Artisan Lifestyle :an essay on why retail sales are low, or Socks: The canary in the retail coal mine, Buy American

Most of you already know I am having issues with the extremely poor quality of merchandise that is available to American consumers. Everything has been outsourced to other countries  who, quite frankly, don't give a damn if the quality is poor or even extremely poor.  Corporate stores inside the US don't seem to care either. Oh yes... they bitch long and loud because retail sales are down especially for clothing but do they actually ask why? No. They think by bombarding us with advertising they can bring sales up.  They would be wrong.  I'm done with them.  I have made it a point to search for resources for quality clothing.  I started with the most simple and basic clothing need I have. Socks. This has been a true quest for the holy grail.  Over the last year I have purchased socks at sears, fred meyer, macy's, target, jc penny, and a couple of boutique stores in the mall. All with the same result.  a week or two after I buy them I get up in the morning...... coffee up..... shower... paint the  face.   I pull out essentially brand new socks  .... put my foot in them and my toes come out the other end!  This happened yet again three weeks ago with a pair of socks I bought at fred meyer.   It was 6 am on a Thursday and I had a melt down. A screaming, pissed, fist shaking at god.... meltdown.  OVER SOCKS.  For you junior psychologists out there.... no I was not displacing anger over other issues  onto the socks. I was pissed about the SOCKS!  It was a clean, pure,  righteous rage. Since it was pointless to dig through my sock drawer to try and find socks with no holes in them... I wore them all day. And stayed mad all day. When I got home I got on the computer and googled american made socks. I found  2 companies that I thought I would start with. I poured over their web sites looking for thread count and quality of yarn.... especially cotton.  Then went over to amazon and looked them up. ( this process took 3 days). I ordered  a pair of Wigwam King cotton high socks http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000V5CX5O/ref=oss_product
and a two pack of  Fox River  red heel monkey socks  (so called because they are socks you make sock monkeys out of) http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002G3PM8O/ref=oss_product   You know what you can do with sock monkey socks? You can WEAR them!  The sock monkey socks were over the calf and the mediums  were too big for me. I gave them to Jimmy and he was very happy with them. He did say they were a little thin but would be great summer socks.  The wigwams....... the wigwams  were the bomb though. My feet have never been so comfortable in a pair of socks. .... Cushioned sole and  the calf support was perfect for walking all day. When I got home  my legs didn't ache and the  ribbing  had not cut off the circulation right under my knee. I will be ordering several more pairs of these. Jimmy wants some too. Both Fox River http://www.foxsox.com/ and Wigwam http://www.wigwam.com/ are Made in USA and the quality shows. I will never buy socks at macy's again! And that my dear corporate CEO's is why your sales are in the toilet.  We the People are catching on and we are not buying your low grade  crap any more.  This is not a Go America! rant. This is a 'I'm mad as hell and I'm not taking it anymore!" statement.  You like your chinese socks with the built in hole in the toe?  YOU WEAR THEM!!!!

Artisan lifestyle, Marriage advice, secret disclosed

Secret to share......... Jimmy and I are no longer shacking up. We are officially 'respectable'. Really and truly. We sneaked around and did it without telling anyone until after the fact. Kind of because we had too. We have a lot of friends and family that we really love but sometimes involving them in the big things makes stuff..... all complicated. So , we are going to have a big party this summer and invite them all to share an evening of acknowledgement... of their support,counsel and friendship for the 15 plus years they have all been in our lives. Some of the sage counseling that our friends gave us over the years are listed here and have been the foundation for Jimmy and I . The advice is not the kind you will find on MSM's little 'how to' articles by professional marriage counselors. This is the helpful advice and commentary that real friends who know us inside and out gave us . Some are paraphrased some are quotes.
1. 'You need to apologize'
2. 'You need to accept the apology'
3. "oh good grief he's not a mind reader... just TELL him!"
4. 'let it go'
5. "that sucks!... Lets go drinking, you'll feel like shit in the morning and only the important stuff will be able to get through the hangover haze.... then you can talk without all the petty crap surfacing"
6. "neither one of you are right"
7. 'You are being an ass'
8. 'he's being an ass'
9. 'she's being an ass'
10 'have you ASKED why he/she is being an ass?"
11 "your mother is is looking for her fourth husband.... WHY would you listen to ANYTHING she says about relationships?"
12. "You two are great together... DON'T screw it up."
13. 'Sounds like you two need to get away for a weekend'
14. 'He's right'
15. 'She's right'
16. 'YOU DID WHAAAAT?????
17. 'YOU SAID WHAAAAT????
18. 'So?... just support it.... he/she will be into something else in a month or two.'
19. 'So?.... this is your chance to (fill in the blank) while he or she is busy  (fill in the blank)'
20. "everybody gets crushes.....don't worry about it."
21. 'Honey ...She's after your man... do something now'
22. 'Dude...He's after your woman.....do something now'
23. 'clean yourself up ...you look like shit.'
24. 'calm the fuck down...its not the end of the world ..its the beginning of a new phase'
25. "Don't use 'leaving' as a weapon when you fight..... it brings up abandonment fears and makes the other person feel like there is no reason to work on the relationship. It changes the nature of the argument and makes the other person too insecure to deal with what the real issue is."
26. Threatening to throw the tv out the window is ok.... threatening to leave is not.'
27. 'a week ago you were saying how amazing he/she is...... what happened to that?
28. 'maybe your response is the problem.'
29. 'not everything is about you. Even though you want to think it is.'
30. 'Why are you making this about YOU?'
To our friends who delivered this advice over the years ...often loud enough we could hear it..... I thank you from the bottom of my heart. If some of the advice you gave didn't show up here on the list don't be offended. 15 years of saving us from ourselves would overload blogspot's bandwidth.