Recharge

I took a birthday trip up to Copper Harbor, seemingly the end of the Earth. People asked why I would go there to celebrate my birthday. Well..

To sleep under the stars and hear the world.

To listen to the water and watch the clouds march across the sky.

To sit and think without distractions.

To spend time with my best friend looking for adventure.

In other words: to be myself.

-J

Dryfly Art

I've never ever considered myself to have any artistic talent. Most of my "drawings" feature stick figures. I do enjoy art. One of my favorite art forms is block printing. My favorite block prints come from Greg Jaris at Trick Dog in Elberta, MI, and Bad Axe designs. 

After wrapping up a tie session the other night I looked up at a Jaris print that I picked up last summer. It's a flamboyant trout-like fish flailing in the air. Knowing that Chelsea had some printing materials in her art pile for www.thebiglake.etsy.com I asked her for them. 

With speedball carver in hand I sat down and created the first of hopefully many stamps that represent the things that I do. It's far from being a piece of art, but I think it's very cool in a raw way. That's what I appreciate about block printing; it can be extremely detailed and clean or a little more emotive and raw. Tell me what you think:

It's the silhouette of a wingless Adams fly, or as I call them: gnats. 

More will follow. I just need to get outside and get some inspiration. 

Big news coming down the pipeline soon. Don't want to say anything until we are 100% ready. 

- J

Spring Golden Hour

"Bullfrog Pond"

Lower Peninsula Splendor

"Beauty and the Beast"

Freshly brined dirt roads

Got back from California and decided to go out for a nice 27 miler on the local dirt roads.

Met with Hunter on Friday and headed out. In spite of a nasty headwind that seemed to synch up with each of our turns it was a great way to jump back onto the fitness wagon.

Thanks Hunter for the companionship and the Washtenaw county road commission for brining the roads. Nice and smooth, just like I like it.

J.

Olympus Stylus Tough Takes the Plunge

Two years ago I bought the Olympus Stylus Tough 8010 because I wanted a camera that could handle not being treated nicely. After getting it my natural instincts kicked in and I babied it like I do all of my electronics. Though it had the capability to go in the water I never took the chance; I dreamed about it and often came to the edge of putting it in the water.

However, today I just did it. I manned up and took the first underwater shots with it. Check them out.

They are a bit fuzzy because there were so many particles in the water. Still they are pretty cool.

-J

Note: the image quality is not a true representation of the camera's ability, there was a lot of silt and sediment in the water.

Check out the newest version:

 

It is official, well many things are official as of now. The first being that this is officially the longest period of times between successive blogs. (Totally sorry dudes.) Secondly, it is official that I am halfway done with law school. Thirdly, it is official that I have an internship with a law firm for the Summer. (I am very lucky and excited for the opportunity) Finally, it is official that rockwall construction is underway.

Regarding the latter, I have most of the cuts complete and once I pick up two more 9' boards the diagonal braces will be set. From there the rest should come together relatively quickly, as time allows that is. I am optimistic.

So what is it that kept me away from this thing for so long? Well, a number of things actually. School and final exams being the biggest. However, I still reserved a bit of time each week to do some me things. Usually that would involve blogging, but I chose to mountain bike instead. It is really growing on me. My bike still needs a few pieces to make it acceptable, but I will keep riding it as is until $$$ flows in to make the adjustments.

I have a load of reviews that need to be finished, edited and posted, but my time is getting kind of precious and I am trying to spend more of it doing things and not playing on the web. I have also been reading more. Not only do I have a pillar of outdoor themed books but my magazine subscriptions have been gathering in mogul sized heaps around the office. I do have a question for those who enjoy working with plants/ conservation/ green living: have you ever checked out Urban Farm Magazine? Since I like in the world of the urban right now I feel like a subscription may help me retain my sanity.

 Things will fall into rhythm and balance once school starts again. Only when I have the pressures of deadlines and commitment to others do I respect how precious my "me" time is.

Speaking of, it is time for me to get some stuff done. Due to my recent busy-ness many of my things have fallen by the wayside and need tending to. I hope you all have great weekends. Expect to hear from me soon.

-J

Shots of homes

 Just putting up a few pictures of my trip home. More to come, those will be accompanied by stories!

-J

Don't forget your MITTENs!

Sweet companies, yeah Michigan has some of the coolest cats you could find! We have Michigan Awesome, Bell's Brewing, Cherry Republic, M22 and Great Lakes Proud. But there is a new group to the scene: The Awesome Mitten, a great company that is focusing on their 365 Days of Awesome campaign where they feature one super dooper cool thing about the land shaped like a hand each day! We are not talking about a little blurb, we are looking at solid copy on something new and awesome each day, how sweet it is!

Through correspondence with Alex Beaton, Business Development & Marketing Director for The Awesome Mitten, over the past week I have gotten the goods on what makes The Awesome Mitten so sweet:

1.       Where did the idea for the Awesome Mitten come from?

Well, this is the long-short version of it. I moved back to Michigan in September 2010 after living in Nashville, TN. When I decided to move back, my Tennessee friends didn’t understand why, which I understood, because most of them had never been north of Kentucky. What I didn’t understand, was why my Michigan friends were asking me why I was moving back. Since I had left, I had heard about all these cool things happening in Michigan; incubators were popping up all over the place, as were co-working spaces. There seemed to be tech movement of some kind going on in Detroit, TEDx events were happening all over the state, Grand Rapids now had Art Prize and seemed to position itself as this progressive hub -all of this stuff plus so many others I thought was incredible! So in a frustrated fury, I wrote a letter to the editor voicing my confusion: why weren’t Michiganders proud of all these things going on? How did we expect the rest of the nation to speak positively of us, if we couldn’t even muster up anything good to say? It’s kinda like the self help bullshit that I scoff at: “You have to first believe in yourself before you can expect anyone else to believe in you” - but its true. So one sleepless night in late September I bought the domain AwesomeMitten.com, started up a Facebook & a Twitter and went from there.

2.       What kind of products are you currently offering?

Just t-shirt and pins. We really aren’t aiming to make retail our primary business, but  instead focus on the content. Retail is merely a way to fund our adventures!

3.       Do you support any local projects or groups? 

We support anybody who supports MI!

Lilac Festival (Photo by Mel Libby)

4.       Favorite piece of Michigan lore?

The story about the Sleeping Bear Dunes! About the mama bear and her cubs! This just made me realize I don’t know that many Michigan tales. Hmmmm, I feel a new section of the website being born...

5.       Best Beach:

Empire. North of Traverse City. Hands down my favorite! Though I am also partial to an awesome beach along Highway 2 in the UP!

6.       Best Meal:

How can I choose?! I can’t, I just can’t. It literally changes every month! And depending on the city. I travel so much! Right now: In Traverse City, I’m a huge fan of the bruschetta at Stella. In Lansing, the pesto chicken club at Tavern of the Square. In Grand Rapids, the grilled cheese The Electric Cheetah. In Detroit, the mac n’ cheese at Cliff Bells.

7.       Best MI Beer:

I’m such a girl, I don’t drink beer....but my favorite Michigan wine (so far!) is Chateau Grand Traverse Late Harvest Riesling.

Founders Fest in GR (Photo by Chad Cramblet)

8.       Favorite Great Lake:

I’m very biased on this one. Lake Michigan. I grew up in Traverse City!

9.       Favorite outdoor activity in Michigan:

Are campfires an outdoor activity? Because I’m a big fan. I’m outside all summer long (as much as my schedule allows), usually on a lake!

Balloonfest in Howell (Photo by Brittany Green)

10.    Favorite Michigan based product:

This one is so hard!! My current obsessions are Great Lakes Potato Chip Company’s Sea Salt & Vinegar chips and Michigan Ice Cube Trays. The ice cube trays are so ridiculously cool! (no pun intended)

11.    Best advice you have been given about your company:

Have journalistic integrity. Anyone can pay to be listed on a site, but what we’re offering is free promotion of thing we genuinely enjoy doing! That same person told me, don’t try to do it all right off the bat - don’t be afraid to launch sections/features/products after your initial launch. That I really appreciated because I am such a type A personality, that until that point, in my mind I had to have this SUPER product at launch. And it was going to be perfect. But as a user of a great many websites and web apps, I enjoy the upgrades! They make me feel like the company is listening to my feedback, and cares about creating a better, more useful product for me. 

12.    What music do you guys jam to when you are packing boxes?

I wish I could rattle off some awesome Michigan artists, but I’m currently working on discovering them (with the help of our Music Director, Jon Miller)! So right now its the Black Keys.

(Photo by Jon Miller)

13.    Largest order filled to date:

This depresses me. I feel like it should be some outrageous number! We’ve only been selling for three weeks! 10 - a person bought them for all of their visiting family.

14.    Where is the farthest that you have shipped an order?

            Denver, CO

15.    If you were a pizza topping what would you be?

Feta, cuz feta makes it betta!

16.    Advice you would give others in starting your own business:

I think you can’t be afraid to talk about your business, no matter what it is or where it is in the development process! I have made so many truly valuable connections and met some awesome people, all because I reached out to talk to them. I might not have even known exactly why I needed to talk to them when I first reached out, but it yielded some great results! Also, find someone to do it with you. Ask for suggestions! Two of our most important things were suggestions - the t-shirt logo, and the “365 Days of Awesome” campaign. The campaign was such an incredible suggestion because it really helped us articulate a clear, concise goal for year one. Also, starting a company by yourself sucks - I’ve done it (not the Mitten), and its hard. Its so important to have someone who shares your vision and is there to collaborate with!

17.    Have you considered making Awesome Mitten Patches?

YES! We have so many ideas of the type of products we’d like to do! Retail is a icky business though, and requires cash to maintain inventory. Therefore we’re taking baby steps and testing the demand.

18.    Future plans for Awesome Mitten?

Too many to count! We’ve got an events calendar launching early next week, and a “Little Mittens” (stuff to do with kids) section coming in July. We’ll be hosting a launch party in September. Events are going to be a pretty regular thing for us starting in late 2011/early 2012. Obviously we would like to expand our merchandise offerings. We are also hoping for an optimized mobile site. I could go on and on with our plans, but we’ll leave it at that for now.

19.    Do you guys have a website, Facebook or Twitter account where people can check you out?

            www.awesomemitten.com, 


            www.facebook.com/awesomemitten,  


            www.twitter.com/awesomemitten

I would like to thank Alex for taking the time for this pseudo interview. We cannot wait to see what the next campaign is. (while thoroughly enjoying this one of course)

Please check out their daily blog: www.awesomemitten.com, it is chock full of great stories from all across this great state. You will be hooked in no time.

-J

New things my friends

While on the recent Old Baldy trip I got a chance to test out the new Eddie Bauer Shell (the orange one that you see in the post prior to this one). I will be putting an initial review up around the end of the month.

In other exciting news:

Me and my homeboy Timmy are taking a trip to Maine in a few weeks to see what we can see. It should be quite the adventure. Super Bummed that C. Bromley cannot make it though because she is learning how to be an even better photographer. I guess I'll just have to take her later!

And even more exciting news:
I purchased this mack-daddy as a birthday present to yours truly a few days ago. I will be getting it on my birthday! Woohoo!











Still tying flies, working on scud and nymph patterns as I have read they are universal and catch great fish.

Tight lines, clear shots and hardpacked trails to you all,
-J

Woohoo to the Mitten!

Congratulations is in order to our great state of Michigan for claiming two top honors in Outside Magazine's "Where to Live Now" article in the August 2010 installment. It turns out that the towns they picked in Michigan were very Grand.

Grand Rapids was named as the best town in the nation for the mountain biking enthusiast. While the local trails are the main focus of the article (75 plus miles of marked trail in the surrounding areas with access to the North Country Trail), GR also boasts an in-town park complete with a roller/ pump practice area, trials/ skills park and three miles of single track. Kudos to GR, turns out that the whole Cool Cities plan wasn't only referring to the walkability and the artwork.

Continuing with the Grand theme, Grand Marais took the first runner up position as the place to live if you appreciate flat water paddling, aka kayaking or canoeing on lakes. Grand Marais came to the title due to its proximity to the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. The house prices are affordable (can you say vacation home?) and the town even has a yearly paddling festival! http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=241388245346. Sounds like a place for me to test out.

Well well, looks like things are looking up for Michigan in my book. I think that it is high time people start to see this state for what it really is, a haven for outdoor enthusiasts, nature lovers, tree huggers, wide-eyed optimists and health nuts.

Give yourself a hand Michigan... you deserve it.

As always,

-J
   (A proud Michigander)

Spring Break at the beach

So I omitted a small portion of my Spring Break from the last post.

I did get a chance to go to the beach, Portage Point that is. I welcomed the brisk wind of the day and took advantage of some great lighting for pics.

Enjoy:

-true symbolism of America unfortunately, frozen and rusting.

A few quick shots of the channel from the development site atop Onekama:

After the beach I went to Glen Park for a quick walk. The quaint park was so pretty under the canopy of the leafless trees:

Onekama, so pretty, and in your backyard. Love Michigan.

-J