I'm not much of a New Year's resolution maker. I am always setting & refining goals for myself, for the present & future. But I do want to take that feeling of a fresh start with me throughout this year.

Instead of relying on my growing list of things I'd like to get done at some point in the future, I'm going to pull things from that list and make a smaller to-do list at the start of each month. I do work so much better with a deadline, and I'm hoping this will give me the nudge I need to get those things finished before the end of the month.

Things are going very well so far. I managed to finish up one huge project before the start of the year, so I didn't even have to add it to the list! My database for work ~



For years I've been tracking all of my orders & customers in 3-ring binders. I did also have a database where I tracked one-time customers (just a list of names & what they ordered) & more information for return customers (addresses, hem lengths, etc.). And while that worked pretty well when I made fewer, but more expensive items, it was too much to keep up with when I started making ambigrams.

I created a database to track all of the customer and product information in one place. It was a little awkward at first to switch over to the new system, but it felt normal in no time. But what really took forever was pulling out the old binders and entering all of the old information from the last 4 years!

The data entry was very slow at first, but started speeding up a litte because of the return customers. Finally I got down to about 100 one-time customers, and I spent time just moving their information over. I was able to fly through the last two years of orders in a few days. It is such a relief to have all of that out of the way and to know that everything is up-to-date. (Now I just have the fear of my computer crashing! I need to find some way to back everything up)


I have a few things up my sleeve for January, but they are in progress. One thing I want to do a lot of this year is blog give-a-ways, so expect one before the end of the month. (Yay!) I have way too many creations sitting around my work room that need a good home.

I have seen a lot of bloggers that were thrilled to get past 2007. I have to say, it was a pretty good year for us, at least financially. We are finally getting past the days of living payment to payment, had a little extra cash sitting around, and are starting to make some big dents this year in our debt from college. But I am ready to do as much as I can to make this year even better!

A while back, there was a note left on our door, addressed to our landlord. It said something like a home inspector had dropped by. So, ok, whatever, Justin tucked it in with the rent payment. We also had a few letters come to the house addressed to him, but we noticed one or two of them were ads from home security companies and did not think anything of it.

I got a call from the property manager just now (who works for the landlord, in charge of the the local properties) and he start off saying (all casual) 'Don't let those people push you around. You should be able to ask them for a moving fee, like $500 should be reasonable...' and so on. He finally stops and asks if I have any questions, and I say 'What people would those be?'

Turns out the landlord has not been making the payments and our townhouse has been foreclosed. And this is the first we are hearing about it.

He tells me that we will surely hear from 'those people' again soon, and they will be telling us we need to move out right away, and we should write him a letter when they do contact us so we don't get pushed around and have reasonable time to find a new place and move and so on...

Wow.

Now, this is not truly horrible news, because we were planning on moving this summer. But that is the *summer*, not a week or month or however long from now. I'd also really been wanting to go through everything ~ my clothes, my shoes, my workroom, etc. ~ and get rid of the things I don't use, purge the place a little. This would give me the chance to go through everything as I pack it up, assuming we don't have to throw everything in boxes and rent a storage space as we sleep in a hotel.

But it is certainly inconvenient and shocking news. I am on edge until Justin gets home. I'm worried about money for a deposit, how long it will take to find a new place, the hassle of moving, having to put orders on hold? I really need a timeframe here!