Goals and Dreams

I was just thinking about how in my long life (yes long, I'm turning 60 this year) I've had so many dreams and goals, and I forced myself out, and made most of them come true. OK, so I never did the Alpaca farm thing or the bed and breakfast, but I did do a LOT.

I've never been one to sit still for long. I have this 7-10 year rule. Time to move on. Poor kids, I went back to school when they were young so they had to share me with projects and books. Then my new career when they were teens. Maybe that's why one of them had a baby before she graduated. Oh well, none of us are perfect, are we?

In high school, I wanted to go to school in Paris. It took a long time, but I went to Art School in France, Lacoste, not Paris, but I did get to Paris. I wanted to travel the world, and I have seen a lot of it. I spent a ot of time in China. I became the designer I wanted to be, but product design, not clothing. My daughter fills that position with her clothing designs.

I've done a lot in my life. I raised two kids, lived in the city, lived in the country, lived in a few different states, and spent some time in other countries. I've been a store detective, an accountant, sales clerk, a gas station manager, a jeweler, and a product designer, I even worked in a drapery sweat shop.

I live my life without many regrets. That's just the way I roll. I never wanted to look back and say, I wish I had done it differently. OK so maybe I wish I HAD bought that bed and breakfast in Geneva on the Lake and had a go at it. But then a few of my precious grandchildren probably wouldn't have been born. Someone else finally bought that house that had been sitting on the market for so many years. It was a mess, but I loved it. But 40+ windows that needed to be replaced, on top of other repairs, were just too much for me to handle at the time.

So what's left? I still haven't been to the Pyramids of Egypt. And I won't go until the country is safe. Although I had a friend who went with the Smithsonian tour and said they were well protected. I've been to Italy, but not Rome, to see the Sistine Chapel, but I did see a representation of it.

I want to build my own tiny house, but I have to buy the property and I'd better do it soon, before I get too old to move my body. I still have goals, like making my own business be a success. Oh yeah, and get a car that actually runs. Dreams.....

Goals and Tiny Houses - Setting and Keeping

Love this little cottage - click pic for more info

When I make goals, I do it in a big way. When the kids were little, I wanted to go back to school. I did  (even though it took me 11 years to graduate). In High School, I wanted to go to school in France, I did (Summer abroad in college). I wanted to become an artist/designer (from a very early age, maybe about 5) and I did. I wanted to travel around the world, and got to do that with my career. I've also started reading again, something I've wanted to do for years and made easy with my kindle.

It's really been about 5 years since I've had goals. I went through a period of depression when I lost my job, and decided I didn't want that life anymore. I really had decided it, before I lost the job. I hated working for the type of arrogant jerks that my business forced me to. It does seem, however, that working freelance, makes them a bit easier to work with. I recently returned to freelance and I get paid cash plus commission. I also have my online craft stores, as many of you already know.

There are still a few places I'd like to travel to. And when I can work AND collect retirement, I plan to do a lot of traveling. That will be soon. I will live meagerly so that I can travel, because my retirement will not be too great. Maybe my freelance income will pick up too. You never know.

I recently have set a new goal, but I'm not sure how I can accomplish it but I will figure it out. I want to build myself a tiny house, pretty much by myself. The issue is not so much the building of the house. I can do that pretty easily if I can do it fairly soon, before my old body gives out. The issue is finding a small lot, close enough to a city that will allow the building of a tiny, off the grid house.

Most cities have a minimum square foot limit, and I'm not even sure a trailer park will allow you to build something without wheels. There are small lots here, but our county will only allow a certain size lot for septic and well. They don't have provisions for composting toilet or water cistern, which I plan to use. I also hope to use minimal electricity via solar panels and maybe corn pellet heating. I'd also like to use as much scrap/junkyard material as possible.

This one is portable and has a porch - click pic for info

It's a dream, I'm not sure will come to fruition, but I won't give up on it. I would really love to design and build a house all by myself (cept maybe a little heavy lifting, like the tub. I built a big shed mostly by myself with one hand (the other was broken). I raised the walls myself with levers. The house I plan on building is not much more complicated than the shed. I can do wiring and plumbing too. Of course if you want to come and cheer me on, you're more than welcome.

Resources tinyhouseblog.com  - tumbleweedhouses.com 

What Evah! - Websites and Whatnots

I still have lots to do. Bathroom and all. That's almost done. Hopefully this week I'll get the trim up and I'll post some new pictures. But with all the orders finished and packed, I'm getting bored.

I had this brilliant idea. I need to sell my Jewelry in Brick and Mortar shops. So how do I do that. I can't walk all over the country. I also want to focus on shops that will appreciate my eco-friendly flowers. So I'm starting by designing a Web Site. I started with the cool one from Weebly. If you don't have a site yet, they have free ones and the pay ones are pretty reasonable too. The thing I really like about it is that it is so EASY to set up it's sic.

I got the free one for now, I'm still working on it but I like where I'm going. Something good to work on to keep me busy on the slow days between Christmas and New years, before Valentine sales. If you're interested use this link http://www.weebly.com/link/UDhLfS to start yours. You will get a free month of their pro service when you use the link (I'll get one too, thank you)

When I'm done with my website. I'll be sending samples of my flower jewelry to various stores, first in my home town, then around the country. I think, garden societies, floral designers, and health food/naturalist shops will be great places to start. I'm only offering items that I can produce at a reasonable price so that they can be marked up for the retailer. I think I'll have to make some new designs too. Maybe with other recycled materials like glass.

So what is a whatnot? Merriam Webster "any of various other things that might also be mentioned" Word of the Day! Now back to the Bathroom trim and whatnot.

Life on Mars - Taking a well deserved Break and Goals

rctees.etsy.com

Things have been crazy last week. Well that's nothing new. The MIL woke Poppy's DH to tell him that she thought we were in a serious car accident. Then he couldn't get back to sleep, it wasn't us. I wondered though, if she saw us in a serious accident, why she didn't stop to see if we were OK, offer to help, or if it was even us? And if the info was second hand, why the Hell did she believe it?

The car was OK this week, it does really need tires though. Well there was the issue with the Brake light going on, flashing and dinging and being really annoying. Apparently Poppy rests her foot on the Emergency Brake Pedal when she drives the boys to the bus. And that funny looking coin holder by the door, isn't a coin holder after all, it's the emergency brake release. What a freaking weird design.

Sunday I reviewed my blog, looking for an old post and I found that in 2009 I had 11 posts and in 2010 I had 21 posts. This year I resolved to try to have a new post every day. Well I didn't do that, but I did manage 169 170 posts so far. Wow! I sure hope I didn't bore you too much. At least the recipes are popular.

I'll try to make my blog a little more interesting in the new year. I'll try to bring you some more info to help you with your everyday life.

Hope you all met your goals this year, or at least half your goals. I did way better than I actually expected. Now if my goal of getting my flowers into specialty shops works, I'll be thrilled.