Doesn’t it seem like no matter how hard you work in a day, as soon as you wake up the next day there is just as much stuff to do? Working for yourself is sometimes the craziest thing I think a person can do because unlike regular work, you don’t really have to stop after eight hours. No one is paying you overtime and you are working for YOURSELF so you don’t ever have to give you a day off! It’s been feeling a bit like that lately. Usually I’m pretty good about taking the evenings off, or a day here and there, or a nice afternoon to garden (some still consider that work).
I’m not really complaining, but I guess I sort of am, because its all business kind of work, not creative kind of work. I’m working on making selling my jewelry easier for my sales reps. Things that seem intuitive to me (cause, duh, I make it, I know how to order it) are not for the reps, or the clients. So enter all the new pages for the catalogs. Last week it was the “custom order” page. Yesterday I spent all afternoon creating a “mis-matched earrings” page, with almost all the earring combos I could think of (70? i think) and naming them all. That one should really help, because coming up with your own is probably to much brain work for the store owners who only have a hour or two with the reps to look at ALOT of stuff.
I’ve also been dealing with taxes, which is always super fun, but this year were also WRONG. Again, just because something is clear to me doesn’t mean its clear to someone else bit me in the fanny (hehe, fanny). Long story short, my accountants were double counting my income. It would have been really cool if I had made that much, but since I didn’t i couldn’t afford to pay the taxes! So we had to submit amended taxes this week. Also fun. But hey, I can now pay my taxes, whereas before I was entertaining the idea of bagging this whole self-employed thing and getting a real job.
I do think this has all been good for me (brandon may see this differently, since he has had to live with me) because I’ve been learning alot. Like, you really should look at those monthly statements your bookkeeper sends you, and simplifying your catalog so that a second grader can order from it will help your sales rep! On to happier things now, like gardens and chickens!
The girls are getting huge. They spend all day now and part of the night out in their Coop, and they LOVE it. Their faces are getting more adult by the day, Martha has started looking like shes got a bad sunburn on her face, and Henrietta isn’t far behind. Those two will have bright red faces when they are grown. Prudence is growing a wild flaming mane of feathers, she will be one pretty chicken. I was at the feed store yesterday and I saw one of the chickens with the feather pom-pom on its head, about the same age as the girls, I almost got it (chicken envy) but then found out it was a boy. Too bad, who would have cared if I had 5 chickens, I already have one more than the legal chicken limit!
The dog crate inside is getting pretty cramped. Its good that they only spend the nights in there, or they’d be some cranky chickens. Right now (7.27 am) the are starting to stomp around and look at me. Too bad I’m in my PJ’s and I’m not going outside to show them off to the neighbors!
The yard is going great googa-mooga! everything is green, the bushes we put in two summers ago and finally taking off, they may turn into bushes after all. The drumstick alium’s are almost in full bloom (I’ll post a pic, so awesome) and all the transplanted roses are doing fantastic. The climbers are doing great, one is going to bloom (who knows what it looks like), and the other one decided not to die after all, so while its behind the other one by alot, its growing really fast now to catch up. Two roses we brought home last year are bouncing back and have beautiful blooms. One is a frilly wine colored rose, the other is a yellow rose with so many petals it’s buds look like golf balls. They both smell wonderful, you can smell them from 3 feet away!
Brandon planted a million sunflowers in the greenhouse (four different kinds i think) and we transplanted them into the yard last week. He was worried that the squirrels would dig up the seeds, since they got most of the ones he sprinkled through the yard from last years plants. We should have a wall of them along the front fence, and a profusion of them in the veggie garden, because he planted them between the mounds he built for the zucchini and squashes.
On Friday we should be finally picking up our free front deck from our friends old house! I’ve been waiting like half a year to do this, I am so freaking excited! the deck will be out front to the side of the tiny one by the front door. we will be able to sit up there (up, its going to be a foot off the ground) and look at the garden and watch it get dark outside while sipping on summer cocktails. Or drink coffee out there in the morning. Or work on my tan! Oh the options! Sure, we could do all this on the grass, but there is something so appealing about a deck. I kind of want to stain it a crazy color. I think we have more of the red stain we used in the kitchen, i wonder if that would work outside?
Off I go to eat some breakfast and then to move those chicken girls outside. Have a good day everybody!
And here’s Marcus about to sneak a lick.
We had a great time. It was lovely outside so we took Gus and the ducklings outside to play on the grass. They had a great time peeping and running around us, ducks are really social and they like to stay close to their people, and I am their people. Gus tried to pick them up by their heads, which wasn’t so good, but pretty funny. He’s going to be a year old next weekend!
