The toad on my porch

I figured out today that this little toad is living in my plants on my front porch. I thought that squirrels were digging holes in the planters. There is always dirt all over the place and I am constantly cursing the squirrels for digging up my plants. Now that I know what's up, I won't be mad at the squirrels anymore. Yesterday I watched him eat some bugs as we was hiding down in the flower beds. One of them looked like a roach so that made me happy.

I am sorry I haven't posted much in the last two weeks - not that I think I have legions of readers but I know I like to check my friend's blogs and am sad when they don't write for a long time! Lots of cool stuff has happened but also I am just feeling so unable to accomplish what I want to do. I am always struggling with the time management issue. I am practicing with the focus thing, something I figured out I learned from training. When I am working a muscle and it gets tired and another muscle starts to compensate, my trainer tells me to try to re-focus and I realized the other day that I am starting to do that in real life. Another thing I have been trying to do is let what is most important bubble to the top of my brain and just work on stuff that is pertinant. Unfortunately, I am feeling a little frustrated in most areas right now. I am not one of those super-women who can do 18 different things. My mind is so one-track!

Anyway... I did get about 20 line sheets mailed out to stores week before last and last week on Tuesday, Vic and I drove to San Antonio and went around to stores looking for places to sell our stuff. I overcame a huge barrier in talking to store owners. I was really nervous about it. My stomach hurt, my hands were sweaty, I couldn't breathe as I waited at the first store to talk to the owner. He was so nice! It really put me at ease for the rest of the stores. I am glad to have done it. Vic told me when we were planning it, "don't worry, it's a good experience." She was so right! Hopefully someday I will have my stuff in a store in San Antonio!

Jewelry class is really eating up my time right now. 10 hours per week! It's going well though and helping me to think more about making metal jewelry, as I hoped it would. You know what's going to be so cool? When I don't have to go out looking for beads and vintage baubles to make my jewelry, I can just order some silver sheet and wire. That's going to be nice.

I love how the Paramount does all the cool movies in the summer. We saw the Dog Day Afternoon / Serpico double feature on Sunday night. We double dated with Forest and his girlfriend, Margot. Afterward we had knishes at Katz's. Yum.

Alright I am tired from an entire day of playing housewife catch-up.

PS: I got my bookcase painted!

My backyard is huge.

Man, this was actually a pretty good week for me. I managed to stay pretty calm and get a few key things done:

mailed out orders
mailed out line sheet to a new store I met on MySpace
took pictures of jewelry on Angie and got them onto the website
carved one of my designs in wax
learned about different methods of casting
talked to my teacher about mass production - basically giving him an idea of where I want to go. It is good because he is very supportive and will probably keep it in mind when he teaches me new stuff. I also liked that he suggested another way to achieve the design I was making. I think I need to try the method he suggested next week. It may seem like a slow process but learning always is.

I am happy with my website right now. I have stuff ready ahead of time. It is good to have a backstock of new things. Gives me time to make sure I like the design.

Today we worked in the backyard pulling up weeds and ivy. Talked to our neighbor about going in together in the Fall to buy and install a new fence. Very excited about getting our backyard looking good. I really like spending time outside. We had dinner at Kristin and Scotts on Thursday night. We ate out on their back porch and it was sooo nice! We have been thinking about this yard project for a while and that was definitely a good inspiration for us - realizing we would like to do the same in our own home! I contacted a tree guy about meeting this week to get an estimate on removing all the crap trees back there. Can't wait to have a nice backyard to sit it!

I also spent a lot of time today working on some logo and website designs for my brother-in-law who is starting his own production company. Clint helped me out bigtime! He and Dixie came by to borrow our wet/dry vac for their floor project in their new house (yay!) and I was pulling my hair out trying to figure new stuff out in photoshop and he show me how to do it! He said I could call on him and he would be my photoshop help desk. Hooray!

I have a good attitude.

I have been totally engrossed in my business this week with some fun along the way. I worked all day today with a brief break to run out for supplies and a quick coffee/laughing break with Melissa! It's weird though - I think I get the most done on the weekend days sometimes. I got so much done today! I have been working on my plan to start soliciting more stores. The line sheet is really coming along and with any luck I will be sending it out to a small number of stores early this week. I am excited and scared! Also, I have come to the realization that I have got to get every single one of my designs re-produced and ready to go. It takes me twice as long to get an order out when I have to make things to order. This week that is going to be my other big goal! I am standing on the precipice of getting organized! Yay!

Getting back into jewelry class was great. Since it is summer the classes are so much longer and I almost finished carving my first class project in the first class. My goal in there is to knock out the required class projects and have time do work on some of my own little projects. I want to really explore wax carving for casting in sterling silver. Here is a picture of what I did on Wednesday:

This is a project from a book, someone else's design. My teacher was pretty impressed with what I accomplished in the first class. I felt like I was back home sitting at my grimy work bench in the smelly jewelry lab, filing away at wax. My neighbor introduced me to some new tools to help me work faster. That was so cool! Sometimes I can be so intimidated in there with all the other jewelers who are working away on these really amazing pieces. It is nice when you meet someone and they want to help you along! I appreciate the kindness.

Swimming last week at Barton Springs was another wonderful experience. The smell and the cold clear water, lying in the grass drying off and looking up at the trees, I love it all! I always forget how beautiful it is there. The water was very cold and invigorating. we swam across and back to warm up. James and Forest jumped off the diving board. Then we ate hamburgers at the snack bar up on the hill. Very relaxing day!

That night I met Sarah for coffee. She had been sick a few days before and wasn't up to Hatha Flow yoga that night. We looked at fashion magazines and talked about jewelry and other fun stuff. Then I stayed a little while after she left, listening to the musician who was playing and planning out my week.

Thursday I met Jennifer P. for lunch at dk sushi and came away super energized about business. There are some people in life who just give off good energy!

Thursday night I went to a meeting for a new feminist critique group that is forming. It is mostly made up of other women around my age who are graduating art students from UT. All the women were so nice and I found we had very similar thoughts on the subject of feminism. They would like for the group to meet every couple of weeks and alternate a sort of feminist book club and an opportunity to show their work and receive feedback. I am excited to go to more of the meetings and see how it works out. I got a lot of great feelings at the first meeting. A weird coincidence happened too - one of the women had just moved into a new house the night before and as we were talking I realized it was the house I used to live in on 51st Street between '93 and '96. Gave me chill bumps!

On the weight loss front, the exercise is still going very well. I am so close to being in the 180's I can taste it. Just gotta keep plugging away. I just try to concentrate on the fact that I am stronger and that I am strengthening my heart muscle and that every time I get on the elliptical or treadmill for 30 minutes I am working off another smidgen of fat around my waist! Persistence.

Speaking of persistence, here is a cool quote that James was reminding me of last night as we plotted out how to achieve our goals:

"Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan "press on" has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race."
-Calvin Coolidge