bags are packed, cats are fed as are the fish...we are heading out in 5 minutes...and we have peach blossoms to go with the almond blossoms. pictures will be taken when i get back - it will be beautiful.
NASHVILLE - here we come. start baking those red velvet cakes!!!
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
and so...
one more day until we hit the skyways and head to nashville. we are looking forward to seeing some old friends - it's been a long time since st. charles market...and a lot of things have happened to all of us...and phone calls are great - but not the same as in person.
a very dear texas friend e-mailed me today with all the pertinent information about red velvet cake in franklin, tennessee...so we are ready - sandy knows all about all the good things everywhere (or so it seems). i think we are going to have a red velvet cake party in our hotel room...it's way too yummmmmmmmm not to...so friday night, after cocktails...we are heading out for dinner and to find the perfect red velvet cake for consumption...or we might even find the red velvet cake on friday afternoon with the plates and the forks so it will be READY for consumption when we come back from dinner on friday night.
poor annie - she is all nose and we think she has gotten a cold...or it could be allergies - the almond blossoms have popped here (not all of them) but enough to create quite the stir among all of us who have allergies...and in this valley....if you didn't have allergies before moving here - you have them after living here for 10 years. it will be in the mid-60's all week and by the time we get home - more and more of the orchards should be a blaze of white and pink blossoms...i'll get some pictures this year...i missed last year - the fog was horrible...and i never went back out once i got into work. but, the camera is juiced up...and in my purse...so we shall definitely have some pictures when we get home from market...it's always just spectacular!!!
so...suitcases are packed...and we have four going full to nashville and four coming home full from nashville...i have my tip money for the luggage, purse changed and switched over, something to do on the plane and our car reservations once we get there...and come thursday morning about 7:30 a.m. we will be heading north to the airport.
until we get home and i get the market report up - have a great weekend...and i just might twitter from market...that could be fun...
a very dear texas friend e-mailed me today with all the pertinent information about red velvet cake in franklin, tennessee...so we are ready - sandy knows all about all the good things everywhere (or so it seems). i think we are going to have a red velvet cake party in our hotel room...it's way too yummmmmmmmm not to...so friday night, after cocktails...we are heading out for dinner and to find the perfect red velvet cake for consumption...or we might even find the red velvet cake on friday afternoon with the plates and the forks so it will be READY for consumption when we come back from dinner on friday night.
poor annie - she is all nose and we think she has gotten a cold...or it could be allergies - the almond blossoms have popped here (not all of them) but enough to create quite the stir among all of us who have allergies...and in this valley....if you didn't have allergies before moving here - you have them after living here for 10 years. it will be in the mid-60's all week and by the time we get home - more and more of the orchards should be a blaze of white and pink blossoms...i'll get some pictures this year...i missed last year - the fog was horrible...and i never went back out once i got into work. but, the camera is juiced up...and in my purse...so we shall definitely have some pictures when we get home from market...it's always just spectacular!!!
so...suitcases are packed...and we have four going full to nashville and four coming home full from nashville...i have my tip money for the luggage, purse changed and switched over, something to do on the plane and our car reservations once we get there...and come thursday morning about 7:30 a.m. we will be heading north to the airport.
until we get home and i get the market report up - have a great weekend...and i just might twitter from market...that could be fun...
Friday, January 29, 2010
and....it didn't come up in japanese this time...things must be
improving...could that possibly be???
just a quick note to let everybody know that we are alive and fairly well...after 11 straight days...it has quit raining for now...we are in full preparation for nashville...mr. nicky is going to the dog trainer on monday because we seem, being the middle child, to have a little bit of aggression that has got to stop...i'm hanging pictures in the shop tomorrow - having fixed all the ones that got soaked during the flooding at the other shop...couldn't hang anything until everything was available...so i have new picture nails...and a good hammer and i am bound and determined that i will not let the hammer fall off the ladder and onto my head like it did the last time i hung pictures in a new shop - 22 months ago.
off to start an update...and hopefully finish it first thing in the morning...even if it means the 5:30 alarm again...i can sleep in until 6:00 on sunday before the "got to get this done today!!!" list comes out in full mode.
getting ready for market is always a little insane arouind here...it's just not getting us out the door but a few other people too...so it's always a bit of a challenge...but well worth the results...and no sooner do i get 15 things crossed off the "to do" list than there are 35 more added...i know it's just a diminishing return most of the time...and the "to do" list for this weekend will cause a faintness of heart on my part.
anyway...of to start on the update and hopefully get quite a bit done...pro bowl this weekend...and super bowl a week from sunday...and it might even be a great game...now that BF is not going to be playing in it. (sorry, that was really political...but i am so very, very tired of BF!!!)
just a quick note to let everybody know that we are alive and fairly well...after 11 straight days...it has quit raining for now...we are in full preparation for nashville...mr. nicky is going to the dog trainer on monday because we seem, being the middle child, to have a little bit of aggression that has got to stop...i'm hanging pictures in the shop tomorrow - having fixed all the ones that got soaked during the flooding at the other shop...couldn't hang anything until everything was available...so i have new picture nails...and a good hammer and i am bound and determined that i will not let the hammer fall off the ladder and onto my head like it did the last time i hung pictures in a new shop - 22 months ago.
off to start an update...and hopefully finish it first thing in the morning...even if it means the 5:30 alarm again...i can sleep in until 6:00 on sunday before the "got to get this done today!!!" list comes out in full mode.
getting ready for market is always a little insane arouind here...it's just not getting us out the door but a few other people too...so it's always a bit of a challenge...but well worth the results...and no sooner do i get 15 things crossed off the "to do" list than there are 35 more added...i know it's just a diminishing return most of the time...and the "to do" list for this weekend will cause a faintness of heart on my part.
anyway...of to start on the update and hopefully get quite a bit done...pro bowl this weekend...and super bowl a week from sunday...and it might even be a great game...now that BF is not going to be playing in it. (sorry, that was really political...but i am so very, very tired of BF!!!)
Monday, January 18, 2010
rhythms and things
it's been very interesting since we moved into the new place...trying to find the rhythm of the shop...which is a totally different "dance" than the old shop. it's amazing how quickly we get hooked into the "patterns" of our lives...come in one door, leaving thru the same door, remembering to turn on lights, setting timers, locking doors, turning on alarm systems. very weird when you have to re-learn patterns that you spent 22 months learning in one place - they are all gone with the mere change of a key and security code.
we are almost finished here...this was a tough one because it was so quick and so necessary. BUT, when you have two weeks to literally move your world and everybody else thinks it's christmas and new years...it's a tough transition to be sure and i had some amazing help from some amazing places...
i look back on those two weeks now and wonder how it ever got done...but we did. now i can continue on with the transition of the new web site that is being built and stumble thru some more frustration with the new software that got installed last week that i hoped would make the e-mail and internet stronger but infact is probably so frustrating that you don't want me to get started.
i still have a blog program that thinks i'm fluent in japanese - NOT - and although i love their art, culture, clothing, etc...i just can't open blogspot editing in japanese...and it doesn't matter how hard i try - nothing "english" seems to stick on any of the dashboard editing places. and you can only imagine what happens when you try to log-in to the blogspot in english when they've decided to flip it back to japanese...with japanese log-ins and passwords - to quote lucy "arrrrrrrrrrrrrhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"
anyway - it's pouring here - the first of the series of storms slamming california started last night...and it is just coming down in buckets. dropped all three of the four-foots off at the beauty parlor this morning...although it's kind of a joke because they are going to be filthy in about 30 seconds if they go outside...have to pick up gatsby at 2:00 and take him over to dr. mike for his booster shot and then head back over to the beauty parlor and pick up nickolas and daisy and then take them home. the streets are already flooding here - we have the worst possible drainage - and it doesn't take much to create some memorable lakes in the streets of modesto.
this is supposed to last all week - and all of us who know that california is in drought mode are just praying for a ton of snow to be dropped in the sierras - the lakes and reservoirs are so empty and low...we need the snowpack so badly, and the ski places need the business too - they have had some rocky times the last couple of years with the economy and then with the lack of serious snow that would hold thru easter week - it just hasn't been here in a few years.
anyway - back to rhythms and getting used to a new shop and how the roof sounds when it rains and the wind is blowing outside...and how the rhythms of our lives work and how lucky i feel to be here enjoying a monday.
have a good week...off to play on the website!!!
we are almost finished here...this was a tough one because it was so quick and so necessary. BUT, when you have two weeks to literally move your world and everybody else thinks it's christmas and new years...it's a tough transition to be sure and i had some amazing help from some amazing places...
i look back on those two weeks now and wonder how it ever got done...but we did. now i can continue on with the transition of the new web site that is being built and stumble thru some more frustration with the new software that got installed last week that i hoped would make the e-mail and internet stronger but infact is probably so frustrating that you don't want me to get started.
i still have a blog program that thinks i'm fluent in japanese - NOT - and although i love their art, culture, clothing, etc...i just can't open blogspot editing in japanese...and it doesn't matter how hard i try - nothing "english" seems to stick on any of the dashboard editing places. and you can only imagine what happens when you try to log-in to the blogspot in english when they've decided to flip it back to japanese...with japanese log-ins and passwords - to quote lucy "arrrrrrrrrrrrrhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"
anyway - it's pouring here - the first of the series of storms slamming california started last night...and it is just coming down in buckets. dropped all three of the four-foots off at the beauty parlor this morning...although it's kind of a joke because they are going to be filthy in about 30 seconds if they go outside...have to pick up gatsby at 2:00 and take him over to dr. mike for his booster shot and then head back over to the beauty parlor and pick up nickolas and daisy and then take them home. the streets are already flooding here - we have the worst possible drainage - and it doesn't take much to create some memorable lakes in the streets of modesto.
this is supposed to last all week - and all of us who know that california is in drought mode are just praying for a ton of snow to be dropped in the sierras - the lakes and reservoirs are so empty and low...we need the snowpack so badly, and the ski places need the business too - they have had some rocky times the last couple of years with the economy and then with the lack of serious snow that would hold thru easter week - it just hasn't been here in a few years.
anyway - back to rhythms and getting used to a new shop and how the roof sounds when it rains and the wind is blowing outside...and how the rhythms of our lives work and how lucky i feel to be here enjoying a monday.
have a good week...off to play on the website!!!
Monday, January 4, 2010
it's a little quiet...maybe...
a week ago today we were putting things into a truck and making the first journeys over to our new home....this afternoon i started cleaning front windows and hanging curtains...but i don't want to get too far ahead of myself...but i swear there is the most disgusting green yucky film on the front windows...so i think i need to bring something far more serious than glass cleaner with me tomorrow morning!!!!
we do have some excellent type news...bruce - softie that he is - went back to the old place on wednesday after the movers had come and gone on tuesday - and there was mama mia kitty look quite sad and disheartened. he petted her, put some food out for her and promptly came back to the new shop and told us we needed to adopt her...which is all well and good if she wasn't LIV positive or feline leukemia positive. so...long story short - on new year's eve afternoon, after trying in the morning - i went over with the cat carrier and there she was. and yes, she came back with me in the carrier. we kept her in one of the bathrooms separated from didnot until we could get her tested this morning...and she studied very well over the weekend because she passed her tests and is as clean as a whistle...so now she and didnot are running loose and free in 5,200 square feet of shop and connecting warehouse...and i have only stood in between one tiny "who the hell are YOU" spat this afternoon when they finally rubbed shoulders...but it's been hours and not a squeek out of either of them. so i think i did okay in socializing them in slowly... but, we shall see.
so...mama mia kitty has come quite a full circle...from being dumped with very young babes in our back field at the old shop to being neutered and finding a forever home here at elegant stitch. the babes have all been neutered too...and as soon as they calm down a little bit - we will be scooping them up and taking them to a no-kill adoption place. in the interim - mary, our former next door neighbor is putting out meow meow food for the babes (who are now 5 months old) to keep them healthy.
we also got all our heat/air conditioning on and installed...comedy of errors this morning when the AC guy came to bleed the lines on the newly installed unit...told him i couldn't get warm inside of the retail side...he went outside and threw the main switches outside the backdoor...i was horrifed at being so stupid - and he just laughed and said he understood tired...and if he had done what we had done in a week - he would have asked the same question - bless his heart.
anyway - it's 4:30 and i've been here since 7:30 this morning (had a wee bit of a time getting out of bed this morning - there are new parts on my body i didn't even know could hurt this badly) and i have become best friends with the heating pad at home...
i have about 2 more hours in this office since i found about 10 more boxes that have to go in here - you know that nagging feeling when you can't find something...well...i had 10 of those nagging feelings...and i tripped over the entire 10 feelings in the form of brown moving boxes this morning...and then i am crawling home and into the shower and into my chair and clip another quilt because it's the only thing i can do with no brain power left.
we'll have some pictures up hopefully by wednesday or thursday...have a few more tweekies to do and then we'll take a pic or two - but probably with nothing hung on the walls quite yet...
take care...i can't believe we did it...but we did!!!
we do have some excellent type news...bruce - softie that he is - went back to the old place on wednesday after the movers had come and gone on tuesday - and there was mama mia kitty look quite sad and disheartened. he petted her, put some food out for her and promptly came back to the new shop and told us we needed to adopt her...which is all well and good if she wasn't LIV positive or feline leukemia positive. so...long story short - on new year's eve afternoon, after trying in the morning - i went over with the cat carrier and there she was. and yes, she came back with me in the carrier. we kept her in one of the bathrooms separated from didnot until we could get her tested this morning...and she studied very well over the weekend because she passed her tests and is as clean as a whistle...so now she and didnot are running loose and free in 5,200 square feet of shop and connecting warehouse...and i have only stood in between one tiny "who the hell are YOU" spat this afternoon when they finally rubbed shoulders...but it's been hours and not a squeek out of either of them. so i think i did okay in socializing them in slowly... but, we shall see.
so...mama mia kitty has come quite a full circle...from being dumped with very young babes in our back field at the old shop to being neutered and finding a forever home here at elegant stitch. the babes have all been neutered too...and as soon as they calm down a little bit - we will be scooping them up and taking them to a no-kill adoption place. in the interim - mary, our former next door neighbor is putting out meow meow food for the babes (who are now 5 months old) to keep them healthy.
we also got all our heat/air conditioning on and installed...comedy of errors this morning when the AC guy came to bleed the lines on the newly installed unit...told him i couldn't get warm inside of the retail side...he went outside and threw the main switches outside the backdoor...i was horrifed at being so stupid - and he just laughed and said he understood tired...and if he had done what we had done in a week - he would have asked the same question - bless his heart.
anyway - it's 4:30 and i've been here since 7:30 this morning (had a wee bit of a time getting out of bed this morning - there are new parts on my body i didn't even know could hurt this badly) and i have become best friends with the heating pad at home...
i have about 2 more hours in this office since i found about 10 more boxes that have to go in here - you know that nagging feeling when you can't find something...well...i had 10 of those nagging feelings...and i tripped over the entire 10 feelings in the form of brown moving boxes this morning...and then i am crawling home and into the shower and into my chair and clip another quilt because it's the only thing i can do with no brain power left.
we'll have some pictures up hopefully by wednesday or thursday...have a few more tweekies to do and then we'll take a pic or two - but probably with nothing hung on the walls quite yet...
take care...i can't believe we did it...but we did!!!
Friday, January 1, 2010
happy new year to everybody
it's early here - not really early...but rich has just arrived to double check the floor paint in the warehouse...and touch up a couple of spots...and then we are both going home - me to put my hands in a bucket of warm water and see if i can get the kinks out of them...and of course, to help mr. bear supervise the many bowl games that are on today. living on the west coast - our rosebowl game is in the afternoon instead of the evening...so we have lots of opportunities for lots of games today...
we are moved...we made it...and were totally out of the other space yesterday by 10:30 a.m. it's always the last smootz stuff that gets brought over...stuff that you say to yourself "no, why in the hell did i want to save this and bring it over?" and then the decision is made when you are of clearer mind and soul - and out to the NEW dumpster it goes and you promise yourself never to make those kinds of mistakes again - but we always do...it's just one of those things.
my new office has carpet in it - i have to get a floor doodle or really build up the calf muscles pushing out from my desk - i had forgotten what it was like to have carpet in here - the rest of the shop and the warehouse are all cement floors which are so incredibly easy to clean...but in here - it's carpet and thus.....
we should have some pictures up by monday of the new place, annie and i going to work on monday getting the last of it in semi-order...but, this has been quite the stressful time - i have never packed in 2 weeks and moved over the holidays - it all worked - thank heavens...but the last move we had 2.5 months to pack - this time - not so much - we had to be out of there. i think this new place will be just wonderful...and i'm very excited about it all...it was just a tremendous amount of work and i am so blessed to have friends, co-workers, husbands and sons who came and busted their behinds to get us over here on monday so the movers could come for the heavy stuff on tuesday. and then one of them was silly enough to show back up here on wednesday and worked her behind off again - i am truly blessed. not only did we have the physical support but we also had a huge fan club cheering us on from afar...and i knew everybody was there - pushing us to get it finished and to make it all right..... stressful times...but that's for another time and place.
i'm heading over to the web site now and will cross post this but we wanted to wish you all a happy new year and let's make 2010 a good year - i was so ready for 2009 to be finished... so very ready indeed!!!!! HAPPY HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
we are moved...we made it...and were totally out of the other space yesterday by 10:30 a.m. it's always the last smootz stuff that gets brought over...stuff that you say to yourself "no, why in the hell did i want to save this and bring it over?" and then the decision is made when you are of clearer mind and soul - and out to the NEW dumpster it goes and you promise yourself never to make those kinds of mistakes again - but we always do...it's just one of those things.
my new office has carpet in it - i have to get a floor doodle or really build up the calf muscles pushing out from my desk - i had forgotten what it was like to have carpet in here - the rest of the shop and the warehouse are all cement floors which are so incredibly easy to clean...but in here - it's carpet and thus.....
we should have some pictures up by monday of the new place, annie and i going to work on monday getting the last of it in semi-order...but, this has been quite the stressful time - i have never packed in 2 weeks and moved over the holidays - it all worked - thank heavens...but the last move we had 2.5 months to pack - this time - not so much - we had to be out of there. i think this new place will be just wonderful...and i'm very excited about it all...it was just a tremendous amount of work and i am so blessed to have friends, co-workers, husbands and sons who came and busted their behinds to get us over here on monday so the movers could come for the heavy stuff on tuesday. and then one of them was silly enough to show back up here on wednesday and worked her behind off again - i am truly blessed. not only did we have the physical support but we also had a huge fan club cheering us on from afar...and i knew everybody was there - pushing us to get it finished and to make it all right..... stressful times...but that's for another time and place.
i'm heading over to the web site now and will cross post this but we wanted to wish you all a happy new year and let's make 2010 a good year - i was so ready for 2009 to be finished... so very ready indeed!!!!! HAPPY HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
Sunday, December 27, 2009
for the very last time....
in the year 2009...we are posting a little blog bit here - we are shutting down the computers tomorrow morning early...it's going to be a very busy day tomorrow...way too much to do this week and way too little time to do it all in...but i have the utmost of confidence that it will all go according to "somebody's" plan (although i'm not sure which plan that is)...and that we come will out the other end of this move with most of our brains left in our heads...
this is certainly not something i had planned on doing anytime soon. it's been less than 2 years since the last one...and here we are again...but we had absolutely no choice this time - a leaky and contaminated building and an owner who didn't see that there was anything the matter with any of that...and so...it goes and goes and goes.
in the interim - we have done this in 2.5 weeks instead of 2.5 months like the last time and none of us has any idea where anything is except it's "in a box" somewhere...but it will be over sooner than later and we can get back to doing what we love to do best.
keep good thoughts - have a great new year...and if this doesn't kill us - it hopefully will make us stronger :) HAPPY NEW YEAR.
this is certainly not something i had planned on doing anytime soon. it's been less than 2 years since the last one...and here we are again...but we had absolutely no choice this time - a leaky and contaminated building and an owner who didn't see that there was anything the matter with any of that...and so...it goes and goes and goes.
in the interim - we have done this in 2.5 weeks instead of 2.5 months like the last time and none of us has any idea where anything is except it's "in a box" somewhere...but it will be over sooner than later and we can get back to doing what we love to do best.
keep good thoughts - have a great new year...and if this doesn't kill us - it hopefully will make us stronger :) HAPPY NEW YEAR.
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