Overlook railing at Gilbert Riparian Preserve.

One of the coolest gifts my parents ever gave me was my first camera, a Polaroid Swinger. (If you haven’t heard of the Swinger, all you need to do is watch this commercial to know when it was popular!).

I appear stiff and lifeless, some might say ridiculous, in photos, but absolutely love making pictures.

Noe instinctively climbed up to find her own moment, almost as though she could read the inscription.

Grafitti is bad, right? It is, after all, defacement and a crime.

It’s also an ephemeral art form, and can serve to temporarily inspire. These two examples of written grafitti have likely been removed by now, but they set the theme of our recent New Year’s Day hike with loved ones at the Gilbert Riparian Preserve, so I’m glad to have captured them.

Gilbert Riparian Preserve at Water Ranch is a part of the Riparian Institute.

A great place for families, cyclists, hikers, birdwatchers, astronomy lovers, and photographers. Anyone who wants to live in the moment.

Solopreneurs must periodically hone skills and tools, and even retrofit their service offerings. These changes can be driven by new skills and interests, technology advances, and client needs.

My friend Christy has been on this journey for the past four years when she went from hard-driving real estate professional to dedicated mom and homemaker. She manages to create a loving (and immaculate) home, which is both inviting and stylish. That’s the art display area she has created just inside her front door pictured above.

She’s already thinking about her next entrepreneurial adventure, which this time around will combine her love of cooking, kids, and community. It’s a few years off, but it will be terrific when it happens.

I’m making my own changes here at Loosely Speaking.

I’m going to use this space to spend more time exploring personal creativity, and the ways I find to integrate the things I love in my life and work.

You’ll see less emphasis on specific industries (such as virtual assistance) as I take a broader look at all solopreneurship. While I pursue and share the creative activities that I love (knitting, kayaking, knitting, kayaking, knitting), I hope to continue connecting with my readers who have found their own ways of combining their work and special interests.

Spa Cloths in Katia Jamaica, crocheted

I am up to my ears in brown yarn, and therefore brown knitted items. For several months prior to November, I did the same thing with olive and lime green.

I formerly had dark brown hair but these days it is decidedly un-brown. I own one brown garment (and zero green togs) so I can’t understand why I keep picking up random skeins everywhere in assorted shades of BROWN, my least favorite color of all.

On the needles now are a nice spring green cotton and wool cardigan and another set of fingerless mitts (“Toasty”) in Bugga!’s crazy looking Black Witch Moth colorway…. hoping to work out of this brown funk and get some real color back in my world.

Check out these and the rest of my colorful projects over on Ravelry, where I am called “LooseKnit.”

Blanket for Dillon, Vanna's choice, knitted

Dillon's blanket

Straightforward fingerless mitts, Madeleinetosh Tosh Sock, knitted

• Discussion/Announcements/Tips: Tara checks in from a conference, so we Skype-chatted about where to find quality, affordable continuing education.

• Interview: Katie interviews Mary Hawkes, Director, Yavapai County Branch Better Business Bureau on how to evaluate your choices when it comes to professional education. By the way, during the interview you’ll hear a strange noise, which is the sound of an earthquake, quite rare for our area. The epicenter was approximately 15 miles away. We left it in the recording for interest and context!Links Mary shared during the interview:
• U.S. Department of Education
  www.ope.ed.gov/accreditation
• Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA)
  www.chea.org/search
• Distance Education Training Council (DETC)
  www.detc.org
• Also, here is a link to the Better Business Bureau information on the BBB Code of Business Practices (BBB Accreditation Standards):

  http://www.bbb.org/us/bbb-accreditation-standards/

• October Poll: Last month’s winner was Jennifer Holstad (again!)
  • How to win this month’s prize:
    (1) leave your question as a comment at the end of this post; OR (2) post your question on the AZVAs Facebook page discussion tab or wall; OR (3) send your question to us via email to azvas.katie@gmail.com.
  • This month’s poll question:Last chance to tell us who do you suggest as your “dream interviewee?” for our first episode of 2012 (Katie’s thinking Larry Fitzgerald)?

How you can be a part of AZVAs the Podcast!

Want to be the subject of one of our interviews or sponsor an upcoming month of AZVAs newsletter & podcast? Click here to retrieve the details.To receive an announcement by email when a new podcast is available, azvas.katie@gmail.com

Thank you to this month’s sponsors:

Candy Beauchamp is the owner of 2 Minutes with a VA and provides our GoToMeeting access during our monthly REAL TALK conference calls.

Craig Cannings co-owns VA Classroom.com with wife Kelly. If you are a Virtual Assistant who’s looking for affordable training, check out the new tiered membership options available at VA Classroom.

Mom, to prepare for next spring color, I planted a bed of Shirley Poppies in your honor. I’ve always loved the crepe paper poppies for sale on Veteran’s Day, but never realized they were based on the same flower.

The inside of the seed packet says, “This packet is dedicated to those men and women who fought for the allies during the two World Wars.”

Just goes to show you never know what you may find if you take a closer look.

In running your business, it’s either a gift you’re born with, or a demand you’ll have to delegate to an assistant.

You may even be multi-tasking in areas you’ve never tackled before. While you may have hired many household tasks done in the past, more of us are repairing leaky faucets, landscaping, altering & mending our clothes, or even cleaning our own homes.

By morning: web developer. By afternoon: landscaping grunt. Not such a bad thing, I think.

I usually begin by sketching out my design idea (whether for a web site, knitted or sewn project) and playing around with images (or fibers, needles, fabric and thread) for awhile. I then just detach from the project and do something else until an idea is formed.

Watching my granddaughter at the sewing machine made me remember that sometimes you have to just go for it.

Even though she and I have sketched out ideas on paper for things to make together in the past, sometimesshe just dives in.

Recently when she had three new pairs of jeans that needed hemming, I measured and sewed the actual edge hem, but she picked out the thread colors and embellishment details she wanted to add. Shen then sat at the Janome and did all of that decorative sewing by herself. This took three hours from start to finish, and she was elated with the results.

I might add that she worked in a pedicure for me and I’m thinking in terms of how that turned out, she shouldn’t give up her day job as a 2nd grader just yet.

All in all though, how often can YOU say you feel elated with your results?

The yang to that yin is that we live next door to a very dilapidated, smelly mobile home. About ten years ago it was hauled away, only to be replaced the next day with one of similar characteristics.

I’ve nothing against well maintained mobiles and actually lived in one when I was a little kid. Sadly, in this case, the view next door was of sub-sub standard living.

Thanks to a new neighbor who has just bought that property, the old piece of crap was finally hauled away, and we understand the new owner is building a regular house next door. Thank you karma. What a special gift for my 17th anniversary.

I used to be a runner and a backpacker; now I am a gramma who hikes a lot, camps in a popup camper rather than on the ground, and rides my bike with my grandkids.

I used to sew most of my clothes. Now I teach my grand kids how to hem and embellish their jeans.

This bike seat cover used to be my friend Susy’s sweater. When the old cover on my bike seat wore out and I found myself sitting on foam, I first whined to my man that I needed a new seat. But then, I instead reached into my bag of felted sweaters and fashioned a new wool cover. Cushy and absorbent: everything I need! Kind of like soakers for grownups.

According to polls, most of us people-of-a-certain-age will be working for many years to come out of need. But if we all keep figuring out new uses for old stuff, maybe we’ll stay entertained, keep our brains and bodies active, and discover that if we economize even further, we may not have to work till we’re eighty.

Some are marked with a card or phone call, while others require gifts, purchased and or handmade.

In case the cards/gifts/phone calls/Skype chats don’t arrive on schedule, or before there are more additions to the family calendar, here are felicitations for you one and all, in the order of appearance. Key below.

1. Bill & Fran’s wedding day, August 19 (link shows bride and girls, minus new hubby)
2. Tessa birthday, August 20 (link to FB pics for those who have access to seeing them)
3. Andrew birthday, September 5
4. Marie birthday, September 14
5. Eamon birthday, September 21
6. Skyla birthday, September 26
7. Larry birthday, October 10
8. Casey & Skyla anniversary, October 11
9. Don birthday, October 14
10. Don’s & my anniversary, October 19
11. Bill birthday, October 30

A large blanket which exceeds its project bag’s capacity, for example, has to stay at home. A pair of socks or a scarf, in particular those whose stitch patterns are easily memorized, gets to go out on errands, road trips and airplane rides.

Somehow I have arrived at a major imbalance, with one item that must be knit only at home and 10 others that are ready to go, anytime anywhere.

Not unlike the way solopreneurs have to balance client projects, I love how my knitting life challenges and accomplishments mirror my professional life.

All around the house are were little baggies full of needles and yarn. Where we eat, where we sleep, under the couch, in the glove box. Eeek! That’s not me! With lots of personal family hubbub in recent months, though, that BECAME me.

So now, all the WIPs have been gathered, labeled, pattern tucked inside the bag, and they are all patiently waiting in a large basket near the front door so I decide who comes along for the ride and who stays home.

Recently acquired stash yarn is another matter… these beauties are still lying all about, having become an important & cozy part of the decor.

Here are a few of those WIPs who are clamoring to go out with me, along with one very special recent graduate (now off the needles and onto the recipient). And if you’re on Ravelry, I’m “LooseKnit” over there, and invite you to view my other projects there.

Jon Karcich, Dillon Baird, Casey Haerther and Garrett Richards (the guy with a circle around his head and the arrow) were enjoying a couple of days of R&R with a quick stop at our house here in Prescott Arizona.

Tonight Garrett makes his major league debut at Yankee stadium and we’re pulling for him.