Taxes at the Accountant!

Well, it took me until after 10pm last night but they are done and outa here!
It is amazing how trying it is to run errands when it is this windy and cold. I'm not done yet either. In a few minutes, I'm off to visit a friend of mine at the Zen Center, then eat supper there and do some chantin' with the Buddhists. Literally the only thing that is getting me out of the house again is the fact that my friend's apartment has something wrong with the heating system and is, consequently, always stuck at around 85 degrees. It may be a drag getting there but once I do, I'll be warm, warm, warm!! I can't wait! I feel like such a reptile this time of year. All I want is some sunshine and warm rock.
Stay warm all and I hope all your trash barrels don't end up in the neighbors yard (or the street!). I think mine are getting ready to make a break.

Spring Fever!

I'm taking a break from the soul sucking job of tax preparation and dyeing some yarn! Tee hee! No matter how many pounds of yarn I dye, it still stays fun! There are times I dye some seriously ugly yarn (I think I may have done some of that today. You'll have to come in and decide for yourself) but even when I finish a skein and go "Oh...dear", the process is still always fun. The crazy part is that even when I think a skein is too ugly for words, someone always falls in love with it! Go figure.

Anyway, different dye days seem to have different themes. Today's theme seems to be green. I've dyed green and yellow,

green and mauve,

green and purple, and

green and, well, green.

Even though the skein on the left looks a little mud colored, in person it is GORGEOUS, all pear and grasshopper greens. I could just keep dyeing everything green but I seem to have run out of yarn. Oh, well. Another dye day shall come! (Hey, Guido, notice how I resisted the urge to say "I shall live to dye another day!" or "Today is a good day to dye!" or, oh, god, someone stop me!)

Rainy Day

This has been my day so far:



I had to go out in this for a meeting this morning and was so wet when I got back that I HAD TO CHANGE MY CLOTHES!



This is picture of my empty shop. It's probably going to stay this way because of the foul weather. This is actually okay with me because I've still got this to finish.


I just finished May! Only seven more months to go!!

Tax Time, Blah...

I am here preparing my taxes to take to my accountant. I can't even believe how long it takes me just to get them ready for her. First, there's the filing of all the receipts then the finding of all the bank statements, deposit slips, etc. After that there's printing out things like my Etsy, Paypal and Earthlink bills. I have to enter my inventory numbers from Jan. 1 and print an inventory valuation summary and then finally (FINALLY) I get to go through all of my checkbook spreadsheets, fill them out and add up all the columns for the whole year. Even with help (thanks, Doria!), it takes me at least 12 hours.
Why, you may ask, don't I keep after this all year? Why don't I just enter everything into Quickbooks and just take my accountant a CD? Believe me, I've tried and, after ten years in business, I'm fairly sure it just isn't going to happen. I've been telling myself that now that I'm not running the Knit Out any more, I'll have time to catch up on this stuff in the summer but I'm not so sure. I've made attempts over the years but so far I've only gotten up to 2004. I have dreams of hiring a bookkeeper and this may be the year that I actually do it. After all, if I want to have a 'big girl' yarn shop, I really should keep up with this stuff, don't you think?

Self-Patterning Yarn in Action

Thanks to Lorena, we now have a picture of the self-patterning yarn knit up!

I really love how it came out. So much that I'm thinking that I'll have to do this again even though it was such a lot of work. At least I'll know what I'm up against this time. And I'll know enough to save a skein for myself!!

In other news, Grandma's memorial service is tomorrow so I've been very busy cleaning and getting organized for that. My cousin Martha (actually my mother's first cousin) will be arriving here in the next hour or so and is spending the weekend. Consequently, there has been big house cleaning going on.

I have actually been knitting as well. I have three socks on needles that I'm actively working on (we shall not speak of the ones that are just sitting around like so many knickknacks), a sweater for myself that is not quite up to the armholes and a sweater that I should be sewing up for a customer. There are times when I will sit down and sew up a sweater without even thinking about it and other times that the thought of sewing up makes crazy. I'm trying to get over the crazy and get this thing sewed up because I'm sure my nice customer would like her blankity-blank sweater to wear before spring. So, I guess I'll go be a good little shop owner and get that done. Have a nice weekend everyone!

It's a Dog's Life

Yes, another Wanda story!

I was away last weekend and it was the first time I'd left Wanda overnight since I'd gotten her. My friend Susan, dog sitter extraordinaire, agreed to take Wanda for the weekend. When I've had to leave dogs before, I usually would have someone come to the house but that was when I had more than one dog and they could keep each other company. I didn't think that would work so well for Wanda so Susan and her boyfriend agreed to take her to stay with them.

Even though Wanda sleeps in the bed with me, it was made clear that she would not be sleeping the bed with them.

Well, then their heat failed in the night and it got very cold. At about 1am, Susan brought Wanda's crate into the bedroom where they had a space heater. Wanda cried until it became obvious to Susan that there was only one place she would be happy. In the bed. Unfortunately, Wanda is a huge bed hog. She pushes up against you and then won't move. She only weighs 48 lbs but some nights it's like trying to move a sleeping gorilla! When she got in bed with them, she pinned down the covers so that Susan's boyfriend didn't have any. After a certain amount of wrestling, they did get everyone settled and went to sleep.

Later in the night, Susan slowly woke up because something was wrong with her pillow. When she got herself waked up enough, she realized that there was nothing wrong with her pillow. She was, in fact, pushed all the way over and had her head on her boyfriend's pillow! Who had Susan's pillow all to herself? Miss Wanda, of course!

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day all! I hope you are having a great day. It is an interesting day and one that I've never taken too seriously (except for a few soul crushing years in high school that we shall not speak of again).
There was only one year where I had a boyfriend on the actual day and I have to say, the guy gave me a true traditional Valentine's Day from the flowers right on down. It was really nice and a wonderful treat.
I just read the Yarn Harlot's post about V-day and I have to say that she hit the nail right on the head. Check it out if you haven't already.
Today, I feel the love of my friends and family and I hope you all feel my love for you! Remember that romance is over-rated but good solid friends that love you no matter what are what make the world go 'round.