Happy Easter ~ Happy Spring

Twitter

Since yesterday, when I tried to get onto my Twitter page, I saw that they had switched to their new format which I had already been using for months. However, there's a problem...no surprise with Twitter! They won't let me sign in. I have used the correct username and password and I cannot get onto my profile page for use. I am able to see it but I can't perform any actions. Can't post, or send DM's...nothing because the action links don't show until I sign in which they won't let me do. I just get another set of boxes to fill out my username and password and then fill out the word jumbles! They are accepting nothing! What a joke. This is the third Twitter page I am locked out of. One was for my husband and one was hacked into and stolen from me and I was suspended. Now I simply cannot sign in, so I'm posting this into the ethers for anyone who may come across my post here.

If anyone wants to contact me, my email address is: 22cats-crossing@cox.net

If Twitter should fix itself, then I will begin to post again.

Remembering Jack Goodman

"Jack & Myself"

Good Times in Idaho - 5 miles South & 1/4 West

( walking around the old homestead )

Once in a while I get the urge to Google someone from my past, as I Google myself sometimes to see what comes up. So I Googled an old friend from the time we lived in Idaho, Jack Goodman. After so many years have passed, we have been out of touch for most of them. Just wondering how he and his family were I found a link that mentioned him as a poet and his book of poetry published in 2009, "Wind Songs from Turtle's Back." I was not that surprised as Jack was always a deep person who was always quiet and in deep thought, an inward person, so it didn't surprise me at all that he was writing. I read that he was also now a cattleman and had moved from our old farm house 5 miles south of Jerome...they rented it from us so we could buy a house in town. We became close friends after that.

I later went to amazon.com to search for his book and was thrilled that they had 2 left! I ordered it right away and it arrived in the mail yesterday. :) I didn't read cover to cover, but read the first few pages and back cover, then flipped through it stopping and reading poems that caught my eye or soul, as his poems were about his experiences and life with wild and domestic animals of the great northwest. Since I knew Jack and I lived in Idaho for 5 years, each word I read was very special as I visualized him writing and felt close to him once again as a friend, being there as he watched his failing dog, felt the hot steam from his cup of green tea, felt the wind blowing snow in his face as he fed his cattle, and in the canoe down the Snake River witnessing the birds flying over.

His poems touched my soul, and old memories came flooding back to that old farmhouse we both lived in and picturing his new farmhouse as they have moved away where he raises his cattle. Thinking of Jack sitting on his porch looking at the canyon walls makes me very lonesome for Idaho again. It owns a piece of my heart. The 5 years I lived in Jerome were probably the best years of my life. I can't be there except in my mind, and I can be there in my dreams and thoughts, and love the land and friends that meant so much to me.

"Wind Songs from Turtle's Back" has now become one of my sacred books, and Jack, you will remain a good friend in my heart forever.

Happy Spring!

Sporting my new Spring bonnet

Field of pink tulips

White Peacock

No one can disbelieve in the divine beauty of nature

when their eyes fall upon this angelic creature!

The weaver could never create a design so perfect.

FAWN with quote

"A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer,

it sings because it has a song."

~Maya Angelou

Time To Close...or not

I woke up this morning thinking about how I would feel if I closed Three Lights Sanctuary and just stayed home. I felt more at ease. Like a weight was lifting. I have been going back and forth about whether to stay or close for a long time. There is absolutely no reason to sit there waiting for people to come in. They don't.

Now that I've rented a 4-shelf case in Putnam, CT in Jeremiaha's Antique Shoppe and have sold only one item in March, my first month, and knowing he is busy on the weekends, I am now doubtful that retail of any kind anywhere in this local area is successful. Driving around from town to town and looking at the main streets and retail shops like mine, not super stores, I don't see any activity to speak of anywhere. The only place close by that is showing signs of success are the second hand stores on our main street in town. I believe now that the only thing people can afford or will pay for are things marked at very low prices. And so these junk sellers clean out homes and attics and pay a tiny amount of cash so they can resell these used items.

I'm not nor was I ever in the junk business. I have my own junk and mother's leftovers from her antique shopping days. These things that will fit on shelves I'll save for Jeremiaha's. Next month I'll try antiques and old stuff and bring my Spring and Easter things home. My case is in the last row of cases in the shoppe. I wonder if everybody goes down that row...some do, but is that part of the problem? Because I have been successful selling in antique stores before, but that ship has sailed, where I sold before...no more info about that. Back to Jeremiaha's, he says all but one person makes their rent each month, and now it's 2 adding myself! I don't know if I believe it, though, because there has to be a whole lot of merchandise going out his door for 50 dealers to make $50 a month, and to make it worth while, you have to make at least twice that much every month or your merchandise goes out the door for nothing. You can not break even. And for me, losing money every month by keeping Three Lights Sanctuary, and now my case in Putnam, I think it's time to make some reasonable decisions.

I ask and keep asking myself the appropriate questions hoping I'll see the light and either close or think of another way to get people in to stay open, but just thinking about sitting in the middle of "contractor ally" depresses me! I am surrounded by offices as that's who my landlord has rented to since I have been there, and he has 2 more rental units yet to rent. The restaurant in the front brings no one around because he doesn't open for lunch. So I think it's time to stay home. Bring everything home and be out by the end of May as I already paid for April, and the landlord has my last month's payment already.

I was thinking of having a "party" but it's just more money on advertising and refreshments and in my past experiences, people don't show up for such things. I once had an Open House when I was a pet photographer and had the works! Prizes, clown with balloons, food, and ads. I was donating a portion of the proceeds to an animal shelter and had one of their volunteers helping me with things. What a joke that was!! No one showed up, not even any of the people who worked at the animal shelter! That was a huge slap in the face!! So, do I want more people ignoring my efforts, low prices, and refreshments taking the chance that they'll show up this time? Or should I save my blood pressure and just forget about breaking my back and wallet trying to get the public into my studio/shop. I think it's time to leave and give up being in the retail business, which for me is only a hobby anyway. And if I'm going to just lose money at the antique shoppe, too, I may as well keep everything or donate some things to charity, like I did before Christmas, donating racks of old and some new merchandise to a local church. I never heard from that person about how their bazaar went, but I got rid of a lot of stuff I'd been carrying around from location to location.

Sigh...sometimes you have to keep talking like this to come to the right decision. The only other option which I MAY try, is to keep my unit at Pinewood Park and do something behind closed doors so I'm not obligated to let people in. With no activity near me, I don't like letting men into my shop. And being a studio with my paintings, they could rightfully stay as long as they wanted looking at paintings and everything else, and there would be nothing I could do about it but be uncomfortable or lie and say I had to close. I have looked at many scenarios and so I think I either give up the space, or keep it for myself only. Now what would I do there? I guess, paint! But only until winter. The heat (electric) is too expensive and the driving is difficult. Seems that painting at home during the cold weather and painting there in the warm weather is what would work as it's too hot in my loft at home to paint.

So speaking of closing, that's what I am about to do at this time.

Good day!

Saturday April 2,2011

Yesterday I came to a conclusion to my indecision about whether to close my art studio or not. This will solve my concerns.

I am going to keep my space at Pinewood Park, bring all gift merchandise home except for what I create: my paintings, Stones of Galilee, poetry, and greeting cards. I will bring home all small cabinets I'm now using for excess gift items. I can always put this merchandise out in my case at Jeremiaha's. I will close to the public weekdays and use my studio to paint, write Stones of Galilee, eat lunch...it'll serve as my workshop, and the door will remain locked. On Saturdays I will open to the public by appointment and have a sign in my window with phone number.

This should solve all problems. I'll get my supplies out of the loft at home and fix up my studio to actually paint in it, yet I won't close the door for people who want to see what I offer when my husband can open with me on Saturdays.

I'm comfortable with this. If a retail store should open in the old Stove Shop, maybe I'll feel comfortable opening during the week. For now, this is a good change.