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Day Thirty: LAST DAY! LAST DAY!
You know what today is? Of course you do. IT’S THE LAST DAY OF NABLOPOMO!!! You know what I’ll be doing tomorrow? Of course you do!!! I’LL NOT BE POSTING! Woooo Hoooo. So give yourself a break and don’t click over here tomorrow. Don’t even worry about missing anything because I will be baby-sitting and therefore out of wifi existence anyway. Phew. It’s been a long month.
It really is true that if you can do something for more than 21 days it becomes a habit. Every night now, as I put Baby Bug down and am so tempted to let myself slide into slumber beside her, I’ll have that nagging feeling telling me:
“NO! You can’t sleep! You have to blog!” But then I’ll smile and remember that it’s December now and nobody cares. Like Chatty Housewife commented, “NO MO PO MO!”Today was a good day.
First of all it rained which was kind of a novelty. Baby Bug actually got to use her rain boots for their intended purpose. Too bad they are too big and she actually walked right out of them a few times and got her socks sopping wet. It was fun punching around in a few puddles. Then I got bored and forced her to play in the living room while I commenced Operation Gift Tag and sent out a zillion orders!
Not really a zillion but enough to make me wonder what I got myself into. I love having a little shop. I just never remember how much work it is making things. I had to make sure I finished cleaning up the big mess before Toby woke up or I think he would disown me. It is his pet peeve when I make giant messes doing my “arts and crafts”. But what can I say. I’ve always been this way. At least I’m good at cleaning up.
Guess what else happened today? The alphabet cards were printed and THEN I took them to a bindery shop and they chopped all the corners round for me for FREEEEEEE! I know! I can barely believe my luck myself. It certainly didn’t seem real when it was happening.
I had to drive way into Santa Ana to find this place—which to an Orange County Housewife is the equivalent to driving into the deepest jungles of the Congo. Everything was different. The streets weren’t smooth and wide. I thought for sure I was going to get carjacked. But finally my trek paid off and I pulled up outside a giant warehouse deep in an industrial park.
Before I could even get Baby Bug out of her car seat, a nice man ran out of the warehouse and offered to help me carry in my box of letter cards. It wasn’t even a very big box but it was heavy and I did have a wiggly kid on my hip. I was very thankful for the help. I walked up to an outdoor counter and stood under one of those outdoor heaters. So nice. I love those heaters. It’s like they knew I was coming and made it cozy for me and Bug.
Like a dork, I stumbled around for my words. I’d never been to a bindery before and I had no idea what to expect. Did I need an account? A resale license? Should I have brought my business checkbook? I finally spit out that I needed my alphabet cards corners rounded. The guy at the counter asked me what size I wanted my corners to be. I shrugged and said, “I don’t know, whatever is standard.” I guess I said something right because he ripped up my order form and hustled me off to a waiting room while he cut my cards for FREE! How cool is that?
The guys in the warehouse also spent a good amount of time paying attention to Baby Bug so maybe we got the job free on account of her good looks, I don’t know. But I’m not going to complain.
So there you have it. The official update on the cards is this: They are printed and they have rounded corners! Woooo Hooo! I expect to get a prototype of the muslin bags tomorrow. I will take pictures of the cards and bag and post them on Etsy on Monday! From there my sister-in-law will sew the bags and ship them to me and I will be filling orders as quickly as I can.
We might just make the Christmas deadline after all!
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Day Twenty-nine: Tales from the Road Day
I spent a lot of time on the road today. I’ve been driving around desperately seeking the world’s most perfect envelope to send out the gift tags. I want something tough, yet small and cheap. So far, nothing exists that doesn’t push my shipping costs up over a dollar. And we can’t have that now since I’ve already set the price and a bunch of you have taken advantage of my generous low prices. (I try.)
Ideally, I’d have something made out of tyvek that is the size of an A2 envelope. But now that I’ve researched tyvek, I’m convinced it is evil. Apparently, it’s the plastic that will never ever break down until the end of time. I don’t really want to give you that kind of gift that keeps on giving.
Maybe I could make my own Frankenstein envelopes. That would be really cool but would also require a lot of time and right now I need to get those tags out pronto for all of you celebrating hanukkah! I’m probably just going to end up with a regular paper envelope reinforced with packing tape. Don’t worry though, I’ll decorate it with a pretty label. I stand by my graphic designer honor badge and refuse to send out ugly mail. (Not counting all those years I designed junk mail of course.)
So anyway, a road story. Baby Bug and I have been listening to a Wiggle’s cd lately, thanks to her Auntie CC. Toby hates the catchy tunes that get stuck in your head for months but Baby Bug and I love them. There is one song on cd called “Where is Thumbkin”. I can’t find a Wiggles link right now but here is a you tube link that will give you the idea of the song.
Baby Bug and I were singing away, doing all the motions (yes, while I was driving expertly) and then we came to “Tall One”. You know, the middle finger? So I’m singing away and we stop at a stop light and there I am wiggling my middle fingers at everyone stopped across the intersection. Immediately, I realized that people were watching me and I looked like I was flipping them the bird in a I’m-super-happy-and-on-crack sort of way. I guess that’s better than road rage but I’m sure everyone who saw me thought I was either a mom or completely whacko.
Speaking of Whacko… this struck-over-the-head-with-reality feeling reminds me of the time I was strollering down Pacific Coast Highway describing to my mom on my cell phone how Toby thinks eating puffed up cranberries in baked goods can sometimes seem like popping bug abdomens in your mouth.
I’m so tacky like that. Blabbing away, completely ignorant to all the people around me. Well, right when I got to the part about squishing and squirting, my cell phone connection cut off and there I was standing at a cross walk talking to the air. And THEN I noticed there were other people around me, also waiting for the crosswalk light to change, who were staring at me and hanging onto every word. Ugh. I need a lobotomy.
WHICH REMINDS ME OF ANOTHER THING! I addressed a Christmas card to an old friend (who has seriously been married like five years or something) with her maiden name and THEN I signed it “Toby and Brenda and Brenda”. Sorry Baby Bug. Mommy is officially losing it. Ga-dunka dunk dah. I’ll be here all week.
That is all the stupidity material I have for today but if you enjoyed that, stay tuned. I’m sure there is way more where it came from.
