So...Monday I had to go in for jury duty. It was a LONG day in very uncomfortable chairs. By lunch time my back and neck were hurting SO badly. We were able to take lunch from around 12pm-1:30pm. I thought about running back home, but 1) I had a good parking spot and I didn't want to deal with parking again, and 2) the dogs were really upset about me being gone and I figured they'd be more upset if I came home for half an hour and then left again. And Boz has already been kind of out of sorts because his foot has been hurting him. He's doing a lot better...but every once in awhile you can tell it is bothering him. It doesn't help that Nova has stepped on it a couple times and made him yelp. But I guess they were howling and barking most of the time I was gone. :P
It was pretty chilly on Monday so I just hung out in the car and read my book...because it was a lot more comfortable than the hard office chairs in the jury room. :P At the beginning of the day, I was assigned to one judge...but that case ended up not needing a jury. Since they were short jurors, we still had to stay. Finally around 2pm a group of about 50 of us were sent up to a courtroom for voir dire. It took awhile for the judge and the attorneys to come in. There was really only about an hour or so of very general questions where a couple people had some iffy answers and one person was dismissed. Toward the end of the day, I realized that I'd already known the case and saw video footage of the incident. But then we were allowed to leave around 4:45pm and had to come back the next morning. So before things got started the next morning, I told the judge's administrative assistant that I'd seen the video footage and wouldn't be able to be impartial. She let the judge and the attorneys know, so that was the first question of the day. Since I'd already seen evidence that would be presented, I was dismissed. She gave me the questionnaire and I was dismissed for the rest of the session...but there were still quite a few people in the jury room when I left that morning.
I'd planned to come home and work the rest of the morning...but I had a horrible migraine (probably from my back and neck hurting so much) so I ended up taking a nap and didn't get started on stickers until later in the day. I'm working on making all the inventory for the vendor event that my sister is taking my stickers to. I wasn't sure how much to make...but I finally narrowed it down. We decided it would be better to take a wider variety of designs rather than multiple size choices. So I'm just making all the stickers my standard 3" size and taking 36 die-cut sticker designs plus two different sticker sheet designs...and decided on 8-10 stickers per design (about what I can fit on one page).
I also ordered some acrylic display stands from Amazon. For the die-cut stickers, I have two 6-tiered holders that will hold 18 separate designs. Then I also purchased a pack of 4" wide brochure holders with 2 tiers for the sticker sheets.
So the last several days I've been printing and cutting backer cards, stickers, and then putting them in the sealable cellophane bags. And then I realized I was gonna need more supplies so I had to order more glossy cardstock, cellophane bags, and sticker paper. As of today...I have all the stickers printed and I'm printing the last of the backer cards now...just waiting on my bags to be delivered tomorrow so I can finish packaging the last 6 sticker designs. While I wait on those, I'm printing the First Responder sticker sheets and then need to design and print my second sticker sheet design. I've been aiming for having everything done and ready to go this weekend in case my sister comes by to pick everything up, since the event is the following weekend.
I keep thinking it would be so much more convenient if I had two printers going. :P I go back and forth with the decision to convert my sublimation printer back to a pigment printer. I really loved sublimation in the beginning...but I like making stickers and other paper products a lot more. So I don't know...we'll see. :P
Right now I have both laptops in my office...I'm printing from one and cutting from the other. That way I don't have to wait for one to get done cutting before I can start printing again. Everything has been going pretty smoothly. I know a lot of sticker makers complain about Cricut...but I really haven't had any problems with my Maker 3. Even after the update...everything is still cutting perfectly (knock on wood). I think I've only recalibrated my machine maybe 4 separate times since I got it in 2021. It's really been working out well. However, I do think one of these days I will get an additional cutter to increase my productivity. But that will likely be farther down the road. What I have right now is working well for the volume of orders I'm getting.
Well...gonna get back to work! :)