C3 a wash

Because of some financial diffuculties (that were not my fault for once), I didn't get to pay for C2 on time, so C3 has passed without an order, which is distressing. Hopefully I can pay for it in time to get the catalogs I need for the next one on time.

::sigh::

But C4 is coming up, and it's loaded with great stuff! Come check it out!

Day 38

22. Do something new to green my life once every two months.

and

26. Plant, grow and actually maintain a proper kitchen garden and get a real harvest out of it.

Two points with one project! I'll be the first to admit that I'm addicted to water in bottles-- our tap water tastes bad, and there's no water fountain or the equivallent anywhere near work-- and that means I've got piles and piles of empty and mostly-empty water bottles all over my space. Unrelated, I thought, was the problem of where I'm going to plant all my herbs and trees as I prep for the garden. And then I spontaneously made the leap to combining the two: turn the millions of bottles into planters! So I cut the last quarter or so off the top, disgarding the pour-spout, and not I have tons of little planters all lined up along my windowsill, and best of all, water bottles actually fit on my windowsill, unlike actual pots meant for planting.

As a plus, I'm now throwing away less than a quarter of the volume they had whole, so that's neat. I need to see about getting recycling pick-up here, but I think we'd have to pay for it, and that just seems rediculous to me, when Florida passed that law ages ago saying recycling needs to be mandatory.

I planted tons of herbs and greens this morning, and hopefully they'll take to growing and we'll start having fresh greens to add to the seasonal foods and foraging.

32. Learn a new crochet stitch a month, and use it in something practical and easily-finished.

This month's stitch will be the fan stitch, and I'll get started on it as soon as I get back from the Food Show I'm going to in Orlando.

23. Keep a calendar up to date with deadlines, accomplishments, failures, holidays, notes, full moons, birthdays and anniversaries, schedules, etc for the length of this exercize.

So far, so good. But it's really only been 5 days into this new year, so we still need to make it a long way...

34. Use only reusable shopping bags or paper.

This one is harder than you'd think. I keep a bag in my purse, but if we're out somewhere and I didn't take my purse, that kind of leaves me having to buy a new bag each time (which means I'm getting quite a collection of reusable bags), or having to only buy what I can carry. Alot of places don't even have paper bags, as I learned recently, and I think that's just weird. BUT, I have managed to keep my plastic bag use down to a minimum, and there's less and less each time. 

I think it's the extra planning I'm having trouble with-- having to think about what I'm doing before I leave the house and being prepared for buying things when I don't expect to be going to the store...

As an addendum to this one, I'm starting to notice all the ziploc bags I use in making my lunch for work, and that whole rinse and reuse idea only lasts a few times before it splits or gets too greasy and you have to throw it away anyway. So I'm going to green up my lunchbox, too. I've already bought a sandwich container, but I think I'm going to trade up to one of those washable sandwich wraps. And I've bought a few snack containers for the side things. I need a plastic bento bowl and a set of lunchbox / bento silverware, and I think I'll be able to get through a week without throwing anything away.

45. Keep my Etsy shop full and with a good selection, and start selling handmade gifts and cosmetics regularly.

I have this whole month off of work, and I'm going to devote big chunks of it to taking better pictures of the things I have and to getting more stock-- and refilling the shop so I can start to make some money off of it.

72. Learn to play at least one ideal song for all the flutes I have.

I'm learning the pennywhistle! And so far it's not that hard-- it's just doing it well and naturally that's hard. And I bought a new flute: a Japanese traditional-style one. I have no idea how to use it-- it's one of the side-hole ones like a professional flute and like that beautiful bamboo one I have, and so far, I think those'll be the challenge in this step.

92. Lose 30 lbs at 1-2 lbs a week, then level off successfully and keep it off.

This one's proving difficult. I've actually put on weight since making this list, but I think that's because I made it right before the Thanksgiving-Christmas food madness. Now I'm on the seasonal plan, and I'm making more of my own food and eating less junk, and I'm optimistic that I can do it.

C2 - Update

Campaign 2 is due before midnight on Friday, Jan 9th, so if you're ordering from me, make sure you get your order to me with enough time to get it into the computer.

Thanks!

Day 26: 12-24-2008

Christmas Eve! I'm working on the trees today-- I put six chestnuts into the fridge on a damp cloth to overwinter until Feb-- Probably the 14th, if they're showing roots yet, because it's easier to remember landmarks like holidays. And if I'm planting things, maybe my love of the earth will ease the lack of boy-love I generally get on Valentines Day.

Anyway, assuming all six sprout, that's replacing the three Nanking Cherries that didn't make it through the storms. Yay! And I have plans to get several fruiting trees from this one website I found and start an unusual potted orchard. Unusual like this: shipovas and medlars and serviceberries and moutain ash and New Zealand vine and Hazelnuts. Apples and pears don't grow that well here, but maybe I'll look up a few heat-hardy varieties. Someone downtown has pears growing in their yard, so it has to be possible. And the Arborday Foundation can grace me with the serviceberries and the hazelnuts at a discount when I renew my subscription, which should be within the next few weeks.

I'm going to see if I can get anyone to take me by biglots and rescue any of those miniature Christmas trees that they might have left. I want to plant my two Christmas Trees from actual Christmas Trees instead of just any old trees because so many of them just get tossed when the season is done.

I'm very excited.

I'm still having trouble getting up on time. It's the winter, I think. My brain keeps telling my legs and arms to stay asleep when I wake up and it's cold and dark. That'll have to stop soon, though, because I have to budget my time better or I'm never going to get myself finishing things before deadline. And once the garden goes in, it'll need attention before work.

Fat Girl Goes Slim: Running

Okay, so I've never been a fan of running. When we used to go to those sweet even beaches for full moons, I used to sometimes lope, but that's not the same thing-- that's stretching legs and hips out as far as they will go and landing on your toptoes and covering alot of ground with little energy expenditure. And sometimes when I lived in hillier places, I'd go mountain-goating, which looks like running but is more of a bouncy climb at high speed so gravity can't pull you down-- dynamic balance and forward momentum and all that. I've been wanting to do those things, but there's nowhere to lope where I'd feel safe to be early in the morning or late in the evening when I'm not working, and mountain-goating is out of the question because a) it's way way way too flat here, and b) there's no big-construction I could break into a pretend the sandpiles are mountains (which is also dirtier and not safe). 

But H has this treadmill. And it kind of represents all the bad things about exercize to me-- staring at a wall, separated from other people and the world, repetative motion and no variation. I could program it to go up and down, but it doesn't react fast enough to be like a suitably steep hillside. 

But it's all I've got, and I'm tired of feeling like a cow. So last tuesday, I ran for twenty minutes in two ten minute stretches. I woke up pretty fine on Wednesday, but when I got to work, all the standing brought on the pain, and by last night I couldn't hardly move my legs. And the same today. And, uncharacteristically, my brain is interpreting that as a challenge, not as a signal to quit. Who knew?

Hayden lost 80 lbs by running every day. I'm going to ease into running every day, but I'm going to do my best. All I need to lose is 30 lbs. And I have three days off a week.

Even though no one mentioned that walking on a moving surface like that messes with your balance, and mine is somewhat suspect at the best of times...

Comic: Team Al Qaida

Click on the picture to see the text!

Usually, my comics are sort of dissociated from time, what with my habit of not being up on world events, but the Olymics this year got me. Months ago... And now the comic is online!

Day 19: 12-17-08

Still having trouble gettin gup when the alarm goes off, especially on my days off, even though I have more work that ever to do-- and speaking of, my attempts at scheduling myself into punctuality aren't working so well. Well, they're working a little... is this what's called progress? It doesn't feel all that progressive.

I started excercizing yesterday in an attempt to not be fat. That's a big step: I hate exercize. But I hate this extra flesh more, and we have a treadmill, so there you go.

C1 Update!

We're coming up on two days till Order Deadline, so be sure to send me your orders soon!

C1: Bentley the Bear!

Avon has a new mascot, and he can be all yours for 19.99!

C1: Deals

As always, if you're a new customer, and you get someone else to place an order for 10$ or more, you get 5% off your next order. If you're a returning customer, you get 10% off your next order.

And since we have all these new scents and creams and lotions coming into rotation, for C1, C2 and C3, if you request a sample and then buy the full-size bottle, I'll give you 10% off the price of that item, even if you already have a Friends' Discount!

So be sure to show your catalogs and share your samples!