Blow The Man Down, Blow The Man Down....

Oh my goodness. I can't believe the wind we had here on Sunday. It was bonkers, beyond bonkers. I'm talking sustained 60 mph winds, with gusts between 70-80 mph :LOL: It was CRAZY! And I was home alone with my cat while my fiance was at a car race in Mid-Ohio. So while we didn't get blown away and we were FAR from the worst of the damage they were reporting on Sunday night that there were nearly 200,000 customers without power.So Sunday was an intersting evening. After the wind died down (which wasn't till 9pm) it was dark, but you could hear the chainsaws roaring to life all over the neighborhood. I actually able to get to our local grocery store which hadn't lost power and get a few necessities. It was chaos though. You'd thought the world had gone mad the way people were tearing thru the place :( It's like we depend so much on electricity any more that when it's suddenly gone people act like they can no longer survive. It's ridiculous and sad all at once.We didn't loose power at our house, but everyone on the blocks around mine did. In fact 90% of Vandalia was without power all of Sunday night and most of Monday thru the following evening. When my fiance, Chris, finally did get home. He was very tired and had lots of stories to tell. The biggest one being that Cincinnati was almost entirely without power. That meant that it was REALLY bad and that the damage was very widespread. While we didn't loose power we did loose internet/cable. I'm very grateful that we didn't loose power, but it made communication or finding out what was happening very difficult especially since most local radio stations were having issues broadcasting because the wind knocked them off the air!The next morning I couldn't believe how many trees had been downed and uprooted. On Monday I actually drug myself into work (though we couldn't do anything because the phones were down and so was the internet (which my job depends on)). So I left at 11am to go home and help Chris start burning the numerous branches and trees that had fallen. Our back door neighbor was the worst on our block. She had 3 large silver maples and all three had substaintial sections missing and laying in her yard. Fortunately none of them hit the house. So we burned and chopped and drug and rustled thru piles of wood and leaves all of Monday. That evening I made some pumpkin bread and took it around to my neighbors to give them a little boost :) Chris' mom and step dad had to come over because they are on a well pump and without electricity it doesn't work. They were able to do some laundry and get showers. My family had minor damage to their house including loosing siding on the south facing side. They are still without power it's going on 3 days for them. I called them on their cell and their fine, but I still worry about them :( Some houses in our neighborhood lost sections of shingles and entire roofs! I don't remember how many deaths happened, but it's been a REALLY rough week so far. The restoration on power to our area as well as most of southwest Ohio are spanning into the weekend. Not having the internet or cable has allowed me to stay busy sewing and creating which is a definitely plus!It COULD be worse. I know we deal with tornadoes and earthquakes here in the midwest, but a mini-hurricane seems different :lol:I have interenet access here at work so I'll be able to access Etsy, but unfortunately updates to my store won't be happening any time soon. I apologize, but helping my neighbors get their yards cleared and making sure families are provided for falls first ^_^Take care and hold tight!

What the Deuce?

I think the office ick is making it's rounds again so my relaxing three day weekend has turned into a bit of a flu-fest instead :( Going to go to the doctor tomorrow as everything just aches. Hate that feeling. I can't do anything sewing related. I managed to eek out a small sweater pumpkin that looks lovely and when I feel better I'll have pictures up for you all to see, promise :)I did manage to make 2 loaves of bread on Friday. They were wonderful. I'm going to try a different recipe later in the week after I'm better. It was very tasty ^_^Till then take care and if you're on the Gulf Coast hope you're hanging in there! My prayers are with you!!

That is all

Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point. ~C.S. Lewis

The Baker Inside

The flour is bought.The eggs are ready.Yeast is ready to proof.Everything is good to go and the baker is about to burst out in one floury-induced bread bomb :lol:Well, this weekend the baker will be bursting out. There's not enough time to make sure the dough rises properly during the weekdays. Remember good bread takes TIME.I'm considering rearranging our refridgerator so I can put the dough in there to slow the rising. I want this bread to be very tasty. I've never tried placing it in a cooler environment, but the longer it takes to set up the more flavor it will have.I'm making a Honey Wheat Loaf. 2 loaves to be exact and probably 2-4 more on Sunday and if I can afford it some more on Monday (over the Labor Day Holiday if weren't not cooking out or anything) and I'll have to get more flour, butter, eggs and probably honey at that point. I'm trying the King Arthur Flour this go around. I recently bought their whole-wheat baking book. OMG, is it filled with delicious things or what!I'm especially excited to try ALL of their reciepes that involve pumpkin. I should make pumpkin stuff year round. It's too good to keep to one season or holiday for that matter. Can you imagine having cake only once a year? Oh the horror!Having pumpkin only in the Fall is like some weird social standard. It's like if I had it or baked it any other time I'd be banned from baking for ever.Nah. Who the heck needs to live up social expectations. It's just pumpkin. I wonder if i could make a Whole Wheat Pumpkin bread. AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! Why must it ONLY be Wednesday!!!! Saturday needs to hurry up.

Hey Mr. Postman!

Shipping seems to be a big ta-do on Etsy. Rightly so, I mean no one wants to be overcharged and most buyers are also sellers so they can easily calculate the shipping surcharges.I'm currently going thru the mundane process of getting my shipping prices to where they need to be. I'd like to be as accurate as possible while keeping in line with the general business expense stuffs like (packaging, wrappings, thankyous) things that generally add a bit of weight to the overall shipping price.This is important not just to my customers but to me :) I can't very well expect to be doing this in the middle of the Holiday season, egads no!So I've been wrapping each item as if it were about to go off to their new home and weighing them on my scale. Now you might be thinking, well Rebekah, you should've done this when you initally started selling your wares! I did! Honest! It's just that I was placing them (on the advice of a fellow seller) under a different classification AND with selling more stuffed animals my packaging is evolving. It's good to revamp them now and not, say a year or even months down the road.My work bench is covered with packaging supplies, tape, bits of ribbon and a scale SOMEWHERE in all that colorful pile....it all looks like the Mail Fairy exploded in there. *Note to self, clean craft room Sunday* This all lead to a funny conversation with the postman at the post office yesterday afternoon. I asked him how they classified my packages and he said something along the lines of, "If it's over 3/4 of an in. (aka padded mailers or slightly bulky so it can just go thru the sorting machines) they classify it as a parcel."Well, let's just say the magic lightbulb clicked on above my head. Duh! Of COURSE they'd be a parcel! No wonder I can't pin down better rates for my customer :LoL: good grief.And now that my genius head is screwed back on facing front I've got my work cut out for me this weekend. BUT I'm still new to this and I learn good stuff everyday. Here's hoping I keep getting better and never stop ^_^

Time & Balance vs. The Glass of Water

It’s hard sometimes as a crafter, an artist, or even just an average human being to feel inspired ALL the time. There are some people that seem to have a knack for finding inspiration anytime, anywhere …but not all of us are that tuned in.I think I’ve found a bit of new inspiration today despite feeling overwhelmed with ideas in my head and life in general. It boggles me that people have time to take pictures, upload photos, converse with friends, list items, provide wonderful customer service over the internet and then above all else…create. It amazes me. I’m great at multi-tasking but I don’t think I’ve found that balance yet or that schedule :lol: I think working full-time is partly to blame, but I know other artists whose lives are full of wobbly toddlers and hyper active pets, sports loving husbands and nagging parents. And yet they still manage to create and balance. I have no excuse to just pine at not being able to create or that I supposedly don’t have “time” to make anything special. My things ARE special and to find inspiration I have to believe that what I’m creating will one day bring a glint of humor into someone’s eyes.It’s hard though. Work drains my creativity and a lot of my emotional energy. It’s not a healthy environment for me and I’m looking hard to find new employment, so that added stress dampens the drive a bit, but not enough to stop me.I need to start a new creative tablet for my ideas again as my old one has been ruined by a glass of water. Don’t worry I was able to salvage most of my ideas and I do have a spreadsheet with the names of my creations. Not all is lost!

Posty McPosterson

I've been making new friends and creating new cats Waves at BoxingDay It's a good thing I took so many pictures yesterday as it's suddenly been raining on and off the past few days.Which is good, but I think it's signaling the change of the seasons again. I can't wait for Fall it's the BEST ^_^ From the smells, to the cool crispness of the air, heck even the fresh apple cider chokes me up a little :lol:What do you love about fall? Maybe it's these!