• Bad Mom,  Bug,  Family Matters,  Shop Talk,  Tis the Season

    regarding my lack of web presence

    envelope elf

    Greetings from the Shipping and Receiving Department! You might as well call my living room the north pole because there are toys being made (flash cards) and there are elves. My elves just happen to not be very helpful.

    "helping"

    Baby Bug thinks it’s great fun to empty my warehouse size box of envelopes, 250 at a time and the cats? They think all these new flat surfaces with paper on them are special beds just for them.

    Lily

    Yesterday I had to call in reinforcements. The Grandmas. It was a two Grandma day. The Grandmas are great. They might not be good at peeling stickers and ironing on decals but they are very good at playing with Baby Bug and making gravy.

    Have I ever told you about Toby’s undying love for gravy? In his book, it is one of my fatal flaws that I am not fascinated by the process of which one makes gravy. Ugh. I just can’t be bothered. I don’t know how to make it and who needs all those extra calories anyway? Apparently, Toby does because he’s always asking me to watch his mom and learn how to make it. I’ve tried but I’ve been a dismal failure so far.

    I’d much rather be peeling stickers and ironing on decals. How can I think about the art of mixing flour and oil to the right consistency when I have characters in my head just dying to get out and be illustrated? Sigh. I keep forgetting that he pays me to be the housewife and mom and he barely tolerates my little side business I have going on. But that doesn’t mean I can’t pan the gravy job off on his mom when she is here!

    One Grandma had to go home but my mom is still here. I think I might force her to stay all week so I can get caught up with work (tis the season!) I’ll have to take more pictures today. The ones I took are pretty pathetic. No wonder everyone always complains about being too busy to blog. I guess this is what that feels like.

    Shop news: Orders are being filled. Bags are here and first set of 50 cards are printed. Second set will arrive today! I’ll post when I send out the first batch.

  • Bug,  na blow me,  Shop Talk

    Day Thirty: LAST DAY! LAST DAY!

    rain boots IN THE RAIN

    You know what today is? Of course you do. IT’S THE LAST DAY OF NABLOPOMO!!! You know what I’ll be doing tomorrow? Of course you do!!! I’LL NOT BE POSTING! Woooo Hoooo. So give yourself a break and don’t click over here tomorrow. Don’t even worry about missing anything because I will be baby-sitting and therefore out of wifi existence anyway. Phew. It’s been a long month.

    It really is true that if you can do something for more than 21 days it becomes a habit. Every night now, as I put Baby Bug down and am so tempted to let myself slide into slumber beside her, I’ll have that nagging feeling telling me:
    “NO! You can’t sleep! You have to blog!” But then I’ll smile and remember that it’s December now and nobody cares. Like Chatty Housewife commented, “NO MO PO MO!”

    Today was a good day.

    finally real puddles to splash in!

    First of all it rained which was kind of a novelty. Baby Bug actually got to use her rain boots for their intended purpose. Too bad they are too big and she actually walked right out of them a few times and got her socks sopping wet. It was fun punching around in a few puddles. Then I got bored and forced her to play in the living room while I commenced Operation Gift Tag and sent out a zillion orders!

    gift tags, all packaged up and ready to go!

    Not really a zillion but enough to make me wonder what I got myself into. I love having a little shop. I just never remember how much work it is making things. I had to make sure I finished cleaning up the big mess before Toby woke up or I think he would disown me. It is his pet peeve when I make giant messes doing my “arts and crafts”. But what can I say. I’ve always been this way. At least I’m good at cleaning up.

    packaging

    Guess what else happened today? The alphabet cards were printed and THEN I took them to a bindery shop and they chopped all the corners round for me for FREEEEEEE! I know! I can barely believe my luck myself. It certainly didn’t seem real when it was happening.

    I had to drive way into Santa Ana to find this place—which to an Orange County Housewife is the equivalent to driving into the deepest jungles of the Congo. Everything was different. The streets weren’t smooth and wide. I thought for sure I was going to get carjacked. But finally my trek paid off and I pulled up outside a giant warehouse deep in an industrial park.

    Before I could even get Baby Bug out of her car seat, a nice man ran out of the warehouse and offered to help me carry in my box of letter cards. It wasn’t even a very big box but it was heavy and I did have a wiggly kid on my hip. I was very thankful for the help. I walked up to an outdoor counter and stood under one of those outdoor heaters. So nice. I love those heaters. It’s like they knew I was coming and made it cozy for me and Bug.

    Like a dork, I stumbled around for my words. I’d never been to a bindery before and I had no idea what to expect. Did I need an account? A resale license? Should I have brought my business checkbook? I finally spit out that I needed my alphabet cards corners rounded. The guy at the counter asked me what size I wanted my corners to be. I shrugged and said, “I don’t know, whatever is standard.” I guess I said something right because he ripped up my order form and hustled me off to a waiting room while he cut my cards for FREE! How cool is that?

    The guys in the warehouse also spent a good amount of time paying attention to Baby Bug so maybe we got the job free on account of her good looks, I don’t know. But I’m not going to complain.

    So there you have it. The official update on the cards is this: They are printed and they have rounded corners! Woooo Hooo! I expect to get a prototype of the muslin bags tomorrow. I will take pictures of the cards and bag and post them on Etsy on Monday! From there my sister-in-law will sew the bags and ship them to me and I will be filling orders as quickly as I can.

    We might just make the Christmas deadline after all!