travel Archives - Tara Swiger

The Adventures

Every day is an adventure. I share the view, the gratitude and the news on Fridays – you’re invited to join in. You can find all my adventures here, or follow along via email here.

The view

I am so grateful for…

Celebrating 10 fantastic years of marriage to my best friend and Par'Mach'Kai (and fellow nerd)
The cooler weather!
An overwhelmingly good time teaching 100+ alpaca farmers about marketing
New fiber-y enthusiasm: fiber from Grace, a sewing bag from Misty, dyeing some of my family's fiber, and..a new podcast. (Shhh!)

The Finds:

I’m doing:

This week I joined Spinzilla! It inspired me to get out my dyepots and dye someroving from my mom's sheep, and I gave her a call to see if I could get more…and there's only ONE pound of white left and three pounds of gray. So if you wanted to get some small-farm roving, snag it here. (Before I do.)

I’m eating:

So much good food on the road! Mission Savvy is all-vegan, in the middle of West Virginia (kind of a shock!); a (small) vegan menu at TJ's in Wooster, OH; a great breakfast at Spoon Market in downtown.
Tupelo Honey Cafe for our anniversary!
Ridiculous cupcakes: Samoa Joe cupcakes from Bake + Destroy = chocolate cupcakes filled with vegan coconut caramel, topped with salted caramel buttercream and rolled in toasted coconut. YEAH.

In case you missed it:

This is how to figure out what needs you fill, and here's what to do with that information once you figure it out.
I might be speaking at SXSW! You can make it happen by voting for my panels here + here.

What adventures have you had?

An Introvert’s Guide to Travel {Podcast}

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Travel, and especially FLYING can be really exhausting, especially if you're an introvert who gets worn out by being surrounded by people, bright lights and load noises. Today I'm flying to San Francisco to teach this live 3 day class, so I'm recording my personal Survival Guide to Flying, from the airport at 4 am.

We'll talk about how you can:

Give yourself plenty of time.
Let go of your plans. Just go with it.
Make yourself comfortable.
Remember your humanity.

Links to items I mentioned in this episode:

My CreativeLIVE class – it starts tomorrow!
Quiet by Susan Cain
The Highly Sensitive Person by Elaine Aron

Do you have a travel tip for Introverts? Share it in the comments!

How to listen

You can subscribe to it on iTunes (If you do, leave a review!)
You can listen to it using the player above or download it.
Subscribe or listen via Stitcher (or subscribe in whatever you use for podcasts – just search “Explore Your Enthusiasm” and it should pop up!).

Find all the podcast episodes here.

Love the podcast + blog? I'm teaching for three whole days, FREE on how to craft a marketing plan that works for your craft business. Starts tomorrow and is free to watch live. Join me here!

The Adventures

Every day is an adventure. I share the view, the gratitude and the news on Fridays – you’re invited to join in. You can find all my adventures here, or follow along via email here.

The View

The News

I'm in San Diego! And if you are too, I'd love to meet you!
You can come to dinner here (totally casual, everyone is welcome!) or take one of my classes at TNNA.

Not in San Diego? I still want to meet you! Invite me to your town here.

The Boston Adventures

Every day is an adventure. I share the view, the gratitude and the finds on Fridays (usually) and you’re invited to join in. You can find all my adventures here, or follow along via email here.

I spent last week teaching and exploring in Boston, and even though it's not Friday, I wanted to share a few of my adventures while it's still fresh.

I am so grateful for…

The people who made my time lovely, inspiring, and well worth it:

The students in my Wednesday workshop. They were funny and honest and brave and helped me remember that we all feel like we haven't made it yet.
The entire staff of Gathere Here, especially Virginia – for making it happen -and Maggie for charging my phone and letting me feel like a normal knitter for an hour.
Ana, for dreaming up this trip and picking a topic so many people really did want and for taking a whole day to tour me around Salem.
Abby, for driving to meet me for coffee and having a fabulous conversation about money, reality, and her vision. Her blog is an awesome resource of big-issue-thinking for crafters – read it!
Guido, for taking me on a dog walking tour of Cambridge. There is nothing as inspiring as someone truly passionate and Guido is – about his neighborhood, the fiber community, and his adorable dog. Also, he gave the best food recommendation of my trip.
The staff of Veggie Galaxy, for the free milkshake, and for being an excellent example of how to use twitter for your business.
Jess, who kept everything running while I was away. I never could have taught three workshops the week after the largest Starship Boarding if it weren't for her flexibility, organization and encouragement!

What adventures did you have last week?

The adventures

This week has definitely been an adventure. A travel-cross-country, get stranded in an airport, totally exhausted kind of adventure. But! I loved it! And it inspired me to add a new section to this here weekly round-up of Adventures: The Lessons. Scroll down to see 'em!

The view

Seattle skyline from Bainbridge Ferry :: Teaching an EtsyRAIN workshop :: Knitting the TARDIS shawl with a DALEK :: Captain Kirk's actual chair :: At the baseball game :: first Pumpkin Spice of the season, as I waited for my much-delayed flight

The lessons

Captain Kirk's chair isn't that impressive in real life (kind of a peel-y vinyl), reminding me again that the symbol is the thing, and the value we bring to objects.

Support is all around. Again and again during the trip, I'd worry about something (like which busses to take to get to my workshop, without getting sweaty) only to have support show up (within an hour, three different people texted, unprompted and offered to drive me.) This happened so many times I lost count. Note to self: Keep your eyes open, the help you need is within reach.

Setting goals is powerful. I've had a dream/wish in mind all summer, but didn't know how to make it happen. Way back in June, I wrote that I wanted the Starship to my full-time focus by September. But it seemed impossible, so I didn't make any plans for it…and then a series of random events made it possible to extricate myself from long-term client projects (happy on all sides) and dedicate myself full-time to the Starship this month. Magical. Also, freaky.

The finds

Breezy – A life-saving app! I had to print worksheets for the workshop (and couldn't print them ahead of time or they'd get all squished in my luggage), and Breezy lets you send any document to any local, public printer (like, Kinkos!) right from your phone or iPad.
I like what Cairene is saying here about commitment leading to magic. I've been learning this lesson over and over again lately, and I'm so glad she wrote it.
This is a pretty impressive handknit sweater for a baseball fan. I'm kinda tempted. Recognize the pattern?
Marlo! We had lunch after my workshop and she is just…well, it's hard to talk about her without sounding cliched. Smart! Great! Hilarious! Also, so so in tune with what crafters need to know. Since I don't work one-on-one with clients anymore (unless you're already in the Starship), I'm referring everyone to her.

And that's it for my Adventures this week – what were yours?

Another lesson learned? I love talking to you. So now, for this month only, every one boarding the Starship gets a free jam session. We'll talk about your questions, your dreams and your plans, so you enter the Starship prepared to get exactly what you need. Offer ends (and the Starship closes to new members) on 9/14.

Summer Manifesto – West Coast Edition

Each season I make a little list of the pleasures I want to soak in. I call them manifestos, but they’re really just love letters to the season. These seasonal lists are my own little things-to-do-before-the-moment-passes.
I hope to keep listing these, every Thursday, as a reminder to soak it in over the weekend (and as a mid-week cheer-up).

This next week is going to be packed with summery travely adventury goodness.

I want fully enjoy (and document with lots of photos):

Travelling by train, plane and Seattle's great bus system (all with my new wheel).
Staying with my college roomates,
Having lunch (and running errands – she's so sweet!) with Eileen.
Selling yarn, meeting knitters and having a great time at Urban Craft Uprising.
Exploring Portland and hitting every donut, coffee, and yarn stores I can.
Having dinner at Cairene's with a bunch of lovely fellow small-biz owners/friends.
Going on my first real train trip, from Portland allll the way down to my dad's house in Oceanside. It's a 36-ish hour ride and we are SO excited!
Relaxing with my family at the beach, in the backyard and at the best farmer's market EVER.

Summer Vacation – Day 6

This week I’m on vacation on the lovely shore of Emerald Isle. But because I love my work, the Boutique is still open with new yarns everyday and I’m still talking to customers via email. So I’m away but still checking in. Each day I’ll be posting a few pictures from the vacation, especially the yarny inspiration.

Today I recovered from a super-mild case of sun poisoning (ugh) by laying around inside: Marathon Scrabble games and piecing a quilt.

Summer Vacation – Day 5

My Birthday!
We did it all today: beach-swimming, yarn shopping, flower-sniffing, go-kart-driving, eating on the pier.

What I did on my Summer Vacation – Day 1

This week I'm on vacation on the lovely shore of Emerald Isle. But because I love my work, the Boutique is still open with new yarns everyday and I'm still talking to customers via email. So I'm away but still checking in. Each day I'll be posting a few pictures from the vacation, especially the yarny inspiration.

Today (Saturday) we got up early and drove the 8 hours to the coast of North Carolina. We stopped at a…colorful fruit stand, unpacked in our gorgeous beach house and hit the beach

View from the living room

Beach
house at sunset