Mountain Girl Silver - Hand-Stamped Customized Silver Jewelry - Portland, Oregon

7 hours to go…….  I can do this….. or at least that’s what I’ve been telling myself all day …   Feels so good to be at the finish line. Not really at the finish line yet,, not splashing water on my face and putting a medal around my neck yet, but I’m right at that last turn. Orders that come in tonight after midnight may or may not get processed. There are a ton of pending orders that must get out (as promised)…. when am I gonna learn not to promise?  But they will get done, and they will be perfect, and I will put them in the mail, and cross my fingers that they get to their destination in time. I hope that the United States Postal Service is efficient. I ship everything out priority shipping, and that means 2 to 3 days, but this time of year, lets face it, it means 6 to 7 days. They work hard this time of year too, to make ends meet, and to keep us customers satisfied.

If you’ve stumbled across this particular blog post, and you are thinking about placing an order for Christmas, and it’s after midnight on the 14th, there is a slight chance that it will get done and out the door in time enough for Christmas, but I refuse to guarantee anything, and I refuse to use expedited shipping. The line at Fed Ex is just as long as it is at the post office, and I haven’t even started my own shopping and shipping yet…….

It’s been a great Christmas rush. It’s a “rush” because we rush rush rush to get stuff done,,, but in my mind, it’s also a RUSH… like a face flushing RUSH. A great sense of accomplishment. I’ll admit I haven’t been the best answering phone calls, or returning voice mails for that matter. But if I spend all day on the computer or on the phone, I wouldn’t have time to make all the jewelry. Bottom line,,,, I guess I need to hire an admin assistant. Yah,,, that would be so nice. Someone to answer all my phone calls, take phone orders, answer emails, do the invoicing and all the shipping…. that would indeed be a beautiful thing. Then I could feasibly stamp for another week and still help out the procrastinators.

I’m tired,,,, I’m tired and grouchy, and I’m neglecting my family … especially my kids. I haven’t even started shopping for anyone. Years past I could get away with giving everyone MGS stuff,, but that’s old .. and dumb.. and they already have something from me.

I just hope that when everyone receives their orders, that they are totally happy with them. We put a lot of heart into what we do. It drains us in fact, as we pour everything we are into every piece. Every disk is stamped with love and devotion, as if that kid’s name is our own kid. As if that particular necklace is the necklace we wore everyday. We strive for perfection, we aim to please. That’s the Mountain Girl Silver way of life (as Neen so eloquently put it around Mother’s Day)…..   And on Christmas morning, when everyone is opening up their little treasure in the organza pouch, my hope is that it brings to their face smiles and tears. I want the husbands who ordered for their wives to get serious kudos, and to be out of the dog house for skipping on Mother’s Day. I want all the Grandma’s to have all their grandkids around their wrists and necks. I want the dads to wear their dog tags with pride….. (dudes wearing silver is sexy btw)…   I just want everyone to be happy with everything we’ve created with our own hands…………

When we do get done putting out the door that very last order (probably the one placed at 11:59 pm tonight), I can then start wrapping presents, and baking cookies, and shop, and jam to Christmas music and breathe, and be calm, and enjoy the holidays. Christmas is my very favorite thing ever,,, and I’m looking forward to sitting down on my couch for more than 2 minutes and stare at my Christmas tree.

I appreciate all the business…….  I thrive on it……  it makes me feel good that Mountain Girl Silver holds a standard of quality that is sought after. We love what we do……..   But all good things must come to an end….  ;c)

Off to California I go…….   can’t wait to embrace my family down there. It’s a fresh year…….   there’s nothing better than nurturing neglected relationships. It makes me whole again……..

Well…… just a few more days and MGS hangs the CLOSED sign and our hats up!!  It’s definitely been a wild ride these last couple of weeks. Some of the fastest that’s for sure…  I haven’t done one dish, haven’t folded one towel, haven’t really even cooked one meal….. well…. maybe a couple…. but it was lame,, like taco night…. and baked fish….   We broke some records this month. I certainly wasn’t expecting it, but so very happy about it. Lots of love has gone into many a project. Christmas gifts for people, yes, but also a lot of orders for people who have recently been diagnosed with cancer, disks for mom’s who have lost their babies to sids or suicide…..   Just some random things that I’ve had to bump their orders to the front of the Christmas order line. And I’ve done so happily.  But I won’t happily admit how many times I’ve showered this last two weeks……….  scraggle rock is all I’ve gotta say.  ewwwwww  Who has time to shower??  I’ve grown a huge love for Pandora too. I take my laptop down to my workshop, plug it into my nifty new speakers, compliments of www.pdx.fm, and I just rock it. Sometimes I jam to the likes of the Sufjan Stephens holiday channel,,,,, and then other times I’m jammin’ to the Police, AC/DC, RUSH, Foreigner, Eddie Vedder, the Shins, COLDPLAY, Wilco, Jose Gonzalez, Modest Mouse, Beastie Boys …. I listen to it ALL. No country tho’….. or rap… no no no. It all depends on what sort of mood I’m in when I sit down to stamp as to which type of music I want to hear. Because if I’m in a bitchy mood, and I turn on AC/DC, I pity the person who calls with a dumb question…..   I’ve been listening to a slew of podcasts too. You can find a ton of good ones out there. You kind of have to search tho’… which can be time consuming and somewhat disappointing,, but if you head to www.pdx.fm, you’ll find a great variety… from online recovery support, to parenting unplugged, to some celtic broadcast, they do the local news, weather and traffic reports too…  WHen you have hours upon hours sitting there on your ass and trying to keep your brain engaged, you’ve gotta find something good to listen to. There is a method to the madness, and I was perusing through the photos I’d taken of our Christmas tree on my camera, and found this video that my hubby took the other day (I had no idea he was recording me)  I definitely get into a speed mode when I stamp. Sometimes I feel like a machine… you know…. how when you’re running a really long distance, and you reach that point when you say to yourself, “I can’t go another stride….  but I’ll keep on going..”   and you do. You just keep on going, and you don’t stop, even when you really want to. Or you set small goals… like… okay,, when I get to the end of this trail, I will stop, and then when you get to that spot, you just keep on going and you forgot you had told yourself you were going to stop. That’s how stamping this time of year is for me, for us. The zone. I have to be well caffeinated, kids have to be placated and full tummied, emails need to be answered, no phone interruptions (hence my lame voicemail message at the moment), and a window of time that will allow a substantial amount of disks. 

At any rate… back to my original thought…..   it’s almost time to say goodbye to Christmas Rush 2009…….   makes me a little sad… we’ve really kicked the ass of silver this year. Just wish we could buy it a little cheaper!!!  Anyways,,, here is the video,,, it’s pretty long,, like 3 minutes…  but it really shows how I get into the mode… Not a HUGE fan of Ozzy Osborne, but again, I was in the zone. ;c)  I’m gonna go to sleep now….. I can barely keep the lids up…

There are many factors as to why I believe this Christmas rush is running more smooth……   Everything has been consistent, I’ve been calm, the weather has been good (cold, but good), schedules aren’t conflicting, both my kids go to school all week, hubby hasn’t been traveling,  i have more clarity, I’ve had practice, and putting my practice to play is making a huge difference. Not to mention my stellar crew, whom, without them, there would be no MGS….

You see, it’s right around November 1st that the butterflies start fluttering in my stomach, and I start stocking up on silver. Which, by the way, silver has been at a steady-all-time-high these past couple of months. Which,, is bittersweet…..  it costs more to buy my silver (and I haven’t raised prices), but also, people are seeking silver moreso than they are gold, because, well, gold is just off the charts expensive right now. When the economy is in the shitter,,,, precious metal prices sky-rocket. People buy it up like it’s water…..  I recently refined all the silver I had accumulated over these last 5 years… i.e.  mistakes, mis-spells, scratched disks, ends of cuffs, broken chains, etc….  and the beauty of it, is that even tho’ I can’t use it again, I can still send it to Los Angeles to be melted down, weighed, and then given a check for the amount according to what the silver market is on THAT DAY….  I lose some money on scrap, but get enough back that I don’t feel bad when I stamp the wrong letter and toss it in the refining bag……. a.k.a as the “flicker” bag…    But back to my original thought..   Okay,, so then Thanksgiving hits, and everyone gets together at family gatherings etc….. and then black Friday comes, and everyone and their grandma is out and about shopping (not online) and then the weekend after Thanksgiving is picking up on orders,,, and then CYBER MONDAY hits!!!   As Lightning McQueen says,, “KA POW KA CHOW”…..   It’s a thrill.  Of course I love making money, but when the slew of orders start rolling in one after another, I get this cool feeling inside…. it’s a pride-ful feeling… like,,, look at all these people that want to buy MY stuff….. the stuff that I create with my hands. The stuff that WE create with our hearts and souls. It may sound cocky, but it’s the truth. God has blessed me with a talent, and a talent that I love to share. That’s not to say I’m not going to have to have carpal tunnel surgery by the time I’m 35, or wear a back brace the rest of my life, or need bi-focals when I’m 36..  it’s all worth it.  No pain no gain… 

Cut off is the 15th this year. Me and my family are flying down to California for Christmas…… sooooooooooooo excited!!!  Hubby is driving down, and me and the kids are flying down. He’s bringing the dog and our skis and all the gifts. Last year for Christmas, my mom n’ dad came up here, and we got snowed in for 7 days. It was a white Christmas indeed!!  And we all survived being home-bound by the skin of our teeth. No one left beheaded….. even tho’ it came pretty damn close…. ha

It is BITTERLY cold here in Oregon this week. They are calling for snow. Another thing that makes me giddy and child-like. Love love love the snow. So do the kids. And at our new home here, we have this huge huge steep hill right up the way that is going to be PERFECT for sledding. Unfortunately, the bottom of the hill is right at our driveway, so I hope no one does anything STUPID and plows right into our yard.  

Must get going for the day….  Maggs has field trip to some Veterinarian hospital today, and she keeps talking on and on about how she wants to be an animal doctor. Good stuff…..

Thanksgiving was awesome. My mom and dad flew up from California and spent a week with me and my family………   not only made lots of food, but made lots and lots of memories. Sometimes I really try to think back to my earliest memories as a kid. I can’t quite remember any earlier than 4 years old. That’s sort of where it stops, sadly. I hear of people that can remember when they were in the womb, but I think that’s a bunch of horseshit…    My point, is that I recognize that my kids, at their age, are remembering everything at this point in time. Maybe not everything, but I hope they remember the good times……. the good and meaty stuff.  Friday after thanksgiving, we all piled in the van and went to go cut our Christmas tree. Prior to this year, we didn’t get to have a real tree in our house because we used wood to heat the house, and anyone who burns wood in a woodstove knows that dry heat and a real live Christmas tree is a bad combo….. So every year over in the old house, we’d get out our ghetto fake tree. I’m not putting down fake trees, as there are some that are gorgeous and do the trick, but to get a real tree this year, I felt like I was 4 again.  The magic of the holidays,,,, that’s really something that always floods back in the memory bank. I seem to remember the big events… i.e.  My first day of kindergarten (or the day that my mom thought was the first day and we stood out at the bus stop for an hour until she realized that the next day was) , some of my Christmas play/programs, my birthdays, the first time I was able to hydro-slide behind our ski-boat, building our dirtbike trails up behind our house, building snow-forts in our yard, staying at the table till 10pm when I wouldn’t finish my mom’s meatloaf………….  you know…… the BIG things.  And no… it wasn’t all like we were bundled up like the Griswolds and carting the sleigh with hot cocoa in our hands and singing Christmas carols… nothing like that.  But it was a beautiful, clear day…. and everyone was in the best mood, no one was crabby. The Christmas Spirit is hittin’ me square between the eyes this year. I’m eating it up. I have more clarity to focus on orders and stamping than I ever have before. It’s refreshing…..  And while my parents were here, I was better able to prioritize my work hours, and still manage to make memories….   The feast was delicious. Mom made her very first lemon meringue pie from scratch this year.  It turned out fab!!  Daddy carved the bird, football was on, my house was clean (thanks to mom), all my laundry was done…..   just an all around good week we had. Bout the only thing that was wrong with it, was that we weren’t all together, meaning, my sisters and their families celebrated Thanksgiving down in California. Felt a little guilty about stealing mom and dad away,,, but .. well….  it was my turn.

But it wasn’t until last week did it hit me that my kids are in that stage where they are going to remember. A part of me is scared.. are they going to remember when I flew off the handle and screamed and shouted and sent them to their rooms??  Hope not.  Are they going to remember how absent I was around the holidays because I was slaving away in my workshop trying to stay caught up on MGS orders??  Hope not…    I just know that they are going to remember last week when we took my folks to go get our Christmas tree. Every adventure is fun with my parents. There are those moments when my mom is trying to get into the van and we have to push her butt up in there, then we all start laughing so hard that we can’t help her….  Or maybe the moment when I whip out the video camera and record my dad and how he would pretend to order a drink at Starbucks……. a “licorice lattatta”….   just good stuff.

One of my Facebook friends recently posted as her status  ”There is nothing that can tell your family story better than your Christmas tree”….   Luckily, my mom let us girls take the ornaments that were ours when we left home and got married and settled down.  So true…  putting the tree up and decorating it left me in a nostalgic coma.  I watched Maggie delicately put her ornaments on the tree, she’s 5, so she has maybe 7 or so ornaments to date….  But when she was done putting hers up, she asked if she could help me put mine up. I selfishly thought for a moment,, NO WAY IN HELL, THESE ARE MY ORNAMENTS AND I WILL PUT THEM WHERE I WANT THEM!!   For a kid tho’, she’s pretty careful when it comes to stuff that is delicate. Anders on the other hand, not so much.  So I did, I let her put some of mine up, naturally they landed on the bottom 3 feet of the tree, and when she was done and had left the room, I sneakily put them up towards the top.  Don’t think she didn’t notice tho’….  ;c)

Anyways,  I got my nose pierced on Sunday.  I know it’s a little radical and everything, my parents are not pleased. My mom said, “Oh no you didn’t”…   I did. It’s a very small little stud. You can barely see it. Ive wanted my nose pierced for the longest time. So finally this past weekend, I had two hours to kill between dropping off and picking Maggie up from a birthday party. Eric told me I should use the time to go shopping or do something that I wanted to do w/out the kids, and as I was leaving the party, BAMMM  I see a professional piercing place. Yes, it was clean.  Took less than 5 mins, hurt like hell, but I couldn’t be happier.  BUT,, it is infected.  ;c( Everything I’ve read about nose piercings online (no… it’s not my septum) states that it’s pretty typical for nose piercings to get mildly infected.  If you have any insight on this… PLEASE email me!!  mountaingirlsilver@mac.com  with your experience.

Off to eat fried chicken for now. I assembled this morning, finished around 1pm, ran to the post office and fed ex, got a lattatta, filled my bug with gas, came home, headed down to the basement to start tackling orders from the 30th, and then just said screw it…   took the rest of the day and shopped online. Spent enough money that I wish I wouldn’t chosen to stamp the 30th….   oh well… I never buy clothes for myself.

night…