Mostly just crazy talk, punctuated by humor and the occasional gem (!!!) of perception. I’m a creative, animal-loving, forty-something woman, newly married, and an unpublished writer (working on it!). Oh, and I'm in the midst of starting a greeting card company (complicated!). Sound like something you can get behind? Please, read on...
Since my day has been a bit of a bummer, I decided to borrow someone else’s thought.
“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” Don’t you just love Oscar Wilde?
I remembered this quote and moved from feeling bummed to saying “fu*k it!” I’m not alone here in the gutter, I just need to keep my eyes on those beautiful stars. Thanks, Oscar. xx
I know you’ve all been sitting on pins and needles (how very uncomfortable) wondering what's up on the paper front. NOT. I know it’s all a big YAWN! Still, it’s majorly consuming for me (what a sad life I have). Hear me out, please. Drum roll. Wait for it. Yes, I have found a 100% post consumer recycled paper in a shade of gray. And the cloudy sky opens up to, alleluia, alleluia, alleluia. To be completely honest, it isn’t as gray as I wanted, but I believe for 100% recycled it is as good as it gets.
Call me nuts (dare you), but the paper for my greeting cards is crucial. For me it is mucho importante to know that I will be putting out a quality and Green product. The truth is I'm just a doodler. I'm not an artist. So, I'm starting out a bit behind the eight ball (and who the hell am I kidding?? I wasborn behind the eight ball). Van Gough could have painted on the underside of a cheap diner table, riddled with old, discarded chewing gum and it would be a work of art. I, not being Van Gough or even Picasso, find it important to have a classy paper to print my doodles on. Make sense? Anyway, it makes sense to the maze-like thing I call my brain.
Hopefully (we can always dream), this will be the second to the last paper-oriented post I will have to post. Hah! Will she say yes to the paper? I’m running some tests, performing some of my typical mad-scientist experiments and we’ll all know soon if this paper is the one. Fingers (and eyes) crossed.
Perhaps Rock or Scissors could get the best of me, but Paper? Come on. Get real. Hah! I’m actually not speaking of the age old game upon which all major decisions should be made, but instead about the Great Paper Dilemma for my @#@##!!! greeting cards. Haven’t heard of the Great Paper Dilemma??? You will. Read on, please.
Why did I have to choose gray, anyway? And why do I have to have a social conscious??I’m telling you I had not a clue in hell (or elsewhere) that it would be so damn difficult to find GRAY, recycled cover stock. After my research, I know more about paper than I ever wanted to know. Seriously. There are far more interesting topics on my List of Top Topics to Research than freaking paper. Sadly though, compromising on my ideals has never been my forte. I’m still trying to figure out what my $!@$#!@#$!!@#$%%!@!!!!! forte is, but I’m quite clear that compromising on my ideals is not even in the ballpark. Too bad. Those people always look so much happier than moi. [insert a heavily-burdened-by-my-bizarre-uncompromising-ideals sigh here]
Granted, there is still hope that I will track down that environmentally friendly, illusively perfect (hah!) shade of gray paper. I found the flipping envelopes, blasted packaging, and bloody (not literally) ribbon, didn’t I? Yes, I will. And then I will be free to dance my happy gloom dance once again. Woot. Watch out environmentally-friendly-perfect-shade-of-gray-paper, I’m coming for you.
Woke up this morning and this song was in my head. Could I have dreamt it because I have a headache? No. Do I have a secret (perhaps not-so-secret) yen to bash people over the head with a silver hammer? What's the point of lying? Sure. I've considered it many times, with more people than I care to count. Doesn't have to be a silver hammer, either. Did I dream this song because I'm going to be the victim of a mad, silver-hammer-welding-brain-bashing serial killer? Moi? A victim? I think not. Am I going to get a headache? Someday, I'm sure I will...maybe soon if I keep this guessing game up. Regardless of what it means (or doesn't) it's an awesome song and there are certainly worse ways of waking up.
Really have no idea where these doodles are coming from. I mean, I always suspected that I wasn't indigenous to Earth...apparently these forays into scribbling madness are merely confirmation.
These little Body Snail characters (with the big, black, dead eyes) seem (bizarrely) fashionable. Way more fashionable than moi, anyway.
I may not be making money, but I'm having fun godd**n it!
Generally, I don't think of "fun" as paying those pesky bills; however, in this case I just may make an exception. Why the h*ll not?? Don't answer that.
Our FBN statement printed in the newspaper (only week one, but still!), we mailed off our application for business bank account, AND most huge of all, we finally found the perfect paper for the cards. YAY!! It’s a light gray, not peach or cranberry or almond or lettuce, G-R-A-Y! It’s the perfect shade for our purpose. It took a month of searching and honestly I was beginning to despair that the color I wanted existed! So, it’s been a big day for Cards for a Gloomy Day. We’re that much closer to getting ourselves off the ground and into the wild gray yonder!
I’m doing my happy-gloom dance right now. And no, that is not a contradiction. Hah!
I feel like I’m working in the Dark Ages (without the pestilence, of course). Yeah, I have a computer, but I am surrounded by scraps of paper: doodles, ideas, lists, and files chock full of more lists, ideas, and doodles. I really must get organized!! I am the epitome of the joke, “yeah, I’m working on getting organized and I have a list of everything I must do; however, I’ve lost the list.” I’ve actually always been very organized at “work”…the job. However, now I am working full-time on our business from home (since I was laid-off just before Christmas).
I have space at home, we even have an extra bedroom. I have a filing cabinet, file folders, shelves, all the makings of having (and keeping!) an organized space. So no excuses there! My theory for my non-organization boils down to two things:
1) I am simply accustomed to being disorganized at home. It’s always been my retreat, you know? Work, you have to be on your game. At home? I’ve always had a tendency to slide a bit. Okay, that’s understating. I’m actually more like floor polish spillage…all over the place.
The above, however, is no excuse. I’m working from home now and I need to get with the program! I know that I will get into a groove, I just need to keep at it and be a little patient with myself. Below, is my real issue:
2) Shiny, shiny.
What do you mean, “what’s that?”?? Gees and I thought it was so self-explanatory. Let’s go back to me being like floor polish spillage. The reason I’m “all over the place” is because I get distracted so easily. There are a MILLION things to do. A BAZILLION things to think about. And so many interesting things come along at any given moment. Remember the dog in Up? Yeah, I’m a bit like that.
Good news? I am capable of being organized. I just need to find my organizational skills. Bad news? My skills are probably hiding in one of these folders…somewhere…
I’ll start looking for them right away. Well, maybe after I draw this idea I have for a greeting card, and I really should get back to that fifth chapter of my third book, but then again, I need to edit those two short stories...shiny, shiny….
