It's been forever since I posted. Life has been busy.
We started our homeschool up again two weeks ago. This year we are doing a co-op with 3 different families. What this means is that once a week we get together and teach history, science, and art together. A different mother is in charge of the lesson each week. What this means is that every 4th week, the co-op is held at my house and I am in charge of teaching. We have a curriculum we are using for history (it's called The Story of the World and it's really interesting). The older kids are using a science book called "How things work: the physics of everyday life". The younger kids we have a theme for the month and we each choose to teach something with that theme (like this month is simple machines and I taught gears). Today was my first time teaching and it stressed me out to no end trying to think of ideas to do and an art activity and just general worry about whether or not I'd perform up to the other mothers' expectations. Chris, my husband, allowed me to let the kids use the gears and other Lego parts from his Technic sets (including four cool cars that the kids really enjoyed racing) so that part worked out well. The history book had an art project that the kids really enjoyed. Overall, I think it went well. But this is a new stress this year and hopefully I'll deal better with it now that my first one is under my belt.
I started a diet the end of July. The last time I went to the doctor I was only 3 pounds lighter than I had been when I was 9 months pregnant, so I decided I needed to do something about it. I found a free on-line calorie counter program (calorie-count.com) and filled out their profile. I've been filling out everything I eat for a month and a half and trying very hard to stay within the calorie guide lines. I also had Chris move our exercise bike upstairs and have been riding the bike for at least 100 calories 5 to 6 days a week. 3 weeks into the diet I had lost 4 pounds, which is good for me. I know that I've lost even more, since my clothes keep getting more and more lose, but I don't have a scale right now. I'm really happy about this, it's making me feel much better about how I look and just in general feel much better about myself.
Well, it's late and I need to get to bed. I will write more hopefully in the next day or two.
Danielle
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Sunday, July 1, 2007
Life, the universe, and a craft fair
So this past weekend I went with my mom to sell stuff at a craft fair in a little town by Price, UT. My mom and her friend have gone every year for the last three. I figured, since I had made like 200 greetings cards over the last 2 years, that I'd take some and try selling them, since my mom had a booth anyway and she said I could join her. Nothing like sitting in a booth while people look over your creations and reject them out of hand over and over and over again to get you started thinking about life.
Friday we didn't sell a thing. By the time 1 o'clock came around on Saturday (the fair opened around 9) and I had sold $3 worth of stuff, I was about ready to cry. To make matters worse, this town was in the middle of a canyon and I couldn't get cell phone coverage. I so wanted to talk to Chris (my husband) and just get a little sympathy and support. So I asked around, found out the one place in the whole canyon you can get coverage, and drove over there (it was about 5 miles away.) I had my phone on and was on the road. The instructions were that you can only get coverage at the dam (there's a reservoir by the town). So I slow down, and don't get coverage. So I keep driving, checking every once in a while. After going another 2 or 3 miles, I turn around (since I was in my mom's car, I didn't want to drive too far on her gas). On the way back I pulled into every turn off to see if I could get coverage maybe off the road. Yeah, turns out the instructions should have been "You only get coverage if you pull into the turn off right after the dam." I couldn't get coverage on the road, but 2 feet into the turn off I had it. So weird. Made me realize how dependant I've become on my cell phone in the last year.
I talked to Chris, he pretty much told me that people are just weird and cheap and even though they'd pay more in the store for a card, they just weren't thinking of that and wanted a good deal. So when I went back, I told everyone who paused at the booth that the cards were buy 1 get 1 free. That seemed to get a lot more attention and I ended up selling $26 worth of stuff. Much less than I would have liked, but it covered all my food and most of the stuff I bought to display the cards. If I do it again (which I don't know if I will), I think I'll mark the prices a little higher and just start with a buy 1 get 1 free special. I'll also make some groupings of cards. The most looked at cards were the sets I had, but I had only made sets of the moving cards I had and people seemed disappointed in that.
So, why'd I title my post like that? I figured I'd talk about the lessons I learned this weekend. One of them was that if you are friendly, life goes smoother. After I talked to Chris, I made sure that I greeted everyone that stopped at the booth. Made sure I asked if there was anything they were specifically looking for. This seemed to work well, since we sold 2/3 of the items we sold in that last 4 hours, as opposed to the 8 or so hours before that (which includes Friday, when we didn't sale a thing).
In addition, if you take the time to be nice to people and get to know them, it's always worth it. We had fun talking to the people at the booth next to us. We were just basically finding out about each other's lives, passing time, etc. I was admiring her hair clips she had made and she gave me one of them in trade for one of my cards. If we hadn't taken the time to just talk, that would have never happened and I would have spent more money instead of bartering for it. When we were packing up, she gave my mom a birdhouse that had cracked, since she couldn't sell it. It was just a tiny crack and it was still beautiful. She also presented me with a cute little bird bath for my new house. Both of these things were great. But monetary things weren't the only thing we got out of being nice to these people. Time passed so much more quickly both days because we had someone to talk to, find out about, etc. They've been doing shows for a while now and they provided moral support for us when we were feeling down about not selling anything. That was worth more than the items they gave us.
I also had to take a long, hard look at how I react to other people. My mom's friend is a very toxic person. She is very negative, always assuming the worst, never willing to help others, always expecting everyone to do her work for her, but if it's not up to her standards, she'll complain about that too. I helped her set up her booth on Friday and helped her out on and off through Saturday. She just complained and complained the whole time, about how she should just pack up and go, she wasn't making money, etc. I finally told her that it wasn't costing her anymore money to just stay and finish the day and maybe she'd make some later in the day.
Listening to and watching this woman really made me think. Lately I've been having a really hard time. I've been getting angry at my family more often, feeling depressed a lot, and just really struggling. I don't want to become like this woman and I could see, over the last few weeks, areas where I was beginning to approach what she's like. It made me take a hard look at what I want from life and the type of person I really want to be. I don't want to be like this woman, where friends only talk to me because they feel obligated to. Where my family avoids me as much as possible. I don't want that in my life. So I'm going to start working on recognizing when I'm going down those mental pathways and start redirecting my thoughts away from them.
One last thing, since it's late and I'm tired. I realized that I need to just let remarks and actions of others roll off my back. Who cares that the lady at the fair said that I'm way over priced. That's her opinion. I think the thing that was hurting us the most was the clutter in our booth and that I had too much stuff displayed. People were overwhelmed and didn't want to take the time to look at stuff. I don't think it was price. But even if I hadn't sold a thing, it doesn't reflect on my worth as a person, and I need to start realizing that. Just because they are rejecting what I made, doesn't mean it's not good. It just means it doesn't fit their needs or isn't what they are looking for right now. I loved the stuff at the booth next to us, but nothing other than the hair clips were really our style for our house right now, so I didn't buy anything else. Does that mean I don't think her crafts are worthwhile? Nope, not at all. I think she's an amazing artist and does beautiful work. And she's a great woman on top of it. It just means that her crafts don't fit my life right now. Same thing goes for my cards. It's not a reflection on me as a person.
Anyway, ramblings are done for now. Thanks for reading!
Friday we didn't sell a thing. By the time 1 o'clock came around on Saturday (the fair opened around 9) and I had sold $3 worth of stuff, I was about ready to cry. To make matters worse, this town was in the middle of a canyon and I couldn't get cell phone coverage. I so wanted to talk to Chris (my husband) and just get a little sympathy and support. So I asked around, found out the one place in the whole canyon you can get coverage, and drove over there (it was about 5 miles away.) I had my phone on and was on the road. The instructions were that you can only get coverage at the dam (there's a reservoir by the town). So I slow down, and don't get coverage. So I keep driving, checking every once in a while. After going another 2 or 3 miles, I turn around (since I was in my mom's car, I didn't want to drive too far on her gas). On the way back I pulled into every turn off to see if I could get coverage maybe off the road. Yeah, turns out the instructions should have been "You only get coverage if you pull into the turn off right after the dam." I couldn't get coverage on the road, but 2 feet into the turn off I had it. So weird. Made me realize how dependant I've become on my cell phone in the last year.
I talked to Chris, he pretty much told me that people are just weird and cheap and even though they'd pay more in the store for a card, they just weren't thinking of that and wanted a good deal. So when I went back, I told everyone who paused at the booth that the cards were buy 1 get 1 free. That seemed to get a lot more attention and I ended up selling $26 worth of stuff. Much less than I would have liked, but it covered all my food and most of the stuff I bought to display the cards. If I do it again (which I don't know if I will), I think I'll mark the prices a little higher and just start with a buy 1 get 1 free special. I'll also make some groupings of cards. The most looked at cards were the sets I had, but I had only made sets of the moving cards I had and people seemed disappointed in that.
So, why'd I title my post like that? I figured I'd talk about the lessons I learned this weekend. One of them was that if you are friendly, life goes smoother. After I talked to Chris, I made sure that I greeted everyone that stopped at the booth. Made sure I asked if there was anything they were specifically looking for. This seemed to work well, since we sold 2/3 of the items we sold in that last 4 hours, as opposed to the 8 or so hours before that (which includes Friday, when we didn't sale a thing).
In addition, if you take the time to be nice to people and get to know them, it's always worth it. We had fun talking to the people at the booth next to us. We were just basically finding out about each other's lives, passing time, etc. I was admiring her hair clips she had made and she gave me one of them in trade for one of my cards. If we hadn't taken the time to just talk, that would have never happened and I would have spent more money instead of bartering for it. When we were packing up, she gave my mom a birdhouse that had cracked, since she couldn't sell it. It was just a tiny crack and it was still beautiful. She also presented me with a cute little bird bath for my new house. Both of these things were great. But monetary things weren't the only thing we got out of being nice to these people. Time passed so much more quickly both days because we had someone to talk to, find out about, etc. They've been doing shows for a while now and they provided moral support for us when we were feeling down about not selling anything. That was worth more than the items they gave us.
I also had to take a long, hard look at how I react to other people. My mom's friend is a very toxic person. She is very negative, always assuming the worst, never willing to help others, always expecting everyone to do her work for her, but if it's not up to her standards, she'll complain about that too. I helped her set up her booth on Friday and helped her out on and off through Saturday. She just complained and complained the whole time, about how she should just pack up and go, she wasn't making money, etc. I finally told her that it wasn't costing her anymore money to just stay and finish the day and maybe she'd make some later in the day.
Listening to and watching this woman really made me think. Lately I've been having a really hard time. I've been getting angry at my family more often, feeling depressed a lot, and just really struggling. I don't want to become like this woman and I could see, over the last few weeks, areas where I was beginning to approach what she's like. It made me take a hard look at what I want from life and the type of person I really want to be. I don't want to be like this woman, where friends only talk to me because they feel obligated to. Where my family avoids me as much as possible. I don't want that in my life. So I'm going to start working on recognizing when I'm going down those mental pathways and start redirecting my thoughts away from them.
One last thing, since it's late and I'm tired. I realized that I need to just let remarks and actions of others roll off my back. Who cares that the lady at the fair said that I'm way over priced. That's her opinion. I think the thing that was hurting us the most was the clutter in our booth and that I had too much stuff displayed. People were overwhelmed and didn't want to take the time to look at stuff. I don't think it was price. But even if I hadn't sold a thing, it doesn't reflect on my worth as a person, and I need to start realizing that. Just because they are rejecting what I made, doesn't mean it's not good. It just means it doesn't fit their needs or isn't what they are looking for right now. I loved the stuff at the booth next to us, but nothing other than the hair clips were really our style for our house right now, so I didn't buy anything else. Does that mean I don't think her crafts are worthwhile? Nope, not at all. I think she's an amazing artist and does beautiful work. And she's a great woman on top of it. It just means that her crafts don't fit my life right now. Same thing goes for my cards. It's not a reflection on me as a person.
Anyway, ramblings are done for now. Thanks for reading!
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Party!
We had a party last night with some of our friends, mostly because there were 2 people here in Utah from out of town who frequent a message board we've all gone to at one point or another. This party is the reason we bought our couch last week instead of waiting for a while longer.
I spent the last week working on getting the house in good shape. Most of it wasn't too bad to begin with, but I always want it to look really nice when people come over. Funny how it works that way, eh?
The party was A LOT of fun, everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and it was nice to see everyone again.
This next week is going to be spent getting ready for a craft fair that I'm participating in with my mom on the 29th and 30th. Going to sell (or try to anyway : ) as many of the cards I've made the last while as possible. Hopefully this one will be more successful that the last craft fair we did together. Not much seemed to have sold at that one. I'm going to start the cards at lower prices than I did last time, I'll still make money, but it won't be as big a profit as I was trying for last time. I figure I made these cards because I enjoy making them, selling them will just be icing on the cake. Still need to figure out a display technique. Last time I think part of the problem was also that people couldn't really see what I had without flipping through tons of stuff. This time I also have a greater variety of cards styles too, and I have to say that my cards are definitely more artistic now, for the most part. They just have more to them and are more interesting than ones I've made in the past.
Anyway, hope your weekend is going well.
Danielle
I spent the last week working on getting the house in good shape. Most of it wasn't too bad to begin with, but I always want it to look really nice when people come over. Funny how it works that way, eh?
The party was A LOT of fun, everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and it was nice to see everyone again.
This next week is going to be spent getting ready for a craft fair that I'm participating in with my mom on the 29th and 30th. Going to sell (or try to anyway : ) as many of the cards I've made the last while as possible. Hopefully this one will be more successful that the last craft fair we did together. Not much seemed to have sold at that one. I'm going to start the cards at lower prices than I did last time, I'll still make money, but it won't be as big a profit as I was trying for last time. I figure I made these cards because I enjoy making them, selling them will just be icing on the cake. Still need to figure out a display technique. Last time I think part of the problem was also that people couldn't really see what I had without flipping through tons of stuff. This time I also have a greater variety of cards styles too, and I have to say that my cards are definitely more artistic now, for the most part. They just have more to them and are more interesting than ones I've made in the past.
Anyway, hope your weekend is going well.
Danielle
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Our new couch
My husband and I decided that since we finally have a living room that's big enough to hold two couches, that it'd be nice to get either a sectional or a second couch to go with the one we bought last summer. We spent 5 hours last Saturday couch shopping, but finally found one we loved.
We originally were going to get either a love seat or a couch that was exactly the same as our existing one (probably a couch because the provide more seating and are usually only about $50 more than the love seat). We found the couch we have, but decided to look around some more, see what else there was.
Originally we tried to go to the clearance center that we bought our first couch at, but they are no longer open on Saturdays. So we went to one of their regular retail outlets (RC Willey's), but nothing really reached out and said "You need to get me."
So we decided to check out the new Ikea that just opened in Salt Lake last month. We had fun wandering around, found lots of low price kitchen stuff to replace some of older kitchen items (we've been married 15 1/2 years and some of our stuff is that old), but really didn't like any of their furniture enough to pay the price they were asking for it.
Then we went to the other RC Willey's clearance outlet in Salt Lake. We found a sectional we really liked, but it only came in a very light tan, not really a good color with 11 year old and 13 year old boys and a 2 year old nephew I babysit 5 days a week.
We then went to Granite furniture, another furniture store. They basically had the same things RC Willey's did, but for about $50 to $100 more and the store was just kind of scary, it smelled funny and almost had an abandoned look to it.
So we were just going to give up when we drove past a John Paris furniture store. There we found a leather sectional we LOVED, but we decided we didn't really have $2000 to spend on it, so we kept looking through the store. One of things we loved about the sectional was the recliners on both ends. So we kept looking through the store and finally found a reclining sofa that was leather that both of us liked. The best part? It was only $750 including tax. It just got delivered about 20 minutes ago and can I tell you how much I love it? I'm impressed that it really only needs about 6 inches of clearance for the recliners on both ends, I was expecting it to be more like 1 to 2 feet. And it's so comfortable!
Our 13 year old son relaxing in the recliner
These are 2 pictures of other couch. I'm going to look and see if I can find some throw pillows that are black and tan to kind of coordinate the two couches together.
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