SecondMoonshot

I thought a good use of my next post would be to get down on paper (or blog) my key takeaways in life. I am sure most of them I have attempted to pass on to my children verbally, but apparently never really stuck. My thinking is that I will put it on the Internet, and then they will somehow find it, and since everything on the Internet is true, there is probably a better chance they will take these things seriously.  Some of these will be common sense, some will be lessons that took me 50+ years to grasp, and still others are lessons I have learned, but still trying to apply them on a daily basis. No order other than the random order I recalled them. #1 - If you say your going to do something, do it.  A high “say-do” ratio is a sticking point for me and one that I starting taking as a key value in my life at around 40 years of age. My classic example of this in action is my Washer & Dryer Commitment blog post which goes into detail. I am also a realist and sometimes thing...

I am always looking for cardboard and while I can often find people giving away boxes for free, ideally I like to use large flat sheets to make large custom boxes and they work really well for picture boxes.  We started to get the cardboard sheets at Costco that they use to separate the layers of merchandise on the pallets. Usually getting a dozen was a good pull but today came up with 32. I think I will talk with the management and see if I can get on the list to take some off their hands on a regular basis. They don’t ever question me taking them and usually find a lot in the metal box bins so pretty sure they just throw them away.  Think I got 32 in this run. One of the staff chatted with me about them and said I was doing them a favor taking them.  Another 32 or so.  The little box is what we bought and even helped us acquire the sheets. I have to put excess in other storage unit. We are getting very efficient New record is now 58! Have a stash (like a squirrel)....

Zabrina reminded me I haven’t done a blog post in a bit, so figured a general update would be good. We are going through a devastating loss which occurred mid-October and finding it difficult to get back into pretty much everything. Bear with us. I am doing a consignment for a neighbor with a lot of baseball memorabilia and vintage comic books. Pretty much all listed and sales of the comics has been off the charts. This should motivate me to list some more of my own collection.  I have made an agreement with a local vintage and antique store to co-sell all shippable inventory on eBay. This gives me a great opportunity to get a lot of high quality listings out, with no overhead but only a portion of the profits. Excited to see how it works out. There are a few other opportunities we are looking at which I will share at a later date. Still trying to grow the art and custom framing business, have a handful of paying projects I am working on, and offering exceptional deals on framing t...

Today, Zabrina and I decided to take a day trip to Cape Fear for the Kite Festival. The drive was about 2.5 hours and we arrived at about 10.30. The web site stated this is “the last professional kite event of the season”, I wasn’t even aware one could make a career of flying kites or perhaps I would have selected this one the eBay thing.   The wind was a little too weak for the really big kites to come out and play and never really picked up as the day progressed, although some good efforts. There were tons of people, a band and food and brewery trucks and tents. Around 1pm, we opted to head to Wilmington and walk around, a great coastal college town. We pulled up our bar stools at Anne Bonny’s for some cocktails and food. It’s basically a bar and grill on a permanently docked old ferry. The vibe was casual, food and drinks good and just what we were looking for. A good day, we needed that. John

We were lucky enough to get COVID this week and lets just say it was not asymptomatic. Mostly all ok now, but just to be on the safe side, Sydney and I took a well needed cat nap after hitting a few estate sales. John

Here is the fourth volume of framing projects, a continuation of  Volume #3 .  For pricing estimation information, go  HERE . I have been working on a new frame product to offer in low runs and made-to-order. It is a frame to hold  a 12” LP record album (without the sleeve). I finished it up Friday and pleased with the outcome. This has been a project for a few months and slowly working on the mounting aspect and cost controls. I ame going to give Etsy a try with this and see where it goes, listed  here . Read more here . A few signed prints refreshed for resale. The smallest thing I have framed at 4” x 6”, the frame was a nice wood one I got at Jerry’s. The mat was a little tricky to cut due to size. This was for a neighbor. Not for sale. A simple nice print I picked up at auction by Suanne Wamsley, “Proud Mama”, just did a partial refresh on it and changed the frame out, new backing board, dust cover and new hardware. We got some new classier frame stickers an...