winding road

The perfect gift (Project 365 -- Day 31)

"Everyone has the perfect gift to give the world--and if each of us was freed up to give the gift that is uniquely ours to give, the world will be in total harmony."

-- Buckminster Fuller

I went to my parents' today and picked up some beautiful new things to take to my first corporate trunk show of the year tomorrow.

While I was there, I took some photos of my father, Fernando, working at his craft. Almost everyone who sees his pieces always says, 'That's amazing. How does he do that??' I always say, 'lots of patience and a lifetime of working with wood.' Which is true, yes, but not terribly specific. So, I've long wanted to create some small 'about your hand-carved wood leaf ...' cards to go along with purchases of his wood jewelry and decorative leaves. I also want to create a nice flyer to put in a frame or easel with my display, explaining a little more about his process.

In a nutshell, he starts with actual leaves that he collects on frequent walks with Mom, on neighbor's yards, or just about anywhere he goes. He then draws an outline on some poster board to use as a guide when he cuts the shape out of the wood. He uses a lot of domestic woods, like cherry and various maples, but also more exotic woods, like rosewood, tulipwood, and cocobolo (from Mexico), among others.

Once he has the basic shape cut out, the carving begins. On the large pieces, he can do some of the rough carving with chisels, but for the most part, he uses a variety of knives and whittling tools and does it all by hand. He contours both the front and back, which can be a painstaking process depending on the design and how easy or hard the particular wood is to work with.

After the carving is done, he uses lots of different hand files to make the surface really smooth (no Dremels here -- I've asked!). Then, each leaf gets four coats of polyurethane, with wet sanding in between, to provide a fine finish and protection. If the leaf is for a necklace, he then drills the stem and hands it over to Mom, who finishes it off with a cord and accent beads. I don't have good photos of his latest things yet, but you can see some of his past work here and here.

I think I got some nice shots today ... enough to put together the first version of the promotional materials I want to design. Unfortunately, this shot of him looking at the camera, which I like, has all those ugly wires in the background. Ugh. Any good PhotoShoppers out there? I may have to learn yet another new trick with my photo editing software (I use PhotoImpact, by ULead) ... or shoot better photos next time I'm down there. I guess it would be better not to have the shadows on his face, too, but it was a sunny one today.

Anyway, as I was driving home thinking about a post to go with the photos, I thought of the Buckminster Fuller quote. The reason is that it's so easy for me to see what my father's 'perfect gift' is -- making beautiful things with wood -- and how happy he is when he's doing it. How do I know this is his perfect gift? Because he's loved working with wood all his life ... and it's about the only thing for which he has a bottomless well of patience ... which is not the case with most other things (ahem). But, when it comes to his beloved wood, he can spend countless hours carving and filing leaves, deep in his 'zone,' while Mom repeatedly calls him to come eat lunch. I think that's one way we can tell what our gift is ... it is so special to us that we have unconditional love for it.

Is there something like that in your life? Do you know what your gift is? Do you have an inkling?

I'm not sure I know exactly what mine is yet, but I know I'm much closer to it now that I've ever been. I know at least that it has something to do with creating and inspiring, although the form has not been crystal clear, like my father with his wood.

Despite how much of a stretch it may seem, I do want to believe that Bucky was right ... that everyone does have the perfect gift to give the world, and that if we were all free to give it ... the world would be in perfect harmony.

It's not always bad news when the cops call (Project 365 -- Day 30)

I was sitting at my desk today when the phone rang. I looked up and made out 'City of Boston' on the caller ID.

I've seen that name on envelopes when Ryan has overdue parking tickets. His car is registered in my name, so if he doesn't pay them in a timely manner, I find out about it with a notice in the mail. But, there are no outstanding tickets that I know of ... and it's not like them to call for something like that. So, I quickly ruled out the possibility that it was about parking tickets, and immediately imagined it was about something much worse.

I can't help it. It's my maternal instinct. If you have a child and the cops are calling, you know it's not going to be good news. Not that I would know, exactly, since I've never actually gotten a call from the cops about Ryan. He's really caused me very few sleepless nights ... well, except when he drove around the U.S. for nearly three weeks after his freshman year in college. He had just turned 18. But somehow I survived, and so did he ... with only a minor fender bender in Chicago on the way back, and his friend was at the wheel then.

So, back to the phone call today. I decided I'd better pick it up.

It was a detective with the Boston Police Department. And he was actually calling with some good news.

First, the backstory: When Ryan graduated from high school, his father gave him his old car as a graduation present. It was a '92 BMW with 312,000 miles on it. A lot of miles ... but, it was very well-cared for. In recent years, his father had the transmission rebuilt, and just this summer he had plunked about $1,800 into it for new tires, brakes, and a bunch of other work.

For the most part, the car has stayed here while Ryan was at college. Parking is a big hassle in Boston, as it is in most cities, and it's just easier to get around on public transportation.

Last fall, however, Ryan drove it up to school so he could take a bunch of things up for his new apartment ... figuring he would only keep it up there for a few weeks until he was down for a visit again.

One Saturday night in early October, the car was parked at a corner near his apartment, when apparently someone who was either drunk -- or a very bad driver -- came around the corner at 2 or 3 a.m., plowed into Ryan's car and the two cars parked in front of his, and kept right on going.

Ryan didn't discover it until Monday. The two front tires were flat and the front end had been smashed into the curb, so it seemed that both of the front rims were cracked ... which meant it was not driveable. There was also body damage along the driver's side. The car in front of his fared even worse. One or two people who live on that street gave him what little information they had, which wasn't much, given that it was dark and the middle of the night. He went to the police station and filed a report.

Unfortunately, because the car was so old, we had just decided to drop the collision coverage on it the month before when it came up for renewal ... so we were out of luck as far as our own insurance company was concerned.

Ryan followed up with the cops several times in the next few weeks to see if there was any information available about the driver and his or her insurance policy, hoping we could file a claim ... but he didn't get anywhere. In fact, they were rather 'dismissive' with him, he said, and made it seem like they had much better things to do than talk to a college student about his banged-up car. And, I'm sure they did. I told Ryan that, in a city like Boston, with so many serious crimes going on every day, my guess is the only time they put police resources into finding a hit-and-run driver is if there's a dead body ... otherwise, they probably figure the various insurance companies will take care of the physical damage, and the owners will pay their deductibles, and life will go on as usual.

So, we figured trying to get any information from the cops to file an insurance claim was going to be wasted energy, and set about figuring out what to do about the car instead. One option was to just trash it and not put another penny into it ... but I hated the thought of doing that when his father had just put all that money into it. You're talking to Miss drives-a-twelve-year-old-Geo-Prizm here, despite the fact that I feel like I live in the land of luxury vehicles. In my opinion, it's the best little car in the world ... it has never left me stranded ... and it has never needed anything more than basic service ... and it gets great gas mileage. So it has a dent in the hood now from when the deer galloped across the road and used my hood as a trampoline, but otherwise, it's fine. The dent just adds character. Wabi-sabi, I say.

In the end, between a tow, two new rims and mechanical work -- but no body work -- the bills for Ryan's car totaled about $1,000. But, it's back in running condition, even though it has a bit of body damage, which we didn't feel was worth fixing at this point.

This weekend, Ryan drove the car back to NJ so it can stay here. He won't need it to get to his new job ... and, having just watched 'An Inconvenient Truth' last week ... he's glad to be doing a tiny bit for the environment by using public transportation.

His father thinks it's time to just donate the car to a charity and take the tax deduction. When Ryan drove it here yesterday so I could take him and Nicole to the airport, he gave it a long, melancholy glance, figuring he may never see it again and remembering all the adventures he had in it. You don't forget three weeks of driving off into the unknown with a friend when you're 18. Heck, I was even tearing up a little yesterday, thinking about possibly getting rid of the car (key word being possibly). It's 15 years old ... well on its way to being an antique. Almost as old as Ryan, in fact.

So, today, I was sitting at my desk when a detective from the Boston Police called.

I'm not sure how he got my number, but he said he was following up on the hit-and-run from October, and wondered if we had incurred any expenses, or if our insurance had taken care of it. I explained that the insurance hadn't paid for any of it, since we didn't have collision on it, and that we had spent about $1,000 on repairs.

Then he proceeded to give me the contact information and claim number for the driver's insurance company and told me to call the agent and put in a claim to get the money back. They did find out who caused the accident, and he said they expect him (or his insurance company) to take responsibility for the damage. He added that if I have any trouble, I should call him back so they can include the claim as part of the court case. He was very polite, and not dismissive at all, and I thanked him sincerely for his call.

I guess they just needed a little time to get to the bottom of it.

Now I just hope Ryan kept the receipts.

Maybe he can take that money, fix up the body ... and go another 327,237 miles with it ... or at least drive it around the U.S. another time or two. They never did make it to Yosemite on the first go 'round.   

Sleepless in Bedminster (Project 365 -- Day 29)

Today was one of those days when I would gladly have given my whole stash of beads to just lie around on the couch all day ... like Mollie here ... whose eyes were closed tight just before I snuck up on her.

I have been sleeping very poorly, so I wake up really tired most days. Like today. I have no trouble falling asleep, which is good, but most nights I wake up and can't go back to sleep for hours. By the time I'm able to fall back to sleep, it's usually around 6 a.m. or later. So, when it's time to get up for real at 7 a.m., I'm completely comatose, and I don't feel like I really come to until the evening hours ... when it's just about time to go back to sleep. This makes for a strange and vicious cycle. I would use that energy to stay up late and work, but that would keep John up (beads are noisy!), and/or I would end up waking him up when I sneak into bed at 2 a.m.

Lately, I'm lucky if I can sleep straight through the night once a week. By that, I mean 11 p.m. to 6 a.m., if that ... and that includes weekends. When I do sleep 7 hours straight, like I did on Saturday night, I feel like a completely different person the next day. I actually have energy. My complexion looks better. My eyes are brighter. My hair even has a little bounce, which is saying something. The trouble is, I don't remember having two straight days like that in recent history, so the next day, I'm back to feeling like the walking dead.

One night last week, I woke up shortly after 2 a.m. and didn't fall back to sleep until after 6 a.m. The following two nights were not quite as bad, but close. Sometimes, I'm tempted to get up and read ... and I was doing that in the summer and fall ... but the house is pretty cool at night this time of year, especially downstairs, which is where the comfy couch and chair are. Besides, I almost always wake John up trying to sneak out of the room, and my eyes are so fatigued that even reading -- something I normally can't get enough of -- feels arduous. I'm physically tired, no question. I just can't seem to turn off my monkey mind. Sometimes it likes to come up with jazzy little creative ideas, and sometimes it likes to just torture me by fretting over things I can't really do much about, or, the latest is ... playing James Taylor's 'Carolina' until I want to just run for the hills. Love the song, but not on continuous loop at 3 a.m.

I would sleep in late some mornings if not for the fact that we have two dogs that need to go out, so I get up with John at 7:00 and we take care of that, have breakfast together, then he goes off to work and I come upstairs to my studio and make a valiant effort to be productive. Some days I'm more successful than others. Some days it takes some really loud (and sometimes really bad) Latin music to get my pulse going (Macarena, anyone?). Some days, when it feels hopeless, I do something else, like run errands ... or give in and take a nap. Or try to. The phone could be silent all day, but within 10 minutes of lying down, it never fails to ring. Never. Not once. I then kick myself for forgetting to turn the ringer off, make a mental note to remember next time, and ... you guessed it ... forget again when the time comes.

I've tried Tylenol PM, but that leaves me really groggy (and rather down, actually) until at least midday. I've tried Valerian ... and maybe it was just the brand I tried ... but to me, the stuff smells (and tastes) like stinky feet ... not something I'm eager to put in my mouth ... but the worst part is, it repeats (ewww!). Finally, I tried Melatonin, and that did seem to work. I slept so well, in fact, that I snored and kept John up. Lovely. So, I only used it one night, and it's been in the cabinet since. I'm desperate, though, so tonight I'm going to cut a tablet in half and see how it goes.

Wish me luck. On Thursday, I have my first corporate trunk show of this year, and I feel totally unprepared, so I was hoping for some really productive days leading up to that. I think I may have been overly optimistic, though. Today, I took some time to drive Ryan and Nicole to the airport, and Wednesday, I need to drive down to my parents' in Pennsylvania to pick up some of their things that I sell ... so that puts a dent in the already slim schedule.

As I lie awake at 4:18 a.m. most nights, I try to make peace with the fact that I won't be nearly as prepared as I'd like, and that I didn't accomplish nearly as much as I thought I could during these few weeks at home. It's a challenge when you're running on an empty tank, though. Today, I went into a tizzy when I couldn't access my business account online. I kept entering my account number and password, and it kept giving me an error message. After the fourth or fifth try, I realized the message also said that my account 'was locked out for security reasons' and that I had to call Customer Care. After 10 minutes on hold and two minutes with the rep, I realized I had been entering the wrong number the whole time. I was using an old account number (for a closed account) that was one digit off. Duh! Talk about embarrassing. The sad part was that I had just used it a week or two ago ... how did I space out like that? Was I just fried from lack of sleep, or is this what I have to look forward to in menopause?

What kills me is that I live in a town with the word 'bed' in it. Shouldn't that make it a sleepy little place where you can get a good night's rest, at the very least? I just love irony.

So, any former insomniacs out there with the secret to going back to sleep in the middle of the night? I have a kingdom full of beads I could send you.

Treats (Project 365 -- Day 28)

Just a picture today, since it was a busy one ... some cupcakes I made for Ryan's and Nicole's visit. Not only were these yummy and fun to make ... but there's just something about eating cupcakes that makes you feel like a kid again. Amen.

Hope you all had a good weekend.

... and if this one picture isn't already worth a thousand calories, check out these creations over at the Cupcake Blog. Lordy!

Blue ice (Project 365 -- Day 27)

Today, John and I took a nice ride out in the country. Along the way, in Pennsylvania, we spotted this long stretch of rock wall with icicles, which isn't that unusual this time of year ... except that most of these were blue. A rather bright blue.

I have no idea how they got that way. I mean, that can't be natural, right? At first, I wondered, but then decided it couldn't be. Remember the telephone pole farm from last week? Not everything is as it appears at first.

Did someone do a drive-by shooting with blue paintballs?

Or get super creative and drizzle blue watercolor on them?

Or blue food coloring?

It's very curious. Anyone want to take a guess?

Friday Felicitations (Project 365 -- Day 26)

I took up watercolor today. This is my first painting. What do you think? Okay for a newbie, right?

Ha! Kidding. It's just the 'watercolor' effect on my photo editor. Here's the actual photo, of something I shipped today. Because of Project 365, I'm learning all kinds of new things about software I've had for years. Pretty cool. And here's what it did to yesterday's photo (click to enlarge).

Anyway, today's post is really about something altogether different: Friday Felicitations.

I found out about it via Melba's new project, Create a Connection. The past few Mondays, Megan, of Flaming Renaissance has posted wonderful interviews with creative women. I checked out Megan's blog, and saw that she has a project called Friday Felicitations. The idea is to use Friday to "blog your compliments, your accomplishments, something nice someone said to you, or maybe even something you are striving to make better." More details here on Megan's blog.

Even though I try to focus on those things in general, I like the idea of having a day when I can mention other good things from the week that didn't make it into other posts.

One thing I notice since starting Project 365 is that I'm becoming more observant about my environment and surroundings, since I'm always keeping an eye out for photo opps. In the same way, I think Friday Felicitations might keep me more alert during the week as good things happen, and as I notice events and people I want to acknowlege.

Okay, that's a long enough preamble. So, here we go:

• I first want to congratulate Ryan (my son) on his new job! As some of you know, he just graduated from college last month as an audio technology major. On the Monday after the SuperBowl, he starts a new position with Swank Audio Visuals, a company that produces large corporate events and conferences, and also staffs AV departments for large hotels in major cities. He'll be spending his first week in training in St. Louis before jumping into his job in Boston. Congrats Ryan!
• Next, I'm so happy Mom is feeling good a week after her surgery. She's a strong lady!
• I want to send felicitations to Lisa, who is living out her dream of living in Paris this year (which is a long way from New Jersey). I remember taking a hike with Lisa through a local park a few years ago -- three? four? -- and hearing about her dream for the first time, when she still had no idea how on earth she was going to make it happen. And now look at her! And check out her beautiful apartment, too. You go, girl.
• I also want to acknowledge Marilyn for putting her poetry out into the world in such a beautiful and bold way this week ... and, for someone who admits she didn't even like poetry a year ago, that's saying something!
• Congratulations to Kerstin and Tom, who found a buyer for their condo this week and had their offer accepted on a house ... all just within a few days of deciding to put their place up for sale. Talk about quick manifestation. Big (wonderful) changes coming their way.
• Props to Leah, for creating her beautiful and inspiring Vision Video. So cool. I want one!
• Felicitations to Mark, who went home this week after five weeks in the hospital. Being the mother of a 20-year-old son, his story has gripped me since the night of his car accident just before Christmas, when I read about it on his aunt (Boho's) site. Darlene's daily posts -- which have become one of my first stops each morning -- spoke to all mothers, and Mark's strength and courage have inspired so many these past weeks, including me.
• Also thrilled to read about Taylor's continuing progress. What a cutie she is!

Hmmm ... I guess I read a few blogs. Okay, I'd better save something for next week's FF.

• As for me, this week ... I feel good about receiving wonderful compliments from a good client ... going for my annual checkup ... getting myself more organized ... the fact that someone tagged this photo as one of their favorites on Flickr (a first for me) ... the sweet thank you card we received from Ryan's girlfriend, Nicole ... and staying with Project 365 every day, which I'm loving. Twenty-six days and counting!

Anybody else want to play along? Megan is happy to have more people join the Friday Felicitations movement. Plus, the logo's really cool.

After my first week, I have to say this is really fun. It's nice to focus on how many things there are to feel good about in a week, instead of the challenges.

Everyday Nirvana (Project 365 -- Day 25)

"Yes, there is Nirvana. It is in leading your sheep to a green pasture, and in putting your children to sleep, and in writing the last part of your poem."

-- Kahlil Gibran

... and in noticing how pretty the sunlight is when it hits the dining room in the afternoon.

... and in seeing how excited Cloud and Mollie get when John walks in from work.

... and in the return of CraftSanity podcasts after a long holiday hiatus (because you love listening to these while you work).

... and in feeling the fresh cool air when you first step out in the morning with your dog.

... and in getting out of the doctor's office just a half hour after your appointment.

... and in having creative ideas flood you in the middle of the night ... even though you can't get back to sleep for hours and know you'll be dragging all day.

... and in getting the new issue of BeadStyle in the mail (thanks Joanne!).

... and in having dinner with a friend you haven't seen in a long time.

... and in eating a perfect orange in the middle of winter.

... and in getting a comment from your son on your blog.

... and in having a window in your workspace.

... and in wearing a scarf that your mother made.

... and in washing the dishes after dinner.

Any color, as long as it's black (Project 365 -- Day 24)

When I first started believe street, I just loved ordering supplies. I still remember how I pored over the Fire Mountain Gems and Rio Grande catalogs for hours, making long lists of things I liked, before placing my first large order. When it arrived, I carefully went through the contents, checking things off on the packing slip, counting the beads on each strand so I could calculate the per-bead price, and carefully writing pertinent information on the white blocks of small ziplock bags: order number, supplier, price per strand (or pack), number of beads per strand, and the price of each bead. I even started an Excel spreadsheet where I listed all the specifics of every component I bought so I could calculate the actual costs of every piece I made.

Ah, those were the days.

Today, ordering supplies has become one of my least favorite things. I may even like it less than bookkeeping, in fact. Now, don't get me wrong ... I love, love, LOVE the materials ... could fondle them all day long. Yes, I could, indeed. It's not that at all.

It's going through all my bins to figure out what I really need, getting the proper order numbers, checking catalogs and websites to see if there's any new stuff I want (and then reining myself in), comparing prices (and availability) among the handful of suppliers I use, making sure I'm meeting the minimum order, figuring out the right quantities to maximize volume discounts and special offers (like free shipping), creating separate lists for each supplier (since they don't all carry the same things), and most of all, making sure I don't forget anything I really need ... because if I do, I may have to place another small order and pay the shipping all over again ... unless it's available from a supplier that offers free shipping with no minimum orders.

Of course, I like to plan ahead enough whenever I do order so I can avoid having to pay for expedited shipping ... something I didn't worry about so much in the beginning, but started paying more attention to when I saw how much I was spending on 'freight costs.' Then there's also the fact that I want to order enough, but not too much, because I don't want to end up at the end of the year with thousands of dollars in raw materials due to the fact that I didn't have enough time to turn all those beads into products, and then sales. Like in 2006. It's enough to drive me crazy. Not to mention that it takes a lot of time.

Today, I realized, it's time to simplify. Actually, I've realized it for a while, but today I became certain of it.

Take Swarovski crystals, for example. I use a lot of them in my things, but it's not all I use, by any means. There are also semi-precious gemstones, pearls, silver beads, clasps, chains, various wires, and other doo-dads that hold the bling all together. But, for the purposes of this post, Swarovski crystals are a good microcosm.

The photos show some of the types of crystals I have on hand. No two items are the same, there are at least 70 or so (although I didn't count them), and this isn't even all of them. Plus, this little pile represents only a tiny fraction of what Swarovski offers. They have beads in 3mm (millimeters), 4mm, 5mm, 6mm, and 8mm. There are round shapes, squares, bicones, saucers, teardrops, butterflies, flowers, and many more. There are dozens and dozens and dozens of colors (like, at least 17 shades of blue, for starters). And now, they also offer a number of different finishes ... not just original and iridescent, but also satin, and double iridescent. Yikes! Never mind waffling over 31 flavors of ice cream, like I wrote about yesterday ... you see my dilemma here.

The thing is, I see this happening all over the place. John takes up the bass guitar about a year ago -- something he's wanted to do since eighth grade -- and his options are overwhelming. Hundreds of brands and styles and price points ... and that's just the bass. Then there are the amps and cabs, and pre-amps, and special-effects pedals, and cables, and straps, and strings ( ... have I been listening, hon?). No wonder the folks on the online bass forums all have such bad GAS!

And no, it's not what you think. I'm talking about 'gear acquisition syndrome,' the affliction that befalls practically every bass player out there when faced with having to choose from so many goodies. I mean, who can choose just one? For the record, John already has four. They even had a thread on the forums about all the creative ways guys use (I believe they were all guys) to sneak a new bass into the house without their mate finding out about it. The answers were hysterical.

At the grocery store, I'm always amazed at the infinite varieties of soda there are anymore. There are so many kinds of Coke and Pepsi products that I've come home with the wrong kind by mistake ... thinking I'd picked up the Diet Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper, when in fact, it was the Diet Berries & Cream Dr. Pepper. They were right next to each other and the packaging is practically identical. Trouble is, John doesn't like the Berries & Cream, and I don't like Dr. Pepper.

What I find interesting is that while we have more choices than ever now ... which means having to take more time to evaluate and choose than we did before, at least for me ... we also feel the pressure to do everything faster and faster. Ack! No wonder a guy named Barry Schwartz wrote a book about the diminishing returns -- and stress -- of having too much choice. It's called The Paradox of Choice: Why Less is More. I actually borrowed it from the library once ... but it went back unread because I had too many other books (and magazines) on the nightstand, all competing for my attention.

This whole thing is a real problem for an information (and bead) junkie like me. Anybody else out there feel the same pain? How do you cope?

I've decided I'm going to narrow down the number of components and suppliers I use, for starters, and choose a simple color palette each season so I can plan my designs and supply purchases better. I may use the Pantone Spring 2007 Color Report as a guide. Or the Fire Mountain Gems Color Forecast Guide.

Then again, I may just go with the Henry Ford school of color: "It's available in any color as long as it's black."

High on Sharpie fumes (Project 365 -- Day 23)

Today, I took the to-do lists and plans that have existed on paper in various forms and at various levels, and created a much more visual 'sticky' version. And all I have to say is ... those fat Sharpie pens? Not so 'non-toxic' after an hour or two.

I'm not sure why I've resisted doing this for so long, now that I think about it. Maybe because we used to do so much of it in corporate, then just ignored it ... or because I tend to like my workspace to be relatively uncluttered and without too many visual distractions. But, I must say that looking at it in this format has quite a different feel than looking it at it on a dense page of 10-point type -- a much more energizing feeling. I'll just have to experiment with it and see how well it helps me focus and be efficient.

I started out by taking my various lists and written plans and doing a rough 'dump' this morning (right), which spread beyond the closet and onto the front of the credenza. And yes, I was sitting on the floor for this. I'm not that short!

Then, I cleaned everything up and transferred it onto 3" by 3" stickies, and lined them up in neat rows under their corresponding headings. Here's what it looks like now (below). Looking at this brings back memories of the scene in Bruce Almighty where Jim Carrey and everything in his room -- including the dog -- is completely covered in yellow Post-Its. That scene always cracks me up. Apparently, they created lightweight suits for Carrey and the dog, that were then covered in the little squares. But can you imagine having the job of covering every square inch of the room in those things?

In these notes, I'm focusing on the next three months. The orange stickies are the two areas of sales I want to focus on: Online sales through my website, an Etsy store, and some online indie/boutique sites ... and direct sales through the ongoing corporate trunk shows, some craft shows, home jewelry parties, and hopefully a couple of my own public trunk shows. Based on how all that goes, later in the year I may look into wholesale, or possibly trying to place things in mail-order catalogs. That's what the blue notes are ... just placeholders for now.

All the pink sticky notes are ideas and action items in the broader areas of products, branding, packaging, and publicity. My challenge there will be forcing myself to make choices, because there are really endless possibilities and options in all four areas, and I tend to want to pursue them all. I am definitely someone who can be paralyzed by too much choice. Why can't I have all 31 flavors?? Why?? ... my inner child wails. I wonder what early traumatic experience produced that trait.

Anyway, looks like I'll have plenty to keep me busy these next few months (... especially if I have to get a job 'on the side' to bridge the financial gap for a while ... which is something I've been resisting, but considering). Each week, I can look at these 'charts' and pick the next handful of priorities to focus on. Right now, it's making new things for the start of corporate shows next week (especially Valentine's Day items), setting up the Etsy store, and starting on the website update. Each of those entails quite a bit of work ... and fun at the same time!

Maybe not as much fun as getting high on Sharpie fumes, but still fun.

Well, no wonder ...

... I was in such a funk yesterday. After I put up my post, I found out that it was 'Blue Monday: the most depressing day of the year,' according to a U.K. psychologist and researcher.

According to this article, the Monday of the final full week of January gets the honors because ... 'the weather is bad, the nights are still long and your Christmas overspending has finally caught up with you. On top of that, your New Year resolution to give up smoking has just gone out the window as you strive to cope with the pressures of having gone back to work after the holiday break.'

That explains a lot ... at least for yesterday.

The article ends with a list of 10 ways to beat the blues. The last one's my favorite: 'Visit Australia (it's lighter).' I'm sure Deb would agree, having lived there.

I'm feeling much better today already. Sun is out and I have a lot more energy. Project 365 photo and post later!