When Life Hands You Lemons...

...make lemonade! Or, in this case...barbecue sauce?!?

I hate it when I do stupid things. Unable to find my favorite barbecue sauce locally, I resorted to ordering it from a food seller on Amazon on Monday, July 4th. When I logged in, I found specifically what I wanted and was thrilled to find it so easily. Six bottles of my favorite sauce for $23.99. Not bad, but then came the $9.99 shipping and handling fee. :/ Sigh. Ok, I can live with that. A little pricey but what the heck. It IS my favorite sauce and it's still cheaper than driving halfway across the state in search of the elusive red stuff.

But WAIT! There on the same page was another food seller offering 12 bottles for only $3.00 more each for the retail price of the sauce and shipping and handling. So, for $6.00 more, I can double my order. What's to think about? Without further ado, I pressed the "purchase with 1-click" button and the sauce was mine!

On Tuesday, I checked in on my order to see if it had shipped yet. It hadn't. But then, I saw it. I had ordered a different flavor than the one I intended to. Same company. Same brand. Different flavor. Ugh. Ok, so I like this one, too, but it's my 2nd favorite, and the local store shelves are brimming over with it. What to do? Aha...there it is. The "email vendor" button (or whatever it is actually called, but you get the idea). When I clicked on the button, it gave me a list of suggested subject lines. Among them was "cancel this order." Yippee! I could see my way out of this. I hurriedly scribbled (typed) a short email outlining my dilemma and sent it off. Within minutes, I had a canned reply stating that they were currently reviewing my email. Uhm, hmmm...sure they were...

On Wednesday morning, I checked both my email and the Web site to see if there was a response. There wasn't. What I found instead was a notice that my order had shipped and will arrive within 3-5 days by FedEx. (You saw this coming, right?) So did I, but the eternal optimist in me kept hoping I was wrong.

So, what to do now? If I return it, I will have lost nearly $20.00 in postage. Better to keep the sauce, methinks, and either learn to love it or, better yet, add my own touches to it so it better suits our tastes.

In retrospect, 12 bottles of ANYTHING seems like a lot. It will probably take us until the day after forever to eat all of it, so I'm thinking I may have to find a creative way to get rid of some of it. Maybe I could include some in gift baskets for Christmas along with some of my crocheted dishcloths, hot pads and other yummy foodie things?

I'm really glad my kids don't read my blog, or they would see the handwriting on the wall and "know" what they are getting for Christmas. Shhhh...don't tell them. :-)

The Hurrieder I Go...

When I moved into my first apartment, I purchased a small sign for my wall that said simply, "The hurrieder I go, the behinder I get..." I thought this nonsensical little sentiment was funny at the time, and seeing those words on the wall in my kitchen always made me smile. But, there is an element of truth in it that has stayed with me all these years.

The little sign is long gone now, but those words spring to mind whenever I'm feeling overwhelmed with work, short deadlines, etc. And, it  pretty much sums up my spring and summer so far. While our move is months behind us, there are still things to unpack and sort out in the basement and remaining storage units. I know we’ll get it all done and sorted out eventually, but it makes me tired just thinking about it. I think we're getting closer and closer to a major donation to GoodWill so we can be done with it. Sounds good to me!

NaNoWriMo 2009

Something you may not know about me: I’ve always wanted to write children’s books. But, my writing career took me in other directions, and it is only now that I have time to give it the attention I would like to.

Two weeks ago I embarked on the adventure of a lifetime. I’m taking part in NaNoWriMo 2009, and I intend to win. In case you don’t already know, NaNoWriMo is an abbreviation for National Novel Writing Month. Winning it means completing the first draft of a fifty thousand word novel in only 30 days, which breaks down to about 1667 words a day. Madness, you say? Absolutely! I can’t argue with you there. But, the short deadline is also part of the fun of it, that is, of course, if you don’t mind a month’s worth of little sleep and lots of frozen dinners.

NaNoWriMo is held every November 1-30. Brainchild of author Chris Baty, it started out with him and a few of his close friends. From there, it has skyrocketed in just a few years into a worldwide event that boasts nearly 170,000 participants around the world in 2009.

So, what happens if I don’t complete the novel in the specified amount of time? Well, nothing, really, except that now that I’ve put it “out there” on public notice, I’d have to wipe a lot of egg off my face while trying to explain to friends and family members why I didn’t finish. I think I’d rather be attacked by flesh-eating bacteria. So, barring any cataclysmic events I can’t control, in spite of the short deadline, I intend to finish.

Now, getting said novel published is another matter altogether. It’s a very tough market to breach, and I hold no illusions about it. But at the end of my life, whether it has been published or not, I can at least say that I wrote a novel. I won’t have to say that I didn’t try.

One good thing has come of this. I’ve learned the value of a power nap at my desk. Who needs the lying-down-in-a-real-bed type of sleep, anyway? I can do that after the revisions and editing, say next October sometime.

For more information about NaNoWriMo, check out the Web site at http://www.nanowrimo.org/.

And now, back to work…

Love, children’s novels and NaNoWriMo,

Brenda

Autumn is in the Air!

I really love this time of year. The stifling summer heat and humidity are finally gone, replaced by much cooler and drier fall temperatures. It’s a lot more pleasant to be outdoors now, so I’ve been taking advantage of it whenever I can between work and errands and some rain. My husband and I have been working hard on getting our yard ready for winter, raking leaves, cutting back plants that need cutting back and just generally making things look nice.

Yesterday, I decided the outdoor landscape looked fall-ish enough to dress my front porch for the season. Usually, I do this about the third week in September, but it has been a warm fall and the leaves are just now turning color. Maybe it’s silly, but I don’t like to put my fall decorations out while it still feels like summer because I don’t like rushing the seasons. It reminds me of the retail stores putting the Christmas decorations out at the same time as the Halloween decorations, but that’s a rant for another day.

I snapped these photos while I was arranging the front porch. I have a few more things I’d like to add (including a life-size scarecrow that will sit on the love seat in the photo), so it remains a work in progress for the moment since it’s windy here today. I’ve already had to rescue a few things to keep them from blowing across the yard into the street, but I’ll put out them out again when the wind settles down.

A couple of blog entries ago, I mentioned that I had ordered the yarn to swatch a fall afghan. The yarn has arrived, and I’m busy stitching it up now. What fun!

Love and fall colors,
Brenda

In With The New...

With the holiday season over for yet another year, it’s time for me to get back to work! As I mentioned previously, I’ve taken quite a bit of time off this fall and early winter, but that doesn’t mean I’ve been idle. I’ve lots of plans for new designs and directions to take my work in 2009. But, more about that at a later date!

I’ve learned that making New Years’ resolutions doesn’t work for me. Instead, I set goals, which I allow to change as time and life dictates. It puts a little less pressure on me, yet gives me something to work towards. Last year, I met two of the three goals I set. Considering that I had a change of heart and circumstances dictated that it wasn’t time for the third one to be fulfilled yet, I’m fine with that.

For 2009, my goals are:
1. Spend more time relaxing with family.
2. Put my Web site to better use.
3. Produce even more and better designs.

We’ll check back in another year to see how well I did.
Happy New Year 2009!

Out With The Old...

It never fails to amaze me how quickly time passes. Without actually meaning to, I’ve taken the past couple of months off to enjoy time with my mother, who is spending the winter with me and my husband in Indiana, and getting ready for Christmas. My daughters, Tammy and Liz, and their families joined us this past week for a wonderful Christmas celebration. Although they have all returned home now, the memories we made together will remain for a long time to come.

With 2008 quickly coming to a close, I have high hopes for a bright and beautiful 2009!

Our Beloved Dog, Raven (1998-2008)

This month has been a busy one, full of looming deadlines and caring for our beloved dog, Raven, who has been ill for the past two weeks. Here is a photo of her laying beside me in my office a few years ago.

I’m halfway through the deadlines, for which I’m grateful. But I’m also happy to have work to keep me busy just now, to help keep my mind off Raven who, sadly, crossed the Rainbow Bridge today.

We will miss her dreadfully. She was with us for ten years which doesn’t seem nearly long enough. (Is it ever?) She brought us untold joy and lavish amounts of love. We’re thankful to have had her in our lives all these years.

Flowers From My Yard

I couldn't resist showing you the photos I took yesterday of some of the flowers in my yard.

I have three pink climbing rose bushes in my back yard that are a huge mass of color when in bloom which is generally the first week in June. They cover the back wall of a small building on the north side of my yard which was once used as a summer kitchen. The building is very small, but big enough to use for my craft studio. Because of the profusion of roses that grace the exterior of the building, I've dubbed it "Rose Cottage."

The yellow flower is from the tulip tree, also known as a yellow poplar, that grows just outside my back door. Until I moved to Indiana almost 6 years ago, I'd never seen this type of tulip tree. I'm originally from northwestern Illinois, and they do not grow there. We had a storm last night so my patio now has a carpet of yellow and orange petals, but the tree is still full of blooms.