Last year in 2014, I did a TON of races...but I never did get much faster.  Mostly I was using racing as a tool to force me to get back into a running or exercise routine.  And it did work, I like racing and the stress/fear that can come with it forces me to get off the couch and do something.  But I was looking at my times and realized that while I ran a 5k in 22:29 in college...I hadn't gotten below 25 minutes in over ten minutes.  I decided to sign up for a local running camp called Set Goals Not Limits.

Last weekend, I had a rare opportunity to hang out with my friend Liz for a bit – she’s so busy with school!  We decided to go to breakfast at a new place around town called Keke’s Breakfast Café and then to go see the new movie “Gravity” with Sandra Bullock and George Clooney.  

Recently on Facebook, a few friends and friends-of-friends were discussing and reviewing a product/service called “Birchbox”.  I had never heard of Birchbox and it piqued my interest.  I looked them up on the internet and it’s actually a really neat little service.

Do you remember the virtual reality headsets that they used to have in some of the malls?  Like the one from the movie “First Kid”? Would you believe that virtual reality headsets are coming soon to a store near you?  


Well, believe it!  The Oculus Rift is going to make 3D video games available to the average consumer!

Last summer, Ryan saw a Kickstarter project for a new toy that he really wanted.  Before I tell you all about it, I want to tell you about a crowd-funding platform called Kickstarter.

I had been thinking for a long time about what to get Ryan for a wedding gift.  A long time ago I thought I could maybe save up and help him buy a VW bus but as you know, right after we got engaged he bought himself a bus.  So that wouldn't work...I thought about getting him a gift certificate to have the bus sandblasted and painted but I wasn't sure how far along he would be with the bus or where he would trust to paint his bus.  Then I realized...there's one thing that Ryan mentions constantly that is too expensive for a birthday or christmas gift.  He constantly says "well if I ever get a 3D printer I can print a new part for that and fix it...".  

For those of you who don't know what a 3D printer is, it is a machine that can make parts out of plastic from a CAD model.  It takes a 3D computer CAD model, and slices it up into thin layers.  Then the printer heats up plastic and lays it down layer by layer until it has made a real part that matches what the model shows.  At my work we have a very large and VERY expensive 3D printer that we use for mockups, test fitting parts and even some temporary tooling.  But over the last few years, much smaller and more affordable options have started showing up on the market.  One of the really fancy looking ones out there right now is the MakerBot Replicator 2.

Some of you may already know this, but I used the money earned on a big quilt sale in November 2011 to hire a graphic designer to create a logo and brand for me.  In April of 2012 my logo and brand were completed and I was given a Logo, business card design, quilt label design, and a banner/avatar/reserved listing for my Etsy site. At the time, I didn't have time to work on re-doing the colors and layout of my website to match my new brand so my beautiful new graphics have been just sitting in a folder waiting for me to update.  For reference, here is what my blog page looked like before:

A good friend of mine recently opened a new Etsy shop and, as a fellow Etsy shop owner, I offered to purchase some of her products and do a review on my blog.  She even agreed to do a short interview.

Shop Name: Rare Earth Bath & Body
Shop Link: http://www.etsy.com/shop/RareEarthBathAndBody?ref=si_shop
Shop Owner: Ashley Helmetag

For Christmas, I got a neat gadget - a Zoku popsicle maker.  Well actually I got two of them so I exchanged one of them to get all the neat accessories that come with it.  Since I can't do any more work on the diaper bag until I get my fabric...I decided to try it out.  First I got out my supplies: