Oh Happy Day!

I know that old gospel standard is now playing in your, and I’m not even sorry about it. Today was a great day for me, on several fronts.

After substitute teaching half the day and then grocery shopping yesterday, I sat myself down in front of my computer, determined to update my website with all the scarves I’ve woven recently. This is a task that I put off, generally finding it rewarding only when it’s done.

When I started shooting the photos of the ‘missing’ scarves, OMG, they just kept coming. I ended up with 14 pictures to shoot, each of which had to be cropped, formatted, and optimized in two different sizes. Plus there were an additional 4 shots already taken that had to have that same formatting and sizing work done.

Then each of those pictures (18×2=36) had to be uploaded to my website. I know I shouldn’t be whining. After all, the only way I could have accomplished this prior to August was driving into town and going to the library to use their high speed wireless. Now with my little dish, I could stay home, but trust me when I tell you this was not a speedy process. I know I’m repeating myself when I say that rural high speed isn’t all that high.

Anyway, I got the photos all uploaded, and then had to start working on the web pages. I had several new handwoven rayon scarves and a few new handwoven bamboo scarves, so I had to work on both pages. The bamboo page also had to be redesigned. (I’m updating the pages one at a time as I get to them. No point putting the new scarves on the old page.)

So the tedious part is simply adding to the structure of the page to add the new pictures. Then comes the really time consuming part – describe each scarf so that a potential customer would like to buy it. Make the description accurate and written in a way that the search engines will like, but also fun to read. Think the J Peterman catalog vs. a scientific manual.

I started writing in late afternoon, and got on a roll. The muse was with me and my creative juices were flowing. Until 10PM. I still had 4 more scarves to describe, but I’d hit the mental wall. Close up the mac and go to bed.

I got up this morning, wrote those 4 descriptions, tested everything, and uploaded the new pages. YAY!! Another HUGE task crossed off my list.

The sun came out, so I went out for my daily walk. It was a lovely spring morning. I came back home, pruned my raspberries, and got to use my sledgehammer to pound their supports back into the ground.

The fun didn’t stop yet!

Most of my sales are at shows, and since the beginning I’ve had an EZUp tent. If you’ve never put one up, let me assure you that the name is a lie. In addition, they tend to leak when it rains, blow over when it’s windy, and fall apart after a few years. At least that’s been my experience. So I wanted a real tent, a professional tent, but I really didn’t want to shell out many hundreds of dollars for one.

About a month ago, I stumbled on a very gently used Trimline on Craig’s List, and jumped on it. Since then, it’s been snowing, raining, or quite muddy at my house, so I couldn’t set it up to see how that process went, or even make sure that all the parts were there. It was making me anxious.

Today I had a 10×10 flat spot at the top of my driveway that was dry enough to do it. I followed the directions step by step.

Joy! It’s all there, I can do it, it wasn’t too hard. Definitely not harder than an EZUp, in some ways easier. The only thing I didn’t do was extend the legs to their full height – I just didn’t see the need for my trial run.

It took me about an hour to set it up, vs. the 18 minutes it took the woman in the video, but I didn’t think that was too bad for a first time. It took me another hour to take it down and put it away — the hardest part was actually folding the fabric.

But wait, the good news isn’t over yet!

Someone had asked me to make them a healing gemstone talisman. I won’t reveal any details of who, or why I chose these particular stones, but I will tell you that I really enjoyed every part of the process, from the research to the creation. Based on this person’s specific situation, I couldn’t stop myself with one piece.

Each of these can be used in a slightly different way, and for a slightly different purpose. All I have to do now is write up the insert and package them.

So today was a great day, with lots of happiness.

I’m going to go take a bath now to head off the aches and pains from the unaccustomed manual labor after a long winter.

Your turn: what’s made you happy lately?