Try two rounds of this workout. It may not look like much on paper but it’s absolutely amazing how strong you can get from using your own body weight with no equipment at all!

This workout is terrific for runners! If you race you may notice how your arms and abs can tire when you go all out. Creating a strong core helps you keep your form when you’re tired – and it makes you stronger all around!

I’ve created an advanced version of this one too that I’ll post another time.

Here’s the workout:

2 rounds of:
1. Elbow plank or full plank – 2 minutes
2. Squat Hold – 1:30
3. Push up Hold – 45 seconds
4. V- up hold – 1:30
5. Right T Hold – 1 min
6. Left T Hold – 1 min
7. Rest

You can download more workouts from the skimble app for iPhone and android.

One just has to sit and develop a relationship with the subject, be it landscape, person, or animal … mediocre photographs are the ones that come from one lucky “shot” in the midst of thousands, great “photographs” are just great photographs, and excellent “art images” require transcending time (as we know it) to get to know the subject on a personal level .. art requires connecting to something within the subject .. a love .. that touches the inside, the heart of the photographer .. Kristen

Photograph of brown pelican by Kristen Westlake
co – created … with photograph of Kristen Westlake by Larry Zamba

One of the finest Delights about Vintage Coach Handbags is that you won’t see your handbag on the arm of every woman walking down the street.

The women in love with the modern day “bling” bags risk blending in with the crowd of other women carrying the same bag. First of all, if I’m going to spend $300 plus on a handbag its got to fit me, say me, be something that’s signature of my unique style. I don’t want a bag that says Coach – I want a bag that says my name, even if it IS a Coach. And as stated above, as much as I love my friends, I don’t want to wear the same handbag that they carry.

Ahh, the Classic Vintage Coach purses – no advertising “bling” that gets me to drop $300 AND advertise for Coach. The Classic Vintage Coach bags are sheer quality with amazingly soft leather and gorgeous patina that is acquired only from years of use!

These vintage bags, are impossible to reproduce in mass quantity so if you’re lucky enough to find one that suits you, grab it before it goes!

Rather than words such as winter or summer, abstract images challenge the spaces in the mind that tangle with the heart. Ethereal imagery defies the dictionary definition of what is and enters into its own realm of what is not. The dreamy scenes transcend the world of logic and entice, tease, and beckon with their awe and mystique. We can’t stop to go, we can’t ponder quickly and pass. Cloaked in gentle frailty of that which it is not, the abstract boldly entertains – - reminding the viewer of something somewhere … Always on the tip of the tongue with no where to go..

As many of you know I am a Nature and Wildlife photographer by original trade. When the economy began to fall so did print sales. As that happened I began to clear my closets, emptying the contents and listing on Ebay. Though I hated to part with my beloved Coach bags I added a “buy it now” tag to them and soon said “Bye Bye Now” to them as they headed out the door wrapped in USPS Priority Packages – some even international.

So now that my Coach bags were sold I had some money in my coiffeurs but nothing to carry it in! I am being facetious of course, however I did see a common thread : My Coach purses sold well! … Well, mind you what started as a clearing out of my closet has turned into a fun little business. Now I seek out Coach bags that I am absolutely passionate about – yep, to sell again! They are older, vintage and gorgeous and I am a bit .. ok, a lot .. obsessed with finding them. Now my closets are once again full of Coach “inventory”.

I’ve learned a lot along the way. Though I’ve collected Coach bags for about 25 years or more there is a lot to know about the history of Coach, authenticity of a bag, etc, etc, etc … In this blog we will uncover a lot of the mystery and the history of Coach over the course of time.

Like my love for photography and the quality of a picture I find that I share that love of quality with a few other areas in life. I love older (vintage) people because of the stories and the wisdom that they share. I guess I’d relate the older Vintage Coach bags ( and that’s all I look for – I’m not into the newer “bling”, easily copied, Made in China bags) to that wisdom and history that I find in people of age. Though the Vintage Coach bags don’t speak, they hold much appeal within the patina of their leather .. it holds within many stories from times past … the mystery in the history.

Me wearing a Vintage Coach Watermelon Tote

A number of the bags that I come across in my quest for Vintage Coach purses are described as “well worn”. Now to those of you who like spanking brand new items of any kind, “well worn” might mean “old”, “trashed”, and “throw away”. And then there is this niche of people, and like me they find these purses the ones to covet. We covet these “old bags” and rate them as superior to the newest Coach bags on the market with creeds that say “Made in China” and serial numbers twice as long as the early 7 numbered serial numbers.

Yes, those of us that covet these older Coach bags know that the character of the bag is in leather’s patina. The ageless leather, along with its stains, scratches, spots, and sometimes even its tears, captures ever so richly the history of the era that it’s lived through and the life of the person that it has shared its time with.

Now some of these “old bags” have been purchased in the 60s through the 80s and then been left on the shelf while their companion decided to wear another bag most of the time. Perhaps the old but rarely worn bag was brought out for special occasions back “in the day”. These bags surface from time to time along with their more established “burnished” sisters. While they may be the same age they have not lived life to its fullest, as their softer, buttery leathered cousins have.

That said we return now to the definition of “well worn” and hope that you will concur, that “well worn” indeed means words such as “grace”, “timeless” , “classic”, “elegant”, and words that often describe a finely aged Tuscan Wine.

… for it is in these “old bags” that American history exists. “If only this leather could talk” …

See how to care for your older Coach bag’s leather.

Nowadays it seems that there are few people who really seem to know how to clean a Coach purse.

There are all kinds of people stating on forums that they use oxyclean right down to a few people that said that they actually put the leather bag into the washing machine – ouch!

Anyway as with most things in our modern world we get away from simplicity and tend to over complicate things … Coach bags came from a simpler time and their care is about as simple as the time of origin. To illustrate this point I have a 1982 copy of “A Few Tips on How to Care for Your Coach Bag”.

First of all Coach bags are made of completely natural leather with no protective coatings on the leather. This makes it particularly susceptible to stains. Here is where people do the asking and ponder the how to’s of getting these stains out. According to Coach and I can back it up from experience, you needn’t do anything.

Time will blend any stains into the leather. The trick is to use the bag, love it, use it, and keep using it!