A Time For Everything

I'm trying to polish my image a little bit and so here we are. :0)

A few more tweaks might be needed, but we'll get there.

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I finally finished one of the hockey samplers I'd been working on for forever and now it's finally listed on my Etsy shop, much to my pleasure. That inspired me to poke around the pattern archives and see what else I have in progress and what needs doing.

So, in my spare time, I've been working on additional hockey jerseys, mostly for teams that don't even have one listed for sale at this point. But also planning what the next project to stitch and list will be. Actually, I do have another project that's in some percentage of progress. I just need to dig it out and work on it now.

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Fireworks season was a literal sell out across the region. And I don't ever use that word lightly, as you well know. We were the last store standing for miles and miles and had a line that wrapped around the building for hours. We had product to sell, but because we were so busy without ANY lulls--and I'm not kidding here--the best we could do was open a box of something and put the box with its side cut off on the shelf. Were we out of some stuff? Yes.

Sparklers? Gone. Roman candles? Gone. Assortment packs, from the $10 variety to the $300 variety? ALL GONE.

The season really was the perfect storm, but I think it put us on the metaphorical map. We had product all the way until the end--which has always been a point of pride for DH.

I don't know how long the wait was from the time a customer arrived until the time they left--as I said, line around the building--but surely no one will hold that against us... We couldn't have fit any more salespeople behind the counter and all I did was take people's money. Thank goodness. I'm not a fan of dealing with customers directly.

But we survived to tell the tale and earned a tidy profit to finally repair a few things around the place. :0)

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Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Take care and stay safe.

Have a wonderful, fun, safe day, whatever you're doing tomorrow.

Y'all know what I'm doing today and tomorrow...

Catch you on Monday.

I saw this tee shirt on Facebook and it made me laugh, so I thought I'd share it with you.

In the same spirit, there's these:






Have a great and safe Treason Day. Catch y'all on Friday.

Hard to believe that half the year is over... The last month has been busy, the last week has been busy.

Sooo...fireworks season wasn't a great as we'd hoped. We bought more fireworks than we probably should have and spent way more on advertising than we probably should have for a season with a burn ban in effect. The fireworks will keep for next season and the next, so that's not a major issue, but chances are that we'll stop with the advertising. We have no definitive way to know if we're getting the customers or if they're just being reminded to go buy some and hitting the closest-to-them stand.

But in better news, a book series I read ages and ages ago, and I mean ages ago, is finally in e-book format. I bought it and am looking forward to reading it again. It's also available in audio format and I might get that too...

I finally got around to formatting books one and two for print and got covers done and submitted to Kindle Direct Publishing. My print proofs, one for each title, are on the way for my review. I'm another step closer to being ready for my conference in October.

Speaking of October, despite SO MUCH HOCKEY in May and June, I miss it a little. The new season doesn't start until October, so I'm having to ease my withdrawal symptoms by watching World Cup soccer and baseball.

On the writing front, I'm no closer to finishing book seven than I was a month ago, but characters for my new series have been bubbling around in my noggin for a couple of weeks. Five of my six core characters have names and occupations; a handful of supporting characters also have names and jobs. A few characters have some backstory.

I haven't gotten to plot lines in more than vague idea terms, though. I really want to know these characters well and have their romance plot come from who they are and where they've come from. I also want their lives to be really intertwined so that readers will wonder whose book is next and be more invested in their story.

The last series didn't work that way and it was anybody's guess--even mine--as to who would show up in the next books. There was some crossover with a few characters, but no one a reader might look forward to seeing. I wanted to come at a series a different way this time around.

And now that the 4th of July has come and gone, it's time for life to return to some semblance of normalcy. It also means that Jen has gone back to the gym...starting this morning. Getting out of bed at the sphincter of dawn was tough, working out was tough. But it felt good too. My body had started to let me know that all that lying around was not kosher. My butt's going to be dragging for probably a good week, but maybe break I took will have set my body up for burning the fat.

Despite not going to the gym, I did do stuff here at home, mostly, and I counted calories and I didn't gain any weight back. But my tummy is still there and has maybe grown a little. So, yeah...

Hope you had a lovely holiday week!!

We've survived another 4th of July season at the fireworks store and this time without Sonshine. I missed him to be sure, but I miss him all the time anyway. I know DH missed him a lot as he was down at the there store for the whole season without Sonshine's company and general/daily help.

It was a strange and frustrating season too since the state of Texas/McLennan county have been working on the highways and byways of Texas--including our section of I-35 and the frontage road right in front of the store. Well, the actual highway work is done, but the frontage road is still a work in progress and has caused a lot of hassle and loss of sales these past few years. Hopefully by next season (Christmas/New Years), this section of the frontage road will also be complete.

And if that weren't enough, of course, there are other fireworks stands and stores in a general vicinity that we compete with. Two are going out of business, so that just leaves a stand...DH is thinking of trying to rent that space himself. We'll see what happens.

On an up note, I was managing the customers and the store for a bit, while DH was managing the parking lot after letting the guy we originally hired go. (That guy just wanted to sit in the shade and listen to his music and play on his phone...)  DH usually orchestrates the inside--getting customers to sales people, keeping the product on the shelves, but I got to take on that role and I didn't do too badly considering my lack of knowledge on what products we had in the storage area to re-stock with.

If we'd had Sonshine, he'd have known. Of course, he'd probably have been relegated to parking lot duty had he been there. :)  If I'd had one more sales person and one "runner," it would have been a little easier, but we made it through the huge rush, usually the four or five hours prior to dusk, without our shelves looking too awful. That's one thing we always try to do--keep the shelves full, so people always know they can find what they want right up until midnight. Fireworks don't go bad unless they get wet, so we store them for the next season.

Hope you had a fabulous weekend!

Of course, the 4th we were busy selling fireworks, but we found a place to go shoot a show and so here is some photographic evidence that we did get to celebrate, albeit a day late...

First off, however, I generally try to purchase a new tee shirt for the occasion and this is what I found this year...I couldn't not buy it.

This is going to be a crazy week, what with Fourth of July on Friday, so I'm going take a vacation from blogging this week and I'll be back next Monday.

Have a great week and a wonderful holiday. Be safe!

This past Friday, due to a random sequence of events, I attended a Concert in the Garden--the annual series of outdoor concerts put on by the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra in the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens.

I've never been to the Botanic Garden, though the visit is now on my list of things to do in Fort Worth.

But back to Friday and the concert...we had table seating and everyone was enjoying dinners of various types al fresco. It was really quite delightful.

The concert began as it was getting dark--and were treated to the most famous and well known compositions of John Williams: E.T. the Extraterrestrial, Pirates of the Caribbean, Hook, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jaws, Harry Potter and Star Wars (not necessarily in that order). We also heard music from Star Trek and Mars (a movie or documentary) even though Mr. Williams did not compose either one.

We were also treated to a laser show...





And a fireworks show.



It was the first fireworks show I got to watch and enjoy without having to either help light stuff or foot the bill--or both. YAY!!
What a wonderful evening!

If in the local area--have you ever attended a Concert in the Garden?

We sold a record number of fireworks this season, though we won't get to enjoy much of the proceeds as we have a few things needing to be paid. But it's nice to have it to rely on. We were busy from noon to 11:30 PM on the 31st. No kidding. Had at least three customers in the store at any given time except for a short TEN SECOND stint at around 9:30 PM. It's not an exaggeration.

My writers group is sponsoring two contests and I'm knee deep in both of them.

The beginning of the month means a lot of work in the office. The beginning of the new year in addition to being the first of the month--ugh.

I even started my first book of the year--Coconut Oil Recipes: Nature's Remedy for Health, Beauty, Weight Loss, Allergies, & Detoxing by Scarlett Aphra. Free for the Kindle yesterday--maybe today, if you hurry. No guarantees.

Twenty-fourteen, here I come...

Oh, yeah, I was going to talk about our 4th of July--it was super crazy busy. And when I say the 4th, I really mean the 3rd and the 4th as that's when I'm there helping out. The selling season begins June 24th and ends midnight on the 4th....

So DD and I went down to the store Wednesday, the 3rd. It was 2:30ish by the time we arrived and had to pretty much jump right into the fray. DH had hired five other workers bees and they were busy selling, selling, selling. DD and I brought two more helpers besides ourselves.

By three p.m. we were all in and we didn't slow down until close to midnight, when we lock the doors for the night.

Our biggest competition used to be another indoor store just up the block on the corner, and because of the placement of the exit ramp, people would blow right by our store and see that one first. Then they'd stop in on their way back by and say, "I wish I had stopped here first, your prices are cheaper." ARGH!!

Two things conspired in our favor, beginning last season.

One: they guy on the corner had to sell quite a few of his stores after the fireworks ban (as opposed to a burn ban, though those were in effect too) in 2010. He buys/bought his inventory straight from China. Because of the ban no one could sell, and subsequently he didn't make the money needed either to pay off what he owed for inventory or to buy more inventory for the next season. The chances of the ban were very high and we bought only what we could pay for out of pocket and we buy locally. The other guy, however, has to buy nine months in advance. No way to know about a ban that far out.

Now I'm not happy for his unfortunate circumstance, I'm really not, but I can't help be glad for our change of same.

Two: because of all the road construction around the state and the fact that I-35, right off of which our store is located, is being widened, the exit was moved a mile or so south from its original location.
This means potential customers are going much slower by the time they reach us and can actually see us.

Last Christmas was our first season without competition. In addition, DH rented the billboard space right above the exit *and* took out a half page ad in the Thrift Nickel. We doubled our best Christmas season. Fast forward to 4th of July where we generally do 2/3 more business than at Christmas. Yikes!

Okay, I'm getting tired of my topic now, and I bet you are too, so let me just say there were people in the store on the 4th from about 9am until midnight. We had (and I'm not exaggerating) a 30 to 45 SECOND respite at about 11:30ish (pm). The remaining customer walked out and I looked at someone and said, "Can you believe there's no one in the store." And not but a moment later another customer walked in, and we had at least one customer in the store until midnight.

HOLY SMOKES!!!!!!!!!!!!

Best summer season ever. And last season we were able to pay off the person we bought the store from, so that huge expense is finally gone!

If only we could use our profits for getting out of debt, however, we're being audited, so we need to save it all in case we have to pay. Ugh! But watch out next season! We'll be well on our way to becoming debt free!!


Here are some of our helpers:

It's that time of year again... You know--the 4th of July. In our house, thoughts turn to fireworks in April when it's time to begin preparing for the season (June 24 to July 4). Inventory needs to get re-done, orders placed, plans made, general preparations for DH's time away.

And now it's time to decorate the house! My bedroom is perpetually decorated, since we went with a red/white/blue theme, and the kitchen's getting there...blue paint, white counter tops, and red dishes and curtains. :)

Last night, I put up the bunting and the window clings and the flag/star banner. Woo hoo! I need to see if I can find some more garland though. (I really love that stuff!)





And you remember my planter I got for my birthday right??


We used to shoot off huge shows...hours-long shows with huge finales, but now we're selling, so DH and Sonshine have the store open 8am to midnight every day for eleven days. The girls and I usually pitch in the last two days since those are the biggest selling days. I miss the days of the shows.


Do you have a 4th of July family tradition? Do you watch a fireworks show somewhere? Do you put on your own?? Do share!!

Today's the real birthday--on the 7th, I mentioned celebrating Sonshine's birthday as part of our countdown to Christmas festivities, so I won't repeat it, but I couldn't not mark the actual day. Seventeen years ago, at 1.19 in the very early a.m. the most beautiful baby boy ever was born. Today we'll mark the day with cake and either dinner out or a trip to the movies for the kids.

In other news...DH is down at the store already and we have a good news/bad news situation. The good news (for us, anyway) is that our competition on the corner is no more. We think that the summer of 2011 when fireworks sales were banned (in all but 4 of 250-something Texas counties) got him caught in an unfortunate financial pickle. We order from a local supplier (usually at the last minute), and when it became clear we weren't going to be able to open, we adjusted our order accordingly. We still bought stuff, but just what we could afford to pay out of pocket. This other guy owns a string of stores and stands and orders directly from China. That means a nine month lead time. Unfortunately, he'd already ordered his stuff and was on the hook to pay for it. That took a while and he couldn't keep ordering while he had a balance. See, fireworks are ordered on a sort of consignment plan, you order and you pay for them after the season is over and you've sold them. So the situation is not good for him, but good for us. And I'm really not trying to make light of his situation. It sucks and I feel horribly for the guy.

The bad news is that DH has no idea how much to order to accommodate the increased sales we will most likely see. I have no idea either. On top of that, we're advertising for the first time ever. Yeesh. It's going to be a banner Christmas season, but it's going to kick our butts. In a good way.

And now it's time for our daily dose of Christmas...


That garland on the right has seen better days and will probably get tossed after the holidays. I haven't quite decided where to hang the silver garland yet, but seeing as how Christmas is a week away, I suppose I better get after it.

So last night I worked at Dallas Cowboys Stadium...December 2, right? Why was it still warm outside when we left last night at, oh, 11:30??? I'm not complaining. There's hardly enough room for the bodies in the stand, much less heavy winter coats, but it's December. It should be colder. Crazy.

Breakthrough! Last week, I shared that my friend (and last week's guest) Angi Morgan read my manuscript and made very helpful comments. I was able to get back into the game on this WIP. I'm glad to report that I have cut enough words to drop back under the required 10 to 15K word count for the line I'm targeting. But I still have some in dept revisions to make and the word count is going to push the 15K limit until I hit The End. But I think that's really going to challenge me to choose the right words and make every single one of those bad boys count.

The only constant is change...which I really don't like. Last week, one of our employees gave notice. In and of itself, that's not really a bad thing, but his departure comes at a really bad time. Not only will his last day be the first day of fireworks season (the 20th)--when DH and Sonshine are out of town, but our other employee is going on vacation (out of the country) on the 22nd. That means DH is our only employee for three weeks.

Now thankfully, it's over the holidays and we run rather slow this time of year, but DH can't be two places at once. So...I may be running the fireworks store with Sonshine for the first 10 days. I'm not as dismayed by possibility as I once might have been. Because what it means is a lot of writing time! And right now I want it and need it.

And still no word from the editors at Entangled. But any time now. *fingers crossed*

Check back in tomorrow for my next Christmas post!

It's a crazy thing to say, but the weekend was crazy busy and I'm glad my life can fall back into a routine for a few days.

Saturday we attended a going away party for my nephew who leaves Thursday for Del Rio, Texas/Laughlin Air Force Base to begin his Air Force career. Flight training doesn't begin until next June, though.


My mother-in-law made a to-die-for banana pudding and, after dinner and dessert, we enjoyed some fireworks. (It's 25 seconds...)


Yesterday, we worked the Cowboy/Buccaneers game. I'm thankful it was a noon kickoff and that I was able to take a bath and fall in bed early, though I'm still feeling totally wiped out.

So...how was your weekend?

I've still been productive, but I'm feeling the strain. I'm getting tired so easily, but the end is in sight.

Last night, I spent way more time than I should have putting up new mini-blinds in the bathroom. I won't go into detail, but they do look good now that they're up. I had planned on adding a window treatment only to realize for the second time (doh) that the brackets for the rod did not extend far enough past the top of the mini-blinds to actually be able to install the rod. I knew it was going to be an issue and even looked for longer brackets when at the Home Depot exchanging the too-short (width-wise) blinds I bought the other day. They carry them, but had none in stock. Ugh!

I'm also on stand by for a trip to the fireworks store. DH may have to come home to sit in trial and listen to the prosecution's forensic expert and ensure he accurately represents the findings. Experts are not supposed to be biased either way toward the defendant, they're just supposed to present the facts. Many a time has DH told an attorney--a defense attorney-- "your client is guilty as sin, make a pleas or take a deal". Seriously.

Anyway, this trip couldn't come at a worse time. I still have things to do before my big weekend. On the other hand, it's forced rest. All I have to do is drive there, be present while the boys run the show, and drive back. The problem only lies in how long it'll all take. If it's today, no problem. If it's tomorrow...well, I have dinner plans.

Quick update--just talked to DH and they don't need him after all. So I'm off the hook. On the other hand, he's expecting to be busy at the store this weekend, so now I have bribe convince bribe DD to go down there and help out. She's not going to be happy about that.

On top of all that cleaning, I've been revising. Not as much as I would otherwise, but I'm still making progress. I'm also writing again. I need new words to earn the next charm, you see. So yesterday I opened an old project, one I'm going to use for my chapter's 30th anniversary anthology.



Where was I? Oh, yeah, I wrote over 1100 words yesterday, which felt really good. I've done nothing but revisions for about three weeks now and I'm feeling a bit weary. But I'm gonna push through and finish the damn story. Eventually. My new deadline is July 21st, my next writers group meeting.

Speaking of revisions and writing, I'd better get to it. But before I sign off, let's check out another giftie. Oh, heck, let's do two. We're almost done.

The Twelve Days of Jen

I raved about this movie several weeks ago, well, I guess a couple of months go, actually...I enjoyed it so much I told DD I wanted it for my birthday. And I got it. :)



And at the end of the birthday/Mother's Day shopping frenzy, there was still some cash left, and I wasn't about to let DD just have it--that's my money after all, so I told her to just give it back to me.



One more giftie to go and I'll share that on Friday.

In the mean time, keep cool!

...when cloudy was the weather.

Yep, it's drizzly here in North Texas, though a bit warmer with the cloud cover. And we desperately need the rain.

On a side note, the burn bans in McLennan county, where our fireworks store is, and neighboring Hill County, have been lifted. That means we get to sell this season. Thank goodness. We hope that because there were no fireworks sales on the 4th of July, people might be inclined to go overboard this New Years. Keep your fingers crossed for us.

TGIF--it's been a good week at work. I was productive both work wise and writing wise, but I am glad it is the weekend. I have tentative plans to connect with a critique partner or two via Chatzy at various times over the weekend to continue my writing streak. I gotta get this story finished. It's a matter of principle. :)

Have a good weekend y'all.

Again. :)

My critique group is up to five members now. We enlisted two new recruits this weekend. One gal is e-published and not new to writing, the other is the newbie. Both are lovely and fun women.

Now that we've got these two new writers, there can be no more lackadaisical behavior by the rest of us. It's back to the grindstone, back to writing. Or at least back to editing/revising for me. I have a handful of stories that are almost done. My goal is to get these suckers complete. Some are short stories, some are full-length novels, though on the lighter end of the word count requirements. We'll see how it goes.

My college plans will have to wait until the spring semester of 2012. Not because I'm not flip flopping, but after really thinking about what I've got going on this fall--mostly band/band booster related stuff for Sonshine, there's just no good time for me to attend class and complete homework. Plus with being unable to sell fireworks, that means DD's fall tuition will be out of pocket. And she's more important than me at the moment.

The weather has eased slightly with temps only in the low to mid-nineties today and probably for the rest of the week.

Speaking of selling fireworks...the Venus VFD finally called hubby back. They are doing the pop & shoot as long as no order is issued in their county banning the sale/use of fireworks there. Also, they moved, so there'll be a new location. As a side note, it's possible, though unlikely we actually could sell fireworks. Apparently the original order issued by the McLennan County judge had to be ratified by the governor within 48 hours for it to remain in effect. Well, that didn't happen and the judge had to issue a new order. The wording on this one however might just have a loophole. It says no sales in unincorporated areas of the county. And while the store is indeed in an unincorporated town, the old fireworks stand is not. The city of Leroy is incorporated!! Unfortunately, there's no longer electricity or phone service there and it would take a lot of time and effort to get everything in place to be able to sell from the stand. And the money we might make would barely cover the expenses hubby has incurred already this season and that doesn't include the cost of the inventory we bought. I'd much rather cut our losses and do a show. I miss doing shows.

We can't sell fireworks this season. The head honcho in McLennan County, where our store is located has just issued the order for the ban of sales and use of fireworks.

We understand--we really do, because it's been so dry here in Texas, especially south of us.

But couldn't he have done it yesterday or the day before--the supposed deadline for these announcements?? So that all those people that count on that deadline to place their order or pickup their product didn't proceed.

Ordering's not a big deal, because you can cancel it; but once you've take receipt of your inventory, you're (obviously) obligated to pay for it. We had a suspicion and cut our order way back so that we could pay it out of pocket, if we had to. Which we now have to do. Grr...

Looking on the bright side, I suggested we find somewhere to shoot our own show. Hubby hasn't shot a show in quite a few years, which he misses. And was the reason we started selling in the first place--to get wholesale prices. (The man was spending $4K to $6K a year.) (Yeah.)

Hubby's still taking his vacation though. He'll go to the store, stock the shelves, stripe the parking lot, etc. Just at a slower pace. I'll still get my vacation too. :)