Good (yawn) morning!

Please bear with me this morning. I usually write blog posts later in the day when I'm a bit more awake but today I'm trying to be Productive. You know, when you get so much done it requires a capital letter? I need to be Productive because I have been severely unproductive all week. I made one piece of jewelry, I did not run at all, I did one weight work out and I did almost no promotion-y type stuff. I did however get taxation stuff done. Of course, this was accomplished by simply unvolunteering from the Streamlined Sales Tax system because I was sick of being harrassed by states who wanted me to report to them once a month and tell them I didn't sell anything in their state. It's possible I'm missing something about the whole thing, but it didn't seem very streamlined to me.

My allergies have been making me ridiculous this week and I fully blame them for my lack of initiative. They got so bad I made an appointment to see an allergist in Louisville. An allergist who was very confused by why I wanted to get tested for Juniper, which hasn't started pollinating there yet. But made the appointment I did. How I'm going to get a year worth of shots when I'm going to be moving every two months is beyond me, but the very nice nurse did say the serum can be mailed. Alternately, we could stay in once place for two years and get desensitized to allergens and get braces, which both of us need. I wonder how long it would take us to go bonkers. It would be nice if we liked the weather and culture in some place where we had significant quantity of family and friends, but this is not the case. I guess we'll see.

The most exciting thing that happened this week is that I got my Droid. I love it. It is so freaking cool. Now keep in mind that I went from an EnVII (a phone with a keyboard and web capabilities but not a full on smartphone) to the Motorola Droid. It was a pretty big jump to have all kinds of apps and craziness. It has GPS, it has Shazam (which I will have to resist using at pub trivia,) it has games, book reader and, and, and... and a lot. I kind of adore the touch screen, which surprised me. The camera a little touchy, but I may just be getting used to it, so we'll see. I can only assume there's a blogger app for it, since it's a Google Android phone and Blogger is a Google app. Perhaps I'll be able to send pithy updates from my phone and you'll get to see random scenery. For now you'll have to settle for this picture of Chimney Rock, NC. Pretty, huh? And good photo quality, I think. Very different than Chimney Rock, NE, where we went way back when in 2005. Back when we lived in a van and were traversing the country as young, crazy kids. Come May, we'll have been vagabonds for 5 years. Craziness. Here's Chimney Rock, NE so you can make your own comparisons. Feel free to poke around the blog and see where we've been.

Anyway, happy Friday!

Help-a-Honu Jewelry Launch

For awhile now I've been wanting to create jewelry in the shape of sea turtles, or Honu as they are called in Hawai'i. I adore the creatures and am so saddened by the troubles they (and other ocean animals) face.

This new line features hand cut sea turtles in sterling and copper and eventually brass as well. Right now in my shop I have a large copper pendant and sterling silver earrings, but I plan to expand that greatly as soon as the weather cooperates and I can work outside. Then the variations will be endless - turtles with beads, turtles with patterns and designs, turtles, turtles, turtles. They can also be stamped with letters, either for initials, names, words, etc. A very versatile line of jewelry.

The best part of this whole line is that I'm donating 10% of the purchase price of each item to the Turtle Hospital in Marathon, FL. They do wonderful things; taking care of sick sea turtles, rehabilitating and returning them to the wild when they can and giving them a home when the turtles are just too sick to live in wild. They also provide outreach and education programs and work with legislative bodies to protect sea turtles, all species of which are endangered. I visited the hospital on my way home from Key West a few weeks ago and they really provide a wonderful service to humans and turtles alike.

LaGrange, GA

Last week we were in Mexico Beach, FL. It was occasionally sunny, often windy and always beautiful at sunset. I spent a lot of time walking, running and lounging on the white sand beach and beading inside. As nice as it was to be across the street from the beach, I didn't get to spend quite as much time outside as I would have liked or run as much as my half marathon plan called for because of my horrible Juniper allergy. I was taking Zyrtec, Nasonex and Claritin and still felt awful. It was almost as bad as the Cedar fever in Austin a few years ago, actually and that nearly debilitated me.

Now we're in LaGrange, GA, home of LaGrange College and what I hope will be our triumphant return to pub trivia. The best thing about it is that there are no Junipers! My brain works again, I'm not itchy, I can run without nearly blacking out and my husband doesn't always think I'm sad because I'm sniffling all the time. Yay!

Due to my newly increased brain power, I'm working on a whole new line of jewelry. Stay tuned as I'm sure it will make an appearance here.

Have a great day!

Worst. Blogger. Ever.

I can only hope that you read the title of this post as Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons, as that's how it was intended. I am, of course, the subject of that sentence. Inconsistency is my middle name, in case you couldn't tell. I will try to be better, now that I'm taking this blog in a new-ish direction. Rather than focusing on my business and "exciting things," I'm going to just make it a random blog about me, which will occasionally include things about my business and "exciting things." Confused? Good, me too. ;-)

In the exciting things category, I got to see the last scheduled night launch of a shuttle by NASA. There's a sweet video and write up by my husband on my other blog here.

We also went to the Everglades:













And went to Key West on vacation:



















Since then it's been quiet-ish. Half marathon training for the Kentucky Derby Mini (my last long race - I really don't like running long distances), jewelry making (ooh, shiny), and swimming with manatees. I have no pictures of the last, because I do not have an underwater camera. But trust me, it was awesome.

So here's hoping that this new approach will make me a better blogger. I will probably also start up Wellness Wednesdays again, because I have been in a public gym lately, which means I've seen things that make me crazy. (Lat rows with 2 pound weights! Overhead tricep extensions! Augh!)

Have a great day!

Gasparilla

Last weekend we finally made the trek to Tampa for the Gasparilla Pirate Festival. We'd been wanting to go since we heard about it a few years ago and the timing finally worked out with our location.

We drove over Friday night from Mims, FL and checked into a hotel in Ybor City, a historical strip of bars, restaurants and little shops just north of the city. We had dinner at the wonderful Acropolis Taverna and then went back to watch Burn Notice - we're so exciting!

On Saturday we woke up early to head down to the Convention Center for the Invasion Brunch. We hopped the trolley car and were there before we knew it. We took the time to grab a couple of drinks from the outdoor bar and then headed inside. The tables had been moved inside because of the rain, but we snagged a seat by the window and awaited the invasion.

The Jose Gaspar was visible around 1pm and we awaited its arrival along the barricades. It was a sight to see. Men hung off the rigging and crowded the decks. They wore brightly colored pirate clothes, had scars painted on their cheeks and carried beer in a variety of leather pouches. They all wore huge hanks of beads on hooks around their waists and started handing them out immediately. I even got a kiss on the cheek from the first pirate off the boat!

After they disembarked and handed out a bunch of beads, the Mayor of Tampa handed over the key to the city and the party began.

We made our way to our seats for the parade, but thanks to the rain, they were mostly deserted, so we hung out along the barricades again. The parade was a big blur of people dressed in bright velvet and bead lust. Everyone, myself included, just went nutty for beads, screaming and clapping to get the attention of the bead throwers. There was no flashing though, because apparently the Tampa police had begun clamping down on that sort of thing.

After the parade we walked back to the hotel. I had a very bad stomachache (beer on top of rum on top of buffet food, no doubt) and we just kind of lolled about for the rest of the night. I'm sure there was partying to be had around the city, but we weren't really up for it, since we'd gotten rather cold and wet during the parade.

All in all, a very fun thing to do! A recommended activity if you're into pirates and public drinking! ;-)

Kentucky Derby Hat Update

I got my blank slates in the mail! I have massive piles of tulle and some beads and baubles to go on them, but I haven't started yet because I've been sick and not too creative feeling. I hope this feeling goes away soon and I can make progress!
Have a great day!

I made it out alive!

My work area is now clean and about as orderly as I get. At the very least I have room to work. Of course now it's warm-ish out and I'm going to go outside and saw, but at least I have the option to work inside now.















Here's what I'm working on: hearts for Valentine's Day in all manner of metals, finishes and sizes!

Have a great day!