>Pushing On

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So many things to get done yesterday, and all I could do was fiddle with the blog. Today was a much more productive day, even with my 4-hour mid-afternoon nap. I sent some body butter (along with some other treats) to a friend in California. They are intended to help her get an acting gig…

Sounds weird right? I haven’t asked her permission to post about it, and I’d like to do so before telling all three of my blog readers. Soon!

More orders went out today. I bought cat food and treats. Applications for craft shows went out too. I think I earned my treat (Subway, argh) and epic nap.

I always feel that life gets better as the Winter fades and Spring blooms. Anyone else on board with that? Sure its still awfully cold out, but something about the change of season, even just in name, brightens everyone’s outlook. And sometimes that’s all it takes to improve your world. Hmmmm….

>Changes

>No music today – far too busy. Perhaps you’ve noticed my work? I’ve been deeply engrossed in trying to fix up this website. This here is the newest incarnation of http://www.evermoreorganics.com. Now you can shop directly from the blog, since the shop and blog are now all in one spot. For everyone that has me on their blog-roll, please reset your “Evermore Organics” link to http://www.evermoreorganics.com.

There still are lots of tweaks that need to be handled, but all in good time.

Aside from being stuck in HTML Hell, life is good. I’m helping a friend audition for a job at QVC (though I still maintain that she’s too cute for QVC), sending off orders, moving ahead on wedding plans, and trying to keep my thoughts straight. So far I’m having mild success with that last one, though sanity really still is a struggle.

Please excuse my absence last week. Things just got to be too much.

I’m off to NJ later this week to babysit for our friends’ cats. I have a full schedule waiting for me while I’m there, and I’ll do my best to keep up posting. Anyone up for a trip to NYC?

>Delightful Scents

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Another Friday is upon us.  What are your plans for the weekend?  I’ll be packing up some of my lovely Linen Mists for an order I got yesterday.   I will probably make extras for myself while I’m at it, because my two favorite scents were ordered:  Pure Thoughts and Sweet Dreams. 

I should be a good little business owner and tell you what goes into their make-up, but honestly I have so many recipes floating around my head that I’d have to go look it up.  All I remember right now is that I used to alternate between these two when whipping up batches for myself and I should treat myself one.  Think lavender, chamomile, bergamot, and peppermint for good measure. 

Have a great weekend, friends!

>What does it mean?!

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Happy St Patrick’s Day everyone.  May the luck of the Irish blah blah blah drink beer 🙂

>Wedding Wednesday! Epic wedding pictures!

>I’m buying and making all sorts of lovely things for the wedding, and I’m having a blast.  Below is a massive pic dump of the things I have in my possession so far.  There will be more, many more, of these posts to come.  For all the planning and coordinating and scheduling and blah blah blah, it really is turning out to be fun.  This, THIS part is what makes it all worth it.

Click any picture to embiggen.

My lovely cake topper.  I think I’ll paint the girl’s hair blonde.

 

 I made this flower girl’s basket out of a grapevine ball.  The purple ribbon is, in reality, more purple than it shows here.

 I printed out some retro labels of all sorts and put them on glass bottles.  These will be peppered amongst the flowers and candles that will be used as centerpieces.

 

 Fabulous drawers from Urbanfarmgirlandco.etsy.com.  These will hold the guest cards at the reception.

The guest cards.  Old-school-looking library due date card pockets, but instead of the tags, I’ll use aged library cards from fadedplains.etsy.com with name and table number printed on them. 

 Ring pillow, of which I was not able to get a great picture.  The linchpin there is one of the corsage pins that I bought because they match my dress. 

Table number cards (from amazon) and stand (from zesco.com).  I can’t get enough of the cute birds!

Phew!  I also have a few tablecloths coming from eBay, and some cute green and ivory sachets to fill with lavender for tossing.  I can’t wait to work on the “toss table”;  its going to be fabulous!  And yes, it matters.  When else will I have an excuse to buy/make such adorable things?

>Thank you!

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Thanks to my past customers for reviewing me on weddingwire.com, because I’m now weddingwire approved!  (If your small business is on there too, let me know and we can connect.)  I have so much to do in putting together purchase packages, but that’s the fun part.  Just add to that to my list of goals for this week! 

…That’s so like me though.  Its enough to do favors for my own wedding, but now I’m trying to make them for everyone else’s wedding too!  Back away from the computer, have a pina colada, take a breath.

>BONUS Music Monday – The Wild Heart

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I didn’t want to spoil the surprise, but since Sabrina already got it, its safe to post.  This was her birthday present, carefully crafted to pay homage to the wonderful Stevie Nicks.  Sabrina is a big fan of one of Stevie’s back-up singers, so I was sure to include a picture with her in it.  I had so much fun making this, partly because I knew it would be just perfect for Sabrina, and partly because there was glitter involved (both paint and spray versions!).  And the best part is, she wrote a very kind blog post about it.  Thank you my dear, and happy birthday!

>Music for a Manic Monday – Moving On

>HEY ITS MONDAY AGAIN!  AREN’T YOU EXCITED?

Me either.

I’ve had some ups and downs lately (who am I kidding?  Mostly downs!) but we’re moving on.  I still have school applications out waiting to be sent back as rejections.  Apparently I’m just “too old”.  Sounds illegal, right?  Indeed.  But alas, we have to keep going.  I’ve learned to not let other people’s ridiculousness stop me.  This week I am submitting several (seven!) applications for summer programs.  Two are already signed, sealed and delivered.  Depending on which ones I attend, I could be traveling to some very exotic spots, like Germany!  Or… Bethesda.  Whomp, whomp!

Goals for this week:

• Send out the remaining five applications
• Research farmer’s markets for this summer
• Find some new wholesale accounts!
• Research new voice teachers (But I like my old one!  She needs to move to Baltimore.)
• Go to the local cake shop and talk to someone about cakes.  Doesn’t that sound wonderful?
• Put some destache stuff on ebay
• Take pictures of all the pretty wedding stuff I have so far, especially my handmade things

So my lovelies, what are you up to this week?  Only a few days left until Spring!  How cool is that?

>What I’ve been doing instead

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(Click to Embiggen)

The first few months of the year are always slow for Evermore.  Most of the time, its perfectly fine.  I like to take that time to re-think my business goals and plan for the upcoming year.  At times though, there is just idleness, which aggravates my depression like no other.  I am a person who needs to keep moving, needs to have goals that I relentlessly pursue, or I stagnate and fester.

Evermore is getting better everyday.  I have a wedding to plan.  And this year I’ve upped my personal book challenge to 26 books.  Plenty to keep me busy, right?  So far I’ve read the above 9, which is a significant percentage (34%) of the goal.  In the more active months for the business I tend not to read as much, but perhaps I can surpass my own goal?

I’d like to talk about my favorites.  Anya Seton’s Katherine was written in the 1950’s but honestly you’d never know it.  It reads like the more modern historical fiction works dealing with the rulers of medieval England.  About halfway through the book I happened to read the back of the book and learned that it is based on a true story.  I won’t give away any details, but the concept of true love among Plantagenet rulers is a novelty, to say the least.  I loved the way this book was written, I loved the story, and I would recommend it to anyone interested in historical fiction.

I read this right after finishing Eleanor of Aquitaine by Alison Weir.  In contrast, Weir’s book read more like a textbook.  I loved this approach, especially since not a whole lot is known about Eleanor.  It would be entirely too farcical for my taste to weave a storybook around her; I’d rather know the facts that do exist and not get them mixed up with fantasies that are there for the sake of telling a tale.  I wish this book had been twice as long, though I imagine I will get my fill when I tackle The Wars of the Roses later in the year.

I’d been dying to read Barbara Ehrinreich’s offering, Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America, for quite some time and it did not disappoint.  I’m something of a cynic, but I try to put a positive spin on things.  I believe this made me the perfect audience for this book.  Needless to say, I couldn’t get enough.  I don’t think it took me even a full 24 hours to read this.  Its odd to think that having a positive attitude could do such damage, but Barbara guides you through how that positive attitude leads to white-washing and denial of problems, gullibility, poor money-managing skills, and a whole slew of other evils that can bring down a nation.  A must-read for anyone who wants to take a lesson from the current state of affairs.  Also, the author was on the Daily Show, and who can argue with that?

I had a really great time with the other books I read this year, but so far these are my favorites.  What have you been reading?  What are your goals for this year?

Music for a Manic Monday – Old School

I had to take a mental health holiday.  Forgive my absence.  While I was recovering, I uncovered some music belonging to my great-grandmother.  Perhaps a photo would have been better, because the scan just doesn’t convey the old-timeyness of the music.  This song was published in 1906, right around the time that my great-grandmother was a light-opera singer.  The sheet music itself was folded twice and has pen scribbles (perhaps from the late teens, early 1920’s when my grandmother was tiny) so naturally if I wanted to preserve it, I’d have to scan it.  Also, I’m planning on taking this with me to my next voice lesson (whenever that is) because I’ll need new material, and why not this?  Its in my range, beautiful, and actually means something to me.

Hope everyone out there in blog-land is doing well.  I’ve been keeping up with all your wonderful blogs, and I can tell many of you have already contracted Spring fever.  I’m “suffering” right along with you.  Only a few more days until Winter is officially over!