How do you decide where to shop? Most people will say selection, price and often include customer service. My husband ordered me a jacket that I might use for running or just for cool weather. It came from Wintergreen Northern Wear in Ely, MN. It did take a month to arrive, but they do advertise that your garment might be sewn just for you if there are none in stock and stayed in email communication while we waited. Here is my package. Everyone who worked on my jacket signed off. I even got Michelle’s card and photo. She even included a decal and some mints. It took me a while to figure out those were included because they were wintergreen flavor! My custom made jacket will get many years of good use after being so thoughtfully crafted and packaged. The great thing about Wintergreen is that while their garments are expensive, they are of excellent quality and the styles do not change. I got a Wintergreen winter coat more than 15 years ago that I still wear now. The same style is still available, but the trim has changed which is the only clue it’s not new.
A year or two after getting my winter jacket, Mom ordered mittens to go with my coat. To our dismay, the red wool did not match. Wintergreen’s excellent customer service to the rescue! They dug through scraps from the previous year’s red wool and found enough to make a pair of mittens that matched perfectly. I did wear those out eventually...mittens get heavy wear. They say that if you get great service, you’ll tell all your friends; if you get terrible service, you’ll tell everyone. I guess that makes us friends🥰. . Someday I’d like to visit Ely with its International Wolf Center and Wintergreen Northern Wear. They have a marathon and half in September. Maybe next year would be good since it will be after the weddings. There is one event there that I do not wish to try which is the canoe portage marathon. People actually carry a canoe on their head for 26.2 miles. No thank you! Deb and I are now on Week 3 of our training plan. Today we had 6-8 uphill striders to do after a five mile run. We did all 8, but my legs sure burned on the last couple. Deb said hers did,too, or maybe she was just making me feel better? I’m not positive we are getting any faster yet, but the variety is good and the circuits seem to be making us stronger. This weekend is another 8-miler before the long runs go to double digits. Have you ever had some great service you’d like to tell us? Have you ever portaged a canoe? Add it to our Comments section. Happy running—Missee
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Wow, I can't believe I haven't blogged yet in 2020! Sorry for the long absence; let me catch you up on some of what I've been up to...well, I love to spend chilly afternoons or evenings in my sewing room. Here is some of what I've been working on. From left to right, I've got a bag that is made of pet screen mesh and buffalo plaid. It would be a great bag to carry a lunch or beach items. The middle photo is a block from a new quilt along Mom, Stephanie and I have started called Know Them, Raise Them, Be Them from Gruber's Quilt Shop in St.Cloud. A new quilt block is introduced every other Monday that has a story of an influential woman in history and a quilt block that represents her. This one is Empress Theodora; the next one is coming out today. If you want to do this quilt and missed the first block, email me and I'll try to help you out! The final photo is a sweet little purse I made for my daughter, hopefully to use at her wedding. It would be something both old and new. It's a new purse, but the fabric was left over from our wedding 25 years ago. Stephanie wore a dress from this fabric. I should have had this purse ready for her! Besides sewing, I have been shoveling! Last week I shoveled four times from Monday to Wednesday. Yuck :-( . We got even more snow Friday into Saturday which required the snow blower. Friday I got to work from home. My co-worker didn't get a lot done... I've also been running! Deb and I started the Train Like a Mother, 13.1 Crush the Distance plan a week ago. So far, the running part has been pretty easy. The extra exercises are a bit more challenging, but not impossible. Twice so far, we have added striders to the end of our runs which are sort of a build up to a sprint and then backing down again. Four times we have had circuit exercises to do. If you'd care to exercise along with us, they are found on YouTube if you search Train Like a Mother. So far we have done circuits #1 and #2. I believe there are six different ones that all concentrate on core and stability exercises to make us stronger by balancing out muscles that running does not strengthen. This hopefully makes us more able to push ourselves without injury. This week, we moved our long run to Friday because of the weather forecast. The turned out to be a good choice. I opted for the treadmill Saturday for a short run and Sunday for a walk. It's such a treat to have choices. If I feel a little frustrated by the snow and ice, I remind myself that I could choose treadmill if I don't want to deal with the conditions...and sometimes I do, other times I choose to tough it out for the benefit of the fresh air. I found this on Facebook and loved it...-20 is my limit! I do not have Croc shoes, nor does anyone in my family. My very conservative-dressing sons have expressed that they would not like to own a pair. I thought of them when I saw this. I do love me some shiny shoes, especially bright new running shoes, and have seen a lot I would mind walking a mile in, but not Crocs. Thanks for catching up with me today! I will not let so many days go by without blogging again, even if it's just a couple short sentences and a pic or two. From last time, did you remember to look for the dog in my blog??? By the way, he did get is three miles in this morning :-) . Happy running--Missee
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AuthorMissee and Stephanie are two Minnesota sisters and moms who love to run. We are not experts in running, parenting or anything else, but we do have years of experiences that may be helpful or entertaining to others. Archives
May 2020
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