Sunday, November 29, 2009

updates! thanksgiving...etsy...life

Jeez! I haven't posted for almost a month! I almost don't know where to start.

Well, to follow up with my last post, the senior project is done until January! I turned in my critical paper on Friday, and my revised second story on Monday. I haven't heard back about my critical paper yet, but if I don't need to revise that before January, I'm done! I am meeting with my advisor on Wednesday to go over things. We will see how that goes. But I am generally feeling much much better about the senior project.

Macy's has been going really well, too. It was really busy for a while because they were getting in all the stock for the Christmas season, but now it has lightened up a bit. Also, they are giving me a new job since there won't be many hours left on the Merchandising Team now. I'm going to be doing Recovery, which is basically just cleaning up after customers during the Christmas season. I'll be straightening things and refolding, and stuff like that. I'm really looking forward to it, because that means I don't have to be getting up at 3:30am anymore! YAY!

The other news update is that my brother, Caleb, came to visit us for Thanksgiving!!! It was so fun! He just decided to fly out on a whim and stayed with us for a week. He got to see a lot of his friends in Bergwall too, so that was cool for him. We were kind of at a loss on what to make for Thanksgiving since Paul and I are vegetarians. We decided on vegetarian chili! So we made the recipe for The Best Vegetarian Chili in the World, and we also had potatoes, corn on the cob, rolls, strawberry rhubarb pie, and brownies. It was great! On Thanksgiving, we also played TWELVE games of Settlers. I don't think I could have done that with anybody else and had as much fun. :)

You've probably noticed, if you've looked in the sidebar, that I started a vintage shop! A few weeks ago, I just got the idea in my head that I really wanted to start a boutique of some kind. I don't know if something got into me while working at Macy's and learning how to merchandise or what. I just couldn't get the idea out of my mind; I couldn't even sleep some nights!

I didn't think I'd be able to start it until we got back to Washington. There is an Antique Mall I was thinking of renting a booth at, but I found out the prices for it, and it was like $150 a month. That was a little to big of an investment for me. Then Valerie suggested Etsy! Etsy is an online place you can sell anything handmade, anything craft supplies, or anything vintage. It is $0.20 to list each item, and then they take 3.5% of your sales minus shipping. So I decided to make an Etsy shop. I named it Trillity and you can look at it here.

I didn't have any items to sell when I first started, so when I was driving home from work, I prayed God would show me a garage sale or something, if this is something I should even try to start. I didn't think there would be any since it was November, and cold. Sure enough, I found one sign for a rummage sale, and got three items for my shop! I sold one of the items within the week and it was so exciting, I think I screamed. I have sold a total of five things so far. It's so fun when people buy things! It makes me so happy just to know that someone wants it enough to buy it. I have so much fun with it.

I really enjoy writing the descriptions too. I would love to do that for a job someday. I would love to do Etsy for my full time job actually, but I'm no where near that point now, hehe. I just have so much fun going to thrift stores, rummage sales, and on Saturday we went to a flea market in Indy after we dropped Caleb off. It's just so fun to find these special items that are unappreciated, and rescue them and find better owners for them, lol. And make a little money in the process, of course! Hehe. I think the key to selling things is taking good pictures, so I've been trying hard to get better at that.

We put up our Christmas tree yesterday, and it looks so cute! It's about 2.5 feet tall. The ornaments look enormous on it, but it's still adorable. :D

We've been looking at places to live in Washington. My parents are going to check out a few places today after church for us, and send us some pictures.

Thanksgiving break was such a relaxing break for us. I wish it could be like this all the time! That would probably make me spoiled though. :P

Wednesday, November 04, 2009

life lately

Wow, it's been a busy time lately. Paul and I have both been pretty stressed out the last few weeks, but now, it finally seems to be letting up again for both of us. Paul's been balancing school work, grad school essays, and his senior research project...and I've been balancing my senior project, work, and classes. All the other semesters seem so easy compared to this one for some reason!

Anyway, things are letting up to a more reasonable level of stress, I think. Yesterday, we were able to have a really relaxing day for the first time in a long time! We started watching these Planet Earth videos, that we rented from the library...and I've gotta say, God's Creation is freakin' awesome, beautiful, and sometimes downright creepy!!! There were like six DVD's total, and we kind of got addicted to them. We've watched every episode now, except for "the future," which I'm not sure what that alludes to. Mars, maybe? We will see. I highly recommend the movie to you though! We couldn't stop saying, "OMG. WHOA! WHAT THE HECK?! WOW. or, WEIRD, NASTY, DISGUSTING!!!!

Right now, I'm in the library, stuck on one of my stories for my senior project. :( I have to have it done by Monday, and at least 10 pages long....right now I have about 2! I had a good day on it the other day, but now today, it's just not flowing. argh. I'm looking forward to just having this story done, because then I'll have all my rough drafts done, and I can just focus on editing. I wish I could get a clearer look at my stories though. I'm really disappointed in my experience with my advisor. It's just very sad. It just feel like he's not a real reader when I get his comments. He doesn't tell me what he likes or dislikes about anything...all his comments are so objective, I can't even tell what he means by them. I don't know what it is. I don't remember having this experience with him when I had Poetry class with him. So, I guess I'm just confused. Has he changed, or have I changed...why is it different? It's really terrible, because I find myself getting really discouraged when I write, because I think about what my advisor will think....(even though he doesn't really tell me directly, it seems)...so it's very unmotivating because I have doubts that he will like anything I write. I was so doubtful, I had to email him asking him how he thinks I'm doing in the class...for fear he was going to fail me. He said I'm doing fine....but even that, I'm not sure what he means. Am I doing fine, like I don't need to worry, or am I doing fine, like I'm not doing great, but I'll probably pass. I don't know why I find him so confusing. And it's weird because I've never really had a fear of failing a class before, and this is like the most important one! I haven't said this before, but we stopped meeting in person, and are just going to do email sessions now...the reason being, I broke down balling in his office last time we met! I was so embarrassed to be crying there, because I've never in my life cried in front of a teacher before...but I couldn't stop, even though I wanted to so bad. I guess I just couldn't hold it in anymore. So then, he suggested we just do email sessions. I just wanted to get out there ASAP, so I agreed. But I'm glad we did it, so I don't have to see him as much anymore. I guess the thing that just really gets to me about him is that he seems to take his viewpoint as the ultimate authority. He told me at our first meeting that I am the author and to make decisions myself, but I don't think he actually believes what he says. Sometimes he would say things about my story, and I would disagree, and he would just get more and more offensive, no matter how much I tried to defend my stance. It's very irritating, and also very discouraging, because now I feel like I will only graduate Taylor if I write my senior project to please my advisor, to his standards. I would be totally happy and free, if I could just write it on my own and not have to worry about him, but to know that he's the one basically handing me my diploma, I'm afraid if I don't obey his every word, he won't be obliged to pass me. It's very trapping, mentally and creatively. I feel like he is looming over me, when I try to write. I think this has lessened a lot, now that we are not meeting face-to-face, but it's still there. I don't feel like I can talk to him about it, because even when I was balling in his office, he hardly did anything more than try to offer me a tissue (which he didn't have).

It feels good to vent these things, but I know I can't dwell on them too much. Ultimately, I will graduate, even if he tries to fail me--I know I can fight it. I've earned A's in all my writing classes--that would look too weird for me to fail. This is just a trial I've got to face, and get through. It's not fun, but I guess that means it's good for me. :)