Exciting Changes

Know that feeling when you're right on the brink of pulling the trigger on something new?  You may or may not have it all planned out but you probably have an idea of how you want things to look whenever "it" is done?

I'm not quite there yet, but I'm on my way.  And (but) the train is rolling, so no turning back.

What's going on here?  Well, Dearest Followers and Readers, I've purchased a tiny piece of the Internet.  Fivenineteen.org.  Nope, no hyphens (yay!).

What this means is that this is likely one of the last new posts I will do here on Blogspot.  I'll continue weekly postings over on the new site. 

Whew!  I've ported over all of my posts here from Day One over to the new site as well - thankfully much easier than I thought.  Please, please, come check out fivenineteen.org!  And please pardon the dust as well, as I am learning the ropes on how to lay out the new site, choose graphics and get everything looking the way I want it.  I may have lost some pictures in the moving process, but I'll get it straightened out eventually. 

Want to know a little secret?  One of my favorite parts of the Blogspot site here is the side bar showing where hits come from.  It's absolutely fascinating to me!  From countless places around the States to the UK, China, Australia, Maldives, Malta, Romania and Brazil - and so many other countries too.  I just love it.  And I hope I can replicate something similar on the new site too - stay tuned. 

Right now I have my Twitter feed at the top of the new site but I'm not sure I want it there.  And don't laugh, because in adding Twitter I realized just how seldom I tweet.  So that might change too.  Follow me @five19 and see what happens.  Huge thanks to my dear friend P, who shared a bunch of great tips on site layout, adding pictures and replicating what I have here over on fivenineteen.org.  I've got a great to-do list for sure thanks to her.

And in other Change News, I've got yet another list - thanks to my guy BFF L - of a whole bunch of home improvement projects he is going to help me with.  First things first, a run (or two?) to the Dump.  This all starts tomorrow, which is why I'm blogging today on a Saturday instead of my usual Sunday.  I have no idea how crazy tomorrow is going to be but I know once we get started I'm going to be really excited and on a roll.  It's always that first step that's the hardest, don't you think?  Having great friends willing to help and provide ideas is the grease in my gears.  Sometimes my lists get so long I lose the prioritizing skill and PLOP.  Nothing gets done.  I get wiggy and overwhelmed.  And I've forewarned L I likely will along the way.  He has great ideas, and (but) he and I have very different tastes in decorating.  So this is going to be amusing and interesting.  But he knows whose name is on the title to the townhouse here, so we're all good there.  (Meaning, mine).

So the Man Help is on the way tomorrow, and meanwhile I've got a ton to do to prepare today, plus get stuff for the tacos we're going to make.  And I have a super late hockey game tomorrow night too.  Can I get a second or third wind to skate hard?

Lots more to come - and probably pictures too - as the home projects get underway.  Remember, come check out fivenineteen.org for my future posts.  And if you follow me here at Blogspot, why not follow me on my new site too?  I'd be most grateful.  Yeah, I don't care for self-promotion but there ya go - I said it outloud and most humbly.   

Changes Dunked in Silver

May already??  Wow. 

Well, it was quite a week.  And how could we not recap a week without a big nod to the Royal Wedding - ?  C'mon, even the most anti out there saw a few clips of it or at least the pictures?  And maybe even cracked a smile?  It was breathtaking.  Not so breathtaking for me to feel like getting up at 3am to watch it live, but I do know of a few ladies who did get up early and have a pajama party - with their best HATS on.  Love it!  And pass the tea and scones, please, darling.

So, changes.  Changes are good - good to refresh, re-analyze and re-group.  My work assignment is getting a brief extension at least into the summer - possibly into the fall - but that still has not hashed out.  Good Lord have I been back at work nearly a year?  Yes indeed.  All of that stress and anguish I went through prior to landing this gig won't soon be forgotten.  So nice to have it far in the rear view mirror.  But with a few scars...and that's OK.

Two of my closest co-workers wrapped up their assignments this week and are moving on.  One won't be going too far it turns out, as she'll be joining kind of a 'cousin' team of ours, but I'll miss her 'partner in crime' that she's been this past year.  Another is required to take about 3 months off - that's the rules with some kinds of contingent workers - and she is hoping to return and pick up where she left off.

I'm happy for them both but admittedly a little sad.  But moreso I have a shitload of hilarious memories.  Things that may have sucked before but are now funny. 

I capped off the workweek with a wonderful dinner with my dear friend L at Brix, a wine bar a short drive from my house.  She's a part of that circle of friends I get together with a few times a year - we're all about the same age and went to elementary school together.  Unwinding over a nice pinot gris and to die for risotto was heavenly.  L and I can just smile at eachother and 'know' what we're each thinking.  Oodles of memories over some 35 years.  

And the silver, silver, silver flows and flows.  I'm taking a few extra steps in my Silpada business by doing a sort of correspondence course with a coach at the corporate offices.  She sends me 'homework' each week for 4 weeks and I send it back at the end of the week.  She sends me feedback, the next week's 'homework,' and we also chat on the phone during the week too.

Ugh.  I know myself pretty well and am realizing where I'm doing well in promoting my business and where I suck monkey butt.  I have a party next weekend that I'm SUPER excited about.  And one night I met up with a good friend I hadn't seen in quite awhile for dinner and half priced bottles of wine.  She asked about the jewelry I was wearing, I let her road test a few pieces during dinner, and voila - that evening I had a very nice order from her!  So I feel comfortable when people approach me with questions or compliments.  I've been complimented on my jewelry from random strangers in the grocery store to the cashier in one of our work cafeterias.  You can bet I never go anywhere without my jewelry on and a handful of business cards.  Yes, I'm learning the nuts and bolts of direct selling.  It's all about connections, people!  The woman who is hosting my party next week noticed my jewelry at work and it just flowed from there.  You never know!

But I hate picking up the damn phone.  It's no problem for me when I'm doing follow up calls to make sure people are happy with their jewelry and to answer any other questions, but just making outbound calls to people I know to talk about what I'm doing and to ask if they'd like to host parties.  Well, ew.  I am so not a sales person, and frankly, when I get home from work I am tired and the last thing I feel like doing is picking up the phone.  I feel like I'm intruding on people's dinner time or other quality time with family.  And you know I don't mean to be whiney in here because I DO love what I'm doing as a side business, but that's the area I need to really work on.

And it suddenly dawned on me why.

Email!  Texting!  Facebook!  So much of my immediate circle communication is through non-phone, social media methods!  Aha!  Is that something unique to me?  Or to this part of the country?  I have beautiful snail mail postcards in my supplies which are used to send out reminders about parties.  I don't know about any of you, but around here we stick with Evite.  Is it because it's 'green'?  Or technological?  It's SO much easier to set up parties and have reminders sent automatically via email.  

So these are some fun self-discovery things...part of the reason I chose to start this business was to get out of my comfort zone and do something I'd never done before.  Same as my plunge into hockey back in 2003.

I'll be speaking during part of our monthly team meeting this week and I'm really honored to be asked. It's very informal - just sharing the tips I've learned from this 4-week course I'm doing on my own - but I really appreciate the chance to participate more in our meetings.  'Cause they're super fun!!

And now it's time to head to the bank and run other fun errands.  Got a shiny new Silpada license plate frame on my car - let's see what happens!