gah, it's been sooo long!

Where has the time gone?  Why have I not posted here in a millenium?  Taxes.  That's it.  I started inventory the beginning of the year and have been plugging away in between orders ever since.  I finally submitted them last Thursday through TurboTax and will wait to be audited. 

So what else have I been up to?  We found out we needed to buy new tires soon and needed to replace damaged brake linings on the Kia Sportage.  Nice car, right?

So instead of buying tires and brake linings we have to save up for, what did we do?  We bought a new car instead!  Hey, isn't that the best solution?  Help the economy, that's #1. 

Well actually, it's a bigger car, more space for when I do shows and especially when I need to take my tent.  The payments are a little bit less, we got a great trade-in, so it's all good.  Not that I'm doing a lot of shows this year, but I do have a couple outdoor shows.  So that settles that. 

What else?  Orders have been coming in at a good clip this year, and it looks like this year is going to be even better than last year.  I've had a little bit of time to experiment and added a few unique fragrances to my line (Play Dough, for one.  I know, wierd, but I had to have it.)

I've developed a new design for larger diameter candles, the Endless Candle.  It involves a special technique so that a tea light can be placed in the center of the candle without burning the main candle.  I developed it because I cannot find a wick large enough for a 4" diameter candle to burn properly, but the process can also be used in a 3" diameter candle.    

I've also begun making 2-tone soy candles for Kim at http://www.weddingfavorsjustonline.com/unitycandles.html  She does stunning designs on some of the candles I make for her. 

I'll be getting ready for the Indie Garage Sale coming up this month in Utica NY  http://indiegaragesale.org/.  And I'll have lots of new fragrances and blends available, including the aforementioned Play Dough and designer fragrances.  Stop by and say hello!  Mention this blog and receive a 10% discount. 

Thanks for stopping by, and now that the holidays and taxes are finally behind me, I'll have more time to talk to you soon.

Happy spring!

marty

I'm back!

It was a long holiday season, but I'm back.  Right now I'm mired in paperwork getting ready for tax season,  always a good excuse to completely clean and re-arrange my studio and office.  

Time to regroup.  

The best all-around show I did was the Indie Garage Sale in Utica NY.  It was a 2-day show the last weekend before Christmas and it was by far the best and well-attended.   Many of us were situated in separate boutique-like shops, so it gave an upscale feel to the show.  That's my booth right behind the window with the light green tables. 

I had a wonderful holiday.  This was my tree, and a great tree it was!

Well, Ok I lied.  We went to NYC for a couple days. 

So this is really the tree:

Believe me, it was better than the Charlie Brown tree we had last year!

Wilbur got some new clothes (but he's more interested in the edible goodies)

Carla and the animals had a good time.

We feasted  

 

Christmas buffet





and partied 

and a good time was had by all

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

Spent the past few weeks rebuilding my website, not by choice

A couple months ago, I bought an external hard drive to save all my pictures and files since my computer was pushing 10 years old.  I knew it was going to die soon, so I thought I was doing the right thing, saving all my business and personal files and a few thousand pictures. 

So the computer did die, and I think it was fully infected with worms and viruses and what have you.  All our protection was even infected we suspect.  So we went out and bought a new pc that day and destroyed to old infected hard drive.   So I go to use my external drive on the new pc and it suggested I put a password on it, so I did and confirmed it twice (it's an easy password).  Right after that, the new pc stopped recognizing the password, so all the files and pictures I had saved are now inaccessible.  Rest assured, I have consulted many teck geeks and stores, and have called Western Digital many times, to no avail.  There is no way to reset the drive or transfer the data.  My only choice is to reformat the drive if I want to use it again, but that's not even an option.   Every day I remember something else that is on that drive and it makes me ill.  It's important to note that the new pc also corrupted the password for the router too, but we could fix that. 

So you see, I had to rebuild my website since I couldn't update it without my web files.  And pictures.   I've managed to lift pictures from here and there to rebuild the site.  It's been a major pain in the rear, but on a positive note, I think it's the best looking site I've ever built!  http://dewonapetal.com/

I've also started a newsletter which I intend to use infrequently for important announcements only.  I hope you'll consider signing up for it.  I promise you won't get daily or even weekly emails. 

In other news, business is a little slow right now, so I have time to work on other projects like getting my garden ready, planting shrubs and trees, and doing some business bookwork.  A couple major projects are in the planning stages right now.   I'm also working on a new line of Essential Oil candles, so I'm pretty excited about that.  The summer show season is fast approaching, so I hope to be out and about to meet my customers soon. 

I recently vended at the Indie Garage Sale in Utica NY which was a huge success.   Shows can be a lot of work, but the effort is always worth it when I can meet my customers.  I tried a new table set-up this time, but I still need some taller display shelves.  And eventually, I'll need to buy an outdoor tent, preferably with sides for upcoming outdoor shows. 

So things are good.  Need some candles?

The holidays are over and it's time to start anew

Well, after the Indie Garage Sale in Utica NY, which was a lot of fun and a huge success, I had to scramble to get ready for Christmas.  I had done very little shopping, decorating or baking, so things got pretty hectic.  The Garage sale was tons of fun, even if it was a very long day, not including the 2 hour drive each way. It was great not having to navigate the NYC subways with my bins and hand truck at 6 am.  And I met some great crafty friends that I hope to meet again at future shows.  Now that this is my fulltime gig, I plan to do as many shows as possible in the upcoming year.

A few days before the Garage sale, I took a quick trip to NYC to see Carla in her Lincoln Center Debut at Alice Tully Hall.  While in the city, I had a chance to visit the Union Square Market to see my candles being sold by Re Jin of BaileyDoesntBark.  http://www.baileydoesntbark.com/  I enjoyed immensely working with her to create her Jae line of candles.   I'm sure she's still recovering from a month at the market.

Carla's debut was awesome.  She sang a selection of Charles Ives songs and was mentioned in the Times review.  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/12/arts/music/12axiom.html   "Mr. Adams’s gentler side was heard in a set of light-textured orchestrations of five Ives songs, sung with an appealingly burnished tone by Carla Jablonski, a mezzo-soprano."  

So on to Christmas and the hub-bub of activity.  I baked way too much stuff, so I'm shipping it out this week with the gifts that no one took with them on buses and planes home.  The girls left on the bus yesterday afternoon, and Ken left this afternoon to fly back to Florida.  His trip up here last week was a nightmare because of the east coast snow storm.  He rebooked, then flights were cancelled, and we even drove to Buffalo to pick him up only to find out that flight was also cancelled.  He ended up spending the night in the Charlotte airport before finally making it up here the next day.

The girls got their Snuggies.

Nina got her jar of pickles

 

And they went ice skating in Binghamton

And Ken and I took an afternoon trip up to Lake Cayuga, one of the Finger Lakes near Ithaca to take in the sights and walk around in the fresh cold air. 

It was a wonderful Christmas and as much as I looked forward to relaxing after everyone was gone, I feel lonely and listless today.  I miss the bustle of everyone eating, talking, and enjoying each other's company.  But I guess I'm ready to settle in for the long winter days, puttering around here, perusing seed catalogs and planning the year ahead.  Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to everyone!