my Netbook in my kitchen, as the idea of turning on the computer upstairs and "fighting" with it does nothing for me. I dragged out the Netbook on Tuesday night, and I still have some upgrading to do before I can more or less use it as my primary computer. In addition, I keep getting a "no connection" message on my phone...in my own house that has a WiFi connection! Needless to say, the Universe seems to be conspiring to keep me unconnected. :p

I stayed up until 1:00 a.m. on Wednesday night, getting my five pieces ready to submit for Woolpunk Studios' STOCK'N STUFFrz event this weekend. One of the clasps on a necklace I made early on needed replacing, but I hadn't connected the piece to jump rings between the chain and the clasp, so I could not disconnect the clasp without destroying the piece. I have to remember not to do that anymore! :p Anyway, I ended up coiling thin wire around the toggle hoop and bar, so it looks better now. I showed my coworker the next day, since she was delivering the pieces for me. She said it looks like it requires a lot of patience! Especially that late at night. :)

My pieces sold fairly well at 1978 Maplewood Arts Center the previous weekend. I sold the beaded Crystal Geode, a ring, a bookmark, and another pair of earrings, in addition to the necklace and earrings I sold from the exhibit to a friend. I also sold another necklace and two more pairs of earrings separately last weekend. All in all, this Holiday season seems to be going fairly well. :)

As you may recall, I attended a Chinese knotting workshop last Saturday. I had a lot of fun learning how to make four-, five-, and eight-strand braids, Snake knots, Button knots, rolled satin nylon chains, and a criss-cross knot that I am still having problems making. We covered a lot of material in a relatively short period of time, so I spent some time this week working on these techniques to help commit them to memory. ;)

I am seriously thinking about discontinuing the Virtual Mall in the New Year. I've been spending a lot of time, money, and energy on it...and after 1-1/2 years, I don't feel I'm getting enough back from the effort. I'd rather spend the money updating the store on my website, as I have not had the time to do that myself for quite a while. Originally, I took that over from the web designer to save money, but it's not working out. I don't think I've updated the store in almost six months, if not longer. And the time I spend posting links to the Virtual Mall Facebook page could be better spent on administrative tasks or creating new pieces. I haven't updated my financial spreadsheet since the summer, and I have to get working on that to give it to the accountant for tax preparation. Ideally, I will have more time to keep on top of these things, rather than constantly playing catch-up at the last minute. :\ I won't shut the Virtual Mall down completely right away, as I have to meet minimum commission rates in order to close out some of my affiliate accounts, but I hope to have everything resolved by the summer.

Although I have completed my Christmas shopping, I still have gifts to wrap. My little elves (read: nieces) helped me wrap the gifts I had here last Sunday, but I was only about half done shopping at that point. They are coming over this Friday afternoon to help me bake cookies for the family party on Saturday...so if I don't get it all done by then, they can hopefully come to my rescue again. ;)

As next Sunday is Christmas and Hanukkah is this week, I believe, I will wish you all Happy Holidays now. Best wishes to you all! :D


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Tangible Tidbits 2011 #47: Working, Workshops, and "One Life To Live"

Hey, everyone! :)

Okay, so let's start with last weekend. On Saturday, I stayed up until 2:00 a.m. pricing pieces for the Third Annual Jewels of New Jersey show on Sunday. Then, I got up at 7:15 a.m. to shower, dress, load up the car, and drive one hour south of me to the show. Business was not as good as last year, and that was also the general consensus of the other vendors I spoke with that day. There was a lot of work to put into it with not such a great return, but I made more money than I would have staying home and sitting on my butt. :p BTW, I have a few pictures from the event that I will post to Facebook when I get the chance. My sister brought my nieces for the last two hours, which was a nice distraction. However, I might have made a few more sales by focusing on the people browsing my table and chatting with them instead of keeping my nieces occupied. :\ Anyway, next is the BANG VI exhibit at 1978 Maplewood Arts Center. I have to decide what I want to bring and fill out the appropriate forms and labels this week. Luckily, I found pictures from last year (and also posted them to Facebook), so I know what items I had there already. :) No word yet on the events in Jersey City and South Orange. Fingers crossed! ;)

We had our December Bead Society (BSNJ) meeting this week, and I attended a workshop yesterday. At the meeting on Thursday night, Dr. Josephine Yeh gave a presentation on Chinese knotting. She's one of our members and a really sweet lady. There's a picture of the two of us in the Facebook album link I posted above. :) Her presentation was really enjoyable -- she's very funny! -- and she will follow up with a workshop in early December. The workshop I attended on Saturday was to learn how to make a Star Gazer Bracelet with internationally-renowned bead artist Laura McCabe. She's 35, but looks 10 years younger! LOL She's really very nice and patient. ;) We were there for six hours, and I think the most anyone accomplished was one flower our of the eight needed for the piece. :o I'd imagine by the time you get through making all eight flowers, you'd be pretty adept at it! Let's hope so! :)

Also, BSNJ's Autumn newsletter came out this week, and it included my Ten Life Lessons... article! I will paste it up and post it in the clips album on Facebook when I get a chance. :)

I was so wiped out from the past couple of weeks that I slept until NOON today! I guess I really needed the rest. After that, I baked cookies for our family Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday. That's my assignment every year...bake Crisco cookies! They are basically butter cookies, but made with Crisco instead. The recipe goes back to World War II, when butter was scarce. ;)

Still working a lot this coming week, even with Thanksgiving on Thursday. We have early dismissals on Wednesday and Friday -- we cannot close the day after Thanksgiving, unfortunately. It has something to do with the stock market not being allowed to close for more than three days (meaning no four-day weekends) since 9-11. However, we are open a lot of days the Depository Trust Company (DTC) is closed, so that doesn't really make much sense to me. Anyway, my colleague is out again Monday and Tuesday, so I'll be working more OT this week. :p

I entered into an online discussion about Joe Paterno's firing from Penn State earlier this week. If you're interested, you can find the discussion here on The Maplewood Patch. I was in the minority, and decided to get out before things got nasty. I don't mind sharing opinions with people, but when they start to lecture me on morality I lose interest VERY quickly. :p

Well, I'm off to YouTube to catch Thursday's and Friday's episodes of One Life To Live, another ABC soap opera that's going off the air in a few weeks. I used to watch it in college, but I only really started watching it again when they announced it was being canceled. In actuality, I think it is moving to the internet sometime early next year, but it will be different than it is now, I'm sure. :\

Take care and Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate it! :)

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