Winter has now settled in here in the North Country. We were watching the forecast for about a week on this storm because they were predicting a lot of snow, but there is always hope that it won’t as much as predicted. We were in a range of 12-24, so it was going to be a lot regardless.
I was a little worried it would affect the Women’s Empowerment march on Saturday, but the snow didn’t really start coming down until much later. I do think the temperatures in the teens and the weather kept people away.
My sister and her husband came up to join John and I marching.
Did I mention it was cold? Brrrr! Plus a breeze had picked up, which made it seem worse. Bundled up, though.
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Me and my sweetie 😀
I love my scarf so much. I got it in Ireland and it is the warmest thing – plus it is extra long so I can wrap it a few times around my neck.
The snow began in the late afternoon:
We ended up with 16 inches officially, so about in the middle of the predicted amount.
It’s a lot of snow. The worst part is the end of the driveway where the plow keeps pushing it back in. The snow was a bit taller than our little snowblower, so that was interesting LOL, but at least we didn’t have to deal with sleet and ice like points a bit farther south.
Wind was blowing snow around and it started piling up on the porch roof below our kitchen window:
It’s going to be a long time before that is clear. The cold wave starts with below zero temperatures coming (It’s 3 degrees right now).
The road crews were great as always and roads are quite passable now.
Back to business as usual tomorrow. I joined Planet Fitness, so I’ll be able to make a gym visit tomorrow.
Aligner update: I changed into my 3rd set last Wednesday. I wear this set for 2 weeks. This one was really tight to start with, but I got used to it pretty quick. I don’t see any difference in my teeth, but I do notice it is a little different when I floss, especially between my two front teeth. It’s not quite as tight.
I haven’t decided if I’m going to set any concrete goals for 2019 or not. I have been thinking about it. One thing I do want to do is join a gym. I’m waffling between 2 different places. One is my old gym, which I liked for the most part, but it felt kind of small and cramped. The other is Planet Fitness, which is in our mall. They are pretty much equidistant from our house and the cost is the same. I’m leaning towards PF just because it is a roomier facility. I just need to get in gear and make a decision.
I haven’t put my bike on the indoor trainer yet because I have somehow convinced myself I’m going to ride outside this winter when it isn’t snowy. Not really sure what I’m thinking with that 😀
Both John and I have been focusing on eating better – or at least less. I have to say with my aligners in – that has curtailed my snacking a *lot*. Since you can’t eat with the aligners and then having to brush teeth after eating to put them back in, I’ve been weighing the worth of what I want to eat for that fuss LOL. Those quick little nibbles like grabbing some nuts or a few crackers is not happening. The plus side to that is that I lost 2 pounds this week. Invisible aligners, the new diet apparatus.
We also ventured out to try something new. There is a tabletop gamers meeting that happens a couple of times a month. They usually meet about 5 miles away and we just hadn’t gotten out there yet. This month, the meeting moved to the Shirt Factory (artist community building), which is within walking distance from our house. So, we went. For an introvert – going to a group thing like that made me a little anxious, but it was fun. There were about 20 people there playing anything from role playing games to strategy games, card games and others. We played 4 different games with varying numbers of people
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We will likely go again, especially if they keep it this close to where we live. It’s good to meet new people and nice to do something that isn’t food oriented as a group 😀
Speaking of food, obligatory photos of some food:
Breakfast of Kodiak Cakes made into waffles:
They aren’t super crispy and I like them better as pancakes, but a nice change up.
I’ve been getting bagels for home, which isn’t necessarily the greatest thing, but this is the time of year when I just want all the carbs.
Instant Pot came to the rescue for dinner with a potato soup (I added cooked chicken breast to mine for more protein).
I have to say that I love the IP. Worth the money – even if I did get it on sale !
Business has been surprisingly good since Christmas. I was thinking things would be really slow, but it has been steady. I partnered with faire.com to sell wholesale and stores have been ordering pretty steadily. I’m putting soap on the back burner because I cannot do both anymore for sanity sake.
Aligner update:
It took 4 or 5 days to really get used to wearing the aligners. My teeth stopped aching after a couple of days. I did have to get some dental wax because one side of the aligner was rubbing on my tongue and made it sore. It now feels really weird to have the aligners out of my mouth. They are in all day and night except for when I eat. Another side plus is that it curbed my nail biting habit. Can’t nibble your nails while wearing the aligners.
Today I switched to the next aligner set. I have a calendar to follow and was sent an email reminding me to switch – plus I had an alarm set in my phone for it. This second set fits much tighter, which is normal. Today my teeth are aching a little bit again, but I’m thinking that will go away in a couple days like the last time. I figure I won’t be able to see any change for a month or two since the moves are so tiny. It’s hard not to be a bit impatient.
Ms. Pixie saying hello:
It’s funny how she likes to lay on the warm radiator and along a cold window. When you pet her, the side against the window is cold. I guess that is her version of keeping one leg out from under the covers.
My Smile Direct aligners came this week. I sent my impressions in early December and the whole series arrived.
My plan is scheduled currently to be completed in 5-1/2 months. They used to ship out the aligners when you were supposed to switch them out, but there were issues with people not getting them in time and whatnot, so now all the aligners arrive at once, dated and packed separately.
There is a check-in for your account and you are given reminders for the dates to change your aligner sets. After 90 days, the dentist reviews your progress to make sure it is on track.
I will be wearing 15 different sets of aligners. There is also a 3-D model in my account online of how my teeth will be changing over treatment, which is neat to see. I wish I could share that here, but I don’t know how to copy it to have it here (and not sure they would approve of it anyway).
My kit came with the aligners, a case for them and some tools:
The ball is actually a lip balm. The chewies look like a piece of chalk, but they are a firm rubber thing that you bite down on to help set the aligners in place if you need to. I have not needed to use the remover tool. I suppose if you have a nice manicure, you might want to use the tool to prevent polish chipping.
Each set is packed in its own little baggie.
They are a very thin plastic that has been 3-D printed.
The trays snap on over your molars. They went in pretty easily. The aligners are to be worn at all times except while eating. No drinking anything but cool water with the aligners in. No coffee or tea. Hot liquids could deform the trays – not to mention staining the trays, which would look pretty bad LOL. I also got a free tooth whitening kit, which I forgot to get a picture of. I’ll do that next update.
Here is another reminder picture of my teeth with particular attention to my bottom ones:
This is wearing the aligners:
You can barely see them. I have a bit of a lisp, which is getting a little better the more I wear them. My teeth have felt a tiny bit achy and I did pinch my tongue after a really big yawn, but nothing really bad as far as discomfort goes so far.
I will try to share an update each week when I change to the next tray set.
It’s pretty crazy how you blink and it is almost 2019!  This past year has been pretty crazy and definitely went in different directions that we thought.
My jewelry business took on a life of its own and kind of consumed my life the last quarter. At least now I know better how to prepare for that next year so it won’t be such a surprise.
I checked on what my goals for 2018 were and see how I did with those. To be honest, I couldn’t even remember what they were, although I was pretty sure eat more veggies was on there 😀
Eat more vegetables. Yep – this was on there LOL! I don’t think I did much different with this than usual. I ate more vegetarian, but that doesn’t necessarily mean more vegetables .
Read 15 books. I was not able to complete this. I ended up reading about 8. I put in a lot hours doing things for the business, which cut into that time. I do puzzles on my Kindle at bedtime, which will put me to to sleep in about 10 minutes – seriously, it’s like a sleeping pill.
Work on an organizational system. Let’s take a moment and all laugh at this one. Nope.
Continue being an advocate for the environment. This one I did and do. Among other things, John and I pretty much gave up plastic straws and try to request no straws when we go out to eat. I compost and continue working on my pollinator gardens – plus donating a portion of my proceeds from my business to groups that support pollinators, like this one. Always room for improvement, but a goal that I did well on.
Spend time with body weight exercises and stretching on a regular basis. Oh my gosh, this was a complete fail. I miss my lifting and I need to think about rejoining the gym. It might fit into the budget next year.
So, yeah – whiffed a lot on those goals. We definitely need to do some strategizing for 2019 to make things more streamlined as far as business goes and keeping up our home life and down time.
We are finally exhaling around here. It was way busier up to pretty much the last minute with the businesses and now it’s time for us to relax for a bit. Definitely crazier than expected, but in a good way.
I did treat myself to an early present after getting through the last show. I had been following a fellow artisan on instagram called Classic Clayworks and was coveting a mug. I got on her mailing list and ended up with a coupon and free shipping – so how could I not get something for myself? My new latte mug:
It’s the perfect latte size at 12 ounces and I love the color. My goal is to replace all of our dishes with handmade pottery. They don’t even have to match – I just love the color and shapes. It’s time to move on to getting plates next 😀
We went out with my folks on Saturday night to look at holiday lights. There is a house that has a really big display that you are invited to walk around, so we stopped at that one.
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We are prepping for the Christmas Eve dinner. Cookies being baked:
Plus the famous Cake.
No snow right now. It actually warmed up for a couple days and we got a ton of rain on Friday. I hope the gardens are okay as they need a nice blanket of insulating snow for the winter and not water that will turn to ice. However, we actually might get a bit of snow into tomorrow, so it could be a white Christmas – or a dusting of white anyway 😀
Have a wonderful Christmas everyone! Safe travels!
Hey – surfacing up for some air here.  This has been our life right now:
Our daily postal pickups have been like this. Then there is UPS, although there are less of those boxes right now. Our poor postal carrier. She will be getting a gift for Christmas from us, but I know this is just our stuff and her whole route must be crazy right now.
We managed to take a night off and go downtown for the tree lighting ceremony. Our town really is very cute. We got there after the actual tree lighting and were able get close to the tree without people there.
It was chilly, but not too bad. That is my scarf from Ireland, which is so awesome at keeping my face warm.
Stores did window decorations this year, which were fun to see.
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Our downtown is definitely growing. I really do like where we live.
I’m actually doing something for myself. My teeth have always bothered me with being crooked. My bite is fine, so braces are for cosmetic reasons and I just have never gotten them for a variety of reasons (mostly cost). I’ve been looking at invisible aligners and my mom generously offered to give me money for them. I ended up going with Smile Direct and had them send me the impression kit. I could physically go to Albany for a scan, but I won’t do that unless my impressions are no good.
Here is a shot of my before teeth:
This picture really shows how tired I am right now. LOL. Oh well, enjoy.
After much drooling, my impressions were finished:
They have been sent in and now I wait to see if I am a candidate for the aligners. I also sent in bite pictures, which were reviewed. So, 50 years old and maybe I will have straight teeth 😀  I’ll keep you updated on how this goes.
One last push. Both John and I have shows this weekend. Mine is 3 days, his is 2. Then maybe it will feel a little less hectic. We got our tree up a week later than usual, but it’s up!
Happy Turkey Day Eve American friends 😀  I don’t know about where you live, but it’s getting downright frigid here. Overnight low tonight of 5 degrees! Eeek! The high on Thanksgiving is supposed to be 19 degrees, which might put the kibosh on our usual post dinner family walk.
Today was Wednesday bagel day. It was pretty chilly out, but we walked downtown anyway. Gotta get in exercise when you can. The hot coffee was really good after that walk!
On Monday this week the Chapman volunteers came in to decorate the house for the holidays.
It’s pretty subtle decorating, but it still takes a while. The museum now is more interactive rather than just the house that it used to be. There are themed rooms and people share their experiences with music or school or family life.
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Those cats are holding a Christmas pudding on a platter. It made me giggle hanging it up. I want one.
The main room, which is all about how families decorated in different times. All of this was getting changed out to be more for the holidays.
.My festive input:
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It’s definitely something different for the museum. It helps bring people in because once you have toured a period house, how many times will you go back? With the displays changing now and being interactive, it is a new draw for a new audience.
People leaving notes of their favorite songs:
John is baking a pie tonight and I have cranberry sauce to make. Dinner is at my sister’s house as per usual. Time for food, fun and games.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Stay safe and eat lots of pie.
We got a good amount of snow from our storm, but it wasn’t terrible. A bit wet and heavy – more like a spring snow. Then it was a little warmer and some of it melted so even the sidewalks are mostly clear now. Everyone seems to be more with it as far as shoveling goes early in the season.
I wanted to take Saturday afternoon and just get out. Both of us are working pretty much 7 days a week to get through the busy season. We are doing a show next Saturday, so I figured it was important to take off most of the day this Saturday before holiday craziness set in.
We ended up going down to Saratoga and going to the mall. Probably my last visit to a mall before Christmas LOL! I avoid the mall like the plague for the rest of the year. Maybe on a Monday or Tuesday evening, but otherwise it is local or online shopping for me (Etsy and Amazon Handmade!!).
We picked up a cupcake snack at the Healthy Living Market. Their bakery is really, really good and the cupcakes are a nice small treat rather than a gut bomb like we normally get during riding season:
This was a maple apple cupcake. I think it was gluten free, too. Very moist and yummy.
Old Navy was having a 50% off sale, and I actually found a couple of pairs of jeans that fit! I buy the short and curvy, which still end up being a bit long, but no waist gap – my biggest problem with jeans.
Then I wanted to stop at one of the local garden centers as they had a Christmas sale and it’s fun just looking at their display:
Inside was a kitty. I always find the kitties. He wanted nothing to do with me LOL
He was missing half his tail and part of an ear. Seems like he had a hard life at some point, but now he lives in the greenhouse.
It’s fun wandering through all the displays.
Hewitt’s is where we bought our artificial tree a couple years ago and we are still really happy with it.
We didn’t end up getting anything, but it sure felt like Christmas! Especially with the snow that just came down.
Dinner was takeout. I can’t remember the last time we got takeout. Usually we just eat out 😀 The Thai place that is 1/4 mile from our house was having a 30% off meal deal for their 6th anniversary, so that sealed the deal. They were sooooo busy, too.
I got the massaman curry, which is pretty much my favorite dish from there:
I got beef for the protein this time. There was plenty left for lunch the next day, too! I loves me some curry.
Sunday has been doing a lot of work. At least I can bring a lot of it upstairs and watch some football while working. I also checked in on Mr. Boo while my folks were away.
*boop*
Short week coming up! Any of you Black Friday shoppers?
My new iPhone has arrived. It’s new, but it’s an iPhone 7. Still really expensive. Geez why do phones have to be so expensive and have such a short life? I guess riding over my old phone with my bike didn’t help its longevity, but still.
I was all excited that this phone would fit in my old case, but then the camera lens was partially covered since it was in a different spot. Boo. I’ll be looking on Etsy for a new one. The first picture taken with my new phone was dinner at Denny’s LOL!
John chose this place as his dinner for winning the football picks this week. They had the Thanksgiving meal going now. It’s only a week away. A week – can you believe it? This really hit the spot, too, especially with how cold it was outside. We can actually walk to this Denny’s. It’s about a mile or so and we can take the bike path for some of it. However, it was too cold for me to want to bother with that thankyouverymuch.
We are now bunkered in for what could be a serious snowfall around here. 4-8 inches with up to 10 possible. Got the garage cleared out of the bikes and car is now in it.
Anyway, I mentioned the other day about my new line for business. Last fall I started making some jewelry featuring vintage images. I really had no idea how that would take off and especially on Amazon Handmade. It’s been kind of crazy, really. I do have soap on Amazon as well, but not as much and I’m not taking any new wholesale business for the soap.
These are some pictures of what I’m doing. This is the vintage flora and fauna.
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The most popular collection is the Celtic one:
and then the steampunk collection:
I branched out into a lot of different designs because it is fun, and I’m trying to appeal to a broad audience. I sell these on Etsy and my own website, but Amazon blows them all away because of all the traffic that naturally comes there. This is my shop link there.
If you like to shop on Etsy, make sure you look at Amazon Handmade. Same thing as Etsy, but you also can get prime service from some artisans. You can actually select Handmade as a category when you search.
It’s been a game changer this year, that is for sure. I can talk some time about the ins and outs of selling on Amazon. It’s pretty complex and sometimes can be frustrating. I was thinking I was ready for the holidays with inventory, but this week has made me start to doubt that. A good problem to have, but you never want to leave money on the table during the holidays with any business. Maybe next year I will have to actually hire some help instead of roping in family for free 😀
This business venture is the big reason the blog has been pretty quiet this year. I hope to become better organized and efficient with my time, but seeing as how I say that pretty much every year – it’s just me being optimistic 😀
When we got up this morning, John pointed out the window and sounding annoyed. It was snowing! We were supposed to get mostly rain, but it sure didn’t start that way.
I have a feeling it is going to be a snowy winter this year.
Continuing with a smoothie for breakfast today.
This one was unsweetened chocolate almond milk, protein powder, 1/2 banana and 2 tablespoons of flax meal. It made more than fit in this glass, so I was able to have “seconds” 😀
This shake didn’t keep me as full as the one I had yesterday.
I did do a mid morning HIIT workout. You can check Youtube for 15 minute metabolic workouts to do. Today was a lower body one with squats and burpees and the like. Damn – you know those times when you get done with a workout, have noodle legs, and then understand that tomorrow your legs are going to feel so sore? That’s me LOL.
So, after that workout I felt really hungry and had half of a Zone bar:
Then I ended up eating the other half about 30 minutes later… Go me.
Lunchtime was a cheese omelet to which I added some of that diced sweet potato/cauliflower mix that we had left over from last night.
It’s like my omelet has measles! This was good and added some bulk and texture to the omelet. Plus veggies!
I’m starting to feel a little overwhelmed on the work front. That feeling ebbs and flows, but with selling on Amazon handmade (to which I have added another line that I’ll show at some point), this is the busy time and I worry about keeping up.
Coffee keeps me going, though. << Afternoon latte inserted here >>
Dinner was a quick throw together vegetarian chili. While that was cooking, I got into the chips:
I really love potato chips. I guess I just love potatoes in all the forms 😀 The nibble monster is back.
This chili used Bush’s white chili beans, diced tomatoes, veggie crumbles, tomato paste and chili powder.
Topped with a little cheese and sour cream. John really liked this. I thought it was good, but in general I like beanless chili. Definitely a good meal for such a crappy weather day, though.
