Turned a Corner

Well, since Friday morning, things have been looking up a bit. I took the day off from cleaning and got much done for the etsy shop instead. I took photos of the pieces I had made for the magazine shoot that never got their 15 minutes and got those listed including the Portrait of a Crimson lady. I do miss my old backyard and the lovely jasmine plant I used to take photos in front of, but they'll do for now.

Speaking of backyards though, we had a meeting with our landscaper to start work this week on what will be a brand new & hopefully beautiful backyard. We did fork over quite a bit of cash to make it happen, but I think it will be well worth it to have all that lovely space to play and work in. We've also made a bit of progress getting more boxes into the house, unpacked and into final resting places. In fact, it appears we might actually be able to park in the garage soon, yay!

Oh, and the ants...the pesky little devils. After many, many people suggested using borax, I went on a search for the stuff, finally finding a box of it and right next to it on the shelf was a premixed borax bait trap. So instead of trying to make the sugar mixture myself, I bought the bait traps and the borax for future use. When I got home, I went on a house wide search for a new trail and they did not disappoint. I laid down the trap and after what seems like forever the ants began to venture inside. After about an hour, the small trail had become a super highway. Now, we wait to see how long it takes for them all to die. I've heard tale that it can take anywhere from 24 hours to 7 days. The trail is no where near the kitchen, so I'm content to let them slowly poison the whole colony. Just to be clear, I have nothing against ants really, so long as they stay out of my house.

I also did get a sizable order this weekend as well as an interesting wholesale request for an Art gallery in Spain. I don't do traditional wholesale, but made a discount offer. I don't know yet whether that will be sufficient or not, but honestly, if it's not, I wouldn't want to do it anyway. My pieces take far too long to make in bulk and I certainly haven't priced them with enough of a markup from labor to justify a 50% discount to anyone. In fact, I had to turn down another offer to have my pieces sold in an online store, because I know I can't make enough, nor discount enough. Besides, I kind of feel like wholesaling to another online site is just hurting myself. Customers pay the same price at both places, but I just get less money for it. Sure it might work out if the volume was high enough, but I can't make that volume anyway...oh, well.

So, I've high hopes for the coming week. I feel like I've turned a corner and can safely move forward from here.