Friday, January 30, 2009

Things are looking a little better today. Although I am upset becasue the powers that be at Harkins Theaters and the movie distribution companies have decided that Flagstaff is not a chick film city. I was told yesterday by a 17 year old manager at my local theater that we will be getting more slasher movies and more action adventure flicks and less girlie ones. This is the only theater in a 35 mile radius. If the movie does not come here then I don't get to see it until it comes on NetFlix or I have to take the car down to be serviced in Phoenix. What kind of bullcrap is that? That's 2 movies now that I am missing out on. I really wanted to go see "New in Town" and "Revolutionary Road" but neither will be coming here and I'm stuck here in my office with noting to do but look for old gradeschool friends on Facebook.

That's it that's all I have to say today. I'm frustrated. I'm basically jobless, and peniless this week. Things will start to look up soon. In the meantime there is always the new season of American Idol.

What ever happened to Michael Johns? He was smokin hot.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Economic Conditions

This is the week that I finalize and package all of the info for my accountant for personal taxes and 2 of our business taxes. So in other words this is the week that I take stock of how things went last year. Over all, not as bad as you might think, but also it shows me where we need to cut back for this year. This will not be the year to spend $5k on business meals, magazine subscriptions, pretty architectural picture books, or piles of post-it notes.
I am also looking to expand 1 business, drastically scale back on a second, close down a third and start a fourth. It will be an interesting year. If things aren't changing then I'm not growing. I'm a serial entrpreneur and this is how things go when times get rough. This is what keeps us afloat....having our hands in a myriad of different businesses. If one is down then the other is up and we still have income.
I'm trying to deal with banks, employees, clients, partners, and business sellers. It's all very frustrating, exciting, daunting, and stressful but I wouldn't have it any other way.

My studio pics are still coming. I took some iphone photos, but they won't upload here unless I go thru the desktop at home. I'll get there, but not today. I'm also very close to getting a yarn wholesale supplier. They just have to approve my applications and recognize me as a real business and then I can place my orders.

Tomorrow I'm going to sneak away and try and see "New in Town". I don't like Renee Zelwegger, but I love Harry Connick.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Progress

I've got no pictures this afternoon of my beautiful new studio. It was such a wasted weekend and I got nothing accomplished. The awful trip to Phoenix on Sunday resulted in a horribly long day, extremely tired children and a broken down Land Rover. My baby, my ride, needed all new spark plugs and spark plug wires to the tune of $900. Not only that but it had to stay in Phoenix for 2 days and we all had to stuff into a Ford Focus to ride home that night. So that will be 4 times this week I will have to go to Phoenix for car issues. The Audi is there now and they had to call in some real live German Audi engineers to try and access it's myriad of electrical issues that make it stall, keep the trunk from closing, cause the alarm to go off every 5 minutes, and lose power steering. We might just have to break down and get a new one. I'm all for the 08 A5 or maybe a cute little A3. we'll see if the engineers can fix the old one though.
On the new business front I'm still looking for a suitable wool yarn that I can get in bulk quantities and for a decent price per pound, oh and the colors are important too. That is seeming to be the hardest part of getting things up and going. It's hard to create patterns without the color palette. I still need to get the huge air compressor too and I should be set to go. I still hope to get some photos of the studio since even I am impressed with it's awesomeness. It looks like creativity will just ooze out of that room.

Friday, January 16, 2009

No more Architect

I'm going to start writing this again since I'm going to be having more free time. I am officially not going to be an architect anymore. After all of my rantings in 2007 and all my research and reading done in 2008 I have found my true calling......hopefully. So now I want to document me moving from being an architect to being an artist more or less.
I am going to be designing and manufacturing my own hand tufted wool rugs. Strange but true. It should be pretty cool. I spent a week in Minneapolis in November learning all about it and have since been setting up my studio and buying all sorts of equipment and getting yarn and wool samples. I am almost there and will post a lovely picture of my dog kennel turned studio on Monday once I have finished moving my office furniture back home. Yes that's right.. I'm giving up my cute little office downtown and moving it all back home. That's how serious I am about not being an architect. I should be settled in in a few weeks and really be able to post some awesome photos of things getting up and running. I still have a few more projects to wrap up and then hopefully I will never have to submit drawings again to the giant mess that is local government.