So anyway, I’ve got this dilemma. Basically.

May 10th is supposed to be my first craft fair of the year but it’s also a day Steve will have to work, the college graduation ceremony for my sister-in-law (60 miles south of me), and the college graduation ceremony for my sister and soon-to-be brother-in-law (40 miles north of me). Someone else invited me to do something, too, but I’ve already, obviously, had to decline that! I was registered for the fair first, I did that probably in January, secondly invited to the first graduation, and thirdly to the second graduation with pizza and cake following. Chances are, the first graduation will take longer than the second and with Steve working, I have neither help with dealing with Elijah during a ceremony nor help with the fair. Since he wouldn’t be there should I do the fair, I also would have to borrow my parents’ trailer and drive that alone (I can’t get everything for an outdoor fair into the Jeep); normally we’d take the Jeep and his pickup and that would be fine. I would also be completely alone because I’m not going to ask Sarah (my usual helper) to miss the first graduation, that of her sister. So I’d also be dealing with Elijah myself and he’s not usually a happy camper at fairs unless he’s being walked around constantly or allowed to run free which can’t happen when I’m by myself.

So, what to do?

Steve acts like I have paid for the fair therefore I should do it. But then again, I have no help. I can drive the trailer, it’s the parking and the backing up and such that I don’t think I can do. I’ve practiced a bit backing up – last year – and I just wasn’t good enough then. Since then we’ve not even had the trailer, it’s currently 40 miles away, so I’d also have to go get it and I don’t have much of any time to practice between now and the 10th.

Maybe I’ll call my friend that does jewelry and if she’s not already registered for the fair, maybe she’ll want to take my spot… I guess they would allow that? Back to square one here, I called and that won’t be allowed because I’m already close to someone who will be selling jewelry and they don’t want to put competitors close together. I understand that, but it means I’m back to no solutions.

Bah.

So what’s been going on?

I’m here waiting for my friend to get here.  She’s got some appoinment here in my town and is coming over afterward, she should be here any minute.

I finally bought Hairspray on DVD the other night.  The local movie store had a buy two get two free sale again on previewed movies.  That’s about the only time I ever buy DVDs these days.  So I got Hairspray, Ocean’s Thirteen, Premonition, and Perfect Stranger.  Perfect Stranger is the only one I haven’t seen yet.  Saw Premonition when we had that girls’ party several months ago and enjoyed that.  I was going to get Deja Vu as I liked that movie, but thought Steve would like Ocean’s Thirteen better.  He kind of complained about it though, I don’t know what his deal is.  But we both ended up enjoying it I think.  Not bad when considering I’ve tried to watch Twelve twice and neither time have made it all the way through…

Um, been doing more digital scrapbooking, of course:

Also, today those three that I ordered came in.  They turned out great but one of them printed smaller at 7.25″ square instead of an even 8.  Not sure why that is.  But I think those that I printed myself turned out just as good.  Granted, if you really really look, you can tell they were done on my printer but for the most part, they’re great.  I’ve loaded all the pages I’ve done into a scrapbook now and they look awesome.

I’ve run into a bit of trouble with ink, though.  I used to take all my old cartridges to Staples and get a $3 voucher for each one of them, right?  Once I took in 8 and so I got $24, so I spent less than $10 on a pack of color and black ink.  However, recently, Staples instituted this new policy that you can’t use more than 3 of the vouchers at a time.  So the last time I only got $9 off my purchase and went home with $9 in vouchers that subsequently expired a couple of months later.  You see, the nearest Staples is about 60 miles from me.  So last week we happened to notice a store in a town half an hour from here that’s called Cartridge World.  I went in there last week with five cartridges and bought refilled ones, black for something like $9 each and color for $11.something each.  Of course, my printer totally freaked when I put in one of the black ones.  AND, today it was printing blank, I only used it a handful of times.  I certainly didn’t get $9 + tax worth of ink out of it.  So, yeah, they’re going to hear from me next time I’m in that town… :P

Did I mention that my friend is always late, no matter where she goes?

I’ve been selling Nutmeg & Cedar candles like crazy.  That’s always good.  :)  Have a new batch going now, it helps with that scent to always have some wax on hand ready to pour.  My big problem though, is that I’m under jar shortage.  The places I buy them seem to have stopped carrying them and now they’ve gone out of season.  I’m grabbing them from wherever I can get them but none are really the type I want.

A website and a few other things I did brought me a very lovely thank you card with a crisp $100 bill inside today.  I totally wasn’t expecting that and it was a nice surprise.  If you’re out there — thanks :)

Been trying to make Elijah clean his room up.  Seems that telling him to clean his room is the only sure way to get him to play with his toys.  Each time I check on him seems his room is messier than the last time… including the stuff I helped him clean up.  Guess it will be a never-ending battle.

Didn’t make it to the gym today.  I want to go back to going twice a week but honestly don’t want to pay for it.  :P  I still need to call our insurance to see if they cover memberships at all.  I keep forgetting during business hours.  But I know I can’t go work out on Thursday so I wanted to do Monday and Wednesday this week.  Looks like it’s going to be Tuesday and Wednesday or Friday.  :P

My class starts up again in three weeks.  I have until then to figure out what to do with the boys and my friend and I could work out together afterward.

Ohh think my friend is here…

So as Steve and Elijah are standing in line to get a free mini-baseball thing a real estate company was giving out to the kids, he called and said he was tired of holding the umbrella. I was kinda like, “well what do you want me to do about it?” Lol. Sarah and I were sitting in the booth playing our patron game of Mancala and had nothing else to do. It was raining enough that people were just walking by and not even stopping to look at anything (not just my booth, about 98% of people were not carrying purchased merchandise, either). I couldn’t help but wonder why they were there in the first place if they were just going to walk down the street in the rain then leave. Of course, that would be the people that actually showed up, only about 5% of the crowd from previous years. So he called again and said that he didn’t care what Sarah and I did, he and E were leaving when they got out of the baseball bat line. That would leave me and Sarah to sit there for hours alone because it would take both vehicles to get everything out of there so we started packing up and were almost finished by the time the boys got back.

While we were packing up, the guy next to us and a passerby were trying to convince me to stay. They kept saying the rain would let up soon, but it obviously never did while we were there. We were not the first to leave early either, many didn’t even show up in the first place. But the guy next to me really caught me off-guard with that because he didn’t even have a tent! He and his wife sat there under umbrellas in the rain all day! I don’t think he moved for six hours, I am not kidding. So you’d think he’d want to leave before we did…

We left right at 1pm, having loaded everything back up in the rain. My boxes were all wet. This has happened once before, but this time every box was wet in some manner whereas last time it was just the bottom ones (we stack them under the table). One of the boxes was so bad that I had to wrap it in a table cloth to keep it in tact. They’re all pretty much useless now. I had to throw one away and try to fit the candles that came from it into a tub with smaller candles. Got all but four in there, had to put those four in the cooler. That was interesting because I forgot about them until that evening and when I pulled them out they were ice cold and waterlogged. They dried out nicely though. ;-)

But while it was raining, at least Elijah had some fun. He’s a weird kid, I tell you what. He throws a fit when I wash his hair but he was totally out playing in the rain despite Steve’s constant threats. He kept playing with that orange #20 Tony Stewart car he and Steve made months ago at Home Depot in the water until the paint was totally running and there was orange everywhere… his hands, arms, my white table cloths, my leg… His car did NOT dry out nicely, unlike the candles. It’s faded, missing even more stickers than before, the wood glue dissipated and the wood is warped. There are spaces between the pieces of wood now, he keeps asking me what’s wrong with it. Can’t say we didn’t try to warn him. But no, he just kept running it through puddles and yelling, “I won! I won! I won the Piston Cup!”

Yes, a day wasted. Fees and gas money and food money (where we normally would not have eaten out) down the drain… but I’ll do that one next year. Just the chance you take with these craft fairs. Another reason why I will eventually be only an internet and other-method-of-selling business. I hate craft fairs. There’s a few I guess I could stand to continue to do for however long they last… indoor ones in the fall. Sarah and I can do indoor fairs just the two of us, especially if it’s one where I rent tables (then we don’t have to cart any around).

Of course, my consolation was that while we were out there wasting time, later I found, there were people on my website placing orders. Shipped those today. ;-)

I was just able to delete the due dates of the Best Buy credit card and the old central bill account for Little Light from calendar. (I plot not only every place I have to be but the days the bills are due and what bills I’m going to pay each week – doing this has really helped out!)

Monthly bills for Little Light now? Two and a half. ;-)

The half is the computer I had to buy last December, it’s half business and half personal use so I trade off how it’s paid on each month. And if things keep going like they are, I should have it paid off before the interest kicks in. I’ve been pretty surprised on the headway I’ve made so far, actually.

But anyway, I actually have a credit on the Best Buy card of $100.88. Long story. I’ll get it back, of course, but it sucks that I have to wait another 30 days. I called about it today when I realized that, having canceled then paid off the card last week, to see what they were going to do about it. The guy almost acted like they would have done nothing had I not called! He then said they’ll be mailing me a check. So once I get that check, I will finally and officially be absolutely done with Worst Buy!

Ahhh, feels good :)

Recently I changed my shopping cart program and released a whole new site. Customers can now create accounts, wishlists, and offer reviews. I have several photos for some scents. I need to take better photos of all of them though! I’m not too sure I like the design – it’s a little too girlie for me, hehe – but others that have given me feedback say they like it. So I guess it will do for now (at least it’s not pink). :)

Anyway, my point. I can also offer some specials and stuff with coupon codes, so here goes, for my spoken-for.org readers only. :)

Enter code SF07VMP with a minimum $10 purchase and receive a free Vanilla Maple Pecan 1/4 pint. Spend $30 and get a 1/2 pint, using the same code. This scent is a bakery-like scent, like pecan & vanilla cookies with a hint of maple. This scent is not available directly, it is only available with this offer.

There are also a few more sales going on at the website such as “grab bags” and more, so check it out!

This Little Light of Mine

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Oooh, sale is now ended, but watch here as well as there for more sales in the future ;-)

Any takers? :-) I love you!

Hehe, seriously, if some of you wouldn’t mind doing this, leave me a comment, will ya? Then I’ll send you the temporary URL. Thanks :)