Family and work night

Great day , was kind of relaxing , but got enough done that I will be able to curl up on the floor while painting with the kids and the hubs. Big snack tray , movies, pajamas and good times ! Im exhausted and didnt get nearly what i really wanted to get done , but i alwys set my goals entirely to high. Tomorrow i hope to be refreshed and kick it in high gear so that come monday im just about completely fished, i hoped to be totally done by tomorrow but i realize thats not going to happen , and i can't blow the entire weekend away , its the only time we have together with tim working so far from home and school and all . Trying to maintain it and keep it real ! maybe tomorrow that blank Christmas tree im starring at will have some color and flair !

another Er trip

Twice this week Tim has had to run off to the emergency room , first night with Justin who was screaming his ear hurt so bad. Second time with Jayden who has this weird rash on his hands, they appeared to be red and swollen , and then he woke up crying his throat hurt him so bad. him being the tough guy that he is , it worried me and i thought it was a reaction to something , and sent him off to the er. turns out to be dry hands and an earache, what that has to do with his throat i have no clue. itll be dr appointment time as I have no faith in that emergency room what so ever. Fingers crossed its not strep ! , now , finishing up a few puzzles then off to bed in hopes that I'll be able to wake up early enough to get this stuff out in the mail. Work was highly unproductive, this is night 2 of four. which means tomorrow i better seriously get cranking and I planned on taking the kids to santa's shop thingy tomorrow evening . we shall see now, i already missed the school lunch ! Missing out entirely to much !

Last shipment done on wednesday . Mondays will hoopefully trump this massivel

Last shipment done on wednesday . Mondays will hoopefully trump this massively

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Friday Madness

4 pm in the evening and nothing of any importance has been accomplished today. I am in entirely to many places at once , and even though Tim is home today to help , it seems more of obstacle then help . I definitely work better alone ! Dream work conditions would be to have him take all three of the boys and do a big outing , giving me the entire day alone to work without interruptions or the guilt of ignoring the youngest while everyone else is at work or school . This will never happen of course im sure but one can dream ! now off to go try to get some focus so i can accomplish something. I need to get 28 puzzles for orders out by sunday evening , and I need to do my entire batch of stock for the booth and have it hopefully ready first thing in the morning so i can put it up when the doors open at 8 am. i have managed to get six puzzles half way painted ! not good ! no where near my goal !

On a side note after all this annoyance and stress i plan on finishing up the tree with teh boys sometime this weekend. my music bumping in my ear is keeping me moving and keeping the mood good , why do i always forget to grab the ipod as it always brightens the day and makes such a difference then working in total silence ! must have coffee ! outtie for now !

The race is on

Tonight marks the night of the beginning of the " last weekend" , hopefully anyway. Currently I have 30 standing orders that I want to have completed , boxed and ready to ship come Monday. This would be a monster goal to do by itself, but on top of it I have a ton of material I want to have put in our booth in Merchants outlet mall as well this weekend. On top of that I want to start getting everything done for Christmas , which means a total overhaul of the house ! All this working working working and no time for anything has really made a mess. My life seems to be so in focus and going so well some days and then others i realize how out of control it is at the same time. Simple things such as washing dishes that I'd normally hate to do , I miss these things ! I know my husband will be glad to see the work caught up and me participating in life again !

So just moments before my nightly ritual of getting some much needed relax time. Off to soak in the warm water, but not without my clipboard of work information of coarse. To make up yet again another schedule that I already know will fail and I wont stick to. Why i feel the need to constantly create these list and schedules I do not know, i think in a way i feel like im accomplishing something by doing it. Well it only counts if i actually follow it ! One of these days I just might let that sink in !

Kids are wound out of their heads again , They are missing out on the magic of Christmas so far and I really want to get that kicked in for them this weekend. With such short time left to enjoy the magic as it is. Thats like the largest memories of my child hood is how magical our mother always made Christmas. No matter where we were, or how poor we might have been , we didnt realize it, all we knew was that Christmas was the most magical time of year , and we started counting down for it in like October ! Now it seems like its 2 weeks away from Christmas before it even dawns on me that its really truly coming up and fast. I put our tree up the first week of november trying to capture some magic , and its made it as far as having lights on it. where have the past 6 weeks gone !!!!

Ok , I hear the footsteps coming thats the signal for me to go get myself in the bath and regroup ! This blog will service some inspiration for myself if nothing else, if you actually read and dont mind ,drop a note, every little letter helps :)

Keeping it real

So its been sometime since I have posted in this blog. I admit , that my main purpose in originally starting it was to try to drive traffic to my Etsy shop. After being shafted by Etsy , which I'm sure at some point in time I will give more details on , I have had a lot to think about , and realized a lot of things. Its so easy to get caught up in the whole image thing, always looking to drive business . Its insane the things one will change or behaviours they will adopt all in the name of the mighty dollar. Well, Since being off of Etsy since Sept of this year , I have found that I dont really miss it. I dont miss the endless days and nights of work , i dont miss the fake personality i aquired in hopes that someone would be quicker to buy a puzzle if i bent to what I thought they wanted me to be. Well , here's how its going to be from here on out , Im Cathy , Im a wood worker, I make awesome puzzles if you'd like to purchase one thats great, if not , well thats fine to . I will use this blog to post things that i feel are worth posting , discussions i feel are worth discussing a nd anything else that I think and feel i should post. I will not pretend to be some mushy gushy , nature loving , save the tree's, organic, vegetarian soccer mom of the year ( not that theres anything wrong with that, to each their own as they say ) but i will return back to being Cathy , who makes puzzles and other wood creations and has her own thoughts , likes, dislikes etc. Back to where when people are rude , pushy bossy and just annoy the crap out of me , I can voice my opinion instead of being worried about that almighty dollar , and even better yet , the almighty good feedback. Its pathetic that so many of us have to kiss the worlds ass just for an attempt and hope that the ass kissing will bring good feedback. I have seen situations I have totally bent over backwards , went against almost everything i stand for , and in the end have a customer who is just non caring and evil , and leaves bad feedback anyway , and it wasnt even justified ! yes , your puzzle does look like the one pictured, its an exact replica , you couldnt get any closer , and when i email you to ask what you dont like about it , and offer to attempt to fix any issues you have, this requires an answer, not a leave bad feedback and run . i sometimes think these people i run across are my competition , my jealous haters, because call it arogant or what ever, when i run a shop, i run the show. Its happened on Etsy in huge ways , and now that i have went with feebay , oh my bad, ebay , it'll soon happen there as well , i'll make it a point ! some how some where some way it'll happen trust me , is my favorite quote for a reason . ok off my soap box, wow did that make me feel good and confident now time to kick up some saw dust !