Thirty-One Conference 2015

I'm really excited to finally be sitting down to write this and share about my conference experience! I've been very busy since I came home, but fortunately it's been a lot of fun stuff including my first double-digit long run in almost 2 years (10 mile race next weekend!), a cookout with J's coworkers, a 14-mile bike ride that was part of a friend's birthday celebration (he did 40 for his 40th!), and the Cleveland World Festival today. I've been loving getting to spend so much time outdoors this week :)

Now, on to conference...

 

I have to say that I really wasn’t sure what to expect from the conference, so I tried to go in with an open mind. And I am so, so glad I went.  Just in case anyone was worried, I didn’t leave there wanting to quit my day job and just sell Thirty-One for a living. ;) If anything, it strengthened my commitment to using my talents to change lives... and my talents are much more about teaching than sales :) 

My top 5 takeaways:

1. I’ve already shared this on Facebook, but love your journey.  Stop comparing yourself to others.  You don’t *need* to know where you are going to end up (this is a big one for me!). Everyone moves through life differently. There’s no sense in feeling sorry for yourself because others are “doing better” than you. We all have a different journey, so focus on the path you are taking and try to enjoy the ride. Choose to be happy where you are.

2. Success without joy is worthless. Not that every moment is going to be amazing and perfect. Work will be hard. But it has to give something back to you and not just suck all your energy.

3. The question “How is someone’s life better after crossing my path?”  It doesn’t have to be something life-changing every day. But what can you do to help someone feel a little bit brighter?

4. How to stop catastrophizing. Again, another big one for me. The speaker who talked about this suggested, after thinking of your crazy worst case scenario, acknowledge that thought and then try to think of an equally crazy best case scenario. And then find something much more likely in the middle. I’ve been working on this and it seems to work well so far!

5. Whatever your vision is, keep it in front of you. Remind yourself of it. And replenish your energy from goal fatigue by celebrating small milestones along the way.

Of course, I got some great business ideas, too. But those 5 things are so incredibly valuable for helping me be the best possible version of myself in ALL aspects of my life.

Here are some other things I loved about the conference: 

New products and patterns

 

 This is the new Fashion Games bag. It comes in three different colors and they're all lovely. It would make a very nice work bag. 

 

Those of us who like more neutral colors are in for a treat this season.

Those who like blue, green, and teal are also in luck :)

Here's a great setup of all the different totes Thirty-One offers! We have a bag for that :)

Kitchen organizing ideas!

Awesome things Thirty-One does for consultants

Like I said, while I'm not going to quit my day job,  I am definitely feeling inspired to help others discover the Thirty-One opportunity. The company really is good to its consultants, does so much to give back to the community, and is all about empowering women to do good in the world.

All of this is included in the new consultant enrollment kit! $99 for over $400 in products and business supplies to get you started. I have several of the items in this kit and they are great. I use them all the time! 

Conference amenities. We got all this just for attending the conference! I'm really excited about the Soft Utility Tote and the Everything Crossbody (on special in August)!

New personalization options

  

I love the new "I (heart) ________" design!  You can customize the color of the text and of the heart :)

 

The large initial is another new option coming soon for our bags!

You can now get the Thirty-One Gives logo on your products. What an awesome way to help others learn about the Thirty-One Gives charity!

Thirty-One celebrity encounters

I was randomly selected for a photo op with Thirty-One founder Cindy Monroe! Pretty awesome :)

I also met Janet Kinkade, who designs Thirty-One's new JK by Thirty-One jewelry line.

Other fun things in and around Columbus

I finally stopped at Grandpa's Cheesebarn on the way down to Columbus. Oh my goodness. Cheese heaven. I want to go back and eat more samples and buy more cheese.

Shakespeare in the park with my awesome friends who let me stay with them conference weekend. You guys are the best! 

And, of course, the aforementioned friends' adorable little kitty :)  I don't get to spend a lot of time with cats, so it was fun to hang around two of them for the weekend.

And that's it from me for now! I hope everyone had a great weekend and that you found something in this post that helps you strive towards the life you want to live :)

It's almost conference time!

In addition to being busy with my "real" job, these past few weeks have been busy in my Thirty One business! And in just a few short days, I'm going to be heading to Columbus for our big national conference. Not going to lie - I'm pretty excited and can't wait to report back to you all :)  In the mean time, here's what I've been up to..

Random stuff:  Here's a picture of a baklava sundae. You're welcome :)

 and also a dog doing agility from a horse and dog show we went to. It was so much fun to watch! Makes me want to practice with Conway!

Baseball: Despite the All-Star Break, there's been a lot of baseball in my life lately. Before the break we went to a home game and sat in club seats. This was my first time in club seats (which include a buffet) and it was pretty awesome. Immediately following the break, we headed down to Cincinnati to help my mother-in-law cross another ballpark off her list. It was a very hot weekend (and a little thunderstormy on Sunday), but we saw two Tribe wins, ate delicious food, and bought a ton of bourbon in Kentucky. Overall, a winning weekend!

Packing for a weekend away, Thirty-One style!

Thirty-One: In addition to preparing for the conference, I did a bridal event last week. Love these :) So much fun and I met a ton of new people!  Excited about establishing some new relationships with some of them.

My setup from the bridal show

Summer band: My fun summer band has started up again. Love the rehearsals. We practice super close to my house and the music is always light and fun.  Our first concert is this week! If you're in the area and want to come, just let me know :)

You know you want one... 

Running: The 10-miler I signed up for is just a few weeks away and I'm feeling ok about it. Just finished 9 miles this morning. I'm also planning on signing up for a half (or two) this fall, just need to pull the trigger!   Some of my inspiration has been coming from my monthly StrideBox subscription (more on that in another post) and some has been coming from a new friend at run club. It's always so, so nice to have a running partner!

Etsy: I'm beginning a soft launch of my Etsy shop with exercise headbands and cute ponytail holders. If you're interested in being one of my first customers, let me know!

Hope everyone is having a great summer!

July already?

Somehow it's July already and I'm in the second week of my summer classes. Things are going very well so far *knock on wood*. My classes are pretty big compared to my regular academic year classes. Fortunately, for our ESOL classes "pretty big" means about 20 students.  For the GED side of my program, things get a little crazier (the woman who teaches in the room next to mine has 50 on her roster!)  Still, 20 students in the room means 20 different abilities, so I'm working hard on trying to make sure everyone is getting at least a little something out of the class.

It's been a good (and busy, of course) few weeks since my last update.  Other than getting back to the classroom, here are a few highlights:

I've been successfully keeping up with my meditation practice using Headspace. I'm very happy with it so far. Is it helping? It's probably still too early to tell for sure, but I'm tentatively going to say yes. :) I also just finished reading  10% Happier. I really enjoyed it and there were a few quotes/pieces of advice that really stuck with me from reading it. 1) "There's no point in being unhappy about the things you can't change and no point in being unhappy about the things you can." and 2) "It's ok to worry, plot and plan... but only until it's not useful anymore."

Running has been going well. I've signed up for a 10 mile race in August. My long run is up to 7 miles and I'm doing ok health-wise. I even had something to eat before that 7-miler! 8 miles planned for my long run for this week. Fingers crossed.

I've finished a sewing project that I'm totally in love with. It's a relatively simple sundress, but I love the fabric and the fit is just perfect! Hoping to get some better pictures of it soon to submit to Girl Charlee fabric's blog, but for now here's the obligatory selfie in the mirror. :)

The last weekend of June was supposed to be our local Pride parade and festival. I was looking forward to it, especially after the Supreme Court Verdict the day before, but mother nature had other plans. Heavy rain and severe thunderstorms cancelled the event, but I still got together with some friends from church for lunch and a trip to the Natural History museum.  Despite some craziness there (including an evacuation from the museum), we had a good day together and I'm glad we at least got to hang out!

Sad faces at the rained out parade and the museum evacuation!

This past weekend we spent at J's family's lake house. It always nice to get the chance to go up there for a long weekend and we actually had amazing weather. We enjoyed good food (including s'mores), a couple trips out on the boat, and a fantastic fireworks show put on by my father-in-law :)  J and I also celebrated the "official" 7th anniversary of deciding to give our long-distance relationship a serious chance. Needless to say, I'm very happy about that choice :) And here are a couple more pictures from the weekend...

Fireworks shaped like a giant mug of beer

Goofy dog

My favorites on the 4th of July :)

Hope everyone is having a great summer so far! 

Rhubarb Mustard

It's another Monday, which means it's raining and J's softball game is once again cancelled! Mother nature needs to give us a little break here!  Actually, in all honesty, mother nature's been pretty good to us other than all the rainy Mondays. We've really been taking advantage of it this past week.  I ran a 5-mile race on Father's Day. It was my first race since January and my longest race since my marathon in October 2013. It went pretty well and, most important, I didn't get sick! So I'm considering it a win.  I'm feeling pretty good about this whole running thing right now, so let's hope I can keep that motivation going.

We went to two baseball games this weekend (and also went to Hofbrauhaus twice!)  On Sunday we saw a very exciting win... and on Friday we saw some great fireworks after the game ;) (We won't talk about the game itself...)

Friday's game

Sunday's game... and some random guys foot!

J's liter of beer!

 

On Saturday we took our bikes out for the first time this summer. We gave them a good tuneup and took them out on a 5-mile ride. I'm really hoping to log more biking miles this summer than last year. It's so much fun :)

In unrelated news, we have a trio of baby skunks living somewhere near our house. I know that there's (hopefully) a mama nearby, and that soon they'll be big and stinky, but for now they're just so cute.

Mother nature has also given us some great fruits and vegetables from our garden and CSA. I was very excited to get rhubarb last week because, after already making my favorite rhubarb recipe a few weeks ago (Smitten Kitchen's Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp Bars), I was looking forward to making rhubarb mustard! For anyone looking for a good non-dessert recipe to use up your rhubarb, here it is!  This recipe was given to me by J's aunt (after I tried her's and was literally eating it with a spoon!). Just a warning, when I made it - it was very spicy! So you may want to adjust the ratio of yellow to brown mustard seeds if spicy mustard is not your thing.

Rhubarb Mustard

Makes one pint.
2 ½ cups rhubarb, cut into ½ inch pieces
½ cup water
¼ cup honey
1/3 cup yellow mustard seeds
2 tablespoons brown mustard seeds
1/3 cup raspberry vinegar (I did not have this, I subbed in a mix of red wine vinegar and Penzey's raspberry enlightenment)
½ teaspoon sea salt

To cook rhubarb: In medium saucepan, combine rhubarb, water and honey.  Bring to a boil over high heat. Simmer 6 to 8 minutes or until soft. Set aside to cool.


To prepare mustard seeds: In spice blender or mortar and pestle, grind yellow mustard seeds and brown mustard seeds until mostly powder.  (Full disclosure: I did not do this step.I like a really grainy mustard, so I skipped straight to the making mustard step and trusted my Vitamix to do a good enough job grinding the seeds for my taste)

To make mustard: In blender or food processor, combine cooled rhubarb, powdered mustard seeds, vinegar and salt.  Process until smooth.  Store, covered, in refrigerator for a few days before using.

We used it on pork chops that evening and I'm trying to come up with good ideas for more things to use it on. Anyone have any suggestions?  Otherwise I just might resort to eating it with a spoon..... 

Hello summer!

Seen on the streets of San Francisco... 

Well hello friends! and hello summer vacation! The semester has finished. My paperwork is all turned in. And I'm happy to (mostly) have a break until the end of the month. Since the semester has ended, we've been traveling like crazy. Just to give you an idea of the craziness, we've been to four different churches in four different cities in four weeks (none of them our home church). I'm really looking forward to being home for at least two weekends in a row. And am looking forward to some sewing now that I've finished up a relatively big work-related project that was causing me more stress than it should've!  I'm *also* looking forward to blogging more. Hopefully I can make that a reality now that things are settled down for the moment.

 This is the skirt I finished today. Took longer than anticipated because I realized the fabric was completely see-through and I needed to line it. But it's done :) I swear the next place we live will have a better selfie mirror... 

So, here's what I've been up to since I last posted. First, we went to California! The main purpose of our trip was to attend the wedding of our good friends in Berkeley. Their wedding was super awesome (in a science museum! with ice cream!) and it was so, so good to see so many of our friends there.  It was also our first wedding anniversary that week and was very special to get to spend it with so many of our friends who made our wedding day special last year. (And a gorgeous pair of earrings from J was the icing on the anniversary cake :) )

Obligatory wedding outfit shot

We enjoyed lots of good food and good beer while we were in the Bay Area and did some of the touristy stuff, like visiting Alcatraz. After a few days there, we rented a bright yellow Mustang convertible and drove down Highway 1.  Definitely worth doing once in your lifetime! Along the way, we stopped in Monterrey to visit the aquarium and to have lunch with my aunts, who happened to also be in California at the same time. It was great to see them :)

Our final destination was Santa Barbara, where J's brother, sister-in-law and our two nephews live. My cousin also attends school there.  I sound like a broken record, but it was so much fun spending time with all of them!  We also went to a couple of wineries, rented bikes and rode along the trail by the beach, and just generally enjoyed ourselves.  Very hard to come back to reality after that trip. More pictures hopefully coming soon to my personal Facebook page, but here are  a few in the meantime :)

At the aquarium :)

Us, our convertible, and scenic Highway 1 :)

The feast my brother-in-law grilled for us!

The week we returned from California was my birthday. And it was a big one :) We celebrated with a low-key happy hour with some good friends and that was just perfect. My mother-in-law bought me the prettiest cupcake I've ever seen! And it tasted amazing, too.  And I enjoyed redeeming all of my free birthday gifts from various stores. Thanks to Ulta for eyeliner in a color I actually wear, and Sephora for some pretty amazing red lipstick. That may make an appearance at future big events ;)

Birthday outfit. Trying to determine if I can actually wear a statement necklace without looking ridiculous ;)

My new fabulous NARS lipstick. The color is called Cruella. 

My birthday was also the first day of a church retreat on meditation and mindfulness. I really, really learned a lot and am very excited to start integrating some of this new knowledge into my daily life.  I've been experimenting with two different guided meditation apps (Calm and Headspace) and think they're both pretty great. I'm hoping to keep up this practice.

This past weekend was another wedding. This time in State College, PA. One of J's college friends got married and it was a great time! Fun people, great live music, a beautiful cake, and just a lot of personality in the whole affair. I love going to weddings that really feel like they're unique to that couple. And this one most definitely was. (As was the one in Berkeley last month!)

Obligatory stop at Berkey Creamery at Penn State. Yum!

In non-travelling news, I'm trying to get back into the swing of things with running.  I went to my run club's monthly happy hour last week and had a great time. I'm signed up for a 5-mile race this Sunday and a Virtual Half Marathon later this summer.  I'm planning on running a "real" half in October and should probably sign up for that one soon. Starting training this week!

I'm currently teaching a for a local program that does professor-led seminars at different companies in the area. We meet once a week at the participants workplace. The participants are mostly people who do not have college degrees and this gives them a chance to further develop a love of reading and an interest in literature in general. We're reading The Winter Queen: A Novel (An Erast Fandorin Mystery) by Boris Akunin and it's been going well so far.  This program, along with my friend Amanda at Amanda Loves Words, are inspiring me to try to do a little more reading for myself this summer!

And that it's from me at the moment. Sorry for the novel and I hope to do shorter more frequent updates for a little while here :) Hope everyone is having a nice summer so far!