My First Jewelry Show and Other Stuff

Last week was my very first solo Jewelry Home Show. It went well. Very well in fact! I made almost $450 for less than 3 hours worth of work! But that was just the icing on the cake. The part I really enjoyed was just sharing all the beautiful jewelry and entertaining the guests. I got quite a few laughs so that helped to boost my confidence. It also helped that when I looked out to the crowd, there were lots of familiar, friendly faces. That made all the difference in the world! So I am thinking that I am going to like this jewelry business. I had better because I have a bit invested in it! I have several more shows booked for the next month so I should be busy, which is good. I am much better when there is a lot for me to do. If I am caught up (doesn't happen often!) I kind of flounder and that is when the lazy starts to creep in!

Hopefully, this month we will complete the purchase of a house for my husband's business. Right now, there are 4 of them trying to work in the little outbuilding that houses my washer and dryer. It is small and there is no bathroom so guess where they all go??? I am a little funny about my bathrooms and don't like people traipsing in and out of them all day when they don't live here. Plus, the bathroom that gets used is right next to the kitchen. I spend all day in the kitchen (cooking, homeschooling)and there are few things worse than hearing what is going on in the bathroom. Okay, smelling is worse but they are both pretty bad! The new office will be right at the end of our road (about a mile from the house) and there will be 2 bathrooms for their potty-ing pleasure! It will be nice to have them all in a bigger space. They will have a full kitchen along with a dining/conference room. There is plenty of space for their desks and office paraphernalia. There will also be space for an office for me!!! At first, I really didn't want one. I am busy enough at the house and didn't think I would really spend that much time at the office but now that my business is in full swing, I am getting really excited about having my own space. I never realized how much STUFF I would need to keep on hand, paperwork-wise. Hubs wants to get everything business related out of the house and into the new office so that, when he comes home, he's home.

On the farm front, Babe the pig is growing everyday. So much so that we are trying to get her new, permanent pen ready while she is still small-ish enough to move without too much trouble. We had to get her a new water trough yesterday. She has this fascination with shaking and emptying her water pan as soon as we fill it up. It's annoying. Okay, it's a little cute when she grabs it and shakes it or when she crawls inside and rolls around until if flips over but she must learn NOT to do that! She has such a great personality! When she hears someone come outside, she starts to grunt and wag her tail until you come over and talk to her. Since we had a ton of rain the other day and her pen was so wet, I had the kids spread some fresh dry straw all around so she could have some dry areas to go to. Babe takes the piles of dry straw in her mouth and puts them in her "house". She has piled so much straw in her house that you can't see her when she goes in. There is a huge misconception about pigs. They are not dirty animals. They like to keep where they sleep clean and dry so they do not "mess" in their house. Babe likes to do all kinds of housekeeping in her pen. She trades out damp, muddy straw for clean straw in her house almost daily. She finds trash in her pen and piles it up. Well, she piles up what she can't eat and so far that has only been metal. My father in law brought her the old plants from his winter garden and, instead of eating the broccoli and cabbage, she found the 2 plastic plant markers he left in the bag and ate those. I can't believe how much I love this pig! I am so glad we are not eating her!

The chickens are all doing well and have gotten back up to a good production of eggs. I am back to being able to sell them again. Crazy how a little less sun light each day can totally throw off egg production for a LLLOOONNNNGGG time. But they are happily producing daily again. I have been looking through my chicken catalog and picking out what I am going to order. We will be getting meat chickens for the first time. I am a little freaked about butchering them but I will just have to get over it. I am thinking of getting some turkeys, too. That is, if hubby will build me a place to put them AFTER he builds me a pen for the meat chickens! Yes, hubs is very busy for me this time of year!

It is also time to get the raised beds ready for spring! I am ashamed to say I haven't touched them since the end of my summer garden. My work is cut out for me! I have been perusing the seed catalogs and have pretty much picked out what I want. I really want to grow much more than I did last year. Every year is a learning experience and I learned that I need to grow MUCH more to keep us in veggies/fruit for the year. One step at a time...

One great thing that is almost finished is the pool deck. All that is left is the small stairs on one side and painting/staining. The pool will be ready as soon as the water warms (or we get that pool heater we have been wanting!) Hubby and our son have worked so hard on the railing that goes all the way around. Our boy learned to use the chop saw and cut every single piece of wood for the railing BY HIMSELF! He only messed up 2 boards. I am so proud of him! He reads the tape measure like pro and doesn't call out stupid measures like his mama. I am famous for measuring something and telling hubby to cut it "2 ticky marks past the 7"! My boy just laughs at me and says " Mom, that's 7 and a quarter." Yep, 2 ticky marks past the 7.

Well, I just can't think of anything else to add. I know I haven't been posting very much. Been trying to balance the whole homeschool, taking care of the house/property and now jewelry business and some things have just had to go by the wayside a bit. That includes my cooking. We have been out of bread for 2 weeks now and I just haven't had time to make any. We have also eaten out more than I care to (My stomach is really rebelling). I will get back to being here more regularly once I get a little better at this juggling. Plus, I want to share this beautiful jewelry with you!