Where I've been

Whew - did you think I'd disappeared? I'm here. Let me tell you what's been going on with me. I have this other blog, called Quilting on a Budget. In light of the struggling economy, the blog is of interest to many quilters who are trying to purchase fabric, use up their scraps or generally not spend money on what can be a very expensive hobby / craft. I popped the blog up just as a way to better communicate with my Yahoo Group of the same name, but it drew in quilters like flies to honey. To be honest, I didn't expect it, nor was I ready for it. I'm an entrepreneur by heart, having set up and run several successful home businesses in my lifetime. But this time, I wasn't ready. I suddenly had advertisers knocking on my door, and had no advertising space or systems set up. I had publishers emailing me to review books, quilt shops contacting me to sponsor give aways -- and, plain and simple, I got overwhelmed with it all. I have been working on the blog 40 to 50 hours a week, and still not keeping up. Who knew a year ago when I opened the blog that budget quilting would be a hot topic! I'm good, at least, in recognizing when I need to take a step back, look at what's going on, figure out why it's going on, and fix it... That's what I've been doing with the QOB blog for the past several weeks. Looking at what is bringing in 500 people (and more) a day, what's getting the advertisers a head's up about the blog -- and why am I not able to stay on top of it all? The answer, of course, is having a "system" in place to keep things moving smoothly, to respond to emails in a timely manner (and set up a filter system to even know those emails came in!), to have available space for advertisers.... and the list goes on. So that's where I've been. Setting up business systems and - very soon - an entirely new web site to meet the needs of my blog readers on the Quilting on a Budget blog. I've spent the last two days simply decluttering my office and catching up on filing! Of course, life at home as been going on around me as usual. Jeff now works from home fulltime. Mr. B is still here two days a week and just this week started riding a two wheeler! EXSIL is still being a threatening pain in the butt (which is why Jeff is working from home for awhile), and my daughter is looking for a new place to live to get out of his line of fire. Honestly, I miss being here and doing my daily journal. Hopefully all the new business systems put in place in the past week will allow me to be on more of a daily schedule that will let me return to 1) having a clean house and 2) enjoying this blog and reading my friends' blogs! If you're a quilter, do stop by the Quilting on a Budget blog -- there's a Give Away going on right now for a great quilt book called FRENCH BRAID OBSESSIONS. You can read the review and enter the Give Away, which ends May 23, 2009.

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And WOO HOO! Chris won American Idol!!!