happy birthday to me!

Tonight I'm updating from a super-swank hotel in Washington D.C.  My mom and I came up for the weekend because yesterday was my 21st boifday (that's "birthday" to those readers who actually speak like adults)!  Although it's 10:12 p.m., my mom's sacked out in the other bed, I'm in my pjs, and "Deadliest Catch" is on the tube, this is the best I've felt all day.

Birthdays are weird.  I feel like they often just end up reminding people of the things they thought they would've had/accomplished by "this time next year" or whatever.  It's just weird.  I'm 21 now, but I'm definitely not even close to feeling like an adult.  This was my last real exciting milestone birthday.  Now I have 30 to look forward to...ok, this is just getting to be a bummer.

ANYHOW, I do have some good things to say tonight!  Not only did I make my first Etsy sale last week, I was mentioned on a blog because of my Etsy!  Check out http://tamsytrends.blogspot.com/ to see a pair of my shoes featured in the latest entry.

-LG

things I learned at the post office today

...So I think it's now evident where the "pseudo" aspect of my New Years Resolution to update more comes into play...

Anyhow!  At least I'm updating now!

I made my first sale on Etsy yesterday!  Although making a sale to someone other than one of my friends should elicit feelings of great joy and excitement, my initial reaction when I checked my inbox and read the message from Etsy was "Oh sh**!  I sold a pair of shoes on Etsy."  My Etsy shop has taken the place of the back-burner on the proverbial black&lu stove, so I was a little un-prepared to actually make a sale and transaction (I'm still a little curious about PayPal...should I be expecting a deposit into my bank account now?)

Mailing said shoes was an even bigger learning experience in dealing with the post office.  The post office sucks.  Point blank.  Especially today at 1:30 p.m.  Not only was the line incredibly long (seriously, like 12 people deep when I walked in), but the sorority sister behind me had a really annoying nasal-y voice (which I got to hear ALOT of since homegirl never hung up her phone), and the topics of her cell conversations were total "Real World: Richmond" quality.

So I learned several things from going to the post office:

1)  DON'T fall for the "priority flat rate" shipping boxes, especially if you're mailing something lightweight like an adorable pair of slip-ons.  I paid $10.70 to ship my shoes, cutting into my profit by a third.  Next time I'll be acquiring my own box.

2)  Take your own packing tape!  Or just tape and address/prep your box before you even go to the post office.  Because it sucks.  Spend as little time as possible there.

3)  Don't assume that your small-town ways and easy-going smile will impress the sole postal worker behind the counter.  He'll be more helpful to the guy with a 'tude holding up the line for 8 minutes than he will be for you and your pretty face.

4)  The post office sucks.  Avoid it at all costs.

Later today I'm off to flier up some of the VCU art buildings, guerilla style.  Wish me luck!

-LG

"do what makes you happy--not for money or attention."

So it's been about a week since I've updated...already I'm falling short on my pseudo-New Year's Resolution of updating my blog more regularly.  Oh well!  I have 51 weeks left to improve upon this behavior.

I haven't made any shoes lately (still working on moving that 35 pair inventory--a second e-mail was sent out today), but I made myself a new bag for the new year today.  Actually, as is the case with my shoes, I didn't make the bag per-say, just customized a pre-fab one.  The quote is from the song "Clampdown" by the Clash; a top five favorite song of all time from a top five favorite band of all time.  It's just a reminder to myself to keep my head down and my chin up, and to follow the goals that I set for myself, not the expectations placed on me by others.

-LG