March 9, 2012

What will the Spring bring this year? It's so pretty already. I feel hope in the air. Sales are much better than last year, yet not enough to live on. Not even as much as the year before. My sales were down $3000 last year. But at least I made a profit. Many sellers operate at a loss.

Last year at this time, my sales were so low that I had to sell off a lot of gold jewelry to pay the bills. They were mostly things I inherited, which makes it kind of sad, but I still have some things. A few years ago I sold almost my entire crystal collection to pay bills with. I did save a few pieces for me.

I have a confession (yes, another one). At one time I was earning close to 100K a year as a Design Director. I really wanted to teach, but was afraid I couldn't live on 40K a year. Silly, we live on much less than that now. I guess my fear was the nearly $600 a month in student loans. As I've said here before, I have already paid off my original debt and still owe more than my original loan. Now they expect payment of $1000 a month. I am in forbearance now, but once I get decent income there are repayment programs available. I'd just like a decent interest rate, not the 9% that I got locked into 17 years ago.

I would really love to have a decent car. Actually that means I would love to have a car that functions. Decent to me means it runs and it stops. We have one that doesn't run and one that doesn't stop. We're filling the parkings lot with junkers. Still debating scrapping them and going for another try with the proceeds.

Here's to the hopes that this spring sprouts enough green to give us some wheels so we can fly. I hate relying totally on the kindness of others. I wouldn't mind taking a bus if we had one to take. Country living is wonderful but the transportation stinks.