Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

You cannot shame the shameless.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

T R E 4 5 O N

Bark louder, little dog.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

This really is a full service blog.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Americans barely caring about Afghanistan is so last month.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

In my day, never was longer.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

You are here: Home / Balloon Juice / Small Business Sunday, Loosely Speaking

Small Business Sunday, Loosely Speaking

by | 48 Comments

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Who says Small Business Saturday has to last just one day?

Small Business Sunday

Do you have a small business?  Make something?  Sell something?  Do consulting?  Create art?  Write books?  Write or produce plays?  Knit, crochet, or tat?  Do photography?

Provide editing services?   Bookkeeping services?  Have an Etsy store?  Cafe Press?  Or any one of a million things I haven’t listed…

Tell us what you do and post a link to your stuff in the comments.

Housekeeping note: I tried to post this on Small Business Saturday, and then the next day, but there were a ton of posts so I kept moving it back.  Now it’s Sunday again so I don’t even need to change the title.

Reader Interactions

48Comments

  1. 1.

    WaterGirl

    Adam is working on a post but there’s no telling when it will be done.

    So I’ll put this up now, and then if Adam steps on it, I’ll move it to later in the day.  :-)

  2. 2.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    I think I’ve probably babbled about writing enough that most people know this already, but I write YA fantasy novels. I’m proud to be with a small press that’s headquartered in the UK that’s a registered social enterprise. That is, they give part of their profits to charity.

    Here’s all my books on Amazon with descriptions of the stories.

    And here’s the three most recent at my publisher’s. If you order from them, they make a little more money but obviously the shipping can cost you more. They don’t charge sales tax though.

  3. 3.

    RobMidd

    I have been making abstract paintings for about 25 years as my pathway to mental wellness. I sell works at various price points from $30 into the thousands, at http://www.RMiddleton.art.

    (I love this community and read it every day, but this may be the first time I have ever commented. I am a little shy.)

  5. 5.

    Ruckus

    @WaterGirl:

    I’ve owned 2 small businesses. One manufacturing and one retail. That covered 1/3 of my working life. The manufacturing one employed others, the retail did not, although if the great recession hadn’t come along I intended to once again be an employer. I do appreciate that republican governance brings so much depression and destruction to an economy and it’s citizens, it makes the political choice a lot easier to those without the gene for total selfishness.

  6. 6.

    germy

    @Ruckus:   it makes the political choice a lot easier to those without the gene for total selfishness.

    But Democratic candidates will need a majority.

  7. 7.

    WaterGirl

    @RobMidd:  Welcome to commenting!

    Your first comment has to be manually approved, but now that i have done that, future comments will show up for everyone right away.

    Lurk less, comment more.  :-)

  10. 10.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Ruckus: My DIL’s father worked in the steel factories near Gary. He once told me that he used to be “independent” but then he noticed he did better under Democrats. So he could be selfish and idealistic at the same time

  11. 11.

    germy

    @WaterGirl:

    She’s the greatest, a hero to all cats

    There’s a cat that’s been coming around to my yard.  Not a stray, I think he lives a few houses down.  But he likes to poke around the neighborhood, so sometimes I leave him some food. He keeps the rabbits away from our vegetables in the summer.

  12. 12.

    Quiltingfool

    I’m in the business of making quilts.  I love making them, but they do tend to stack up!  I have a store on Etsy (my nym will take you there) with finished quilts.  If there isn’t anything you like, I can custom make a quilt – color or design.

    My favorite quilts to make are cat-themed quilts.  I have almost finished a custom quilt called Sawtooth cats (just now took it off the quilt frame).  I think my next project will be a quilt with appliquéd “vegetable” cats.  I’ve got 13 vegetable cat patterns and I can’t wait to put them in a quilt.

    I have reasonable prices and I make a quality product.  I don’t sell a lot of quilts (as compared to small hand made items) because, well, they’re big, they cost a sight more than a placemat or table runner, and how many quilts do people need?  I guess my goal is to make something that makes you happy when you look at it and has the added bonus of making you warm!

  14. 14.

    JoyceH

    Why, yes, since you ask, I DO write books! You can find them here –

    Joyce Harmon’s Books

    Some Regency romance, some historical fantasy (based on Pride and Prejudice), a couple mysteries, step right up.

  16. 16.

    Miss Bianca

    Well, I don’t know if it counts as “small business” or not…but partner in brewing D and I have started our first batch of…well, anything…for two years. When COVID hit, somehow that ended up shutting down our dreams of a brewing business and we just didn’t brew anything for ourselves.

    So today’s “Hale Cyser” – a cyser being a cider/mead mixture – is our first step back into the world of brewing. Hail, Cyser!

  17. 17.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Quiltingfool: Yes,  your quilts are gorgeous! My grandmother made a quilt for each grandchild before she went blind. I still have mine.

    @WereBear: Every cat owner I’ve pointed in your direction values your advice.

    @JoyceH: I’ve read at least two of the Pride and Prejudice books. Also the one about the city and country twins. They’re very entertaining.

  23. 23.

    Dr. Fungus

    I develop custom eLearning under the name Cogent Rogue Consulting.

    I was trying to think of something with the word “Cogent” that wasn’t already taken, and my black Lab, Rogue, was lying by my feet saying “Hello!” The rest, as they say, is her-story.

  24. 24.

    NotMax

    @Miss Bianca

    Last of the small wax-sealed gift bottles of homemade apple cyser received from a friend — oh, it must be a dozen years ago or more — comfortably nestled in the liquor cabinet.

    Expect that by now the stuff could strip the chrome off a bumper.

    ;)

  25. 25.

    lahke

    @JoyceH:

    Eagerly awaiting book 5 of the Regency Mage books– I love your version of Mary Bennet.  Any info on when this could happen?

  26. 26.

    JoyceH

    @lahke: I’m working on it, but if I gave you even an estimated date, I’d be lying, because I have no idea. I AM writing on Book 5, but I’m still in the All Baffled state.

    I’m a Pantser (someone who writes by the seat of the pants, the opposite of a Plotter, who Outlines), so I start out with only a vague general idea of where I’m going. I’ll put in some weird little bits, with no notion of why, and then about mid-book, when I’m starting to panic, it all sorta gels. OH! If she does this, then he would do that, and this weird little thing from twenty pages back would come into play and it would ALL MAKE SENSE.

    But until I reach that point where it all makes sense, it gets pretty Fraught around here…

    (I’ve tried to become a Plotter, I really have, but it just doesn’t work for me.)

  27. 27.

    Chris Johnson

    I’m still coding audio DSP plugins at airwindows.com. So if you’re music-making on a computer, especially if you’re trying to get stuff that runs on the modern M1 processor, I’ve got a lot of stuff that is free and open source and it’s Patreon supported.

    The Patreon’s taking a hit this holiday season but it’s still well over minimum wage and I will see how it goes over a longer term: been good so far :)

  28. 28.

    Ajabu

    As many of you know, I am primarily a jazz musician and composer. You can check out what I do on the Artists page on this site. I have two commercially released Products easily accessed from this link:

    http://donmoors.hearnow.com I also have an excellent Christmas CD that I sell on gigs that is available directly from me and, for you visual learners, I have two Live concert DVDs as well. One from Sacramento, CA and the other from St. Croix, USVI. To get any of those use my email – [email protected]

    Thanks for your interest…

    Ajabu’s Artists in Our Midst Post

  31. 31.

    GregMulka

    The link to my spouse’s Etsy store.

    https://www.etsy.com/shop/GreatRiverCrafts

    Some outdoor decoration items. Those are by far her most popular product. She also has some jewelry made from tumbled stones. We’re posting some edge-grain cuttingboards this week as well as lip balm made with beeswax from our apiary.

  32. 32.

    Paul T

    Endless Treadmill of Shopping Occasions Christmas.  We do this for more than 10 percent of the year now.  Has Black Friday ended yet?

  34. 34.

    Carol Van Natta

    Thanks for a great post. Lots of fun things to look at!

    I write both the Central Galactic Concordance space opera series (4 novels and 4 novellas and counting) and the Ice Age Shifters paranormal romance series (5 short novels so far).

    I’m also the editor of the limited-edition Pets in Space 6 science fiction romance anthology. It benefits Hero Dogs, a charity that raises and trains service dogs for disabled veterans and first responders. The book features 11 novellas for a pretty cheap price, and goes off sale at the end of January.

    I’m currently working on novel 5 in the space opera series. And by working on, I mean engaged in daily death struggles with the most feral book, ever.​​​​​​​​

  36. 36.

    Ivan X

    I’m a very empathic and skilled Mac expert who works with people both remotely and in person to help make their tech lives a little more pleasant. IvanExpert Mac Support

    Thanks for this idea, WaterGirl!

  39. 39.

    WaterGirl

    Everyone who posted something in this thread should at least think about putting your URL in the url field (where you put in your nym and email address) so people can click on your nym to get to whatever it is you have mentioned here.

  40. 40.

    Quiltingfool

    @WaterGirl: Vegetable cats – the real name of the collection is Garden Patch Cats, appliqué designs that have the cat bodies look like a vegetable or fruit.  They are pretty cute (well, I like them!).  There are 20 designs, I’ve got 13, but I want all of them, lol!

    I’m hoping a quilt of Garden Cats might appeal to someone who likes cats and gardens!  Nonetheless, I will have great fun making them – and as an added bonus, use up bits and pieces of fabric from other projects.

  42. 42.

    Ramalama

    My bro and his partner have a shop near Madison WI: Wisconsin Candle co.

    They have a website too (it can be a little confusing to my friends who have gone online there). The things we love are: walnut scrub, Fraser Fir candle, Peppermint candle, White tea & Ginger candle, Tarocco Blood Orange, and the burnt orange patchouli soap (olive oil & shea butter). I love just about everything (except apple spicey scents) at this company. When I make trips down to the US (not recently), I have to order for a bunch of friends up here who just love their stuff and can’t get them shipped to us in Canadia. Good for people with asthma or allergies especially. Good for anyone who appreciates a talented nose.

  44. 44.

    TerryC

    My family owns a disc golf pro shop which has an online store as well as a physical presence on two 18-hole disc golf courses – wwwThrowShop.us ?

  47. 47.

    Emily B.

    Thanks for this opportunity to talk about what I do when I’m not reading Balloon Juice. I’m the author of two fantasy novels, The Thinking Woman’s Guide to Real Magic, and its recently published sequel, How to Talk to a Goddess and Other Lessons in Real Magic. Short version: A grad student in English literature finds herself in an alternate world and begins the study of magic instead. If you like the novels of Catherynne Valente, Deborah Harkness, or Philip Pullman, you might enjoy mine, too. Book 3 is in progress!

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