During the day, I work at a company that does continuing education for accountants. A lot of accountants like to think they are super important people. One of my jobs is answering the phone and customers will frequently introduce themselves as "CE Thorn CPA." I would love to tell them "Yes, most of our customers are CPAs. That is who our products are geared towards." Adding a few letters to the end of your name doesn't make you special. Most of the time, it doesn't even mean you are SMART. (Many people fail our tests, which are pretty easy.) So, yeah, keep on with your bad self. The rest of us will just keep laughing.
Excited!
I don't normally get excited about going to amusement parks. My daughter doesn't really like regular rides so it seems like a waste of money most of the time. This time.... Over on Facebook, I am a member of a bunch of yard sale groups. Most of the time people are offering junk. Yesterday, a local woman was offering some tickets to Hershey Park for only $20 each. It turns out that they are Return Visit Vouchers - tickets you get when your visit to the park is rained out. She couldn't use them so I bought them!
Even if my daughter hates most of the rides, it's not a bad deal considering these three tickets cost almost the same as one regular price ticket. I can't wait!
Cleaning a-hoy!
I generally don't pay a lot of attention to the cleaners I use in my house. There's never a huge cleaning project that makes me worry about odors or anything. My father's house, however, may be a different story. He has lived in that house for almost 40 years. And in that time, he has smoked like a chimney. As a result, everything is covered in a film of nicotine. I'm hoping to get some good green cleaning products to really scrub down his house to make it more liveable. It is habitable right now; it's just really gross. And I think it will take a long time to make it better.
Summer is for laziness
I must be the busiest lazy person ever. Even though I don't ever feel like doing anything, I find myself doing all sorts of things. My family participated in the annual Road Rally in Pottstown. (That is like a scavenger hunt in your car. So fun!) I've also been making a ton of necklaces. I have some chalkboards waiting to be painted but the weather hasn't been cooperating. And I keep traveling back to my hometown to help my father with some personal things. It feels like I don't ever have time to just kick back and relax. School starts in a little over a month! Everything is crazy! I hope you are having an awesomely busy summer as well.
Just a staycation for me
Every summer I wish we could afford to go away for vacation. Two summers ago, we did go to Williamsburg, Virginia. Last year, we stayed at home and hit up some local amusement parks. That is, once again, the plan for this year. While all of us really go enjoy going to Camelbeach, it would be nice to get away from home for a few days. It doesn't have to be a particularly difficult to plan trip either. There are some awesome waterparks in the United States that I'm sure my daughter would love. (My daughter prefers waterparks to amusement parks. For some reason, she just doesn't enjoy most rides.) Typhoon Lagoon in Florida is one of the parks on our water bucket list. There's also a park in Santa Claus, Indiana that I would like to visit. (After all, how can you miss a city called Santa Claus?!) My daughter would be perfectly happy just hanging out at waterparks all summer.
I'd also like to visit some other countries. I hear that London is an inexpensive trip. I'm sure we could find some good hotels in London that wouldn't break the bank. And since my daughter has recently gotten into watching BBC shows like Doctor Who and Sherlock, she might love seeing some of the locales from the series. Unfortunately, the flight itself might be a little too costly for us. (It's too expensive for us to fly to Florida for a week. I can't imagine what London would cost.)
Maybe one day we'll be able to afford a really nice vacation to someplace different. Until then, we'll be visiting all of the waterparks in Pennsylvania that we can.
Learning to play the guitar via video game
When I woke up Sunday morning, I came downstairs to find my husband playing his guitar. Well, to be more specific, he was playing one of the video games that teaches you how to play the guitar. (A real guitar, not a guitar-shaped controller.) If he keeps up with it, maybe I'll buy him a vox amplifier at Guitar Center so he can play without the game. That will depend on whether or not he keeps playing. At least it seems the game will be helpful!
It's been awhile
I have had so much going on over the past few weeks. My father was admitted to the hospital, my daughter had her annual dance recital, then I had surgery for a mass on the side of my neck. Everything is going pretty well, even though my father is still in the hospital. Oh, I have also opened an etsy store for the necklaces I have been making. You can find it here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/ACraftySituation. I still have quite a few necklaces to make and I'm thinking about learning how to make chainmail jewelry as well. But first I have to finish recovering from my surgery. I am feeling well enough to be on my computer but not really well enough to do much. Since I dislike my house so much, I've been looking at duck homes in North Carolina. I did enjoy living in North Carolina when I was there many, many years ago. Perhaps, once my daughter is finished with school, we can think about moving down there. It might be nice.
I'm crafty!
I started making custom chalkboards recently. My daughter has a large pink one, I made an orange and white Clemson one for her teacher, and my husband's co-worker's daughter will be receiving a medium-sized pink one soon. (We just have to give it to her.) I never thought I'd have so much fun making them. Once I get a few more paint colors in, I'll be selling my chalkboards on etsy. I'm also going to start making some necklaces. I found a tutorial to make your own pendants so I will be making a My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic necklace for my daughter once all of my supplies arrive. I can't wait!
The only down side of all this crafting is that I don't actually have space to work. Most of my work is done at my computer desk. The painting is done outside on my deck. I really need a crafting room so I have a lot of space to move around. Maybe one day.
It's almost here!
There is only two and a half weeks left of the school year for us. Then my daughter's dance recital is the weekend after that. This usually is the busiest time of year for our personal lives. In the past two weeks, my daughter has had 3 concerts. (Well, one was cancelled for weather.) I will be super happy when the school year is over and summer begins. We probably won't get to go on vacation this year but at least we can do some relaxing.
Online printing
I do a lot of printing for my Zumba business. Promotional posters, marketing postcards...all sorts of things. I have never tried label printing online though. I have purchased some marketing material from online publishers but never labels. I wonder how much cheaper it would be. Printer ink is quite expensive and I'm sure my husband would like me to save money on it. I'll have to do some more research on it.