HIGH BUTTON SHOE

February 8 2006

Good morning!      

Often my day changes completely from what I had planned by 9AM, with a phone call. When I am seriously working on orders and such, I don't always answer the phone, but rather let the answering machine take it. The past few months, I have not had that opportunity much, as I have had family emergencies that needed attention, and that is where the day changes. I have given much thought lately to the word 'multitasking'. I hate that word!  Were I actually good at multitasking you would have gotten this letter last Friday, more on time than this late. I actually did sit down and penned (via internet) a newsletter to all of you, telling of the new items, and places I thought you should visit, clicked on send and where the letter went, is anybodys guess. I certainly have no clue.  No doubt the same place, all my copy and 'pastes' went a month ago, while I tormented myself with that drated eBay template. But with occasional clarity, I sometimes figure the problem out. No, not by myself! This time however, I had another of my brainstorms and eventually figured out the error of my ways. That is not a usual occurrence. While I have patted myself on the back and told you how learned I am getting with the computer and the two digital cameras, my skills (or lack of) come back to slap me upside the head and there I am, befuddled. But, even though I KNOW I did it that way before on EVERY newsletter I have ever sent you, I now have a new way to send them out, thus saving me about 15 minutes and hopefully saving a letter I spent an hour writing from going off into thin space somewhere.

Back to multitasking..I regressed there for a moment. When did this word come about?  Haven't we all multitasked for years before there was officially a name for it? Ideally, I should be able to do laundry, vacuum, and keep a fire going in the wood stove all at the same time. Apparently not.

I seem to jump from one chore to another, and often one of those chores gets the poor end of the deal and doesn't get done well. Lately that would be the laundry. How can two people have so much laundry? I continue to think that some underwear pervert comes in once a week and adds to Ron's laundry, as I know I wash whites more often than that. Any resolution I may have made to be more organized is fastly becoming a dim memory. Aside from these phone calls that drag me off, I am however, keeping the resolve pretty good to do one chore a day that would not be considered a daily or even weekly chore. IF it can't be thrown out, however, it becomes mind boggling, wondering what to do with it. Moving it from one place to another is NOT the answer.  That's how I got into such a mess in the first place!! The  upcoming summer garage sale gets bigger and bigger!

 In a couple days I must drag out all the information necessary to prepare the dreaded tax information for the accountant. Each year determined to be better prepared for that task, I think I did. Time will tell.  I swear, I have the taxes all done before I take it  to the accountant. But I don't trust myself with tax laws to actually put it on the forms and send it in. Think about it..can you see ME doing taxes. Yah, that's what I thought too. The business taxes have to be filed by Feb 28th, so this keeps me working on it with real focus.

 

In between all the family doctors and hospital trips ( my 9AM phone calls), I have gotten some new things done. Most are showing on the website now, some on eBay. The eBay offerings will  be done tomorrow. But we have them available on the website too.

http://cm.ebay.com/cm/ck/1065-29296-2357-0?uid=33754854&site=0&ver=LCA080805&item=7387523982&lk=URL  This link will only be available while these things are on, as I have no clue how to show you a link to my eBay sales otherwise.  I did learn that template however, and also that you have to leave the pictures IN the photobucket image hosting  place the entire time you have them on eBay or otherwise your pictures are GONE on eBay. My lessons always seem to come by trial and error. Mostly error.  But still in all, a lesson learned.

We are showing on Ranting Raven which was released on February 1. We can be found at

http://www.rantingraven.com/Exhibit95.php   and in one week (Feb 15th) crow soup will be released with new pictures. IF I don't find myself chained to the harvest table leg with the taxes, I will get a letter off to you about that. Otherwise, mark your calendar and check it out on the 15th, late in the day. We are at http://www.crowsoup.com/Market586.php

While you are at ranting raven, please check out my friend, Miss Elspeth of PineBerryLane at

http://www.rantingraven.com/Exhibit165.php  A most talented folk artist, I didn't realize she did counted cross stitch ( should have known, as she can do most everything!) and loved the samplers she did in the old fashioned look. Click on her website for time well spent in good primitives.

 

January and February are my self described 'self-destruct' months. NOT a winter person, and living smack dab right in snow country, except for all these medical outings, I would never leave the farm. I have plenty to do to keep me busy. My exercise consists of shoveling snow. Oddly, I rather like that activity. It has neither made me tall OR thin, as was my objective, besides being able to navigate around. January was void of most of the snow we generally have piled up everywhere, and was often quite warm for that month. February has brought cold temperatures and I felt the need to upgrade my old nasty red wool hat that I wear, with fondness, to keep my forehead and ears warm, to something a tad more presentable. On second thought, presentable probably doesn't give an accurate description of the new hat either, but at least it doesn't look like I dragged it down the road under the truck in the muds of April either, which I suspect the old red hat had begun to look like.  On my at least once a week trek into town for groceries (unless I have to mail off an order which I WILL go to town more often for), I could possibly be mistaken for a bag lady. As the old hat was way beyond "town" attire even before it looked like it was dragged  under the truck, I mostly went hatless, and about froze myself in the winter winds. The new hat isn't really what most would consider town wear, and possibly wouldn't draw so much attention, did it not have the word Carhartt printed boldly across the front. Yup. I bought myself a Carhartt ski type hat with a bill. Hoping most people won't recognize me, at least I am warm.

 

One of the winter could be expected-s, was the demise of the rosemary plant. Eventually, you have to realize possible dormant is just plain dead. I put it out on the back deck off the dining room doors, so I can still keep an eye on it.  Snow can't kill it much more than my tender loving care did. I do plan to check on it ever so often in the coming better weather, in the case that it might sprout a green showing of life. Well!, it might.

 

For those of you who loved Primitives & More in Waynesville Ohio, it is no more. Pam closed and sold the building. I know. What a bummer! I LOVED that shop. Lucille Y. sent me the link to a great shop there yet. Very expensive, but thought you might like to look around. I have been in this shop and it takes your breath away.  www.oldegloryshops.com

and I wanted to tell you about another new website that we just linked with.

 http://www.thefabricofsweetrepose.com/intro.html check her out. Very nice!

 

I did want to mention, we have several new birdhouses on the website. We are selling a lot of the harvested grass! It is great for all your spring bowls and baskets! On the homepage, under the newest items icon, scroll to the bottom to 'cards'.  We are showing more of the greeting cards there.  In the new items (not newEST items)  Beulah has redone the categories, taken off a lot of the 'sold' items and showing new things!  Also, the wreath on the old door pictured on the homepage will be Christmas cards for 2006, sans the words across the front. This is the Gundrum building Ronnie is restoring.  I love that picture. Total simplicity. Keep this in mind for your Christmas cards for this year!

And lastly, while I have closed the shop, the shop itself remains fully stocked. You are welcomed to visit with a phone call first. The shop will continue to have great things and will stay this way for some time, until we are able to empty it out. I am in no hurry to do that, as it will not be sold or rented.  If you are planning on coming to Michigan or want a day trip, we would love to have you stop in. And we are planning the garage sale for June, where you will find GREAT bargains! More information on the sale will be coming in the months ahead! The newsletter will tell of it, and it will be posted on the calendar of events.

Thank you for asking to be a part of the farm!

in fond regard,

Clotilda

www.highbuttonshoe.net

eBay ID   comptonhouse