I know I'm late but I have been CrAzY busy! We are leaving for SIA tonight and I'm asking you for your intention that Dave, Mason, and I will arrive safely in Denver even though stormy weather is eminent. We will take it slow. We are not in a hurry though I am SO excited!
I'll write more when we get there with an update and a full report on 2/8 when we are home.
Big, big, smiles!
Monday, January 25, 2010
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Happy Tuesday!
Happy Tuesday!
Yes, I'm late. We are in high gear getting ready for the Snow Sports Industry Association trade show in Denver that runs 1/28-1/31. Between work (loan modifications), the glove business (existing customers), getting ready for the trade show, and the normal Mommy-Wife stuff, I'm swamped!
As I get ready for work this morning, I'm wishing I could stay snug and dry at home. The storm that is raging outside is making me wish I could stay in and market for the trade show and write. Nope! This is that week where I have to work extra hard because I will be gone for two weeks. If I could work every week like I'm working this week, I could rule the world! Laughing!
ASSIGNMENT: On this 19th day of January, tell me what you've done this month to improve your condition in life. Have you lost a few pounds? Signed up for that class you've been wanting to take for years? Maybe you are taking more time for yourself. I'm asking because it was two years ago next week that I cut a glove up at my kitchen table and in just two shore years of taking little actions, look what I've managed to create. You can do it, too!
Happy Rainy Tuesday!
Yes, I'm late. We are in high gear getting ready for the Snow Sports Industry Association trade show in Denver that runs 1/28-1/31. Between work (loan modifications), the glove business (existing customers), getting ready for the trade show, and the normal Mommy-Wife stuff, I'm swamped!
As I get ready for work this morning, I'm wishing I could stay snug and dry at home. The storm that is raging outside is making me wish I could stay in and market for the trade show and write. Nope! This is that week where I have to work extra hard because I will be gone for two weeks. If I could work every week like I'm working this week, I could rule the world! Laughing!
ASSIGNMENT: On this 19th day of January, tell me what you've done this month to improve your condition in life. Have you lost a few pounds? Signed up for that class you've been wanting to take for years? Maybe you are taking more time for yourself. I'm asking because it was two years ago next week that I cut a glove up at my kitchen table and in just two shore years of taking little actions, look what I've managed to create. You can do it, too!
Happy Rainy Tuesday!
Monday, January 11, 2010
Off And Running!
Happy Monday!
January is almost half way over, okay a third of the way but today is the 11th and that's darn close to the 15th which to me is half way. Just two weeks until we leave for Denver for the SIA trade show. I can't wait! I just know this is going to be a huge success for us. We will have some challenges this time because we weren't blessed with a corner booth and being so new, we don't have a strong database of retailers to market to. That list is precisely the reason you do a trade show like this one! Next year we will have the list of attendees and we can market heavily before the show. I'm not worried, between Dave, Mike, and me, we can pull those buyers in and get the orders. After the ABC show in September, we have high expectations. I'll let you know how it goes when we get back that first week in February.
This weekend was a nice mix of uneventful and productive. Saturday, Dave played in a game tournament all day and Mike came up to the house and installed a replacement stove top for us. Thanks Mike, you're the best! Katie came to see us (up visiting from Monterey), and Cris and Taylor came for a visit, too. I had planned to clean, but visiting was just so much more fun! I even had time for a little nap. Sunday found Dave in Mason's room giving it a complete overhaul. Out with the old, broken, and no-longer-loved, and in with the vacuum, dust cloth, and all purpose cleaner. We also gave our closets and drawers the once over, and I easily gathered up two garbage bags of holiday stuff for GoodWill. I feel another round of "Give Away Ten A Day" coming, and it's a welcome feeling. I took Mason to get a haircut and he needed new pants, he's grown an inch and a half and gained six pounds just since October! (Dave's gained 8 pounds and hasn't grown an inch! Dave)
Today Dave and I are starting a local Biggest Loser contest here in Auburn. Dave is doing it more to support me, but I know he wants to get back on the exercise bandwagon, too. It's a twelve week program and the person who loses the biggest percentage of body weight wins. We will meet and weigh in every Monday night and if you gain weight, you have to pay $1.00 per pound. At the end of the twelve weeks, there will be a first, second, and third place loser, or winner. I feel like, here we go again! But I also know that different things motivate us at different times. We work every day to get that hour of exercise in, or eat more healthful foods, but some days we succeed more than others. If nothing else, this will be a fun way to get back in the swing of exercising and being more aware of how and what we are eating. We all plan to ski after the SIA show in Denver, so building some strength and dropping a few pounds can't hurt! I hope you are all off to a great start for the new year and if there is anything I can do to inspire or motivate you, please do speak up! I want us all to have the best year of our wonderful lives!
January is almost half way over, okay a third of the way but today is the 11th and that's darn close to the 15th which to me is half way. Just two weeks until we leave for Denver for the SIA trade show. I can't wait! I just know this is going to be a huge success for us. We will have some challenges this time because we weren't blessed with a corner booth and being so new, we don't have a strong database of retailers to market to. That list is precisely the reason you do a trade show like this one! Next year we will have the list of attendees and we can market heavily before the show. I'm not worried, between Dave, Mike, and me, we can pull those buyers in and get the orders. After the ABC show in September, we have high expectations. I'll let you know how it goes when we get back that first week in February.
This weekend was a nice mix of uneventful and productive. Saturday, Dave played in a game tournament all day and Mike came up to the house and installed a replacement stove top for us. Thanks Mike, you're the best! Katie came to see us (up visiting from Monterey), and Cris and Taylor came for a visit, too. I had planned to clean, but visiting was just so much more fun! I even had time for a little nap. Sunday found Dave in Mason's room giving it a complete overhaul. Out with the old, broken, and no-longer-loved, and in with the vacuum, dust cloth, and all purpose cleaner. We also gave our closets and drawers the once over, and I easily gathered up two garbage bags of holiday stuff for GoodWill. I feel another round of "Give Away Ten A Day" coming, and it's a welcome feeling. I took Mason to get a haircut and he needed new pants, he's grown an inch and a half and gained six pounds just since October! (Dave's gained 8 pounds and hasn't grown an inch! Dave)
Today Dave and I are starting a local Biggest Loser contest here in Auburn. Dave is doing it more to support me, but I know he wants to get back on the exercise bandwagon, too. It's a twelve week program and the person who loses the biggest percentage of body weight wins. We will meet and weigh in every Monday night and if you gain weight, you have to pay $1.00 per pound. At the end of the twelve weeks, there will be a first, second, and third place loser, or winner. I feel like, here we go again! But I also know that different things motivate us at different times. We work every day to get that hour of exercise in, or eat more healthful foods, but some days we succeed more than others. If nothing else, this will be a fun way to get back in the swing of exercising and being more aware of how and what we are eating. We all plan to ski after the SIA show in Denver, so building some strength and dropping a few pounds can't hurt! I hope you are all off to a great start for the new year and if there is anything I can do to inspire or motivate you, please do speak up! I want us all to have the best year of our wonderful lives!
Monday, January 4, 2010
Hope In 2010!
Happy New Year!
I love that I'm writing today's Monday Motivator from the great room in the Anderson's Truckee house. It's Sunday but I have been so inspired being here in the mountains, that now is the time to write. For the first time in months, I'm feeling like I'm finished mourning the loss of my Riley. We talked about what a special dog he was and I found that I can smile. It's not to say a tear won't occasionally fall, but I'm seeing more of the light he left that will always be his memory.
All of you know me and know that the new year fills me with hope. It's been two years since we started our ZipperBack Glove business and this year it will take off. Four of our fifteen retailers sold out and reordered, more than 25%! We have our big snowsports industry trade show coming up the end of this month and have very high hopes for many orders for next season. Dave had a monumental moment while we at a local ice skating rink with Mason. He saw a little girl wearing ZipperBack Gloves and couldn't help blurting out, "She's wearing our gloves!" It's one thing for people we know to have them, but to see someone who made the choice to spend their money on our product, well, that's a moment that stays with you.
I can't think of a nicer way to ring in a new year, in the mountains with David and Lisa, and their friends (and now ours, too!) Peter and Kathy Shea. We played in the snow, took Mason ice skating, Dave and I had an opportunity to go to North Shore for a date where we met up with Rod, and had plenty of time to watch movies and read. True friends and good times, what more could we want? Pictures! You can see pictures below!
I wish for you in 2010, good health, time with friends, peace, and abundance. Happy New Year!
I love that I'm writing today's Monday Motivator from the great room in the Anderson's Truckee house. It's Sunday but I have been so inspired being here in the mountains, that now is the time to write. For the first time in months, I'm feeling like I'm finished mourning the loss of my Riley. We talked about what a special dog he was and I found that I can smile. It's not to say a tear won't occasionally fall, but I'm seeing more of the light he left that will always be his memory.
All of you know me and know that the new year fills me with hope. It's been two years since we started our ZipperBack Glove business and this year it will take off. Four of our fifteen retailers sold out and reordered, more than 25%! We have our big snowsports industry trade show coming up the end of this month and have very high hopes for many orders for next season. Dave had a monumental moment while we at a local ice skating rink with Mason. He saw a little girl wearing ZipperBack Gloves and couldn't help blurting out, "She's wearing our gloves!" It's one thing for people we know to have them, but to see someone who made the choice to spend their money on our product, well, that's a moment that stays with you.
I can't think of a nicer way to ring in a new year, in the mountains with David and Lisa, and their friends (and now ours, too!) Peter and Kathy Shea. We played in the snow, took Mason ice skating, Dave and I had an opportunity to go to North Shore for a date where we met up with Rod, and had plenty of time to watch movies and read. True friends and good times, what more could we want? Pictures! You can see pictures below!
I wish for you in 2010, good health, time with friends, peace, and abundance. Happy New Year!
Gotta Have Pictures!
Mason and I took the plunge for 2010!
Another year of "Happily Ever After!"
David and Lisa
Spencer fits right in with us snow-loving Partaks.
This always makes us laugh, so this year Dave took the picture.
Just for fun!Monday, December 28, 2009
Happy last Monday of 2009!
This year has been a challenge for all of us, for me, it's been especially difficult this last quarter. As tough as it's been, it would be easy to write the whole year off as "bad" when in fact there have been many victories as well. Here are a few of the bright spots from 2009:
--ZipperBack Gloves were launched for sale in retail stores as planned. Many said the time was too short for the work that needed to be done, but I did it! I certainly have help on many fronts, but for the most part, it was my tenacity and optimism that kept the project moving.
--Dave is back in school! Hooray! Dave has been dissatisfied that he has not finished his college education and finally took action to get back in class. To say I am proud of him is an understatement. He lights up my life everyday and I still thank heaven that we have each other.
--Our family took a wonderful vacation this summer to Windsor, CA. Julie generously offered us a week in her timeshare and it was time together that we are still talking and smiling about.
--I joined Toastmasters and can see my speaking career coming to life, even if it's only at my weekly meetings and a service club here and there! We all have to start somewhere.
--We welcomed a new puppy, Spencer to our family and a new kitty, who has yet to be named as well. Losing Riley and then Inca just a few weeks later was really hard, but the joy of our new furry friends is certainly something to be grateful for!
--The biggest highlight of 2009 is the recognition of how many true friends we have. Dave and I have spent many days expressing our gratitude for how many people we have in our lives that are true friends, the kind of people you can call at 2 AM when you need to talk and they won't think twice about waking up to hear what's troubling you. Maybe you all feel okay about getting that call because you know we would never wake you unless it's extremely urgent! In any case, each and every one of you is a bright spot in our lives and when I say, "I love you" it's heart felt!
On a fun note, Dave's dad came to visit for Christmas. Last night we celebrated the new year a little early. We had a lovely delicatessen dinner, played some board games and then right at Mason-Midnight (9 PM), we put our hats on, blew horns, popped poppers and shared hugs and kisses! You can see the pictures below!
I hope you can find lots of things to be grateful for in 2009 and even more to look forward to in 2010. Happy New Year! With so much love, Kathy (Dave and Mason, too!)
Early New Year Celebration
This is our new kitty, the one with no name. Any suggestions?
Our early New Year celebration dinner.
Dad, Mason, and Dave getting ready to make some noise!
The Partak's
A very happy Mason!
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