New fabric store in Huntingdon

We were on our way to the grocery store and I had heard of a new 'yarn shop' that was supposed to open near the Huntingdon historical museum. We stopped in for a look and it was a new quilt and fabric shop.

I got some of the alphabet fabric from the Dick and Jane series and told the lady I was glad to see some brighter, less-stodgy selections. I plan to make some placemats for Esme's table with the alphabet fabric so she can point out letters to me and have somewhere to put her crackers etc... while we're in the kitchen without washing the table down every time.

The name of the store is Mockingbird Threads, and she has some nice children's prints, quilting fabrics and lots of handmade clothes, bags etc... It is also a closer drive for me than Camden - so I might actually stop by more than once every few months.

Valentine's Day KnitOwl toys

I'm adding more Valentine's Day items to the shop.

We had a tornado come through the area a couple of nights ago. It hit Paris to the north of us. I was ready to grab Esme and head for the basement as the sound of the wind was enormously loud and scary and then there was a big THUNK against the side of the house. The top of a tree in the yard came off and hit the side of the house but luckily it didn't do any permanent damage.

It snowed some last night and there was ice everywhere this morning. They expect more ice storms today. We've been looking into finding another job for one or both of us. We've been told we will soon have to arrange to rent the house we are currently living in.

This morning I drove an hour to have a planned interview only to find the boss out on an all-day service call. That was really frustrating. We tried to reach him several times that morning because of the ice storm coming. Finally we left Esme with her grandparents so as not to take her out on the road in the bad weather and high-tailed it there (and got there on time!) only to find him gone.

KnitOwl toys stepping up

Aliens for 2008

I'm making what I hope will be a lasting committment to keep small toys in production for the shop. I've been lacking there in favor of our Ebay store and custom orders - and well, of course, Esme ;)

If I want the handmade toy shop to be successful, I need to be putting things up every day or every few days to draw people's eyes. For that, I need to be working on a small handmade baby toy, softie, bird pincushion or some other project at all times. Unlike the Ebay store where we need to buy inventory to host in our store - I can sit down with a few materials and make inventory for the Etsy store.

I emailed a lady who wanted me to send a batch of Alien Monster Dolls to her shop in England last year. I asked her if she is still interested, and we'll see if she gets back. I'm open to other suggestions for promotion as well. I wish I had more connections for knowing where to sell or promote!

I'm also a giddy mommy over some really simple things. I've been waiting for Esme to start grabbing things beside my hand. It's an important step towards her exploring the world around her. She has begun to wrap one of her hands around the little lamb toy Jeanne gave to her. She then squeals with delight and rubs her fingers back and forth in the fuzzy surface. I also took out the Baby Einstein blocks Susan sent back before Esme was born. She spent time staring at them on the bed yesterday and also making lots of noises when I would rattle one, or change what surface was facing her. Simple things, but I'm very happy about them :))

Christmas here

Happy Holidays
to All of You!

We are relaxing, with not much going on in the Ebay shop and not many reasons to go out of the house. We are going to try to avoid the stores all together for this holiday rush - no reason for us to be there and get run over!

Playing EVE a little more. Mark did brave the stores last week to get an accelerated graphics card so I can play on my computer while he plays on his. It is a really detailed game with lots of opportunity for those who like to trade goods (me), create 'inventions' (soon!) and run about shooting up bad guys (Mark). We can even play together in a 'corporation' in the game and use both of our strengths to help the other.

Esme is growing a lot - she is over 10 lbs now (10# 5oz last I checked) and making lots of different noises than she has before. I'm getting better at bathing her, which was one of the more difficult things for me up until I found a good routine. I got a b.c. shot at the doctor last week that will last for 3 months minimum .. and it has been making me quite tired, either that or I'm coming down with something. The tiredness started a few days after the shot so I'm thinking that was it.

I'm also putting more energy into my Knitowl toy shop - as some custom orders have come in (and went out) and I've gotten a few loving reviews about my 'lead free toys'. Cotton cloth with polyester filling and embroidered eyes... yea pretty lead free ;) I've had a few people suggest new patterns to try to make as well.

We're not sure what is going to happen after the first of the year, but right now it is Christmas and we'll wait a week or so before we grind hard on that stone again.

A Few Developments

We've had a few developments around here, but not much.


Goofy, one of the girl puppies, went to a home.
We hope it is a good one.


Another picture of Esme, looking mischevious
she has begun to make the cutest noises and gurgles
9 lbs, 14.5 oz

We received some more assorted used inventory for our store in, and I'm going through the actions of getting pictures taken, descriptions written etc... I'm also throwing a few random items in my Etsy store every once in a while. We are trying to sell off some scrap metal that has been lying around the yard for years. We've been looking at parcels of land via internet around the areas we were interested in - but nothing to make us jump yet. The main problem is most of the places to rent don't allow smoking or pets, and we don't want to leave any of the dogs behind if we don't have to.

Elizabeth is doing well - and they have moved her up from an eyedropper to a bottle. Wow, to be so tiny you can't drink out of a bottle! Modern medicine really has done a lot to help premature babies who would never have survived before due to problems as simple as getting enough to eat.

We're not planning anything major for Christmas, as this is really our time to start organizing for whatever we are going to do early next year. It will be Esme's first Christmas but I think she is very happy with all of the love and care she gets and wouldn't know what to do with even the wrapping paper ;) She does enjoy looking at colored lights though, and Mark's parents gave him a little red/blue/green LED 'lava lamp' that she has enjoyed staring at several times.

Mark did splurge and got the latest Harry Potter movie 'Order of the Phoenix', which we will probably get to this weekend.

//off to describe modems, adapters and connectors. Have a great weekend!

Getting Ready for Mark's trip and backstory on the move

Mark has been getting things ready for his trip - and we're getting to where he will probably take off sometime this next week. He now has a mobile internet connection, as well as new tires on the vehicle, updated driver's license (his birthday is in the first week of December) and will be looking into getting his glasses updated before he travels as well.

The mobile internet connection was quite a big deal. That should let us do our Ebay auctions from anywhere in the country.

That leads into this:

For several months, (nearly a year by some measures) we have been telling Mark's father he does need to get a new tech to manage the network system for his company. Up until recently, we also ran our Ebay pictures and some email off that same system. That system has been breaking, systematically, over the past several years. Usually Mark creatively 'tapes' the sytem back together or buys parts out of his own pocket to fix it if he can't get money for parts from the company.

Our computer network is a complicated beast - it has lots of different parts that all run together to make the whole. A few months ago a major hardware part of the system broke, and right on the tail of that, another machine began to fail as well. They didn't affect immediate productivity (everyone still had email, internet, and most of their files), but they have affected things more and more as time goes on. We can't fix them, without a lot of scrambling and restructuring. We just don't have the time or energy to do it anymore.

Mark's father has looked some for that new techie, but hasn't found anyone yet who can and will take on the job. Two weeks ago Mark stopped monitoring the things that are breaking. He had been watching system messages since September 1997. He can translate the messages from the system (attempts to connect, files not found, errors, memory allocations) into potential risks and alerts... This is no small task - as it requires constant diligence. He said it is terribly depressing to know what was breaking when he couldn't fix it. He will also be gone for several weeks and not here to fix it even if he wanted to. He shut down the messaging terminal with all that in mind. So, we are no longer fixing things OR monitoring the broken pieces.

Mark's father called last night with another problem on the system and we really couldn't tell him anything. I felt bad, but he really needs a new tech to be able to call. Mark is going to be gone for several weeks - and I wouldn't know how to fix problems that deep in the system anyway -- I'm a software and internet geek, not a hardware geek. This system needs both. Most of this equipment is over 10 years old and running custom code and open source software. Some of it uses more electricity and puts out more heat than you could imagine. But, for the most part it works - and like a car held together with Bondo - it has done what it needs to do long enough to get us here.

*sigh* but basically, this is the time we ALL (us and them) have to learn how new systems work, and how to get the same jobs done with whatever is out 'on the market' nowadays.

We're doing that with our cellular modem and laptop. Mark's father will have to do that with whatever new tech he finds. Hopefully, this won't affect our family relations. If we continue to try to scrabble up fixes for the dying network with as little resource and time for other things -- that will surely break us down. And it won't help them in the long run either - as eventually we won't be here to call up and ask for repairs.

If we don't stop doing things around here sometime, when will it ever become someone else's job? That sounds harsh... but there isn't any nicer way to say it.

For years Mark lived what he describes as a 'monkish' existence. He thought he was building equity in a family business that had an honorable and attainable goal. He was helping provide technology services (internet publishing, email etc) to people in the property rights movement, to help them get their message out to the public. This was back in the very early 90s, when lots of people still didn't know about the Internet or how big it would become. Their family's website and magazine gave a voice and a forum to people who wouldn't have had it otherwise. He worked 24/7 on maintaining and monitoring the website and office network. It was a job that required constant upkeep and quick response time, and he gave it his all for ten years.

Up until a year or so ago, he didn't even take salary above his household bills, assuming he was paying into the mortgage on the property he lived on in lieu of other compensation. That made for some interesting and frustrating financial problems for him, then and now.

Now, he is disillusioned about the equity and partnership he was originally told he was participating in. He can't get a straight answer about things that were once said, and doesn't want to wait any longer for others to decide what they want to agree was the actual case. He is also upset that his father always wanted him to make his projects happen smoothly, but Mark's ideas and projects never got support. Or, even worse, the support was pulled from them after Mark had done a large amount of the work. It made him bitter and frustrated. This house we currently live in is one of those projects, although the building itself was successful. Mark built it on his own design, as the place he would live and work. He also put his own handwork into its construction. Now, he is told it isn't 'actually' his. He cannot get a deed to it because it 'belongs to the company', and was paid for partially by a grant given to the company.

It has come down to the point Mark just wants something he knows is his, that he can put his hard work, heart and soul into and know that someone else can't take it away arbitrarily. He has 'burned out' on this dream, and I want to help him in finding one we can both share. With Esme, we feel we have to take that action now, and start building a solid future.

Living the Minutes and Not the Hours

I told Mark a few days ago I can't believe Esme will be two weeks old soon. I said: 'Ever since those first contractions started, I feel like I've been living the minutes and not the hours.' He agreed we both are. The actual time we record in our minds has slown down immensely, yet the days somehow keep passing by almost unnoticed.

And it's not just this beautiful baby that is making us pay attention to every little thing while the hours somehow slip away in the process... although she is the majority of it ;) We have a task list a mile long, and only so much time to do it in.

We're transferring our store over to a new computer system, which means a lot of juggling in the next week or so. I have to learn the new system before Mark travels. I'm still not too good with the car, but I did drive the truck (also a stick shift) to the store yesterday with little problem.

We're working at being independent at a time (new baby) when most people we've known were leaning on others around them for much more than ever. But, we know we have to do this, because we want something that is ours, totally, that we know we can continue doing together on our own ambitions, with less chance that it could be pulled out from under us unexpectedly.

So far, we're doing quite well, but we're feeling the crunch coming up. We're stepping up our already busy days to get ready for the move. I'm almost ready to do that, but not quite yet. I'm sleeping better at night and Esme is on a much more regular, almost predictable schedule.

Milestone: Esme's umbilical cord stump fell off last night. She was having a 'digestion fit' at the time, when her belly hurts her and she has to fuss until something settles. I told her: 'Hey little one, be good to your new belly button, you only get one!'

A Big Move - to Where?

Asking for advice!

Mark and I are looking to open a brick and mortar type retail shop. We've been discussing this since last year (well, January of this year actually), but there have been several things, besides Baby Bazooka, that have kept us from making any decisions.

If we had been able to tie those things up before, we wouldn't have waited so long. Now, we're waiting for Bazooka to arrive, and trying to make plans on what information we can get through the Internet and friends. We're not even sure exactly what region of the country we would like to be in yet, but we do have some criteria. One of the hardest things is I can't travel very far to check anything out, and probably won't be physically able for a month or so after the baby is born. However, we would really like to know where we are going before December rolls around.

We would like to be have our store near a population center but live a little further out of town in a 'farmland' type area, on an acre or more. If we could have the store and house on the same property (say off a highway exit or intersection) that would be ideal.

Our store would be a mixture of computers, electronics, coffee shop and workshop facilities. It would be a unique kind of place, with both parts and materials to buy, coffee and snacks to hang out in the lounge area with, and maybe classes and projects going on by local artists. Think about sitting in a coffee shop while people next to you build a Rube Goldberg machine in one corner and other geeks take turns between LAN gaming and fixing their machines with shop tools. There might be a 'yarn bar' and an assortment of basic art materials for sale, as well as promotion of local artisans and in-house reference materials on a variety of crafty and technical subjects.

Of course, this would be our ultimate goal. We'll have to start small. Our Ebay store is already getting to the point where we can rely on it for a little bit while we get settled. Where we go will definitely direct how much we can do how soon.

But where to go? Neither of us have real strong feelings about location. We've been looking at a few different regions of the country but would like suggestions!

So, here are the criteria we are working with:
Near high population but still some rural land nearby.
A welcoming environment, we're both eccentric geeks and we're hoping to attract other like-minded people. Maybe near a university or technological center, people who want to learn and tinker with things. Moderate temperatures, not too hot or cold. I grew up in Minnesota and can't take really high heat, while Mark grew up here and places more Southern, so he avoids the colder weather as well.

Suggestions please!
Invite your friends to give us some ideas too!
We'd like to hear your opinions about different areas!