engarian

Once upon a time, weekends meant something. It signified two days away from the school grounds, two days away from homework and teachers (although there was often homework that needed to be turned in on Monday mornings), and it was "family time" for many of us. At work, Saturday was always a busy day — we would get people coming into town for various weekend events like pow wows or exhibitions. They would often drop by on their way to or from those just to pick up a few things. That won't be happening now. We're totally closed except by invitation at this point. 

The Family Center's order has taken us days to get organized and invoiced out. They need to know the dollar value of what they got, and we also need that for our taxes, even though they actually aren't purchasing anything. It's been a lot of work for all three of us. Yes ... three of us. Chickie is still with us, working four days a week while looking for a new job. Our hours are much more flexible at this point, and we're rolling as we need to. But we really need that third person right now. When the Family Center order is finished, I'll be contacting the St Paul Indian Center to come over and pick whatever they want. We'll just go down the line and see whatever we can give away to their benefit and, hopefully, also for ours. 

So, the main portion of our Going Out of Business Sale is over. BUT ... we still have a LOT of merchandise left, so we're going to do two three-day sales starting next week, so get rid of as much of the overstock as possible. We're busy packing everything into 100 piece bags and the bags are priced to sell at close to what a single 20-pack had been selling for at the beginning of this year. We think they'll go well. Right now, however, the store looks like a bomb went off in it - cartons and bins everywhere, beads over every horizontal surface. I'm also missing a key for one of the display cases that I ABSOLUTELY MUST find before long. I have someone who bought those display cases, and I need to clear the goods from them so that she can pick them up next week, or the week after. Nothing ever goes smoothly in the life of me - LOL. Have an excellent day, I'm off to grab a bite to eat, then head over to the shop.

I really don't have anything to say. Work is work and all-encompassing, time off is time to eat and sleep. I can hardly wait for the end of the whole thing, but we still have a month remaining. 

- Erulisse (one L)

Sunday was a bit of a catch-up day. We certainly had customers. I had one gentleman I had been helping with Native American pottery come in. I had met him about two weeks ago, and he's a serious collector who was interested in several of the pots we had available. He ended up purchasing three, and that was a VERY nice sale. I was quite grateful. 

Sunday was slower, though. We didn't open until noon, and closed at 4:00 pm. Today we're back on "normal" schedule. We'll see how "Week 2" starts out. I miss being in daily contact with all of you, but it is what it is. *hugs*

Just popping in VERY quickly to say I'm still alive, and the sale is going REALLY well. But there's still a lot of time ahead of me before we lock the doors for the final time. A long-time customer and Ren Fest friend has jumped in to help us. She's come after her gils have left for school, and worked for most of the day jelping put product back onto the racks. SO IMPORTANT. i DON'T KNOW WHAT i WOULD DO WITHOUT HER. Right now, though, it's one day at a time. Don't worry about me if I don't post for a while. We're that busy. *Hugs* to all! Slava Ukraini.

I'm completely off schedule today, so no post because I'm running late for work. Sorry, but have a great weekend.

- Erulisse (one L)

Happy Monday to all. After my run this morning, I grabbed my point driver and set about anchoring the small kachina paintings I've been framing into their frames. I cut the glass on Saturday, so I was ready to finish things up. EXCEPT ... *sigh* ... the Framedriver tool I'm using doesn't have enough power to penetrate the frame. *sigh* I'm picking up my next frame on Wednesday. I'll have to ask Rook if he has any suggestions for me. It might just need a tension adjustment, but I'd like to get the pieces finished and ready to sell.

I'm not a quitter, and I love a challenge (and a great group of competitors and friends), but I'm pulling out of LJ Idol effective immediately. With our trying to close the store this year, and the amount of sheer hours I'm having to put into the shop to make this happen, I simply don't have the time to write a quality piece for submission. I refuse to post anything but my best. So, my post for this week was my withdrawal notification, and I'm quite sad about that on the one hand, and a bit relieved on the other.

Happy Monday. It's the start of a new week of trials and tribulations. Guaranteed. I need to get going on getting items matted and shrink wrapped, but the time available for this is minimal, at best. I may have to start going in for several hours on Sunday mornings just to get everything moving. That won't make me super happy, but it might be exactly what it needs to be.

I was at the shop until almost 8:00 pm yesterday night, wrapping up this large Swarovski crystal order I'm sending to the West Coast. I got the day ended, then I started the sale, and finally had everything entered into the computer and was ready to plug in her credit card number, box the merch up, and send it on its' way today. EXCEPT ... like an idiot, I hadn't asked for, nor noticed that she hadn't included the three digit CVV number from the back of the credit card. *sigh*