Saturday, Oct. 17, 2009 - 6:08 a.m.

Thank goodness, the tea arrived yesterday. I'm back in business. Besides the Koilamari, I got some Yunnan spiral buds-- the most gorgeous dry leaves I've seen in some time. So tippy! So golden! So delightfully shaped! The flavor wasn't especially Yunnan-y-- more like a nice first flush Darjeeling, but with that sweet aftertaste I associate with some green teas, like a really good sencha.

Mmm. Tea.

Also got a sample of another Assam, one of this year's harvest. They say tehy're harsher than usual, due to "difficult growing conditions". We shall see. I wonder if it will be a difficult tea. (You sometimes see fancy cheeses described as difficult or challenging; I don't think I've seen a tea described this way yet).

Got some ideas from that article I was reading. Now I just have to summon the nerve to raise some of my prices. It's not that I don't think they're worth it, it's that a) I don't want to feel like I'm trying to squeeze people for every last penny in this time of economic suckitude, and b) I don't want people to not buy them because they just can't afford another $6 or whatever. But I'm gonna try it anyway. If they don't buy, they don't buy, and then I'll know something.

Am also considering adding dangly objects somehow to my mosaic pendants, but am concerned that it would be Too Much. But people seem to like Too Much when it comes to jewelry with little dangly things. We shall see.

My silver wire and new pliers also arrived yesterday. New pliers! They were made in Pakistan, they tell me. I find that somehow noteworthy in this time of trouble for the Pakistani people. They are stepped roundnose pliers, so I can make circles of varying sizes, and little wire spiral tubes that won't change diameter as they get longer (which is what happens when you try to make little wire spiral tubes with regular roundnose pliers).

Persistence threw up on your clean pants last night, J. Sorry. You're just lucky she didn't manage to somehow hit all the shirts stacked there AND the pants all in one go.

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