Tonight was a really good night

I went out for a run yesterday, hoping to go 8 miles, but on Saturday evening I may have partaken of a few too many glasses of wine (if that is even close to being grammatically correct, I'm throwing myself a party).  So the run got cut down to 6 miles..with a bit of walking thrown in, which always bums me out.  So I planned to run tonight for 8 miles to make up for yesterday's run/walk.  Then tonight came and as I put the girls to bed, I looked outside and saw some really ominous storm clouds right in the path I planned to run.  I put on my running clothes anyway...screw rain, right? And possibly lightening and hail...but whatever, I'm a freakin runner.  So after getting all geared up I grabbed my ipod...but even though it had a full battery yesterday, the damn thing was bone dead tonight.  Could there be anymore reasons for me to skip the run?  So I did skip the idea of running 8 miles...and ran 5 instead...picking a route with less scary rain clouds.  And I did it with no podcasts, no audiobooks, and no music.  And it turned out great.  I ran my fasted 5K ever and my first 5K in under 30 minutes.  29:10.  WooHoo!  I even literally threw my hands in the air and whooped like I was at the finish line of my own imaginary race.  And though it was raining pretty big drops for most of my run, it never turned into a real downpour.  And my brain had a real chance to shut down for 45 minutes.  It was a really great run.

I got home and almost immediately had a sale in my jewelry shop.  Another thrilling moment because it was a ready to ship bangle I made last year.  It has been waiting to be worn ever since and I'm so glad it'll have a home soon:

I have been boosting up my jewelry and that was my third sale today.  Three totally different types of sales...one of the new bangles I'm launching:

One of my footprint keychains (it has been a huge Father's Day seller this year), and the bangle bracelet I sold after the run.  The last one was the sale I was proudest of...I'm always so much happier to have a piece of jewelry waiting in a drawer for someone to want it bad enough for the purchase.  And I happened to glance at that particular one last week and felt sad that it was still waiting to be worn.  

So that was my night...then I watched the season finale of The Detour with my husband (very good show!) and now I plan to head up to the living room with my book and a second cup of tea.

Really, really great evening.

Everybody's sick again and other topics

Abby has another fever.  Poor kiddo.  This time I really think it's the flu.  I'm going to call in the morning to let them know and hope they can give her tamiflu or whatever that antiviral medicine is called.  The other girly is also showing symptoms, but I'm pretty sure she'd have to be on the verge of pneumonia before she'd slow down enough for me to check her temperature or worry about her.  The younger one is much more cuddly and sensitive.  Crazy how different they can end up even when you're using the same ingredients.

So the short story of January never happened.  I've regretted it several times this week.  I keep wondering if I should guilt myself into writing one and guilt myself into using the remainder of this shortest month of the year to try publishing it.  Not gonna happen, I can already tell.  I'm not even teetering toward taking it seriously this time around.  I do still want to use March for a writing month and get back on track with that.  I have been rereading my first project though...and I'm about halfway through...taking notes on it and everything.  I stopped tracking what I'm doing with writing related activities though, which I also regret.  I should do that tonight.  I will.  It's only February for crying out loud.

I have sort of started running more regularly (marginally).  I have definitely started reading to my older daughter pretty regularly.  We're almost done with the first Ramona book and I'm really enjoying the new tradition. I haven't done yoga once (or maybe I have...once?).

All in all...I'm feeling pretty good about the new year.  I have an awesome thing regarding jewelry that will take up at least a paragraph.

---Intermission...the video to 'Take Me to Church' is probably the most depressing thing I've ever seen.---

So a friend I work with was wearing this bangle bracelet about a month ago that had a few cool little charms on it...looked really nice...made me instantly create my own version of it in my mind (this happens often...I have a jewelry shop, so I can't really help it).  Then, over the past few weeks, I've spent almost every day building a whole new line of jewelry for my shop.  I honestly just discovered about two days ago that there's already a popular line of bangles with charms (Alex and Ani...I confirmed that my friend's is also this version on Friday).  I'm still going with my version though because I'm doing a few things differently.  For one thing, I'm relaunching the My Life charms I spent so much time and energy on a couple of years ago.  They're the stick figure charms I designed and drew and turned into stamps, which I then pressed into metal clay and fired in my kiln and polished up all from scratch:

I'm also going to use shaped metal pieces (from white copper) to create the clasp for the bangle...which is quite a bit different from the other line of bracelets.  The reason for my clasp is so the charms can be interchangeable.

So far, I've spent several nights making every astrology sign, all the 'My Life' charms again, hours of research on ways to speed up the processing time (I got a rock tumbler and everything) and I've even revamped old listings for the new bangle line...now I'm just waiting on the stainless steel wire to make the actual bracelets so I can photograph them for the listings.  I'm pretty ticked at both suppliers I've ordered it from...neither have shipped it yet and both have promised early shipment.  Gr...I mean...if you're going to promise something to a customer on Etsy of all places, you fucking honor that promise.  

Honestly though, the new bangle bracelets have me all tingly with that creative excitement.  I feel really confident that this will do well...I just hope a whole bunch of strangers who come across them while they're shopping for mother's day presents agree.  At least it's giving me a chance to try my luck at the My Life brand again.  I plan to pay for some social media advertising and I hope the fact that I'm making everything with a more affordable material helps make them more accessible for people.  I have a feeling people liked the silver ones (they got great feedback on Facebook) but the price was just too steep.  These bracelets will start at $30 and will come with 2 charms...then each additional will be $5.  This is all subject to change.  

So that's my news for today.  I'm excited.  It's all I can think about.  

(oh hey, if you're reading this and want to see more jewelry...click here: CarmellasJewelry)