What does the cow say?

Right now I'm ordering my first round of stock for the miniature Bohemian Bazaar and I'm so excited, I'm about to wet my little knickers.

I don't remember if I mentioned here or not that I'm going to transform my new flea market booth into a tiny version of my store that I was trying to open in the mall. I've had a lot of people suggest I do it this way since I want to start debt free and I think it's a darn fine idea.

Through GoFundMe I raised $300 to go toward opening the shop but um... yeah, I was about $3,600 shy of reaching my goal and $5,600 shy of what I actually needed to start with bare minimum. I was trying to raise money because instead of taking out a loan because I was certain the community was going to be excited enough that I'm replacing Romancing the Stone that they'd be willing to contribute. If there's a way to go debt-free, I'm going to go that way.

Meh. No biggie. I was totally prepared for that idea to not work out and I had no intentions of quitting if it didn't. There are plenty of other ways for me to skin this cat.

So, I closed the GoFundMe and I am no longer accepting donations(?) and I'm using the money I raised to get beautiful merch for my booth. 

I'm starting small. 

Very small...

BUT there's nowhere else in this town to get the kind of stuff I'm going to sell like belly dance accessories, Banjara handbags and Rajasthani parasols so I'm pretty confident that no one will complain that they have to go to a flea market to get it.

$300 might not sound like a lot for a start up, but I've already had a shopping list waiting of wholesale goods from India, China and Bali and I already have a little bit of stuff left from my renaissance faire booth. I have tons of jewelry I've made over the years and stuff I've bought wholesale. I just need a display case for those smaller items so my goods don't get knicked.

 

The booth is already stocked full of our stuff we've been trying to get rid of for years. We have accumulated a lot of stuff in our almost 8 years of marriage. Good heavens so much stuff. Purging the house has been an absolute delight. Getting rid of junk is very therapeutic. 

Well, we don't really have junk. We have stuff. Lots of stuff and nowhere to put it. So off to market it goes! As the booth empties of that stuff we'll start replacing it with the bohemian/hippie goodies.

Since the flea market has massive spaces, even entire rooms to rent we might just settle in there for a while. I mean  - think about it, I don't have to man the booth, hire employees or pay utilities... just  stock the booth and pay rent!

So there's that and here's my awesome offspring.

I stopped trying to get River to join because he turns into a grumpy old man when I try to get him to cooperate. Eh. Boys.

❤❤ Polkadots and plaid, a velvet blazer and a cow brooch. ❤❤

the technicolor dreamboat

Well, well, well.

Look at what the cat coughed up.

It's me!

Hi.

I'm surviving over here. Just barely... but I'm pulling through like a duck swimming in jelly.

I've recently started taking an ashwagandha and rhodiola supplement and dandelion detox tea and my physical stress symptoms have calmed down to a dull roar. Not even a roar. More like a wee little mew compared to what was happening to my body. Physically, I feel SO much better and brighter.

The pills make me a little aggressive though. Like, super type-A aggressive about weird things:

I'm going to clean today!

VACCUMING!

EFF YEAH!

DISHES! I HATE THEM! LET'S DO IT!

GET OUTTA MY WAY! AAAAGGGGHHHH!!!

DANG IT'S A LOVELY DAY!

GROCERIES!

TOILET PAPER!

RAWWWRRR!!

And then I rip my shirt off like Hulk Hogan and flex my muscles while barking at my children like a Tibetan mastiff.

So life is still pretty poopy right now and I'm still stressed but I don't feel like I'm about to have a stroke anymore! Yay!

GOOD NEWS REPORT:

My husband finally found a job after being "self employed" for over a year. He's not exactly sure when it starts but it will pay well. The bad part of all of this is it's a travelling job that will have him away from home for weeks at a time. Meh.

I already scratched of my New Year's plans of opening a flea market booth. We got an 8x8 booth in a very large and popular flea market. Since we opened it on Saturday afternoon and it's Tuesday now, we haven't had a chance to add everything and decorate but just yet but it's about 3/4 full so far.

The downside is, the market only allows 5 articles of clothing per booth! WTF??!?! Almost the entire booth was supposed to be kids clothes! OMG, we're drowning in kid's clothes piled up in trash bags here and we can't afford to just give them away so I'm hoping maybe I can butter the market owners up to get them to be a little lenient with me.

So here's what we wore to church Sunday.

ME: Handmedown blouse over a handmedown ikat print sundress layered over leggings and a tank top because it was in the 30s that day.

MISS CEDAR: Handmedown cardigan, Christmas gift dress from her Mimi, electric melon tights with unseen gold threads woven in and her favorite brown boots!

Soooo how are you all doing? Have you been sleeping well? Are you brushing twice a day and flossing?

dear 2017, you sucked

I started this post a  last week and I had to take a break from it because it depressing the heck out of me to write it. But I've recovered and here I am.

2017 has been probably the worst year of my life so far and I pray I never find myself stuck in another year like this again. If it's not the worst, then it's definitely at close to the top of my "Hollie's Top 5 Worst Years Ever" list that doesn't exist.

I don't want to go into much detail but I will say that this year has been filled with crippling stress and anxiety, money trouble, martial problems, weird religious situations you guys couldn't possibly relate to, loneliness, depression and a whole bunch of other negative adjectives.

I think STRESS has been the leading lady this year for sure more than any other emotion. She's been a real shining star (sarcasm). I have reached stress levels that have gotten to points of chest pains, hands tingling, eye twitching, left arm going numb, sleeplessness, rage, sweating, excessive drinking and more.

Nothing has worked out the way I wanted this year. I understand that things happen for a reason and that's the only thing keeping me afloat, but for the love of all things holy and something PLEASE work out in my favor?!?!

Almost every bad thing that has happened this year has been because of someone else's shitty decisions. I NEVER play the victim and I always take responsibility for myself no matter what others have done but a lot of what has happened year and the years before that wasn't even my fault and I can't take responsibility. I can only try to fix things (and I do all day every day) but if the other people involved aren't willing to make a change then... what can I do?




Good news though: The manager of the mall did have to go ahead and lease the storefront, BUT the shop is temporary and that he'll be willing to work with me somehow so that I can open up shop in March. That gives me more time to try to get a loan, my stock, fixtures, etc. If the store in the mall doesn't work out, I will still open a store.... just somewhere else. Not a problem at all. I'm only after the mall so hard because it has reliable and predictable traffic and low fees.

▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲▲

I announced a while back on social media that I will be releasing a comic strip this year (mostly for my other blog) and I've been keeping it a secret that I'm working on a book... er three books actually. I've been keeping the books on hush hush because I'm kind of embarrassed to let people know that I have an extraordinary amount of time on my hands because I have no car and no friends. Plus, I can multi-task like a muthah.

Right now, I'm writing this post, promoting my blog in various Facebook groups, managing a client's Instagram on on my phone, keeping my kids from killing each other and I also drew a comic strip during a 30 minute break I took from this post. There are 24 hours in every day and when you don't have a a life outside of your home... you learn how to occupy that time.

So on the plate for 2018: Release a comic strip twice a month, a blog post on Quirky Bohemian Mama twice a month, get more clients for my social media management service, open a flea market booth to get rid of all the junk we've accumulated and inherited over the past 8 years (husband's going to take care of that mostly), lose 100lbs, finish writing one of my books and open my store and document it all for our vlog on YouTube (last priority). Of course when I open the store, I'll let go of some of that stuff.

If you read all of this and you made it this far, thank you so much for taking the time to read it.
If you skipped over some parts, heck I don't blame you at all! No one likes a party pooper! I just needed to get that mess out.

Pray for me, wish me well but don't worry about me. I'm a fighter and I'm painfully optimistic. My glass is always half full of wine so I will survive!

I hope you all (as well as myself) have the best freaking year ever! I think we all deserve it.