Lovin' Monday!

Wow, what a fab day I've had! I was up early to go to the gym as hub was working from home, so to start the day off with a boost was a good start!

The website is now back in my name and registered with my new host - I need to come up with the funds for the hosting to get it officially back online ... but it's all going according to plan so far!

I did some number crunching today with L and worked out that I can save around £4,500 a year purely by buying my wax in larger quantities, changing payment processors and questioning some of my maintenance bills. That's crazy. Scary crazy!!!

Also ... finally the website re-design is coming together. I'm really happy with how it's working out and it'll mean that by the time the site is back online, there will be a whole terrific new look for it!!!

I'm gonna be a paperwork QUEEN!!!

The majority of my crap stuff paperwork has now been sorted into date order, and it has only taken the sum total of a couple of hours a day over the last 3 days. How sad is that? I truly am kicking myself for not doing this sooner - especially considering how quickly I've managed to get through it all since Friday afternoon and how far behind I had allowed myself to get. I could have done this months ... years ago. I will never EVER be in a position where I don't know my numbers (or at least be able to lay my hands on the info right away!) ever again!!

Okay there is still a LONG way to go to get to zero, but the worst part of going through the boxes and organising it into date is done! Next step is to make sure I have all my bank statements dating right back so that I can go through it all and meticulously record every single outgoing and incoming through the bank, and then file all of my cash receipts. Alongside that I've installed new accounts software on my laptop so I am going to find *everything* from 1st April this year so that at least going forward my tax year from 08-09 will be 100% in order!!

I couldn't have done it without L's help! Just having such a close friend in my corner who knows me well enough to say "Dee, you're a great candlemaker and your product truly is terrific, but you are fucking shite with your paperwork!" has been just what I needed to motivate me! LOL there aren't many people who actually have the BALLS to stand up to me, but L is one of them! L has been there for me in a way I hadn't ever seen coming - and I am truly grateful.

I need to prove I can do it ... not to anyone else, but to myself! I am my own worst enemy and I know it! God, I feel so motivated right now and so ready for tomorrow!! Lemme at Monday morning so I can get started on my "to do" list and make some phone calls!

I got my mojo back!!!

I was at work with the birds this morning ... ie bright and early after dropping the kids at school ... and by 11.30 I was looking at the clock and AMAZED that it was only 11.30! I got sooooo much done at work - LOL if there had been a camera on me I swear it would have looked like I was on super speed!! There was just something in me today that felt motivated and on one ... I swear it's because I had such a great weekend!

I did some late night shopping last night on eBay. I went to bed fairly early, but I couldn't sleep ... so I surfed eBay for USA & New York scrapbook papers & embellishments! and I think tackling my New York trip would be a GREAT project to get me back in the swing of things! I bought a TON of stuff for my sister too ... to really get her started on it! Hehehe over this weekend I think I may have just created a monster!

I'd lost my scrapping mojo for a bit, but after being creative with mum & my sister over the weekend ... my mojo is back!!! In fact, it's back so much that I spent quite a while this evening re-organising my craft room!! I'm itching to start scrapping again now!! Trouble is ... once I start that's it and I am obsessed!!

Today was good for other reasons too ... but nothing I'd admit in public!!

Bizarre .... the first Monday in such a long time that my only blog tags are Monday and Happy!!

I hate Mondays - banish them FOREVER! (Major vent)

Everybody hates them so they just shouldn't exist! I know very few people who actually look forward to Monday mornings! I mean I'm sure there are the few who break the rule ... like people who don't ever have to work on Monday mornings and who get to sleep in and ignore the rest of the world until at least Tuesday.

Today has officially been the crappiest Monday that I've had in a long time.

Does anyone even care why? Pffffftttt doesn't even matter because I am going to whine about it anyway (talking about wine ... now where's my glass...)

I am depressed about money. I sometimes feel that I am sinking faster than I can swim and that scares the crap outta me. The business is short of "cash flow" and although orders are coming in ... so are the bills! The household is short of money because I am not taking any drawings from the business at the moment either.

It's not completely dire - well, not yet anyway.. but something has to change soon and I mean SOON or I'm gonna sink, I can feel it. I've even been thinking about trying an evening job again to make some extra cash..... but my skills are worth so much more than just minimum wage!

So yeah... as well as the melancholy, stressed, worried and generally pissed off attitude that I had already developed by late this afternoon, you gotta add in the fact that I am completely out of wax and my delivery now doesn't arrive until tomorrow. All I can say is that it had better show up tomorrow or heads are gonna roll! What good is a candlemaker who has no wax?

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR! LOL this photo is from a few months back (pre-fringe!) when I was stressed and turned the camera on myself ... but it just sums up how I have been feeling today!!! The title of the photo is "I am WOMAN, hear me ROAR!"

Thank f**k I am a smoker who has had a glass or four of wine and some chilled out music playing in the background! I may just make it to Tuesday after all ....

Monday Mornings .... LOL

The mornings in this house work like a well oiled machine most of the time! In order to have enough time to get everything done, I need to be up and out of bed by 7.15am. I set my alarm for 7am but I snooze it for 15 mins so I feel the benefit of a lie in! LOL Mad but it works!!

So anyway this morning after the kids had finished breakfast and Megan had gone off to get dressed ... I mentally assessed everything left to do

Lunchboxes made ... CHECK!
Me had a shower ... CHECK!
Me looking vaguely respectable to leave the house ... CHECK
Kids brushed teeth ... CHECK
Nathan's uniform in a neat pile ready ... CHECK

All's well. THEN my morning went something like this ...

"Nathan ... Nathan for the fourth time .... get dressed!" (I am pointing to a pile of folded and ready to go school clothes.) Meanwhile Nathan is still spinning around in circles and waving a vacuum cleaner attachment around! (Mental check to self, yes I DID give him his ADHD meds with his breakfast)

"Nathan, I'm not going to ask you anymore. I am going to start TELLING you. Now GET DRESSED!"

"Alright Mummy, no need to shout" says the little voice as he starts putting on his uniform (still spinning around but I disregard that because he is actually getting dressed!)

GRRRR RAAAAHHHH Monday mornings are UGH enough without hassle before we even get to school! LOL Guess what? It didn't stop there! We spent 10 minutes looking for his shoes ... which we eventually found in the shoe cupboard (in my defence his shoes are NEVER in the proper place which is why it was the last place I looked!)

We are just on our way off out of the door when I go to grab his book bag and find that the cat has pi$$ed all over it! DOUBLE GRRRR Luckily it's waterproof, so I bung the contents into a carrier bag, scrawl his name on it and hustle them out of the door!!

We got to school about 30 seconds after the bell had gone ... PHEW!!

Thankfully Monday mornings are now my morning off ... after working all weekend it's nice to just relax for an extra hour alone in the house before I head into the workshop!! What a morning and it's only 9.15am!

The weirdest Monday on record yet!!!

Well talk about Weird Mondays and I think the one I had today was just so totally utterly bizarre that it's just ... well, wow!!! It started off as a very stressful monday morning, but as the day went on ... despite some really sad news, my day was very definitely un-stressed!!

Today was my first proper day back in the workshop after the h*ll that is half term and I even felt really sick this morning for no real reason at all. I didn't actually throw up, and I could only put it down to feeling nervous about going back into the workshop after a few enforced days off (also for reasons other than half term, but that's not a story for public viewing!!)

Anyway, I got into the workshop and it was all actually okay! I spent the entire day pouring and cleared off eleven orders so I was very chuffed with myself!!! Tomorrow is a "top up" and package day where I will literally be topping up stuff that I made today ... and sending it out.

Through circumstances and no fault of my own I've ended up sooooo far behind with orders, but it was really good to spend a day just playing in the wax and making candles today!! I've had a ton of orders in over the last few days, so I'll get everything I've made sent tomorrow so I should have happy customers again :D

Then this afternoon, about half an hour after getting in from work, I got a text from a really good friend - L, to ask if I fancied popping over for a chat! Thing is, hub was unusually working from home on a Monday, so I took FULL advantage and went over to L's place! What was supposed to only be popping out for an hour or so ended up with me being out for hours and just about getting home at dinner time to say hi to the kids after their first day back at school!

A thoroughly worthy afternoon though *grin* - I have a smile on my face that won't quit and that's all I'll say!!

I actually feel a little disrespectful here today because after the great and terrific afternoon I've vaguely talked about, I haven't mentioned ANYTHING about C today and I feel truly bad for that.

PLEASE forgive me ... I have always sworn never to delete anything I write here (unless it's a typo!) and that will never change, but I feel I should have mentioned this at the start of today and it is SO tempting to go back and change how I have started this entry, but I won't...

C was the wife of R who has the unit along the coridoor from me. I found out this morning that C sadly passed away on Friday. It wasn't totally unexpected as she had been ill for quite some time (cancer), and to be honest, every time I had seen C, I'd been surprised that she was still around because she looked so ill and had been so ill for so long. That sounds callous doesn't it ... I truly don't mean to be... I just say it how I see it.

My friend Lou that works for R had been a friend of C & R's for years and I know that she had taken it harder than she made out when I saw her today. C died of cancer and Lou has breast cancer - for the second time and is right in the middle of treatment, so it has been soooo hard on them all over there. Lou is also a really good friend of mine and it's been really hard to see her go through her own personal battle as well as deal with C's illness and now her passing. I just wish there was more that I could do

I almost feel guilty for having a good day today after finding out about C passing away. I KNOW that's silly and that C would probably tell me off for it! I said to R today that I knew there was nothing I could say but that he would be in my thoughts.

It's been a tough time for them all over that end of the coridoor.

... I just have to add that this has been one of the weirdest blog entries I have ever made. To have had such a sad day combined with such a totally chilled out and fantastic afternoon has been utterly weird! Thank you L for one of the best afternoons I've had in a LONG time!!!

OMG!! OMG!! Mondays are officially fantastic!!!

... well THIS Monday is anyway!!

Came into the workshop this morning feeling a little achy and a bit worse for wear as I didn't sleep well last night. Mondays are usually always so BLAH but today when I sat down in front of my work PC with my pot of coffee ... I found a huuuuuuuuge number of orders had come in over the weekend! The pile is so thick that stacked together it is almost a half an inch stack of orders JUST from the weekend! That also includes a couple of nice wholesale orders too :D

THEN .... I got a call from the local paper in response to the email I had sent them with a copy of my 25 Smiles montage just incase it was of local interest ... and they want to publish it!!! He did an interview over the phone and a photographer is coming to the workshop on Wednesday morning to take photos of me with the candles and with my camera!! He said they would give me a plug for my websites too - so there is the chance to bring in a lot of extra business!!!

Such a damned good day .... and it's not even quite lunchtime!!!