T-60 minutes or so

Closed, originally uploaded by Jasoon.

It’s the end of the second week of December, and true to form, I am really looking forward to my time off. Not that I should really refer to it as time “off.”

The week before Christmas I will spend on decorating, shopping, making things, and all of the wonderful holiday preparations I have neglected while trying to run a business.

The week after Christmas I have traditionally chosen a business-related project to keep me busy – something that is best accomplished without having to stop and process orders. Previous projects have included:

• migrating my order processing from a spreadsheet to an online system designed by Neil and me
• migrating my inventory management from a spreadsheet to an online system I designed
• Creating a purchase order system
• last year I was all about Polka Dot Radio, so I spent a lot of time organizing my mp3 collection and refining my station update techniques

This year, I’m pretty sure I will be focusing on inventory: physically re-organizing to make better use of space, making sure my online inventory figures are accurate, putting some items on clearance, ordering more stock where necessary, etc. We’ll see how far I get. This is the first year Neil doesn’t have that week off, and so I may not have the freedom to immerse myself in solitary pursuits as I have in the past. Here’s hoping, though!

Now, if you wanted to get yourself a copy of Polymer Clay Beads before January, you might want to hop on over to the book store and grab one before I close the door in about an hour. I’m shipping them out this weekend, and then it’s on to other pursuits!

Woo hoo! Or, should I say, Ho Ho Ho?

Oh, and as much as I hate to increase my shipping workload tomorrow, I really do have to say, this book is absolutely delicious. I think the men of the polymer clay world come at the art with a different perspective than the women (generally-speaking). It seems they invent more gadgets and experiment with more tools, and their work often has a unique look as a result. The beads in this book are definitely not your garden variety polymer clay beads. I mean, just look at the cover. Not even taking surface treatments into account, those beads are unusual just in their shape. I am really looking forward to the chance to peruse this book further. I’ve only been able to give it a cursory glance so far, so I can’t speak to the clarity of the instructions, or the readability of the text, but those sure are some yummy photos