Family Update
Hopefully this will update properly: livejournal has been under a concerted denial of service attack for almost 2 weeks straight...
Rory has left me alone with the kids tonight so he can go see a soccer game in Portland along with his siblings and parents. Gavin is watching a nature documentary. He seems to like them: I recently found a toy zebra with its foot stuck in a toy crocodile's mouth. Gavin then excitedly explained, 'croceedile eating seebra!'
Ah, the facts of life.
My life has been filled with a multitude of projects:
1. Embroidery. I just finished a set of 5 sweatshirts for one person, a set of 11 bowling shirts for another, and I'm working on a custom quilt featuring embroidered versions of their family's hand/footprints as well as a few other custom design jobs.
2. Taxes. I recently invested in some accounting software capable of tracking manufacturing costs, so I've been busy both with data entry and with trying to learn how to use it. All before tax day. Bleh.
3. Taking care of the kids. This takes up a surprisingly large amount of my time. Imagine that.
4. Downsizing. In an effort to reduce the amount of stuff we have around the house, we've been selling some of it off. Mostly books via amazon.com, but we have a few items we plan to list on craigslist, and I just signed up for a consignment booth this next October to dispose of the baby items Macsen grows out of. This also raises some much-needed cash, which goes right into #5.
5. Embroidery. Yes, this deserves to go on the list a second time. Why? Because this part of the project is a bit more like market research and developing what I'm doing into an actual business. I've been snagging the spare cash I can and ordering samples from wholesalers. The idea is to have physical samples of the sorts of stuff I can do on hand to show people at craft fairs or maybe even at embroidery parties (think Pampered Chef, but with monogrammed gifts). The scary thing about trying to do embroidery parties is that if you sign up with a multi-level marketing firm like Pampered Chef, you get trained on what to do, how to do it, and are provided with a line of stuff to sell. ...Whereas I'd be starting from scratch. Thus researching stuff, photographing stuff, and figuring out pricing for stuff is a project in and of itself. (I've ordered stuff from three different wholesalers this past week alone.) And all of it will have to go onto a website, which should probably be its own point too, but the list is getting long.
6. Landscaping. My father-in-law has asked me to develop a landscaping plan for the local Masonic lodge. And my mother-in-law has a friend who's retiring out in the country who wants a landscaping plan too. (Could this request come at a less busy time? Like after taxes? Apparently not.)
7. Taking classes. All sewing-related. For my own sanity. I have a trip lined up in late July to attend a costuming convention in LA.
8. Did I mention taking care of my kids? Yes? Oh, OK, what about taking care of the house and meals while my husband is in law school? You'd be amazed at the mess a two-year-old can make in less than an hour.
Rory has left me alone with the kids tonight so he can go see a soccer game in Portland along with his siblings and parents. Gavin is watching a nature documentary. He seems to like them: I recently found a toy zebra with its foot stuck in a toy crocodile's mouth. Gavin then excitedly explained, 'croceedile eating seebra!'
Ah, the facts of life.
My life has been filled with a multitude of projects:
1. Embroidery. I just finished a set of 5 sweatshirts for one person, a set of 11 bowling shirts for another, and I'm working on a custom quilt featuring embroidered versions of their family's hand/footprints as well as a few other custom design jobs.
2. Taxes. I recently invested in some accounting software capable of tracking manufacturing costs, so I've been busy both with data entry and with trying to learn how to use it. All before tax day. Bleh.
3. Taking care of the kids. This takes up a surprisingly large amount of my time. Imagine that.
4. Downsizing. In an effort to reduce the amount of stuff we have around the house, we've been selling some of it off. Mostly books via amazon.com, but we have a few items we plan to list on craigslist, and I just signed up for a consignment booth this next October to dispose of the baby items Macsen grows out of. This also raises some much-needed cash, which goes right into #5.
5. Embroidery. Yes, this deserves to go on the list a second time. Why? Because this part of the project is a bit more like market research and developing what I'm doing into an actual business. I've been snagging the spare cash I can and ordering samples from wholesalers. The idea is to have physical samples of the sorts of stuff I can do on hand to show people at craft fairs or maybe even at embroidery parties (think Pampered Chef, but with monogrammed gifts). The scary thing about trying to do embroidery parties is that if you sign up with a multi-level marketing firm like Pampered Chef, you get trained on what to do, how to do it, and are provided with a line of stuff to sell. ...Whereas I'd be starting from scratch. Thus researching stuff, photographing stuff, and figuring out pricing for stuff is a project in and of itself. (I've ordered stuff from three different wholesalers this past week alone.) And all of it will have to go onto a website, which should probably be its own point too, but the list is getting long.
6. Landscaping. My father-in-law has asked me to develop a landscaping plan for the local Masonic lodge. And my mother-in-law has a friend who's retiring out in the country who wants a landscaping plan too. (Could this request come at a less busy time? Like after taxes? Apparently not.)
7. Taking classes. All sewing-related. For my own sanity. I have a trip lined up in late July to attend a costuming convention in LA.
8. Did I mention taking care of my kids? Yes? Oh, OK, what about taking care of the house and meals while my husband is in law school? You'd be amazed at the mess a two-year-old can make in less than an hour.