A Little of This and That

I spent months pouring over books from the library,and websites researching all of the latest soapmaking techniques. I read recipes, and became intimidated about making my own. Have you ever seen a lye calculator? There's math involved in this, people! Still, I really wanted to try it. Soapmaking is not a hobby that you should enter into lightly. But guess what? I love it! I started selling on my Etsy, and to some friends. Now, Verne has taken some to work, and I'm about to approach a local business about putting my soap in their shop. (Actually, Verne has already approached the owner, and she was very interested.)

All of that to say that making soap is far different from packaging soap. I want it to look pretty. Good soap, packaged poorly is not likely to sell. Autumn and I have spent hours at the computer making labels, and I'm finally happy with the results. They'll need a little tweaking here and there, but they are attractive.

Speaking of Autumn, she's on pins and needles. Last night, we met with a cello teacher. She sort of "tested" Autumn. This teacher offers group classes that run $175 per semester. There's a beginner class, and an intermediate class. Classes started in September, and Autumn is too advanced for the beginner class, but not quite where the intermediate class is. Ughhh... So, we can do private lessons. For $22 per half hour. Woweeee!!!! We will work that all out, I've no doubt. Where there's a will there's a way.

So, the lessons aren't Autumn's big concern right now. It's the cello itself. The woman that Autumn got the cello from is wanting to sell it to us for much less than what she paid for it, which is extremely generous of her. The bad news is, that after the teacher looked at the cello last night, we feel that the price is still too steep. Not that we can't afford to pay that, but is it worth it? Oh, the dilemma! Autumn called the owner of the cello this morning, and explained to her that we didn't think the cello was worth what she was asking, and the woman is "thinking" it over. I know she is in shock, poor girl. She didn't know how badly she had been taken when she bought the cello 9 years ago.

It's so difficult when you want to believe the best about everyone, and everything, and things don't turn out to be what they seemed. We've been taken before. I bought a piano off an elderly woman when the children were small. (I have no musical background, and didn't know any better.) When I had the tuner come to the house, he told me that the piano couldn't be tuned because the pegs had been pounded on and the piano was worthless. I called the seller and told her that I would like for her to refund my money and she refused and hung up on me.

That is not the case with this cello. Yes, it could work for Autumn, but we don't want to overpay for it.