I woke up foul today.

I suppose it didn’t help that I went to bed at damn near 3am, and in a “out of sorts” mindset. Had a weird end to the night….bleh.

I spent about three hours making a charm bracelet for the EAST Winter Wonderland Contest. EAST is a “Street Team” on Etsy that I joined. They are a group of Earth Path (earth based religions) folks that are just amazing. Street Teams are pretty nifty. They are a bit like “cliques” I guess, but they are, for the most part, a way to cross-promote, give and get advice on your craft and business - and just fun to have a place to chat with people of like mind. We’ve come to discover that there are quite a few “Easties” in our neck of the woods here in Oregon, would be fun to meet up with a few of them at somepoint. :) I guess its sorta like having an online Coven. LOL!

Etsy is going pretty well. We have about 200 pieces online, and are selling at a somewhat consistent rate. All of our customers have left stellar feedback for us, and we seem to have been embraced in the Forums/Community at Etsy with open arms. It’s kinda nice to be around other crafters, so many ideas and thoughts to try out! We’ve also been able to snag some great findings and beads and such, as many Sellers will “destash” stuff they no longer want or are using at “clearance” pricing. Often its only a few speciality beads (instead of a full bag) or a “half strand”, but thats really great, when you are unsure if you will really like something, or just want to experiment. :)

I have this weekend “off”, as regards craft shows. Next weekend (starting the Friday after Thanksgiving) we have a three day show “Eugene Home Crafters Holiday Show”, downtown at the Fairgrounds. We have high hopes that we will make a good sized dent in our inventory. We’ve really come along way, as regards quality, packaging, displays and just over-all “craft show sense” over the last year - so it would be nice to see some of that turn into sales. THe following weekend we will be at the same venue for a two day event. Then, the next weekend, we will spend a Saturday in Haley’s Middle School gym, for Shasta’s Holiday Bazaar. We don’t expect much from that, as the Highschool one we went to last weekend totally blew chunks, but its a good way to experiment, get out of the house/s for a bit, and support the schools. We most likely will NOT rent a booth at either school next year - though it would be fun to visit them for shopping reasons.

Work is driving me crazy. It’s totally slow, and totally boring. I find myself trying to make even the simplest of requests “stretch” in order to have something to do for more than an hour. I have “clean up” and document writing I COULD do, I just havn’t felt the inspiration to do so. Bleh. I’m hoping the numbers are better this quarter, so that Symantec’s nice Christmas present to me is a full time/perm job offer at the end of December. *fingers crossed*

I guess thats it for now, I need to go set up my light box and get some pictures taken, now that the day is half over. Blergh. Gotta love Eugene in the Fall - the rain just makes me want to hibernate. *sigh*

I don’t know WHY this is, but it seems that every time I go to the Ladie’s room lately at work - the cleaning crew is there.

Normally, in the past, this has not phased me. However, I’ve been getting stage fright lately. WHY? I have NO clue…. Sure, I could just “hold it” when I see they are there and go back to whatever/wherever I was doing, but usually, I’ve been hammering away at work and finally HAVE to go, so waiting is NOT really an option. I suppose I could seek out one of the other 2 dozen bathrooms - but this one is closest and well….its just nicer than some of the others - since I work on the newer side of the building.

Its just SO strange! I see them, I go in anyway, I find a stall and then….nothing. Then I feel stupid - because I KNOW they can hear everything that is going on *or not - as the case might be* in the stalls - and are probably wondering WHY I’ve been in there for so long….

GAH!!

It doesn’t help that I can hear whispering and giggling, occassionally. Talk about paranoid! Are they talking about ME! My inability to PEE? Does she have constipation? Is she hiding? AAAAAAHHH!!! This of course makes “going” just that much more difficult….

Does anyone else have this affliction, or is this just another notch in my “Lucky is SO weird” post….

I suppose you all have been forced to wait long enough.

I HAVE wanted to write, I just either have not had time, have not had the energy or have not had anything to say. *sigh*

For awhile, I was waiting until I had official word from my company about the conversion to full time (instead of temp) that they were hanging in front of me, its a good thing I waited as well. I got the application done, got my stuff for background check done (sheesh! They even needed to see my highschool diploma!) and then…

Hiring Freeze.

No FTE for me. *sigh*

“Maybe in the next quarter or two”, they say.

Nice, eh?

Oh well.

Thankfully Dan’s unemployment is helping to keep us afloat. Nope, he’s not gotten a single nibble worth getting excited about yet. He has had a scant few interviews, but they don’t seem to want to pan out. I told him at this rate, he would be better off just looking into going back to school. We would probably qualify for Grant Assistance anyway. So, that is something new and that he is looking into.

Everyday life has finally sorta/kinda slowed down.

TJ is staying with my parents for the school year, down in Southern California (safe from the fires). This has ended up being a huge blessing for many reasons. Mostly, TJ seems to be doing really well. He has made Honor Roll and is getting involved in their Church, which he seems to really enjoy. I am grateful for their investment of time, mentorship and parenting. It’s sad to me, to say this “out loud”, but its been easier to NOT have him at the house. Dan and the girls and I are doing our own healing, and we have made progress, but there is still a long road to walk yet.

Haley is doing well in school. Her grades this year are MUCH better than the end of last year, not a single F in sight! Mind you she only had one last year, but one is one to many, in my not so humble opinion! She seems to like her classes, and is even assisting a teacher with a class for disabled kids. She’s got a concert for Advanced Choir in December, downtown in the Hult Amphitheater. That should be pretty cool! She’s had a sleepover, which was interesting! Our first one! :) Girl was a total doll! She’s also beading , so that’s really neat. I love that she enjoys doing it. Mind you she can be a bit over the top sometimes, but I know she’s just goofing off and wanting to spend time with me :)� Her stuff is listed in our Etsy store as designs made by “Sweetpea”. :)

Claire is just fine. She’s about potty trained. THANK THE GODDESS! We still need a pull-up at nap and bed time, but the rest of the day is pretty well accident free! She rattles on CONSTANTLY and has the funniest things to say! She’s really at a fun age. It has gone by SO quick! :( I’m hoping to introduce her to some light baking this Holiday season. Haley was about her age when she started helping me dump stuff into a bowl, I am pretty sure Claire will get a kick out of it! Besides, baking a shit-ton of cookies is what us Trescott/Cooper girls do best! I even went and bought (from Etsy of course!) matching aprons for the three of us! :)

Speaking of Christmas and Etsy. I’ve made a “pledge”, if you will, to do as much of my Holiday shopping through that site as I possibly can. With so many recalls going on, and crowded �sold out” malls and crazy expensive CRAP, I cannot think of a better plan! I already have a whole bunch of ideas, but feel free to post here and tell me what kinds of things you like! I am not saying WHO is getting something and WHAT it might, but I hope to have quite a few Holiday Smiles passed around this year! :) So, if you don’t speak up, you might end up with handmade rubber dog poo or something of that nature! And yes, you CAN find that on Etsy!

Our Etsy shop is doing tremendous! We are selling an item just about every other day, and are probably averaging a $100 - $175 per month. Mind you, we’ve pushed our inventory to just over 200 items, in preparation of the upcoming Holidays, so we hope to see that monthly number triple, (if not more) for the next two months! We are signed up for two weekends worth of HomeCrafter Festivals here in Eugene. Thankfully they are local, so we don’t have to do the whole, drive, hotel thing. It should be a good time. From what I hear, attendance is pretty decent. :) We have also been sending our items down to my Mom, who takes them to Red Hat functions. We don’t have many Red Hat pieces on the store right now, because she gets most of them, but we DO make them. So if you have a Red or Pink hatter on your list, give me a shout! :) The jewelry business is my one saving grace. Its nice to have something I OWN, I control, I decide…yanno? Whether its bead shopping, all night beading parties, gabbing about what to buy, when to buy what to make and all other things bead related…Its just plain fun! :)
I guess that’s pretty much it for now. OH! I did have a pretty good birthday. :) I received quite a few lovlies! Gift cards from the Mom’s enabled me to replenish my empty perfume bottle *yay for eternity!*, I also purchased a “starter” kit of Bare Escentuals makeup. I’ve wanted to try it for ages, so now I can! I’ve not had a chance to give it a whirl yet, will have to do so this weekend. :)�

Alright, I suppose I should go find something productive to do now. :)