I didn't blog while I as gone

12-05-07: The Texas Thanksgiving Tour "I'm back" post to CITY-o-Clay.

I didn't blog as I had intended while out on the Texas Thanksgiving Tour. It's a little weird to use other people's computers, especially as much as I'd have to in order to blog regularly. I found myself being shy about asking for computer access and when I got it I kept the usage time down to a minimum.

I did have a great time and got some good feedback. As soon as I get pictures from the Ladies who attended the workshop I'll share them. My camera was acting odd while on the road so I didn't take but a handful of pictures. I need a new digital camera and a laptop with WiFi and that's on my wish list for 2008.

I realized how much fun I had when I was flying back home. I found myself feeing blue. I wasn't ready to come home I wanted to keep on traveling. It took me a week to get the apartment cleaned and all the laundry done. Back to "real life". I'm still not on schedule with going to the gym but I only gained 4 pounds while I was traveling and that was a miracle because I was being fed very well by my hostesses.

My WordPress blog on my website is still on the fritz. Something about the database being crashed. I'm in communication with Ipower Customer Support and I hope it gets fixed soon. I don't want to depend on blogs that are off of my website. Not that I don't appreciate this blog as back up, mind you, it's just that I want the blog that's on my website to work.

It's hard for me to believe that it's taken me as long as I was gone to get back into the swing of things. To begin to clay again. To update my website. To post in the blog. I'll have to remember that when planning my next tour and how much time it takes to turn around and head out again.

Two days to Christmas and I find that I'm always a bit blue around this time of year. I'm keeping a low profile. The frenzy of consumerism gets in the way of remembering it's supposed to celebrate the birth of Jesus.

There's a dilema in this with my wanting to set up an e-commerce section of my website. Should I feed into the frenzy of conspicious consumption by making things just for the holiday season? Or should I just make what I want to make and people can buy what they want to buy without any indication that the items are seasonal? I'm leaning towards the latter option. Most people making things for Winter Holiday sales start in July. That always made me feel weird. It's hard to be inspired to make winter things in summer.

I think what I could do is make things inspired by winter in winter, just sell them the next year. Make things that are summer inspired in summer and sell them the next year. That makes more sense to me because it gives me lead time to build those e-commerce web pages.

I still need to get a business license, sign up for a reseller's license. Remove the OScommerce section off of my website and download Mals-ecommerce software to my computer and work with that. Seems easier to use and leaves me the option to customise the shopping cart page to match the rest of the site. I'm just thinking outloud really.

I just want the next few days fly by while I watch Bible Documentaries recounting the birth of Jesus and to eat the foods that Jesus must have eaten in his day: pita bread, fetta cheese, dates, black olives, a bit of fish. I want to throw a blanked over my head and stay quiet the next few days, dodging phone calls.

The reason why I can't get into the "Merry" mode is with the birth of Jesus there is his fate to die. When I sculpt Mary and Jesus figures I make her look loving but sad. It's bitter sweet that look of love, knowing that he is to be sacrificed.

But maybe it's the lack of sunlight or Capricorn transiting planets opposing my Mars in Cancer. All I know is I want to hide this time of year. I hope all of you who are reading have the type of Christmas you wish to have. I know I will: quite, contemplative, and low key.

Texas Thanksgiving Tour

There's something broken with the WordPress Blog on my website http://www.norajean.com/ and I can't post to it. Something to do with the SQL database and I'm not able to access it to repair it. I sent an email to the support staff at Ipower-inc.com and if they give me the right reply I might be able to repair it when I'm on the road. Although given Murphy's Law I doubt it.

This is a problem because I'm leaving for Texas in less than two days. Since this blog has a picture of me in my 2001 Easy Breezy Tour Rice Cracker outfit, which I'm going to be wearing on this tour, it seemed fitting that I'd keep contact with the ClayMates through this blog.

If you can't go over something you can go around it and this is my work around.

I'm all packed up, been packed and repacked because I keep on adding cured polymer clay things to bring to show to Densie, Jen, Eva and Debbie, who are my team members on the COCModSquad, and my hostesses when I'm in Texas.

Check my home page for details on the "Triple T" the Texas Thanksgiving Tour and check here for the updates, since my WordPress blog on my website decided to go wonky at the worst possible time.