Sunday, May 29, 2016

I love long weekends

Long weekends are so sweet.  I've had time to work on the major amount of orders in my jewelry shop, I've been able to read a lot of Nicholas Sparks' new book (it's a really poorly written one...like the worst of all of his books...but it's a quick read and I love when a book makes me feel like a fast reader, which I am definitely not).  The girls have been (**knock on wood**) super good and we took them to the Garden of the Gods yesterday...oh my god, I've never seen a more beautiful park.  I couldn't even describe it with words.  And so perfect for our kids...flat trails throughout with short detours into the most peaceful and beautiful little clusters of trees and logs.


I might take the dog there for a short walk/run today...it's only about 25 minutes away from our house.


I'm really excited about my jewelry shop right now.  I wanted my 33rd year to be filled with writing and trying to get my book published but my motivations are kind of shifting toward getting the jewelry shop to be successful enough to justify only doing that.  Father's Day has been as big as my Christmases usually are, which is so inspiring.  I'm going to add these bangles today and tomorrow:


I've made a half dozen more charms to swap out of the stainless steel bangle and there will be the option to add charms.  I really love working on new ideas like this.  I'm hoping my non-holiday months can become more successful with these types of anytime options, that might make doing only this a little more realistic.

I'm going to get back to reading and editing some images so I can turn them into stamps for the metal clay (footprints, kids' drawings, handwriting...one for the husband who wants me to make a keychain for his friend who just made Master Sergeant in the Air Force)...Busy, busy, busy...but a really good kind of busy.



Saturday, May 21, 2016

Oh Gosh...Where Have I Been?

I've gotten busy with life and haven't been back to write recently.  I'm doing a lot more with my jewelry and I'm considering making a blog just for the jewelry shop....I think I did this years ago and let it peter out...I could resurrect that one.  I've been running a lot more, 25+ miles a week, which for me is a lot.  My long runs have been 10 miles or more once a week for a couple of months now.

With kids and a million things going on with work, the jewelry shop, nicer weather here in Colorado, my new Garmin watch reminding me to be active all the time (more on this watch soon...I LOVE it!).  We've also started a garden, but I can't pretend that has taken much time, we planted it last weekend and it has been just a matter of turning on the sprinklers and looking to make sure none of the plants have died yet.  I really don't know what I'm doing with it yet and keep saying things like "I'm sure there's a healthy way to keep bugs away, I'll look into it"...then I forget.

Speaking of forgetting things, I have keychains to ship this morning.


This is what I'm looking at as I sit here typing this.  I have the window open with a breeze coming in.  It's a perfect moment.

I'm going to climb the Manitou Incline today...all by myself while the kids (and probably husband) nap...I'm looking forward to the alone time and exercise:


I'm slightly afraid I'll fall backwards from exhaustion and come tumbling down the whole thing, but I've climbed it before (once) and survived, so I'm trying to stay positive.  It's like an adrenaline seeking activity for me because I'm partially afraid I could die on this thing, but at the same time it's the best exercise I've gotten in a long time, so I'm willing to take the risk.  

Wish me luck!  And check out my jewelry blog if you want to hear more about what I'm doing over there...like these new mantra bangles: