Still getting settled in to the new place. Today we spent way too much money at Target buying such treasures as storage bins, green & pink rugs, an ironing board and other unecessary necessities.

Koda got his shots yesterday, so we took him on his first official walk today. He did okay for a few blocks, then decided that he wanted to sit in the shade, so Brandon picked him up and carried him to the park. We met a few kids who loved him and acted like they wanted to play with us for hours, almost got run over by a deaf white Boxer dog with one blue eye and one brown eye, then walked/carried Koda home where he proceeded to lay in front of the big fan and immediately fall asleep.

Fancy that, waking up 3 hours earlier than normal on a Saturday morning. I have to admit that that seeing some cute fuzzy thing pouncing around the kitchen at 7 a.m. on a Saturday morning does help me rise and shine more quickly. That boundless puppy energy is inspiring! It's also tiring, as evidenced by the fact that I was nodding off at 10:30 p.m. last night.

What a crazy few weeks it's been. I spent a good 2-3 weekends preparing for my trunk shows, then had 2 trunk shows back to back one weekend, then spent the next weekend moving into a house. The following weekend was spent in New York City with my dear girlfriends and a dear mom, sister, husband and baby. Finally, we arrive at this weekend. No plans in sight, other than to spend just a little more time this morning lounging in my cowboy-print pajama pants. I may grab a coffee somewhere, and definitely hope to get back into creating.

I've finally found the time to upload some pictures of Koda, our new puppy! The first pic is him last Tuesday, and the second picture is of him 8 days later. He's sweet and defiant and loves sitting in front of our fan and pouncing on unsuspecting puppy toys. He is very good around Becki, in spite of her being gone for a bit this weekend, he's immediately calm in nature when she's around. We call her "Puppy Whisperer."

Koda Aug 2:

Aug 10



Aug 21

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I'm moving. Again! This time, I'm truly "movin' on up"-- into a roomy 4-bedroom house complete with yard and 2-car garage. It is indeed a rental, but you have no idea how lovely this sounds in comparison to the shoebox-sized studio apartment I currently call both my home and studio.

My new telephone is 970.282.0007. Or 282-zero-double-0-seven. My new address is 1212 Nez Perce Way, Fort Collins, 80526. My only regret is that we were unable to find a James Bond-related street address.

We won't have regular internet access from August 1 - 6, so I will be checking email only intermittently during this time.

XO,
Nicki

I've never had a message in my life, but I feel that if I were to ever get one, NOW would be the time. I have 200 charms created. 200! That's more than I have ever had made at one time. I believe the most I've ever had is around 150. So I feel good and have been repeating to myself, "Nicki-- put... down... the... soldering iron." I'm half tempted to give it to Brandon and ask him to hide it, because I know I'll be tempted to make more things in the few days leading up to my events. It's just inevitable. What generally happens- and what is happening right now- is that I find that I've made just 1 or 2 of something I just LOVE, and I think I need to make more of those charms du jour. This time around it's the big round glass charms. I want to wear two of them-- one on a really long chain, then one that fits on a smaller chain, so that means there are only a few left and inevitably if I wear something I must have backups, as people ALWAYS love whatever I wear. I learned the hard way that it's not good to be like, "Oooh- I'm so sorry. I only have one of these veryspecialfabulous charms. Yes, just made one. For me." I have once or twice sold a necklace off my neck, and once my sister Kelli was gracious to allow a girl to buy the necklace off HER neck. Which PS- I still owe you for, Kelli!

So, yes. I have accomplished a lot, but am feeling all those sparkly new charms right in my middle back.