Coming back to life

Okay, I’m back. Again. Where have I been?

After a site implosion last month, I’ve been busy rebuilding the old sites and building a new one. or two O.o (I did manage to salvage this site, thankfully.)

Then life interruptions that seemed to keep popping up rendered my stores orphans, so I’ve been trying to get caught up with that, too.

Right now I have about 20 minutes for a breather; thought I’d post something, anything, just to get back into the motion. So humor me while I think out loud here for a bit ;-)

Since my artistic side joyfully (thankfully!) returned to it’s position of dominance, it’s been really hard to concentrate on anything else. But… that hasn’t been helping any with getting rid of all the piles and boxes of vintage and newer collectibles and books and stuff.

We won’t even talk about the boxes and bags of books that well-meaning friends have sent my way… Oh, not complaining! Love books! Would love them even more if my obsessive side didn’t insist on reading them all before offering them up to customers :/

Anyway, it’s really beyond time to clean up this mess and get it outta my way. So have been trying to work my way through the piles and widen the paths that wind through the house. It’s a slow process: Research, clean, photo/scan, measure, weigh, calculate shipping, write description, list. Not too bad once a rhythm is established, but still time-consuming. Also a bit disturbing when I yearn to be at the workbench or sewing machine instead…

So Incredible Clutter inventory has been getting the majority of attention – some stuff listed, about 100 books ready to go, a kitchen table full of great junque waiting for photos.

Also been getting quilting magazines and books and some craft kits ready to go, with some quilting stuff listed now at CraftCottage.

Etsy shops have unfortunately been put into neglect mode until I get caught up a bit.

A new site almost ready to launch: Lizurdz-N-Lace.com & LizurdzNLace.com (Ya, I know that’s two, but they’re going to be all hooked up together.)

Lizurdz-N-Lace is my photography line. With about a bazillion photos (some that are actually good… heh), I figured it was time to do something with ‘em.

So Lizurdz-N-Lace is the main site with galleries and stuff, perhaps a shopping section though I do have an Etsy shop for that, too. LizurdzNLace is tips & tricks for photos and Photoshop, and images I’m releasing to the public domain (yeah! lots of em!). It’s going to be tons o’ fun!

dancingspirit.us has been put on the back burner for a bit. It’s more of a personal site, and must get business going again before rebuilding this site.

incredibleclutter.com has never been a real site, but is in the works. If I could quit arguing with myself about how I want it to look, it’d be up and running last year…

Working on dancethemoon.us and dancethemoon eCrater store for spiritual and metaphysical books, tools and accessories. The store is ready to launch, hopefully that happens this weekend. Site will take a bit longer.

Then our local water co-op, of which I’m an active member, has approved a token pay for running the site I had up for them. It was one of the imploded, have been getting that rebuilt and ready to launch.

*WHEW* No rest for the wicked!

Oh my, it’s been a long time…

…but a very busy long time.

So what have I been doing???

Getting back into photography…
Wild Sunflower

But mostly, working.
I’ve been making lots of things for my Etsy shops – DanceTheMoon and JewelryObsessed. Haven’t listed any of them yet.

I have mixed feelings about Etsy, and am debating on whether to keep those shops or where to move them. Will probably stock them up for the holidays and then make some changes in the spring.

I’ve also been sorting through my tons of inventory for my eCrater stores – IncredibleClutter and CraftCottage. I’ll be getting those things cleaned up, photo’d, and listed, starting this week.

AND – I’ve been working on themes and templates and such for the web sites. Just installed a new theme on my main site: DanceTheMoon.com, which is a WordPress blog right now, with more to come. Also got a home page up on my web store site: DanceTheMoon.us. It’s still a work in progress, but really needed to get something up there. The ZenCart is on the site, but no link to it yet, as it needs lots o’ help…

WordPress themes are all over the place, but ZenCart templates are few and far between – unless you want to pay a bunch for one, which I don’t. So I’ve been digging through code and working on customization. Looks like I’ll end up having to do my own, to tie all the sites and pages together. (Yes, there’s more sites, but they’re on the proverbial back burner for now…)

Of course, living out in the middle of nowhere, there’s a lot of preparation for season changes. I’ve been busy with that, too.

Winter, it’s coming… are you ready?
Snow on the Pinion trees

Bluebirds and Cats and Work, Oh My!

What do you do, when the world won’t let you work?

When there’s bluebirds in the bird bath…
bluebird in the bird bath

When the cats are landing on your head…
bruce the cat in my face

I’m so far behind this week, I’ll never catch up.

But y’know, when work takes over to the point where you miss out on Life, then Life becomes work and the Good Stuff is lost. Forever.

The web sites and shops and stores will still be there, after the bluebirds fly away and the cats curl up to sleep. In the meantime, I’m gonna go enjoy Life.