Miniatures, Updates, and Goal

    Apparently I have been busy. I set up this post on November 1st and then... life happened. Life happened without giving anyone the updates I meant to. So here we go, updates time. 

     I started running again October 15th, after my friend super politely called me out on my bullshit. I had not been running, I had been making lots of excuses not to. And yes, I absolutely would feel better if I ran again. All of that stuff was true. So I started running again. It sucked but I didn't die. So I did it again, and again. Sometimes on the track, sometimes in my road (that sucks a lot!) and sometimes in the woods. It was still kind of hard but it was getting easier. I got myself an accountability buddy. And then I held myself accountable. But I could feel the excuses getting ready to come back in. Trying to leave the house for a run is not as easy as just going outside. I have to make sure that either I am back before Travis will be getting home, in the few minutes a day when I am here before he gets home. Or I have to make sure he has shoes on, which he takes off the second he walks in the door. I have to get him to get in the car, which is not as easy as it sounds because that is almost always the time he decides he needs the bathroom and then he has to find whatever giant action figure he is bringing with him in the car. And yeah, a half hour run really quickly turns into an hour and a half of my day. And I really do not have that kind of time to spend on... anything. Unless it is work of some kind. 

    So the excuses started creeping in and I kept running because I have an accountability buddy. But I could see this not being sustainable. So I bought a treadmill. It folds up and I can put it in my closet when I am not using it. And it's pink, which helps. It takes maybe 2 minutes to take it out, pop up the handle, and put in the two side screws. It takes me maybe 2 minutes to change into running clothes and put on sneakers. And then I can run. And it might take me the length of an episode of Doctor Who. Usually less. And now I want to run. The first run was iffy. I still struggled to keep a pace that was more than walking for very long. Then I had a decent run, followed by a really bad one. And then something happened. I have no idea what. But all of a sudden I ran a full mile without slowing to a walk. It was not a fast mile, but it was a mile of actual running. I think the difference was music. Travis was watching TV so I couldn't watch Doctor Who, so I put in my earbuds. And I started finding a play list, in my running playlist, that helped me keep pace with the running. It was fantastic! The next run I fiddled a bit more with the playlist and I ran 1.1 miles without slowing to a walk. My last run I tweaked my playlist a bit more and ran a mile and a half without slowing to a walk! So I am definitely making progress. I am also mad and motivated. I had to buy larger pants because of the weight I gained. I am mad about that and mad about how I feel (I hurt all the time). So I am going to fix it. And I am not going to make any more excuses. Soon I will hit two miles of actual running and I will be really excited about that. Then maybe I can work on a slightly faster pace. But one step at a time (lol, one step...)

     I have no idea really what I was going to talk about in this post when I set it up. I made bareback pads, I think I have 6 of them. They will be available at my Black Friday Live sale. Which is this coming Friday, November 24, 2023 at 3:00 pm EST on my studio page on Facebook. I am going to be posting photos of the items I have available, on Facebook, between now (either in a little while or tomorrow) and probably Tuesday... maybe into Wednesday. I have no idea just yet. I also have been posting to Instagram which cross posts to Facebook. So you will see things. Maybe people will get sick of seeing my posts. Feast or famine, that is how I do my posting it seems. Anyway, tomorrow (likely) I will post the 2023 version of the how a semi-live sale runs blog post. I may also cross post that to my studio page on Instagram and Facebook. Just so people see it and know that there is a place where I explain how everything works. 

     I like to have one new miniature item every time I do a live sale. I don't know if I came up with new things the last time, I barely remember my last live sale. I think it was probably last year on Black Friday. It's amazing how much happened this year and how little time I had for... everything. But I did come up with these little messenger bags. I love them so much!

     There will be some hunt seat dolls, though not this hunt seat doll. She sold before I even posted her anywhere. Someone asked if I had any. I did. It sold. That's how things go a lot of the times these days. I actually usually have some dolls in stock. And if I run out of a certain type of very common doll, like hunt seat dolls, I make more. I will have 3 at the live sale this year. 

     Ethan and Travis carved this very cool Jack O' Lantern (and Travis said his name is Jack O' Lantern) for Halloween and Ethan got this very cool photo. I was very upset to see that Halloween was immediately erased from all the stores the day after, or even before. And then everything was Christmas. The stores have been playing Christmas music since November 1st. I can barely stand to stay in Barnes and Noble for my Friday coffee dates with Travis. But I will put up with a lot of things for that guy. Including way too early Christmas music. 

    Don't get me wrong, I don't hate Christmas. I don't hate Christmas music. I don't celebrate Christmas (for anyone that is curious I celebrate Yule or the winter solstice). I do celebrate get together with my family, because they all celebrate Christmas and it's a good excuse, but that is all about the get-together for me. I do gifts for New Year's Day. Anyway, I do actually enjoy Christmas music, for maybe a week. In December. Not starting the day after Halloween.

     I will be publishing a detailed catalog of my Black Friday sales items on Wednesday (probably Wednesday) or Thursday if Wednesday gets away from me. I have the photos in the post, but we now know that sometimes I do that and then forget to write the post. So my plan is to put up a post tomorrow or Tuesday with the details of how a semi-live sale runs. And then Wednesday or Thursday morning I will publish the actual schedule (exact times and everything) of when each photo will go live on Friday. And any other details that I feel are pertinent to the sale. 

     So those are my current updates. I have been working like crazy because after this week I am going to take it easy. Maybe. I always say that and then it doesn't necessarily happen. But I am going to try. Not for a super long time, I will need to keep creating things. At some point soon I need to get photos of finished jewelry that hasn't made it up on my website yet. I am thinking I might have a Black Friday sale over there as well. But I need to put stuff up. So much to do! More posts coming soon.