My Weblog

For a while know I thought I was nuts. Well, actually for a long while. Hmmm...maybe that is why my typing sucks. That is another story.

Wait, let's conquer that first. I did take typing in high school. But the way they teach you is so darn slow. I refused to type that way (I am very stubborn) , got moved to back of the class and continued to type in the beautiful art form that I do know.  Needless to say, I probably failed that class with a slew of others.

But david is so funny. I had no idea he posted that until the next day.  He sounds like a smart A$@. But he is really funny. he has this dry sense of humor that gets you everytime. I still have to ask him, "really?"

So I thought I was nuts because I kept seeing these pictures

                                  

Okay, this little girl, Myah, is so stinkin' cute. But why did I think I knew her.  I went to her mom's blog AGAIN http://myahsdays.blogspot.com then I saw this cutie.

Before I forget, look at those cute barrettes. Ahh, I loved those but hated making them. So this is Myah's niece, Annabelle. And she looked so darn familiar.

So to get to the point before I forget, I am not nuts. I have Myah's announcement in my cash box form my art fairs.  She is wearing one of our hats, and use it at my shows as I am ginving people the schpeel they have to buy a hat, they have to. Yup, it usually works. So long story short, for the past few months all I had to do was look in my darn cashbox and mystery would've been solved.

Did that make sense?

Okay, things are finally calming down a bit at the office. The season closes the end of the month and we are planning on having all orders shipped by the 15th. I can ahrdly wait to clean that place out. I am sure I have complained ( I do that a lot lately) to many of you how small it is. Well, David and I were talking about getting someplace bigger. It was then I realized it is only 5 or 600 sq ft. Yup, i thought it was 1200.  See we are cramped, 5 gals, a cutting table, inventory galore, fabric and boxes.  I think, ( crossing my fingers) we just got a new gal to work customer service.  That is where  a majority of our errors occur. Chris and I are packing orders, talking to customers on the phone and voila, we totally loose track.

Okay, the kids are on the bed having a tickle fest. Joe thinks it's hilarious Gabe can pee his pants and not even know. Ahhh... I;m off to find a pacifier in my car somewhere and then offto watch a movie a sew a few buttons or 100.

One more thing, what is that song Sting sings? A sailing ship on Christmas Day??? IS he talking about the pilgrims, I am so confused by that song.

Okay, and I just now realized that Leslie is a photographer, you know Myah's mom. Yup, so if you live in Michigan you'd better call her up.  OOOHH, I hope I am right, but I really do think she is.

Apology

As Denise's husband, I sincerely have to apologize for all of her typos in the post below.  I just read that post and had trouble figuring out what she meant to say half the time.  She doesn't mean to make all of those typos.  She just gets in a hurry and doesn't proof read.  It doesn't, in any way, shape, or form, reflect on her educational level, intelligence, or professionalism.  She's just a bad typer!!!

I think I am running out of words.  Truth be told, I am running out of pictures. The picture is usually what inspires the writing, or as you know it, the random babble.

So if you like random, this is all I have for you. I scrolled through a bazillion pics with the end result being, "wow, I really take sucky pics".

I did find this pic of Joe. He had just turned 2 and look how he masters that little horse. He still asks occasionally, "where is Licorice?" Trust me, not in my back yard. We have no back yard.

And with no backyard my poor pup, well, he is just a poor pup. We got Goliath when he was just about 6 weeks. He is know 9( about 180lbs) and OMG sheds like no tomorrow.  People always assume her drools a lot,  WRONG, shedding would be his main complaint, that and a small backyard.

We are heading up to my  Mom's tomorrow for Turkey Day.  It's about a 6 hour car drive, I seriously think I used to be able to make it in 4.5. Kids slow you down, eh?  For those of you who have never been to Northern Michigan, you must go. It is beyond beautiful. The Mackinac Bridge makes the Golden Gate look ugly.  Just you look.

We cross that beauty everytime we go to a home Lakers game.  David says that Canadians do not celebrate Turkey day, is this true?  Sucks if it is. Hmm.. Oh, something else that is funny. We bought some land up in the Upper Peninsula years ago.   Last summer we thought we'd go check it out,  see if it has changed...can't find the darn thing.  It is like Alaska up there, huge amounts of land with nothing and we can't even find ours.  Nice.

So the Beast has seriously been tamed.  He is Mr LoveBug lately and hilarious.  OMG, thank you Kristy for the plastic cracker.  When I gave it to him, he instantly said "ewe' and continued to try to eat it. 

You guys have been so generous with all the kind emails and sweet words and constructive criticism. I love you.  It is so nice the hear from everyone.  When I gave up painting to do MJC I was so nervous.  I would've never imagined it would lead to this many supporters and friends.   And Miss Amanda sending me chocolates today. Bless you and how dare you make me gain 5lbs.  I ate every one of them in less than 3 hours. Oh, and Betsy, now you know we love you but the morings are getting bad. The boys are constantly fighting over the books. Like they don't have 200 others to choose from. But Gabe really wants to be Joe and you know how the story goes.... And Kelly Joe had your shirt on today.

I am telling you there is nothing liek Speading the love. We do it everyday at MJC.  Pick a neighbor, the grocery store clerk or someone and give them a random act of kindness.  They'll rememeber it for weeks. 

I tell Joe everytime we are in Walmart to be extra nice and say thank you. If the cashiers did not come to work there would be no one to buy toys from.  So when it gets really busy and the lines are SLOW, just be happy they are there or else you'd only have 9 lines to choose from, instead of 10. Save the fussing for when you get to the car, jack up the mustic and let it all out.

Before I get to boring, I love this picture. Joe love MJC. He wants to come to work every day and do only hard jobs. He wants to come to every show and help all the customers. He makes me aware of who is wearing MJC and of they look good or not.  he is picky.  He'll be very clear on if she has clean fingernails or not.  He is good. Here he is at a photo shoot taking a break with Carlee.

Whew, blah, blah, blah. I'll try to have an exciting weekend and take some good pics. Ya,, I'll try to get some pics of Joe with some players. We are going to 2 gave this weekend.   yes, you all want MJC news, but I am taking 4 days of and no MJC chit chat.    I actually went to bed at 8pm last night. Love it.

Ahppy Turkey day to you and farewell to all and to all a goodnight.

OKay, the game sucked.  But I am confident as the season progresses so will the Lakers. BUT, oh, my if I only had a camera. The Beast was in love with hockey. He was so good and so funny. He can now say " i love you" and will actually lay in our bed  and be still.  Ahh, he has been tamed,well, maybe, a bit!

I got a couple questions about Peru. Yes, we are doing some of our manufacturing over there.  In the past, we have been buying our knits  pre-made and I can never get the quality nor the silhoutte I want. So why not go direct to the source. Peru has the softest cottens. I am so excited about the being able to pick my own color, getting the cut I desire and not having to worry about depending on another supplier.

As far as the other pieces, we are trying 4 or 5 of the wovens, pants and knot dresses out also.  I found the most amazing wovens.  We get so many compliments on our fabric right now, and the ones I found are even more amazing to the hand. 

Yup, our entertainment on the plane.  We had to finalize yardage the moment we landed to ensure delivery. Yes, no sleep for almost 2 days. That sounds wrong, I may be exaggerating. Who knows. But I really don't think I am.

We are still making many of our pieces here. If you only saw my fabric stash, my husband would kill me.  I think I have enough to fill one 10x20 room from floor to ceiling.  It has to all be cut up into goods for you!

It is a tough choice.  We want to be able to grow and I want to be able to stay home one day a week so we have to out source a bit.  We also want to continue to sew her in Indiana, and this affords us to do so. I never understood until lately. I cannot do it all. And right now, our mark up is so little that I have to do it all, well, me and the gals at the workshop.  We literally bring home "homework" everynight. 

What does that mean? It means every night, whether we work till 6 or 9, we still have ironing and trimming to do.  Yup, that is why I watch so many movies and that is why we need to outsource some of the line. Either we add 10 or so bucks to the cost or we figure out a way to produce in a manner that we can have a great quality product and are able to come home for dinner. And right now, I really need to hire soome more help, but we don't have the margins.

Yes, i am an open book. I do not paint the pretty pictures. All is not perfect. I can say that we have a great deal of fun.  I love going to work and I love reading all the emails and seeing the pics you send in. I just want a little time so I can stop and smell the roses and let you know "thanks for the pic, it really means a lot to me. I get so excited to hear all the stories and so on"  But first we need to get some costs down so we can get a little more help in the office.

If I sound like I am being snotty, I am not.  It is just hard to understand unless you are in the thick of things.  And right now, it is as thick as a milkshake.  We are packing non-stop and are counting the days till we can say we ship at 2 weeks.   Oh, please, say it will come soon. Please.

Oh, one more thing, Love her, http://blog.jsherrickphotography.com/ Damn-I don;t even know your name, but I love your blog. I am guessing jenn, Jessica, Jill. See, I need to stop trimming so  much, I am getting nutty.

Joe will not go to sleep, so we let him up and we decide we will make some goodies for the hockey players tomorrow.  He's already drawn pictures and all that jazz. 

I just got up and gues what? I suck at baking and they were boxed goods.  I suck. But that may be a good thing, then I won't eat them. Well, actually I will.  I eat just to eat.

Okay, we are packing for the game wish me luck on a new desk for my gals and hope the Lakers win.

Did you know Joe is sitll sleeping in the hallway? I am sure lots of kids do this but it is a funny thing to see a hallway slowly converting into a bedroom And he has a nice bedroom already. Nuts.

Bye and I promise to do a better job posting .

Here's a cutie Amy sent over. She's all the way over in Missouri for you folk over there!

happy Saturday, as long as I can squeeze into some jeans. OMG OMG I just remembered I missed Oilily's sale on the 8th, sh%T I now need to stop there and see if they have ang good left for my beast. Whoo hoo, Ikea, Laker Hockey  and Oilily what more could a girl want?

I juts saw this oldie but goodie. Ruby, the daughter of the famous OLG. So Angie you must come by and get our Ruby sweater, she needs it.

We are back. It was a great trip. AMAZING. I had prepared myself for a flithy factory, oh, my, guess again.

Look how cute they are.  Music was blaring and all was in great spirit. It was such a lively place, nothing like I had anticpiated. BUT the flight sucked.   We'll see.  CArla, the production gal was superb and her team so friendly and SMART.

On another note, I had to miss the Laker Hockey game tonite. I nearly cried. Seriously, it is the one time a week that I do not dwell on MJC.  I  look forward to it and a great time is had by all. But with the Peru trip and missing work I had to catch up. David, Joe and I worked at the workshop till just about 10 o'clock tonite. It was fun, David trimming pants, I ironed and Joe, well, he managed all the computer games!!

I am off to the hockey game for tomorrow. I am so excited. And we get to go to Ikea. We only have one desk at the office and that is not cutting it for the 4 of us to share. So I'll see if I can provide better working conditions for my gals. 

Now I am off to catch up on the emails. Oh, and the beast, why wasn't he at the office? He's been at DeeDee's, my sister, all week. We'll meet him at the game tomorrow. Wish me luck.

and more pics of carla and her team and a few what nots.

(edited for typos, by David) Why does this happen? I spend 15 minutes typing and it sounds great and then the darn thing disappears.  Now you get the quick version.

1. We are leaving for Peru in an hour, and I am not even excited. So if you call the office, you may have to leave a message depending on who is working.  Who knows, you may get to talk to David!

2. The workshop is becoming an episode of Gilligan's Island, you can never leave. And it is quite entertaining at the moment!

3. Maybe more like "Lost", it sucks you in.

4. I realized Laker Hockey is the only few hours I do not stress over MJC.  I LOVE IT. Though they stressed me out this weekend, but guess what, we all suck sometimes. NO they don't suck, they just ...not sure.

5. Okay, bye. I honestly have no clue what time the plane leaves.

6. Oh, man poor Joe and the beast, David always struggles with what to put on them. Please if you see them, I did not dress them!