White Wolf

A beautiful white wolf taking a breather in the cool grass.

Both close up and full body shots are available of this image.

Remember, you can contact me with any customizations you’d like.

Kansas Countryside #2

This is one of my favorite photos taken while on vacation.  In a state of vast plains and open fields, it’s easy to overlook the simple, quiet beauty Kansas can possess.  Various colors of green under a variegated blue sky, a still pond with cows in the background, and a dead tree surrounded by life make for a picture full of undertones.

I’m not done with all the products for this image, but I’ve been wanting to share it for awhile.  I’m hoping to finish in the coming week and add it to Zazzle as soon as I can.

Heft a cold one in this 22 oz. ceramic stein with gold trim. A great “usable” alternative to the trophy. Make any day Oktoberfest whether with this impressive stein on the shelf or in-hand. Cheers!

via Bear-ly Sober Stein Baby Bear Crescent Moon Haberdashery.

Ah ha! I figured out how to make this work. Just takes a little tinkering. So, I’ll have to share things I’ve been working on from time to time. Eventually, I’ll be getting the Zazzle store set up as well so people will have a choice. Zazzle also offers some products that CafePress doesn’t and vice versa.

Any comments or suggestions are welcome.

My partner in crime found a better way to streamline things and freed up quite a bit of time. We still have a ton of things to do, e.g. taking pics, adding new products, spring cleaning, but after that’s over with I might actually have a little free time on my hands.

My brain is already on overdrive adding new projects for me to tackle. I keep mulling over adding a blog for CMH so I can stop talking about it here and actually post less personal and less vague posts on the business blog, but I don’t know. I don’t know if it would just wind up being another time sink with no real benefit, or if it would actually be worth it. I’d ask Tee’s opinion, but he’s such a busy guy I’d hate to bug him.

I’m most excited about getting back to old projects and as soon as we get a handle on the backlog of things we need to do, I’m going to find me some word meters to add to the blog. I want to see a word meter start increasing again!

I don’t want to get ahead of myself though. There’s still a lot of time consuming stuff left to do.

So… the schedule has been an epic failure. I was getting a variety of things partially done, but falling behind on everything. The schedule is scrapped now, and I’m flailing along trying to figure out how to make time for everything. The tomorrows I promise myself that I’ll sit down and write or podcast never seem to come.

I wish I could clone myself.

I’ll figure this out at some point. For now, I’ll do what I have the time for. I still have a schedule, I just gave myself more time to do the things I have to do and cut out the things I want to do.

In the meantime, we’ve been adding a ton of stuff to CMH and I’ve been working on getting this new software down. I’m really considering taking some more business classes after my daughter is off to college. I wonder how she’d like her mom going to school with her. *maniacal laughter*

Orders are starting to slow down now and we’re prepping for the end of the year closing. Looking back, this year has been better than the previous and we’re already making plans for next year. Along with new product suggestions and new promotion ideas, we’ve been looking back on what worked and what didn’t in 2008. We’ve learned a lot this year and we have a lot of changes and additions in the works.

Thanks to everyone that made 2008 such a great year for CMH.

Obviously, I didn’t get the podcast out and it’s looking like Jan or Feb before I’ll get a chance to get to it. This Christmas selling season has been crazy busy so far and I haven’t had time to do… well… anything. I really wanted to get this started in 2008, but there’s simply no time. Next year, I’ll make sure I do something to cover this time of the year with podcasts. Not sure what yet. I’m hoping to have a bunch banked, but if not… I’ll figure out something.

I can’t spend too much time on this update, so here are some highlights from the past couple of months along with rambling thoughts and questions:

On October 31st, my husband and I celebrated our 10th. He had to work that night, which sucked… but we’ve been married for a decade now. Seems like just yesterday…

Driving from facility to facility, I almost hit a deer taller than my car. I was only a few feet from it when the car screeched to a halt. My daughter was in the car at the time and we’re both paranoid now.

My daughter turns 16 in two days. Help me!

I have 3 random questions left. Send me more! It’s something quick and easy I can do.

Do people seem more reserved this Christmas season or is that only in my area?

Got the expansion for WoW, but I haven’t had time to play much. However, I did complete all the Death Knight quests and I have to say… incredible job Blizzard! That was the coolest set of quests I’ve ever done. More like that please! Our family plays WoW together so they make me take a break and play with them from time to time, but they’re understanding when I tell them I simply can’t.

I can’t think of anything else at the moment. I’ll try to throw more short updates up here to at least let everyone know I’m still kicking.

Now… back to paperwork!

I was going to try to keep myself seperated from the business so as not to drag it down with all this “goth stuff” and horror and such, but I find it impossible to keep something that is such a large part of my life seperate from everything. So, hopefully no one will look down on my business if they happen to stumble in here and see all this.

Originally posted on Macabre Manor’s forum: http://forum.macabremanor.com/index.php?topic=153.0

In Jan of 2007, I started my own business called Crescent Moon Haberdashery. We started selling at local shows then and in March of 2007, we started selling on Amazon.com. The business has been growing and growing ever since. It’s been keeping me pretty busy of late.

I love photography and also in Jan of 2007, I started putting photos and art on cafepress.com. So far, it has been supporting itself, but needs a huge update. I have tons of photos sitting here begging to be added. You can find it at http://www.cafepress.com/crescentmoonhab if you’re interested in seeing what I’ve done so far. At some point, I’m going to be putting some of my poetry on mousepads and framed pictures as well. I’ll be crushed if they never sell, but I’m doing it anyway.

In June of 2008, we launched Crescent Moon Haberdashery’s own store at http://www.crescentmoonhab.com We haven’t been doing too bad considering we only launched a few months ago. We sell t-shirts, incense, greeting cards, knives (until they’re gone), and some magnets made from photos I took. I’d love to carry more of the magnets, but they aren’t selling enough to warrent bringing in more. Our biggest seller is the Life is Crap line of t-shirts.

At the moment, we’ve sent more Life is Crap shirts to New York than any other state… I wonder if that means something…

We have a few goth shirts too, which is our second best seller. I wanted to get in more goth shirts before Halloween, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen. We’re going to be adding long sleeve shirts, tank tops, and hats soon, too. Don’t know where we’re going to store it all, but that’s the plan.

While I’m not the only slave to CMH, I’m the primary slave and it takes more time than I ever anticipated. I really enjoy it though. It’s nice to be the boss and not the peon for once. It’s also nice because I feel like crap more often than I feel good anymore, so I can do as little or as much as I feel I can accomplish. Most of the time, I work way too many hours anyway, but when I really feel like death warmed over, I can take it a little easy. Still have to work, but not quite as hard.

So, check out Crescent Moon Haberdashery and laugh at the shirts! They’re a lot of fun.

I go through long periods of not playing any online games, or any games at all for that matter, because I’m simply too busy. Shroud is still playing WoW and recently I’ve played some myself since things have been slowing down a bit after the back to school rush… and I needed a break… needed to have some fun for a bit. However, we’re about to start gearing up for the Christmas selling season, so I doubt I will have time to play much very soon. That and I need to run an inventory. Wheeeee!

Since I had so many friends jumping from blog site to blog site and wanting me to follow, I decided to start my own permanent blog at http://www.kryson.info awhile back. None of those friends actually go to my blog, of course. It’s only stuff I can post to everyone though, so no ultra personal stuff there. I’ve found that most people don’t want to read about the drama with the insurance company on the damage claim for our house, problems with bank screw ups, and family drama anyway.

I started a podcast on http://www.kryson.info as well. I’m planning on podcasting my short stories for now and work my way up to podcasting the 3 novels I have in the works. I’m not sure how I’m expecting myself to free up the time, but it’s something I’ve wanted to do since 2005 when I found out what a podcast was. I just recently decided to stop planning it and just do it. The podcast sucks at the moment, but I’m hoping it will get better as I get more practice at it. If not… well, it’s something that takes me away from working for awhile. I’m only interested in having some fun, making some friends, and sharing two of my hobbies with others (writing and now… podcasting).

Shroud changed jobs and is working 3rd shift now. It’s an adjustment and difficult for him to find the balance between sleeping and getting things done that he needs to do, but I’m sure he’ll figure it out soon… probably about the time they move him to another shift. He’s enjoying the new job though, which is the important part. I’m hoping he’ll become a trainer there at some point. He’s so patient and so good at teaching, I think he’d really enjoy it. I tried to talk him into being a teacher at one point, but with the way our school system is now, I don’t blame him for not wanting to. I still think he’d make an awesome teacher though.

Speaking of the school system, Sara is still making incredible grades and is becoming more active in school. She’s going to be in a musical this fall. Fiddler on the Roof! She has a bit tougher classes this time around, so we’ll see if she maintains her excellent grades. Traditional Chinese is probably her hardest class. In December she turns 16. Pick your jaw up off the floor! Time flies.

My mother always told me that kids grow up before you can blink and I never believed her until now. When I was a kid, time seemed to pass so slowly and now… I blinked and 10 years just flew by. Makes me wonder if tomorrow I’ll be in a wheelchair watching my grandkids graduate from high school. Yeah Sara… I know… you’re not going to have kids! Remember, I said that, too.

Sara’s got a boyfriend I absolutely hate. Just kidding. Did ya have a heartattack there, Sara? He’s actually a pretty nice kid. Pretty typical “indestructible” male teenager. As a matter of fact, the song Indestructible by Disturbed is her ringtone for him. He asked me, through her, what I thought about him one day and I told her to tell him that I don’t really know him very well, but I thought he was a pretty nice guy… and the best guy she’s gone out with so far. It’s funny though… she asked him what he thought of me and I guess he’s never given her a straight answer. Understandable though. I mean, most of her friends like me, but only her boyfriend has to put up with how strict I am.

Sadly for Sara, Shroud and I are some of the strictest parents. I just can’t understand parents that let their kids run wild. So many kids Sara knows just flat scare me with all the things they do and are allowed to do… or rather the parents never know because they don’t take an interest in their kids. I just couldn’t do that. At least Sara seems to understand that I care and that’s why she can’t do all the thing these kids do. She’s a lot like I was as a teen… I understood why my parents didn’t let me do things, but that didn’t mean I had to like it.

I haven’t actually written much of anything in years, but I’m slowly changing that. I need to have something to actually podcast after all. I’m hoping that eventually, people will want to play in my world and write for the podcast as well, but every time I’ve tried to get community activity going, it hasn’t actually happened. I’m hoping this time will be different, but if it isn’t… well… people will just have to listen to my rusty butt try to put something out there worth listening to. I’ve already had one person say I suck and I haven’t even podcasted any fiction yet! LOL!

I’m thinking about taking a few of the pieces of story I wrote for the round robins we did years ago and turn it into something else as well. Like the whole scene with Mordin in the virtual garden… I’m thinking about turning that into a sci-fi stand alone story… pulling all of the fanfic out of it and doing something completely different with it. There are a couple of others as well. I toyed with posting the pieces I wrote on my blog, but I didn’t think anyone would really be interested in reading bits and pieces of stories. I haven’t posted any poetry there either. I’ve posted it so many places it feel like beating a dead horse, ya know?

Man I miss those round robins.

So… that’s what we’ve been up to. How about you? What have you been up to?

Have you ever gotten up in the morning, blinked, then realized it was time for bed and wondered where in the heck your day went? That’s pretty much been my existence for the last month. Wow… I didn’t realize it had been so long since I posted.

The big project I’ve been working on is almost done. Everything in both my professional and personal life quadrupled in June as well. While expressing to my mother that I’d be glad when everything was finished, caught up, slowed down so I could work on three other projects that I’ve been dying to tackle, she said something that caused me pause. She said, “You may find that you never quite have the time to do everything you want to do.”

While she was talking about podcasting, writing, and some crafting that I’ve been wanting to do, I ran with the thought and applied it more generally to life itself. What about all those things I want to do before I die? How many of our childhood dreams do we really have to give up? Are people that live their dreams really as rare as they seem to be?

Which, of course, gave me an idea for a story…

Sometimes I love the way my brain works. Instead of getting depressed about all the things I haven’t done in my life, I turn it into a story idea.

I still want to start podcasting. My next big time sink after June isn’t until November-December, so I’m really hoping I can get things rolling in the next few weeks. I’ve been recording here and there, trying to clean up the sound from my crappy mic until I can finally get my new one, but sound isn’t exactly my strong point. I know it’s going to sound like crap at first, but I know it’s not possible to make it sound like I want it to from the beginning, so I’m ok with that. I’ll work on it, I’ll get better… I just need to get started. I have people waiting on me and people that have already given up on me. Unfortunately, the family and the business have to come first and that will always be the case.

I just have to find time, cut off it’s wings, and tack it to the wall so it will stop flying away from me.

Are people not getting my emails recently or is there an “ignore Kryson” mandate out there? Six people, two friends and four I was hoping to become friends with, haven’t answered multiple emails and/or Tweets. It’s weird since most of them don’t know each other, so I’m wondering if it’s my server, but I don’t see how it could be. Family and customers seem to be getting my emails just fine. Odd. Maybe I just annoyed everyone at the same time?

Tater post…

Yeah, I know I’ve been promising it for awhile now. I know there’s at least one interested person since I got an email asking when I was going to post it, so… I’m staying up uber late and posting it tonight! It will be the next post for sure this time! Sorry about that.

This has been a strange couple of weeks. So many things…

We had a hail storm that damaged the roof causing water to literally pour in at the top of the windows, which in turn ran down the walls and into the basement. The carpet was wet in the basement, but it wasn’t too bad. I almost had a panic attack thinking about everything that could have been damaged. Thankfully, everything was fine.

So, I put off buying my podcasting gear again. I think I’m going to get started without it though. I need to figure out how to fit podcasting into my schedule and get used to actually doing it anyway. I know I’m gonna suck at this for quite awhile and I need practice. I might as well start now. I’m shooting for tomorrow night, if I ever get to sleep.

Orders have picked up considerably. It’s exciting to watch the business grow. Seeing and participating in every aspect in some capacity is amazing. When I have time to take a breather, it makes me feel so accomplished.

Lots of outside influences have been messing with my family recently. We’re used to two major outside influences causing turmoil, but this is just getting ridiculous. They’re like bees that keep stinging and quickly dart away before we can smash them against the wall. I have a feeling that analogy is going to make me cringe tomorrow after I’ve slept. Could someone pass the bug spray? Please?

I haven’t had a chance to do much writing recently, but I’m going to be posting meters soon to help push me to find the time. I’ve had so many ideas that I told myself I would write down later only to completely forget what they were by the time I have the chance. I need to start carrying paper around with me everywhere. I still have a character screaming at me to start on her story though… it’s the story I’d really like to podcast when it’s done. I don’t have the skill to pull a Mur Lafferty and podcast while writing it.

In my last actual blog entry I said next time I was going to tell the tale behind Tater Brain and Tater Tot, but it’s going to have to wait one more post. I need to get to sleep before I fall asleep right here. Goodnight and sweet dreams…