This and That

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I absolutely love Seth Godin's idea for political debates.

I've written previously about the Post Secret project. Here's something similar: I am Neurotic. That noise you heard yesterday at 12:48 PM was me lol-ing at my desk at work.

To jump-start your own addiction to the site, here are a few:

triangles taste better

I can’t eat a sandwich if it is cut any way besides diagonally. When I go to Arby’s (or any other place that typically cuts sandwiches vertically) I specifically ask that they cut the sandwich diagonally. (I also apologize profusely when this happens.)

carjackers murder because of off-key singing

When I’m driving, before I can start singing along to the songs on the radio, I have to check the backseat for carjackers, because heaven forbid they hear my off-key singing and decide to kill me on principle.

a pop tart with two frosted sides...brilliant

Whenever I eat Pop-Tarts, I eat off the edges first. Then, I slide the frosty top side off and eat the non-frosted side. I then break the frosted top side of the Pop-Tart in half and stick it together so it’s a smaller Pop-Tart with two frosted sides, and I eat it that way.

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Giving In

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At the last craft show, my booth was back-to-back with my friend Jo's hand-linked jewelry booth. She was looking over my Sticky Notes and said I should stitch designs in pink and blue on brown. I knew she was right because I knew those colors are "in" - I see them everywhere.

I wondered why I hadn't done this before and I think it's because to me, they were so cliche. Like, what, red, white & blue isn't a cliche? Been done a million times? So what? I think I was thinking those colors are a fad and would be passing soon. I'm so silly sometimes. Glad I listen to my customers and friends.

I've been messing around with a new design for a couple of days and it just wasn't working. Yesterday, I started fresh at the end of the day - and this one worked out easily. Go figure.

In this design, I think I almost like the solid color stitching instead of the variegated. I know I like light stitching on dark paper so these color combinations are definitely a keeper. (I know this paper looks black here probably, but this is a really dark chocolate brown paper but I have a bunch of pieces ready to stitch on a lighter milk chocolate brown paper.)

(Thanks Jo!)

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Queen Anne's Lace Thank You Note

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I've posted Jeffery Rudell's work before - and he's at it again. Isn't this thank you note incredible? (Be sure to read the text about a previous Christmas project.) I think I've said it before - I'm a pretty good paper cutter - but I can't imagine doing something like this. For now I'll stick with my specialty of stitching designs but I guess I truly won't know if I can do this until I try. Someday.

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Tales of Two Customers

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First, a shout out to Angel, a lovely woman who stopped by my booth last weekend. She said she found out about the show from my website. She's an emerging jewelry designer trying to get into the craft show circuit. Angel - if you are reading this - please email me. I received a call from a woman the other day organizing a November Sunday craft show to benefit breast cancer. I met her at Casa Larga last year. I'd like your contact info, Angel, so I can tell you about opportunities that come my way, that you might be interested in.

Secondly, I want to tell you about the nice thank you note I received yesterday. As you know, I offer a free drawing at most shows to attract customers and gather names for my postcard and email mailing lists. It's a matching set - greeting card, Sticky Notes & wearable art pin. As I see people signing up for it, there are times I think, "Oh, I hope she wins!" But the drawing is legit, I literally draw the slip of paper at random from the glass bowl.

If all the information is present, I'll just ship the prize, no email, no phone call - so they are surprised by getting something in the mail. I write on the package, "You have won my craft show free drawing!" so they aren't suspicious of unsolicited mail and call the bomb squad or something.

So I sent the package off the day after the craft show to MT. Yesterday I received this note in the mail from her:

Dear Stefani,

I am in shock I actually won something at a Craft Fair. The gifts are outstanding & I shall wear the pin to my luncheon tomorrow & tell everyone where I got it. Fall colors are my favorite. You are so lucky to have this talent. Once again, thank you and keep on stitching.

MT

I love this stuff!

It reminds me of the time a little girl won the prize - all ladybug stuff. She was one I really wanted to win because she and her mom were so sweet. They came to a future show and thanked me.

And then there was the spring craft show at Mercy High School where I met a young artist who paints boxes exquisitely so I bought one and featured her in my blog a week or two later. Turns out the day I wrote about her was her birthday! I'd emailed her to let her know of the posting and she and her mom both emailed me their thanks. Nice.

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Sorted by Color

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I now have notepads glued into every Sticky Notes cover in my possession. Jen has another batch of circles she's gluing to covers for me. And I have a decent number of circles that I need to make covers for. But I've finally gotten to the stage I've been aiming for - having so much inventory that it warrants sorting them into storage boxes by color.

Mind you, all of these (and the other boxes of other colors not in this photo) still need embellishing and that's the time consuming part. And that's what will consume my weekend. I can't wait!

Poor cats. There's not a flat surface to be had in my studio. Even their little bed is covered up. Venus isn't worried - she's too busy catching baby mice. Oy.

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Day job update: by the end of yesterday, I could declare that the day had sucked less than the day before. Woo-hoo! While I did get a chance to talk to Jen about the workload situation and we talked to our boss, I never got a chance to talk to my team. Too busy. I did ask two of them to help with audit-related tasks, which they responded to like the champs they are. At least I can breathe now. Breathing is good.

I intend to go into work as soon as I'm done writing this and get a good jump on the audit work.

~ ~ ~

In spite of all the activity planned for Saturday, I'm determined to get as much embellishing done as possible, dammit.

Simon has gathered friends and vehicles to move the last of his stuff from his apartment to our house on Saturday. Steve and I are planning on cleaning the garage Saturday morning. We wanted Simon to help us since he has a bunch of car-related crap all over the place. But we really just want it done so we'll just do it and make one area The Simon Zone. We'll probably be done before he and his friends get moving. His definition of early and mine are hours apart.

Past experience shows the garage cleaning just takes a couple of hours. It's mostly just decluttering and sweeping.

Thus begins the chain of events that will ultimately help get my gallery in place! We'll move 2 desks out of Steve's old office in the basement into the garage to use for storage. That frees up room for Simon's stuff. And finally we can move stuff out of the den so I can turn that into my gallery, a place for customers to come pick up orders, see my work, etc.

~ ~ ~

And our new season of Geva Theatre starts Saturday so I'll be going with my friends Lynn and Linda to see the play, "Ella" Saturday afternoon, followed by dinner. I'm desperately worried that I'll fall asleep. Not that I'll be tired, but warm and comfy, in the dark, listening to smooth music?? Zzzzzzz. I just know it.

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SOS

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The stress at work I've mentioned? I knew I couldn't go on like that forever but figured I'd know when it was time to speak up. Guess that turned out to be yesterday. I realized I was a day late filing a sales tax return, which will cost the company a penalty. The NY sales tax return has odd periods, not month-to-month. We pay monthly, then quarterly too. I thought this was a monthly, due after the 22nd. Turns out it was a quarterly, due on the 22nd (because the 20th was a Saturday), which I realized on the 23rd. I have no excuse. I screwed up.

My boss stopped in my office yesterday morning to see how the audit was going (which I haven't touched, due to working on the sales tax return) so I immediately 'fessed up about the tax return. He's obviously unhappy but never gets mad, just tries to fix things and move on. I told him my bigger problem was that I can't keep up with the workload. I told him I thought I could, by putting in more hours but that wasn't enough and not a good long-term solution. (The good thing here is that, to my knowledge, he's not one to put in more than 40 hours himself.)

To his credit, he immediately took steps to see about off-loading some of my work by talking to Jen - who took my rock star employee into her department, whose work I'm overloaded with. (I took the piece that was 80% of her job, by her estimation.) I don't think that's the answer but it was worth investigating and I was glad Bob took my thoughts seriously. I think today I'm going to gather my team to see if we can hash this out - who can do what and what has to slide.

Before you ask, there's no way I'll be allowed to hire someone, even part time. I've asked. It's next to impossible to hire someone, in this economic climate especially, who is not revenue-generating. We're "overhead", don't you know?

When we lost the aforementioned rock star employee, I knew we couldn't survive efficiently long term without her. But there was no choice but to absorb her work. Time to reorganize.

~ ~ ~

Couple that with the stress of Simon moving home and I'm feeling a little defeated on all fronts. Not only do I love Simon to pieces, but I like him as a person. We have a very good relationship. But the give & take of living in this house feels a little lopsided to me. It's all a work in progress. Every day gets a bit better.

~ ~ ~

On a more pleasant note, I'm happy with my progress on the Pine Tree Designs front. I've mentioned the next show in mid-October is a biggie - so there will be plenty of time for panic before then.

And my poor neglected Etsy shop needs some attention desperately! This weekend, I must get new product posted. It's almost empty. Which is sort of a good problem to have, but not really good for current or future sales.

Enough babbling and whining, must get to work. Thanks for listening.

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Post-It Note Fun

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This blows my mind! It's color! It's Post-It Notes! It's wow!

I found this over at Lori Anderson's blog. She's a jewelry artist I found through the eSMArts team I was on for a while. She's one smart cookie and takes her business seriously. I like that.

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Turquoise Pins

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I finished up about 10 of these pins Friday night - and sold two the next morning at the craft show. Here's another 15, ready for assembly. I love them and plan to make variations in other colors.

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We're beginning Week 3 of Auditors-in-a-Row. The IRS was in our office 2 weeks ago but I had next to nothing to do with that. Last week was the IL sales tax auditor I think I mentioned. He'll be back for Round Two in a couple of weeks. And this week is one of our flooring company's quarterly audits. This will be a new auditor so there's always a little more work teaching them about our company. But it's always relatively painless. I liked the last guy a lot because there's one step where he just followed our reports, rather than asking me to pull specific files. And having a repeat auditor is always easier. Obviously, they can only repeat a specific number of times with each client. But he might come around again in a future rotation.

Other than that it's a clear week - no commitments, no appointments. Full speed ahead on Pine Tree Designs. And my poor pitiful little Etsy shop needs some serious attention. Soon, I promise.

Have a great week!

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Craft Show Review

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The craft show ended up being pretty okay. Friday was pretty slow but Saturday was better, as we expected it would be. Funny though, the hand embroidered sweatshirts on one side of me and the fabric purses on the other side of me, both seemed to have quite a bit more traffic on Friday than Saturday.

When I filled out my comment sheet at the end of the show I said I was undecided about participating next year but once I got home and counted my money :-) I think I might do it again.

I told Steve that up until now I've felt like I never wanted to turn down any craft show because I wanted the exposure. And I have really crammed a lot of shows into my schedule this fall/winter season. Part of that is because I wanted to have back-ups in case I didn't get into the bigger shows that I wanted to and part of that is because I want to compensate for the poor condition of the economy.

I think this year is a turning point for me, in that next year I'll be in a position to be more selective. At the end of the show, the organizer announced that next year it will be one week later in September - and the Friday hours will not be 10:00-4:00, but more like 12:00-8:00 or something. I think that's a good move on both points.

The other thing to consider is the quality of the show. To be perfectly honest there was more tacky stuff there than I like to see. The majority was nice stuff, I'm just sayin'. These fund raising shows tend to let anyone in.

I will say, this was the best "feel-good" show I've ever been a part of. The vendor entrance fees and proceeds from the door prizes and bake sale raised money for The Pieters' Life Center.

The Pieters Family Life Center is operated by Heritage Christian Services, a thriving, quality-driven human services agency known for innovative programs and supporting more than 1,400 children and adults with developmental disabilities.

On Friday, lots of caregivers brought their developmentally disabled students through the show. On Saturday, the more abled students volunteered at the show - to help us pack and carry at the end of the show, stuff like that. There was a real presence about the purpose of the craft show. At the end, the organizer thanked the vendors over the public address system - and the vendors broke out in applause. I've never witnessed that before!

And I ordered Mom's Christmas gift from a new-to-me artist whose work is outstanding. I wish she had a website so I could feature her work here. Can't say more than that but it's an exquisitely beautiful, useful item. I saw something for Dad, maybe, but it was a decorative piece to sit around and we tend to be more practical. And I was afraid it was just that I wanted it for me. Except apparently not that much because I didn't buy it for me either. (Yes, our gifts to each other are still primarily a donation made in honor of each other, but we give a little something too.)

I've packed up 2 orders and the free drawing set I offered at the craft show. I have lots more to do today like catch up on the week's mail and get organized for getting a bazillion more Sticky Notes prepared for gluing. The next show is Oct 18 & 19 - and it's a biggie. It's the first annual show by the Junior League of Rochester and I think it's going to be along the lines of the RMSC show.

But right now, I have to take a nap. I haven't napped on a Sunday in forever and I just want to. Won't be long, just a little snuggle with Reggi on the couch.

Edited to add: I decided to sleep on the bed instead of the couch because it's more comfortable. Reggi did, indeed, come snuggle me up. We were awakened after about an hour by Steve's shouting at the TV during the Buffalo Bills football game. Loudly. From the other side of the house. Just as well, really. So I went grocery shopping where it's much quieter. ;-)

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List of Crafters

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I emailed the craft show organizer yesterday bragging about all the publicity work I'd done for this weekend's craft show. It was one of my usual hip, funny emails. :-) I told her I'd been pimpin' the craft show for weeks. I thanked her for the evening set-up because it fits well with my roadie's schedule.

"That's great."

I met her last night and I don't think she'd know a blog from a hole in the ground. I don't mean to lump older people together, because I happen to know some very with-it computer-literate older folks. (Hi Mom! Hi Dad!) No wonder she looked at me like I was crazy when I introduced myself.

Know your audience!

She very kindly, unsolicited, emailed me a list of crafts that will be available at the show. She didn't provide artist or business names, just descriptions. You'll notice that mine is not listed there - because I couldn't bear to type the description she'd given me, "String Art". :::Sigh::: Jen assured me that once people see my stuff they will realize it's way more than "string art". (No offense to true String Artists everywhere.)

Cross Stitched Wooden Ornaments
Chocolatier
Turned Wood Pens
Wood Kitchen Utensils, Bottle Stoppers, Bud Vases, Ring Holders, Toys
Hand Linked Jewelry
Woven Baskets
French Seamed Pillowcases
Jewelry
Fleece Items
Wire Wrapped Glass Tableware Embellished with Stones
Birdhouses Made from Breadboxes & Coffee Pots
Themed Fleece Animals & Throws
Wooden Toys, Doll Clothes
Special Toys for Special Kids, Special Needs Items
Baby Gifts
Heritage Bakery
Painted Glassware
Folded Photo Albums
Kiwi Beads
Fleece Cat Toys
Artwork - Acrylic & Watercolor
Hand Embroidered Clothing & Linens
Photography
Finger Puppets & Dolls
3-D Greeting Cards
Silk Flowers & Cross Stitch
Quilts, Pillows & Purses
Wood Bowls & Decorative Pieces
Clothing, Scarves, Blankets, Pot Holders, Purses & Wallets

The Pieters Family Life Center
1025 Commons Way, Henrietta, NY

Directions

The Pieters Family Life Center is conveniently located off Castle Road near East Henrietta Road.

Visitors can also enter from Jefferson Road by turning onto Commons Way into Frontier Commons.

>From the south end of Route 390, head north on Route 390 and exit at E. Henrietta Road. Turn right on E. Henrietta and then left on Castle Road to see the Life Center’s entrance on the left.

>From the north end of Route 390, head south on Route 390 and exit E. Henrietta Road. Turn left on E. Henrietta and then left on Castle Road to see the Life Center's entrance on the left.
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Craft Show GiveAway

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I (nearly) always hold a free drawing in my booth at each craft show. On the drawing slip, people are given a chance to supply their contact information if they are interested in being on my email and/or postcard mailing list. (Most do opt for this!)

Above is the fall color themed set I'll give away this weekend. That's a greeting card, Sticky Notes and wearable pin. That pin is a new design that I haven't sold yet but I really love. The glue is still wet - I just made it this morning. I have a bunch of turquoise (of course!) parts I hope to get assembled before the show - maybe on my lunch hour today.

I sent a note out to my email list last night - and had an order in my mailbox this morning!

Steve worked pretty late last night so we didn't pack the car like we'd talked about, but that's okay. We'll come home after work, let Reggi out, pack the car and go drop my stuff off at The Pieters Life Center. I have a bunch of coupons for Denny's so maybe we'll grab dinner out in Henrietta.

The show hours are 10:00-4:00 so I can even sleep in a bit tomorrow morning and still get there a couple of hours early to get set up. Since I normally get up between 4:00 and 4:30, sleeping in can mean 6:00 - still giving me time to work on stuff here before heading over. I love being a morning person.

Speaking of sleep, I had some real wacko dreams last night, most of which are fading by now, thank goodness. I'm feeling very excited about this show, very positive, so it doesn't feel like I had stuff to work out overnight, but who knows?

~ ~ ~

I've finally joined the Technorati site - so now there's a link on the right, if you are of the Technorati persuasion. Along with the previous offerings of email notification, Bloglines and Google as a means for following this blog.

Oh! I've mentioned how addicted I am to Twitter. Every time someone new Follows me, I of course, check out who they are following. Today I found Dr. Phil! Loves me some Dr. Phil. (As does Simon's girlfriend. We bonded over our love for Dr. Phil, despite Simon's mocking. How dare he? Who raised that kid??)

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A Better Day

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I'm happy to report that yesterday was a better day, in all respects. The previous day, I think the stress Simon and I felt with each other was exacerbated by the stress I'd had at work all day plus the stress he felt of moving.

His stuff all smells like cigarette smoke. He doesn't smoke but his apartment was a big ol' hang out for his friends and his roommate's friends. And now it's actually wafted up the stairs. I can only smell it right at the top of the stairs so I don't think it will go any further. But ewww.

And I met the girlfriend yesterday! She's very nice. I kept thinking all day, "I bet she's nervous, meeting the boyfriend's mom for the first time." I always was, at that age. I remember saying to one boyfriend, "I don't think your mom likes me." To which he replied, "Yeah, she doesn't think anyone is good enough for me." Alrighty then. He was laughing it off, her attitude, but obviously it stung because I remember it 34 years later.

(Simon's girlfriend didn't seem the least bit nervous, by the way.)

At work, on top of my already heavy workload, yesterday I met with a sales tax auditor from Illinois. We don't file in IL yet but now we're going to, our 9th state. I've been asking my boss for well over a year now, "Shouldn't I register us to file in IL now?" Now we're being audited so now we'll register. The auditor is asking for more information than usual because we're new filers. But he's a nice guy, just doing his job. (I know you've had a different experience, Helen, but I find auditors are always easy to work with!)

So I was a little stressed the day before the auditor arrived because that was when my boss gave me the list of documents the auditor would need. He apologized for not giving it to me sooner. He's got a big fat workload too and I know how it goes. It is what it is, right?

So like I said, between work, this weekend's craft show and Simon moving home, Monday was a tad stressful. Tuesday was definitely a better day.

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He's B-a-a-c-k

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Simon moved his bed and major furniture home last night. Steve and I will carpool in my car today so he can use Steve's Explorer to bring the rest of his stuff over today.

Let's just say it's an adjustment for both of us. I know he's grateful, I know he has plans to turn his life around. I know it, I appreciate it, I get it.

"Mom, do you know how hard this is for me - to move home?"

"Simon. Do you think I was born at 52 years old? I totally understand."



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Workhorse

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I was a freakin' machine this weekend! I accomplished more than I'd hoped, just because I know how things go and time flies, etc. I was completely focused. These are Sticky Notes awaiting embellishment. I sort them by color so I can work on all the blues at one time, then the reds, etc.

No matter how organized I may sound, I still end up with a tiny workspace available. Every once in a while I clear the decks, put all the paper scraps and punches back in their homes and start over.

This is a 2-day show, the first one this organization has held I'm quite sure - and I find myself very excited by it. At this point I feel I'll have enough product but of course I'll keep churning it out for the next 3 mornings & evenings.

Thursday night Steve and I will drop off my booth stuff, then I'll go there early Friday and set it all up. I like being able to drop it off the night before because it doesn't cut into Steve's work schedule and I can arrive in the morning fresh and get busy with the creative stuff (setting up) and not get all sweaty with the hauling, etc.

The postcard mailing of my fall/winter show schedule goes out today. Sign up for the mailing list here.

I resigned from the two Etsy teams I was on. One was for Etsy bloggers and it had a few participation requirements that were easy and kinda fun but I'm finding I don't have time for even that.

The other was for Etsy marketing. When I joined it was a high volume Yahoo group with too much fluff and too little meat for my tastes but the list owner recently stepped up to correct that, which I supported. Then she said some stuff to the list in an email that sounded unprofessional to me, leaving a bad taste in my mouth. So I resigned from both, thereby freeing up valuable real estate in my brain for bottom-line related Pine Tree Designs functions.

Oh rats! As I'm finishing this up, we lost power! It's really windy outside. I was planning on working on Sticky Notes this morning. Maybe I could do it by flashlight - or put my miner's lighted cap on! Nah. Might have to go work earlier than planned - we have a generator there, should that power be out too. To work, I mean, not craft, darn it.

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New Circles

.Another case of "What if I try this?" that worked out nicely. I wanted to see what it would look like if I added another row of holes to this pattern:

So I poked another circle of holes inside this original design. But I found I couldn't stitch it the same way because the points were too skinny and not defined enough. So I spread out the stitching and it worked much better.

The light green one at the top is my first attempt. I'll use that for a framed piece or one of the more expensive cards because it's too labor intensive for a Sticky Notes or $5.00 card. Isn't it cool? Almost makes me dizzy!

So my next attempts were the black circles. I started fresh, poking 5 layers of holes, but less of them around, if you catch my drift. I just finished those last night, haven't made them into anything yet, obviously.

These turned out so well that naturally my mind drifts to . . . what about yet another circle of holes?? And I might try a little something between the points on those black circles.

~ ~ ~

I have put so many hours in at the day job this week that I decided to take this afternoon off to get a good start on this weekend's full bore on finishing stuff up for next weekend's show. The state of my studio is driving me crazy. I'm feeling pretty peppy this morning so I think I'll tackle that before I go to work. That will feel so good, to come home to a clean workspace and dive in.

Enough chattering, off I go.


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Scrap Paper Mosaics

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More work and instructions from Jeffery Rudell, who made the Torn Paper Flowers I wrote about the other day.

This is the type of paper mosaic work I've seen before, that I always wanted to try. I believe these pieces are by Vivian Peritts, from the old Carol Duvall show. I found it on my hard drive when filing the top picture.

I just Googled paper mosaic and got lots of hits. But I must get to work so I'll check them out another time.

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Tower of Power

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This new office I'm in really holds the heat, as they say. It's on the opposite side of the building from where I used to sit, but there must be another factor at work here because even though I keep the blinds closed all the time, it's remarkably warm in there. A) The building air conditioning is always a bit cranky so everybody is warm, not just me. B) I'm overweight and middle-aged.

So in the throes of sweatiness a few weeks ago I hopped online and ordered me one of them wind towers from Walmart.com. Forty bucks, no shipping to the local store. Naturally, the climate immediately cooled off. But lucky for me, last week it got warm again.

That thing you see pictured above, is a beauty, I tell ya! It's a full body fan, as opposed to the face-only micro fan I had been using previously. It has 3 speeds but low is perfect. (High sent papers flying around my office like a ticker-tape parade.) It oscillates but I like it on me, because, as with all of life, it's all about me, all the time.

The best part. Are you ready? It has a remote control! Seriously. A remote control that *I* get to hold and use and caress. I'm drunk with power.

I was telling Steve how strong the fan is and he told me not to get any ideas about getting one for our bedroom because we'd have to tether Reggi & Verona to the bed, lest they get blown away. Even though we have central air, I often have a small fan going at night. I've noticed on the nights when I don't turn it on, sometimes Steve does. Either we're both overweight and middle-aged or we're both used to the "white noise" it produces. Might come in handy when Simon moves home since he comes and goes at all hours.

Yep, got me one of them "Category 5" wind towers. Life is good.

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Torn Paper Flowers

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Instructions for Crumpled Paper Flowers by Jeffery Rudell are here. Aren't these sweet?



Must get off the computer and get to work assembling Sticky Notes for this show. Yesterday was quite productive. Time to kick it into overdrive today!
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Brenda Dean & Leslie Hanna

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Shame on me! Brenda Dean was nice enough to feature my work on Sept 3 blog entry and I forgot to link to it. (Thanks again, Brenda!)

Check out some of Brenda's other work - she's very talented.

And today I received a nice email from another very creative Stampin' Up distributor, Leslie Hanna. You can click on her blog profile and find links to her other blogs. She's hilarious!

Just a couple of talented stampers that have introduced themselves to me in the last couple of months that I wanted to share with you.

Otherwise, it will be a busy weekend for me, cranking out the inventory for this upcoming show. Steve and I took Reggi for a walk this morning but otherwise, it's All Pine Tree Designs, All the Time.

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High Society

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Adrian Grenier

.Every once in a while I'll buzz through the HBO online guide and Tivo a few movies I think we'd like to see, for those slow times between Netflix and regular TV. Some are stinkers, some are not. We watched The Notorious Bettie Page over the weekend. As I told Steve, that was the weirdest movie I've seen that held my attention. And it didn't even have a plot! Most weird movies are stupid and irritating, for example, Magnolia. The only decent thing about that movie was Phillip Seymour Hoffman. I don't just say that because he's from Fairport. I think he's an outstanding actor. (And just for the record, my movies don't have to be neat & orderly with clean, happy endings, but that is my preference, I admit.)

That's how I found Shot in the Dark, a film documenting Adrian Grenier's search for his father, whom he has not seen in 18 years. I'd read about it a few years ago but forgot about it, I guess. So it's been in our Tivo queue for weeks now. Every time Steve opens the listing to see what it is, he groans and closes it. I think he hates documentaries as much as I love them. Last night Steve worked late so I settled in with my dinner of popcorn and Crystal Light and watched it.

I really loved it. I'm still thinking about it this morning.

Number one, can I get an amen from my women friends that he is so dang good looking? I've hardly seen two photos where he looks the same - but I chose my favorite for above.

Number two, it was very real. I read a few of the comments on imdb.com about the movie and people were dissing Adrian's mom for her free-love lifestyle. That's how it was in the mid-70s, just coming off the 60s. (His dad was dissed too. Seems to me there's enough blame to go around for the dad not being in his life. I don't get that at all.)

His stepmom initially comes off as pretty cruel to a little kid, hanging up on him when he called his dad. But she was the only one we heard apologize to Adrian's face. "I was wrong. I'm really sorry."

I also liked that it was never mentioned that he's a TV star now. Oh wait! I didn't realize until I researched it for this entry, that this documentary was filmed in 2002 , two years before Entourage. (Don't you love that show? It's one of our very favorites.)

I found this photo of him with his mom and dad at the premiere. I'm glad the step mom came around and all this worked out. I'm sure she went to the premier too. (I Googled her but there are too many Debbie Dunbars to go through.)

Entourage - Season 5 begins this Sunday!

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Home Again

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Sticky Notes, $4.50

Simon is definitely moving back home by October 1 when his lease is up. He's been waffling for months. I totally understand. I told him a year ago, once a kid moves out, it's really hard to come back. And he's under the wacky delusion that I want him to move home. This is apparently a common misconception on the part of lots of young adults, from talking to some of my co-workers.

"Mom, I know you're really happy that I'm moving home."

"Simon. Not that happy, really. I've gotten as used to you not being here as you have. I'm happy for the right reasons, the same reasons as you have, financial & educational reasons."

He plans on going to school for auto mechanics and eventually opening his own shop. I could not be more pleased because these are two things I've been telling him for years he would excel at. I've never met someone with such innate mechanical skills.

But.

His room in the basement is in the exact condition he left it - a total mess. I told him he's not bringing one thing into this house until that room is ship-shape. I've yet to see any action, but it's only September 3.

I told him that he & I will have an agreement and so far these are my points:

1. He doesn't have to make life for Steve and me easier - but he can't make it harder: physically, financially, etc.

2. He must turn off lights and TV when not in use. He made me crazy with this when he lived here before.

3. He must recycle. Non-negotiable.

Pretty easy, huh?

He may be procrastinating cleaning up his room, but I'm definitely not procrastinating stressing over it. If he spent just a couple of hours and made the tiniest bit of progress, he has no idea how much better that would make me feel. It will all get done, I know it will. He always comes through - just rarely on my timetable.

In rereading this, it sounds like I'm not at all happy about Simon moving home. But really, I am. I'm glad he finally has a plan. I've seen him grow and mature over the past year. I know it will be stressful in some ways but the ends definitely justifies whatever means it takes to get there.

Deep breaths.


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Pam Slim & Luann Udell

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Hi Helen! Your dozen cards and dozen Sticky Notes are on their way to you. (Thanks again!)

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Love, love, love Pam Slim's Escape from Cubicle Nation.

I am a coach and writer who helps frustrated employees in corporate jobs break out and start their own business. I have been self-employed for 12 years and have enjoyed every bit of it.

I am writing a book (Escape from Cubicle Nation, due from Penguin/Portfolio in Spring, 2009) and write for Martha Beck's blog on a bi-monthly basis.

I tend to hold off reading her posts until I have time to savor every word. She often provides links that I want to follow.

I've blogged about Luann Udell before.

I make wall hangings, sculptures and jewelry inspired by prehistoric, tribal and world art. I find it just as important to write about my art as to make it. I write about how being an artist has made me a better person.

I have learned so much about craft shows from her blog entries. She writes about other stuff too, which I like.

I can barely get through a blog entry by either one of these women without wanting to be a better me. They both offer subscriptions via Feedblitz so their latest entries arrived in my mailbox together this morning. I'm on feel-good overload! (Timing is everything. I'm holding down the accounting fort alone for the next 2 days.)


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Autumn Craft Show

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