Random on a Monday

Above: fascinator I made last night and listed on Etsy today.


Firstly, some random information that I must get off my chest:

I cannot think of a piece of meat that isn't improved by boiling it in beer, preferably with jalapenos.

I completely understand, after getting 'help' from a 2-year old while making pumpkin bread, why people just go buy a bag of Chips Ahoy.

I'm going to the PASA conference, taking a class at the Pittsburgh Knit & Crochet Festival on making recycled yarn, and going to my first Penguins game all during February. I am making up for lost 'adult time' all in one go, apparently.

Am I the only person who thinks that my time and effort are important enough to be certain I have given accurate invoices to the people who sell me stuff? Our co-op has far, far more surplus money as of 31 December than we should, presumably because I have not been giving the growers credit for everything they sold. Why, you ask? Because quite a few people have been selling themselves short by giving me incomplete invoices, and then apparently they never realized. Money is too tight in my world to make that sort of mistake!

I know I need to make more jewelry and fascinators. That's my primary occupation, and in the depths of frigid Pennsylvania winter, my commission from the co-op isn't going to be much for the next few weeks. I don't want to start preparing for spring and early summer festivals, though. I want to go through all my seed catalogs, decide what type of chickens to get, buy a drop spindle and try my hand at some other fiber arts, make soap (properly) for the first time. . . there's no time in all of that to string beads and glue feathers to things. I'm knitting my daughter a pair of socks. Without a pattern. I'm about to make a batch of root beer for the kid, since just making beer for myself doesn't do her any good. . . I'd like to try my hand at making mead, but thirteen pounds of honey doesn't just drop on one's doorstep!
People seem to think that being self-employed means that you have nothing but free time. Absolutely wrong! I probably work more hours than alot of people who work for other people. I love having this part-time job for the co-op, in spite of the problems we've been experiencing with our supply chain recently, but sometimes that job on top of everything else is a bit much for me to work with!