Janet's Smiles

So there are days when I have lots of time and days when I have none.  While I love the freedom that working from home has given me all these years, I think it’s time I try to figure out some sort of routine.  That’s one of my goals for next year.  I’ll be making my vision cards soon so I’m gathering bits and pieces to do that.  Blog post about that coming. 

For now, we have a few days of the Reflections that I have only posted on Instagram and I’ll share them here. 

Day 10 – Gold  – Some little ornaments I have hanging in the studio. 

Day 11 – 10 years ago.  This showed up in my newsfeed for that day.  I don’t remember anything specific that happened on December 11 but I do know that 10 years ago is when my husband hurt his back at work and our lives have not been the same since. 

Day 12 – Made me laugh. – interestingly, I have nothing for this.  Do I not laugh enough? 

Day 13 – 5 things about me.

I always find it hard to think about different things about myself.  For this I said:  1)   I have 3 sisters and all of our names start with the letter “J.”   2)   I’ve been to Alaska and seen the “North Pole.”   3)   I love Koala bears but owls are starting to capture my attention.   4)   I’ve lived in 7 places but they are all within a 5 mile radius of each other.    5)  I love blackberry or boysenberry pie better than chocolate. 

If you are really interested, you can see five more things about me here.

Day 14 – Floral – Have to admit, I just added this one today!  One of the pictures I colored earlier this year. 

Day 15 – Best decision of 2019.  Deciding to try different types of transcription instead of just medical.  It has been interesting and will be of financial help as well.  Never too late to teach an old dog…

Day 16 – Hot  – Struggling with this one as it is definitely NOT hot here but “cold” is coming up later in the month so I guess I’ll use these:

I may come up with something else for hot later in the day but I wanna get this out for now.  How’s your December going? 

from Blogger http://asmile4ufromjanet.blogspot.com/2019/12/december-reflections-2019_16.html
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I did not do as well at the Holiday boutique last Saturday as I had done in the three previous ones but I did manage to sell a few cards and since it was a new to me venue, got some additional exposure.  It was free to participate and they only asked for a 20% donation from the total profit so I’m afraid they didn’t make very much money from me.  It was also raining very hard off and on all day so that may have kept some people away.  At any rate, that was my last show for this year.  Now I can start working to build up the inventory again.  I’m also going to keep my eyes open for opportunities throughout the year next year so it doesn’t all come down to the last few months.

On to the December Reflections posts, Day 6 was “Angel.”  I didn’t take a selfie and didn’t find any other angels to take pictures of so I missed that day.

Day 7 was “Favorite Photo of 2019” and there are so many but here are three.

The girls and I at Backstreet Boys concert

My little gnome garden

Sunset at the beach

Day 8 was “Quiet” and I used this picture of the sky.  The quiet before the storm.  It has been pretty rainy here this week.  

Today’s prompt is “Biggest Change of 2019.”  I think losing 57 pounds since March is a pretty big change.  

September

Also, getting the studio in the backyard and adding Benny to our lives were pretty big too.  

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I am participating again this year in Susannah Conway’s December Reflections.  The prompt for today is “Through the window…”  There have been a lot of window shots posted in the group and at first I was going to try and get a picture when I walked Benny this morning as there are some folks in the neighborhood who already have their Christmas trees up.  I didn’t find any good shots so I’m taking a different approach.  I got this message this morning from WordPress:

So I guess you could say that 1000 times I’ve let you look “through the window” of my mind, right?  Hope you continue to enjoy the view 😂 👀🤔.

If you’d like to play along with Susannah and I (and the other great bunch of people doing this December Reflection), here are the prompts:

There are some fun ones on here don’t you think? 

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Our prompt today for Song Lyric Sunday is chin/ears/eyes/face/mouth/nose.  I don’t know why but I thought of the song “Spanish Eyes” as sung by Al Martino.  It takes me back to when I was about 18 or 19 and went to a few Knights of Columbus dances with my parents.  They figured it would be a good place for me to meet a nice Italian Catholic boy.  Unfortunately, they had me in the wrong generation and all of their friends had children older than me so there weren’t any eligible young bachelors around.  It was a fun night anyway because I got to see my mom and dad dance and I got to dance with my dad a few times. 

Mom and dad at my sister’s wedding.

This song was one of the ones I remember dancing with him to.  He’s been gone for about 38 years now and I really miss him around the holidays especially.  Elvis Presley, Englebert Humperdink and Willie Nelson all have versions of this song too but Al Martino’s is the one that reminds me of dad. 

The lyrics:

All righty then.  December is officially underway.

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I sincerely hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday with their families and friends.  Ours was very small and low key since our eldest daughter spent the day with one of her friends and my mom spent it with my sister and her family.  That meant there was only the four of us and to be honest, we didn’t even sit at the table, we ate in the living room but at least we were together.  I took only one picture:

I also ate a few more carbs than I usually allow myself but I just can’t resist the stuffing and cranberry sauce.  Today it will be pretty much back to my usual eating although I may still have some stuffing, just won’t stuff myself – LOL.

I have a whole list of things I am grateful for, as I’m sure everyone does.  I try to remember them even when it is not Thanksgiving.  In addition to those, I am really grateful that I connected with my famous author friend, James J. Cudney, IV.  He has done a great service by featuring me in his latest blog “Tips and Advice” post.  It is wonderful to have people support you in your endeavors and Jay is gracious about doing that.  If you haven’t read any of his books, you really should.  You can find them all on Amazon and I believe he has some specials going on.

Also, I am grateful for the partnership I have had for the last 15 or so years with JoAnn Wall of JSTS Transcription Services.  We met at a picnic organized by a mutual friend, Gloria Merino, and we started discussing what our jobs were.  We found that we both did transcription work.  Mine is primarily medical transcription and hers is more general transcription.  She asked if I wanted her to send medically related transcription requests to me and of course I said yes.  Since then we have been working together and recently, as my medical work has been decreasing, she started sending other types of work my way.  It has truly made a difference.  There is a learning curve of course but the topics are interesting and I feel like I can handle the challenge.

Each of these connections came totally by accident.  You never know where a chance meeting will take you.  It’s that Universe thing again, you know?

Now it is my turn to share.  I am an affiliate for several different companies and while I may receive some compensation if you use my links, it doesn’t affect the prices for you.

The first is Creative Live.

There are so many interesting online courses in a variety of subjects including photography, writing, money, crafting and personal growth.  I have taken a few of them and have found them to be very helpful and informative.  Through today they are offering 70% off but they have specials all the time and even offer some classes for free.

CreativeLive Black Friday Deals: Take 70% Off Sitewide

The second is Let’s Roam.  This is a scavenger hunt type adventure that you can take.  We did the one in Reno and it was so much fun.

 https://www.letsroam.com/?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=uwdsb5zx 
  
If you are looking for a unique gift for that hard to buy for person, consider these.  They are inexpensive and fun and there are a lot of different places and subjects to choose from. 

Grateful also for all of you who read my little tidbits.  Thanks! 

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Yesterday I participated in another Holiday Boutique event.  It was one I had not done before and one that I was very excited to do because the organizer had reached out to me via my Etsy shop saying that she really liked my work and wanted to know if I wanted to have a table at their boutique.  Of course I said yes.  The entrance fee was a little steeper than the other craft shows I am doing but I figured it was worth it to get the additional exposure.  Table fees is an item I can deduct on my business taxes so it is not really that bad.  This was also a longer day than the other ones, extending from 9 AM to 6 PM.  It was at St. Dunstan’s Catholic Church, so not too far away and I guessed that there would be people coming in after mass.  I was hoping that the priest would give encouragement to the parishioners to support the vendors.  You know how well the Catholics can play the guilt card, right?  (I’m Catholic so I can say that).  I am also fresh off the high of the last event and the contact with the art store owner so my expectations were great.

During the last week I’ve been trying my best to get more product made so I have something fresh to sell and I was able to add these gems:

Gift tags

Gift card holders and more tags

Christmas Cards

I got most everything ready to go the night before and got up early to get to the auditorium by 7:30 AM.  It takes about an hour and a half to get completely unpacked and have my items out for display.  It was a challenge this time because the table was only 6 feet long.  Most of them are 8 feet and those extra 2 feet really help.  I tried my best to get a lot of things on the table without making it look too cluttered.  This is what I looked like all set up and waiting for the hoard of buyers I was sure were coming:

And I waited.  People started filtering in because there was also a pancake breakfast and a visit from Santa.

A few people walked by my table and looked at things but there were no quick sales.  I waited.  After about two hours I got out some craft things I had brought along with me so I wouldn’t just be sitting there doing nothing.  There was a steady stream of people coming through but I still hadn’t made a sale.  The woman behind me was selling natural products like homemade soaps, reusable cups and drinking straws, herbal pain relief, etc. and she was doing a brisk business.  Occasionally someone would stop and tell me how cute my things were or ask if I actually made everything myself but there definitely was no rush to buy anything.  I was really starting to get discouraged.

My husband had called and asked me if I wanted him to bring me some lunch and I originally said no but when the time dragged on with no business, I sent him a message and asked if he would go to McDonald’s and bring me a salad.  He said he would and then called from McDonald’s saying that they were not selling salads because of the e-coli outbreak.  Great.  The day was getting better every minute.  I told him I’d just eat what I had brought (some ham and cheese, no bread and a couple of bites of a Quest bar – no carbs, remember?).

And then, just when I was starting to feel the day was going to be a total waste, I sold two of the sliding gift card holders. 

Once that initial sale was made, even though that was nowhere near enough to make my table costs, I started to relax.  Slowly but surely I sold a card here and there and then I got a custom order for two mini-albums!  That made my day.  I finished the show recouping not only my table fees but almost $50 on top of that.  It may not seem like a lot but for me it is a good day.  Every time I make a sale I pass my business card out which has my Etsy site on it and hopefully people will check there to see if I have anything new. 

I still have two more shows to do this season so perhaps my good luck will continue.  At least I have a week between shows to get some more items created.  I think I know what Santa’s elves feel like – LOL. 

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Some may wonder when I started getting involved in scrapbooking and memory making.  (Some may not really care but whatever).  It seems to me I’ve always had a love for keeping mementos and things.  I wrote a couple of years ago about a newspaper I made for my sister Judy while she was away on vacation to catch her up with the family goings on. 

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Last week I wrote a post about the first of my Holiday Boutiques.  I shared the fact that while I had made some good sales and talked with some interesting people, I felt like I had missed a great opportunity for networking.  I said that I was going to put it out there in the Universe and perhaps the woman who owns the art store would contact me.

         THE UNIVERSE LISTENED!

I got a call today from the woman’s friend (Patricia) who said that they had been talking about me and how best to promote my cards in the shop and she (Elia) remembered getting information about another craft fair in their neighborhood happening on December 7 and thought it would be a good way for me to get more exposure.  Patricia had sent me an email but I hadn’t responded so she thought perhaps it had gone into my spam folder or something and she was calling to check in with me. 

I told her how thankful I was for the call and that I had been mad at myself for not getting their contact information.  The art store that Elia has is called The Creative Canopy.  They have workshops and children’s parties as well as after school programs and while the main focus is on sewing, they do other crafts as well. 

Anyway, after verifying email addresses, Patricia sent me the info about the craft fair and I have sent in an application.  I also have the store info now so I can contact Elia and discuss things like giving her some of my cards on consignment or perhaps teaching a class on card making.  Not that I’ve ever taught a class before but there’s a first time for everything, right?  It’s all very exciting.

Now I need to get cracking making some more cards and things to sell so I don’t run out between the three shows (oh to have such a problem!)  I’ve made some reindeer gift tags and a few more Christmas cards.

The Universe also listened to my wish for more transcription business to come my way and that has happened too!  You may think that it is all a bunch of baloney when I talk about making dream boards and vision cards but each time something like this happens my belief in the power of positive thinking is reaffirmed.  Give it a try yourself!  You don’t really have to wait for the full moon either.  Just put it out there.  Lemme know if it works for you.     

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