(The holiday_wishes community is open as of today so here's a copy of the wishlist I submitted. Figured I'd put it here too just for the heck of it! You can find me on the community here: http://community.livejournal.com/holiday_wishes/1474680.html )

***EDIT 11/23 - I just found out tonight that the place I work for is going out of business effective Wednesday. So I'm unemployed. PLEASE anyone who can fulfill wish #1 for me right now, I desperately need it. That and good thoughts and positive energy for finding a new job are really what I need more than anything else right now. Thank you. ***

About Me
Greetings! I'm Miss M., I'm 32 and I live in Florida with my guy and two kitties. I battle through chronic pain and illness and because of this, am unable to hold a "normal" full-time job. As of August 2008 though, I've gotten a part-time job so I'm celebrating over a year back at work. I'm really proud of myself for the accomplishment. I run a small site called PhoenixFire Designs where I make custom jewelry and other items as a means of supplemental income.

I've been a very active member of the community and this is my fourth year participating. I will be heading through the community and trying to fulfill as many wishes as I can again this year. I truly love the holiday season and enjoy spreading a little cheer. It's amazing how the little things can warm our day. The last years have been AMAZING in this community and I'm looking forward to more joy both giving and receiving again in 2009.


Wishlist!
1. To have a good season on PhoenixFire Designs. (And/or my etsy storefront) I make custom jewelry, dollhouse miniatures and other items. I don't want hand-outs, I want to sell my work so I've earned it and someone has gotten something else in return. I make lovely items and I'm happy to work with anyone on customizing pieces either for themselves or for gifts. Even posting a banner or spreading my link is appreciated. You can post it in your journal, your facebook, twitter - anything! Just get the link out if you can't buy anything personally. I'd just like to earn a little money for the holidays.

2. Anything from my amazon wishlist. I don't mind gently used items. I'm a big believer that many things in life can be enjoyed by more then one person and shared. (And if you already own something on the list and want to recycle it, that's awesome too!)

3. Handknit socks. I LOVE handknit socks and I can't knit to save my life. I wear a size US 6.5 shoe and have little feet. My feet are perpetually cold and I'd love you forever if you made me some socks. There is no such thing as too many pairs of awesome socks.

4. Anything handmade. Being crafty myself, I love handmade items. Knitted, sewn, glasswork, ceramics, woodworking, art - all awesome. I truly love things people made with their hands and skill. I have a wist full of handmade goodies I covet that might serve as inspiration! :)

5. Craft supplies, most notably anything I can use for beading. Swarovski crystal, glass beads, gemstone beads, gemstone chips, spacers, metallic beads, memory wire, jewelry wire, stringing material - you name it, I love it. You can never have enough. New bead supplies are always a giddy moment. (And I'd love you if you got me 24 gauge Artistic Brand Wire. I use it for my Tree of Life pendants and it's my favorite wire but I can't find it locally anywhere!) Beyond beading, I'm also crafty (paper crafts, stamps, decoupage, polymer clay and tools, miniatures, etc.) so I'd love just about anything I can create with!

6. Anything Disney. I'm a big fan. I collect Disney trading pins, I have a bunch of Disney dvd's, I enjoy Walt Disney World, and generally just love being a kid and having a total escape from the mundane that it offers. (This includes Pixar as well!) I live a little over an hour away from Walt Disney World. I just love all things Disney!

7. Gift certificates. For just about anywhere. I would really love one for a clothes/shoes store, a national bookstore chain, or someplace for beauty items like Sephora/Ulta. (Places I never tend to spend money on myself in the name of "being responsible" at but would love to.) I don't mind if you've used part of it and have $7.52 left on it. I know sometimes people give you ones for places you might not like or need or use and they sit and collect dust in your wallet.

8. Entertainment goodies. I read a ton of fantasy fiction, vamp fic, etc. (Get an idea of my tastes on my goodreads list) and can always use more books! (Used is fine!) Craft or sewing books would rock as well. Or any movies/dvds/tv shows that are awesome that you don't want anymore or think more people should see that I can watch. Or maybe you have old PS2 games, or Gameboy Advance or Nintendo DS cartridges you don't play any longer. (Yeah, I'm out of date on my video game systems!) Stuff to entertain and have fun with.

9. My pipe dream wish: A digital countertop kiln. Yes I know it's unrealistic. But sometimes you have to just put your intentions and dreams out there to the universe to make them happen. I dream of making fused glass pendants, working with PMC and getting into new aspects of my jewelry. So on the list it goes!

And last but certainly not least... 10. Holiday cards! Bonus if they have penguins on them, or owls, or winter scenes and extra bonus if they are Yule/Solstice themed. But honestly, any and all cards are SO welcome! I absolutely love mail. I check my mailbox every day because I just love getting mail. It's like a present.

Miss M. Turner
PO BOX 1484
Elfers, FL 34680
USA

missm(at)giveneyestosee.com


Thank you in advance! I hope you and yours have a beautiful holiday season!



( sent/to send update list behind the cut )

Tags: holiday wishes

In my email tonight:

"Your LiveJournal paid account for user "memoryanddream" is expiring in 12
days, at which time it'll revert to its previous status."

Boo.

Job or no job dammit we need an xmas tree! :)
Originally uploaded by PhoenixFireDesigns

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Here goes...

Because I all too often have moments like the one described below. Also, because I know I have some new people on the Flist. I'll be putting something more detailed up, but this will get you up to speed:

You know how sometimes people on your friends list post about stuff going on in their life, and all of a sudden you think "Wait a minute? Since when were they working THERE? Since when were they dating HIM/HER? Since when???" And then you wonder how you could have missed all that seemingly pretty standard information, but somehow you feel too ashamed to ask for clarification because it seems like info you should already know? It happens to all of us sometimes.

Please copy the topics below, erase my answers and put yours in their place, and then post it in your journal! Please elaborate on the questions that would benefit from elaboration. One-Word-Answers seldom help anyone out.

First name
Miss M or just M. Only a select few friends know what the "m" stands for and I want to keep it that way.

Age
32, born May 16, 1977

Location
Tampa Bay Area, Florida

Occupation
Until the day before Thanksgiving, I had worked as a part-time Admin Assistant at a therapeutic massage studio. I loved the place, the people and the job. Sadly, it was a small business owned by a family and the economy got the better of them and they had to go out of business - leaving me out of a job. I worked there from August 2008 - November 2009. Took a year to find that job so it's going to be an uphill battle to find another.

I also run PhoenixFire Designs which is my personal jewelry business. I make mainly jewelry, but also dollhouse miniatures, custom wearable costume horns and more. I also maintain an etsy storefront with the same type of items at PhoenixFireDesigns.etsy.com.

Partner
My guy and I - who is referred to as "Love" on the blog for lack of having any online screen name - have been together for 11 years now. We're not married. It's a much bigger deal that we're not married to everyone else then it is to us but eh. We live together and are basically married in every sense of the word except legally.

Kids
None and that's not going to change. I am child-freed by choice.

Brothers/Sisters
I have one older sister. She's 11 years older than I am. She was diagnosed with Triple Negative Breast Cancer in 2007 but after almost a year of grueling chemo and radiation, has been cancer free ever since. Every six months, she gets a PET scan and so far, they're all clean. We all hope she STAYS clean for the rest of her life.

Pets
Two cats: Mika ("mee-kah") is our 22lb fat brown tabby girl and Gracie who's our 11lb little grey with some tabby stripes girl. They are the most spoiled cats on the planet.


List the 3 biggest things going on in your life

1. Being suddenly unemployed and trying to figure out what to do now, how to find a job and how to survive xmas and the new year back on only one income.

2. Love's going in for a relatively minor - but still potentially dangerous - surgery this Friday, December 4th. He has several masses that need to be removed that are painful and getting worrisome and he has to be under anesthesia for 2-3 hours.

3. I don't know a #3 right now. It's just be more off-shoots of #1. You know, trying to figure out money; trying to find a job; trying to promote PhoenixFire Designs to get some income coming in; trying to not fall into depression over the job loss; trying to keep myself busy and motivated; trying to still have a nice holiday season... Like I said, it's really the overriding issue in my life at this time.

Tags: meme

PhoenixFire Designs
Just a few updates about PhoenixFire Designs right now. A "real" entry will follow at some later point.

First off, because it's been a really good success, because I can use continued sales and because I want to ensure anyone who wanted to get in on the offer to still have a chance, I'm extending my HUGE Holiday Tree Of Life Sale through xmas. It's your choice of ANY Tree on this page for only $25 with FREE SHIPPING. That's at least a $10 savings off normal rates.

Secondly, I'm proud to announce that I have added a new Elf Hutch 2009 to my Faerie Hutch Collection. For those of you unfamiliar with my Faerie Hutches, they are designer dollhouse (1:12 scale) miniatures that can be used not only in a dollhouse but as a unique, decorative piece. I try and do at least one seasonal special each year and I'm proud to say I've completed the Holiday 2009 offering:



One-of-a-kind, Handmade Miniature Holiday Elf Hutch in Antique Green, Red and Gold

Third, I've listed several new pieces including four new Bird Nest Pendants (Nestlace) on my Etsy Storefront.

Etsy Buy Handmade PhoenixFireDesigns

Fourth, holiday mail deadlines. To receive your item by Christmas, the US Post Office Recommends the following cut-off dates to mail.

Within the US
First Class Mail - Send by December 21st
Priority Mail (extra charge) - Send by December 21st
Express Mail (extra charge) - Send by December 23rd

International - Including Canada, Europe, Australia and Asia
First Class Mail - Send by December 11th


So anyone wanting to ensure their items arrive in time for the holidays, you only have a little more than a week International to get me your order (as I need to create it for you as well which takes at least a day turn-around time) and those in the US, you still have about three weeks to get your orders in.

Alright, well that should be the updates for now on the site. As always, I GLADLY take custom orders and am happy to send out custom invoices if you have multiple items you wish to purchase. Just email me - phoenixfire (at) phoenixfire (dot) com - with what you're interested in and I'll get back to you right away.

Thank you for your continued support!

Why you have a big sale of course!

My day job went out of business the day before Thanksgiving and a month before Christmas. So my holiday sales this year are more important than ever. I'm extending my HUGE Holiday Tree of Life Sale where you can get your choice of over two dozen styles and colors for only $25 with FREE SHIPPING.

Plus, I've listed new items including many more of my popular Bird's Nest (Nestlace) pendants!

Etsy: Your place to buy & sell all things handmade PhoenixFireDesigns.etsy.com

Think outside the box this holiday season and get your friends, family and coworkers unique and original handmade jewelry this year!

Thank you for your continued support.

Job Closure Clarification
I never in a million years thought anyone would think that my post about being out of a day job meant my personal jewelry business, PhoenixFire Designs was closed. But I apparently scared a customer tonight when I presume she found this blog and mistook the day job for my personal jewelry business. I assure everyone that is NOT the case. The place I worked for as my day job was a therapeutic massage studio. I was an Administrative Assistant for them since August 2008. It was a small, one-location business owned by a family and unfortunately, due to economic reasons, they were forced to close their doors as of Wednesday, November 25th. That is the job I no longer have.

My jewelry business has been privately run by me and me alone since 2001 and is DEFINITELY still on-going. In fact, I'm hoping to drum up sales and really push my personal productivity since it's my only source of income at the moment with the loss of my day job. With almost no overhead and no physical retail location to support, PhoenixFire Designs probably won't ever go anywhere. And if on the unlikely chance that I decided I no longer wanted to create jewelry, I would simply take down the website.

I was at two families - both mine and Love's - all day Thursday for Thanksgiving. I received a few orders today and did not get a chance to reply or confirm the receipt of the orders since I wasn't home. I've already replied to the customer who was concerned about my day job's closure but I wanted to further ensure no one thought PhoenixFire Designs was out of business. It's in full swing and I am GLAD to take any and all orders at this time.

I apologize if anyone was confused in anyway and I want to reassure everyone that PhoenixFire Designs is up, running and I am fulfilling orders and in fact will be notifying several people their orders are shipping tomorrow.

Thank you for your continued support.

It's a weird day today here at work. Reminds me of the last day of school. Remember that when you were a kid? Everything was always a little strange and off.

Slightly Extended Update
Let's see how much I can manage without crying. I start tearing up, I'm stopping this entry. The long and short of it is that yes, we're closed for good as of tomorrow. I found this out Monday night. I'm working tonight for my normal 3-8pm shift and it's been DAMNED awkward. Just really tough because I'm not a liberty to say anything if the therapist didn't, so I did a rebooking for someone for December. Just killer. And the clients they HAVE told are all of course very shocked and that's difficult in it's own way.

Normally, I would have worked 3-8pm tomorrow as well but we're closed as of 5pm. Originally, they said not to bother coming in for two hours but Marge later asked me if I wouldn't mind coming in from 12-5pm just so she can get things done while I play warm body in the front desk. I agreed even though again, awkward, because it's five more hours of pay and I'll take every bit of it I can get since I don't know when I'll get another job.

Commonly asked questions...

• Yes, I will be trying for unemployment. I have no idea if I can get it because I'm only part-time but I'm certainly going to try. I can't imagine it will be much money though since I don't make a whole heck of a lot and you only get a percentage.
  
  
• No, I had no idea this was coming. It was a complete shock to all of us employees.
  
  
• No, they can't wait until the end of the month / move to a new location / reduce hours or whatever else people have wondered. They only came to this decision when literally everything else failed. The last straw was not being able to get another loan and right now, after this week, they can't make payroll. So they had to close RIGHT NOW.
  
  
• Florida is an At Will/Right To Work state meaning there's no requirements for notice, there's no protections for job security and anyone can be fired for anything so long as it's not Federally protected. (If an employer doesn't like your hair color, you can be let go on the spot for example.)
  
  
• No, I'm not going to try and go after them for giving me such short notice or whatever. They're not bad people and I know this is hard on all of us. They lost their retirement savings on this and I know them well enough to know that to have gotten to this point means it's past the point of no return.
  
  
• Yes, I will of course be looking for a new job. The hard part is that I can physically only do part-time because of my health. It took me a YEAR to find this job. Legitimate part-time jobs (that aren't scams and "work at home" or "paid survey" bullshit) are very difficult to find. With my health, again, it's difficult for me to do many hours at once which makes it even harder. Three, eight-hour days for example, would be VERY tough. It's one of the many reasons this job was so perfect for me; close by and I worked easily managed five-hour shifts at a time.

So yeah. I'm alternating between crying and being numb. I've never worked somewhere that was going out of business. It's a damned odd feeling knowing that tomorrow night this time, they'll be well into striping everything out of here.

Marge offered me my choice of decor stuff. I'll probably take the giant peace lily in the lobby home since her dogs will eat it. And I might take a water fountain or something from one of the rooms. She said to walk around and pick what I'd like. (Obviously not the pc's and such but the little decor things.) It's weird but eh, why not. I mean it's not like she needs six water fountains. I can put one out on my balcony or in the bedroom to doze to the sound of water or something.

But yeah. It's just...so strange. I just really don't know how to feel. I'm so afraid of what this will mean. This income has helped so much and even then, we've still had tight weeks. So to be without my $800/month is such a huge thing. I mean, I know that's not a ton of money in the grand scheme of things, but I think most of my friends are like me and that's a lot of money here in the real world. Love's salary can pay the bills but it really doesn't leave much left over for gas, food, etc. And since Love drives like 40 minutes one-way to work each day, gas is a major expense for him. (And figure I won't be one mile away from my work anymore so whenever I get another job, and during the job hunt itself, I'll be using a lot more gas then I do now. Currently, I fill up like once a month.)

It's just weird acting like there's nothing wrong and like there's a tomorrow when in reality, this is just about it. There's so much outstanding that needs doing from contacting all the clients to breaking down the entire studio, to figuring out what to do with people who have outstanding gift cards, packages, etc. Marge says she thinks it's MORE work to close it down then it was to start it up.

Anyway, that's the gist of it. So 1.5 hours to go tonight, a few hours tomorrow and my work will be no more. Marge says she'll be giving me a letter of recommendation and is more then happy to be a reference because she really does love the work I've done here. She told me she can't thank me enough for everything this past year and a half. It's a nice feeling but it just kinda reminds me how much I'm losing here. Not just a job, but a really great environment and really great people that I'm really going to miss.

Gods i dont even want to do this. Going in tonight like everything is normal when its really the last close ever. So surreal and painful. Text msg from M

Um yeah. So the studio is closing it's doors forever Wednesday. I work tomorrow and 2 hours Wednesday and then that's it. I'm out of a job.

I've been crying for the better part of a half hour now and we're all in shock. I have so much I could say but right now I don't want to write it out or I'll start crying again and I just managed to stop.

fuck.

Something wrong with the carousel part of carousel of progress. Very loud thumping as you turn and feels bumpy rather than smooth. Weird. Text msg from M

Holy cow. Magic kingdom is *packed* today!! Long lines, big crowds just all around really busy. Not sure we can get to ride much today. Text msg from M

Tomorrowland noodle terrace is open today but only serving burgers and chicken nuggets. no asian menu!! Text msg from M

testing ping email address.

TEN DAYS LEFT! Don't miss out on my HUGE Holiday Tree of Life sale. Plus ALL jewelry ships free! http://ping.fm/0MIPy

So I've been doing pretty good so far this year. Crazy early start but I've already mailed out twenty-one cards and items for people from holiday_wishes with two more waiting on addresses and one that I'm picking up a pressed penny for them at WDW this weekend.

I've also mailed out six cards to LJ friends who put their addy on my card post and two more that are international that are packed and ready to go but that I need to get international postage for.

On the incoming side, my holiday wishes list has garnered 1 reply for some used ps2/nintendo ds games, 1 promise for unnamed happy mail, 1 possible Borders gift card (mm...book love), four links to PhoenixFire Designs and six cards. So not too bad of a start! Of course, I hope I get many more holiday cards just because I love having them all over my apartment the past two years but it's way early yet so there's plenty more time for holiday card love. *chuckles*

Sky full of clouds. (florida sunset)
Originally uploaded by PhoenixFireDesigns

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Ok, I've already got my wishlist up at holiday_wishes this year so that means I'm already working on compiling card lists.

If you'd like a card, please post here. Comments are screened. Even if you think I have your address, please make it easy on me and put it here again just so they are all in one place.

I'll be working on cards for the next few weeks probably going out in batches.

If you'd like to send one to me, here's my address:

Miss M. Turner
PO BOX 1484
Elfers, FL 34680
USA


I'll still send you a card if you can't reciprocate. No worries. I just enjoy spreading some holiday cheer.

At downtown disney for thei annual art show, Festival of the Masters. Free event and always a lot of interesting thing to see! Text msg from M