Are those my run legs I hear??

I have, in fact, been running a bit. In a rather casual fashion where I head out to Bent Creek and run around as much as seems appealing/appropriate, and then head home until another window of opportunity presents itself. Which is usually 2 or 3 days later. So you can see I have not exactly been on anything that anyone could even vaguely call a plan.

 My meandering runs have made it up to about an hour in length, but they have not been fast. At all. They have, however, sometimes been quite steep. I figure that has to count for something, right?? Surely if your heart feels like you're running mile repeats, then maybe some other parts of your body actually think you're running mile repeats too?

 Except then I met up with Kelly a couple of weeks ago, and we were jogging along on the dead flat path by the creek, and I was thinking "wow, this is a lot faster than I've been running, this feels like a bit of effort", so I dared to ask her how fast her Garmin thought we were going. The answer was... 8:46. Yikes. Because I was definitely putting forth a little too much effort for 8:46 on a flat road.  Not that I'm jet propelled, but in October, before I finally admitted that my foot was no longer operational, I really thought I was in shape to flirt with breaking 20 minutes for the 5K.  Which is a fair ways off from 8:46 pace.

So then today I met up with Kelly for another run, and we did the 6 mile Hard Times loop, where you (more or less) run up, up, up for about 3miles, and then down a steepish hill for about a mile, and then back along the creek on the flat path for a couple of miles.  It was definitely feeling easier than it did a couple of weeks ago, so when were back on the flat around mile 5, I finally dared to ask - ok, how fast are we going.  And the answer was - 7:40!  Hallelujah!  Maybe the run legs aren't completely in hibernation.  Maybe running 3 or 4 days a week with two dogs and no watch isn't such a bad idea.  It's not like we were flying, but it just felt so much easier than the 8:46 of two weeks ago that I was, quite frankly, happy.  I should also point out that it's not like we were running 7:40 the whole time.  We started at a warm-the-foot-up jog, and then slogged up the hill, before picking it up on the way back.  And after reveling in the 7:40 for about another minute I finally had the sense to say that it was fun while it lasted but I really ought to slow down.  But for a while there - we were chatting and running sub-8 minutes, and it felt good.

My foot - it's kind of sore.  It wasn't all that happy for the legs to have come back, and I think it much prefers the two dogs/no watch approach to running.  So two dogs/no watch is what I'm going to stick with for the time being, but still, the tease of really running was enough to keep me happy for the foreseeable future.

Hot Chocolate 10-K - From the Other Side This Time

The Hot Chocolate 10-K is the biggest fundraiser for Sam's school.  It's  grown to about 1200 runners, and it's a lot of fun.  Last year (due entirely to my own lack of figuring out where exactly the finish line was) it was also the site of my most spectacular racing meltdown of the year.

Now, let me clearly state that the end of the race last year was entirely my fault.  I should have figured out where the finish was - that's kind of a baseline requirement for racing.  But still, I saw this giant graphic on the website and it made me laugh:

Seriously, that's what it says on the website.  And the crazy part is - it's true!!!  But kind of mainly in a technical sense, as in the middle 4 1/2 miles are totally flat - but the beginning and the end are a different kettle of fish.  Here's  the elevation profile:

So, you see that, while technically true, it should also come with a warning that it's the flattest race, with the steepest finish, in town.

This year, due to the cranky foot, I decided we'd volunteer instead.  Note that *I* decided *we* would volunteer.  Clark loved that one.  Especially when we were put on the parking crew, and were told to be there at 6 in the morning.  That included Sam - normally I might have let him con a sleepover with a grandparent, but there weren't any readily available, and besides that I told him it was his school after all - if any of us were going to be there it ought to be him.  So we got up at 5:15 and slogged over to the Chamber to direct parking.  At which point Sam taped two parking signs to himself in a sandwich board, plugged in his iPod, and commenced dancing like a much younger, much whiter Usher.  The kid never fails to surprise.  And people definitely noticed the entrance to the parking.

Turns out parking duty is pretty fun.  Although my favorite are the people who arrive 25 minutes before the start of a 1200 person race and are shocked to find out the closest parking is full.  "What?  It's full?!?" Um, yeah.  It's full.

At any rate, the heavens opened with a major league cloudburst just as we were finishing, and I'll admit some soft, weak part deep inside me thought "I'm so glad I'm not running today!!!"  And what the hell, it's not like I was going to run anyway, so I took that soft, weak part home and fed it bacon and sausage.  Live a little.

This is Where the Magic Happens

Remember when I learned to make silicone molds?  And I was so proud of myself?  Well, that's how I've been occupying the last few days.  Because I found a *bunch* of bangles just crying out to be turned into molds, but I kept thinking "oh, I don't have time for that, I'm in the holiday rush.  And the post-holiday rush.  And the studio overhaul.  And the inventory and accounting overhaul."  And finally, I wasn't in any kind of rush or overhaul and had to face the fact that the time is now.  

So, I pulled out the trusty duck tape and poster board and glue gun - because believe it or not those are the crucial ingredients to making a good silicone mold - and got to work.  People, this is where the magic happens: 

I know, hard to believe right?  And also, it's possible that the real professional mold makers have a different system, but this is the one (after much trial and error) that has given me the best results.  It's not all glamour, here, ok?

BUT, in a few days I should have several new bangles, which I'm pretty excited about.  Will post pics here first for the sneak preview!

And - I'm going to put together a post on Stitch Labs in a few weeks too - that's the "inventory and accounting overhaul" I mentioned above.  I think it might be the coolest thing ever for small artisan businesses.  After being the bane of my existence while trying to figure it out.  Will post the full report once I've totally got it under control.  Fair and balanced coverage - that's what this blog is all about.  That, and glue guns.

Transforming the Beast

My beast of a studio, that is.  I wish I had taken more honest-to-goodness "before" pictures.  But once I was overcome by the spirit of "must fix this now!", there was no time for before pics.  There was mainly time for throwing sh!t out and daydreaming about trips to Ikea.

Here's what happened:  we had a Christmas Party.  We do it every year, and it's super fun (and also somewhat exhausting), because we do it on our last Holiday Market date of the year, which means that, in addition to the birth of Christ, we're also celebrating the end of standing in parking lots selling jewelry for the next few months.  And honestly, by that point in the year, one seems about as exciting as the other.  (But only for a few days.  Then the earth returns to its proper order and I'm back to recognizing the birth of Christ as having perhaps a little more significance.)  So anyway, in one day we work two markets and host a party for 50 people.  I didn't say it was smart, I just said it was fun.

As you can imagine, getting ready for the party requires a significant amount of prep beforehand.  And that's where home overhaul comes in.  The last couple of years it's been a catalyst for change that resulted in good marital harmony.  The first year Clark and I had a knock-down drag out fight (which is fairly unusual for us) over the thousands (yes thousands) of paperback books I had stored all over the house.  I was attached to them.  I LOVED them.  I re-read them all the time.  And they were driving Clark crazy.  And also probably not a good idea for a person with occasional allergy and asthma problems (me).  So finally I recognized that he had a point, gave a fortune in books to Goodwill, and bought a Nook. (Well, except for a couple hundred books I *knew* I was going to re-read again.)  But now paper books no longer cross the threshold in our home, and marital harmony reigned again.  At least it reigned until this year's party.

Because getting ready for this year's party brought up the subject of my studio.  And how not fit for public consumption it was.  For example:

 These don't fully tell the story, because they were taken a few years ago before the jewelry making had fully entered the scene (I was mainly making lanterns and lamps at that time), but trust me when I tell you it had only gotten worse.

So just imagine this scene doubled with stuff.

And here's what happened when I cleaned out the closet.  Seriously, all of this was in the closet.  (That's really a pretty embarrassing picture.  Please don't call Hoarders, just wait until you see the next pictures.)

So anyway, the Christmas party was approaching and through much covert action and sly hiding of crap, the studio looked sort of not as bad as usual.  But not great.  And then I was wandering about on Pinterest, and came across some lovely studios.  And I thought - WTH, why can't I have one of those?  And needless to say, Clark was all over it.   My studio was formerly our guest bedroom, so there's really no escaping it in our house.  (Well, you can close the door, but you still know it's there.)

So, a studio overhaul frenzy took place. I should mention that this also coincides with my getting out of the candle and lantern business, and focusing solely on jewelry, which means it was time to simplify things anyway.  (And, as an aside, if you want any candles or lanterns you might want to head up to Woolworth before they're all gone.  And if you want any candle making supplies I'm going to have a craigslist fire sale in the near future.)

Clark and I threw out literally dumpsters full of stuff.  And then I grabbed my long-time BFF (we met first day of college!) who also happens to be an Interior Designer, and drug her to Ikea with me, and here's what we came up with:

It's like it's not even the same room.

See that closet to the right?  That's the one I was attempting to clean up a few pictures ago.  It's crazy, I tell you.

It's kind of so what I wanted that I don't even want to mess it up by actually working in it!  But I'm getting over it.

p.s. - if you haven't joined Pinterest, and you want to, I think it's quicker to get on if you have an invitation.   If you run into that problem, just email me or leave a comment and I'll send you one.  It's crazy good fun.

January Run

I went running in Bent Creek yesterday morning - 6 miles (more or less), with the first half pretty much up hill, and the last half pretty much downhill.  That's the beauty of Bent Creek - you kind of get fit in a hurry.

It turned out the weather was amazing.  Cold but not freezing, with the bluest sky I've seen in days.  So I tried to commemorate it - but the sun was so bright, and the leaf-less trees so not-really-appealing, that I wasn't all that successful.  As you'll note:

In fact the best pictures were no doubt of my running partners:

 They are the best.  I swear Moose grins at me the whole time, and Eli is on constant alert. (True story - he scared the beejezus out of a pit bull mix that was chasing Moose, and ran the pit back to his owner.  And Eli is the little one.  Except he's a terrier, and thus the normal rules of canine size don't apply to him.)

I also added the obligatory self portrait, although turns out self portraits taken after running in the cold for a half hour are not the most flattering option.  But still, I'm sure you can tell how much fun I was having.  And I'll keep telling myself that's the point of the running self-portrait.

But, the biggest point of this post, and I'm playing it cool so I waited until the end to really point it out, is that I RAN 6 MILES YESTERDAY!!  And my foot was pretty cooperative.  Couldn't be happier about that.  (ok, I could be happier - I could be happier if I hadn't thought my heart was going to explode going up that first climb on Ingles Field Gap - but that's the part about Bent Creek getting you fit in a hurry, and also that small wrinkle did not overshadow my general very-happiness to be running.)

Etsy Fashion!

Check it out - my ring was included in the Etsy Fashion email that went out today!

Yep, that red resin ring in the corner above the bow tie - that's mine!  If I was smarter I could figure out how to embed the whole thing.  But I'm not - so you'll just have to click here to see it.

Treasury Jedi

Check it out!  I just figured out how to add a whole Etsy treasury to a blog post.  I know, you were expecting something better.  But after my last attempt, which was a slightly wackadoodly series of screenshots and weird links,  this is pretty cool.  I heart these treasuries - they're a good source of cool stuff without getting lost in the Etsy labyrinth - but I couldn't figure out how to share them until now.  I believe I will now close all blog posts with a Treasury.  What, you only read this thing for the bike posts?  Good thing the treasuries are going to be at the end then, eh?

In other news, I'm working the Holiday in the Mountains show this weekend.  It has been. . . interesting.  I'm not sure it's exactly the correct demographic for my work, but I've sold some, and met a bunch of cool people, and there's a very impressive model train set.  The other vendors (whom I affectionately refer to as the carnies) are almost inevitably very cool and interesting people.  At the very least I have yet to meet one that's an actual asshole.  And the carnies usually have a good story - useful for the end of a show when the customers have gone home and tumbleweeds are blowing down the aisles.  And tomorrow morning before the show starts at noon I'm sneaking out on the bike for an hour or two - yippee!

And speaking of exercise, and you'll note the reports still haven't included any running - I'm headed to the Mission Sports &  Rehab office first thing Monday morning for a visit to the running clinic where they videotape you running and analyze everything and attempt to explain how you ended up in your current situation.  Thanks to the incredibly nice people at Foot Rx I'm going loaded with three new pairs of shoes for Krista (the PT) to evaluate.  And why does that make the Foot Rx people incredibly nice?  Because, since the shoes are only going to be used on the treadmill unless I want to keep them, they're going to let me return the ones that don't work without any problems.  I'm also excited because the foot is feeling much better (thanks to Krista, Tory (the rolfer) and a BUNCH of leukotape), and I think I'm going to get the clearance to try a teensy bit of running this week.  This makes me inordinately excited.

Speaking of running - I need to go do the PT exercises and go to bed. (yes, it's 8:55 pm on a Saturday night - I've had a long weekend.  Sue me.)  So, without further ado - here's my first attempt at imbedding a treasury.  I think this is one of my favorites of all.  Which means I'm very excited that one of the new resin block necklaces is included in it!

'Yellow, Blue, Green & Orange' by Harem6

We love these ! :)

Paris Graffiti, Yellow Heart... littlebrownpen $75.00	Wool mittens/ Blue gloves wi... lyralyra $36.00	Fern Resin Pendant. Green Re... SpottedDogAshe... $32.00
Ceramic Pig Planter Vintage ... fruitflypie $29.99	Yellow and White Chevron Clu... waterpath $25.00	Sparkle Cobalt Blue Big Bead... SarahRobinL $21.00
Grass Green First Formal Bab... elisabeth76 $36.00	Kallisto bag in stripe canva... milloo $96.00	Journey - Travel Journal - S... makingthishome $17.00
Ceramic Yarn Bowl, Blue Bir... JulieKnowlesPo... $44.00	Lovetatum Natural Uvarovite-... LoveTatumJewel... $600.00	Bat Country T-shirt... Limit... wickedmoxie $16.15
Geometric Golden Yellow Wool... whitenest $75.00	Orange Polka Dot Martingale ... Jacqpot $17.00	Handmade green leather walle... natthakurLondo... $55.00
Aviator Hat in Teal Wool : M... rocksandsalt $68.00

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio.