And After a Long Hiatus...

...I'm back! It's been a rough year, trying to grow the business. Really rough. Summer was, well, an exercise in remaining positive? I don't know what it was, just emotionally draining. But you have to take all the downs and find ways to turn them back up.

Since February:

• Did my first show in San Antonio; great success and hope to return next April
• We lost T's Grandpa at 102; spent time with his family in Brownsville
• I picked up a part time job in May at a store I enjoy, where I work really hard and get paid very little. But I mostly enjoy it and generally get the hours that I want.
• There was a fun trip to Washington DC in August (pictures still need to be edited for sharing on the travel blog; I'll share when ready)
• Now I'm prepping for the holidays, both personally and professionally.

I promise to not be a stranger!

Cheers!

Me in DC, Jazz in the Park

Occurrences, Week of 2.7.14

Reading: Personal Velocity

Watching: More Dexter while working, and caught up on Downton Abbey, Sherlock & The Following. 

Listening: New 90s playlist plus the usual The Smiths station

Eating / Drinking: Surprisingly I made steaks for dinner! But that's about it- still baked oatmeals for breakfast and light snacks/lunches. Boring.

Learning: Last Friday night, T challenged me to learn the bass line for Otherside. I of course rose to the challenge and my fingers hurt- I haven't played bass in ages! It's funny that neither of us are big RHCP fans, but even I have to admit, it's a pretty good bass line.

Corresponding: Sent out a birthday card to my Grandma

Creating: Lots of jewelry!

Working: Had a show on Saturday so prepped for that, and created some new designs. 

Goals / Resolutions: Exercising 6 days a week! I feel a little slimmer but the scale isn't telling me it's true. Telling myself that while I'm weighing the same, i'm swapping chub for firm, so it's okay. Jeans are getting loose in the butt, might need to go shopping soon!

Cheers,
ashley 

A Skully Christmas

Happy Last Week of the Year! This week is always difficult for me (though not in a bad way). Christmas is over and it's always so much fun that it's sad when it's over, but the New Year is a week away and there are always tasks to complete by then, the most important being the goal-setting & resolution-making. I take my goals very seriously, especially when it comes to my business. Last year, I was determined to take it full-time, and I did that. Now I need to make it grow. So these next few days will be setting my goals and listing the steps needed to achieve them. (Personal resolutions, too. Lots to think about...)

But back to Christmas. So far, we've had three Christmases: an early one with Mom, brother, and his girlfriend, Christmas eve with Mom, Christmas day with Dad, stepmom, grandparents, brother & girlfriend. And since my brother's gifts didn't arrive in time, there will be another christmas. Darn : )

There seemed to be a bit of a theme with a few of the gifts I received this year:

Sealing wax stamp

Clutch/Wristlet

Awesome sparkly necklace from Prague, my new Go To piece :)

What can I say, I love the skulls! And my family knows that.

I hope you had a lovely holiday, however you chose to celebrate it (or not!) For me, christmas means Family, Food & Fun, and that I had.
Bring on the new year!

Cheers,
ashley

The Quietness of Working from Home

This morning I got an early start; was pulling type for a specimen sheet shortly after T left for work. Had a Pandora radio station playing The Smiths, with lots of 80s and Joy Division sprinkled in. It was nice and productive; and digging through the type drawers is strangely relaxing. Dirty as hell, but relaxing. Just had the fan blowing, and when the temperature hit 85* I called it a morning. Was at a stopping point and very hungry, so it was time.

After cleaning up, I made myself a little lunch (salad with goat cheese, sandwich with ham slices & some leftover Brie):

Before I opened my book, I was pleasantly surprised by how quiet the house was. The cats were all dozing, the a/c hadn't kicked on yet and I turned off the music when finished printing. There was the slightest hum from traffic, and a ceiling fan was on. That was it, and it was so nice.

In the middle of my lunch, my phone rang- it was my replacement from the law firm. She hated to bother me but didn't know who else to ask as the people in the office who would know were both out. I'm always happy to help, and after I made a couple suggestions and we hung up, I laughed: I don't have to deal with document productions any more! Huge productions in zipped files, needing to save them to specific places and copy certain people and make the proper notations... yeah, I don't need to worry about that stuff any more.
And if that isn't motivation for making inviting a success, I don't know what is!

After lunch, photographed the new wedding design that I printed, got that listed in the shop, did Quickbooks for the week, and worked on finding more samples for the Personalized Stationery brag book/catalog to take to shows for pre-orders.

Now, the a/c is on, PBS is streaming some American Experience, but the cats are still quiet and I'm feeling ready to make my list for tomorrow and to work on a PWaT project, calling inviting done for the day, with the exception of working on an interview for This Creative Life.

Hope your day has been as quiet and productive as mine. It's tea time.
Cheers,
ashley

Cha-Cha-Cha-Cha-Changes

Well, I did it. I quit the day-job on Friday.

Had a small party that night, which served as a pretty good distraction: party planning outweighs almost all other concerns. :) A few now-former coworkers showed up which was very nice. Friends, family & drinks. All good things.

Didn't get a picture of the set up, but the evening's cocktail was The Paloma: tequila, grapefruit soda, and lime juice. Made it in the punch bowl so I didn't need to mix all night. Basically, in the punch bowl, 2 bottles of Jarritos grapefruit soda + 20 oz of tequila, and a thing of lime juice from the produce section. Sounds like a LOT of tequila, but it didn't taste like it. Also, used another bottle of the mexican soda to make the ice ring in a bundt cake pan. (Should have made two, as it melted pretty quickly.) But it was good. So refreshing!

And Sunday was my birthday. Happy birthday to meeee, I'm unemployed!

What's Happening In My World

Listening to

• Pandora stations for Santigold and a Chillville mix (think Thievery Corporation with some Moby and light belly dancing music; it's good for mornings).
• ipod has a 90s mix playing in the car. Been fun listening to music I bought in high school.

Watching

• Longmire 
• Inspector Lewis
• The Fall
• Dexter
• Breaking Bad
• X-Men First Class
• The Avengers

Reading

Baking

• attempted pull-apart pastries like the coffee shop at work. Not very successful. Next recipe!

Cooking

• Pasta sauce with pork (YUM). Other than that, it's been a toast, soup and freezer-meal week.  

Drinking

• Daily Soy Chai Lattes from homemade concentrate. First attempt had WAY too much vanilla. Second was better. Getting closer to mimicking the Tazo Chai box... Perhaps within two more tries? And once I feel I've succeeded, I'll share my recipe. 
• Lemon water? Seriously, I'm so boring these days!! Miss cocktails so those will come in the near future, plus I set up a bar tray on the sideboard. It is totally encouraging martinis!
  
  

  

  Fresh mint, texas vodka, silver tray of Grandma M's, tiny cocktail glasses from Mom, vintage stirrers from the Austin Flea.

Projects

• New e-store for inviting, updating photos for website
• Crocheting a small infinity scarf to keep me warm in the studio this winter

Health / Fitness

• Some ballet fit / Ballet Beautiful moves daily
• Adding walking/jogging to weekend routine. Will alternate with the ballet workouts daily once I...

Looking Forward To

• ...take inviting full-time! 
• My birthday later this month!