weekly retro #53: below zero temperatures should not be allowed outside
as i begin writing this, quite late on a very, very cold sunday, i am surrounded by the (organized) messes of my activities throughout the week. some instant film camera stuff in a pile on my desk, staging from my bugs rock product photo shoot, wax scrapings from future offerings in the shop...it reminds me of how much i've made this week and also how i need to be working on three projects at a time to finish anything.
after a month off to focus on non-wax projects, i sat down for a few days and experimented a lot. i came up with a product release format that is going to make the r&d process way more enjoyable that it's been for the store's first 6 months. i did my taxes for the first time as a sole business owner which both empowering and an itty bitty baby ego death.
the weather has been so cold and windy. this morning it "felt like" -17F and the whistling of the wind was quite distracting. i spent some extra time with my living, breathing heated blanket, pumagreg.
even with the cold, i was not going to let the harsh weather stop me from going to the final aerial yoga classes before urban sadhu permanently closes. i think i've got about 6-8 classes left. monday we had a sub who is very much into conditioning, so i was sore for quite a few day. i even went to the gym to walk off some of that soreness. did i say that it's been really, really cold this past week?
the ceramics studio is always quite warm, thank god. this week we learned how to make bowls, and i sent off three pieces to be bisque fired. i'm hoping to trim the bowls on thursday and glaze whatever of my pieces survive the kiln. believe it or not, i'm only just now starting to watch ceramics content on youtube - i didn't want anything "spoiled" for me so i held off for a very long time. i love sculpting so much.
i also love taking photos of my candles. it's very hard and i'm still very much a beginner. staging the shoot is like playing dress up, it's so fun and a way i can be expressive outside of the candles themselves. this week i'm announcing new candles but if you read to this part you can see them now.
things i enjoyed this week
- we don't have trader joes in jersey city, but i've been walking by the one in chelsea twice a week for years whenever i go into the city for therapy. i finally went in for once and got a bunch of cool things and i didn't even have to wait in line for a long time. an eye-opening experience for me, as my grocery offerings closer to home suck.
- back when i was on tiktok i followed franziska trautmann, founder of glass half full which was featured in this video. it's a great project, a nice video, and it was nice to see that someone i used to follow is doing really well at really good things.
- angine de poitrine performed on kexp. andy showed them to me and i love them.
- miguel did a tiny desk concert. i want his wardrobe.
i was distracted about 12 times while trying to finish writing this - let's get to the finish line, jennifer. this coming week has a couple birthdays by the way. monday is 1 year of weekly retros and wednesday is 41 years of me. you can celebrate by shopping for my art or buying me a coffee :)
xoxo jenn