One, two, three...

So my life has been crazy busy. Couple of notables that I thought I'd update you all on really quick:

1. I was number one in sales for a couple days, I'm still hovering around 1 and 2. If I finish out the month in the top 5 I will be beside myself with joy and accomplishment.

2. My boss will be pretty thrilled too. The new kid rockin' the house.

3. We've found a new house that we're moving to! Hooray!

4. There were a few bumps in the road.
    a. Boyfriend got momentary cold feet. At a poorly chosen moment: right when I got home from work. We all know how well I handle issues when I'm tired. Drama ensued. Poor boyfriend.
    b. A foreclosure notice appeared on the front door of the new place. Uh oh. We have since worked this out, and no worries, we're good.

5. We're moving the first week of March! We're moving in to Bend, which is pretty exciting. The last couple days it's been dumping snow like none other and every time I have to drive through it from home to town, I just think about how great it will be to not have to deal with such a treacherous drive every day.

6. I'm sure my mother will sleep easier for it, too.

7. I don't know why these are numbered, it just seemed like the thing to do.

Ciao,
kc

The things in my life

First of all, my boyfriend is amazing. I think we all know that I'm madly in love with him already, but when he does things like make me coffee in the morning even though he doesn't drink coffee...well, it takes it to a whole new level.

Secondly, it's snowing again! Hooray! Though it does make running a bit more challenging.

Thirdly, I have a couple fun things to tell you, and show you!

Last Friday was the first Friday of the month, and ever first Friday, Bend has a First Friday Art & Wine Walk. It usually consists of bad free wine and some art. If I even get to see art. Thankfully, this time, I actually got to see some really beautiful pieces (we were a little more inclined towards the art part and less towards the wine part this time, considering the debauchery that had me laid low last week). I'm cursing myself right now for not taking pictures, but it felt blasphemous to do so at the time without the artist's knowledge.

One of the most memorable art galleries boasted some really beautiful bronze pieces. Very whimsical and gorgeous pieces of animals mostly. I really wished I could have bought one, but with ticket prices starting at $4,000 I could only sigh and hope that someday someone will pay that much for my work.

Anyways, that's not the point.

Our wanderings took us to a little boutique that specialized in consignment and used cowboy and cowgirl attire. After sighing over a myriad of cowgirl boots that I would probably never wear with prices higher than I'd ever pay for cowgirl boots, I wandered over to the $30 sale rack.

Lo and behold, I saw these.

Frye boots in a less-traditional style. A little stained and a little worn, which is why they were on the sale rack, but Frye boots nevertheless and in hardy condition still, as they're meant to last. Aiee! Totally an impulse buy and on the heels of what I'm going to show you next, I hemmed and hawed more than I'm prone to over them, but in the end, they're Frye boots and they're adorable and they were only thirty dollars.

Boyfriend is now under strict instructions not to let me shop for a while. Wish him luck. I may have a problem. At least I tend towards the thrifty though. Like, not spending full price on Frye boots.

Okay, next up.

This was not an impulse buy. The pros and cons were carefully weighed. They began when it was brought to my attention that we have a new quota on tablets at work. Meaning, if I don't sell them, I don't get paid. Well, as much, anyways.

Now, I have a hard time with tablets. Especially the iPad. I have a really hard time seeing the value in them. They don't have a USB port, so you can't hook them directly to a printer. They don't have a camera, but you can put pictures on them, which makes no sense to me. Basically, they're a very large, over-glorified iPad. But for some reason, everyone I know who has one absolutely adores it.  And Apple just released the statistic that 72% of people who handle an iPad in a store will purchase one.

72%!!! That seems ridiculous.

Then, one of my managers (the really nice one who let me leave a couple weeks ago) told me about how she just bought one because she was having issues seeing the value in it too, and as a salesperson, it's important to see the value in what you're selling. Also, now that she has one, she adores it.

I wouldn't sell a phone that I don't see the value in unless a customer refused to listen to all reason. So, with that reasoning in hand I will be welcoming the newest member of my family either today or tomorrow. Hooray, iPad.

Somehow, boyfriend thinks I'm buying it for him.

The money I am paying for it says, "I don't think so."

Ciao,
kc

TODAY: 4.68 miles
YESTERDAY: 30 min treadmill, 30 min elliptical

Welcome iPhone

I'm sorry that I haven't posted yet this week. Tuesday consisted of nursing an ill-advised hangover and then my sewing group and yesterday was spent working on projects inspired by my sewing group. My bag is progressing ever so slowly as I spent my time at group using the rotary cutter and mats available there to cut the myriad of squares needed for a quilt I'm working on.

Rotary cutters make life so much easier when it comes to squares.

My bag now has pockets and the handle is sewn, at this point it's pretty much all about assembly. Just gotta do it! The top to said quilt is complete, and soooo cute. I'll wait to post pics once it's all done.

In other news, I'm trying to rest up as much as I can in order to fully brace myself (not to mention survive) the impending iPhone launch next week. Ugh. My next Thursday will see me leaving my house at 5:20 a.m. in order to be at the store by 6 a.m. Do you know what time I have to get up in order to be ready by 5:20?? The minimum would be 4:20 a.m. What should actually happen is 4 a.m.

THAT'S SO EARLY.

I don't think I've ever gotten up that early for anything other than a flight. It's ungodly. Inhuman. Disgusting.

Early.

Damn.

With that impending doom leering its ugly head at me, I approach my week with trepidation. Sales are likely to be slow with people waiting for that iconic gadget. I forsee a lot of desperate calls in my future. Wish me luck?

Ciao,
kc

A Day In The Life

First of all, pumpkin muffins with chocolate chips in them are quite possibly the best thing in the entire world. Pumpkin muffins are pretty damn good all on their own, but add those chocolate chips and it becomes a whole new food group.

Breakfast.

Lunch.

Dinner.

Dessert!

It's amazing. Just add a bag of your favorite morsels to my pumpkin muffin recipe.

Secondly, y'all need to go see No Strings Attached starring Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher. I mean, it's great just for the eye candy alone, but the movie ain't too bad either. Boyfriend and I did a date night last night and saw it. I'm definitely buying it when it comes out on DVD, I was laughing so hard at some of those lines!

Thirdly, it took me all day to motivate for my run this evening. Sloth was the name of the game today. It was glorious and I still managed to finish my list! Except for number 19, added by boyfriend this morning: "cuddle." I have to wait until he gets home from work for that one. And yeah, we're always that sickeningly cute.

On my run I employed Heather's logic: when you don't want to do it, do it faster because the faster you run the faster you're done. I ran up the road towards the mountain and enjoyed the sun cresting the treeline and the balmy 45 degree weather. My first mile clocked at 11:05, which is impressive considering my sloth, lack of motivation, fact that I'm terribly "out of shape" and it's uphill. My second mile was faster at 9:56, and I finished my last mile with a screaming 8:59, running at full tilt (breaking 7 minute miles) at the end.

Now I'm done. Hooray!

What's that you say? I promised you photos? Are you sure? Oh all right. I did promise.

This is a cute headband I knit for my sister. It was pretty simple, I cast on only 70 stitches, I really needed more like 100. Oops. Anyhow, cast on 100, work in k4 p4 for 10 or 12 rows then did knit and purl for for the center at about 3" and then k4 p4 for 10 or 12 rows. I did some McGyvering with the ends to make them longer, but my original idea was to sew the short ends together.

The flower pattern I found here and it was super easy. The pattern called for beads in the middle, but lacking beads and having the center be a little loose, I threw a button in the middle. Super cute!

This is a bag I'm working on at sewing group. The pink is the handle at the top and a band on the top. The polka-dot-owl combo will be pleated and then sewn together hobo-ish. The flower pattern you see peeking out there is the lining. I'm excited to have it finished! I did some work on it today, making pockets and ironing backing and stuff.

So there you have it folks, the promised pics. I'm off to make myself less sweaty, hope you have a wonderful week!

Ciao,
kc

TODAY: 3 miles
YESTERDAY: 7 miles

Busy Bee

I've been busy. Today I was up early, wide awake soon after boyfriend got up (at 6 as he'd forgotten to set his alarm and it was only his good fortune that my internal alarm happened to be spot-on that ensured he was up on time). I tried to stay out of his way until he left — and I did a fairly good job of it, retreating to the couch with my book and my coffee.

Once he left, my day began.

It was a good day.

I got a lot done.

I vacuumed. Thoroughly. No dust bunnies here! I scrubbed the kitchen. I ran 7 miles. I ran the first 4.5 on the phone with Heather, and then her phone died (!) and I had to finish the run by myself. By that point though, I felt pretty darned good and ran an extra mile (we were only going to do six). I got home, sent off some emails and cleaned myself up. I gave the bathroom a once-over, not too bad there considering boyfriend just cleaned it and then I tackled our bedroom.

I don't know how you operate, but with me, in the morning when I'm deciding what to wear, if I try it on and it's out, I don't really hang things back up. Ever. In the evenings, I'll make an attempt to fold and/or put some of it away, but by the end of the week there's inevitably a pile of my clothing on the bench at the end of our bed.

Not to mention boyfriend's dirty laundry scattered around his hamper. I don't think he could get it in the hamper if he tried. Good thing I like him.

After the bedroom was tidied sufficiently thoroughly, I raced off to my appointment with Les Schwab to have my brakes fixed in my car. Yay! Three hundred some odd dollars later, I have new brakes (not that I noticed...seemed the same to me on my way home, but whatever) am three hundred some odd dollars poorer (c'mon, commission check!) and I was back at my chores. Did laundry, paid bills, the whole bit.

I have a list.

A whole list.

I'm a list person.

It makes me feel good to be able to cross things off.

I had 18 things on my list this morning. (Don't worry some of them were fun). I have 8 things on my list this evening. Hooray!

Tomorrow, when I get to do the fun stuff, some of which is that sewing I've been tantalizing you with, I'll post pictures.

Oh, I also baked pumpkin muffins and made chicken enchiladas for dinner.

Hope your day was as productive as mine.

Ciao,
kc

TODAY: 7 miles

Breaking Through

So I skipped sewing group in lieu of date night, but I promise as soon as I can, I'll take pictures of some of the crafty stuff I've been working on. I am almost finished with a flower headband thing that's all the rage right now (at least 'round here) for my sister who kept bogarting my Forever21 one over the holidays. She'll be delighted, I just know it.

I'm also working on a super cute bag at my sewing group. It sounds old that I'm in a sewing group...more specifically, a quilt group, but while I'm the youngest there, it's not by much. There are two other women in the group who are late 20s and then the other two women whom I've met are older, but they're very much young at heart. We chat, sew, and make plans for future projects.

My most recent project however, was digital.

Hand drawn version

Finished product

I like sharing all this with y'all. Just so you can see what I do. "My Mane Squeeze" is an equine massage therapist. She is the mother of a dear friend of mine, and an artist in her own right. The fun part about working with artists is that they will inundate you with ideas until you finally have to say, "Enough! Too much!" The good part about that though, is that there are lots of starting points from which one can be inspired. The downside is that it can be a tad overwhelming if you let it.

Because they really want to help.

Really really.

I don't think you understand just how much they want to help. It's adorable. I get it, being an artist myself. It's hard not to want to help when someone else is exercising their craft for you or near you or you hear of them doing it. Don't ask me why. It just is.

In other news, Heather and I have sort of started running again. We ran together on Wednesday with the help of some super duper awesome bluetooth headsets.

The Jawbone headset is pretty spendy, but worth every single penny. It's got noise cancellation going on, so I couldn't hear the cars as she ran in Portland, and she couldn't hear...the snow falling? Well, heavy breathing anyhow I suppose. We did look like those creepy people who wander around talking to themselves. I confused my neighbor thoroughly because she thought I was talking to her — as she couldn't see my phone, which was in my pocket, or the headset, which was under my earwarmer thing.

Oh well. Technology is a beautiful thing.

Even if it makes you look insane.

I had two adventures while running. Both incited the same exclamation, only with completely different meanings. I won't repeat that exclamation here as it really isn't ladylike and I'm not really sure why I used it twice within the same ten minutes. Well, I understand the second, but not so much the first.

This incited the first one. I burst from the trees, where I could see the sunrise peeking through onto this plateau next to the Deschutes River (the sparkly bits on the land part). To the left, which you can't see the sun is glowing off the snow-dusted pine trees and above it's making the clouds even more ominous (they cleared up later to a beautiful bluebird day, but the day, and my run, started off with snow).

More plateau

Sun peeking through the trees as it's rising

 The second moment happened, as I mentioned previously, not ten minutes after I took the pictures on the plateau. I started running again and the road dipped. Not thinking of the rain we'd been getting, or the fact that the plateau had been flooding a bit from the snowmelt and the rain, I trundled along. Only to break through ice two steps later into water ankle deep and freezing.

I hollered, cursed and exclaimed and incited laughter on the other end of the phone line. After I had recovered and quieted enough for Heather to understand me and explained the situation she said,

"We really need to work out a way to let the other person know if we're in trouble or just enjoying scenery. I wasn't sure both times you exclaimed. It sounded rather similar."

*Hand to face*

After that, I turned around and ran home, feet rather wet but quickly warming up with my run.

Stay warm,
kc

WEDNESDAY: 4.3 miles

Rule Number One

So apparently blogging has been relegated to a weekly thing, rather than daily. So very sad, but also kind of a good sign, since the reason I'm not blogging as much is because I don't have time to blog. Which means work is keeping me busy.

Hurrah.

Apparently, yesterday was meltdown day for me. I have no idea what was going on, but the floodworks were loose and could not be dammed. It didn't help that I wasn't feeling well. A really rude customer first thing didn't help either. And then my second customer had violent ADD or something and alternately yelled at me repeatedly about what we were doing and grabbed his phone away from me to run out the door to make a call. It was disconcerting to say the least. An hour and a half into my day and I was already shaken and weary and dismayingly close to tears

I must have had that sort of look on my face because my manager pulled me aside and said, "You have that look on your face, tell me what's up."

She was concerned due to an incident a couple days ago where I was in tears. I don't want to go into it for privacy reasons, but just know that it was handled and she was making sure that wasn't the problem. I reassured her that it wasn't and that I just had a rough start to what was turning into a long day from the getgo.

Kindly, she said, "This is why you have personal days. It's not fair to you to ask you to push through this, you shouldn't have to. It's your Friday anyways, take the day for yourself. Have a three day weekend and come back rested. You showed up today, and that's huge."

Relieved and watery from her kindness (or perhaps just unwillingness to deal with an employee on the brink of tears), I went home.

I want to throw out a thanks to the wonderful parents who raised me at this point, as part of my manager's reasoning was that I have never been late for work, I showed up even though I wasn't feeling 100%, I never showed my customers anything but politeness even though they were treating me with less and I'm a hard worker. I have to just say that while that all seems like good common sense, most of it can definitely be attributed to the way I was raised.

Go Mom and Dad!

Apparently, being good pays off. It means that when you're having a rough day, people are a lot more understanding and helpful. Isn't that wonderful?

I'm off to clean my oven, which I made a mess of last week when baking a cake. I won't give you the recipe because even though it was delicious, I cannot in good conscious recommend a cake with 6 sticks of butter in the frosting alone. Cooking Light? I think not!

I'll try to blog again with happier news later. I have my sewing group tonight, which I'm looking forward to. I'll try to take some pictures to show you what I'm working on.

Ciao,
kc