The Crown Lady

sounds

2011-09-10T09:10:00.000-04:00

I love how the sound of the dishwasher always makes Arie fall asleep.

And speaking of sounds, my parents were telling me yesterday about a story they saw on the news the previous night. apparently, a personality/pet peeve/quirk I've always had is actually a real thing. We always just thought it was a "me" thing. It's called misophonia. I can't stand hearing other people chew. And i know, you'll say that no one likes to really hear another person eat. but we're talking, even polite eaters. chewing with their mouth closed. The noise of them chewing just stands out and is LOUD to me and I CAN'T STAND IT! it makes me ill. If I'm eating at the same time, i have to stop eating.

Poor Josh--If I'm sitting next to my husband during dinner, then the TV has to be on to drown out chewing noises. Otherwise, I get physically angry and annoyed and shoot him very angry looks for just chewing his food like a decent human being. It's 100% an anxiety thing. Always knew it was, just didn't know it had an actual name! If we're having a snack in the living room..we sit on different sofas until snack time is over.

Oh, and don't get me started about listening to people drink hot coffee. I freak out in movie theaters--listening to people crunch popcorn. i just focus in on those mouth sounds and can't distract myself away from listening...it's all i hear. I usually end up clamping my finger nails into josh's arm if he's nearby. Fortunately, Josh has always been very understanding of this trait of mine and knows that i can't really help it. he tries to help me just 'chill out'..but it does lead to some crazy moments (switching seats with me in the middle of "Wicked" when were in London, as the lady next to me was slurping her ice cream she bought during intermission. Making me get liquored up on a trans-atlantic flight so that I didn't strangle the person eating next to me. you know. silly things like that). as you can see, it inflicts a kind of rage response from me.

mommy's little thumb-sucker!

I know. I'm weird. I'm an artist, that's all i can say. So how about some cute baby pix to help show that I can be normal (for what it's worth, i like hearing my nephew and my Arie eat. I find their eating sounds reassuring.
don't ask why)

Arie turns 12 weeks in a couple of days...and he's around 9lbs now. Pretty honkin' huge compared to his 5.75lbs at birth! He's doing so, so well. Despite having such a fun job, it's still a job--and so i have a bit of contempt for it at the moment as I'd rather spend all day playing and cuddling with Arthur! At least I get to work from home and get to at least be around him all day.

a whole new ballgame...

2011-08-22T07:28:00.000-04:00

In my last posting on this blog, i was not yet officially a mommy....and today I write this as the mommy of a 2month old!

here are the highlights

-Arthur Alan Clough was born on 6/20 (1 week early)
5lbs 11oz, 20.5" long....yup, a long skinny guys!
-labor was just 8 hours--fast and intense. Oof. A little scary, too. Arie's heart rate kept dropping with each contraction. so alarms kept going off. turns out, it was becuase his umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck. we didn't know this until the very end, so an emergency c-section team was on standby in my room in case Arie didn't tolerate the pushing well. but he did. Just 5 sets of pushes and he was out!

-the first 2 weeks of motherhood are quite the experience and adjustment. week 3 felt better. by week 6 i was starting to see how I'd be able to juggle being a mommy while also taking care of the house and getting back to work

-nursing takes a lot of time. and breast fed babies like to eat a little several times a day. even now that he's 2 months old, he's still eating about every 2-3 hours during the day time. At night, he's starting to really do well. I nurse him, then he gets a bath and then Daddy (Josh) gives him a bottle I've prepped. so that really stuffs the kid. Just this past week we're finally getting into a 5-6 hour stretch at night. after his 1st wake up at 3 or 4am, though, he's up every 2 hours after that. but I can handle that for the most part. better than every 2 hours the whole night like it was for the first month...

-Arie loves going on walks in his stroller. and he loves sitting in his little chair out in my workshop and watching me while I work. fortunately, he likes the sound of the engraver (it's like white noise to him). but he doesn't get to be out in the office when i'm soldering metal. I do all that kind of work first think in the morning while he's still asleep.

-i would not say that arthur has colic--but he does get the grumps in the evening. cuddles, eating, and walks outside seem to do the trick. Oh and he loves bathtime :)

i love my little man more than I ever thought possible. can't imagine life with out him!

Arie's Churching 3 weeks ago

almost like music

2011-06-03T11:01:00.000-04:00

The sound of nearly10,000 little glass seed beads falling to the ground is almost soothing...and quite a pretty effect...Until you realized that you have to clean them all up. and that while you were mesmerized by the waterfall effect of them, they bounced all over the woodfloor and scattered into a dozen different nooks and crannies.

movin' that up a tad....

2011-05-31T11:05:00.002-04:00

Sorry folks, I know I had said June 8th...however my increasing discomfort with all things pregnancy related have really been taking their toll. June 3rd is the new cut off date.

My work doesn't stop on the 3rd...I have to finish making all the orders that I receive during this week. and based on the kinds of 'practice contractions', the massive heat wave the midwest is experiencing right now, my lack of sleep (so hard to get comfy!), and just all things needing to be done to get ready for baby, it's all just feeling a little overwhelming right now. and I need to limit my stress at the moment. and I would rather upset a few people now by moving up the cut off date than taking an order, but not being able to fill it. My very sincere apologies is my date change is going to inconvenience you in any way.

thanks for understanding!

Last Call!

2011-05-18T14:47:00.000-04:00

THE LAST DAY to get your orders in before I start Maternity leave is June, 8th!!!

Once I finish up those last orders, then I will officially be on maternity leave until the end of July.

I hope to get back to work on August 1. NOTHING WILL SHIP WHILE I AM ON MATERNITY LEAVE. I will keep this website updated with all pertinent info. Please no phone calls during my leave. You are always welcome to continue emailing, and I will respond when I am able. I apologize in advance for any inconvenience my time away may cause. I appreciate your patience and understanding during this wonderful time in our lives. I promise to return to work as soon as I can.

My Due date is June 27th....so I'm just past 34 weeks along, but this kid is measuring in at 36 weeks along (for those of you who don't know, 40 weeks is "Full term"). and his current measurement does not necessarily mean that he'll be early..but it does show you just how uncomfortable I'm starting to get. and Just plain exhausted. No one would want me working on their crowns a full month from now, trust me! Depending on the health of the baby and myself, I may shorten or extend my leave. Keep checking back for updates on either this site, or the website.

winning streak

2011-04-13T14:41:00.000-04:00

OK, i just have to tell "someone" out there about my winning streak in Scrabble.

My husband and I love this game. and Josh is a very, very intelligent guy. He is my Rocket Scientist, after all. But the last 3 games in a row (we have been playing almost every night, but some of these are multi-day games, otherwise we'd be up even later than we already are!), I've beaten him!!! and in our 11 years together, I have NEVER beaten Josh in Scrabble before. And I was finally able to do it 3 times in a row. It's those little victories in life that keep us going. :)

We'll see what tonight's match brings.....

Oh, and my super cool nursing chair is going to be delivered on Friday. And I just picked up the cradle sheets from Penney's today. We had our first 'childbirth' class last night. Having to do group activities made me remember how much I hated that kind of thing in school. I already have issues with feeling "adult" enough to have a child of my own, and having to do group activities doesn't really help with that. Yes, I'm a non-team player. Just 1 of many reasons why I have my own business.

new photo booth!

2011-04-11T12:08:00.000-04:00

josh helped me re-arrange the garage this weekend. created more space in the garage for my work, my belly, and plenty of room to put a bouncy chair out here with this guy finally enters this world. The new set up gives me an actual photo stand, rather than a totally improvised section on a shelf. I have more storage space too (becuase we moved all inventory inside--Josh is Ok with me storing things in a side room that we don't go into a whole lot).

currently experimenting with the best lighting arrangement. I have some great track lighting out here in the garage already (these pix are a little dark to get that point across)

overview of my workspace. What you don't see is that the shelving all along the left hand side of the garage is organized and stacked to the brim with shipping materials. ( i did have inventory over there). My drill press and rolling mill are set up on my jewelers bench behind the shipping table (the one that is sort of in the middle of the picture. There is a nice sides aisle that runs down the whole length of the left hand side of the garage for maneuvering to get shipping materials and to get over to my other equipment. and all of that really opened up the front part of the garage (i'm currently sitting in that grey office chair. my comp. is right next to that CNC machine in the right hand corner)

Spring Rush!

2011-03-28T19:42:00.000-04:00

Hi folks, The rush of orders for Spring weddings is on! I have a lot of people I have yet to respond to via email or phone. Rest assured all of your messages have gotten to me..it's just taking me some additional time to get back to everyone. I am trying to get all caught up on that correspondence today (or rather this evening). Thanks so much for understanding.

Argh!

2011-03-28T11:50:00.002-04:00

I hate it when I misplace a crown!!!!!

neat site

2011-03-24T09:44:00.002-04:00

because of my husband, Josh, I love all things space. this is a neat little write-up--mostly fun pictures
http://dvice.com/archives/2011/03/this-is-what-na.php

crown cases are here!

2011-03-21T18:15:00.000-04:00

I picked up my first batch of crown cases from the cabinet makers on Friday. I got a chance on Sat evening and yesterday afternoon to sit down and inspect them. Overall, they're exactly what I wanted. We have a few kinks to work out yet (a few lids are askew and need to be remade. padded feet were left off).

I just need to install the Lexan window. and prep and install the bases. I'm not pleased with how my wooden icons stained up...there's too much detail--and the oak grain really picks up the stain. I need to find a solution pronto!

2 saving graces

2011-03-18T09:43:00.000-04:00

2 things have helped me get through this week: 1) completely abandoning my work yesterday afternoon (the first really gorgeous and warm day here this year) and going to play with my my nephew in the yard. trucks, sandbox, chasing bubbles. Sharing a banana. Yeah, that's the good stuff.

2) today is Friday. We'll see if I can get everything checked off my to-do list today, but come 6pm, i'm not working on any work. only fun stuff (rehabbing a dresser for baby's changing table). FYI, i pick up crown cases today!!!!!!

update

2011-03-16T10:07:00.000-04:00

Well, I really liked the house---thought that it had enormous potential. Josh agrees with that, but feels more work would need to be done sooner rather than later. As in, as soon as we moved in. So that's an automatic no for us with our current situation. it was really fun to go and see, though.

and josh's work has officially announced that they're moving to a downtown location! Yay! That will shave about 10 minutes off of josh's commute (to well under 30 minutes!). The existing buildings still needs to be renovated for RR's use, but they are a couple of unused Eli Lily buildings. so they're in great condition. RR just has to get all the work spaces and such set up. Josh's group will be the last to make the move, but it's conceivable that josh will be at the new site by the end of the year. Fun!

Busy week!

2011-03-14T12:12:00.000-04:00

last week of my 2nd trimester. Woo!

And too much crown work to really be able to comprehend. BUt it's all really really fun work, so i'm not unhappy about it.

to add to all of this excitement, on an evening drive yesterday, we stumbled upon a home that we've always loved. It's now for sale. It's a home that we had noticed was for sale via the online listing several months ago, but hadn't fully comprehended that it was that house. and it hasn't yet sold (it's a pre-forclosure. as-is condition. needs updating). We're starting to feel the space crunch in our home (and esp. my workshop). we can't help but be curious about this house. waiting for a realtor to call me back to see when we can view it.

Kicking = good, right?

2011-03-11T14:47:00.000-05:00

So the other night, Josh was talking to my belly. The little guy was in quite the feisty, kicking mood (he really responds to Josh's voice!). So Josh started naming off some of the names we've compiled thus far. The little guy was quiet, no kicking at all, until we got to one name. And we got a BIG kick. Josh continued reading names, but no kicks to any of those. And when we went back to reading stories, then the kid was just doing his usual fluttery thing. Soo....we can only guess that he liked the sound of the name, and that's why he kicked....Or was it a fluke?....or does it mean he hates the name?

I usually go with the theory that If I get lots of kicks while eating, then I figure he likes it, right? so, I think I may apply that to the name game we have going on.

I think I may have also finally located a nursing chair. Once my short little legs will allow me to out of rather gracefully with out much arm assistance.

But work has been really, really busy the last 2 weeks, so barely any baby-fun has gotten done. I think I'm still in shock that I'm a week away from my 3rd trimester.

I just had to restock on some materials and shipping supplies. It is getting to hard to snake in and out of the aisles I have set up in the garage for the various boxes and supplies. It's hard not to get grumpy about it. and I need to suddenly have a bunch of safe storage areas for all those crown cases that should be finished any time now.... I need a larger workshop! But the Spring wedding season is in full swing. It's been late working days around here....which is fine, since Joshy-boy has been working a lot of late evenings for his work these days, too. So it at least works out well that we're both needing to work long hours...but man, am I TIRED by the 6pm. I could seriously go to bed at 6 every night!

OK, back to work--lots of fun engravings to do!

I'm no quitter!

2011-03-07T20:40:00.000-05:00

So I just had an interesting experience at my regular Monday night pilates class. I've been going to this particular class for a couple of years now, and even before then I was a pilates girl.

Just recently, The Saturday Pilates teacher started (temporarily) teaching the Monday night class. This teacher started working at the gym just before we left for England, so I wasn't going to any of the Sat. classes then. So this teacher doesn't know the un-pregnant me.

For the most part, I've been able to keep up with the class. I've only recently had to start modifying some of the exercises, which isn't a big deal to do, and I obviously don't mind doing that.

well tonight, after class, the teacher came up to me and asked me when I was going to quit the class! That really shocked me. I was expecting to have to be the one to go up to her at some point and say "sorry, the class just isn't fun for me any longer, I'll see you in a few months" and then feel guilty about bowing out of the class when the teacher probably things that I should keep doing it. But no, it kind of seems like the opposite is going on here! I don't think this teacher is particularly comfortable with me in the class!

Anyway, I told her that yes, it's getting harder and harder to these exercises, but that I had a goal of keeping up with pilates for at least another 2 weeks, to get me into my 3rd trimester and then just see how I'm doing at that time.

I don't think I'll feel uncomfortable in that class, as in, I don't think the teacher is actively against me being in the class. it was just an unexpected conversation. I know she's just looking out for the welfare of her students, and I can't really argue with that one!

interesting way to start the week.

2011-03-07T00:57:00.000-05:00

it's nearly 1am on Sunday night/monday morning.

Plumber left the house about an hour ago. after 4.5 hours + 250 ft of snake@ time and a half emergency rates, we finally have working plumbing again.

This is the 2nd time in 3 weeks....the 1st time was only 3 hours and 125 feet. Yeah, apparently this was a different clog, so the 30 day warranty for the previous work didn't apply.

And being in the pregnant state that I am, I have been avoiding major chemical cleaners. so poor josh has been left to spray the bleach solution over everything to get it all disinfected. As Josh just said "the smell of all that watered down bleach has me wanting to go swimming." I like that I can smell bleach now, rather than sewage. But my heightened sense of smell really isn't caring much for that scent either.

Kinda a rough way to start of the week.

I am grateful for indoor plumbing, but with the kind of luck we've been having with it the last month i'm ready to give up.

At least Rufi-boy wasn't sick all day like the last time. All we needed last time was to add a crying baby to the mix, and that would have been just perfect. so in that respect, we're doing pretty well. oy!

icon making

2011-03-02T15:55:00.002-05:00

working on icons for the "Small" crown cases!

Is it Weird?

2011-02-25T15:40:00.000-05:00

Is it weird that I think the background music to Stevie Wonder's Do I Do sounds like the theme music to Fraggle Rock?

We meet again...

2011-02-25T08:48:00.000-05:00

Alright, it's another snowy friday around here. Josh has been stuck in traffic more than an hour---road conditions are apparently a lot worse than anyone thought. I'm both giddy and bummed that that means that I won't be driving out this morning to head to the gym, as originally planned.

On the docket for the day: yes, crowns...but more specifically, after making some specific crown sets, I'm officially starting on my "stock pile" of crowns for maternity leave. That also means that i need to order in even more materials in order to continue this trend. spend money to make money, right?

I made a big ole vat of chili yesterday, so I don't plan on taking the afternoon off to cook (although I'd much rather do that than work).

I do have a fun work project to make the afternoon fun and a little different, so I'm looking forward to that.

Now, what to do while the garage is warming up? ah yes, a nap with my kitties.

Starting a new Game...

2011-02-24T10:55:00.000-05:00

OK, I'm going to start a new game here called: Is it Weird?

Is it weird that in every dream I've had about my baby thus far, he always turns into a cat at some point?

It's a...

2011-02-23T15:35:00.000-05:00

OK, I haven't yet made the official announcement on whether Midge is a He or She on the set yet. I've really been slackin' around here, haven't I?! We found out a few weeks ago....

why have just 1 picture of the family jewels, when you can have 2?

pretty picture of his spine

I can't wait to eat those Toes!!!

Skeletor shaking his fist at me, already pounding to get out of my belly.


Not super clear profile shot, but you can see his little lips and nose outlines :)

So yes, while originally I thought I was having a girl (So much for maternal instinct!) it's a boy. I love the idea of having a little man running around the house. someone to help keep mommy safe when daddy goes on his business trips. And growing up, I always loved having an older brother, so if we ever do have a girl, then I think she'll be lucky to have an older brother.

So on to the kid who already wants out of my belly: yeah, lots and lots of kicking. The amount and intensity of the kicks really does increase every day. and when he's kicking behind my belly button, it kind of tickles. and Chocolate always gets him going. now that's my boy!

All this activity has really made me want to just throw my hands up at my work and start maternity leave now. but I'm not going to. I'm certain I can make it through the May/June wedding rush (As most people order several weeks ahead of time) before I stop work and just sell from stock. However, I am starting to make plans for stockpiling, and know that over the next month or so, I'll have made all the sets of a few crowns styles that will get made pre-baby.

There are some crowns that are just too labor intensive, or I'm sick of wearing my respirator to protect from paint fumes..so I'm just gonna stock pile those now and sell from that until the fall. Just the way it's gonna have to be for a while. so, back to work!

yesterday/today

2011-02-02T10:17:00.000-05:00

i did a teensy amount of work yesterday before getting sidetracked and making fun things in the kitchen. I can never work well when Josh stays home--he's so distracting. I blame it all on him.

anyway, even thought there's about 4inches of ice on the ground, the roads were downgraded from "watch" to "Advisory"..meaning that technically, the roads are fine. so josh had to venture into the office today. took an hour to chip out my Subaru (the VW is completely iced in place. won't budge).

but sounds like most people still stayed home today, so the roads were nice an empty. and just a handful of people are at his office today.

i would much rather have another fun snow day at home with josh, but it's probably for the best that he went in. now i can get some work done today. i'm being a little pokey about it. but a work day it shall be.

Snow day?

2011-02-01T09:09:00.000-05:00

so the bad part of working from home is that, technically, you can work through any kind of weather.

We got hit with a major ice storm last night, with an even worse round of ice moving into the area around noon today. Everyone is expecting power outages with the weighted down tree limbs. but so far, we're good. but we are doing things like filling up water bottles, bringing in more firewood, etc. I spent all morning deep cleaning the house. if we're gonna get snowed/iced in, then we're gonna get stuck inside a clean house gosh-darnit!

After a half hour of trying to chip out his car earlier this morning, Josh gave up. the 1/2" layer of ice was too much. (yeah, see, my work takes up the whole garage now. the guy doesn't get to park in a garage anymore.) So he's having to take the day off becuase we can't get either car cleared off sufficiently.

So now I'm debating if that means I should be a good girl and go out in the garage and work??! Nearly everyone else in town is taking a snow day. But ethically, do self-employed folks who work from home get snow days? Well, I guess it depends on how much I want to get paid today. no work = no pay. So maybe I'll work up until noon--when the weather is suppose to hit again, and then call it a snow afternoon.

Josh is doing some prep work around here for worst case scenarios, so he's got that kind of thing under control and doesn't need me. (we have a ton of trees...i'm freaked out about limbs falling on us. he just went out an inspected everything. so far so good).

So now, i guess i'll go get cleaned up (from cleaning the house. ironic, isn't it?). and go do a bit of work and just see how it goes.

weekend shennanigans

2011-01-31T10:11:00.000-05:00

On Saturday I turned 29. Josh whisked me away to Cincinnati, OH for a fun morning/afternoon of shopping at IKEA (that's the closest one to Indy). We got a few things--mostly picture frames, more fun drinking straws. you know, silly stuff. still absolutely loving a lot of their kitchen designs (esp after coming home from england and really appreciating a more modern, sleek approach to kitchen cabinets and such). so it was fun to just play and daydream. our very traditional 70's era house would not be very receptive to a modern kitchen make-over. probably for the best.

We did take a look at the baby furniture ikea had to offer. surprisingly, we weren't that enthused with what we saw. Which is totally fine by us. We really only need a couple of things. Midge's room has a huge closet. we have some fun stacking cubbies in her room already (i had a dream the other night that Midge was a girl and we named her Lydia). We just need a nice nursing chair for me. and a changing table...but we have a long low dresser-sideboard chest thing that we found on the street corner in the neighborhood a couple years ago that I think would be perfect. Just add some side rails. Put a changing pad in and voila! It just needs some prettifing (and work on the drawers to make them run more smoothly). but that's easy enough to do.

we have a cradle to get us started (family heirloom. it was built by josh's dad when Josh was born. all family and friends to the Clough family have used it (each baby who slept in the cradle gets an engraved name tag added to the cradle frame). So we're set on the sleeping arrangements for at least the first several months until midge starting pulling herself up. then we'll have to switch to an actual crib.

and I'm having a hard time finding a nursing chair i like. But i have plenty of time still, so really not that concerned.

Back to IKEA...thought we had found the perfect base onto which i can affix all my england rocks for showcasing them. but now thinking I may not use what we bought. it's ok, it was cheap, and can be used in other ways.

Sat night we went for an amazing dinner (courtesy of a very generous gift card from the parents-in-law for last years anniversary) at Eddie Merlots. It's a very nice restaurant, with just a couple of other locations across the area. so it's not to chain-y. We had a fantastic time. I sipped on sparkling water in lieu of the hundreds of wine bottles and wine tasting rooms that surrounded us. Josh bucked the trend and had a beer and later a scotch. (the tour in scotland got him appreciating scotch from time to time). Lobster mashed potatoes help establish that all was right in the world.

So now it's Monday. and Indianapolis is bracing for "iceageddon" as the forecasters have been calling it. Apparently we're due to have about an inch of ice during the overnight, with more to fall over the next several days. So I need to stop typing and go get more ice melt from lowes. and i could stand to have a few other groceries on hand, too....

and then, it's work. I have some work that i'm really excited about, but still having a hard time actually focusing on it. I feel like such a scatter-brained ditz these days. I like to blame it on the cold garage. but it's really me (err, rather, the growing Midge in me). but the cold garage doesn't help any.

one of these days I'll post pictures of something or other for your entertainment. but that smacks of effort. and like i said, i just don't have the focus for effort.
:)

oo!

2011-01-27T15:32:00.000-05:00

I'm officially starting to feel the baby kick! I've had some funny "pinging" sensations up to now (18.5 weeks)...but I just felt some actual movements that have me 100% certain it's Midge!

Do I really have to keep on working today? Can't I just lay around and talk to my belly/Midge the rest of the day?

updates all around

2011-01-21T11:09:00.000-05:00

I'm over due for an update! this is a long update. Sorry.

-I haven't posted any of those wedding pix I said I was going to post last week. Nor have I posted the additional price sheets. but at least I'm aware that I haven't posted any of those things rather than just completely forgetting

-I'm getting ready to roll into 18wks in my pregnancy. had to switch to sweat pants today, cause the jeans just aren't covering anymore (and the rubber band trick isn't cutting it either). We have our 2nd ultrasound scheduled for Feb 3rd!

-Rufus: i.e. sick kitty. Well, he still isn't acting sick, which I find to be a good thing. We had a few scared the other weekend, but after finding cat grass, hairballs, and plastic amongst the mess, we realized that was just Rufi being Rufi..and nothing to do with his current liver problem. His liver still isn't functioning properly..but we're so much better than we were 2.5 weeks ago. He got retested last week: 2 of the 3 liver functions are close enough to the normal range that the docs were ok saying they were normal. The WBC count was almost back to the normal range. but one thing that's still elevated that can't be ignored is the 3rd liver function- Bilirubin. Yes, like with newborns. My fuzzy infant still has an elevated bilirubin count, and they don't know why. I really want to just go get a little bili-blanket for the guy. and if it wasn't so darn cold outside (neg #s today!) I'd take him outside to lay in the sunshine. ..but as it stands, we're to stay on antibiotics for a total of 3 weeks more. But Rufi is super lovey, has a fantastic (bordering on annoying) appetite. put on 1.5 lbs between his visits over the last few weeks. He's social and starting to play-fight with Mickey again (which we see as a good thing!). So it may sound bad for me to say, but I'm really not that worried about Rufi. He seems to be doing really well. We just have to do meds 2x a day..and he loves it becuase he gets mass quantities of fancy canned cat food afterward. So everyone is happy. (including mickey--that fat cat gets to lick the spoon. that cat has to loose some weight..we'll tackle that next).

-Ok it's friday. Last friday, I started a new thing with my "fun" friday afternoons: cooking. I know, crazy idea! No, but really, it's cooking to get ahead. canning and freezing things to help build up a nice, healthy stockpile of easy to prepare foods. Things are only going to get more hectic from here on out. and usually, when I don't feel like making dinner, josh "makes" dinner (i.e., what you do feel like tonight honey, pizza or burgers?). But i have to give the guy a lot of credit. He works really late into the evening, and is tired himself by the time he gets home. He's great and putting together a meal if he has the components and knows what's there. But he doesn't like to come up with the meal idea on his own. And seeing as how he is increasingly becoming the CFO (chief Food officer...he's also the CEO -Chief exercise officer. Yes, we really talk like that in our house), then I want to arm him with good and easy options. 'cause I KNOW that closer to my labor date and after baby is here, I ain't gonna be cookin' for a while.

So last week, I canned up a few extra jars of some yummy homemade meat-pasta sauce. I was going to do a whole bunch of white-chili today, but i need ingredients, and it's wicked cold outside. So I think I'll make up a bunch of pizza dough and starting freezing a stockpile of that. On my wishlist for my birthday: an upright chest freezer. We'll see if the birthday fairy has been listening.

-last thing before I get back to work---We ordered a stroller last week, and it arrived! We went for the used goodness of well cared for items offered on eBay. Mainly becuase the full price of the stroller we wanted (plus all it's accessories) was a little ridiculous. There's a certified reseller of Quinny Buzz strollers on eBay, though. We came across an amazing deal on one of the strollers, and it came with all of the various seats and covers..even the wicked cute bassinet. The stroller looks brand spankin' new. I'm so pleased!! I think we only paid about 1/3rd of what it all would have cost retail. and there are a few things that we know we won't be using that, if we resold, we could recoup almost the entire price of what we paid. Our set is black and gray...not the fancy bright colors. But I'm fine with that. hides dirt better :) and it has reflective piping on it, so we'll still be visible on our evening walks. Ok, I really need to start looking into classes through the hospital ASAP...gotta learn how to actually get this kid out of me before we can go on walks, eh?

Have a great weekend!

all done.

2011-01-11T22:51:00.000-05:00

Well I'm finally done with Jury Duty. I was put on a criminal case. It was an interesting experience. It really put me behind in my work, so I am really sorry about that. I didn't get home until really late in the evening yesterday. and today i had to drive through the worst weather conditions I've ever had to drive in, in order to get to the court house to finish up today's case. I was late. I was the last juror to arrive. Oh well. The judge was nice about it. It took me an hour to do a drive that normally takes 15-20 minutes. I had given myself 45 to do the drive. Shoulda left a full hour early...didn't know I-70 was going to be a parking lot with snow. I was genuinely scared, the roads were so bad. But I got there safely (love my subi). Fortunately, I got home before dark today, and the roads were much, much better for the drive home.

so now, I've done my civic duty, and I'm now ready to go back to being a crown maker again. I've gotten the price list posted on the alexander crown page. I've got the dimitrie and aaron crown lists ready to go and will post those in the morning. and I have TONS of wedding pictures to get post on the site I LOVE all the photos couples have been sending me...keep them coming!!!! I got a whole slew sized down, just need to actually post...again, another task for tomorrow am. and now: bedtime. Now that I can think of things other than criminals, guns, and shootings.

Jury Duty

2011-01-09T19:36:00.000-05:00

My group was called in for Jury Duty tomorrow. I guess it's better to get this done with earlier in the week since I'm trying to avoid canceling appointments at the end of the week. Being the nervous nellie that I am, I really don't want to deal with driving downtown during rush hour. To be perfectly honest, that is what I'm dreading the most about all of this. The time away from work doesn't make me happy either...but it's really just the whole dealing with parking and all that junk. I'll get by, though. I always do.

Friday already?! Woo!

2011-01-07T08:42:00.000-05:00

Time Flies when you're busy! I do like Fridays around here, though...and not for just the obvious reason of it almost being the weekend. On Fridays, I try and be good and have a normal work morning. Then on Friday afternoons, that's when I 'allow' myself to do a project...whether it's something out in the workshop or a house project...doesn't really matter. Just something that's fun that I don't typically have time to do during the week.

Today's project: finishing the workshop organization project. One of my m-i-ls in coming over (I have 2 :) ) to help me out. She helped me get the initial organizing going--i.e. boxing up stuff that I'm not using right now, unpacking things that I had in storage while we were in England. You know, that kind of thing.

Josh and I got all that newly boxed up stuff put up in the attic over the weekend, so now there's a bit more space in the garage. So today, Lynn and I will be creating "clean" storage for crown, tray, and candle inventory. And that in turn frees up some other shelving, which means there will now be a proper place for most everything out in the workshop. Yay!

The garage has been warming up for about an hour now. Should be nice and toasty out there in another hour or so. Despite my lovely cup of decaf coffee (or becuase of) I'm still tired--and a little chilly-- and I didn't really like my breakfast. Fortunately, pregnant ladies are allowed to have 2 breakfasts (by my rules), so I'll just make sure bfast #2 is a little tastier.

(Oh and sick kitty, Rufus, seems to be doing much better. responding well to antibiotics. and finally gaining a little weight back. we go back in next Friday to have blood drawn to recheck liver levels.)

Have a good Friday!

Happy New Year!

2011-01-03T08:05:00.000-05:00

...and today just happens to be Josh's and my 7th wedding anniversary. Our anniversary usually gets the year started off on the right foot, pretty good deal if you ask me.

and I'm 15 weeks pregnant today...and having to start transitioning into maternity clothing. Yeah, the pants aren't really buttoning up anymore. I've been using the rubber band trick to keep them closed for the past few days. I took to the sewing machine over the Holidays to start sewing knit waistbands into some old pants. Much better. Now for the tops....

So with needing to finish up altering some of Josh's old button-ups, along with a nice long list of emails and crowns to tend to, it's going to be a busy week. (Plus a kitty cat who seems to have a liver infection! :( I just want to curl up with the little guy all day long!)

I may have to go in for Jury Duty next week (I call-in the night before for a full week to see if/when my group gets called). I truly don't have a problem doing my civic duty..but next week is not a good week to possibly have to go in for Jury Duty. Praying my group doesn't get called.

the Garage heaters have been running for an hour now...in another hour or so, it might be warm enough to start work for the day...the more pregnant I get, the less willing I am to work out in the cold garage. ugh. It could be worse, though. So on that note, that's it for the Monday morning ramble. I'll see what I can do to keep you entertained this week. Happy New Year.

oh yeah...

2010-12-13T16:04:00.002-05:00

..and I cleaned up the blog a bit. I had switched things around when we were away, as the video windows were getting cut off, and I had been posting pix. and well...I'm not doing that so much any more. so back to a nicer, cleaner layout.

...out of shape...

2010-12-13T16:00:00.000-05:00

My arms are SO tired and sore from all the metal polishing I've been doing today! Those 6 months in England has taken tolls on me in ways that I did not expect! Who knew that my polishing "muscles" would have gone away! (who knew that I even had polishing muscles???!). Weird!

First Look at Baby!...oh yeah, and I'm back to work now too

2010-11-29T14:23:00.000-05:00

So this past week has been a whirlwind.

We flew back into the U.S. last Sat night. Rested all Sunday. Monday-Thanksgiving has been unpacking/cleaning/laundry. We had my family over here this past weekend.

And then this morning Josh and I went to take a sneak peek at baby Midge! (our nickname for the baby). The u/s went well..and was followed by an appt with the dr. everything is look great with both baby and me. I'm 10 weeks along, and Midge is measuring 10 weeks and 1 day. "she's" got a strong heartbeat of 168. My official due date is June 27th....yes, this will be impacting my work.

But this afternoon, I'm working like mad to answer all those emails I neglected over this past week. sorry customers. I still love you..just trying to readjust to being back in our house, after being in the UK for 6 months.

Anyway, here is the first (of what is sure to be many dozens) picture of our baby!

I'm going to keep making as many crowns as I can while pregnant..but a few styles will have to be ruled out becuase of time/labor/chemicals. Thanks for understanding if I tell you "no" to any crown requests!

Heading back to the US!

2010-11-18T13:00:00.001-05:00

Hey Crown folks! The time has come where I need to face reality: it's time to head back stateside. Josh and I are flying home in a couple of days.

Our six months in England (for Josh's work) has been incredible...and we're flying home with the future crown lady: I'm pregnant! (yes, I'm convinced it's a girl, and yes, I'm assuming she'll want to make crowns for a living..who wouldn't?!).

I didn't keep up with blogging and posting pix. I know. For that, I am sorry. but seriously, I was having too much fun to keep myself tied to the reality of the computer.

And my business didn't completely fizzle while I've been away. My parents have been amazing...and it was mostly my dad who did the work. Yes, we had a few shipment mix-ups. Yes, a crown or 2 arrived with some 'issues', and I had a few grumpy customers. But you know what, that may have happened whether or not I was at home. So I'm feeling pretty good about everything.

and wait until you see what I have planned for 2011. Yes, new crowns..but how about some coordinating hair accessories for bridesmaids and flower girls. How about some veils and hair pieces that coordinate and integrate perfectly with crowns? I'm hiring my mom on part-time to help me develop these new lines.

And no, just because she's my mom, doesn't mean that she's automatically qualified. But let's face it, who do you think taught me what I know about art and creating? I'm working on the "about Peggy" page to tell you more about my mom...but in the mean time, take a look here.

And I have not forgotten about Crown cases. Give me some time to get back in town, and I'll have some answers about case progress.

Ok, so all these new grand ideas...plus a baby on the way create a bit of a space concern. I'm considering taking out a business loan to remodel the attic and turn it into workspace. You can bet that as soon as I can, I'll be pulling down the attic stairs and crawling my way to see if there is actually room to make this worthwhile. There should be. The real trick is building the staircase up to the attic without taking up too much garage space. we shall see!

So my apologies for not keeping the blog up to date as we traveled all over the UK...but I did upload a few new pix to that slideshow for your entertainment. I'm actually looking forward to getting back to our home in Indy. I loved the life we had before going to England. and I loved our life in England. and I thoroughly intend on loving my life even more with our return.

Thanks to all those customers that grinned-and-bared this weird time in our lives.

finally

2010-07-09T04:50:00.000-04:00

I finally bit the bullet and booked a holiday. all in an effort to celebrate Josh's 30th birthday. his birthday is the 14th, but we won't be leaving until the 22nd because of his work schedule. and I'm flying him off to Menorca Island, Spain! found a cheap place to stay for 3 nights (the cheapest i could find, which is actually dirt cheap, thankfully. came in under the budget i had set for this. and yet we're still ON the beach, in a decent, clean place. in a quiet spot of the island).

I think josh and I remember our Spanish pretty well. i think i'll grab a book at the library, though. just to help us brush up.

August, our 'big' trip for that month will be to spend several days in East England, which incorporates attending the wedding of one of my customers!!! I'm so excited about this. A Bishop will be officiating alongside the bride's father (a priest). Fortunately, they purchased my favorite crown set...and the crowns arrived to them safely. good to go! Now to find a dress...

September, we'd like to look into going to Greece. I'm working on my Greek via Rosetta Stone.

October....depending on how we're doing budget-wise, my DREAM place to visit is Morocco. I got Josh to agree that we could go to Marrakesh if I can get the other trips in under a certain budget. Really need to work on my Arabic. All I know are cuss words, church/religious phrases...and random foods, animals, and objects. Trying to decide if I should go all out and get Rosetta Stone for that too...hmmm.....

November...HOME!

but right now...waiting on a plumber to show up to fix the silly washer..again. waiting for my dad to get back to my house, so that we can ship out everything from this past week. Hope everyone enjoyed their 4th of July Holiday, and thanks for being patient with our shipping holiday!

almost a half century.

2010-07-05T09:30:00.001-04:00

This past Saturday, we went for a long bike ride. We utilized the National Cycleway Network, following route 68

We left Derby and headed toward Ashbourne. Our ultimate plan was to pick up the Tissington trail in Ashbourne, and go to the end of the T.T. and then just double back. making for like a 63 mile ride, or something like that.

However, once we got to the Tissington Trail head, I crashed and burned. (Lots of dogs, people, little kids. yeah, i totally lost control and slid right into a little girl. she was fine.) I bent the heck out of the rear derailleur hanger, and was really, really, embarrassed. Tons of people just stopped and stared. no one offered to help me up.

I limped off to the side, Josh managed to get my bike going again. and seeing just masses of crowns pouring out of the trail, we opted to just turn around and go home. We realize that if we had kept on going, that crowns would have thinned out. but um, we weren't really in the mood. so we had a quick snack and doubled back home. All in all, it made for a 40-something mile ride. (and that almost 5 hour trip-tick includes out snack and sight-seeing stops, we're slow, but not that slow)

It was a hilly ride. still getting used to all these darn hills...here's the profile. (elevation is determined by barometric pressure on our gps unit, so as you can see, the pressure changed during the ride..so the halves aren't exactly symmetric.)

So we were shy a few miles from doing a full 1/2 century ride. that's ok. we'll get there.

And of course we saw a few neat things along the way...
one of the cattle corridors we had to cross through on the route. The route took us on some gravely trails, some paved trails, and some sleepy 1-lane farm roads (with lots of blind turns and cars that, then they're present, whip around those corners like you wouldn't believe.

Argh! The hose attachment to josh's water bladder in his backpack came undone!

Neat road sign for cyclists on NCN 68

Somewhere in the middle of the country

Neat tunnel we got to ride through as we entered Ashbourne

On the way home, we saw signs for the World Peace Cafe. We saw signs for it on the way out, and thought we should stop now on our way back. so we trudged across a field and came across this huge old building.

Turns out, this is a Buddhist meditation center/retreat. The Cafe is open to all, but we still got weird looks. (maybe because we were all spandex-ed out, in bike shoes, helmets in hand...while everyone else was either in the red/yellow Buddhist/monk outfit, or in yoga-ish clothing)

We grabbed a table with our Chai lattes just outside the doors to cafe (but still inside), so that we wouldn't disturb anyone. we were directly across the way from one of the meditation rooms

and we were sitting in the prettiest little stairway alcove one could ever hope to be seated in

BEAUTIFUL Staricase!

This chair would SO match our sofa back home!!! think the Buddhists would miss it?

We exited the retreat center though it's gardens and paved drive that was lined with HUGE pines. beautiful.

Oh, and after that, the cycling path takes a little overpass over a sheep farm. we were there just as a herd was being unloaded from a truck. my camera battery ran out just as I was getting to show the truck. oh well. the Baaaing was too funny.

Sunday, 4th of July was just a cookout with some other Americans. The irony over the fact that we're celebrating our Independence Day in the country, from whom we declared our independence, because our spouses work for a British company and our livelihoods depend on that country, was not lost on us.

interesting

2010-07-05T08:56:00.002-04:00

there are more kinds, styles, flavors of yogurt out there than i ever imagined possible.

today's flavor: Champagne Rhubarb.

Stonehenge Saturday, beach Sunday

2010-07-01T17:27:00.001-04:00

We decided to start taking advantage of josh's allotted days off...and noticing a string of gorgeous days out here, we took off to the South of England for a long weekend.

We left Saturday morning, and keeping with our tradition, we were able to stop for our typical "Start of a car trip McDonald's Breakfast". (The McD's out here don't have biscuits (as biscuits mean cookies out here), so egg McMuffins are served on "English" muffins. They don' have McGriddles...It's a bagel instead. So damn healthy!)

We started off driving slightly South East toward the city of Leicester (sounds like Lester). Near that city is the Kirby Muxloe Castle . While there, we signed up for an English Hertigae Membership, as it allows us free entry to all of their properties, and discounted entry to National Trust sites. (English Heritage seems to own most of the Ruins, whereas the National Trust seems to manage most of the still intact castles).

KM Castle was just gorgeous. Very much in ruins, but still fully surrounded by its moat. You're able to climb nearly all the way up in the side tower. fantastic view. It was neat to see the integrated port holes for cannons. This castle was also different in that it was built of brick, not stone. Brick was very rare at that time (the bricks for this castle were made on site), so this was quite the fashionable castle. This castle was intended as a country home for Lord Hastings...the Lord of the last castle, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, but it was never finished.

Then we hopped in the car and stopped in Leicester. We were on the hunt for a Toy store. We realized that we really needed a lego Josh and Ann to visit all the sites with us. we found the most amazing toy store and the Lego Josh and Ann. we walked through an open air fresh produce market and heard all the calls of the various vendors. we purchased about 5 pounds of apples for a mere 1Pound ($1.50). Those apples came in handy many, many times through the rest of our trip (since we were going between sites, our gps routed us on the most bizarre back roads, winding through teensy villages. it was amazing. and the apples kept us from cannibalizing the Lego Josh and Ann). A quick lunch and we were back on the road to Woodhenge and Stonehenge.

Woodhenge was a nice quick stop...not a whole lot to see there, and not busy at all. Concrete posts now take the place of the wooden posts...it's speculated that these posts maybe held up a round building at one time.

Stonehenge Ok. Stonehenge. we're glad we went. But we were very disappointed. It felt like you were getting into line for a carnival ride, or to enter a zoo. It was packed, so commercialized, and generally a little disappointing. We had read beforehand that the stones were roped off, that you weren't allowed to go right up to it. We were pleased to see that the ropes were much closer to the site than we expected. However, you had to stay on a pathway...they had both sides of the pathway roped off. and there were a lot of people. so it was crowded, there were no benches where you just sit and appreciate the site. We read in our complimentary copy of the quarterly English Heritage magazine that plans have just been approved to completely revamp the site. We were happy to hear that that will be done. Pictures in the magazine show a much more sympathetic approach, and generally a much less carnival atmosphere.

Then we jumped back in the car and headed down to Mount Lodge, our B&B in Canford Cliffs (B&Bs are cheaper here. Hotels are the expensive ways to stay, just opposite of the US.)...near Bournemouth, England. Teensy, Teensy room (like a cruise room), but it was clean. so we were pleased. As we drove into the city, though, we got there just as a fog was rolling in. You could barely see a few feet in front of you.

SUNDAY
The next morning, being the only Americans in a room full of Brits, they helped us with the B&B etiquette/breakfast routine. After a "Full English" breakfast (Bacon (really, ham), Sausage, mushrooms, baked beans, grilled tomatoes, eggs, toast and jam) we headed to the cutest little Orthodox Church I've ever seen.

St. Edward King and Passion-bearer Antiochain Orthodox Church. This tiny church is actually the chapel for the HUGE Althelhampton Estate (A private home, whose gardents and cafe are open to the public). The owner rents the chapel to this tiny parish at a very reasonable fee each month. The parish (a full parish, not a mission. they have their own priest), has resided here for nearly 15 years.

Josh and I brought the attendance up to a full 10 people (including the priest and 2 deacons). Fr David, and his wife Anne, and even the rest of the parish, were truly the nicest people I think we've ever met. Lots of stories here that may bore some of you, but it was just a wonderful experience. We all had coffee over at the Estate cafe after Liturgy, and Ann purchased a beautiful icon from the parish's teensy bookstore. (and for the other Orthodox readers, the commiunion wine was good...tasted like st geo back home)

then we were off to see the (naked) Giant carved into the side of the hill in Cerne Abbas. (sorry, the camera either wanted to focus on the lego people, or on the giant. not both)

we stopped for lunch in Dorchester on our way to Portland Castle. 1) because we were hungry and 2) because our gps unit started going crazy. it was confused. we were on the smallest little back roads, on the sides of cliffs. it was insane and we needed to stop to get our whits about us, and let the gps do the same...althought the stop didn't help the gps unit).

So we had a bite to eat in a little cafe and got out of there as fast as we could (bad vibes from the workers). and we kept trying to find our way to Portland. gps wasn't working. we were winging it. And before us we saw a sign for Chesil Beach. Chesil Beach was on our "agenda" for after Portland Castle, but we decided to take this as a sign and went straight to the beach. This was the most amazing beach we've ever seen... It's an 18 mile long beach, entirely of pebbles. The further down the beach you go, the smaller the stones/pebbles get. really. the crunching of walking through the beach was crazy. seeing dunes of pebbels even more so. It's a very steep water edge, and a strong current. Swimming is not allowed. Only a few dozen people were at the same site as us. it was the most peaceful beach we've ever seen. The apples, and our Simpsons Uno game kept us occupied for several hours. and we left around 6pm.We also found out after the fact that taking just a single pebble from the beach is a national offense, with a severe fine if you're found out. Oh, and it was actually quite comfy to lay on the beach, as the pebbles smooshed to your shape. walking was hard..and painful in bare feet. flip flops proved difficult through.

Back to Mount Lodge to get cleaned up, out to dinner, and a walk along Canford Cliff's (man-made) sand beach.

MONDAY
another Full English breakfast, a fun chat with our innkeepers as we checked out, and we were off to Old Wardour Castle. Beautiful and romantic ruins. Old Wardour Castle was incorporated into the garden landscape of New Wardour Castle (private residence still, not open to public). 'Robin Hood, prince of theives' (the one with kevin costner) was also filmed here.

Several hours later we were on back on the road after having stopped at a really random little sandwhich cart off the side of a back country road. For part of the drive, we were able to take their main interstate system back home to Derby, since we were trying to snake through the countryside to out of the way castles...we were finally able to avoid a roundabout every 5 miles. (No overpasses here unless it's on the M road system, their main interstate routing).

We got home about dinner time, and got things ready to head back into to work today.

All in all a fun weekend...and we're leaning toward the idea of heading to a beach as often as we can while the weather out here is nice! we'll see.

This past weekend

2010-06-24T17:18:00.000-04:00

Ok, So i'm just copying and pasting the email Josh wrote to family, and posting the pix. sorry if things don't correspond.

[Note: As Saturday's activity involved both bikes and beer, Josh is writing this one...]

Hello everyone,

This past weekend, we finally went out for our first bike ride in the UK. Our primary goal was to travel on the public bridle path we discovered on a previous hike and ride across the English countryside, hitting up Kedleston Hall (a proper English "estate home") along the way.

I'm attaching a couple of pictures from the GPS software that shows the route we followed. After getting through Markeaton Park, we went on the bridle path, which was amazingly beautiful. It is just a narrow stretch of dirt that cuts right across a private farm, but because it has been used for hundreds of years, the public still has the right-of-way on this path.

After getting out of the wheat fields, we had to circle the Kedleston grounds on real roads until we finally reached a gate to the North. Since we were on bike, we didn't go far at Kedleston, but Ann was able to snap a couple pictures from the front, and we discovered that there was a big antique fair going on that weekend.

After Kedleston, Ann and I were both starving, so we decided to ride up to a nice pub with outdoor seating in the village of Quarndon for lunch. The pub, called "Joiners Arms," was also something we spotted on our hike the previous weekend. Our lunch consisted of pints of Marston's Pedigree and the best toasted ham and cheese sandwiches I've ever had. Pork farming and cheese-making is huge out here, so our sandwiches were made with real slices of fresh ham and two different kinds of local cheese. The beer was incredibly satisfying as well. The Pedigree pint glasses had cricket-themed engravings on them, and when you finished the glass, you've "Run Out" (which is apparently a cricket term).

The pub owner was an older gentleman who was very friendly considering the fact that two spandex-clad American came to his pub and asked to sit at an outdoor table even though it was a cool and windy 60F outside. When we took our plates and glasses back inside after the meal, he was sitting with a few of his patrons, drinking beer and discussing the previous day's World Cup match. If you didn't catch it, which is quite likely if you are American, the match ended in a draw, which to England is the same as a horrible loss. So here's a quick lesson in "English" for you all: Just say "Garreth Barry held the middle, but Rooney and the others around him just didn't look fit."

So anyway, after our nice pit stop of beer and sandwiches, we enjoyed the mostly downhill route back home and had a fairly low-key evening. In all, it wasn't too long of a trip - we went about 13.5 miles in total - but it felt much longer because a) these bikes are a lot heavier than our real bikes at home, and b) the countryside here is MUCH hillier than Indiana. So by the end of the ride, we were both beat.

On Sunday, we decided to drive back to Kedleston to check out the Antique fair. It was really fun to see what antiques are like in a country that has been civilized for centuries longer than ours. There were lots of suits of armor and replica swords and other interesting things like that. The company running it is called "Jaguar Fairs," so they also had a Jaguar collectors show off to the side.

That's it for this past weekend. It's taken me this long to finally type it up because we've been going on bike rides around the many public paths after work for the past couple of nights. No pictures from those yet, though, so we'll have to work on that.

(on that topic, we rode to Elvaston Castle the other day. GORGEOUS grounds. it was an awesome bike ride. didn't have my camera on me...will take it next time as we will be going back.)

a couple of weekends ago

2010-06-24T17:02:00.003-04:00

Ok, I've been super lazy about posting pix of our adventures from this past weekend. Why? Because I wanted to show a lot more photos than what I had edited to email out to family, and I had editing photo sizes. But Josh and I just got back from an awesome little pub. I've got a couple of pints in me...feeling pretty relaxed and ready ready to catch up on my posting. That, and we've got a big adventure ahead of us this weekend...can't get too far behind,

And actually, I'm just realizing that I'm a couple of weekend's behind. I'll do a couple of posts.

So back on June 12, we drive a half an our or so to Ashby-de-la-Zouch to tour the castle ruins there. It was amazing! We spent quite a bit more time there than we expected, which was totally fine. but also means that it was the only thing we did that day.

This castle is managed by the English Heritage group..and they put together a really great audio tour (that's what those things are that we're holding up to our ears in many of the photos). The audio tour was quite cheeky, but gave the whole history of the castle.

They had signs in each room to show how the castle would have looked, etc. and those are the photos that still need to be edited down. but you know what, i don't feel like doing it. so i'm just posting pix that we sent out to family.

Ashby-de-la-Zouch Castle

Overview of the Castle

Chapel

Kitchen Fireplace

Kitchen

Kitchen pass-thru

Down the stairs to the cellar....

Stairs up to the tower

View from the top

Then on Sunday, we went for a fun walk. We hiked up to Quarndon. Very picturesque little village.

Then we took a public footpath from Quarnon over to Allestree...another little village (not as pretty). The Public footpaths are incredible. They literally snake across the entire continent. And As long as a certin # of people walk on these paths each year, then farmers + developers cannot block or disturb them. Some footpaths are marked with signage..like ours was. Others just have a wooden post next to it with the words "public footpath" on it. These path literally cut across peoples yards, fields, creeks...sometimes you have to climb over a bit of fence.

we had to go across a fence (a nice step was provided), go across a creek, through a gorgeous wheat field, thought some thorny weeds, and then in 20-ish minutes we were in Allestree!

Derby Countryside...on a public footpath

Footpath adventures:

Quarndon

That thing that Josh is standing on is a solar clock. Depending on the month it is, you stand in varying positions on that long concrete slab. All around the slab, in a half-moon formation, are the numbers from a clock. And sure enough, Josh stood in the spot for June, and his shadow was cast across the 4 o'clock ...and the church bells had just tolled it was 4. fun!

BBC News

2010-06-17T03:07:00.000-04:00

For a time, each morning, BBC news has a signer relaying the morning news. They 'shrink' the main picture, and have a guy standing in front of the screen to the lower right, and he stands there and signs the full news line-up. It's amazing! I've ner been able to just watch sign language this long before! makes me wonder if they don't have Closed-captioning. I've not seen little notes about that on their tv. so maybe not. not sure. interesting.

funny

2010-06-15T06:42:00.001-04:00

http://www.thehighdefinite.com/2010/06/nothing-new-to-report/

wow!

2010-06-11T07:52:00.002-04:00

People are here are already drunk, in anticipation of the World Cup match between England and USA. Wow. lots of loud singing going on outside our apartment...

Summer reading list

2010-06-11T04:55:00.000-04:00

Ok, I like to read...gotta read every night before bed. Just before coming out here, I finished up the book "Salt"...essentially a world history as pertains to salt. I found it incredibly interesting..a very good read.

ON the way to England, I started in on "The Secret History of the World". Unfortunately, I'm really not all that thrilled with it. Too wordy...and it comes off as an infomercial in many places "and what I'm about to tell you...in the next chapter...well you just won't believe the hidden meaning behind it. It will change your world" and then he skirts the issues, and then when we get to the the "secret" it's really not all that secret. Eh.

So I was pretty excited yesterday when i got to go ahead and check out a book from the central library here. I decided to go with something cute, easy to read, and all about Britain. It's essentially a book about what it means to be British. So far, pretty interesting..but the authors crack a lot of jokes. so that's mildly distracting, but I like the information thus far. Just a coupla chapters in...but it's a quick read...a nice distraction from the sllloooww pace of the secret history of the world.

Personal tour!

2010-06-11T04:49:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was a pretty good day here, despite a drizzly start. I took off to the art museum and library. The one large building houses both. The nice, but modest library occupies the ground floor. and I was SO happy to be able to be able to go ahead and sign up for a basic library membership (can check out 2 books at a time). Once I have address verification, then my membership will be upgraded and I can check out more books, cds and dvds.

After that was done, I headed upstairs to their art gallery/museum. it was an interesting mix of both...started out as a museum, with a great mummy display. And I ended up getting a personal 30-minute tour from the security guard on duty! Super cute guy, who goes around to area schools talking about mummies..he's also an aspiring screen writer--so he's a guy who likes to tell stories. It was really, really cool.

So after the mummies came fossils and minerals. I skimmed that and when in to the rooms with some art. A decent collection. One really neat thing they had was a working orrey model. One of the main paintings featured an orrey. And back in the 90's, someone built a model for the museum. very cool.

Then came there was a war exhibit. Then artifacts from the Roman era found in and around Derbyshire. then a HUGE display of Derby china. The Crown Royal china company is located here...can't want to take a tour of that facility!

The I met Josh for a fantastic lunch at a place called the "Fat Cat Cafe and Bar". it's one of those places that rarely closes, as they're open for breakfast all the way through the wee hours of the night for their bar area. We had a fantastic flat-bread sandwiches, served with a lovely and tasty salad and chips (fries)....for 5 pounds (About $7.50)! We thought that was a pretty good bargain, seeing as you can't get a full meal most places for less than 10 or 12 pounds a person.

And then yesterday evening, we drove about a half-hour out to Licfield to pick up a bike for me. We won it off of ebay. So now both joshy boy and I have bikes, and we're ready to tour!!

Oh, and yesterday, I found the post office and got a letter mailed off to Grammers....and it so happened that i received a letter for her the day before. nice timing!

This morning, one of the other American wives and i went on a nice long run. It helps she and i are about the same height, so we had a similar stride. so it was an enjoyable time...not too competitive!

On that for the rest of the day: walking into town to get Father's Day Cards. and the when Joshy boy gets home, we've got to get to the bike shop before it closes to pick a up a full size pump (our travel one ain't gonna cut it), a water bottle cage for my bike, and a couple of bottles. and the sun is out today, too!

New format

2010-06-09T12:24:00.000-04:00

Ok, I think I've got things set up so that the you tube videos aren't getting cut off, and that way i can post the larger panoramic shots, too.

hmm

2010-06-09T11:36:00.002-04:00

I don't like that the embedded you-tube videos are getting cut-off...I'm going to play around with the layout...

London

2010-06-09T11:24:00.005-04:00

For our first real weekend in the UK, we decided to tourist it up and hit nearly every touristy spot in Central London in a single walking trip on Saturday. We ordered first class train tickets from Derby into London for dirt cheap by buying online on Friday, and then spent some time that night laying out all of the spots we wanted to hit. and the good news is, we didn't get lost once!

Here are the pertinent stats from Saturday's trip:

7:00 AM departure from Derby Station
~10 hours touring Central London
12.5 miles covered on foot (plus 3 mile round-trip walk to/from the Derby station)
9:30 PM return to Derby Station
4 incredibly tired feet

and here are the major attractions we visited

Buckingham Palace

St James Park (plus the start of some kind of Guard parade)

The Squirrel is telling us to keep-out! Can you see him there on the gate?

Big Ben / Westminster Abbey / House of Parliament

London Dungeon
London Bridge

Tower of London

Random wandering through the theater district

Enron, The Musical

Random wandering around shops in Covent Gardens

Josh works for Rolls Royce, that's why this is funny :)

Trafalgar Square

There was a festival going on in the square while we were there...

National Gallery (art Gallery)
Random wandering around shops in Soho and Oxford Street

The Waldorf Hotel

Hamleys toy store
Chinatown

Madame Tussaud's (the only attraction we actually waited in line and paid to go into)

Hyde Park

--We're going to go back and spend more time in Hyde park...saw some beautiful flowers as we were walking along the outskirts of the park

Harrods Kensington Store (which is SO ridiculously big I still can't believe it...definitely coming back here....)

...and some English Countryside on the train ride home

So now that we've gotten that out of our system, next time we can go do whatever we want in London and not feel bad about missing the big attractions (or their enormous crowds of slow-moving people).

Next up....Nottingham....It's only 20 minutes away...some neat stuff there. we may go over there several evenings in a row, or go over the weekend, not sure yet. still trying to make trip-planning decisions!

a little over a week in...

2010-06-08T06:30:00.000-04:00

we've been in England 1.5 weeks now. It's required a bit more adjusting than I was anticipating...and not that that is a bad thing, just not quite what I was expecting. I am also trying to figure out a schedule for myself while Josh is off at work. (and his work is going really well..so i'm glad we're out here for this opportunity for him).

But I'm getting a bit frustrated at not being home, in control of my business. So if anything, this is a really good lesson in letting go of control. Frustrating, but good I'm sure. As burnt out as I was with making crowns day in and day out, I really kind of miss it and am not real sure of what to do with myself.

I've been going on lovely long walks during the day, walking to the market, and just popping into cute shops. With the conversion rate hovering at about 1 : 1.4-1.5, everything is inherently 1.5X more expensive than at home. So stuff is expensive, and we're trying to save our pennies for weekend excursions.

I had been toying with the idea of getting a little sewing machine while I'm out here...found a few shops that carry them. but I'm not sure if that's too extravagant to go and do, because I'd also have to buy all new scissors, thread, patterns, pins..etc...

There are a couple of local colleges, and I looked into taking summer classes...but since they're small colleges, they don't have much during the summer (what they do have is tractor driving and falconry. They had some really neat gardening classes...i could have gotten my certificate in organic gardening!! But those classes are only offered in the fall (Sept)...for 15-32 weeks....and we're leaving in Nov.

I did purchase Rosetta Stone-Greek to learn Greek better for work...I purchased that a few months ago in anticipation of doing that while I was here. I haven't had the motivation to use it yet, though.

We did take the train in to London this past Saturday, though. that was a lot of fun..I'll post those pix and videos in a separate post (working on uploading videos to you tube now)

It's a really rainy day out here today...so maybe i will pull out rosetta stone.

In the meantime, here are a few fun photos from the past week.

Around Derby:

This is an old Theater, named Zanziabar! I loved the name so much that I named a stuffed kitty I found (to help fill the void without my 2 kitties here) Zanzibar.

Cheese dinner...having fun trying locally produced foods

Lots of fun London pix coming up.....

We Made it!

2010-05-28T15:08:00.000-04:00

We are settled into our new Home...for the next month, at least. Not quite sure what my feelings are about being here just yet...sleep will help. But I am up for an adventure, so i'm still happy we came here. And we had some fun on the way here:

At the Indy Airport (earlier I told family it was the Philly airport during our layover, but I was also sleep deprived, and not sure of what happened, when), anywho....at the Indy airport while waiting to board our flight and trying to relax after realizing I left my cell phone in my in-law's car, Josh and I had just ordered a couple of beer. While waiting on our alcohol, we couldn't help but comment to the guys sitting next to us. One had just come back from Zimbabwe. He had a whole stack of money: 20 million dollar bills, 100 million dollar bills....and this, a fifty billion dollar bill. Had to get a pic of Josh holding that kind of money. It's really just pennies on the dollar...not worth much at all..but just seeing that value on money....very fun.

And then this was definitely at the Philly airport during our layover. we were chugging across the airport to get to the int'l terminal, and saw a lego liberty bell. we're lego fiends, and had to stop for a quick pic.

The flight from philly to Manchester was a lot more painful than i was expecting...our flight got delayed after we were already on the tarmac, so that added an hour and a half to the cramped quarters of our unexpectedly down-graded (size wise) plane. Thunderstorms in the area. But we finally took off, but we never did get very comfy for the flight, so we were and still are exhausted on the drive from the airport to our apartment.

We were shocked to lean the name of our driver: John O'Hare. A very well known football player in this area...and he even played for a team in Dallas back in his heyday. He played for the famous/infamous football manager, Brian Clough. Clough is a very common name in England, but pronounced "Clouff", rather than how Josh's family says it "Clo". So we're Mr. and Mrs. "Clouff" here. Watch the movie "The Damned United"...it tells all about Brian Clough and John O'Hare (although the movie too quite a bit of creative liberties with the truth. Made for a very interesting conversation in the car.)

But the one last photo to show you before I zonk out for the night: I just really like the side panel for this milk container (part of a few welcome items in our Kitchen).

yup!

2010-05-21T07:46:00.000-04:00

serviced housing for the 1st month. then we have to move. i'm not going to be annoyed about the fact that we'll have to pack up all our stuff just a month after getting there...and having to move 1 month is better than 5 months in when we're certain to have acquired more things by then. and i get a nice reprieve from having to clean house for a month. not too shabby!

a place to live...

2010-05-20T23:06:00.000-04:00

Ok, so we're still waiting on apartment/address verification for our new diggs in Derby.....

Way back in Nov, when we were ramping up for our original departure date of early Jan., we had put in our preference for a fairly new complex, right on the edge of the City Center area (downtown). So i would be within walking distance of everything during the day while Josh was at work. (I won't be covered for driving over there, but the company covers Josh..he even gets driving lessons :) ).

And to back peddle just a wee bit, we actually originally requested an apartment in a super nice complex that a coworker stayed in during a month long stay..also right on edge of the City Center. We were told that we couldn't live there because that was "serviced housing"...i.e. a weekly cleaning service went in to clean the place. People who are there for a month or less get put up in serviced housing, as it's cheaper than a hotel. But it's waaaay more expensive than just a regular ole flat.

Well, we find out today, that part of the hold up with getting us an apartment is that, that um, they ran out of available apartments that the company has rights to. yeah. There are so many Americans (and possibly employees from other countries, but we've heard from a lot of Americans already) over in Derby right now that they ran out of apartments!

So guess what. It looks like we're getting put in the swanky serviced housing complex. (well, according to online pix, it looks pretty swanky)

But its more than likely that we will get moved out of serviced housing once a regular apartment vacates.

the one thing that would be pretty upsetting is if they try and put us in an apartment complex on the outskirts of town. I guess those apartments are pretty nice, but you have to have a car to get anywhere, or so we've been told by some couples currently staying there. and so we keep repeating that i won't be able to drive while we're there, so i need to be in walking distance of downtown. it will be interesting to see what happens.

the anxiety of all of this is starting to manifest itself. not feeling so great the last couple of days. having a hard time finishing up my work from the nausea. ugh.

my mama is coming into town on Saturday to help me get the house in order for Pops. I'm looking forward to having my mama all to myself for a day. and hopefully we'll be assigned an address tomorrow!

Now we're cookin!

2010-05-19T09:58:00.000-04:00

I just received out Visas!! Already have scans emailed off to josh's company. plane tickets were reserved yesterday. now, just waiting to hear what our address will be to finalize the last of the details!

We leave Indy next Thursday afternoon!

crown count

2010-05-18T23:31:00.000-04:00

well, i just got done packaging, weight and inventorying the crowns made thus far. only 125 crown sets. that's well below what i wanted to have in stock before heading out. I do have a handful of other crown nearly ready go, that I abandoned in order to just finish up what the 125 that were already done and needed to get boxed up. I did want to have 200 sets.

but frankly, those 125 sets take up quite a bit more space than i was expecting, so there's not much more room for additional boxes. I'll be inventorying the candle sets tomorrow.

me again

2010-05-18T11:21:00.001-04:00

yes, i'm doing all sorts of Blogging these days!

anyway, i was just getting around to adding tags to all my past postings. and i just noticed that i had a few comments on some posts--FUN! i hadn't noticed the comments before, and I'm sorry for not actually responding to them before....many of them from my beautiful friend, Diana. :)

And an incredibly helpful comment from someone about phone services!

Anywho, I know to keep a better eye out for comments now, lesson learned. back to work now. really.

phew!

2010-05-18T11:05:00.000-04:00

alright, the Visas have been granted. They're on their way to us right now. should have them in hand tomorrow. and josh is working on booking the flights. looks like we'll be flying into Manchester, even though we preferred Heathrow. Hopefully, the airport will stay open (it was closed Sunday from the Icelandic volcano plume).

I'm getting all the crowns packaged up today. tomorrow i'll do candles.

and lots of errands to run today!

finally, a pic

2010-05-17T22:23:00.001-04:00

When Josh came home from work today, he started laughing at how many crowns I had out on the table and kitchen counter (don't worry, I haven't cooked anything in about 2 weeks now, the counters are clean :) )

So we took a pic of what things looked like this evening...Pardon the funny spot lighting off to the side. that's my make-shift photo set-up, as my usual crown photo spot has been torn down to make room for inventory storage.

Oh, and today was not our lucky day either. Maybe we'll be granted the Visas tomorrow?

maybe today

2010-05-17T07:28:00.003-04:00

OK, we weren't lucky on Friday....the consulate hadn't released our Visas by the close of business Friday. Maybe today!

waiting game

2010-05-13T10:18:00.001-04:00

Ok, we overnighted out visa applications to a company in chicago who aids in rush visas. but we had a delay, because we only included one photo, each, in our original application. turns out we needed 2 photos of each.

josh about hit the roof when I told him (yeah, i got to field all those emails). so we got new mugshots taken (ugh...end of the day, tired, can't even show a hint of a smile...yeah, not very pretty). overnighted those. chicago got them. our applications are at the consulate. so now we wait....until they hopefully grant us visas...in which case, they will then be overnighted, with all our originals-hopefully. so there is a slim chance we will have everything back tomorrow....or Saturday....or Monday...

We had to mail josh's actual ph.d diploma (he was not happy about that), a full 12 months of pay stubs, our original marriage license, our passports, multiple applications, photos...photo copies of all of that...and rights to our first born child.

:)

i have given myself only until the end of this week to finish making stock. i need to post photos of the stock..but i'm so overwhelmed, i don't even feel like transferring photos off my camera!

i will soon, though.. josh has taken some pretty amusing photos of all the crowns.

ok, back to work.

On the record...

2010-05-06T11:16:00.001-04:00

Well we just got back from having our biometric info taken. It was at the immigration office here in Indy--so that was pretty neat to get to see people who are going through the naturalization process. But i didn't have much time to do any people watching (a favorite pastime) as they called us right back. but when we first went to the proper room, right after getting off the elevator, you get searched..so it's just an intimidating way to start the fairly benign process of scanning fingerprints.

The finger-print scanning thing was pretty cool, and then it was just a quick photo--like for a driver's license. We were under the impression that it'd be one of those cool 360 degree style photos. not so much. It took all of 10 minutes, plus $5 for parking.

so we're waiting on Rolls Royces Global HR office to submit a letter certifying employment....and then once we have that, we'll be overnighting our huge application packet (including josh's ph.d. diploma (Oy!)) to the uk embassy in chicago. we'll be employing a company to help rush the process along, so that with any luck, we'll receive the Visas within 3 days after they receive the application.

Then we can book the plane tickets.

Almost there......

Really feeling the stress...

2010-05-04T18:14:00.001-04:00

But i really can't complain, as things are chugging along pretty smoothly. The reality of being away from home and my kitties for 6 months is starting to set it. Starting to feel nervous about all the work stuff (my work, not Josh's).

My car is due to come off its lease while we're away, so we just made arrangements to buy out the lease early. So need to go sign papers at the bank soon. On Thursday, we go downtown to get our biometric info taken. we got out passport photos taken that have to accompany the visa application. (don't worry, we already have actual passports). but thursday, after our appt, we'll be overnight the application to the UK embassy in chicago. Many of josh's coworkers have received their visas in as little as 3 days.

once we have the visas, and scan a copy to the right people with josh's work, then we'll finally be allowed to book plane tickets....and we'll actually get the rest of the relocation info.

A recliner, to help my dad feel more at-home here is being delivered any day now.

my dad will be here for several days next week.

I'm about 1/2 way done with the amount of crown stock i want to get made...and don't talk to me about the candles. ugh.

I have mass quantities of photos i need to post on the site....but i do have a new laptop (well, new to me, it's a refurbished lenovo (IBM)) that will allow me to do some good work on the go. I have my new camera already.

we have all our dr's appts taken care of before we leave...we just need to stock up on a few things we want to take with us (contact lens solution), and stock up on goodies for daddy (kool-aid and m-n-ms) and i guess we're good to go. I'm freaking out that we really only have about 3 weeks until we leave..so back to work.

Now we're getting somewhere!

2010-04-28T06:07:00.001-04:00

On Monday, Josh got the last of the info we needed to be apply to start the Visa application. He started the application process online...And next Thursday, we have to go into an office here in downtown Indy to have our biometric information taken. (apparently, they'll be scanning our finger prints and taking one of those 3-d/360 degree head shots). once we have that info + some additional passport photos taken (for the visas themselves), then it looks like we actually just mail our application to the UK embassy in Chicago.

Part of what has made this process so confusing is that, over the last 3 years, UK immigration rules have be continually changing..all in an effort to make the process more efficient/streamlined. And with the latest changing having been rolled out April 5th of this year...well, that has really made our application process very, very confusing. But we feel like we have a really good handle on things now.

My dad was here last week, and we went over shipping. seemingly no problems there. (cross your fingers). we have a to-do list & to-get list all written out on a my work white-board. a huge calendar hanging above it for the month of May...gotta keep ourselves on track!

Work has really been causing me some sleepless nights. I have work dreams, and then wake up in a panic at 4 am most mornings, so I've just started getting up then..going right to work...and taking naps later. this morning was a 4 o'clocker...got some decent odds-n-ends done. The trick with working this early in the morning is that the garage is still cold from the overnight lows....plus i can't make all the noise i want, since joshy-boy is still in bed. But he gets up ~5:30...so i'm ok right now.

so on that note, i suppose i'll go do some more work!

crown dreams...getting closer to moving.

2010-04-20T08:20:00.001-04:00

well, after dreaming about work for another night in a row, i'm happy to say that we're finally getting closer to our move to England being official. All of our info was submitted to get the COS# from the company (certificate of sponsorship)

Once we have that COS#, and the "Ok to go" from a couple of bosses, then josh and I will be off to Chicago to go to the UK embassy to apply for our Visas.

We're also attempting to get ahold of the lady who is organizes the move to help ensure that we've done all that we need to do...and to see if we're forgetting any steps...oh yeah, and making sure we have a place to live (minor detail).

So we're getting closer. and We're at about T-minus 5 weeks from our goal departure date (tickets won't be purchased until after visas are received). the jokes at josh's work about how the trip may be delayed due to Iceland's volcano are getting really old. Josh has accurately been telling everything that, the trip had better not be delayed any, otherwise I;ll lose it and got ballistic on someone there....that or I'll make Josh swim us over there, with me on his back. That usually get's a good laugh...but it's true!

Ok, so status update about work: My daddy will be here later this weekend, to start learning the shipping steps. josh is getting stuff configured so that, From England, i can print to my printer here in Indy! So I'll be printing of the shipping labels, and daddy just has to stick them on the right boxes!

and speaking of boxes...Wow. Yeah, i'm a little hesitant to show photos of our living room right now. mass of inventory boxes stacked waist high. unorganized. Ribbon scraps everywhere. stacks of crowns out in the garage that need to be polished and/or attached with ribbon. gettin' closer.

i will start posting pix of this whole process...but then it's hard to find the time to post pix. eh. excuses, excuses.

Ouchie!!!!!

2010-04-16T16:04:00.001-04:00

So, I'm having balance, sensory, depth perception issues right now! And that that's not good when working on crowns:

I was just working on making a bunch of new textile crowns. and to make these, I drip a few holes, put 1 rivet, then go back and drill the 2nd hole, for the 2nd rivet.

So I was doing just that, and I guess I wasn't paying attention, and as I started to drill the 2nd hole in a crown, it got ripped out of my hand! and because of a backerboard i have on the press, and with how fast the drill was turning, the alminum crown just completely wrapped itself around the drill bit! and even though it was fabric covered, it got ripped out so fast that it cut up my hand as it wrapped itself around the drill press.

So after bandaging myself up, i went to the fridge for
some Soda-pop. (diet coke always helps me pull myself together). and i went to take a drink, and I spilled soda all over my face and the floor. Today is NOT my day!

new crowns, and more are coming

2010-04-15T02:03:00.001-04:00

So I'm almost finished with the custom orders, but am also well into making stock. there boxes and ribbons EVERYWHERE! I'm finding it a bit overwhelming to make up the stock. I thought i'd be fine, and just chug my way along one design at a time. but i'm also filling orders at the same time....plus making all the coordinating candle sets for the crowns...well i just kind of feel like i'm here, there, and everywhere. I think that if i can keep up my current progress for a couple more days, that I should be doing a lot better organizationally come Monday.

And as far as out travel to England goes, well, we're quite a bit closer. Josh is working on his "certificate of sponsorship" from his work. once we have that, we get to go stand in line at the UK embassy in Chicago to get our Visas. And once we have those, then we get to book the plane tickets. we're at T-6weeks.

We went out today and got a bunch of extra copies of the house key made to hand out to family, in case of emergencies, and someone unexpected needs to check in on our kitty-babies.

We also got a couple of cheap clocks: One will be set to Indiana time, the other will be set to England time, so that my dad doesn't try calling us at 1am, when he things it's only dinner time.

I also found a local person who has the same font as my logo for her embroidery machine..and i ordered in some fun blank polos and such, and will be getting some nifty things made up. I did a bit of shopping with my sister over the weekend..got a few articles of clothing that will be nice to England.

the biggest "thing" has been deciding how to handle bikes...whether to fly with them, ship them, or buy some over there. After sooo much talk and back and forths...i think we're going to ask the company to reimburse to ship them. (we have a 2 hour train ride from the airport to our apartment..and we're already going to have like 6 pieces of luggage...can't really manage all that plus 2 large bike cases.)

and so in an effort to gain a sense of control, i tried staying up late this evening to post mass quantities of things on the site. well it's 2 am and i'm tuckered out, and tomorrow is another long day. so i'm off to bed!

friday morning surfing

2010-04-09T07:55:00.000-04:00

i zone out on the computer for a while each morning as i'm waking up....and today, through a series of websites...I ended up here: http://www.bakadesuyo.com/what-english-sounds-like-to-foreigners

I thoroughly enjoy this.

Looong day

2010-03-24T16:38:00.000-04:00

Oofda! I've been soldering crowns since before lunch time today. and I'm tired...and I have a lot more work to do before I can call it a day.

And Josh just called.....Some guys from the Derby, UK office are in town right now, and a bunch of people are going out to dinner. And since Josh will be working with these guys in just a few short months, he was invited along. So I just got a call 'asking' if it'd be alright if he went along. Of course it is! Just eat a decadent dessert for me!!

Last time he went out to dinner on the company's dime, man oh man, was it a fancy dinner. They had gone to a Brazilian steak-house...let's hope they don't go there again, since it's still Lent!!! So I'm curious to hear about where they're going to go...he wasn't sure yet when he called. and last time he did this, he didn't get home until almost 9pm. So while he's off schoomizing and enjoying fine dining, I'm going to go polish some silver until I look like a chimney sweep, then I think i'll partake of a lovely frozen, veggie, organic meal. mmmm. tasty.

(it actually really is. I just like to tease).

Oh, and then I need to bead 2 crown sets. And get ready for my dad to visit. He's coming to town tomorrow night to be able to offer some help around here on Friday. I need help with the whole stocking up on 6 months of inventory. I need boxes out the wazoo!! So he'll be taping up all the shipping boxes, and doing all the misc. organizations jobs that need to be done so i can really rock-n-roll. (you know, all that stuff that I could be doing now, rather than typing this...but it's more fun to make daddy do it). I'll post pix :)

April 5th Deadline

2010-03-08T16:31:00.001-05:00

Alright, so to inform those of you who aren't sure of what is going on..in about 10 weeks, my husband and I are 'moving' to England for 6 months. While I am away, YOU MAY STILL ORDER ANY CROWN YOU SEE POSTED ON THE SITE! The trick is, you will not be able to customize any of the crowns. I'm currently working on making up crown, candle, tray, and ornament/cake topper stock. My dad will be shipping things out for me as orders come in. But everything will still have been made and packaged up by me. And when you email with questions--it's still me you're emailing.

But because of this move, and the need to build up as much stock as possible (and get my household ready for the move), I have to close-off all customization requests at some point. and that date is April 5th. UP TO AND INCLUDING MONDAY APRIL 5TH you may still request to have your crowns and trays engraved, and you may specify your ribbon color/attachment style.

After that, you'll have to deal with the ribbon color/attachment style shown with the crowns on the site. (you always have the option of changing the ribbon color on your own). I do apologize for any inconvenience this may cause anyone!

You may be happy to hear, though, that while I will not be doing name engravings after the 5th, I will continue to make crown sets that feature engraved designs (such as the peacock and St. basil crowns). And many crowns can be engraved after the fact...so you can always mail your crowns back for engraving at a later date.

Price increase on some brass and copper crowns

2010-03-07T21:49:00.000-05:00

well, the world is a small place. The terrible Chilean earthquake that took place a few weeks ago is creating major waves in the precious metals market...specifically the copper market. and since brass is an alloy of copper, both copper and brass have been dramatically affected. My prices just increased by a full 50% for these materials. this is not an increase that I can just absorb. So out of necessity, I need to raise prices a bit to help the increased cost in materials. one way to look at the price increase is that suddenly brass and copper are way more valuable/great investment. as we have all seen with the recent spikes in gold and silver, too--price INCREASES are always quick and sharp, while precious metal price DECREASES are always very slow and steady.

New shipment from India...

2010-03-02T14:30:00.000-05:00

I love it when I receive shipments from "my guys" in India! It feels like Christmas morning when I get a new package full of goodies: I can barely wait to open it up and see what's inside!!!

This time around: Finally! More "Helen" fabric...Navy blue, a sage green that is a litter limier than i was expecting. and a lovely brown.

Customization cut-off...but I do have new crowns....

2010-03-01T16:46:00.000-05:00

Alright, So this past week was the last week to place your order for anything really-really custom. I'm absolutely still doing engravings...designs, names, dates...that kind of thing. But no new crown designs (i.e. anything that differs greatly from what I offer on a regular basis. But as I prep to leave for England, you will see a variety of new crown styles being added to the online galleries.

I have so many neat materials on hand...and I want to try and use everything up! A lot of the designs will be metal...and I have a lot of really awesome engraving designs that I drew up over the last few weeks. My engraver has been running non-stop today, and will continue to do so until we leave! There will be a whole new variety of crowns from which to choose...all different sizes, too. I'll be posting things as quickly as I can, so as to not keep you in suspense. Additionally, I have a bunch of new tray styles arriving this week!!

sleepless night...

2010-03-01T00:55:00.000-05:00

It's late Sunday night/entering the wee morning hours of Monday. I have a big week coming up. And I can't sleep. I'm feeling pretty worked up about everything I need to get done in the next 11 weeks. I know I can and I will get everything done that I need to and want to get done. But still...I'm stressing out a little bit tonight.

part of the reason for my stress is my new line of Crown Cases that I've asked my Father-in-law to make. He's done an amazing job with helping my vision become a reality. And we are SO close to having the perfect product. but I just thought of a detail "thing" tonight, that I CANNOT get out of my mind. and I won't feel better until I talk with Alan about this detail. So i need to wait until a reasonable hour to give him a call....and discuss...and then i'll be fine. But until then, I just can't turn off my mind!

Cleaning house!

2010-02-25T14:39:00.000-05:00

So today, I woke up...and looked out at my office and felt frustration. I have work-out-the-wazoo to do...but just couldn't face my office. So i just got done doing a thorough cleaning. sometimes you just have to take time to put your workplace in order...even creative spaces fall into that rule of thumb. so i just got done with that. even organized paperwork. feeling pretty good now.

and only 'pretty' good, because i had to re-stock on lots of materials today....which means having to spend lots of $$$. but that's the cost of business sometimes.

So now i guess i'm ready to go to work, to make some $ to pay all the bills that will be arriving with all the new materials next week!

travel/customization update

2010-02-24T10:45:00.002-05:00

Hi all....Depending on how much time you spend looking around on this site, or this little companion blog, you may have caught wind of the fact that my husband and I will be headed off to England at the end of May. We will be there until the end of Nov. During the time that I am away, my parents will be shipping out orders as they come in. So my job right now to is to fill not only the normal incoming orders, but to also build up 6 months of stock for my parents to ship while we're away.

In light of the fact that it's the busy season---filling lots of custom order for Spring weddings, plus all the stock i'm needing to make for when we're away...well, I'm getting pretty busy around here.

As such, I am needing to curb the amount of custom work. I am just fine continuing to do engravings...so no problem on that kind of customization. But, STARTING MARCH 1st, I'm going to have to say "NO" to any crown requests that are much different than anything you currently see for sale on my site. I just don't have the time needed to really dedicate myself to brand new-custom-crown designs. I'm still willing to modify designs currently on the site..but can only do so to certain extents. I apologize in advance for any disappointment or inconvenience this may cause...but your understanding of the situation is very, very much appreciated. as always, call or email with questions!

Fun new Material?!

2010-02-22T14:04:00.000-05:00

Have you ever paid much attention to the sign boards/trophy plaques that sign/trophy engravers use? Well i have any have always found myself quite envious of that beautiful 2-tone look you can get.

And while I can get gold coated silver to achieve that awesome 2-toned look when you engrave, it is ridiculously expensive.

The majority of these 2-tone trophy materials are plastic...but there are coated metals out there.

So, after calling, and calling.....and calling. I finally found a trophy engraving supply place that was willing to mail me some metal samples. and turns out I can purchase the metals in sheets large enough for crowns (just need to have them cut down into strips like I have all my other metals cut).

So here are some test pix of these samples. What you are seeing are various colors of lacquered aluminum. I can also get lacquered brass. I was most interested in the "metal" colors...gold coated aluminum, copper coated. But I also got a "color"....white.

Pretty good "metal" finishes, huh??! I was very pleasantly surprised!

Close-ups of the "copper"

Shiny Gold, Matte Gold

white and shiny "silver". The shiny silver differs from just plain solid aluminum (like what I normally use) in that you get a much more uniform grain to the metal...and it's more reflective/shinier as well.

The white coated aluminum was actually really difficult to engrave. I have to use a cutter first, and then i go back over it with a 90 degree bit to kind of emboss/shine up the aluminum, so you don't see rough cuts. The diamond tip bits I use on everything else just can't get through the plastic uniformly (see that really messed section on the white??!). But doing an initial pass with a cutter, and then putting on the diamond bit works really well. a little extra work, but it's worth it for that pretty of a result.

So..I think I'm going to have to order in several sheets of this material in a variety of colors and start making crowns out of it!!! so be on the look out for some really awesome 2-tone metal crowns! (no, I haven't set a price, yet.)

Travel reminder

2010-02-15T13:17:00.000-05:00

Just a reminder that I am going out of town this Wednesday and will return late on Saturday. Any orders received after today probably won't ship until next Monday. I'm very sorry if this causes any inconvenience!! I will still be in email contact, and you may still call me during this time, and place orders and all that jazz. I just won't be shipping/making anything during my time away.

and on a fun, personal note. I just ordered Greek language lessons from Rosetta Stone to brush up on my Greek! More and more of you are requesting Greek engravings, and I'd really like to be able to fully understand all the language rules for the Greek language since I'm doing so much writing in it. And being Syrian/Lebanese, I didn't go to Greek school as a youngster...so there are times where I literally have no idea what I'm engraving on some of your crowns! I figured it was about time I learned!

and i guess I should confess that my upcoming travel is a fun personal trip too...Man, I indulge my whims way too much :) But I'm going out to CA to visit some very, very good friends (this couple is responsible for introducing me to my Josh!). And they welcomed a sweet little baby boy into their family last summer, and I have yet to meet him! So I'm going out to visit the Allen family!

And when I get back home to Indy, It'll be crunch time to start getting ready for England. I'll have about 12 or so weeks to get 6 months worth of crown stock finished up, along with filling all the normal order. But it will be so worth it. I'll essentially have a 6 month vacation for the time we're in England, and I certainly can't complain about that!

a couple of links...

2010-02-10T07:39:00.000-05:00

several months ago, when I was still taking the time to also maintain the news update over on my glass website, I posted a link to this awesome house site. I'm posting a link to the house site on this blog because, well, I want to! I just love some of the houses that are on the front page of the site today. I visit this site often, and daydream of future modern home....one of these days.....

and one more link for you. Since I brought up my Clo Glassworks business above... I sell my signature "Melting Heart" pendant to a local gift shop. And the local newspaper, Indystar, recently went around to local gift shop to select items for their gift-giving guide for the upcoming Valentine's Day holiday. and apparently, my little Melting Heart necklaces caught her eye, and are included in the suggestion list....and a picture of one of my hearts is on the home page of the newspaper's website. Look down below the main article...that row of thumbnail pix.....the third picture is a heart...that's mine! click on it, and you'll be shown a little photo gallery of gift ideas.

What I find a little funny is that I haven't had a chance to make hearts, let alone take more stock to this gift shop, in MONTHS! The Crown business has become the equivalent of about 2 full-time jobs. Just not enough time in the day to also getting to make glass beads and pendants! And I'd rather be busy than bored, so no complaints out of me....but I do find it ironic that my little hearts get noticed locally right at the time that I have 0 time to make more!

Happy Wednesday!

Milos Crowns!

2010-02-03T11:42:00.000-05:00

The Milos-silver crowns are in demand right now---I just got done making 3 sets, and thought it might be fun to show those crowns in progress.

I've already got the crowns constructed and coated with "liquid silver"

I airbrush on the silver finish and allow it to dry.

Then, I spray on a sealant, to prevent tarnish

Once the sealant dries, I just need to attach connecting ribbons onto each set, photograph each set and email them to their rightful owners and ship them off...One set is staying in the US, one set is going to Canada (and they're getting married in Cyrpus!), and the 3rd set is going to the UK.

And it seems like, along with the Milos crowns...all metal crowns are in demand at the moment, so here's the mess that I call my silver-smithing table at the moment. I have about 5 different crown sets in progress on that table. Plus that whole pile on the floor! Looks like I'll need to clean/organize the weekend, huh?

And my garage is still cold, so yes, that's a space heater. I've been listening to a lot of Stevie Wonder while working, too...so the crowns have a nice jazzy aura!

ok, back to work!

Upcoming travel

2010-02-01T15:52:00.000-05:00

Hi Everyone...Just wanted to let you know that I will be out of town starting Wednesday Feb 17 until late in the day Saturday Feb 20. Since I will be out of town, nothing will be shipped during that time, so please plan accordingly!!

I will be back to work on Monday Feb 22...and it will be business as usual until Josh and I leave for England at the end of May (more details to follow about that 6 month trip).

Fun new phone

2010-01-22T08:16:00.000-05:00

So now that I have all my phone numbers resolved, I'm finally receiving all of the new hardware to along with the new phone plans So the work number 301-237-5858 stays the same, but Josh found me a great set of 3 cordless phones (refurbished). So I can walk around as I speak with customers. I can set a phone down anywhere, but still be close to another one, since there are 3 handsets. Perfect for me! and in case one handset breaks, or gets covered with paint, glue, solder, and who knows what else, well, i have a couple of back-ups.

And I Just got in my new cell phone for my new, personal cell line (this is a new thing for me..to have work life and personal life separated via phone. very exciting). Again, I purchased a refurbished cell phone. But it's so cool: It obviously came from someone in India, as the calendar is set with all the many Indian holidays and festivals. And it came pre-loaded with some really awesome bollywood-type ring tones!! :) It really doesn't take much to amuse me these days...just fun music, apparently.......

Oh, and the phones arrived with UK chargers as well as US chargers, which is awesome, since well need those UK ones in a few months. So feeling happy that we have that part of our lives resolved.

My dad has been staying with us the last several days. He's had many dr appointments over here in Indy, so we convinced him to stay with us in between appointments. So I've been having fun with my dad...but also not getting a whole lot of work done. he's leaving this afternoon, so I'll get back to work soon, I promise.

Phone Issues Resolved!!

2010-01-18T20:31:00.000-05:00

Feel free to call away--I now have a working phone again! (but still, no calls during the overnight, please).

I always had problems with my previous cell phone carrier, and went through so many models of cell phones thinking the phone itself was the problem. After this latest round of problems, it was the last straw and we switched carriers altogether. We went to T-mobile and signed up for their @home hot spot service. It's a wireless router that allows us to plug in a standard phone. I was able to transport my 301-237-5858 number to that line...and so now suddenly my work phone line is a VOIP phone line, rather than a cell phone. What this means is that I have better International calling capabilities...and MUCH more reliable service (My cell phone wouldn't always ring for incoming calls)

And now, I get to have a cell phone that is for my own personal use, not business, AND it is a local number to Indianapolis (317) not my old stomping grounds of Maryland (301). And my new cell phone is an "unlocked" cell phone, which will allow me to use it when we go to England this Spring (previous carrier did not support unlocked cell phones).

I am already SO pleased with the customer service (not to mention the pricing)with T-Mobile. Yay!

Phone problems

2010-01-14T13:12:00.000-05:00

My cell phone (business phone) is broken! Very annoying. May not have a replacement phone until Monday.

The screen went out...and the phone can tell me that i have vm's, but won't let me call out. So I'm very sorry to those of you who have left me messages, that I have not yet returned your calls. I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Please feel free to email me!

Monday, Jan 11

2010-01-11T16:59:00.002-05:00

Well, I'm closing in on the end of my work day...still a few sets to finish up and photograph before i can call it quits. And then several emails to send out tonight...that's good after-dinner work.

Tomorrow I will be in Ft. Wayne for most of the day. but should be able to tend to emails in the morning and evening, at the very least.

I did a test plate of all my new font capabilities on my engraver the other day:

It took a couple of hours for this all to engrave!

These are the fonts shown UNOXIDIZED

I've got the reverse of this plate on the engraver right now...I'm putting in the exact same thing but will be OXIDIZING that side.

Fun, huh?

Alright, I need to stop procrastinating and go finish up my work so that I can run to the grocery and still get to the gym tonight too!

Snowy weather, plan change

2010-01-07T06:23:00.000-05:00

Well, I was supposed to be going out of town today....but I changed my plans...It's snowing all across Indiana today--accumulations of up to 6 inches here at my house...and more in other places. I figured, eh....why risk crazy drivers on the highway if I don't have to?

So I'll be at home most of the day today (still have to run out and do some errands). I am actually looking forward to a good snow covering, as that really helps insulate the garage. Right now, it's just above freezing out in my workshop (garage workshop). Not very pleasant at all. I've been bringing as much of my work indoors as I can. I have a little space heater out there...I really need to get a better one. Yesterday I was able to get the temp up to 43, which, with a coat and gloves on is bearable. I have a lot of engraving work that must be done today....and that can't be brought indoors. So I think I'll just have to grin and bear it.

We added a whole extra layer of insulation to the attic area over the garage this past fall. And while that has helped keep the garage warmer, it hasn't really kept it at a comfortable temp. Our Garage door is about 2 inches too tall for the opening (previous owner had driveway repaved...raised the level of the garage apron..so the door doesn't fit now)....so we have a lot of gaps...that's why it gets so cold out there. So what do you do? completely bust out a decent driveway and have it re-poured at the proper height? cut down a perfectly good solid wood garage door by 2 inches...that will suddenly be 2 inches too short if the driveway is ever redone. No real easy fix. There could be worse things in life to put up with, though....

P.S.

2010-01-03T21:08:00.001-05:00

One other change to everything is that I'm going to start charging for shipping. I know..it's no fun to have to pay shipping. But I just can't afford to continue comping the shipping costs any longer. I held out as long as I could...

It seems as though I'm in that middle-ground of growth where, I'm too large/have too many expenses to be able to continue the free shipping feature, but not yet large enough where I have enough cash flow to be able to afford the mounting costs of shipping.

Currently, shipping will be flat rates as follows:
Domestic (all US states and territories) $10 flat rate
International $30 flat rate.

I ship via USPS (international) Priority Mail.

But maybe this will cheer you up in case you're feeling annoyed about the shipping costs: I just got an update to my engraving software, and I have dozens of new fonts!!! I'll be creating a new test plate to photograph and post on the engraving page this week.

New Year, New site features and news

2010-01-03T17:54:00.002-05:00

Happy New Year, everyone!

I have so much to report, let's see if I can do this in an organized fashion:

1)Tomorrow, Jan 4th, will be my first day back to work. So, Thank you to everyone, in advance, for being patient with me as I catch up on emails (didn't stay nearly up to date on email correspondence over break as I had planned). I'm also recovering from a really bad sinus infection that set in the day after Christmas(which is why I didn't stay up with emails), so please bear with me as I get back up to speed on everything. (also, I will be out of town most of the day on the 7th)

2)New website features:
My husband Josh, (Today is our 6 year anniversary!) is finalizing some new website features for me (how romantic!). The website will now feature an integrated cart/check-out system. I'll probably be staying up late tonight to ensure that the site is fully up to day and functioning, so that as the updates goes "live" there won't be any confusion.

3) OK, so bear with me on the wedding candle page--I still have a ton of pix to post.

call or email me with questions....you may still place orders over the phone (301-237-5858), please excuse my nasally voice from my cold.

I really look forward to seeing what the New Year brings for OrthodoxWeddingCrowns.com! And once I feel I'm all up to speed on work and website functionality, then I'll work on adding some pretty pictures to this blog!

Rough morning!

2009-12-15T14:44:00.000-05:00

My email suddenly started acting up this morning. I have my email set up as imap, so that copy of everything stays on my web hosts' server....yeah, it makes downloading emails/pix slower, but it ensures that I always have a back-up of my business emails.

Well all of a sudden, I started getting error messages as I was trying to send emails...and it was an error I'd never seen before. The error came into play when my sent email tried to write a copy of itself to my "sent" email folder. It couldn't write to the proper folder on the server because it suddenly didn't exist!

Someone at 1and1.com deleted a folder somewhere for some reason, and it messed up my email!!

an hour and a half later with tech support, I can now send email again. All of my past "sent" emails are in a "sent items" folder, and all of my newly sent emails are not writing to the usual sent folder. but things are all segregated now and I don't like it! this was not a particularly great start to my day. Oh well, I guess I should be happy that all of my emails weren't lost.

Christmas shut-down

2009-12-14T13:45:00.000-05:00

To get ready for Christmas, and to enjoy the holiday (and rest up before the spring rush), my studio will be shutting down starting this Saturday, the 19th. I'll get back to work on Monday, Jan 4th. I will not be making or shipping anything during this time

If you really need some questions answered during this time, feel free to call or email and I'll get back to you as soon as I can!!

Wicked Weather!

2009-12-09T08:15:00.000-05:00

The weather forecast for today is pretty daunting with that major blizzard moving across the Midwest. It's currently 42 degrees outside, with that being the high for the day. as the blizzard moves in, we're going to have some really high winds...which have already started....but we may not get too much precipitation here in Indy. Just high winds and cold air. I'm curious if our power will go out, as that tends to happen in our neighborhood during windy spring weather (even though the neighborhood lines are buried...the lines leading into the neighborhood are not). If the power goes out, I’m not sure how much work I’ll be able to do, and it will get cold pretty quickly, but I've got to say, I wouldn't mind an excuse to have to take the rest of the day off! I'll just make sure I have a fire going in the fire place preemptively!

New travel dates

2009-12-05T15:09:00.000-05:00

Paperwork is getting submitted again for our time over in England. The paperwork states a start date of June 1-Nov18. That would put us arriving in England the last week of May and heading home probably on Nov 19th.

So I think I'll be able to conduct a fairly normal spring season ...customers may need to order about 3-4 weeks earlier than they might normally, if they want any customization. I think that I will be able to continuing offering engravings up until the start of May. I'll keep this site and the homepage of the crown side updated with any pertinent cut-off dates.

So right now, I'm still working on creating a bunch of stock. It's a little mind-numbing and also overwhelming all at the same time. Also, I managed to encounter some Poison Ivy over thanksgiving, (yes, apparently you CAN get p.i. in nov/dec). So I didn't get a whole lot of work done this week...but did get some good organizing both in the studio and online done. I'm already working on my to-do list for Monday.

This evening I have grand plans for trying to get more candle sets posted on the wedding candle page (all in attempt to have pages as populated as possible for when the shopping cart debuts on Jan 1), as well as updating the wedding pictures page.

This made me laugh...

2009-12-03T07:48:00.000-05:00

...So still on the topic of England, and our trip being delayed until the end of Spring: Josh received an apology from the director of his company for yanking us around with the date. What made me laugh is that the director specifically mentioned that he realizes, also, that now we'll be leaving right during the height of the spring wedding season, and he's really sorry if that causes a problem with my business. I couldn't stop laughing thinking about all these Aerospace engineers sitting around talking about Wedding Crowns! So it's official, everyone at Josh's work knows what I do for a living.

Here's the story

2009-11-30T11:44:00.000-05:00

Alright, our travel to England (Josh's Secondment) is being put off until June1. That means we will be leaving town late May. While they may have been able to work things out for an earlier date if we really pushed for it, there would still be several months of uncertainty. Josh and I are like-minded in that, we'd rather have a real, actual, solid working date...even though it means waiting a little bit longer than we would ideally like.

So what does this mean for my business? I'm going to list out a bulleted list, as I plan on directing confused and annoyed customers to this page for the full story

from now until the new year, I am going to still really focus on making up crown stock. I spent a lot of money getting 6 months worth of materials in, and I might as well finish making stock while I am in that mind set. This way, I am prepared for leaving town, when or if that happens...which ultimately means that I will be able to continue custom work/engravings up until a few weeks before we leave (rather than a few months).
I am going to open up the engraving options again (now)...any customer may now add an engraving to their crowns/trays if they'd like
I'm going to try and delay any really custom crown designs until after the new year. I will have more time starting in January to focus on custom work.
Starting Jan 1, the website will feature an integrated shopping cart function/check-out page. But I am also going to start charging a shipping fee at that time. It will be a low flat-rate. (under $10 for domestic. Int'l customers are currently charged shipping in the$25-$30 range...I'm going to make that a flat rate for all int'l, too)
It will be easy to still add customization to your order, once the new shipping cart feature is added. But I still have a lot of work to do to get all all of your crown and candle options posted, and get things just right....which is why I want to keep things as low-key from now until Jan 1.
As always, call or email me to place your orders for the time being! And again, Customization is now open again!
I will start cutting of customization in May...so place any orders for spring/summer weddings in a timely fashion. I will keep the website fully updated with any cut-off dates.

Thanks to my cusotmers for being so flexible and understanding of our changing travel plans. I am sorry for any confusion or inconvenience I have caused/am causing. The bright-side here is that I will be around for filling all the spring orders myself, which makes me pretty happy.

Waiting for clarification...

2009-11-20T16:39:00.002-05:00

Alright, well, here's the current UK status: We should still be heading to the UK next year, but it might get delayed a wee bit. Why? The director of Josh's company won't sign-off on Josh's secondment, as the company has a lot of work headed their way at the start of next year. This is a GREAT thing for the company....but it also means that there's a lot of work to be done...and with a hiring freeze still in place...well, they'd like to keep Josh around for the work. So, we have no doubt that this will work itself out. the boys will come to a compromise.

If it turns out that we end up NOT going, well, we'll be pretty disappointed, and I'll have needlessly cut off engravings and custom work...but I'll have a lot of awesome crowns in stock to make my work a lot easier in general. And it will also mean that Josh has a great project at work here in the US to keep him busy...so it is a win-win situation either way. We are just really looking forward to going to the UK. So unless we're actually told otherwise, we're still preparing as though we are leaving the 2nd week of Jan.

By early next week, I'll have a pretty impressive amount of stock made...I'll have to post some pictures as the piles of boxes start to grow.

Ready to "Blog"

2009-11-18T11:21:00.000-05:00

Alright--I think I have everything set up to have an official Blog now....rather than that news update page on my glass website. So of course, now that I'm ready to start updating family and friends about our upcoming England trip, it looks like there is a hiccup in the plans. we'll see what the day brings.