Happy Thanksgiving!

I wanted to tell everyone Happy Thanksgiving! It’s easy to get wrapped up in our day to day lives and forget what we are thankful for. Here’s a few things from 2011 that I’m thankful for:

My old job. I started the year off with a job, a boss, and a team that I really liked. If I had to have a job, this was the one I wanted! I got to spend my whole day problem solving, playing with Excel, and looking for bigger and better ways to crunch numbers.

My husband’s job. And him too. Last year, my husband took a huge leap and quit his 9 to 5 job to put all of his time and effort into something he’s really good at: writing. Obviously we were a little scared when he quit his job. We really weren’t sure that he would be able to do enough work to keep the bills paid. However, nearly all day, nearly every day of the week, he’s writing writing writing, and a year and a half later, he’s still going strong. I’m so thankful for him, his talent, and his ambition.

My new job. As I mentioned before, I liked my old job, but it wasn’t what I wanted to do every day for the rest of my life. Because my husband is so amazing, I was able to quit my job in September so I can put all of my effort in to my jewelry and other artistic endeavors.

Friends, family, and fans. I have a pretty cool family. I’m thankful to have each and every one of you in my life. I lost my grandmother this year, but I’m so thankful for the time I got with her. So many people don’t get the opportunity to know their grandparents into their adult years. I’m so thankful she and I were close, and I’m very thankful my grandfather is able to spend Thanksgiving with us. Oh, I also got a new niece this year! She’s still not too sure about me, but I’m excited to get to know her as she grows up.

I have a fabulous network of friends! Friends in real life, friends that I only know online, you are all special to me, and I’m very thankful for you all. That goes for my four legged friends, Boris and Olaf, too.

Finally, I’m very thankful for my fans! I love interacting with you on my Facebook page, and it’s also because of you that I was able to quit my job to work on my jewelry full time. To say ‘thank you’ to you all I’ll be offering 15% off and free shipping in my Etsy shop starting on Small Business Saturday (11/26) and going through Cyber Monday (11/28).

So Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I hope you all have family and/or friends to spend the day with. I hope you have tons to eat and drink, and no dishes to do 🙂 Leave me a comment and tell me what you’re thankful for this year!

~Jane

Get Down with the Sickness.

I don’t get sick very often. In fact, aside from the random ickies that last less than 24 hours, I haven’t been full on sick in… well… The last one I remember was in January of 2008. I remember because it was my birthday. What a great gift! When I do get sick, I get real sick. I guess it’s just a compilation of all sicknesses I didn’t get, all rolled into one. This one is no different.

I have not stepped foot into my studio all week! Monday morning brought me a sinus infection. It’s been my constant companion for five days now! Yesterday, I realized something interesting. If I were still employed outside of the house, I would be ok with being sick. I’d get to take days off, stay at home, rest, and feel bad for all the suckers at work who didn’t get sick and had to be there! However, now that I’m self employed, and the things I have to do are also the things I want to do, I want the sickness to be gone! No more naps! No more tissues! I broke the thermometer, so no more temperature taking! No more Tylenol! I will have another glass of orange juice, though. Thanks 🙂

I vow that today will be different! Today, I will get into the studio, if only long enough to make the earrings that jumped into my mind last night after the Tylenol PM had been ingested, so there was no getting up at that point. I also had a dream about a bracelet the other night. I’d really like to try working on that, too.

So why am I telling you this? Because if I write it down, I might actually do it! And if I’m going to write it down, I might as well share it, because that’s how I roll.

So in the illustrious words of Disturbed: Get up, come on get down with the sickness!