CA to CO - The Micki & Tim Adventure: March 2013

Today marks one year that Tim and I piled our lives into a couple of cars and drove ourselves out of the boundaries of CA. For me it's like most memories - in a way I can't believe it's been a year, in another way it seems like a decade ago. It's a good day for looking back, looking forward and looking around, so I took it as good timing for a new update.

I write this looking out over an overcast sky. The mountain range in our view (which I affectionately refer to as "mine") is still covered in snow, though most of the snow in our yard has melted now. Good ol' Colorado weather - it's nearly impossible to forecast. All week the forecast said more snow tomorrow - now it's saying rain today with a high of 55 tomorrow. One time my phone forecast for 11 am said "100% chance of snow"....it was 11:15 and not snowing. It's the ONLY time I've ever seen a forecast say 100%, though I guess it is still just "chance". Hilarious. So, Mother Nature changes her wardrobe every 10 minutes (like any good woman with somewhere special to go), and I split my reading time between gardening books (if it's nice outside) and classical fiction (which goes well with snow and a cup of coffee).

I'm sure you've all seen photos of Luna the kitty - our newest family addition - but there's more at the end of this blog just in case. And, also so you can see them again because she is REALLY CUTE. Personality too - we couldn't ask for a cooler cat. We were both madly in love with her within an hour and Zena....well...she....she hisses at her less now....a little. Luna, in classic kitten form, is equal parts snuggle-bucket and hellian. If she's not tearing around the house, she's curled up somewhere looking adorable and innocent and not at all like the little ball of demon she was just 10 minutes ago. Luna wants to play with Zena so bad and Zena is NOT having any of it. Still, it's fun to watch. Nobody has made any real swipes yet so seems like Zena's bark is worse than her bite. She makes a big show of telling Luna to go away but Luna already knows she's full of it. It makes for excellent entertainment for the humans.

While everything else is changing, so is our business plan and it's gotten EXCITINGLY GOOD in just the last month. Last summer we said we wanted to look for a store space right about now and open by April of 2013. Well, lo and behold, Tim and I are opening a boutique shop inside a local winery on Main St. in Durango. The owners of the winery were the first friends we made in Durango, meeting them on the first scouting trip we took when we were still looking for a place to live. From the get-go, Dean and Tracy have been sweet, fun and incredibly helpful, and now they are offering up 100 sq. feet of their winery (including a Main St. window display) to showcase Gallery H Woodwork and Moonstar Charms jewelry. The location is kitty-corner from the Durango/Silverton historic railroad which is a HUGE tourist attraction. And, opening up shop in an already-established business that caters to tourists AND has regular local clientele is ideal, as is the rent. Our overhead starting this is peanuts compared to what we'd have to come up with for an entire storefront of our own. Last year Tim and I worked hard to build up our online business and both companies made huge leaps and bounds because of it. Now, opening a space here just in time for Durango's busy visiting season, we are ready for the next set of leaps! Couldn't be more excited or more thankful. In the meantime, Tim has been in the garage building gorgeous display cases and small jewelry displays and I've been making jewelry like there's no tomorrow. I'm back up to about 170 items and more coming every day.

Working our butts off doesn't mean we don't take fun time out. We see Marisa and David and Dean and Tracy a lot. Whether it's an at-home dinner party or out to a pub, there's no lack of festivities. This is needless to say. You know us.

Though the winter has been more than lovely, I am excited that today is Spring Equinox and look forward to seeing Spring rear it's colorful head, Durango-style. Spring is now the only season we haven't seen here and I imagine it will prove itself to be just as spectacular as it's sibling seasons. I started composting and can't wait to finally tangibly manifest the dream of having my own vegetable garden. I look forward to making entire salads all from a garden loot that I picked that very day. I look forward to nice, warm weather, to morning coffee on the deck with the hummingbirds and floating the river in the afternoons. I look forward to flip flops.

I also look forward to laying down some roots of my own - of our own - here. Obviously, I love what the changes of this last year have brought us. I am a big fan of change. But, I also eagerly anticipate a day when things feel a little more familiar, a little more mine. I look forward to the customer who greets me with a hug and can't wander through my shop without buying themselves a little something. To the place down the street saying, "You should really call Tim Hassemer for that - do you know him? He's an amazing woodworker." The newness of Durango inspires a certain kind of love in me. But, like any good relationship, familiarity breeds a special kind of love, too. Spending 35 years in Los Angeles makes me yearn for some familiarity here. I'm pretty sure that's part of the definition of homesickness. But, until then, I'm enjoying the excitement of discovery and the familiarity of the somewhat older things that do feel mine, like a trip to one of our usual spots in town, or just sitting in a squishy chair with a cup of coffee and a view of "my" mountains. Moving forward, excited about the journey, I bless today. Onward and upward.

Miss you, love you.