-
New Windows!
I know I have some unfinished business to blog about but guess what!!! Today is a big news day! So the other stuff will have to wait while I fill you in on the latest installment of OUR NEW WINDOWS!!!!!
Remember how the window fell out in the middle of the night more than a month ago? We’ve been living with a carefully taped up plastic tarp over that window all this time and it has been FRIGID!!!
We got used to it though. We’ve been trudging around the house in sweats and socks and a hoodies in the early mornings and night. I put an extra blanket on my shoulders if I sat on the couch near the window. And the noise, well what difference does it make? We live on the highway. You can’t hear yourself think for all the harleys, sirens, leaf blowers, wheezing buses, and that pesky noisy air conditioner on the roof of the restaurant in front of us anyway. It’s just part of urban living.
WELL NOT ANYMORE!!!! It is as peaceful as a cottage in the country here now!
I’m sitting by the window and I can see the cars going by on the highway out of my peripheral vision. I see them whizzing past but I do not hear them! I hear nothing! It’s soooooo weird. You know what I hear instead? Crickets. The crickets living in our house are putting on quite a concert. I guess I never really noticed them before because the constant buzz of road noise blocked them out. It’s surreal what a difference real windows that actually fit make.
I’m in love with them!
Everything is just brighter and cleaner and quieter and warmer. Better better better all around. Although the newness does make the rest of the house look like it’s falling down even more. I guess I’m going to have to break down and make a new couch cover after all. The one we have now looks like bird puke next to our new white windows.
The guys who installed the windows said this would happen. They said, first you fix the windows and then you have to repaint and next thing you know you’re fixing up your whole place. We’ll see. We don’t own this place so it’s hard to justify investing a lot of money into it and our landlord certainly isn’t interested.
We paid for these windows to be put in ourselves with a spectacular agreement with our landlord: that she won’t raise the rent for two years. This is really cool since we used to live under the constant threat of eviction. She’s a crazy old lady and we know the property value is more than we pay in rent. We knew our days were numbered. But with our new agreement (on paper! in ink!) we’re good for two more years. It’s kind of nice to know that one thing is not going to change for two years when the rest of your future is up in the air.
Of course getting the smudges off them is a whole other story. That just might take two years of elbow grease.
More photos here.
-
News from the Shop!
Wow. What can I say? I’m wordless… almost. I am never wordless but I just don’t know where to begin.
First: Thank you. Thank you to everyone who shopped in my shop today and bought alphabet cards. You guys rocked my world. Thank you.
It was a bit of a risk for me to get these printed. I hate spending money that I don’t really have but there seemed to be so much interest. I seriously wavered on it. I had no idea a shop would be so successful. I mean, I knew everyone wanted them but I was worried the price was too high, etc, etc, etc.
So thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Second: I’m shipping out gift tags daily but the flash cards will not go out until the end of this week. The muslin bags are being sewn as we speak. I cannot thank my Oregonian seamstress sister-in-law enough. She is working so hard making these so nice! If you think of it, drop her a line and tell her she rocks. Because she does. I think I need to give her a raise or two.
I just put an order in to the printer for another set of 50. I can’t believe these sold so quickly. As of 9 pm there are still 17 sets left but they are selling like hotcakes! Who knew! Apparently you guys did and I was clueless. I hope my sister-in-law can keep up because I think her bags really make the package.
Shipping of the gift tags seems to be going well but I did find one extra tag on the floor after I had mailed my first batch off. So if you ended up with 11 tags instead of your proper 12, email me and I will fix you up. I’m so sorry about that.
I’m kind of intimidated by all the orders I need to fill this week. I’ve had a few mix ups already on my etsy shop (sent poor Davenport the Lumpy Cat all the way to the east coast when he was supposed to go one county over) but thankfully my customers are really super nice and very understanding.
If I screw up any of your orders in any way, please let me know and I will find a way to make it right. I’m going to be very careful and only work on one envelope at a time. It shouldn’t be that hard since I’m only really selling the tags and the cards. But who knows. I’m so right-brained sometimes, I can’t even count.
But that’s okay, because we have rounded corners! Round corners make everything okay.
Third: I still need to make a downloadable pdf. I would do that tonight but I am swamped! It’s the holidays and I have several Christmas-card jobs I’m working on for clients! Ack! I think I will get the pdf done tomorrow. I have some questions first though.
I’ve made some changes on the cards that are for sale. They now feature the lower case and the upper case together. It would be easiest for me to offer that same layout as a pdf. BUT I know some people have been diligently collecting the freebies and might be missing only one letter. I’d hate to mess up your set with one card that has both upper and lower case. At the same time I want to give you the most bang for your buck. Leave me some comments or emails so I can decide what to do. I could do both but that will take even more time.
And lastly, maybe there is someone new here and has no idea what I’m talking about! Hi! Nice to meet you. Here is a link.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you and Happy Shopping! I will be doing my best to make sure your purchases are tip-top and timely. And if it says “sold out” click back later. I will print more as long as there is a demand.
