Wandering Minds Wonder ...

A lot of my activity directly related to my business is both creative and repetitious. And even though the brain is involved, quite a bit involved, in the creative process, for a designer of handcrafted jewelry it's the repetitious that dominates. Yet, creative brains are active brains, so while performing the repetitions, our brains keep churning and whirling and grinding.

Personally, when my brain is churning and whirling and grinding I try NOT to think about the design of the next piece. Otherwise, I would stop what I was working on and perhaps never complete it. For hobbyists and crafters, having a whole bunch of UFOs (Un-Finished Objects) lying around may not present much of a problem, other than storage, but for some one trying to pay some bills with her craft, UFO's are waste of precious things like time and materials.

So while performing my repetitious tasks, like the actual making of a piece of handcrafted jewelry, I block the creative thoughts and let my mind wander. I have a very well-traveled mind!

Today my mind was fixated on the economic mess, as it's becoming a huge, HUGE, global problem. I heard on NPR this morning Britain is considering a lawsuit against Iceland? I didn't get a chance to hear and comprehend exactly why, but I found that rather odd, and perhaps a bit scary. Since I don't have any details, I won't express an opinion other than I find it odd. Perhaps my wandering mind will stumble across the details.

So now my wandering mind is wondering, did the American mortgage crises cause all this mess that's going on all over the world? No, can't be ... the rest of the world has its issues that it gets to own and accept responsibility. But it got me thinking that there was an earlier problem, a HUGE problem, that led to sub-prime credit and the whole mess that Americans, at least, are facing.

Outsourcing.

Perhaps if American employers kept the jobs here in the states, the whole need for sub-prime credit wouldn't have come about. Outsourcing started a long time ago, back in the early 80's if not before. Before my adult children were born. I'm beginning to feel really sorry for my adult children. I'm even more sorry for what my teen-aged daughter may be facing.

Can it all be so simple? That greed for huge bonuses on behalf of the privileged few at the top, and huge dividends and return on investments for the few who had more than ten nickels to rub together to invest was more important than our collective offspring's future quality of life? Well, thank you very much all you greedy people. But I realize you don't care one hair of your chinny-chin-chin about my childrens' future.

I'd tell y'all to bite me, but you already have.

My wandering mind is also wondering why and when the production that drives economy got away from actual things ... things you can eat, wear, hold in your hand and enjoy ... and became ethereal and pixelated. But I haven't got a firm grasp on those thoughts, so I'm off to my work bench.

Before I go, update on the Open House ... I got a free trial subscription to iContact to send out e-mail invitations to a bunch of people I've met networking over the last 5 months. iContact is a nice, easy-to-use program and very reasonably priced. I'll be converting my free trial as it's only $9.95 a month and I plan to use it monthly. But when stopping to think, isn't that ethereal and pixelated? I guess I have my own part in the larger problems facing our world.

Bless our collective hearts ...

Busy in Preparations

Hostessing my first Open House this Saturday, the 11th, and I've been swamped with all the collateral issues. I'm feeling very, very nervous. My home is clean and decent, but humble in comparison with many of the households here. I happen to live in what is considered to be in the top ten most affluent suburbs in America.

We live in the older part, much more middle-low of the middle class.

The house needs updating. It needs a fresh coat of paint. It needs a lot of things, but then, all these things cost money. Hopefully I'll make some pocket change to help along those lines, but the public is being welcomed into my humble home as it is.

I hope they'll see comfort and contentment. After all, when it came to our decision of what and where to buy, we stayed in our budget. We bought no more of a house than what we could afford in a place where the public schools are excellent.

I hope what they see and appreciate is a family who is not burdening them by being part of a $7 billion dollar "rescue" plan. So no, it ain't fancy, but it ain't costing any American taxpayer a single penny, either.