Help for a charity

Link: http://albertsonscpchallenge.com/

Id number 0652

Saddles of Joy is a small nonprofit organization in Yuma County, Arizona. Saddles of Joy provides therapeutic riding services to children with special needs whether their needs are physical, mental or emotional. Our horses are the therapists that work wonders for these children. We work with approximately 200 special needs children in our local schools and through private sessions. In order to provide the children and the horses a safe environment, we need to replace our aging supply of safety helmets and belts to protect the children and the horses that they ride. Our present stock is limited, resulting in fewer children able to ride at any one time. By replacing our old stock, ill fitting safety equipment will be a thing of the past. By receiving this grant, Saddles of Joy can immediately purchase this equipment in time for the school children to use in their riding classes as part of their Individual Education Programs. The children, horses and volunteers will all benefit from this grant. Many of our children are able to make great strides in their development and education through our riding program

WOW- Finally a Transaction tax#

Well I finally have my Arizona Transaction Privilege number- Effective September 1, 2011. Next step stocking my shop.

Still waiting for my AZ paper work to come though...

I called AZ dept. of Revenue- I am still on their waiting list for my TPT number but since I have officially been logged in to the queue I can start selling stuff . in the meantime I have been busy with family visits, making jelly and jam etc. I also have torn my sewing area apart getting set up with more efficient workstations, culling supplies- returning EVERY ONE'S belongings to their areas of our home etc. Pictures to follow soon.  one of the thing's I have found is that my room just "grew" without a lot of planning and so was as well set up as it could be. Camping equipment is stored under Heather's bed since she is away at college free up  a whole shelf. My "office" including family mailing supplies and the family printer is in one corner- that freed up a whole counter alone making room for my Juki and my poor limping Serger to stay up and ready for sewing. I am taking inventory for my notions and I discovered that while I generally have them stashed in drawers and bins, they just aren't labeled well enough for quick reference.

I am trying to find an easy way to organize buttons and am open to suggestions!

Peaches

 

A friend gave us a bushel of peaches from their tree, we ate our fill of fresh peaches but since they were getting very ripe we needed to do more- so I made a batch of peach jam which has turned out beautifully. We still had loads of peaches and no more pectin so after a web search I decided to do peach butter in my crock pot, that one I am not so sure about... never having had fruit butter I am not sure of the value vs. jam. Things were going smoothly until I put a TABLESPOON of Cayenne pepper into the pot by mistake instead of cinnamon. Luckily I caught before I stirred it in so it sat on top of the peaches. I managed to skim most of it out and the rest I stirred in. Brad was helping me peel the millions of peaches and asked me why I gasped. I told him "no reason" and added the cinnamon, 1/2 the cloves and allspice- stirred well. Preliminary tastes give a slight bite but I think I can pass it off on the cloves!  I am not fessing up- ROFL.

EQ6

I am buckling down to really learn the ins and outs of EQ6 ( in time for them to release EQ7! )  In the past I have been lazy, just learning enough to get a layout, yardage and play with colour. Our DD Heather learned the program in 2 minutes flat without the manuals- mom not so much.

Paperwork, Paperwork

It sounded so simple- just go online and get my EIN number, well after filling out pages of online work I push "submit" AND..... I get one of the following messages: this site is unavailable until 6:00 am EST, (3 am my time and no it didn't work then either!) or if I try during business hours ( eastern) I am told that due to high demand only a limited number of applicants will be accepted EACH DAY- really now? The hours listed on the website are M-F, 6:00 am- 12:30 am, Sat. & Sun they are from 6 pm to midnight eastern time. That being said, I finally tried by phone several times and finally today got a human on line, this  person was not happy that I refused to go back to the online service or do a mail one which would take 4 to 6 weeks and insisted that we do the phone app. right now. I wasn't letting the human get away from me! That is done. my sales tax paperwork has been held up waiting on this. Now I can get moving. In the meantime I have moved my sewing to the family room to try and keep cool, our air conditioner gave up the ghost and we are in the midst of getting bids which is harder than it sounds - two companies have been no shows, one company spent 5 minutes at the house and is telling us something vastly different than the 2 companies that actually seem to be prepared to give us serious bids. Yuma has gotten slightly warm with our temps running in the high 90's

Just plugging along

For anyone watching this blog- no you aren't crazy, my logo and header keep disappearing and reappearing It is so much easier to do this on EQ and even easier with a sewing machine. I do not have really great graphic editing software - and at the cost it will be a while before I do. In the meantime paint and Irfan view will just have to do. I am on hold while wading though the tax paperwork needed, at least publicly, behind the scenes my sewing machine is busy. My kids feel like the cobbler's kids, my son needs a new quilt and my daughter is waiting on a new skirt, though in her case she does share the blame equally. Heather has yet to try on the basted skirt and mail it back with the needed alterations. She came home from college last week and forgot the skirt but she is coming home for Mother's day. It will be nice to see her with or without the skirt!

How did life get so complicated?

I decided that I would open my own craft business on line at Etsy and Fireart- Sounded so simple, just get sewing right? Actually wrong, I now have decisions to make; logo? policies- pricing, marketing etc. the actual sewing is the easiest part.   I have a fledgling Logo that needs a little more tweaking but really it is almost there.  I am aiming for a fall opening and plan to spend the hot summer finishing up some baby quilts and working on wall hangings and some placemats and toppers.