Closet Shopping

Still looking into the whole closet organization thing. For a second I was afraid I may have to stop because the washing machine died sometime Friday. But Mr. T had already been looking around and next thing I knew on Saturday, I was at Sears saying yes to one he had picked out. He wanted a color but it was a tad more than he wanted to spend so we stuck with white but who cares. The back and forth to the laundromat for one day will tide me over for at least another decade. So my closet hopes stay intact. Whew.

So far I've had one guy come check it out so I can start getting an idea of price. I figured while he was here, he may as well take a look at the kids' rooms too even though I doubted I'd be doing theirs too unless it was crazy not to. I had to have him tip toe through my daughter's messy madness of a boudoir so he could measure and think about what's possible. We realized that son's closet was actually a little deeper than hers so he had different thoughts for him. We were looking at something like this for the kids:

The wood is more flexible than I expected because most of it can be moved as the kids grow. Maybe there would be baskets for Daughter because she could use the organization help. Slightly neater Son wouldn't need that much help but Ken, the guy doing the consultation, said we could give him a little help with his toys as well. White would be cheaper than any color wood so I'd probably say yes to that.

We talked about how there is actually room to spare in my closet and a back wall that's more usable than I expected. Again with the white wood to save on cost but I really don't want white, although I am not closed to it if the cost difference is that great. I keep thinking of espresso wood and brushed nickle hardware and it'll be hard to go in another direction. But then Ken told me what it might cost to do all three closets (he will be sending me an actual bid for just my closets and for all three as well) - $3,200. Oh boy. Which means I am probably looking at $1,500 alone, if I'm lucky.

But think of something narrower than this (maybe as wide as one side of those shelves):


In a color like this:


A place for everything. No more shoe boxes. Double hanging. Espresso and brushed nickle. Ahhh. Mr. T doesn't see the need but this is like makeup - he wouldn't wear it but he can appreciate how it enhances. So, I have an appointment with California Closets this week (I already know I'm not going to like their numbers). I am waiting to hear from two other companies I emailed and hopefully by or in March, I'll have a new closet.

Let's hope I won't feel broke afterward.

Full Speed Ahead

Kerri and her hubby, Chris, are at Sundance right now and a few minutes ago she let us all know his movie was just bought by Lionsgate. Check out the clips at her site. I may or may not have told you they are expecting their first child in May. I'd say it's full speed ahead for them, wouldn't you? I couldn't be more thrilled.

The ladies and I met for about 3 1/2 hours on Saturday night and it was most productive. I know I need other people involved in order to get things done sometimes but this really proves it. We all have our times when we don't feeeeel like doing things, but as long as one of us is motivated or we all at least meet together, we can get through those times.

I am trying oh so hard to get my bedroom closet done, something I've wanted since we moved here. My kids need it too and it wouldn't hurt to figure out a system for the leftover that falls to my office and hey, the garage too so it never gets nuts. But one closet at a time. My heart leaps at the thought of a place for everything and everything in its place. I can't get a consultation fast enough.

Isn't this pretty? I'll take before shots of mine and I'll let you know how things progress.

Back to Juggling

Didn't take much to get me back in the groove. After clearing out the emails, I saw I still had control and few people were waiting on me impatiently to get back to them. So it's back to business and oh the business we have to get worked out - the planning still needs to be done; the newsletter still hasn't gone out for the month because I am trying to get something worked out first that will allow us to offer our customers something different; there are jobs going on (yay!) but the numbers still aren't there the way we need (boo!); there are 2 magazine articles on the horizon that will give us free press; and overall there is the whole thing with having small but manageable growth because all three of us (I include Graphic Guru since she's integral to what we're doing) have jobs with a ton of responsibility and, thankfully, employers who like what we do enough to keep us around.

So the juggle goes on. But watching me juggle isn't nearly as fun as you'd think it is. Instead, how about I send you to Kerri's site (it is HER husband after all) so you can see clips of the movie I was telling you about before when I was talking about her husband having sold a movie script last year. And of course since then he sold another one because someone finally woke up and realized he's brilliant. So is his wife, if you get a chance to peruse her blog.

I'll let you enjoy that and go see if I can go get something worked out for my customers right quick. Sure to see you later!

Cave Dwelling

I watched a movie this weekend called "The Answer Man" with Jeff Daniels and Lauren Graham.


Semi-quick note about this: I have been finding bliss with my Netflix membership, which I just got in November. Not because of the ease of movies coming and going. I don't really care about that because I was cool with stopping at Redbox at a million and one different locations on the way home. I started Netflix only to get caught up on "Lost" so I can watch the final season next month and know what the heck is going on. I wanted the cheapest membership possible - about $5 per month - which is one movie at a time, twice a month (I believe it's how it works). We're movie people so that's really confining but I still didn't want to spend much. I went up to the next level - about $9 per month - which is one movie at a time but I get unlimited movies. When you choose this option, you also get the chance to get Instant Movies on your computer and you can have one queue of those and one queue of movies that come to your home. (No, not all movies are instant ones.) My husband wanted PlayStation3 for Christmas but he got it 2 weeks later for his birthday instead. I had toyed with canceling Netflix when I realized how slow it was going to be to get the "Lost" DVDs to watch and also because they don't get the newest movies as fast as Redbox. But along came PS3, which lets me get Netflix instant movies there too. And now it's worth my money. I have movies coming to the house and I can add a ton of movies to my Instant queue, see all those choices on my TV and watch as much as I care to in one sitting. And they stay until I remove them. So, if you were wondering if Netflix was worth it, now you know how it can be.

Back to the real blog post.

In the movie, there was a scene where someone asked Daniels' reclusive character, Arlen Faber, about doing what you really want to do in life. His response, "You are always doing what you want to do. The trick is to realize that." I paraphrase big time. See the movie to get the exact quote. It's a good one. I think I saved it. I may just watch it again before I let it go. Faber had some interesting points about children too that I believe I won't be forgetting anytime soon.

This was not an ah-ha moment for me. I knew this. The trick is remember what I know and stick to that. The greater trick is to either own it and make my life easier or keep letting it guilt me until I change something. In this case, it's my tendency to go into my cave. This is what I do. Men do it too, except I am still open to the people who are in my house. They aren't always that way. What I am closed to is just about all other forms of communication and I suppose it's just a necessity to recharge my batteries.

Thus my lack of blogging for the past few weeks. But not just blogging. I barely Tweeted, Facebooked, checked any email for weeks. After the holidays, it was back to work I went, so first I got my work email back under control. Then just focused on work and going home. By the second week after the holidays, I got my personal email back under control and kept on top of the work stuff. And then just focused on work, personal email and going home. (Work has been monumentally crazy since I don't know when and it just got worse. This is why I must love what I do.) I tweeted again after the New Year, here and there but not checking the site right away. Today was the first day I looked at Village Works email again (bad business, Monica) and the first time I spoke up on Facebook. As you can see, it's also the first time I came back to Blogger. It's a slow transition but darn it, I'm ok with that.

What I'm not OK with is not being quick to respond to business emails. But I also admit I don't want to be THAT accessible. So my challenge is to think long and hard about the tools that let me see the emails (I really, really, really don't want a PDA) and maybe devise some more ways to handle some of the repetitive stuff. Folders only work so much because you still have to go in the folders and deal with the mail that got sorted there. I still dream of my ideal - a version of me who can handle the repetitive stuff and only send the pressing stuff my way. The read-at-my-leisure emails can go into a folder for me to look at, well, at my leisure.

So here I am, I suppose fully out of my cave since I am working my way through VWE emails now and planning to call the troops to make the plan for the rest of the year. But it makes me think. How much of my life do I want my business to overrun? It's possible to have a full-time business and have a life but you have to know what you want and don't want. You have to know how to compromise. You have to just do it and be OK with doing it. This all also makes me think more about the direction we need to move in in order to get where we want this business to go.

I'll be talking to Bizzy Girl about it because we tend to be on one accord about these things. In the meanwhile, a Happy Belated New Year to you all. I'll be back as soon as I finish clearing email.