Three's

Today was a day for 3's. I worked in the craft room cleaning and decluttering for 3 hours. I managed to fill 3 full bags for the recycle barrel. The last chore I did today was fill, you guessed it 3 boxes for a Goodwill pick up on Friday. So today has been brought to you by the number 3. 

A Place for Projects

John spent part of the weekend putting up a shelf in the craft room for me.  I filled it up with projects waiting to be started. It took me less time to fill up the shelf then for John to install it.  I think I have enough projects to keep me knitting for a while.   By moving some of my projects off the first rack, I have more room for larger items on the first rack.   

Slowly things are either finding their way to a better place or out the door. We finished the rest of our Bookmans runs today. The rest of the books will go to Goodwill on Friday along with a few other boxes. 

I Tink I Must

While I was reorganizing the craft room today, I found a sweater that I started over 5 years ago. My plan was to finish it. I thought just for the heck of it, I should try it on. Well it was 2 sizes too big. So I decided not to finish it.  So I think it is time to Tink the sweater.  For those of you who don't knit, tinking  is knitting spelled backward. So it is time to rip it out. So tonight I will rip out my first sweater in progress and start it again.  Hopefully I will finish it before it is 2 sizes too large again.  

Really!!!!

Yesterday Lisa and I did a craft show. The promoters promised music, food trucks and lots of traffic. Well it was not exactly like that. My total sale for the day were $5.00, not even enough to cover gas. There were less than 200 people from 9 am to 2 pm. But I did take away a lot of laugh lines. No names will be attached to any of this randomness.

On the subject of WiFi. A vendor near me could not find a free wifi hot spot. So she asked if she could use my WiFi,. I politely said no, but wanted to say hell no. I told here just to use the one on her phone and offered to help her get her wifi working. So out comes a phone style from so last century, It looked like the phones I had in the 1980s and 90's. Someone told her that it was an android phone and did not get apps or have wifi. Thank you AARP for the basic phone, but you might want to tell people it is not an android phone.

Know your audience. I have one of my spinning wheels up for sale. So I took it with me. A man approached me wanting to buy it. The Lendrum is a complete package with with both a high speed flyer and a plying head,  with extra bobbins. I had a sign asking for $600 or the best offer. He said it was too much. So I asked what he was going to be using it for. So he told me he worked with a day training program for the disabled and seniors at a ranch down the road.  So I told him that I would sell him the basic wheel for $450.  He said it was still too much, would I trade the wheel for 1 bag of alpaca fiber (not skirted or or washed). I said no. He then went on to tell me how tired he was at the end of the day when he left work to go home (really!!! he gets to go home at the end of the day, how lucky). How I just did not understand how hard it was to work with the disabled all day, trying to get me to give him the wheel for free. I said I did not think my husband would go for it. A very good try though.

No, to be honest, I did not tell him about Eric or about the week from he double toothpicks that we just came out of. We were all sick and we still had to take care of Eric 24/7. What got me is that he felt that he was entitled to a free spinning wheel just because he took a job working with the disabled. One person I know used the Yiddish "S" word when I told the story. This is a family friendly blog, I will not use bad words here.

Will I undercut Walmart's prices. A mother was shopping with her daughter. The daughter liked one of my $18.00 scarfs and wanted to buy it. The mother said that if I would sell it for less the she could buy the same scarf at Walmart her daughter could have it. Do I look like a Big Box store using low quality materials and sweatshop labor?

Speaking of Big Box stores, a lady liked my hand spun art yarn which I sell for $5.00 per ounce. Not a bad price for using yak, silk, mohair, camel, different kinds of wool and other high end fibers. She then went to to say that she could get 8 ounces of yarn (heavens only knows what fiber) for $5.00 at here local Big Box Craft Store. She could get 12 ounce for $5.00 when it was on sale. Would I sell her 12 ounces of Art Yarn for $5.00? Really!!! Do I look like a Big Box Craft Store?

Sending out the scouts. I really liked the mother (not) who sent her children to scout out other booths taking pictures of things that they like so that she could duplicate other people's work. Really, with sites like Pintrest and Raverly which are free to use, is is really necessary to send your kids out to rip off the creative work of other people? Lots of people are will to share their ideas and patterns for free.

To top off the day I was offered a spot at another craft show next weekend. The promoter would take the 1st $15.00 in sales, then I could keep the rest. This was not really a craft fair but a promotion for a charity in town. She just wanted people to have something to look at after they dropped off their donations. Oh and she wanted a special order too, but refused to put money down. My booth was filled with a lot of special orders which people requested, but did not put money down for. Then after the hand knit was made they said no to making the purchase. So this has prompted a new policy.

Special Orders require a 50% non refundable deposit, which will be applied to the purchase price of the finished object. No exceptions.

A Good Day

Today was the annual "Stuff the Mayflower" a Tucson tradition host by our local radio station 94.9 Mix-FM. It benefits the Tucson Community Food Bank which serves all of Southern Arizona. The cash donations are double by our local power company, Tucson Electric Power. Other stations of the E. W.  Scrips broadcasting Company also join in this very worthy effort. 

After I picked up Eric from his day program we headed over to the Sam's Club parking lot to drop off our donation.  The same Ticson Electric Power employee that has been collecting our donations for years recognized Eric and took his donation. Eric really enjoyed being recognized.   Eric really enjoys helping other people.  This really made his day.  

So I would like to thank everyone from 94.9 Mix-FM and Tucson Electric Power for all you help in the Southern Arizona Community and the joy you brought to Eric. 

It's Here

Yesterday we finally got the last piece of the kitchen remodel puzzle. The wood panel for the dishwasher door was finally made right. The third time was the charm.  Don't worry about the red light on the floor below the dishwasher, it is there to tell us when the dishwasher is running, yes it is that quiet. The picture is at the bottom of the blog post. 

I started the day with running the first load of laundry and running the dishwasher at 6 am. Then at 8 I dropped Eric off at his day program. Then I did a drop off at Goodwill. Then I ran to Frys to pick up some protein bars for Lisa, the ones that they did not have at Target yesterday.  Then it was more laundry and more loads of Tupperware through the dishwasher.  Not all the Tupperware that I packed before the remodel will go back into the kitchen.  I will pick out the pieces that I want, then Teri will go through and take what she wants, followed by Lisa.  So far it looks like I am elimating some where between 50 to 66% of the Tupperware.  I will also start another box for Goodwill.  

At the same time that I am putting away the kitchen, I am getting ready for the living room remodel. I think it will mostly be the carpet but might include some new doors.  So I have to pack up yet another room. Would anyone one be suppressed if I said that I found more yarn and fluff in the living room? I just don't know where all the furniture is going to go.  I would also like to thank Teri for letting me use her room for a staging area for all the boxes again. 

Now I either must wind down for the night or get some more unpacking done. My gut feeling tells me that I should try to get some sleep.  

A Change of Pace

I am making a lot of progress in reorganizing the kitchen. I have almost all the boxes empty, which is a good thing, because I need to pack up the living room next.   As I am putting things away I am still paring things down. I have enough drawer space to see exactly what I have.  Since I have started putting things away I have managed to fill an entire box for Goodwill. 

Eric went to program today. I took part of the day off and found sometime to knit with friends.  I also found some time to do some shopping. I found a perfect gift for Eric's birthday later this month.  I cut my shopping trip short so the remodeler could put on the new dishwasher panel. It is finally right.  I will take a picture tomorrow when the light is better.