Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Fall

I love this time of year.  My family has fall traditions that pack our weekends pretty well from here until the end of the year.  I love pumpkin, hot tea, sweaters, crunchy leaves, fall music (more about that in a moment), fall decorating, rainy days, crisp mornings and evenings, you name it. 

Work has been busier the last couple of months due to a major divestiture and while not like my old stressful job has kept me more engaged with work.  This is a good/bad thing.  To be honest, there isn't anything spectacular about what I do now which is humbling but I know it gives me the balance that I personally need.  I teeter back and forth on my feelings about my day job daily...sigh.


My diet.  I am 16 weeks into the diet I wrote about previously.  38 lb down.  It hasn't been that hard and I feel better every day, so I keep plugging along.  I can't recall consciously ever losing this much or sticking to something this long without cheating. I guess keto just makes sense for my body because it feels natural for the most part.

I saw Elizabeth Gilbert speak a few weeks ago.  She's currently touring to promote her new book, Big Magic.  It is about creativity and being true to who you are and what you want/need in your life.  A different subject matter for her for sure but so far, I've enjoyed it.  Mostly, I am fascinated by her life. I relate to her on many levels -- a prior divorcee who is lost and figures her way to a more peaceful self. Some days I feel like I've come so far and other days, I am not so sure.  10 years ago (yes, it has been that long) I would have been shocked to know all that I would experience in the following decade -- relationships, travel, professional success, grief, family.  I remember thinking at that time that I had so much to learn about myself and personal growing to do.  I still feel this way.  I've overcome some big challenges but other ones have made their appearances.  I've come so far, yet so far left to go.  I guess it is the personal journey though... always opportunity to improve and grow.  So seeing Liz Gilbert on my own because it was good for me was just a step down that path of personal growth.

Adele's single, "Hello," was released.  I have always liked Adele but haven't been obsessed...until now.  Maybe it is the song or the fact that it is fall music... have you seen the video?  So fall.  I get it though. Whether the song is about a person or your former self, there are times you do want to go back and rehash what happened years before.  You want to understand or even just remember those times.  I admit I have these feelings about a couple of people in my past but I most closely relate this song to visiting my former self.  Forgiving my past self.  If only we could sit own with our prior versions and talk it out.  I can't wait for the album to be released next month.

Jem and the Holograms opened last weekend.  I loved Jem as a kid and so I've made my children watch the old cartoons growing up.  Naturally, they were excited when the movie was released.  My husband even sucked it up and saw it with us girls.  Cute movie.  Nothing amazing but it had a couple of catchy songs and my girls loved it. 

The kawaii store has been moving forward, just a little bit slower than I had hoped.  The logo is finished which is really cute and I have had 6 kawaii characters created.  I have started sharing the logo a bit but not the additional characters as they still need to be named and I need to figure out how they will be used and promoted.  Working with manufactures to make stuffed animals is where I was headed but quantities for ordering are incredibly high so I am rethinking a bit how this will all start.  What I can say is these characters are adorable and the artist that I worked with did a great job and I have completed the legal transfer of ownership over to me for them. I am thinking I may not do stuffed animals initially but may focus on stationary first and see how that goes.  The other hold up has been the e-commerce platform that I planned to use.  So Amazon was my favored platform because you can sell directly on Amazon but you can also plug in your shop to your website and customize to your liking.  It so happens that I am trying to do this at the time that Amazon is ramping up for Christmas and new Amazon sellers in the "Toys and Hobbies" categories cannot start selling in the couple of months leading up to Christmas unless they have had so many prior sales... something I don't have.  So if I want to use Amazon I am waiting till January which may not be such a bad deal anyway because of the product challenges. 

Nanowrimo.  I'm going to try this year.  I really do miss writing and my writing skills have been lacking as time has gone on.  I have lots of ideas that have been running through my head for years but am not sure what I am going to write about.  I may do short stories so I can write several and I enjoy short stories, something many of my favorite writers chose to write.