Dog Days of Summer

It is absolutely gorgeous, beautiful warm and sunny summer weather here. Don't hate me east coasters for the fact that our summer temps are an enviable 75degrees, blue skies, and no humidity. Granted, summer just showed up a month ago so it was a little late to get here but I'm loving it nonetheless.

And it has me trying to pack a year's worth of outdoor projects into the already full days. The big one right now is doing touch-up paint to the exterior of our house. While it's good for the look of the house, the real reason is that unpainted surfaces get so wet in our rainy season (aka - winter) that it makes them prime suspects for M.O.L.D. That is a word that is enough to put the fear of God into any home owner so I've been feverishly painting.

What does this have to do about work? Well, between my painting project, my part-time job, and then my workspace time and real job, things have been busy around here lately. So on Monday when I received notice that applications were up for a retail Holiday show I knew I had to spend the evening getting the application ready or I would forget about it all together. I went to this retail show last year and did really well so I'm hoping they accept me again this year (it's a juried show which means not everyone gets in). If nothing else, how quickly I turned the application around ought to show them I'm excited about the show!

Speaking of shows, I learned yesterday that my BIG wholesale trade show that is held in September every year will be moving to July starting 2013 so as to "better accomodate holiday orders." What they really mean is that they want to put more emphasis on the larger manufacturers and larger retailers who have to place their holiday orders six months in advance so they can have the products made in China and shipped over in time for the holidays. I won't lie, I'm a bit peeved off at the whole situation because my buyers - even my larger manufacturers - just don't plan that far out. I realize I don't have to worry about this just yet given that it's three years away but I figure this is the motivation I need to wean my business off of tradeshows all together. Not sure if it can be done but since I'm down to only one this year there's really no other place to go other then to cut them altogether.