Tag Archives: new year’s

Unfinished business

Posted on by Sherri
6

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Christmas 2010 I made this decadent body butter to give away as presents. It’s made of shea and cocoa butters, calendula-infused jojoba oil, and hemp oil. It’s not really good for overall moisture, but it’s perfect for rough patches, like elbows. Only problem was I made so much that I couldn’t give it all away. Now, over a year later, I still have ten whole pots left and no idea what to do with them. The butter seem to be perfectly good for having sat on the shelf, but I doubt it would last forever, or even till I could use the whole supply.

I thought about selling it online, but where would I do that? Could I make an Etsy shop or something similar for only ten pots? Seems like overkill. Also, I’d have to charge six bucks a pot, before shipping, just to break even. I don’t know if they’re worth that much, and I’d like to make a profit. There’s also the question of packaging. Those nifty little tins don’t take glue very well, so I’d have to buy sticker labels. Sounds like a fun project, but for ten pots? I don’t know.

Another unfinished project is the wooden knitting needles I tried to make. Well, I did make them, but they turned out looking, smelling, and feeling like crap. Walmart doesn’t carry the size I need, and the internet said it would be simple to make my own, but it’s been a lot of work and I still can’t use them. If I want to continue this project, I’ll have to start fresh with a new dowel, but it’s so much work I doubt I will. I’ll just find the needles online, I guess.

And then there’s the hat I knitted my youngest. I made it, it was wonderful, then we washed it and the stitches loosened up, which made it too big. I expect things to shrink in the wash, not stretch. We unraveled it, and the ball is waiting for those damned knitting needles to be finished. So is my son’s ball of yarn. Meanwhile, I’ll work on my older daughter’s shawl.

You know, it seems like last year was all about letting go, in many different areas of my life. And 2012 seems set up for me to start tying up the loose ends letting go created. This is fine with me. I need forward motion.

If you have any ideas what I can do with this damn body butter, let me know. And happy new year.

Happy New Year! And I’m not being sarcastic.

Posted on by Sherri
3

So I got this new laptop. I’m typing this post on it. I haven’t downloaded all my helper programs, like Live Writer and Digsby and some non-IE browser, but I’ll get to it eventually. The placement of the mousepad is a little too far left, but the trade-off is that I get a full ten-key pad, so that’s nice. I feel a little guilty having a brand new laptop, but I decided some months ago to treat myself better, especially in the writing area and I’m trying to build on the work I did in 2010.

Doesn’t that already sound like a bygone age, 2010? “Turning 40 is SO twenty-ten.” Or something like that. I’ve been anticipating 2011 for almost all of 2010, and I’m not sure why. 2010 seems like a static number, too square to roll, a closed circle. 2011 is quirky, friendly, innovative. Like 2010 had secrets and 2011 is just dying to tell them to me. I’m sure there’s some numerology to support my feeling, but I don’t know what it is. That’s just how I see it.

This laptop, see, it’s about half the weight of my old one–which was eight freakin’ pounds, no lie–and it fits in my old laptop bag, so I can go other places to write more easily. I have my desk bought specially for writing last summer (and although I haven’t been able to use it since it turned cold in the porch room, I hope to remedy that soon). I have a new futon in the den so I can stay up late writing without worrying about keeping the hubs up (and also so I can sleep there when his log-sawing is too much to bear :). I finally bought some new jeans so I no longer look like a homeless person when meeting potential readers.

So everything’s in place for when the kids go back to school and the hubs goes back to work. I have so much optimism pinned on 2011 I cain’t hardly stand it. It’s gonna be great. :)