I make these necklaces, it started out as a necessity because I couldn't find one that I could work out in that was short like a choker. So I bought the leather myself and started making them and I put affirmation rings on them ("Discipline," "Focus," "Courage," "Strength"- inspirational messages.) Of course, I also have silly ones (like the one I'm wearing), "I Need More Cowbell."
Do you want a present? (I'm ok with bribery in some situations...)
But no problem here! I love my bike. I feel like a kid again.
But I'm coming up on the final four weeks of training for the triathlon and between the workouts and actual life, it's starting to get a little crazy. The inner panic is starting to set in about how on earth I am going to fit everything in.
So this Mantra Monday, it's about strength. I've found that pretty much anything in my life, or anyone's life for that matter, necessitates a great deal of strength. It really doesn't matter what it is. It could be a resolve to quit smoking, to not pick up that phone after a breakup (or drive by someone's house 150 times), it could be strength for willpower in working out or (ugh) dieting, it could be for someone facing illness or tantrums or financial hardship, physical weakness, it doesn't matter.
We all need strength. Almost every day I ask myself, God, or whoever's listening, for strength.
I've been known to stand in my living room among the screaming and crying, whispering to myself, "Oh God, please give me strength..."
At the end of a busy day when a certain little boy is discovered in the bathroom, covered in mommy's deoderant...
I've been known to say it on the first mile of a run that doesn't seem like it's going to pan out. Or in labor. Twice. And the millions of times in the inbetween. I need strength to keep going every day, in the face of whatever. Because at any given moment, weakness is hanging out, peeking from around the corner, waiting for "strength" to go on his coffee break so he can sneak up from behind...
Weakness is out to get me. But I'm not gonna let it. I need strength in such a way that I'm wearing it right now and it just happens to be one of my newest additions at my Etsy shop. So if you're in need of strength, guess what??? I'm giving it away this week to a lucky commenter!!
Just leave a comment telling me what you need strength for and I'll randomly select the winner and announce it on Saturday. The contest closes Thursday night at 8 p.m. ET. You can earn another entry by "Following" me, and another entry if you post about the giveaway on your own blog and link to it. That's three chances! You must, however, leave a comment for each entry.
Good luck! I hope that strength is plentiful for you as you go about your week! Happy Mantra Monday!
For as long as I remember, I've wanted to open up a tea room or bed and breakfast with my mom. We've already started compiling our tea room collection; tea pots, linens, and china, and every time we add to it, we feel like we're one step closer to realizing our dream.
Last year, when my mom and I really started to talk to people about our business, we spoke to the owner of a tea room that we loved and discussed the possibility of buying it from her. She wasn't going to give it up to just anyone because she had built a clientele and a great reputation in a very affluent area. She wanted to pass it on to just the right people. I felt like I had a connection with her. We had really only entertained the idea and when my mom and I went to make a reservation for tea there a couple weeks later in hopes of entertaining the idea some more, the number was disconnected. The tea room was no more.
And in hindsight, that made the reason why we visited that tea room in the first place a bit more ironic. Originally, we planned to hold my sister's baby shower at a tea room near my home. A quaint tea room with delicious food that we had grown to love. The week before the shower, they called to say they were closing unexpectedly and they were sorry but they were going to be unable to host the shower. That's how we found this other tea room; they were able to graciously accomodate us last minute. So we were saddened when we learned that just a few weeks later, it had also closed.
Was it the economy? What was making these tea rooms, a favorite of so many, suddenly close their doors? This made me worry about other women entrepreneurs whose businesses are suddenly slowing, especially because I was hoping to become a businesswoman myself. And when I saw the title of this book and the opportunity to be a part of the book tour for Step Into Your Future: A Businesswoman's Path to Profits, I jumped at it.
It may not be the right time for us (I know there will be an opening for us some day...) but I want women everywhere to have a shot at success in this trying economy. This business planning book provides business owners with, among other things, tools to help boost profits and ways to attract clientele. Here are excerpts from an interview with Rosemary Hossenlopp, the author:
“What’s specific inspiration changed your life … and why do you feel it had such
a ‘mind-shifting’ impact on you?”
Rosemary Hossenlopp: I believe in easy; an easy way to see what you
need to do and came up with a quick process that allowed me to identify steps
that accelerated my success."“What specific incident inspired you to gather together this information and put together a book?
Rosemary Hossenlopp: "Let’s face it, being a Small Business Owner is HARD. You don’t have time to focus. You’re stressed and you rush around. You’re all over the place; catching planes, picking up kids and completing proposals and contracts. And it seems like you’re doing this all at once. You’re lost in the trees and blind to the forest.
Rosemary Hossenlopp: "The heart of success is figuring out what gets you the best results. You hear about business planning techniques that can help you focus on getting the business results you want. But you procrastinate in implementing them. I know this because I have been there too. It is overwhelming when you need to be the plumber, the accountant, the salesman and the person who delivers the goods. It is hard to make the time to work “on” the business and not work “in” the business." More planning advice is available at www.StepIntoYourFuture.com/teleseminar/
The winner of this week's giveaway, a scrumtrelescent (shout-out for creative adjective goes to my brother-in-law) box of Kashi goodies, goes to Noreen at Silly Mommy of 2 Silly Girls! Congrats!
Of course, after the sun has set, where do you go but to Kilwin's for ice cream and other bad sugary wonderfulness.
The most evil, evil sign in all of the world.
Subsequently, the most evil, evil display in all of the world.
I am going to keep it to myself exactly how many slabs of fudge we have partaken in this staycation. The fact that they call it slabs should really be a red flag for me. But I will say that in the coming week, which I will call "the week of Detox", I will dedicate each workout to a particular meal-slash-sweet indiscretion.
Oh boy.
That will mean a lot of workouts.
A couple for fudge, one for the KFC, another for the pizza, the New York Strip, the sangria, the beer (or rather, the two trips to the Irish pub around the corner), 
You know what? Who cares. It's the Summer of Me.
***
The winner of the Bebe au Lait nursing cover is flchen1! Congrats to you! Thank you everyone for stopping by! I had fun in this Bloggy Carnival!!! May all of us "modest mommies" stick together and nurse on!
So here's my two cents.
I remember seeing her using it in her hospital room after the baby was born while some big burly maintenance men were fixing something on her bed and thinking how great it was that she could even nurse in front of big burly man-strangers without batting an eye!
Everything just moves so quickly in a baby's life.
I always promised myself that I wouldn't hold my children back because I wasn't ready to move on. But man it's hard. Ridiculously hard.
Especially when, instead of years, a baby's life is measured in months. Just a few small chunks of months at a time. And not only do the months move quickly, the changes and the milestones just go whipping by like you're on one of those high-speed rail cars in China. Or Japan. Or whereever those are in the Far East.
The way I see it, their whole personality develops and changes, literally, right along with the size of their clothes.
Like buying something in 0-to-three months. This is what I call, the "nub" phase. Where mainly they eat and sleep and cry and just plain old exist. Sure they look around and maybe begin to recognize you, but mainly it's a one-way street. You're sitting there "itchy-gitchy-gooing" away at them and they're looking at you like you're nuts. But however sleepless and shredded you are, nub phase is cute and cuddly and yummy nonetheless.
***
This week's Summer of Me Winner of the $30 Giftcard to TitleNine sponsored by Janeen at Our Story (thank you Janeen!) and a teeshirt from One More Mile goes to a non-blogger! Clairanne!! Congratulations!
And the winner of the DirtyRed tee is: Dena at SunEGrl Loves to Shop! Congrats to you!!
I've been needing a little inspiration in my life lately. You know, to keep me going. Six workouts a week (when we're not sick that is) and eating well gets a little hard to do now and then. Life gets in the way.
So I thought about how I'd keep myself motivated. I thought maybe something to do with that whole looking cute when you work out thing. So I bought new workout clothes.
Which worked for about a second. Or at least the first time I wore them. Then I thought that I'd like to find a skinny leather choker to wear when I run. It would be my "running necklace". I would feel empowered by it. It would keep me going. Inspire me.
So I searched all over for a leather choker. Every single little Claire's, Icing, jewelry shop I could find. Nothing. Then I found a leather choker in one of those middle places in the mall for $4 and it broke within the first 5 minutes of my ownership. Literally. I took it out of the package and the clasp broke. Bummer.
Then, I found a surf shop that sold them and they were made special to not turn your neck black when sweat and/or water hit it and I was really excited. So I put it on before my run.
And I looked like a dominatrix.
So that didn't work.
But I was still into the cute inspiration necklace thing. I didn't want the dream to die. And one day, out of nowhere I found some charms that I really loved. So I made my own necklaces that didn't break or run and I put charms on them that I could feel empowered wearing. Like "Discipline" or "Love Life, Live Life." Or "I need more cowbell". (I wore that one out dancing.)
Now these are me. I've found myself wearing them pretty much every day. With pretty much every outfit. They even hold up to constant showering! Believe it or not.
Anyway, I love them. So now I'm addicted. I love these necklaces because they inspire me. And they keep me inspired when my inspiration whittles down to zero.
The moral of the story is, I would love to share these with you. This week, I opened up my own little Etsy shop with my own little necklaces and today I am giving one away. So head on over there and take a look around. (It's over there on my sidebar too!)
Pick a style that you like and leave me a comment with which one you would like and Mr. Random Number Generator (I call him "sir") will decide who gets it. Comments close Sunday night at 10pm e.t. Winner will be announced Monday morning. Good luck to you! If you don't win, that's ok! I have a week-long special going on there! Check it out!
http://www.inspiremechic.etsy.com/
Look, I got some bloggy bling! Thank you, Maggie! And if you've ever read Maggie's blog, Maggie's Mind you'd know what an honor it is to get an award from such a kick-butt writer/blogger/poet. Thank you Maggie! This is the Arte Y Pico Award, and it was created to honor bloggers who have inspired others through their creativity. The best part about it is the fact that now that I've received it, I get to pass it on to 5 others! And since Tuesday is all about the lovefest, this is perfect! Can I give it back to you Maggie? Because honestly, you inspire me with your writing and your photos in almost every post.
One of my favorite blogs is We are THAT Family. Kristin's stories and energy inspire me daily. She is so genuine, open, and just downright hilarious. She makes me want to be a better writer. Oh, and by open I mean that she doesn't mind admitting that she goes to Chick Fil A so often the drive-thru lady knows her name before she sees her face. I mean, by her voice when she's ordering. Funny! But I have literally laughed and cried to her stories and she is so worth a daily read. Lots of other people think so too. You can tell by the sheer masses of comments she gets.
Another blog I really like is CanCan at Mom Most Traveled. She offers a lot of tips and giveaways, but that's not really why I like her. I like her for her bravery. She is a mother of two very youngins and is about to travel with them to Asia. She is not afraid. She's traveled with them alone. I'm afraid to take just one of mine on a two-hour flight alone, much less a something-teen-hour flight. Anyway, she also works a lot at being more "green" which I am starting to try to do myself but for me it's baby steps. I just bought the re-usable grocery bags and I'm feeling pretty good about myself. I've already bared my bloggy heart to SJ at My Big Fat Irish Blog and And All the Jones Men, so in hopes that I don't seem stalkery, I must say she has some serious picture-taking abilities. Her photos always make me want to do the Weekly Winners meme but I don't think I can add another meme to my repertoire right now. But she does inspire me to take more pictures and try to catch "those" moments. The ones that make good pictures. I have two more blogs to give this award to and I will finish this week. Though that is not in the rules below, I hope they will forgive me. Here are the rules for the awardees (if you should be so inclined to pass the award on to others). 1) You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award, creativity, design, interesting material, and also contributes to the blogger community, no matter of language.Before you go, I have some more bloggy love for you, and this is bloggy LUV. With a U-V.
Do you use Luvs or know anyone who does? Wednesday, they're giving out $5 coupons at their Web site! They're an already inexpensive diaper (and they're actually really good -- and I'm not just saying that. We used to be Pampers-only people, but we've added Luvs to the mix.)
Anyway, bookmark the site and remember to go there Wednesday for the coupon because the coupons will run out. Also, I will have a Luvs giveaway soon, so check back here for that! Meantime, while you're at it, click on mom-comedianne Anita Renfroe's new video below which is part of the Luvs promotion -- but the song itself is pretty funny.
I realize we haven't gotten officially underway in the Summer of Me Weightloss Challenge, but I am still weighing in today and next Friday and you can feel free to too if you should so desire. It might be a better idea for me to skip it, seeing as though I had many a moment of weakness this week (in the name of celebrating post-5K) and made some very bad choices (alfredo sauce, Coldstone Creamery, a post-Pearl Jam midnight Mickey D's run, oh that should about cover it).
Also, my normal six-day workout schedule has somehow widdled itself down to 4 days this week, but that's ok because once the actual official training for the 10K begins, there will be no wiggle room whatsoever so if there is any time to skip a workout it's the present. My ability to look at the cup half full is uncanny. Really.
I hope there isn't a weight gain today, but I will check around noon, my usual time, and report back right here. I wouldn't actually be surprised though.
So, back to Pearl Jam!
There are no events in my life without incidents. If there were any time that I would have found a GPS useful, it would have been yesterday. More on that later.
Pearl Jam, though, was wonderful! Wonderful! Wonderful! Wonderful! I realized, however, that it might be a good idea to listen to some of their more recent music, since I was the one sitting down during the new stuff (poor choice of shoes -- cute and open-toed, but tall and painful) and rocking out during the old stuff. But it was so much fun. I forgot what it was like going to a concert during a political season and how political the actual concert tends to get during times such as these -- kind of takes the fun out of it for me, but whatever. Still fun.
And as I get older, I think (and probably over-think) about how funny it is that the concert ends about four times. Three fake endings where you have to do the obligatory "Nooooo! Come back! We want morrrre!" cheering and lighter lighting and feet stomping and more yelling and clapping and yelling.
I used to think that if I didn't do it along with everyone else that somehow I'd be the one responsible for the concert ending early. But now I just sit back and let everyone else do all the work until they come back and sing again. Last night, it was about four times. Sometimes the concert ends prematurely, without the band singing whatever song I had actually gone there to see. But last night, they played everything I wanted to hear and actually they turned into the band who wouldn't leave! Not that I'm complaining, but they actually kept going. And going. And going. The lights even turned ON at one point and they still kept going. It was the longest goodbye ever! Maybe that's what happens when you're an older rocker and you're glad you still have fans.
As predicted, much of the crowd was made up of people my age. Who were around college-age when Pearl Jam was the most popular thing on the planet. Who wore flannel and Doc Martins back then and got their first tattoo and dyed their hair that purpley red. (Oh, just me again?)
Highlight of the evening: getting carded! (Yes, I had beer. But my more conservative self had just one beer). I wanted to say to the lucky carder, you do realize that by carding me you are telling me that you are thinking there is a chance that I might be 20. Because that is under 21.
But instead, I said, (giddily -- I think I may have even jumped up and down briefly) thank you! You made my night! Possibly even my month! Or year! Have a nice day! Because I was just thinking a couple of days ago that my carding days were over and got mildly depressed. It had been a year since I had been carded which meant that there was no question whatsoever in anyone's mind anywhere that I was, indeed, old.
Which brings to mind the following: I had already decided on the way to meeting my friend before the concert that she would drive.
It wasn't really a question of whether she would drive. There was something in me that absolutely outright refused to take the minivan to a Pearl Jam concert. I have to draw the line somewhere. And thank God she doesn't have one. Or we would have taken a cab.
I have a decision to make tonight. Maybe you can help me.
Go to the gym and work out. Oooorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr:
GO SEE PEARL JAM!
WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
OK, you don't really have make up my mind for me. The gym will still be there tomorrow, I will just have to have an exxxxtra long workout (legs, arms AND a run-yikes!)
There is a CD, it is a lullabye CD that I LURVE. Love with a u-r. (You can laugh now too). I heard it for the first time at my photographer's studio while we were getting our 3 month photos with Mini. Now, normally, I am not a lullabye cd person. I like to do the singing myself (my poor kids. I am pretty sure I've turned Pearl Jam into a lullabye at some point.) But this CD is actually so lovely, I listen to it even when I am by myself in the car. It is all acoustic. No words. I pretty much love acoustic anything. And this particular cd is almost spa-like. It is so lovely that when I heard it for the first time at the studio and was standing there rocking my baby, it gave me goosebumps. I had a moment. I got all verclempt. My baby fell fast asleep. Anyway, you know how I like to share my favorite things with the world, so just leave me a comment to enter this lovely giveaway. I'll close comments Sunday night at 8pm et and announce the winner Monday morning. Meantime, I will be rocking out to Pearl Jam tonight and if I had all of your phone numbers, I would call you and leave you an annoying concert message and yell into the phone about how they're playing your song. But you wouldn't be able to hear it because it would sound like this: SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH (white noise) (white noise) SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
(plus screaming.)
Have a nice day! Don't forget to enter the giveaway!
