Happy Tuesday!

It’s been a hell of a few weeks over here finishing and launching a collection of 53 pieces of stone jewelry. I’ve been working long hours getting everything done, and once it was released I lost all momentum.

Nothing a few days reading a good book can’t fix! (Have you read Iron Flame yet? I’m still recovering from the ending 🥲)

But let’s rewind a few weeks and catch you up on where we’ve been —

Propane?

Last we left off we were leaving Santa Fe, heading north into Colorado. Our propane was running low so one of the errands to attend to before camping for the week was to refill — but that proved to be a nearly impossible task 😅

Turns out propane is not very common in New Mexico. You’re required to have a license to fill a tank here, and we were searching on a Sunday. So despite looking in Santa Fe (a very populated area) and our entire way north into Colorado, we didn’t find anywhere to fill.

We ended up finding propane in Colorado after a few days questioning if we’d run out or not (I’m not the biggest fan of no heat or running fridge 🙃)

🍌 Runner

Once propane was finally filled, we headed back to our number one campsite in Southwestern Colorado!

We only had about 2 weeks to start making our way northwest and our route was set to go across southern Utah and north through Nevada. So repeating this site was a no brainer — a gorgeous view and on the way.

The campsites at this spot are directly next to the access road, so people sometimes walk by — either a local or another camper. After setting up camp I was doing some yoga and a local ran by. He stopped to say hello, and I look up at a 70 year old man in *only* a sun hat and a banana hammock. A nice man, but a site I did not expect to see on a Monday afternoon 🫣

The remainder of the week was surprise free (other than this incredible sunset) and was spent working some long days to finish up a good chunk of the jewelry collection.

The great UPS debacle

After leaving camp for the week, I had to pick up a general delivery package with some last minute materials to finish the jewelry collection. General delivery is a USPS service where you can mail to a USPS location and they’ll hold the package for you — it’s one of the only ways to get mail on the road! Buuuut turns out I accidentally sent this *very important* package through UPS instead of USPS. Which means it got returned to sender 🥲

One breakdown and phone call to UPS later, we were able to get the package held at the nearest UPS distribution center. Not only would returning to sender mean I wouldn’t finish everything in the jewelry collection as planned, but when you buy silver they have to cut the indicated amount in your order — which means I wouldn’t be refunded on the majority of my order. So we changed our immediate plans and backtracked the hour and a half into central Colorado to intercept the package.

A two day debacle that will make me read twice when choosing a shipping option in the future 🫣

Staying put

At this point I was emotionally drained and needed to finish the collection in time to begin taking photos and get listings made for the launch date. We decided to find an average campsite close by to stay a few days so I could finish everything.

Three days later, the collection was done and I was feeling a little more in control of it all, so we headed out to the next spot on our route back to the northwest.

Valley of the Gods

Valley. Of. The. Gods. Wow.

This place is incredible. Within the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah, Valley of the Gods is very similar to Monument Valley. Dispersed camping is allowed there, which means we were amongst these gorgeous rock formations, camping for free —

The perfect place to do some off-leash training with the dogs, get started on the administrative work of launching, and apparently the perfect place for a wedding.

400 yards away from us was a gorgeous overlook of one of the rock formations, which a truck had come to a few days in a row. They had made some makeshift benches facing the rocks, and two days later 20 cars arrived and a wedding took place. The simplicity was absolutely beautiful.

We would have stayed longer, but I ran into an issue of the desert sun being too *sunny*. It’s impossible to take product photos in direct sunlight, and the shade from the camper was also too harsh for my beginner editing skills (Note to self: I need to buy a light diffusing box). So we left a few days early —

In search of clouds

One *very* long drive later we were on the western side of Utah. I really wanted to see Zion National Park, even if only for half a day. So we camped just outside of the park with plans to go on a short hike the next day on our way to clouds. Sacha (our pocket pitty) had other plans.

Back while we were in Colorado, Sacha had ripped one of her nails while running through the brush. It was doing just fine until my partner accidentally stubbed it with his boot, and her quick was now bleeding and ripped instead of just the nail being ripped. So we took her to the vet on the day we’d planned on going to Zion. It was cheaper than what we’d be charged in the city, but it came with the question “Why didn’t you just rip it off at home?” 😳 Rural vets are built different.

Needless to say, we did not make it to Zion which also means paid subscribers won’t be getting a Zion postcard as planned 🥲 If you’re waiting on a postcard, I promise one is coming! It just may be January by the time we’re somewhere cool + worthy enough for a postcard to be purchased 🌟

Ruby Lake

A bird haven in the middle of nowhere Nevada.

If you’re ever in the middle of Nevada, go to Ruby Lake and the Ruby Mountains! It is incredibly secluded and absolutely stunning. We were there in the off-season, so there wasn’t any water available at the camp sites but they remained open and free for use. We finally found clouds at this spot too, so I could take the photos I needed to and start editing!

This place would be really cool to bring a kayak in the summer time to paddle the lake and see the birds a little more up close.

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Launch day + hot (tub) springs

Lots of photo editing while driving later, we were in northern Nevada at some hot (tub) springs!

I of course was a total mess at this point trying to get listings finished because of the huge cloud delay in taking photos. But after two days here, the collection launched and I had some much needed + deserved soaks in the hot springs next to our campsite.

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Someone at some point set up a gravity fed tube that could be used to fill one of the four bathtubs installed in the middle of the hot springs. This allowed the water to cool off to the right temperature, and the tube could reheat the water easily. Many hours were spent here, and I *really* needed the decompression.

I am so proud of the collection of jewelry I put together and the the launch was incredibly successful. I have always dreamed of having a launch that results in an armful of packages, and with this launch it finally happened.