Turn Down The Volume

Yesterday was the final trip to the post office before the holiday, to ship a few last minute Etsy sales. Jeff and I like to give a little gift of pottery to our very nice mail clerk and our rural route driver. They both go above and beyond their USPS job description. We are extra appreciative because when we lived in NH our local postal office left much to be desired. It was so bad that I tried to avoid going there. Instead I went to the next little town, with a post office in a general store, where the post master was very pleasant and helpful.

When I returned from my errands, Jeff had a rather amusing story to tell me. We live across the street from a church, I think almost everyone in the south lives across the street from a church. Yesterday there was a funeral at said church. Two big guys came over from the funeral and into the shop. They stood in the door and told Jeff they came over because they heard music when they were at the church and thought it was coming from the pottery. Jeff said, "No music playing here." One of them said, "Can't you hear that?". To which Jeff replied, "Oh, yeah... sounds like music playing on a phone." The man reached in his pocket for his cell phone and found that an app had turned on and was playing electronic sounding music! They seemed a little embarrassed, asked a couple of questions about the log cabin, and made a hasty retreat.
The lesson of the day is, before heading over to your neighbor's and asking them to turn down their music... check your smart phone.

Wishing you and your's a very merry Christmas.

where does the time go?!

Jeff and I have filled the last few days getting all those behind the scenes things done that it takes to run a pottery business. Third quarter sales taxes (me), grind shelves (Jeff), pack a big order, tweak websites and take photos.

We are shipping more pots in recent months, between Etsy, wholesale etc and we have spent some time exploring the least expensive options. We use Fedex for large boxes, pay online and schedule a pick up. Etsy orders typically have gone out USPS. In the last month I have started to use USPS online. Perhaps everyone else knew this (I didn't), it is usually cheaper than bringing it in to the post office. I use the "print a shipping label" button on Paypal and then you choose USPS as your carrier. Many times Priority is less than standard mail. You can also schedule your carrier to pick the parcel up at your location. I can tell you that it's not always reliable... last week the post office sent me an e-mail that said my parcel was picked up but there it sat on the front porch of the gallery! Luckily the post office is a short drive and I got in the car and brought it to them. With the talk of closing small post offices we don't know how long we will have a local branch. I think right now it was voted that no closures would take place for at least another six months. If we lose our post office, carrier pick up for packages will make our life easier. For now I don't mind a trip into town... you can chat with the clerks and maybe run into other potters and do some catching up.

Daffodils in January... just doesn't seem right

This mild weather sure has made January fly by... no complaints from here!