Social Networking

Large White Clock

Well, if one thing being stuck on my butt has given me its been the opportunity to explore social networking sites and connect them to myself as well as my business - Rock Candy Decor.

Rock Candy Decor is my home decor business that I derived from my jewelry line Rock Candy Creations.  Rock Candy Creations had a wonderful 10 year run from 1999 - 2009 but then 'homemade' jewelry became very mainstream.  With the ability to purchase jewelry making supplies becoming more accessible and more inexpensive a lot of people were now turning to making their own jewelry and starting their own businesses.

I went from being one of 3 jewelry vendors at a show, to being one of 30+ at some shows.  The market had become over saturated and people were getting sick and tired of seeing 'another jewelry booth'.

Recycled Wine bottle vase

I ended up reinventing myself.  Still using my techniques that I had developed when making jewelry, I now started to apply them creations for your home and office space.  The result were some really fun, funky and functional pieces such as clocks, post-it note holders, recycled wine bottle vases, and pen holders.  Rock Candy Decor was born in November 2010.

I still find it a hard market to go into, a lot of my items are of a higher price point which makes it harder to get those 'impulse buys' that I was so successful with when I had my jewelry line.  People also have an easier time purchasing something for themselves (as in a jewelry piece of reasonable price point) than they do to purchase something for their home that is of a higher price point.  So my sales have not been as high in shows and I find them to be not worth the time and effort anymore.

I decided to try something different so I put my items on ETSY last year:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/RockCandyDecor - .  Its been going well, but I haven't really been getting my wares out there...until today.

Today was the day that:

I updated my facebook site for Rock Candy Creations - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rock-Candy-Creations/176711792373682
I created a twitter account for Rock Candy Decor - https://twitter.com/#!/RockCandyDecor
I created a personal account for twitter - https://twitter.com/#!/h_sender - which will go hand n hand with this blog.

And I tried to get a pinterest account, but apparently that takes a while.

Post-it note holder

So all n all a productive day even though it didn't involve the physical movement and labour that I enjoy.  I will keep you posted on my new found social networking!  I don't usually put myself 'out there' so to speak so this is something new to me and I'm curious to see what happens and if I meet any cool new people as a result.

Since I've been home...

My training was an amazing yet trying experience. I learnt so much about myself and felt like I had made some real progress in many of the 'issues' that I had been dealing with.  Not only did I leave with the confidence to teach the whole moksha sequence, I learned to like myself again.

Now I know that sounds kind of cliche', how does one learn to like or love themselves right?  Well, I realized that there were a lot of things that I was holding onto that were causing me pain.  Things like keeping exes as friends on facebook or blaming myself for things that I could not really control.  And these things were holding me back from enjoying the current moment cause I didn't think I deserved to be happy.

So I deleted and removed anyone and anything that I considered 'poisonous' to me, things that made me feel sad when I looked or thought about them.  It was kind of scary at first, I felt like I was being a bad person or a quitter for letting them go...but then once I did it was like a huge weight was lifted and I was free.  I continued to go through my training on what was almost like a high of happiness and empowerment... And I was hoping it would last.

Its been a month now since I have been home from training and this month has been anything but easy for me.  I have had a lot of physical ailments hit me since coming home, the first one was plantar fasciatus which kicked in during my last week of training and got worse when I got home.

I then found out that I had a staph infection in my left foot and lucky for me I got it treated before it spread into anything too serious.

I then developed a cold which I have had for the last 3 weeks, the darn thing won't go away!

And then the icing on the cake, I was cleaning the deep frier when all of a sudden the vessel carrying the grease suddenly burst pouring hot oil all over my feet. I tried to get out of the kitchen as fast as I could but I definitely got some burns.  2nd degree burns.  All over the toes of my left foot and hitting a couple toes and the arch of my right.  This pain was worse than the time I broke my leg or the time I blew my ACL.  Its been 4 days now and the pain is still significant in my left foot.

So hopefully when I am all healed up, I will be able to do all the things I've been wanting and dreaming of doing while I've been sidelined with all these illnesses and injuries.  In the meantime, all I can do is suck it up and carry on.

Firsts

I cannot believe all the things I have accomplished in the last two days.  I officially started my teacher training and there have been so many firsts for me.

I had my first double yoga class today, taught in the beautiful oca which faces the ocean.  You have not done yoga until your focal point has been the ocean.  The energy of 60 plus people is also amazing to share.

Yesterday I meditated for the first time.  I am SO happy I brought a meditation pillow! I have tight hips and one of the main posture tips is to have your knees lower than your hips. (as well as sit upright to keep the natural curvature of your spine). So sitting still isn't as painful as I thought it would be.

I kept focused on my breath for about 12 minutes before I got fidgety.  I figured if I counted 10 slow breaths 10 times that would get me really close to my 15 minute meditation limit. 

I also had a weird experience when I did this one activity.  We were to get a partner and cup their skull in our hands.  Then my focusing and breathing deeply we were to feel the bones in their skull.  Well, I felt poor Amber's brain waves (or something like that) it felt like electricity coursing through my fingertips and my fingers were tingling for about a hour after that. (her right side was really active)

I also had my first experience teaching today.  We partnered up and I partnered with a fellow yogi named Robbie.  I have to say that I wasn't as nerve wracked as I thought I would be but I really have to work on articulating my thoughts and knowing the postures....I've got some homework but I know I can do it now which is a relief.

Today I also scooted my first cockroach out of our cabin.  Our "penthouse suite" has no windows so we get all sorts of goodies in here!!

First Day

So, I haven't idea why...but I have been a little on the emotional side today. I am not someone who will break down and cry so when my voice started to crack when I was speaking I was a little startled and I laughed at myself a little....like, wtf Heather?!? Today I felt scared, sad, insecure and unsure...hopefully I can come to terms with what makes me feel that way.

My iPad makes for bad blog formatting so I apologize if this is in one giant paragraph like last post...I will see if I can format in some HTML.

It was our first asana today, taught by Ted and it was a great class!! It's almost surreal to be looking out at the ocean and while being instructed by the creator of Moksha...it was an amazing class for me and my body needed it after 35 hours of being uprooted in travel.

The food at Piracanga has been amazing!! I don't even miss meat or dairy with food this fresh and fantastic! Thought maybe I'd lose weight due to starvation...but now I'm not so sure! Lmao!

I think I am gonna call it a night soon, retire to my lovely room...6am comes early!

And so my journey begins....

I am sitting in our Winnipeg airport waiting for our flight which leaves in half an hour and I thought I would share a close call I had. I had gone to staples to photocopy my ID and then went to the airport. (my mom dropped me off) As soon as I walked in I noticed that the zipper had completely broke on one of my bags....aah! But ok, I will just buy a new one. So I found a new one, went to pay aaaand.....crap! No credit card!! I left it in the photocopier!! So I quickly called my mom and she made her way over to Staples...in the meantime the nice lady at the store let me pack everything into the new bag that I was hoping to buy. Mom came with the card (luckily it was still there), I bought my bag (already packed) and away I went. Moral of my little tale? - everything happens for a reason...if my bag had not broke I would have not noticed my card missing until it was too late!! - give your ample time at the airport to that you can recoup from mental mistakes. :-) And away I go!

Tealicious Teas

Having been inspired by the abundance of beets sitting in my kitchen...I wanted to make some home made blends of 'beety' teas to take with me to my Moksha Yoga Training in Brazil.

I first had to dehydrate my beets:

If you do NOT have a dehydrator (like me) Preheat your oven to the lowest setting (Mine goes to 170)

2. Thinly slice precooked beets (either boiled or baked) and place on a baking sheet.

3. Put in oven and for about 8 hours, flip them over every 45 mins.  When beets can be easily crumbled or crushed then remove baking sheet from oven and let cool.

4. Once cool, place in a ziplock bag and beat with a rolling pin/wooden spoon/bottom of shoe until beets are in smaller pieces.

5. Use beets in either one of the two blends that I created. :)

Heather's Fruity Beet Rooibos:

1 cup red rooibos
1/2 cup dried beets
1/2 cup dried apple
1/2 cup toasted walnuts
1/2 craisins
1/3 cup dried goji berries
1/3 cup dried coconut chunks (or you can use shredded)
 1/3 cup dried dates


You can buy rooibos and gogi berries at a health food store.  I bought mine at Vita Health in Winnipeg.  The apple can be dried the same way at the beets (but have to be left in the oven for a longer time, around 10 hours)  I buy dates and then dice them and dry them out in the oven a little as well.

To toast walnuts: Place on baking sheet, put oven on broil and place sheet in the oven for about 3 mins, making SURE to keep an eye so that they do not burn!

Mix all ingredients together and enjoy!

Heather's Minty Beet Blend:

1 cup green rooibos
1 cup mint
1/2 cup dried beets
1/2 cup green yerba mate
1/2 cup lemon balm
1/4 cup dried ginger (I cut ginger into thin slices and dry in my oven)

You can buy green rooibos and yerba mate at a health food store (like Vita Health).  I grow my own herbs so this was a perfect time to use my dried mint and lemon balm that I harvested in the fall.

Mix all ingredients together and enjoy!

Beet It Smoothie

If you are a little worried about putting beets into something sweet I have come up with a beet smoothie that goes down....well.....smoothly.

Beginner's Beet It Smoothie:

8oz Organic Apple Juice
4oz Vanilla Flavored Almond Milk (I use almond breeze unsweetened)
1/2 large banana
1/2 cup beets (sliced)

Put all into blender and blend until smooth.  I froze the bananas and beets ahead of time so that my smoothie has that frosty consistency.  If you are using fresh ingredients, add a few ice cubes before blending.

Using Spark People's nutrition counter (www.sparkpeople.com)  I calculated my nutritional facts for this smoothie:

				Calories	Carbs	Fat	Protein
Beets, .5 cup				37	8	0	1
Banana, .5 Large				63	16	0	1
Apple Juice, unsweetened 8 oz				117	29	0	0
Almond Breeze, vanilla unsweetened 4 oz				20	1	2	1
TOTAL:				237	54	2	3

The sweetness of the apple juice offsets the earthy flavor of the beets and plays up their sweet side instead.

Enjoy and let me know what you think!