Agenda

It's been a crazy week, and it's not quite over yet. On the agenda for today:

1. Shower. (Yes, I actually have to put that on the list or it won't get done.)
2. Dress, hair and makeup. (See reason for listing above.)
3. Finish packing for weekend at Grandma's.
4. Make muffins to take to Grandma's for breakfasts.
5. Make sure Katie's dressed, hair done, show & tell ready, backpack packed & ready for school.
6. Take Katie to school and drop off Maggie's forgotten homework.
7. Go to store for groceries for weekend & pick up packing tape.
8. Pack BoxTops & mail off.
9. Load stuff in truck.
(Note to self--don't forget the diapers, bottles, Maggie's meds or sewing machine w/ fabric & thread.)
10. Pick up girls from school.
11. Take girls to piano practice.
12. Pick up Dad & trailer from worksite.
13. Discourage Mike from showering so we can leave immediately.
14. Drive to Kemmerer w/ 7 people squished into our F-150 extended cab and hope we don't get in an accident or get pulled over on the way.
15. Pick up our new van.
16. Breathe a sigh of relief.

PickleFace Place

I feel like I've been running on all cylinders lately! I finally finished sewing the first batch of ties (60 of them!), and sent some off to my AMAZING photographer just yesterday. I can't wait to see the images she captures of her little models in my ties! I feel like a proud mama. She's also working on a logo for me since I finally settled on a name for this new venture.

PickleFace Place

It may seem a bit unusual, but it's something that brings back some great memories of growing up with my only brother. My Grandma Martindale nicknamed him "Pickleface" when he was just a little boy because he absolutely LOVED to suck on pickles. Funny how little things like that create lasting memories. I thought it made a catchy little name for a shop devoted to decking out our little boys, and it reminded me of the little boy I grew up with.

I'm now in the process of setting up my shop, trying to contact all my family, friends, and acquaintances (just to get the word out), and setting up a Facebook page and a blog as well. It takes a lot more time than I had initially thought (the setup, not the tie-making!), but I'm really enjoying the creative process. It's amazing what our minds can conjure up, isn't it? I'm trying to get it all ready for a tentative Grand Opening of March 15th, but we'll see if I can make that deadline! I have to remind myself that I still have 5 children, a house, and a husband to take care of--all of which have been a little neglected lately.

I'm hoping that after this week of BoxTop submissions (yep, I'm in charge of that for our school, so I've been spending my evening hours counting...), the next two weeks of getting some paperwork done for Mike's new little adventure, and putting all the pieces together for PickleFace Place, I'll finally be able to take a break and let things just happen.
Oh yeah, and clean my house.

Date 2 of 52--Peanut Butter M&M's Gin

With no mention of anything in the works, I was a little concerned when Saturday night rolled around that Mike had forgotten he was supposed to plan our date this week. (We haven't started out packets yet, since we're still awaiting our tax return.) This was almost confirmed when after putting the kids to bed, he plopped himself on the couch and started watching Olympic speed skating. He's never been good at hiding anything, though, so as the corner of his mouth turned up a bit, I knew he was just trying to fool me into thinking he hadn't remembered. You'd think he'd know by now that he's the WORST LIAR IN THE WORLD. Not that that's a bad characteristic to have, but it makes hiding things from your wife pretty much impossible.
He took my sewing machine off its little table & dragged it over between the two couches, then whipped out a deck of playing cards. Gin! When we were first married and living in the little red brick apartment, we used sit on the couch together and play gin while watching TV. It had probably been that long since we'd played! Only this time, no TV, and we had an added bonus as Mike opened up a BIG bag of peanut butter M&M's--my favorite! There was a catch, though. Instead of just snacking on them while we played, we made it a rule that you could only snack if you won the hand. As soon as you lost, you had to give the bag to the other until you won again. Let's just say that some of those hands lasted a really, really long time. (I won't give away who deliberately dragged it out, but I will refer you to 5 sentences back.)
It was actually a really nice date together. Would've been better if I hadn't remembered at 9:37 that I needed to get the Sacrament Meeting Program done and sent off to the Bishop by 10:00, but what do you do? Sometimes things just come up, no matter how good your intentions are. It was probably a good thing I forgot because as soon as I had my "oh, crap" moment, Mike had his as he remembered he needed to call and set up a meeting for Sunday morning to extend a call.
We played a couple more hands after our business was all taken care of, but we're getting old and staying up later than 10 is getting harder and harder to do. i know, we're boring. But I kinda like being boring with him.

Two dates down, 50 to go!

Quickie...is it possible?

I'm trying to see if I can actually get a post plunked out in under 15 minutes. I struggle with wanting to devote time to this online journal, and taking care of things on the homefront. If only my mind was quicker and I didn't rewrite things 300 times before posting, with about a thousand edits in-between, I'd be able to spend less time keeping up with this!
Anyway, today is short day at school, and I'm busily ironing fabric to get ready for sewing before the girls all get home. I spent about 3 hours cutting out 66 ties and 66 straps yesterday, and I've figured it will take me just over an hour to iron all the straps. Forgive me for all the logistics, but I need to figure out how much time it takes me to do the ties so I can price them well enough to make more than minimum wage off them! Time is money, right?
Thanks to Heather for advice on the business end, Tara for the good ideas and encouragement, and Jen (my hero!) for being my official photographer & ad-maker! I hope to get the initial batch of ties done this weekend so I can get this ball rolling. I have a tentative date of March 15th for my Grand Opening, so mark your calendars--all 4 of you who read this!

Ok, so that was my 15 minute test-run, with no edits or rewrites. Yikes. I'll work on it.

Dating Packets

So here's the great dating idea I told you about. Shauna posted this on Project 52: Date Nights that she puts together date packets at the beginning of the year, with pre-purchased tickets, gift cards, etc. that way everything is all ready to go and there are no excuses like, "We can't afford to," or "It's too late to get tickets." I think it's a perfect thing to do right now as we eagerly await our tax return. Why not set aside a little bit of money to fund our dates for the whole year? It's like an insurance policy on your marriage, or like tithing--pay it first, right? We're already getting our packets ready, and since we love the idea of them being a surprise for each other, we're each taking a whole month. Doesn't this sound fantastic? I can't wait to see what Mike has planned for the rest of the month.

Oh, did you hear my news in the previous post? Ties. Lots of them.

Jumping In

So, I'm doing it. I finally decided to stop thinking about it all the time and just do it.

I think I may be crazy.

I found my way to Hobby Lobby this afternoon and purchased 1 yard each of eight fabulous fabrics, and began cutting out ties. Yup. I'm officially going into business! I've had a lot of people asking about the ties I've made for Dixon--Where can I get one? How do I make them? Will you make me one?--so I'm opening up an Etsy shop and will get it up and running as soon as I get the ties sewn and photos taken. I'm nervous because part of me wants people to flock to my site because they think my ties are amazingly adorable and they absolutely HAVE to have one or three. (Okay, so maybe MOST of me wants that.) But I'm also thinking that I'm a little cuckoo because, really, when will I have time to sew all these ties? I think I see a productive date night in the future....

So here's to new adventures! I'll keep you posted as to when the site's up and running, and where it's at. Wish me luck!