Vermonting

Realizing I hadn't been outside of Burlington for almost a month I was really looking forward to a day trip that Nicole and I have been planning for a while now. Yesterday we did a little tour of VT, down route 7. It was super sunny and a balmy 25º, a good day to be out and about. We were kinda scoping out potential places to sell our wares but mostly just happy to be out enjoying the countryside, yummy food and cute shops.

Our first stop was Common Deer in Shelburne. They opened at the end of last year. This place had a great rustic feel. Lots of lovely wooden antiques mixed with home decor and gifts. I'm very tempted to go back for a beautiful old wood blanket box.

Then we ventured on to Bristol. This was my first time to this cute little village. It reminded me of an old Western town.

Birds and deer.

The pulsing heart of Bristol seems to be the vibrant Emeralrose Gifts. Totally my kind of shop, full of exotic treasures, tribal jewelry and global gifts. The owner, Jen, is such a delight and we got to hear about her exciting travel plans. She started carrying some of my work last November and I'm hoping to get more over there in the spring.

Fun to see my Chakra wraps as soon as we walked in. We also stopped by the Bristol Bakery, what a sweet little place.

Next stop was Middlebury. Hadn't been there for years and years. The waterfalls made some beautiful ice patterns.

Love how the ice resembles the dilapidated building. We had  lunch at the Two Brother's Tavern and walked around the town. We checked out a really cute shop called Clementine, full of baby items, kitchen goods and cards.

Nicole's been doing a lot of birding out in Addison so we made our way over there to see if we could spot a Snowy Owl. After looking through the fields and trees we finally found this one perched far away on an owl house (made for a different kind of owl but she didn't seem to care). I was so excited to get some great shots with my new camera, amazing how far away we were but I was able to zoom in and see this beautiful creature.

We timed it well because we were also able to get some great sunset photos and I love me some sunset photos.

We headed to Vergennes to warm up with some hot cocoa and treats at Vergennes Laundry and then visited Rebecca at Heartfire Henna. What a fun day! It all worked out so well and I still can't believe I got to see the magical Snowy Owl. Feeling inspired by all of the beauty.

Slowly making my way into the new year

    The new year starts for me about 2 weeks into the new year. I just need a grace period. A limbo. A time to recuperate, take it easy on myself, recover from the hectic making and selling, the holidaze and New Year's Eve madness. It's a quiet time to collect myself, move slowly. 
    My first step is to get plenty of sleep and to eat really well. But mostly just give myself time, to enjoy the feeling of having time, of having no pressure. To stop feeling the days fly by and really sink into them. Stay healthy, try to avoid whatever horrible flu is circulating. Catch up on unfinished things that fell through the cracks: half written emails, jewelry repairs, organizing, cleaning, CLEANING my studio. Make time to read, to see some movies, go for walks, take photos. ReNEW, recharge and reinvigorate myself.
    Half way into January I started going to the gym, I'm trying to become the me I always want to be. Trying to regularly incorporate movement into my life. These are not new goals and hopefully they aren't fleeting. I just want to be healthy, active... achieve balance within my days, weeks, months. I started to weave my plan for the winter and for the year, I've got some very exciting things planned... a shift in the way I do things...I also plan to keep up the blogging so I'll save that for another post.

A clean desk! Yes - this is clean! My new monitor makes everything so much easier. Working with photoshop and excel are a dream compared to just using my laptop screen.

Shopped for some gifts at Tradewinds Imports, Inc. last month, they gave out coupons to use this month (SMART). Between the 2 coupons and the 20% off sale they're having I got this beautiful $30 Chakra banner for $5! Gotta love a bargain and I love this banner, fits perfectly.

Well I can either have a photo filled with jewelry and a messy studio or not much jewelry and clean studio, the two can't coexist. That's ok.

Clean surfaces...ahh

I finally used my amazing, old singer sewing machine for the first time in this space, it folds out and JUST FITS. I put a lot of planning and spacial organizing into making it fit and it was fun to finally put it to use. So nice to have the time to try out a new design...

These earrings satisfy so many things for me, I get to -Use my sewing machine -Upcycle my growing collection of fabric and leather scraps -Make REALLY BIG and BOLD earrings that are so LIGHT -Rivet the sterling tubes in place and I LOVE riveting -Work with COLOR! Made of silk and leather and they rock! 
Find them HERE

I think I'm going to keep this pair, the new year has brought a new obsession with chartreuse.

I also realized, rather than wait (as I usually do) that I should really re-up my inventory. Valentine's day is coming and rather than have to make things as they are ordered it would be wise and more efficient to make one (or more) of everything. So I got back to some serious working... but at a more leisurely pace.

It always helps to get a new and lovely day planner. This one fits in my purse. And it's yellow. And it has a beautiful peacock on it. And it's totally FABULOUS. I bought it from an Etsy seller HERE.

So that's all I've got for now which is actually a lot for a year that really JUST started.