Weekly Mileage #184 and Shop Updates

Max doesn't understand the concept of selfies

I started the day on Monday with a bike ride. Then we did school and I ran errands. I did a photo shoot for my finished products. My photos are improving, but I'm still not completely happy with the quality. There's still room for improvement.

one of my photo setups

Scouts that night was a skills Olympics and I manned the dart shooting station.

It was supposed to rain Tuesday morning, so I rode my bike. It didn't rain then, but it did rain all afternoon and night, which meant no trail running Wednesday morning.

We had music lessons and did school. Then I fixed an email address for my site that hasn't been receiving emails, probably since I switched from Word Press to Shopify at the beginning of the year. I didn't know it wasn't working till Monday, when I sent a test email that didn't go through. I got it fixed just in time to receive an email from the lawyer I'd requested a consult for regarding my liability waiver. Good timing.

I worked on editing the photos I took for my shop listings.

Wednesday I went for another bike ride, then we did school. After lunch I had my weekly accountability meeting via zoom.

Then it was more photo editing, writing my shop listings, and updating my social media accounts. This last one was prepping for a new virtual assistant, and I also placed the request for a Pinterest VA who's experienced in ecommerce and promoted pins (my last one didn't feel she had the experience, or the time to learn).

Thursday morning Max and I went for a trail run. She was super excited to go with me and not be left at home like the last time I went running.

In the afternoon I worked some more on writing my shop listings (they take me forever, since I have to have everything ready- not just a description, but the dimensions of the item, the size and weight of the box/bag it will ship in, and so on. I also took a couple more photos for two of the listings and edited them.

another photo setup. while this one requires less moving things around, because it's on top of the Glowforge the tripod can't always get the angles I want.

Friday we met our friends at the park for the kids to run around. In the afternoon River got his stitches out. His wound is healing well, though the area closest to the corner of his mouth was cut the deepest and still needs butterfly bandages to keep it from stretching or reopening. 

I spent some time doing backend updates on my site and started setting up the email service for my site (I never did it when I switched from WP to Shopify) and my first signup forms.

we stopped by Target to get some butterfly bandages and he wanted me to take a picture of him standing on the giant red ball.

My leather sewing machine arrived Friday afternoon. It was only gone for two weeks, which was less time than even the quickest semi-local shop could guarantee. I haven't had a chance to set it up and try it out, but hopefully it will be fixed. Based on the list of things they fixed, it should work a lot better.

Saturday morning Jeremy and I took a trailer load of old pallets and some treated wood pieces that the boys have been playing with and leaving scattered all over the yard to the dump. The pallets were around the trash cans, but not keeping the bear out, so we bought a small trash can shed. 

screenshot as I scrolled down my site on my cell- I think it's looking good!

It was General Conference weekend, so we spent a chunk of time listening to the sessions. In between, I worked on finishing up my site stuff. 

I also decided on project possibilities for my course. I plan on having four main projects, and I have three versions for each of those projects. Early bird enrollees will get to vote on which version of each project they'd like to see in the course. 

I set up basic email automations. I need to add some more emails to cover different scenarios and such, but the initial ones that people receive after signing up for a discount or info on the course are done. 

With new products listed in my shop and my site updated, I can now focus on getting my course ready to go.

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While it takes a little more effort and planning, starting the day with a half hour or so of exercise seems to have a positive impact on how I feel. Well, I actually already knew this, but it's easy to forget. I'm hoping that I can remember it and get in the habit of starting my day with exercise. This week I actually felt pretty good. My energy levels were decent and most days I didn't need caffeine to stay focused in the afternoon. 

Weekly Mileage
Monday- 5.00 miles biked

Tuesday- 5.00 miles biked

Wednesday- 5.00 miles biked

Thursday- 1.70 miles run

total- 16.70 miles

2020 totals

32 hikes towards #52hikechallenge
0 kayak miles towards #365milechallenge

176.45 outdoor foot miles towards #365milechallenge
22.50 indoor foot miles towards #365milechallenge
275.0 bike miles towards #365milechallenge
473.95 miles total

Weekly Mileage #182 and Sewing Leather By Hand

Monday morning I thought about going running, but it was already 72* at 8:30 am, so that was a no-go (68* is the upper limit of what I can comfortably handle). The rest of the week should be better, though.

Jeremy had drill over the weekend and is now doing his second week of virtual AT. He did the first week was back in July. I'll be glad when it's done- it's such a pain having him here, but unable to do anything.

Max subduing the scary box

We got some more money from the VA, this time back pay on the difference between single person disability rate and person with dependents disability rate.

After school in the morning, I did the grocery shopping before working a bit on my course. I found a company in China that sells most of the items I need for my tool kit and they already had several tool kits of various sizes available. I figured they'd be able to put together what I'm looking for, and so far, so good. It's taking some time and some back and forth, but we're close to having almost everything I need in there. Getting everything, or nearly everything, from just one source will really make my life a lot easier. And it'll cost less overall and be more efficient from a time and import taxes perspective.

Max "manspreading" as Sunshine puts it. I keep telling her it's "doggyspreading"

Customer service rep responded to my email Friday afternoon. I need to send my sewing machine in for some warranty work (oops, I forgot to save the original packaging, which I'm supposed to use to send it in) and they want pictures of it sewing. I'm not sure how that will help, but ok.

Scouts was a socially distant orienteering course. We started half an hour earlier than usual and it still got dark before they were done. I sat and cleaned out my email inbox (still a ways to go, but I made good progress) and got a little chilled. I should have brought a jacket or long sleeve shirt. Fall is finally on its way! I've really been looking forward to cooler temps this year since the heat of summer did such a number on me.

it's really hard to get a selfie with Max. she just doesn't understand the concept.

Tuesday morning temps were in the low 50s, so I got up and took Max for a trail run. It was glorious. Only 4 other cars in the parking lot, we didn't see anybody on the trails, and it wasn't hot and humid.

I haven't seen the parking lot this empty in months

Wednesday I re-watched the troubleshooting videos and ran through everything again. I decided to try the one adjustment I hadn't yet attempted because of the location of the screws. I could only loosen one of them. Jeremy spent several hours on it as well, but couldn't do it either. We stripped out four allen wrenches in the process. So frustrating.

not the screw we couldn't loosen

I also called around to find a local sewing machine repair shop. There are none local, but I found one about an hour or so away that has a three week lead time. I found two others, further away, that are even more backed up. I need to call customer service to see how long they'd take before I decide what to do about it.

I thought about just buying the more expensive machine that I should have gotten originally, and getting this one fixed and using it as a backup/employee machine. But spending that much money would tie up funds that need to be available so I can purchase the tool kits. I'll make the money back, but only after I front the initial expense. So I'll hold off on buying the nicer machine.

While I thought some more about what to do, I cut the leather for a couple of totes. These are a different design that need less sewing than my original tote design. I'll hand sew the side seams and hopefully they'll turn out decent.

While I'm waiting for my machine to get fixed, I'll also try sewing some of the thinner leather on my regular sewing machine- maybe it can handle it long enough for me to get the industrial one fixed? If not, I'll just focus on sewing waxed canvas items, which has been on my to do list for awhile.

Thursday I tried one last time to loosen the screw from yesterday, but still no luck. I'll send it in to the factory on Friday, since supposedly it only takes them 5 days to fix machines. Even with shipping times hopefully I'll get it back sooner than if I took it somewhere.

hand stitching the side seam on the new tote design (I really need to figure out names for these things)

Friday I packaged up the sewing machine, then took it to the local UPS hub where they have a customer service counter and I could get a receipt for high value insurance. Only the counter was closed and will be all next week, too. I ended up handing it over anyway, and just praying nothing happens to it on the way. Super frustrating.

I finished hand-sewing the side seams of the first tote and riveted the side seams to the bottom. I need to finish a couple more details before it will be done. On the next tote, I'll do all the rivets before I finish the side seams. It was a huge pain doing them in the enclosed space of the tote with the seams all sewn.

Saturday morning I thought about going for a run, but I stayed in bed for a bit and rested and read. The stress of dealing with the sewing machine issue knocked my sleep schedule off this week and I decided relaxing was the better choice then getting up and running.

side seam of finished tote

I did spend a little bit of time chain sawing the suckers that have grown up around the small trees we cut down a couple years ago along the driveway. The driveway was getting overgrown, so it was past time to do that.

rivets attach the side seam to the bottom- no sewing needed, which is good since my machine is out of service

Then I sewed the pocket together and attached the handles and the pocket to the tote with copper rivets. It turned out better than I hoped :) I sewed the pocket for the second tote and prepped the handles for it.

Then I replaced the handles on the tote I've been using- the last in my run of four, that was finally the size I was looking for. The handles were a bit flimsy and Max and chewed on one of them a little. And the Chicago screws I'd used to attach them were forever coming loose. Copper rivets look good and won't come loose and the thicker leather I used this time will last a lot longer than the original leather. I also rubbed some leather balm into the tote to clean it up a bit.

Sunday I finally caught up on posts from the last month, so if you missed them, scroll backwards to the last post in August to get caught up.

One thing I'm grateful for is the ability to find the silver lining in most situations. I realized that while hand sewing is not the most efficient, quick way to make my products, it does give me some good practice, which will come in handy when I start teaching hand sewing in my course. My course is strictly hand sewing leather, and while I've done some hand sewing, a bit more experience isn't a bad thing.

This week I joined a course creation group. The enrollment period just happened to coincide with when I was ready, and the timeline for creation lines up with the timeline I had in mind. I've seen this course open before, but didn't sign up because I didn't have a course idea. I didn't want to sign up without an idea. The group will help me work through all the steps to have as successful a launch as possible, including the steps that the introvert in me would prefer not to do (live video being a big one). One of the things we're supposed to do is find an accountability partner or group among the other course participants to help us stay on track. I found a couple people in the course creation group that live nearby and one of them wasn't already in  an accountability group, so she and I will be meeting to make sure we stay on track and do everything. Can't wait to get going!

Weekly Mileage
Monday- 1.55 miles run
total- 1.55 miles

2020 totals

31 hikes towards #52hikechallenge
0 kayak miles towards #365milechallenge

170.09 outdoor foot miles towards #365milechallenge
22.50 indoor foot miles towards #365milechallenge
260.0 bike miles towards #365milechallenge
452.59 miles total