happy cards.

When I first added these cards to my little shop, I had no idea how much happiness they would bring to me and others. Every buyer has a different story as to why they are having one made. The stories are so sweet and touching and the fact that I can help bring a smile to someone else feels amazing.

Each customer pushes me to think of more ways to allow customization and more options to the state cards. I'm currently working on some global editions as well as stationary packs :) Very very excited about my growing little card collection.

You can pick these up here or here :) Feel free to customize them past the two options I offer, I'm willing to work with whatever you have in mind.

some randomness

a candid photo from my friend Halley. my little parker pants. my words wall in my room.

A Race a Month // February

The Mercedes Half Marathon : 13.1 miles

Before: I trained for about 10 weeks, and the last two were the hardest, I wasn't sure I was ready to run 13.1 miles. My goal was to finish around a ten minute mile average, or a finish time of 2:10:00. I woke up at 5AM to stretch and get myself in the zone. I was downtown by 6:15 and I had never seen so many runners in my life. My stomach started to churn. The temperature was 24 degrees and windy, I tried not to thin of all the things stacked against me. Lining up was crazy, there were so many people. The gun went off and I didn't even cross the start line until two minutes later.

1-3rd mile: These flew by. There were so many people running and so many people cheering us on. I had water and Gatorade at a few of the stations. I was starting to get hot and so I ditched my gloves. My pace was about 8:33 mile. I was nervous I was going out too fast but I couldn't run any slower.
4-6 mile: Started to get cold and my hands felt numb, nothing hurt running wise though. I was in the zone hardcore. I was passing people on the hills and really kept my pace strong. I passed the 10k mark and knew I could finish under 2 hours if I kept my pace up. That motivated me even more.
6-11 mile: I really don't remember much of these except how cold it was. We were in the shade and my fingers were frozen. This was also the incline part of the race. At about mile 9 my hamstrings started tightening up, but I just kept my eyes on the prize. I was still maintaining a 8:33 pace.

sorry for the blurry photo, my mom wasn't use to my new camera

12-13 mile: This is where the people started thinning out, the full marathoners were seperated from the half and the course was flat. The sun came out and it was pretty easy to maintain my pace. The last mile I realized I was gonna finish in under two hours and I kicked it into high gear. The last mile was an 8:00 pace. When I came down the finish shoot there were a million people and I just sprinted... I couldn't stop smiling and I found my mom and uncle in the crowd. I've never felt anything like what I felt when I finished. It was unreal.

After: I could barely walk about 5 minutes after I finished. My legs just locked up and no amount of stretching could help. But it eventually went away. I placed 23/169 in my age group and 913/4500 overall. I'm so proud of myself and all my hard work paid off. I wanted to quit the training so many times, but the feeling of running this race outweighed all the negative. I'm hoping to run a full marathon this October :)

Time: 1:54:32 // 8:42 pace

Flag Football Fun

Probably my new favorite past time. I've started playing after work with the guys. I was very timid at first, but now that I know what I'm doing I get pretty competitive. I like rushing the quarterback and also rushing on offense. Never thought I'd know what those even meant, let alone be doing them, haha. Flag football has been such a great outlet and a way to get outside and be more social. I'm so addicted.

Next on the list... paintball.

February ... I Love You

February! I already love you! Why? Cause you are just full of really good things. Like my first half marathon. My first visit back to Wisconsin. And work will start to pick up. Hard to believe January went by so quickly. On the agenda, goal wise, finish reading a book, market my shop more, new products, more gym classes, more hotel cooking and more spur of the moment fun!