Goodbye August! Hello September!

I wish this summer would end!  I am not a hot, hazy, humid kinda person and my hair!  My hair hates it even more.  I was trying to grow it out again but my patience in growing it out has grown thin.  Why? Because it is so thick! And so curly! And the worst thing possible for thick, curly hair?  H.U.M.I.D.I.T.Y! So, I believe I'll be cutting it real soon :D

The only way to deal with the triple H, is in the house with ice water and lemon sitting in front of a fan or 2.  Not one to be idle, I have to be doing something so I sew or knit or crochet.  While I'm sewing and knitting and crocheting, I tend to mull over things - the past, the present, the people in my life, the people I don't want in my life.

My latest mullings have been about someone from the past.  The one thing I wish I could change is marrying my first husband! I was so stupid at 17 and didn't realize I was marrying the devil incarnate. Although it took 5 years for the divorce to be final, we didn't spend more than a year actually together.

He was the epitome of evil. I have never met another human being that was even remotely like him. If you looked up narcissist in the dictionary, you'd probably find his picture.  Why? Let's see, without going into details, he only had feelings for himself - no others.  He saw others in terms of what they could do for him - what would he need to do or say to manipulate them into doing what would make him happy for the moment.  He had no qualms about professing undying love - including for or to his child - that he didn't feel. Looking back the 17 year old me and things that happened during the time I was with this person, I realize things that the naive 17 year old didn't realize was happening. There was only one good thing that came of our very short relationship - my daughter.  Thankfully, I was able to keep him completely and totally away from her. I won't go into detail but there were good reasons for my actions and she has thrived because of them.  She's never had any desire to be in contact with him.  She has had a close relationship with one of her cousins because they share the same extreme dislike of this horrible man. Why has his existence come to the forefront now?  Because of some things that he has done since his brother's death earlier this year. I'm sure memories of him will drop out of my mind and hopefully, this short spewing will accomplish that so I can forget about him again.

So while I've been hiding from the heat (which seriously feels like hell!), mulling over the past, I've been doing some crocheting.  Crocheting is not my favorite thing to do but my granddaughters saw a Brazillian Bikini top pattern that they liked. You can get the pattern here! Now mind you, I've never followed a crochet pattern.  I tend to think that there's very little I can't do so I bought the pattern on line.  Do you know that although I've been crocheting since I was 5 or 6, I didn't know until this pattern that I use UK stitches and of course, this pattern is in US stitches. Didn't even know there was a difference.  So after trial and error, I made 2 tops using Lydia's Fashion 3 yarn and a 2.5mm hook.  They came out awesome!  So, of course, they girls each want 2 more in other colors!  I've started one in black and will be doing 3 more in natural white, cocoa and rose.  Yup, Christmas presents started!  Woot for me!
Check it out

I'll post pix after they're all done.  For now.... stay cool :D

July's Theme: Iced Coffee

It's been hot! Not just hot - the dreaded HHH - Hot - Hazy - Humid.  While I love the fresh tomatoes, herbs, peppers, zucchini, squash flowers, etc and while I'm perfectly willing to cook and can in this freakin' heat, I still dislike the summer's heat and humidity.  No I don't own an air conditioner and quite frankly, I find that living and sleeping in air conditioned rooms makes dealing with heat and humidity so much harder.  It's exhausting to leave an air conditioned store and step into a wall of heat and soaking humidity.  My favorite way to cool down - iced coffee - store bought, homemade, whatever!  I love it!

So as I sit her sipping my iced coffee, I'm thinking of how I really need to focus more. My new online business venture is slow.  It's hard to take yourself from a crafty hobby to home-based online business and be successful.  I'm not trying to go big but I'm finding that sales are slow and I'm pretty sure I know the reason.  I lose focus.  And I lose focus because part of being a one person business is that you have to wear all the hats.  I love the creative hat and the production hat.  Not too crazy about the marketing and financial hats, though, and that's a really biggie.

For instance, I hate the photo shoots but I don't mind doing the listings on my eBay and Etsy shops.  The thing that I really find overwhelming and time consuming are updating Facebook... and Twitter (which I really totally suck at).... and blogging.... and keeping the website fresh.  In other words, I really need to either developing a love of marketing or get me a free marketing person.  I also need to develop better bookkeeping skills.  No!  I take that back.  What I need to do is take the time to organize my receipts, bring my programs up to date and keep it that way.

But it's summer! I feel like I need to be outside for awhile everyday.  Since I'm a huge morning person, I want to do everything in the morning.... everything that requires outside time while the day is cooler and I'm the most energetic.  By afternoon, I want to do nothing but read or knit or crossword puzzles maybe even veg out in front of the TV.  After dinner and dinner clean up, I have no ambition to work on business stuff.  It's crazy, huh.

My goal is develop some focus aka a business plan that I can work from including days and time frames.  Being a list person, you'd think this would be easy but it's not and the biggest reason for that is my husband is retired.  He's a huge distraction to me.  My hope is that I can get him to help me with some things.  Hey!  I wonder how he'd be doing photo shoots?!?  I know the creative, production, technical and financial side won't interest him.  But who knows, that might come with time :D

For starters, I'll be working on a Made Magical blog and I've got some posts in draft form.  I've got some draft posts I'm working on for this blog also.  Hoping to get those done soon also

:D