I am Ready to SEW But the Fabric Attracts Lint and Cat Hair

I am ready to sew! Are you? My first project was a tote. It still is a tote. It's made of a heavy gorgeous dark green upholstery fabric. The fabric attracts lint and cat hair. Does anyone know of a fabric treatment that will cut down on the amount of lint and cat hair that is attracted to this cotton fabric? I plan on finishing the tote and washing it. I think if I let it soak in some fabric softner, that it might help. I don't know though. If it fails it'll be good sewing practice.

The Delaware All Horse Parade

The Delaware All-Horse Parade is the seventh of this month. That’s tomorrow!!! This parade is spectacular! I probably don’t need to take any pictures because I’ve taken pictures every year. I probably know the horses! I should probably start at the beginning. My husband and I met in 1981. He came in to the bar where I was working after the Little Brown Jug and asked me out. We noticed how much alike we were, started dating and the rest is history. We haven’t missed a Little Brown Jug since 1982. We had our son in June of 1989 and he hasn’t missed a Jug since he was born! The Little Brown Jug is a part of the triple-crown for standard bred horses. These are the kind of horses that pull a cart that has a driver. There is a fever for many in Delaware as the fair comes along and the Little Brown Jug takes place. It’s historical and traditional for us. For the past several years, we’ve had front row seats! We have a blast all week. We bet on horses and re-unite with folks we haven’t seen in weeks or months or years. That Thursday, in Delaware, is a holiday. School is out. Businesses close at noon. I get my annual “track” tan and we spend every dime we can spend in order to win it big. It’s just wonderful. This past year, we lost one of our friends that we usually see at the Little Brown Jug every year. That is the kind of place it is. There’s cohesiveness about the town. We all grew up in Delaware. We all meet at Dick Jackson’s camper and “place”. My sister Kay and I see people we grew up with. We see people we haven’t seen since high school. We see people with their new wives. I wish I had my camera for this year. This is why I take pictures. I love all the people we meet. I love taking pictures of the horses. I am so mad that someone stole my camera. But I will be alright for this year,,,,I will be just fine. I will be able to be off on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this year. The races start on Sunday. It’ll be so fun to see the races, make a few dollars, spend a few dollars and see a few friends. I am looking forward to it.

So back to the parade. The All Horse Parade kicks off all the festivities of the Delaware County Fair. The Little Brown Jug is the final racing day of the week of the fair. It begins with the ending of the marathon. When you see the last runners coming down the street, you know that the horses are coming next. They will march into our view with the Mounted Deputies first. They'll be followed by square dancers in a wagon pulled by horses. There will be bands and clowns and Civil War heros. This will be a great beginning for the fair and races. This is my hometown.

Here are a couple of websites if you want to see this parade and learn more, www.littlebrownjug.com and www.delawarecountyfair.com. Enjoy!

The New and Improved Goal

As my goals come closer,,,,they come more into focus. My life as a fifty year old started on a rocky crag. I'm getting used to it. I've set goals for my life. Now I am trying to pin them down to get them achieved. For heaven's sake, achieving my goals should not be that hard. The internet has been a nice place to hang out. I probably hang out there way too much but I learn so much! I love to learn new things! That might be the reason that my goals fade in and out so much. So with this series of posts, that I plan to release more frequently than in the past, I will identify some of my "major" goals and maybe identify the steps that will get me where I need to be. Let's just lay them out on the table right now. I plan to retire in thirty months. I won't be old enough to collect retirement so I have to work from home. Hey what a great idea!!! And since I want to work from home and abandon my current income, I know I have to get that income high enough to leave my job without leaving the money. Wow-wee! I have the fricken drive to do this right now. I hope it doesn't dwindle or I'll have to stay at my job for ninety-six more months! Must keep driving must keep driving. I'd like to end this post with an apology. My design of my blog is steadily improving but nowhere near where it needs to be. I suppose I'll be working on its appearance as well as its content. More tomorrow,,,,,,,,,,c ya!

RELAXING SUNDAY AFTERNOONS

I am always happy on Sunday afternoons. Sunday evenings are a different story, as you must get ready to go back to work. I have so much to do this afternoon. Sundays at home are so relaxing. The list of chores is growing even as we speak. But back to the relaxing part. I am in the library enjoying a cup of coffee. Really good plain coffee with cream. Nothing fancy. The internet connection is good and my laptop is doing well, so now I think I will discuss beads. Now this is very relaxing. I've noticed many e-tailers lately. They all look like they are e-tailers after they were actual brick and mortar stores. I don't know whether they were or not, it's just what I suspect. What I've noticed this year that I hadn't noticed previously, though is sales. They have sales! They didn't use to have sales. The prices were a tad bit higher too. I noticed that the more e-tailers that opened their shops online, the lower the prices became. And now they are having sales too! I think this what I've always known or read about related to supply and demand. It's become pretty interesting to see it actually played out in the market. When I finally do get an order submitted, I will be buying beads that are very inexpensive to make very beautiful jewelry. I think my mission right now, though, is to get my blog going. I think this is very important as I tell you about my adventures in "BEADLAND". I have intentions of having a collection soon. I think what I need to do is figure out what I actually want to work with. My necklaces and bracelets that are available now at www.adornablesbylyn.etsy.com demonstrate my excitement over discovering beautiful rocks. I love the opaque stones. I love Swarovski Crystals too. I really love freshwater pearls. I want to go to a mine and dig some rocks - like Emeralds. The very notion to me that our planet is full of all the colors and patterns is very overwhelming to me. Very awesome. You just go dig up a rock and make a bead or two from it. Then you sell it to someone like me who turns it into a piece of jewelry. Then I sell it to one of my great customers and they wear it. Quite astonishing. So I made a little list for this nice relaxing Sunday afternoon. After this blog entry, I plan to list a few pieces of jewelry on etsy. I have pictures and I have an inventory. Wow! I am ready! This is one of the reasons that I know I could do this full time for the correct dollar amount. Why? Because it is the first thing on my mind when I wake up and the last thing when I go to bed. I have a forty-hour a week job that has nothing to do with beads. I long to leave that job and play with my beads. That's alll I want to do,,,,,,,,,,,,,,I have to love it! So this is my rambling for the day, on this relaxing Sunday afternoon. When others are playing in the garden or watching a movie, I am in an air conditioned library, happily typing another entry on my blog and hoping with great anticipation that I can mail an order out this week to one of my customers. This is what I love. This is the stuff that makes me happiest. Let me know how happy your Sunday afternoon is! See ya next time!

THE ART GALLERY GIFT SHOP IDEA

Oh my goodness, this one is really gonna hurt my noggin. OMG! My friend, Colleen, came from Montana. She worked in an Art Gallery back home. She keeps telling me that I should start an art gallery. Well thanks a lot, Colleen. Gee. I think that seed is starting to germinate. Oh my aching head! See when I explore, I try to research an idea online, to the ends of the internet. It'll take some time and I'll add to my knoweldge and put it into my plan. My plan right now is to retire in three years. Well, in order to do that, I really need to have a few additional years of similar income at the appropriate pre-retirement rate. And then there are my beads that have to come along with me. I picture my husband and I touring the country in our solar powered recreational vehicle. Stopping off in small quaint towns where I can mail my works of art, when I get a sale. I can pick up supplies along the way, either by walking into a store and buying them or buy scheduling them to be delivered to a post office box in the next town. Well that's my dream and so far, I'm sticking to it! Now about that art gallery. I can start it and get it going. Then I'll leave town. Then I'll send great works of art that I find throughout the country to the gallery to my reliable employee. Probably my sister. Maybe the next door neighbor. Okay, so then I was thinking that there are lots and lots of art galleries. So I could make mine more like an art gallery gift shop. My fine beaded work would be available. My photographs would be available. And my type of art work would be available. My head hasn't even started hurting yet! It will though. I'll be so zoomed in that eventually it'll blend into whatever I eventually come up with. I know that's a dangler. I am sorry. I'm just so excited to be moving along,,,,somehow, some direction. Now we don't need to tell Colleen about this idea just yet, okay. She'll just get too excited and then she'll feel like I let her down if it doesn't materialize. I don't want that.

On Counting Chickens Part 2

I was ablaze with monetary gain. I had no idea just how much money I would make, but I was certain that I could make some money here. So Friday, I had about four or five hours to sell my entire collection, which was now, for the first time, inventoried. VOILA! It happened. A lady wanted to buy a necklace! Yay me!!! But, the catch, she wanted to put it on her VISA along with her other necklace purchase. So Michelle, the owner of the credit card account and owner of the other necklace, put both on her account. Intention was to pay me later, when the charge went through. Doesn't matter to me! Unwavered I move along, but begin gritting my teeth. The gritting increases and I try to make it go away. It doesn't. That's my gut talking to me. I am finally realizing that. However, it takes me so long to recognize it happening that it's late in the day when I finally figure it out. Gee. There isn't a name that describes it fully yet, but I think it's the "I told you so." speech. Saturday, as I was leaving my house, Jim and Danielle wanted a ride to the ComFest. Jim says he hasn't missed one in six years. Then I picked up Julie. Off we go to ComFest. Rather than boring you to tears, let me just cut to the quick. I had NO sales on Saturday. None!!! I didn''t go back on Sunday, my spirit deserved better than that and besides, I was exhausted. I learned a lot. I have my first inventory. I know that I have a good product that was in the wrong venue. I don't like craft shows. I learned a lot. More than anything I learned again that I should never count the chickens before they hatch. Don't do it. Just fricken don't do it, Lyn, no matter how positive the outcome may look, don't do it.

On Counting Chickens

ComFest 101. What a lesson! The AdornablesByLyn School of Hard Knocks has officially opened. I absolutly loved ComFest 2008. At the very least it was very interesting. At the greatest, it was so relaxing! So Mellow! Now about the business. I left work at 4:30. The usual time. I got to ComFest and sat in my air conditioned car while I drilled tiny holes and screwed in tiny eye screws and cup hooks. My turntable type jewelry rack came to life as imagined. The critical middle step is to sketch out the imagination before beginning construction. So I sketched it out. It came together! Awesome. So there I was parked on Summit Street. This was my first time on Summit Street. Wow! I am still sheltered. Oh well. I got to our booth after a little hike. Nothing out of the ordinary so far. I guess it'll be just fine. I found our booth and introduced myself. We know each other, but having only met once, I thought it'd be nice to re-introduce myself.