Not very inspirational

No big inspirations today. The weather has been cold and snowy for the past few days and it is getting me “down” (I hate winter). Luckily, I have lots of work to keep me busy and not thinking about the long cold days ahead of us. I have been very busy trying to keep up with the Greyt Inspirations orders and getting them out in time to arrive for Christmas. I have quite a number of packages ready to be shipped again. The people at the post office know me very well…

 After the Christmas holiday rush is over, I will be getting down to creating some new and gorgeous designs that I have in mind but haven’t had the time to create yet. I have lots of greyt design ideas…

 But for now, it’s back to the sewing machine to get some more of those orders ready to go.

A lot off topic but…

definetly something important to think about…    I came across this blog post while working on something else and thought it to be very interesting. 

http://desire2blog.blogspot.com/

“G-Learning

What do you think? Is e-learning part of the answer to our climate problems? Is e-learning green-learning (or g-learning)? This is not something that I have spent much time contemplating, but at the ITC Board Meeting a couple of weeks ago this topic came up and I found myself somewhat intrigued by it.

Board member David Hutto from North Carolina has done some research about this. What I heard him say is the following (paraphrased slightly): if 1,000 commuter students per state moved to e-learning (rather than driving to campus for F2F (face-to-face) classes) we would save $5.4 million in energy costs (gasoline) per year. I wonder if he was basing these calculations on the current price of over $3.00 per gallon or some earlier, lower amount. Either way, I think there is probably some potential for the idea of leveraging e-learning for gasoline savings, reducing dependence on foreign oil, and reducing carbon emissions. Of course, I don’t think that anyone else actually cares, but at least David and I do.”

I care. I also think this could be extended and expanded into telecommuting for work. Although many companies allow for telecommuting, many more do not. Businesses are very slow to grasp this concept – the fact that it is much more productive, saves a great deal of money for the business as well as for the employee, less stressful and of course, energy-efficient. This has been an uphill battle for many years; one that I have been on-board for for a long time. Still Waiting!

Buying Handmade

I know, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I love unique! The best way to get unique is to buy handmade. The majority of my purchases these days is “handmade” items from small businesses – online or not. As a bonus, in my small way, I love to help small businesses to survive.

One of my most favorite places for online shopping is Etsy. Etsy has a huge variety of products and stores to choose from. I have done a good part of my Christmas shopping this year on Etsy, buying handmade. I also like the fact that I am helping these small business to survive. And a big bonus is that it is a quality item and usually unique.  I try to promote “handmade” as much as possible and Etsy.com is a great place to find handmade products (I am not affiliated with Etsy, it is just an online shopping site that I love to visit and shop).

Greyt Inspirations – Featured

I am very happy to have been featured in More Than We Know today. We were interviewed a few weeks ago and just informed this morning that the interview has been published today. They did a nice job…

To see the “interview”, please visit:  More Than We Know – Interview with Greyt Inspirations

The new totes have been listed

We have a few new embroidered tote bags on Greyt Inspirations. I finally got them listed this morning.

Just a few samples here, there are many more on the website.

                     

 I just love these…

Snow, snow and more snow

It started last night, went through the night and most of today. Although it snowed for that long, we don’t really have that much accumulation, it is too warm and most of it has melted however there was enough to make the roads slippery. We were actually hoping that we would have a repeat of last year where it didn’t snow until the beginning of January – but no such luck.

I Hate Cold and Snow…I Hate Winter!  Only 6 more months…

Phewww

I am finally almost caught up on orders. I have been very busy these past 2 weeks, working every night and every weekend to get a couple of large orders ready and shipped. One more to go and that one is half-done.  Right on time, as I am going away this weekend to see my Dad who hasn’t been feeling well for the past month or so. 

I have also published a new Dog Breed Article on Bernese Mountain Dogs. This is a very well written and very interesting article.

 Later tonight, I am hoping to be loading a few new Embroidered Tote Bags. Some of them have the new embroidery designs – absolutely lovely.

New Leashes match New Martingale Collars

Greyt Inspirations has new dog leashes to match our abstract martingale collars. These martingale collars and leashes are gorgeous! They come in 3 colors so you can have a set: blue, green and yellow.Without further ado, here they are:

It’s Time…

My husband has been asking me what I want for Christmas. I can never think of anything that I want…we go through this every year. He asks me, I have trouble thinking of anything “physical” that I want.

What I really, really want – cannot become a “reality” yet. My Dream! 

My Wants!

What I want for Christmas is that everyone I know (including their pets) remain healthy and happy.

My Dream!

I would like to retire from my full-time job and work at what I truly enjoy – Greyt Inspirations. But until Greyt Inspirations is more financially sound, this won’t become a reality. I’m working on it though…

I would love to buy an RV and travel until we are unable to do so anymore. Visiting our friends we have all over Canada and the States, staying in the “warm” states during our Canadian winters, going to as many pet show as we can manage.

I would love to hear what your wants, wishes, dreams for Christmas and beyond are…?

Dog Reflections

It’s awesome to have three big dogs, each with their own very unique personalities.

Mandy was the very first greyhound we adopted. She’s still a very stunning looker at 10 years old although her face has “whitened” considerably over the last 7 years. Although she’s not the most “intelligent”, she has always been so full-of-life – enjoying everything to the fullest. Our adopters told us that they called her a “mexican jumping bean” as she tends to jump straight up in the air and hops when she gets excited about something – even many years later, it is still very funny to see.

Shadow is our gentle giant. He is an “old soul”, is very laid-back and calm but so many people are scared of him just because he is black and 80lbs. If only they knew how friendly and kind he is. He loves everyone!  He came to us quite ill although we didn’t know it until a few weeks after we adopted him. It took us quite awhile to figure out it was serious food allergies and once we got that under control, he turned into a very affectionate and grateful dog. As long as we carefully monitor what he eats, he remains healthy and happy. That is quite a chore in itself as he lives for food!  It is a wonderful feeling to “heal” a very sick dog.

 Onyx – affectionately nicknamed “Goof”. He is such a character  – he “talks” to us every chance he gets, is quite the instigator and makes regular attempts to become the super alpha of the pack. He is also quite clumsy, klutzy and runs like a goof – so the goofy gait goes along with a goofy personality. We adopted Onyx at 8 years old, we are his second home. He was “removed” from his first home due to neglect. Within 6 months of adopting him, we almost lost him due to kidney failure from a still unknown cause. We are amazed that he has made it to 11 years old after his horrible history but we are very happy that he continues to be healthy and happy with us.

We adore our dogs! There is nothing better than to have dogs that keep you smiling, to show unconditional love and to make you feel good on a daily basis.

Here I sit on a Saturday morning, on the couch between Onyx and Shadow and thinking that there is nothing I’d rather be doing on a Saturday morning and knowing that they love these times too.