I... do not know how to change my profile heading. I'm pushing 50 now. Yikes. My hair is going grey. My right hip hurts and my kids are nearly teenagers.

And I still have zero followers. LOL. Who cares?

I noticed... I never post pictures of my stuff. I should start doing that. I've been arting lately. I've finished three paintings recently. All three of them got framed too. One was a total art fail until I realized it looked like an aurora and just ran with that. Oh look... now it's Colorado... lol. 

The manager that only made it a month at the store across the street was my former assistant. Apparently working for her old friend was not what it was cracked up to be. No shocker. She had a rep. And our new inventory manager got himself fired for not showing up for work repeatedly and my boss had to fire one of my clerks for stealing 

So I'm guessing I'm starting to look like a better employee then my cranky boss would like to admit. I imagine this gives her heart burn pretty frequently. 

I find great pleasure in the irony of all that.

I wonder if my former assistant wants to be the inventory manager? 

That's about it for now. See you whenever.

 A day in a life of a craft store goat.

My company got bought out by vulture capitalists a few months back. My new manager is a fucking shitshow of a human we've had to call HR on more than once. The assistant manager I have discovered, is one of those people that sucks up to whoever has power at the moment... at the expense of the rest of their team members. Oh and my assistant just quit for the craft store across the street. 

Why? Oh possibly the manager unethically trying to give her MY job but only if she got on board with helping her get me fired. 

My assistant picked loyalty over bad ethics. 

So... this is fun. heh. Any ways... I got a REALLY snazzy new sewing machine. It's a Viking Ruby. Hubby bought it for me because I'm pretty sure he is insane. 

I wish I could get a job across the street but they turned me down. In a few months at least one new manager will not have worked out. I'll apply again then. 

 I admit.. I forgot I had this blog. Possibly because I did not get my shit together for a VERY very very long time. I'm not sure it's together now. 

We just got done with the renovations the house needed. New roof. New windows. New siding. New gutters will be up soon. Landscaping projects will start in two years I think.

Never got my degree. We just never had the money. the craft show circuit was a bust for some weird reason. It wasn't that we didn't go. It's that we made no money for like 3 years. It was crazy so we stopped for a while. Now I work at that often very gay pride friendly red shirted craft supply store as a customer experience manager. I like it. It means I can spend money on supplies mostly guilt free. 

My husband got over acting like a dick finally. He doesn't do that crap any more except the not talking during the weather thing. He's still weird about that. He's got a lot of health problems now though and has had to accept a medical retirement. Which was why I went back to work as the house wasn't going to renovate itself.

Other than the plumbing that's not done and rooms that need paint and stuff everywhere from the reno and moving kids around and my cousin FINALLY moving out the house is... livable.

So a rather longish time ago I mentioned I was going to finish up all those UFOs around my house.  I didn't get very far with that last time to be honest.  Frankly, I went through a screw it episode mostly due to the house STILL being kind of trashed.  So it's a little LESS trashed and we are seeing the light at the end of the debt tunnel so I'll be able to buy the storage solutions I want as opposed to living with the ones forced upon me.  My mom was weirdly anti wicker basket.  Pathologically anti as in not only did she not like them for herself, she fought them being in the house at all for any reason even if they were used in a closet she never frequented.

So for fun the next couple weeks I need to finish Suzie's stuff.  I need to alter Melodie's wedding dress from a zipper back to a corset back.  I have to shorten the bridesmaid dresses she bought for her girls.  I have some fabric pulled to make a stack of dragons. 

I can't wait until the car is paid off.  I really need to order felt actually.  The Felt Store has such nice quality stuff compared to the crap at the fabric store and it's less (not with shipping but we can't have everything).

I'm going to finally get the patterns to do the mini play dolls as well so I can offer more than just the art dolls which I found out I can combine hand and machine stitching for faster assembly AND better looks and knowing I can machine stitch felt with a minimal hem I can blow through making some felt food which to be honest, was taking me forever doing each item entirely by hand.  There is still stuff I will HAVE to do by hand obviously.  Small details that require extreme precision that I don't have on the machine but otherwise, productivity will be up to the point that I SHOULD be able to make doll cloths in a few sizes AND play dolls AND felt food AND art dolls AND stuffies and still have time for costuming as well.

So I guess that's kind of my new year's resolution.  To be ready for next fall's craft season even if I throw some of this stuff up on Etsy.  I really want to invest in booth presentation stuff and I can't justify that until and unless I can show I'm profitable.

Husbands...

Only a man would bark at you to stop talking over the TV.... then continue to complain about you talking for 10 minuets.  Ten minuets, I might add... after you stopped talking regardless of any rude noises you might have made in reference to the obvious importance of being able to hear what's going on during a car race on a 42" TV....  I shut up didn't I?  Why isn't that good enough for you exactly?  I really don't care how important the car race is to you.  I'm sure after a year and a half of marriage you should have been able to figure that out.

I really do not understand men.  The TV has a pause button and the last time I checked, I don't need my ears to see the cars going around in a circle...

I stopped showing you every cool embroidery design I found, even the ones you would actually like.

I should make a list.  It will go something like this:

Do not talk during sports
Do not talk when the weather is on (even if the weather was on five minuets ago, it could have changed)
Do not talk during TV shows he likes
Do not give advise
Do not give advise to forestall an event such as a ruined meal
Do not give advise on how to repair anything even if he has no experience and I've fixed said thing before.  I know nothing.
Do not remind him of things
Do not remind him of things even if he habitually forgets said thing
Do not talk while he is talking
Do not talk when he takes a breath, he is not done
Do not develop bored, impatient or dirty look because he won't stop talking
Do not laugh when you point out how much he talks and he gets mad and disagrees
Do not point out how much he talks to hear himself talk
Do not show him anything I think is interesting.  It's not
Do not offer to read interesting articles to him.  They aren't.
Do not ask his opinion on the decor of the house.  He doesn't care.
Do not point out when he complains I never let him make any decorating decisions that he said he doesn't care.
Do not point out that half the decorating decisions in the house were his in the first place.
Do not mention things you want to do in 3-5 years if we cannot afford them RIGHT now


I'm sure there are more, those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head as they come up a lot.

Well trained husband

The Mule and I have had that cold that's been going around.  Our son, apparently because I'm still breast feeding him at seven months, had it for three days... lucky little shit. 

This morning the Mule cleaned up the kitchen, got up and fed the Peanut on his own, cut up the meat we bought in bulk so I could process  and freeze it... then promptly sat down to play video games.

That's the nice thing about marrying a decent guy.  He's all about doing what he can so I can get all the other stuff done.  I probably should be sewing or working on the cross stitch pattern I'm making for a friend but I'm just not feeling it.  Guess the weight loss thing isn't going to work out for me this week.  After all, those chocolates my husband bought me are pretty delicious... and the idea of going for a walk right now... isn't...

Grocery shopping with the husband....

God I love the man but I will be so very very glad when I can afford a car again so he doesn't have to go.  He was better this time than he usually is.  He didn't whine about a bunch of nasty junk food he wanted and he didn't try to spend the entire months budget at one go but I'd still rather go by myself.

It always seems to take longer with him for one thing.  I can get in and out of Meijer in about an hour.  If I bring him it takes three.  I have no idea why... forgetting my wallet tacked thirty minuets onto the trip this time but it still took way longer than it ever should have.  At least he doesn't wander off on me and get distracted by toys.  At least not most of the time.