The title quote popped up on my iGoogle today, it’s by Bill Watterson who wrote the Calvin and Hobbes cartoons. I thought it pretty fitting!
You may have noticed that I’ve been away from the blog. I certainly have not been taking a break, however. January brings the time of year that all self-employed people hate…..end of year paperwork and taxes.
Inventory comes first. I had to drag all of my yarn and fiber, dyed and undyed, out of my studio and put it back bit by bit….counting each and every one, and weighing out the fiber. The good news is that I had a great chance to clean and reorganize in there so I’m ready for another year of work.
I’ve also been ordering new supplies, since I let stock get low so inventory would be easier to do. The problem? Two of my sources are having mill issues, so I’m doing some interesting juggling to make this all work. Normally it wouldn’t be a big deal to wait a few weeks since usually have plenty of other things that need color, but this time I’m making all new stock for Sheep in the City at the end of February. It will be fine, but I may not have much Tiger Twist there….or I’ll pull some crazy hours in the days before to get them dyed if they arrive.
Speaking of Sheep in the City, I’ve also been spending January buying shelving and figuring out how my booth will look. I have it set up in the basement (well, as much as I have room for), and now I just need to fill it all up. I’ll get some pictures going once it isn’t so bare.
Today, I’m doing some dye experiments, and ordering mundane stuff like shopping and shipping bags. This afternoon I will continue to slog through all the orders from last year to be sure I’ve done my accounting correctly. The state of Iowa wants their sales tax.
Hope your Friday and weekend are great ones!
From what I’ve seen, the state of Iowa *needs* your sales tax, too. Most of the time, I’m extremely proud to be an Iowan, but with the state budget woes, Yikes!
I hope you share your dyeing experiments. I always love seeing how you play with color.
Don’t I know it. Our local school district is cutting $2 million at the moment, and will need to cut $2 million more next year (they have to borrow that amount this year to finish the year…..the state making cuts for a current year is sooooo not cool). We are already down to bare bones, so it is getting brutal. No art for K-6 now. At all. Anyway, here’s to hoping things will turn around soon!
Thanks…I enjoy seeing how things turn out. Not always what I expect, which is half the fun!