Introducing Hillary

Wow, three entries in one day.  What did you guys do to deserve this?  It was either really good or really bad.  :)

Anyway, I wanted to take a moment to introduce you to Hillary of 57 Design Studio.  She hasn't had much to say lately due to some home renovations but having redone my basement early last year I can totally understand how busy she is.  I'm sure you can all join me in sympathizing with her and wishing her lots of luck on her project.  Be sure to check her out :)

Chiropractic care for dogs

I have an almost ten year old German Shedder named Summer.  Last year I came home from work one day to walk in on her screaming in pain.  No one was home, she had no obvious injury, but she was limping badly.  I rushed her to the vet where they took xrays and diagnosed her with Arthritis.  I have arthritis myself and know the pain of it so felt really bad for her.  

The vet gave me some anti-inflamatories for her and suggested I try to get her to loose some weight and get her to exercise more.  I did both and after a year of the pills and exercise of at least a mile a day (she lost 11lbs, I only lost 5) she is doing better but there is still room for improvement.

My vet suggested that one thing I might try was a chiropractic adjustment.  I talked to my chiro and it turned out that he was the one who went to my vets office to do the adjustments.  So tonight I took her to the chiropractor.  I wasn't sure how she'd react but she didn't seem to bothered by the whole process.   The chiro said that in a couple days she'll be a bit stiffer than normal but that it will loosen up and I'll notice a huge improvement.  I'm looking forward to seeing if he's right and seeing if this helps my Summer girl :)

In the meantime, has anyone else taken their dog to the chiropractor?  I would love to hear about your experience.  I will be sure to update you all on what happens with Summer.

This is Summer and her companion Spike. Spike is a boxer/lab mix.

Spotlights by ByHand

I just wanted to show everyone a great new way to show off your work when you sell on multiple venues.  It is called a Spotlight and it was created by ByHand.me.  If you go to the bottom of this page you can see a Spotlight in action right now.

It is very easy to use.  You register at ByHand.me and then in the upper right corner of the screen you choose New Spotlight.  Then simply follow the directions on the page until you've selected your nine items you want to spotlight from the various venues.  If you decide you would like the items in a different order you can just click on an item you want to move and drag it to where you want it to go.  Then the two items will switch places.  It is very easy and a lot of fun.  

You can spotlight your items, your friends items, items that just caught your attention for any reason at all.  

Once the spotlight is done it will show up in 'My Spotlights' in the upper right corner of your screen.  Go there, hover over the little planet icon next to the spotlight you want to share, and a grey box will appear.  At the top of the box are sizes of spotlight you can choose from (the one at the bottom of this page is the full size).  Select one and the html code will appear.  Then you can paste the code into a blog, a website, or whereever you want.  There is even code provide for sites that don't support Java.  

Simple, fun, and free what more could you want?  Now go forth and Spotlight!  :)

My New old blog

Years ago when I started blogging, I started out here on Blogger.  Then, I stopped blogging.  I don't know why.  But when I started up again I was on Wordpress.  Again, I don't know why I changed.  Anyway, after using Wordpress for a while I have decided I like some of the functionality of Blogger better so I am back.  Be sure to check here frequently for sales specials and other random bits of my life that I may care to share.

Thank you

Ranting on an idiot boss

Because we are short handed and I have vacation next week I worked thru lunch today. My husband was sweet and got me lunch from McD's. I had him get me Chicken Selects and a Shamrock shake. No big deal, hubby gets me lunch fairly often. So I'm sitting there at my desk eating and working when my boss comes up to me and decides my lunch needs some sort of comment. He mentions that he doesn't recognize them as something from McD's and I tell him what they are. He comments then that they are a more rugged version of the chicken mcnugget and how they would go camping. He then babbles about how the chicken mcnuggets would be taken on a camping trip but chicken selects would go camping by themselves. Yes, that's right folks. My boss thinks that McD's chicken selects can go camping without any human intervention. The man has finally flipped his lid, its time to put some chlorine in the gene pool 57yrs to late. Still confused in Wisconsin, Heather

Baking Leperachaun eyeballs - or what to do when your hubby's away

My husband is in sunny Florida while I'm stuck in dreary Wisconsin. So, how do I keep myself occupied? Why I hunt down Leperachauns and bake their eyeballs. I have a fabulous recipe if you are interested. Actually I'm just teasing you. Everyone knows you broil Leperachaun eyeballs not bake :) But in actuality I am making polymer clay beads for St. Patty's day. I am working on some pot of gold beads, 4 leaf clover beads, and leperachaun head beads. I am hoping to sell them on ebay when they are done. I'm also working on my newest addition to my business. I am going to offer polymer clay birthday parties for kids. I will bring a bunch of clay and tools and let the kids go nuts. Hopefully it will go over well. We have lots of kids in our neighborhood that are of the appropriate age so once I finish my brochure I will be distributing it to hopefully get the word out. Wish me luck. More later, Heather

Venting on the firing of a coworker

Would someone please just shoot me now! February is our busiest month. We bill for 2/3rds of our year end products in February which means tons of extra data entry and my boss decides that yesterday is the perfect time to fire one of my coworkers. Now, granted, the woman was a putz and wasn't working out but at least she was doing something. Couldn't he have let her stay till the end of the month? Or if he had to fire her sooner than later why did he wait until now? Why couldn't he have gotten rid of her in early January so we could have had a replacement by now? *Sigh* sorry for the rant but this isn't the first time my boss has pulled off an ill-timed manuever with little regard for those of us who have to deal with the effects of his decision. Ah well, the jewelry thing is picking up so maybe I will be able to quit my job soon. Hey, if I'm going to dream I might as well dream big right? Time for me to go, I gotta hunt down a reasonably priced heart shaped ruby. I have a client who wants me to sent one in a polymer clay rose and turn it into a pendant.

A dog's life

Ok, so I'm taking some time out for me after a very busy day. I finished 12 red hat pins and made a bunch of bracelets and earrings to send to my dad to sell at the flea market next weekend. Its been a very productive day and I'm tired. What has my dog done today? Well, she and I went for a walk. Then while I ate breakfast she slept next to me. When I worked in my studio she slept in a corner of it. Then we took another walk. And now, she is sleeping next to me again. Yup, in my next life I want to be a dog. Its gotta be nice to be able to sleep and play all day. If I am ever able to make a living by my jewelry I will get to find out because working in my studio is very much like playing to me. Despite my jealousy I do love my dog dearly. Even if she is incredibly expensive. Last week between an ear infection, her annual shots, and her OCD (obsesive compulsive disorder) she cost us over $500. I really wish pet health insurance was worth the paper the policies are printed on. I looked into a few companies and found that insurance only covered annual care and nonrecurring expenses. If Summer were to get hit by a car they'd take care of the bills but they won't cover her drugs for OCD because as one company so rudely put it "Dogs don't have mental illnesses. People who treat their dogs for mental illness need to be checked for mental illness themselves." I would love to drop Summer off at their offices for a week without her pills. Let them tell me that dogs don't get mental illnesses then, HA! Summer is a purebred (and I suspect highly overbred) german shepherd. Her OCD takes the form of tail chasing and licking to the point that she will chew the tip of her tail bloody and spray blood all over when she chases it or she will lick holes in her hide. She also has allergies and when they flare up they cause her to itch which further reinforces the chasing and licking. So that means that every day I have to give her 2 doggie downers and allergy shots on a regular schedule. She hates both but the shots are the worst. I'm not nearly as good at it as the vet is. All this doesn't matter though. I still love her dearly, she is such a sanity saver when I come home from a bad day at work I can depend on her to want nothing that isn't easily provided. A walk, food, water, an ear scratch and if she's really needy maybe a butt scratch or a toss of the tennis ball and she's happy. Much different from my boss and coworkers. (I wonder what my boss would do if I were to walk up to him and scratch him behind the ear?) Ah well, I've rambled enough, now I have some ears to scratch. Until later, Heather

Random Ramblings on a Lazy Saturday

It's another gray winter day here in Wisconsin and I am hanging out online. Why? Because I really have no reason to do anything right now. Sometimes its just nice to do absolutly nothing. Later today I will spend a few hours in my studio but for now I am just hanging out while I wait for the laundry to dry. Currently I am watch a recorded episode of What not to Wear. I love this show, some of the people they dress just crack me up and I LOVE Stacy. I would love to have her come shopping with me and tell me what to buy. I hate clothes shopping for myself. Men have it so easy, I can go to the store, buy 3 pair of pants and a few shirts for my husband and I know they will fit because they are so convienently labeled by the inch, not some randomly arrived at number the designer decided on. Women's clothing sizes have to be random because there is no other way to explain the fact that I have a dress size 8 and one size 16 in my closet and they both fit exactly the same. That is just insane. Well that's enough for right now. If I ramble to much my mind wanders and can't find its way home again, although some would say that's already happened. TTFN, Heather