My first treasury

I was included in a treasury this week! Check it out!

And I had my first business meeting with my business partner yesterday... and plan on meeting with her again tonight before she flies back to California. Lots and lots to do.  Just wish we could come up with a name!

I'm hoping to pick up a bunch of shelving units this week and organize the basement!! My crafting space organized?!?... a little tear is forming in my eye.

interview

My interview with storybeader came out today!! http://www.storybeader.com

I tried to stock up my shop some more for it but still have many many notebooks that I haven't had time to put up yet!

If you found my blog from that site then "Hello!" :)

lets get rich find away around setting up pins and knocking them down

What do I write about? The concert? The new albums I'm listening to for the first time? That I forgot to wake ben up early and he was late for an early meeting??

We had Sara Groves and her crew come to our church last night for their O Holy Night tour.  About as nice of people as you could possibly hope to meet. And they made my job as one "in charge" so completely easy. I was able to see why her songs are so real because she genuinely listens to people...feels for them. A little pixie of compassion.  We had a sold out show. Every seat taken...okay so I church isn't huge...but it sounds cool. Songs from her Christmas album... a few songs from fireflies and songs....stories of Santa coming through the gravity furnace... Christmas sing-a-long in faux candlelight... a few songs from Melody Olson and a phone conversation with an ex-prisoner touched by Sara's grandparents ministry.  People definitely got their money's worth. And left saying "I knew it would be good... but it was GREAT!"  There are only four more dates... check it out if you're in the vicinity.

I'm going to give fireflies and songs a few more listens and then I'll let you know what I think.  And also station wagon: songs for parents it's old but produced by dan chaffer. One of my all time dream mixes happened four years ago and I didn't even know!

Chickity china

I made a set of notebooks for an etsy buyer to give her son/granddaughter who were going to China.  She found them satisfactory enough to refer a friend who requested a Germany journal for her daughter.  So I'm going to be doing that this week!

Here are a few shots of the Chinese ones. The large one was 8x8 the small one 6x6. Old old map of china underneath the inked covers. A few different pockets.  A map of the city subway. Their name in chinese. Other random things.

love helping out

Don't know why I didn't think of it sooner!...

I have a few friends who are active missionaries.  The Annands who are in Guatemala with YWAM doing everything in the world there and being such a great family to look up to. And Tony who has been with YWAM pretty much since I did a DTS in 2002 (where I met him) and is going back to the LA base to staff a school.  A little part of me is jealous of them and the work they are doing.. and when I say *little* I mean *big* and when I say *jealous* I mean a good jealous.

I want to financially support both of them but need to sit down with the bank statements and get a better budget down... which ends up making that a "sometime soon" event.  But I wanted to do something right NOW. So I am donating 40% of any etsy sale that has either of their name in the buyer "notes" to them.  Through Dec 31st and if it works we'll go further.  So if you know them....  Or if you don't know them but would still like to support them... now you know how!

weekend in review

friday.. stayed up past 2am getting ready for the show.
saturday... spent all day at the show... it was more of a home business show than a craft show. Sales were embarrassingly low and had me swearing off crafting for the rest of my life.  Okay not really.  But it was disappointing.  I ended up giving away more Christmas stuff than I sold because what-in-the-heck can I do with it now! I did make enough to finally print my stupid legal ad in the paper.. but what an annoying thing to have to spend money on.
The experience did however get me motivated to get rolling on business idea #2.
(oh and Katie.. if you read this... I lost your check in the garbage!..oops!)
sunday... Got a message from a girl I worked with at camp six years ago... she saw a blurb on my business idea #2 and has been working on getting started on basically the EXACT same thing for a year!  We are talking about joining forces and becoming business partners and doing this thing. It's such a crazy God thing that I can't even wrap my mind around it. She's in California. Very excited to see what God has in store! Reading business nap-envoking books now to learn about all the legalities.  yuck. Who decided to make everything so dang complicated.

Got a random etsy sale tonight from out east.  Have another person from England interested in a journal.  The Lord knew that I needed that confidence boost.   It feels good to have the show done.  I feel way more relaxed now.  Able to slow up and work on what I want to work on.  I'd like to get back to making "real" books again with signatures etc. And I'd like to get my stamp stuff out and create a few handmade stamps. I got a few more art books from a few friends that I'd like to go through and make some larger journals with.

Kate turns two on thursday!! She always gets the short end of the stick birthday-wise.  But I'm sure that will change when she gets older.  For now they are low key... much like she is.  I am just loving getting to know her though.  She is such a fun little girl.  Nothing gets by her. And she can hold a normal conversation already.

Next week is the Sara Groves concert! It's always seems far into the future.. and here it is!  Everything's on course for a great night.

Where did the weekend go?