Running with Crafts

2011 Point Bock Run

2011-03-15T09:07:00.004-05:00

1,842 people finished the Point Bock Run this year. I was one of them and did my best time ever. My goal was 9 minute miles but I ended up with an 8:33 pace, finishing the 5 miles in 42:43. The fastest woman was Breeda Willis who finished in 27:52. She was already home and showered by the time I finished. LOL Race Results

Magnificent Manicures

2011-03-15T08:54:00.004-05:00

Lydia got this Magnificent Manicure Kit as a gift for Christmas from her Aunt Tracey. We just pulled it out this past weekend to play with it. We did manicures on Saturday and pedicures on Sunday. We had so much fun. Lydia loved the science part of this just as much as seeing how nice her nails looked when we were done. We created our own lotion and sea salt scrub. I highly recommend this for anybody who has girls that enjoy science. It comes with a pamphlet that asks you questions about the different results you get by mixing certain things together and there are even answers for the moms like me who didn't do all that well in chemistry.

Crocheted Wrist Warmers

2011-02-20T19:39:00.003-06:00

This was a super easy, quick project to put together. It only took 100 yds of yarn and 2 afternoon crochet sessions. I found the pattern at The Crochet Spot. This was my first practice pair. They need some flair so I may crochet a small flower to put on each and maybe add some fringe on the top end where your fingers are. The next pair I will make longer. I was thinking some leg warmers would be fun to make too and I could wear them to derby.

Winter Wonderland

2010-12-04T09:04:00.014-06:00

Last night Lydia and I went to see the Rotary Winter Wonderland at Wildwood Park in Marshfield. We walked through it first for about a half an hour and then drove through. This was my second visit this year. They've been doing this for 5 years now and it's for a good cause. People donate canned food to get in. If you do walk through it, I recommend taking some cash with you so you can buy a hot cocoa while you're wandering about and dress warm!

Look at all of those lights!!!

Lydia took this last video when we were driving out of the park.

Lamp Shade Slip Covers

2010-11-06T16:55:00.003-05:00

I have had no luck finding any lamp shades I like for a couple of lamps I picked up at a garage sale for Lydia's bedroom. I found this tutorial at Amy a la mode for lamp shade slip covers and I used it to make 2 slip covers today. Lydia likes them.

Candy Men

2010-10-26T17:40:00.004-05:00

Lydia and I made these candy men for her class. We got the idea from Trey and Lucy. Perfect project for a hot glue gun!

First Day of 4th Grade

2010-09-01T10:34:00.004-05:00

I walked Lydia to school today for her first day of 4th grade today. I thought that I wouldn't cry anymore since this was the 5th time we've done the first day of school thing but that was not the case. I am so excited for her to be starting a new school year. We went to find your room night on Monday. After we met her new teacher (who seems really great) and we filled up her desk with all of her new school supplies, we went to look at the art room because that is her favorite room. Her eyes light up when she walks in there. On the way she told me how she loves the smell of school. I am the same way. It brings back memories of my days in elementary school. I am looking forward to hearing how her day went when she gets home this afternoon. Time to get back into dance schedules, time with friends, decorating lockers, drawing on notebook covers, and trying to understand 4th grade math for both of us!

The Zoo

2010-08-30T21:27:00.005-05:00

Lydia and I visited the Henry Vilas Zoo in Madison last week. It's a very clean zoo and amazingly, it's free. In just a few hours you can see lots of animals including tigers, giraffes, rhinoceroses, tigers, monkeys, otters, monkeys, snakes, birds, turtles, bugs, and more. Lydia's favorite was this big snapping turtle.

I liked the giraffes.

Need some lamp shades!

2010-08-16T22:20:00.006-05:00

I bought this set of lamps at a garage sale for $6. This was my first paint with a spray can job and it turned out really well, although you can't tell because the pictures (taken with my phone) are so bad. I used a metal finish paint and it looks really cool, again you can't tell so you'll have to take my word for it. Super easy project and I'd use these lamps BUT they all need new lamp shades and I'm finding that I almost would have been better off buying 3 new lamps because it would have been cheaper. The cost of a nice lampshade these days is ridiculous! May as well just buy the whole lamp! Thought of other alternatives like using the crappy ones that came with the lamps and covering them with fabric BUT thought of that after I had already thrown them in the dumpster! On the look out for cheap lamp shades!

Derby Skirt

2010-03-12T10:45:00.002-06:00

I picked up this skirt from Goodwill for $4. It was a size 13 and with a couple of swipes with my sewing machine it's now a 6 and fits great. Wore it to practice this week!

Happy 42

2010-02-17T14:40:00.003-06:00

Ken turned 42 on Valentine's Day. A very talented lady at Dairy Queen decorated this cake for me. I think she did a fantastic job. They didn't have anything like this in the samples so she designed this herself based on my verbal description. I am going to make her something in return for doing such a nice job. It's nice when people do a little extra, more than you ask for. Not very common these days. I want to give her a big hug too! What a nice person.

Office Redo Progress - Curtains

2010-01-09T19:06:00.003-06:00

This fabric by Jessica Jones arrived on Wednesday. I got everything cut last night and then today I sewed. I am very happy with how these turned out. Let me tell ya, it is very hard to get tired or crabby in this room which makes it perfect for me because I spend the majority of my days in this room for work. There are still a few things I need to do to complete the room. We're looking at ideas for lighting. I am also still looking for 2 retro chairs and a throw rug and I need to purchase a lot of picture frames because I have lots of photos to put up on the striped wall. Things are moving along well.

$1 Find

2010-01-05T20:25:00.001-06:00

What the heck? Found these in the $1 section at Target. Thought they were kinda retro which I seem to be into big time lately! Too cute. For a buck?!

Fabric Soon to Arrive!!!

2010-01-04T16:43:00.007-06:00

The fabric I ordered for my office (picture here) is scheduled to arrive this Wednesday. I am so excited to start sewing my curtains! I LOVE this fabric and it's going to make my room really pop. I bet I will be cutting fabric on Wednesday night!

Ken painted my light fixture the same red he used on the table top. I like it.

Office Redo - The Table

2010-01-03T12:24:00.003-06:00

Since I go back to work tomorrow after having been off for TWO WEEKS (AHHHHHH!), we are getting things cleaned up and ready to go for 8 a.m. I've been sleeping in until 9 or 10 every morning so getting up tomorrow for work is going to be a shock to my system. Ken finished painting this wooden table we got from Saint Vincent De Paul for $22.50. He painted the whole thing in satin black except the top he did in gloss cherry. The gloss finish and lighting is causing the wall striping to show up on the top in these photos. The fabric I ordered for the curtains has shipped! Yay! We are still looking for two chairs for this table.

Spoon People

2009-12-30T08:10:00.003-06:00

Lydia went through some of my craft books for kids. A couple are for 2 - 6 year olds but Lydia who is 8 still loves most of the craft projects in them. The books include The Little Hands Big Fun Craft Book: Creative Fun for 2 to 6 Year Olds and The Little Hands Art Book: Exploring Arts & Crafts with 2 to 6 Year Olds by Judy Press and Scribble Art: Independent Creative Art Experiences for Children by MaryAnn F. Kohl. I let her pick out some projects for us to do and the first one she wanted to do was to make these spoon people.

Lydia loves to create "doll houses" out of cardboard boxes so we made one of those as well. She decided it would be a school. She has an expensive Barbie house in her play room that we could have used but she prefers to use houses she makes out of cardboard boxes. Creating the house itself and the furniture and curtains and such for it is most of the fun for her. Sometimes her dad gets a little frustrated with her because she never throws anything away. She sees things she can create out of almost anything! I love that she loves to create like this and so I am a little more patient with all of the "junk" she collects for her arts and crafts. Her whole face brightens up when she shows me something she has made from these things.

I think we will pick out another project to do now. We are on vacation until the 4th of January so we can do that!

Office Redo Progress

2009-12-29T10:08:00.002-06:00

I have been writing lately about the office redo we are working on. I have to give Ken most of the credit because he has been doing all of the real work like painting and hanging shelves. As you can see in the picture above, the shelves are now up! This is not how I plan to organize things. They just have everything from my desk piled on them so we could take the top off of my desk to remove a drawer. I LOVE THE SHELVES! Now that I have these, I will be able to see the top of my desk! Well, maybe.
Last night we taped off the stripes and...
...finished painting them. I love the stripes! The picture that inspired this room is in this post. The fabric I ordered is not supposed to ship until after January 1. I wish I had it now so I could start sewing the curtains! I am going to love my new office. So excited to finish it.

Christmas Stars

2009-12-28T19:02:00.003-06:00

I made these Christmas stars this year for some friends. I stole the idea from Trey and Lucy. I thought it was a neat idea. Easy to make too.

Office Redo in Progress

2009-12-20T22:12:00.008-06:00

We are working on the office redo. We have the lighter orange on the walls and WOW, it's orange man! No dozing off in this room! It still needs one more coat and then the darker orange stripes are going up on one wall. I just ordered 6 yards of this fabric from jcarolinecreative.com (pic above). I'll be making curtains out of it. The fabric is not being shipped until 12/31 so it will arrive when I am back to work. Bummer! The shelves in the inspiration picture in the post below have been purchased and will go up once the walls are dry.
I purchased this wall clock last night. I also purchased an old metal file cabinet and a retro end table from The Salvation Army yesterday. The file cabinet will get painted one of the blues or greens from the curtain fabric. I think the table will be flat black and I'm going to paint a peppermint on the top of it.

I am still looking for 2 shell chairs along this line--any color, I can have them painted whatever color I want. We had a few similar to this years ago and I think I didn't sell any of them for more than 3 bucks each at a rummage sale. Now?! Now, you can't find these for under $70 a piece!

Office Redo

2009-12-14T22:06:00.005-06:00

I am going to cheer up my office and I'm using this as my inspiration. I found this photo via the How About Orange Blog. I was excited to find this blog because orange is my favorite color. It's a great blog and I highly recommend it. I will take a picture of my office before we start so you can see the transformation. I'm only going to stripe one wall because doing all of them in my 10x12 office would make the room feel too small to me. On the facing wall I will have shelves like the ones below. I so need shelf space. I'm going to pull the blues, greens, pinks, and purples for accent colors. That, and a red and white peppermint candy light that I have to include because it reminds me of The White Stripes which I am addicted to right now. I spend the majority of my day in my office so I want to make it fun.

Vintage Bracelet by Dawn Kristine

2009-12-12T02:34:00.003-06:00

This is the bracelet Dawn made me. I think it is FABULOUS! She used some of the vintage jewelry I found for her this fall. I am so excited to wear it. I just LOVE IT. (Photo was taken by Dawn and I copied it from her blog.)

2009 Frost Bite 10 Mile Run - 3rd Place

2009-12-07T13:04:00.003-06:00

The results of the 2009 Frost Bite 10 mile run are in and I took 3rd place in the 35-39 division. I'm on the left wearing number 1046.
(Photo taken by Doug Wojcik from the Stevens Point Journal.)

2009 Frost Bite Run

2009-12-06T09:24:00.003-06:00

Lydia and Ken came to cheer me on for the 2009 Frost Bite Run. I ran alone and as fast as I could within my comfort level. We didn't have chips and I started in about the middle of the pack, so I'm not sure of my exact time but when I crossed the finish line the time said 1 hour and 25 minutes. So I know I did at least 8 minute 30 second miles. The YMCA hasn't posted the results yet so I'm not sure how I placed within my age division yet.

Christmas Card Swap

2009-12-03T15:05:00.005-06:00

My friend Dawn made me one of her beautiful vintage bracelets (see some at her Etsy shop) in exchange for some Christmas cards. I can't wait to see the bracelet. I think I got the better end of this deal! :-) It occurred to me as I was leaving for her house to drop them off that I had a "bloggable moment" so I snapped these photots with my phone camera on my way out the door. If you are a blogger, I bet you can relate to this bloggable moment phenomenon. Very often I'll see or do something and think, "note to self, this is so bloggable". Sometimes it makes it to the blog, sometimes it doesn't.

Had my first run of the year on snow today. Running the 10 mile Frost Bite on Saturday.

My Plants are Singing

2009-11-29T08:57:00.006-06:00

4 days off in a row means time to catch up on some things that were getting neglected. Our plants are looking much better (I imagine them thanking us and singing happy songs) as is my office which was in desperate need of a filing cabinet and now has one. Even all of my paperwork is in it, within alphabetized file folders!

Today will go by too fast so I need to be choosy about what I will do. I took a day off from running yesterday because most of my joints ached. My body takes quite a pounding from all of the running I do and I would hope that is all it is. I don't think I can blame the running for sore thumb joints though?

Men of a Certain Age premieres on TNT on December 7 at 9pm Central. I really do not watch very much television but the previews for this look really good. It stars Ray Romano whose comedy Everybody Loves Raymond is based on. It's very rare I get excited about a TV show but I am looking forward to watching this one.

Tomorrow is the deadline to register for the 10 mile Frost Bite. I will be running this one for the first time this year. We don't have any snow yet and it would be kind of pretty if we had some for this run.

I hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving.

Repurposing Materials for a Christmas Card

2009-11-09T21:58:00.005-06:00

In exchange for one of these FABULOUS bracelets my friend Dawn makes, she asked that I make her a couple of cards--one being a Christmas card for a swap she is doing and another for her daughter's piano teacher. (I wonder who is getting the better end of the deal on this exchange, hmmm? Yeah, umm, me no doubt.) I started on the Christmas card this evening. I love this wrapping paper! I've had it for awhile now and have been wanting to use it on something. The beads, from a magnetic bracelet that Lydia broke, will soon be garland. I plan to do some stitching on this too. I had fun digging through my stash for stuff to use on this but man did I make a mess of my craft room!

I Am SOOOO Inspired

2009-11-06T13:40:00.002-06:00

Wow...Everybody Likes Sandwiches is a great blog. I am so inspired to get busy in my kitchen! Check it out people.

Plarn Anyone?

2009-11-04T23:47:00.009-06:00

It's been so long since I've been in my craft room that it is RIDICULOUS! It always seems to be last on my things to do list these days but this evening I picked up an issue of Cloth, Paper, Scissors and it inspired me to get in there and make SOMETHING. Reading this magazine I realized I really love fiber arts and collage and would reallllly love to take some classes.

We watched Al Gore on Letterman last night and he was promoting his new book Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis. He sparked our interest so we bought this book today and I've started reading it. Now I'm inspired to make some projects out of recycled materials so I started to look around online for plastic bag ideas because I am just disgusted with how many of those I dispose of and oh my goodness, there is a plethora of things to make with plastic bags. Did you even know there has been a word created for plastic bags used as yarn? Yeah, it's called "plarn". I love that.

A Very Spooky Halloween

2009-10-31T09:15:00.008-05:00

We carved punkins last night. Lydia's is on the left. The bat is mine and Ken carved the skull. I love the skull! Didn't he do a good job? Lydia won the carving contest again this year.

After pumpkin carving last night and much pleading from Lydia, we took her to the haunted house at the Rising Star Mill in Nelsonville. We were 5 steps into it and she said VERY sternly, "I want to get out of here RIGHT NOW!" There was no going back at that point so Ken walked through the rest of the haunted house with her wrapped around his neck clinging for life. It was put on by the YMCA and it was pretty spooky. I was scared even a few times.

We also made some cupcakes. Not as cool as the brain cupcakes we made last year but they are just as tasty.

More about Berlin and the fall festival

2009-10-06T22:05:00.007-05:00

So, more about our trip to Berlin. I'm telling you, if you want to find some cool shabby chic/vintage stuff, the Saving Grace Salvage Company in Berlin is the place to go. It's well organized and they have a wide variety of goodies. My most favorite find was the vintage jewelry! Because...my friend Dawn makes THE MOST beautiful bracelets (and sells them on Etsy by the way) out of this stuff. I scored a bunch of pieces for her (and it just happened to be her birthday) and I was smiling the whole way home, seriously. I didn't take any close-ups of what I got for her and I wish I would have!
We met Simone Lapierre (I am probably really messing up the spelling!) who is a beautiful girl inside and out, I'm telling you, so nice. She was face painting when we met her. Besides being an artist, she is also an actress.
She also helped Lydia make a lantern.

We did some shopping too and Lydia picked out a new outfit for her American Girl.
Saw some chain saw carving...
...and of course, no trip is complete without a stop at Taco Johns!
On the way home Lydia told us she had a lot of fun. I think this is a day Lydia will remember when she gets older because we had a lot of fun as a family.

Pumpkins on Petunias Pumpkin Drop

2009-10-04T23:32:00.004-05:00

It's Saturday morning and we're all sitting around trying to decide what to do with the day. We searched at www.travelwisconsin.com and found Pumpkins on Petunias in Berlin, WI. It mentioned a farmer's market, crafts, bake sale, great shopping in the local shops, and a pumpkin drop. We like visiting small towns and decided that would be our destination for the day. I'm so glad we went. It was a great day! We met so many friendly people.

We didn't get very lost on the way but had to stop at a gas station to ask for directions. The gas station clerk ended up being from BER-lin (emphasis on first syllable) and smiled when Ken asked her where Ber-LIN was. When we arrived in town we parked and walked down Broadway looking for where this pumpkin drop may be. We weren't quite sure exactly what the pumpkin drop was. I was picturing them dropping pumpkins all over the road and thought that would be pretty messy. When we saw the fire truck and the large crowd standing around it, we knew that was it. We stood in the front with all of the locals (and 3 lovely girls from Chicago) and watched them drop these 3 huge pumpkins on this car. [Sorry the video is sideways. I don't have time for video editing these days. I would love to have more time for that some day though.]

There's much more to tell about this day but I must get to work now so I will have to share more later!

40th Annual Art in the Park & Dozynki Festival

2009-09-26T10:12:00.001-05:00

We attended the 40th annual Art in the Park last weekend. Lydia's favorite this year once again was painting the cardboard boxes. I think for Christmas I will get her a bunch of boxes and some new paints. :-)

We each went home with some goodies. Lydia got a poncho and this cute little dog. He is so well made. His legs and tail move 360 degrees. I bought a necklace made by Wired Wimzy(?)....ugggh, I should have gotten her business card because I love her work. I'd buy more. Maybe Dawn knows where I can find her?

The Dozynki Festival was going on the same day so we walked through that. Lydia picked out a punkin at the Farmer's Market. I love the Farmer's Market and wish I could get over there more often during the summer to get fresh veggies. It's on the other side of town though and I'm not the best planner-aheader.

Yesterday I started to decorate the house for fall. I LOVE this time of the year in Wisconsin so much. Such a pretty time of year. Lydia and I are going to do some halloween crafting today. Going to look for some bat templates for my Wishblade.

Wallet Space Saver - Card Holder

2009-09-06T20:06:00.003-05:00

You know all of those loyalty cards and such that collect in your wallet, preventing you from buttoning it shut? That is when an extra card holder such as this would come in handy. I found the Scrappy Loyalty Wallet tutorial at the A Spoonful of Sugar blog. This is draft number one.

Think I'll keep this one for myself.

Blue Beaded Bracelet by Lovely Lydia

2009-09-06T13:21:00.003-05:00

Lydia and I did some beading after church today. She made this bracelet for me. Now we are off to bake some of Grandma J's A&W Brownies with fudge frosting for the party at the Brandt's tomorrow!

JusticeWorks - Just Run Green 09 Half Marathon

2009-09-05T21:16:00.004-05:00

Ran the JusticeWorks Just Run Green Half Marathon today with Dana. So nice to run again with her. We did the Portland Marathon together in '07 (can't believe it's been 2 years already). Took 9 minutes off of my last half marathon time today so pretty happy with that. They didn't have chips but according to my watch I finished in 2 hours and 2 minutes which is a 9:19 pace.

Chococat Lunch Bag

2009-09-01T23:54:00.004-05:00

The inspiration for this lunch bag came from the purl bee's Back to School Lunch Bag post. When I showed it to Lydia today she was all for it so after we made a quick stop at the Dance Education Center to get our new shoes and clothes for pop dance class this year, we went to Herrschnerrs to pick out the fabrics...

I cross-stitched the chococat a long time ago and always wondered what to do with him. We thought he'd work well with this bag. Lydia chose the brown polka-dotted fabric to match him. The purl bee pattern doesn't include a lining so I combined this pattern with another pattern I got from my friend Dawn for bags because it has easy directions for how to make a lining.

Lydia went to bed before I finished. I had told her it would be done by Friday (and she was very bummed because she wanted it for tomorrow) so she will be surprised when she comes down for breakfast in the morning and sees this at the breakfast bar.

Decorated Notebooks

2009-08-30T20:26:00.002-05:00

Lydia and I played in the craft room today and decorated some notebooks for each other.

Surprise Gift Cards

2009-08-08T07:46:00.005-05:00

I made these cards for the girls on my lia sophia team. I like how when you lift the cover it pulls the gift card up and out of the pocket. I found the template here.

Hot-Rodded Grill

2009-08-01T21:47:00.002-05:00

Ken hot-rodded our grill today. New burner, paint job, and a cleaning. And of course a skull sticker and a road sign because every grill should have these things.

Crafting Hiatus

2009-06-26T17:07:00.004-05:00

This picture was taken in San Telmo, a neighborhood in Buenos Aires. On Sundays, crafters line Defensa Avenue to sell their creations. This crafter's name is Daniel Bobadilla. I purchased one of these bags. LOVE it. My laptop fits in it perfectly. He actually had to finish the bag I picked out ...I saw it behind him on a table and asked him if I could have it and he told me to come back in 15 minutes after he had finished it. He gave me his card with his Flickr URL: http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielbobadilla/sets Appears he is also quite a photographer.

This is the longest I have gone without a post since starting this blog in May of 2007. Since March I have been traveling for work and I've been keeping everybody updated via Facebook (you can find me here). My travels have taken me to London, Paris, Calcutta, Hyderabad, Uruguay, and now Buenos Aires. I've been taking advantage of any free time by going to see all of the sites--the pics are on Facebook. I should be back in the U.S. on 7/3. I am looking forward to getting back into my craft room, I do miss it! But I miss my little girl even more as you can probably imagine!

New Friends in Kolkata

2009-04-05T05:53:00.007-05:00

Mohan and Aditi own a tea and coffee business and live in Kolkata. I met them at the hotel last night and they were kind enough to call me up today to see if I wanted to get out and see some of Kolkata with them. They took me to Swabhumi, a very nice shopping area where you can buy handicrafts like this purse.

They also took me out for a nice lunch which is where we saw the dancers in this video. I leave for home in three more days. I've met some very nice people in Kolkata. It's amazing how that happens when you leave your hotel room.

Indian Drivers are Crazy!

2009-03-19T11:34:00.006-05:00

Since I posted last, Bows and I have been to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and Oxford. We are now in Hyderabad, India. So far I have been very entertained with my drives in a cab to and from work each day. The approach to driving here is completely chaotic. It's just crazy. I almost had 4 heart attacks in the cab today. Horns are used as signals, constantly. Everybody drives every which way, pulling out in front of each other, coming within inches of smashing each other, yet I haven't seen one accident yet. I can't put anything into words that would describe the chaos. It's amazing.

In Hyderabad I've learned that this city is well known for it's Pearls. I would like to go shopping for some. I'm also told by several Indians that the food in India is spiciest in Hyderabad. They have one mixture of ingredient they use and it's call gun powder. I like Mexican food and that is spicy but I can't hardly eat the Indian food here. I cough after each bite.

I taught my first 8 hour class today and it went well considering it was my first presentation to a large group of people in a looonnng time.

London - Days 2 and 3

2009-03-12T16:46:00.009-05:00

I have to say the internet connection I have at the Easy Hotel is horrible. It sucks actually. I am not posting as much as I'd like because of it. Maybe I'll have a better connection at the hotel in Paris or India. I've just spent several hours trying to upload photos and more than half failed. I need to get to bed now because I am getting picked up for my trip to Paris at 4:45 a.m. tomorrow. I'll be staying over night in Paris, getting back late Saturday night. I don't know when the next time is that I'll be able to post.

Yesterday I toured the British Museum and took several pictures there (that I haven't been able to show yet). I also toured the West End of London which includes the theater and Soho districts. This is my favorite area in London. After a really nice supper at the Criterion at Piccadilly Circus I attended Mamma Mia at the Prince of Whales Theatre. ABBA is one of my favorite bands so I really enjoyed the performance.

Don't know what these horses are but this photo is only one of a few that I am in so I thought I would share it. Some stranger was kind enough to take it for me.

Today I did the Westminster walk and then went back to Soho and did some shopping. Picked up some really cute things at the Octopus which does not have a website yet but when they do I will be sure to share the link because they have the coolest stuff!!! The person who worked there told me that there would be online shopping.

I have posted more pictures on facebook.

And just so you know, Lydia, Bows is having a great time too. Here she is at Big Ben...
...and at Parliament...

...and at the London Eye on the Thames River...
...and finally relaxing after a long day.

I love you Lydia!

London Day 1

2009-03-10T20:58:00.007-05:00

It is 2 a.m. London time. It's been a long but fun day. The flight wasn't so bad because there was an empty seat next to me so I was able to lay down and sleep for 4 or 5 hours. I found my way to my hotel pretty easily via the Underground (tube). Today I saw the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge. I didn't take the tour of the Tower of London though because I arrived 30 minutes before closing. I may go back to do the tour. I also took a 2 hour London by Night sightseeing tour which was worth the 15 p.

Some things I noticed today:
1. People in London walk really fast and there are lots of steps everywhere! I'm a fast walker, or so I thought, and had a hard time keeping up.
2. Pop comes in 2 Liter bottles vs. 1
3. They hand out free newspapers all over the place
4. No washcloths??

I took 111 pictures today. Too many to post here. I will get them up on Flickr or something like that soon. I'm here and safe and hitting the rack! Good day for now...cheerio.

My Travelin' Pal

2009-03-09T18:28:00.003-05:00

Lydia has sent me off from the Central Wisconsin Airport in Mosinee with "Bows" the bunny. Bows is the purple gal you see on top of Lydia's head. Bows will be my travelin' pal and you will see a lot of her. Right now we are doing some people watching at the O'Hare Bar & Grill.

Leaving for London Tomorrow

2009-03-08T23:37:00.004-05:00

Here's the scoop. When I started with IBM in July of '99 (my first real job after graduating from college at the age of 27....I was a non-trad), EVERY IBMer I met would break from their polite, welcoming chit chat and in a very serious, concerned tone warn me to be careful because IBM would work me into the ground if I let them. Following that they all said that IBM would give me amazing experiences that I could get no place else. Ten years later I'm here to say that these folks haven't been proven wrong yet. I work hard at my job and there are times I need to draw the line but I also work with some of the brightest, talented people in the world and the work we do every day is important, challenging, and keeps me on my toes which is something, when it really comes down to it, I need to keep me interested in my job. I am one of twelve IBMers being sent around the world (Mexico, Phillipines, China, Argentina, India, Brazil) to mentor other Project Managers. I will be traveling to India for 4 weeks and to Argentina for a total of 7 weeks. I'm stopping for a vacation in London and Paris for a week before I arrive in India. I have a 7 year old daughter I am leaving home with her dad. That is turning out to be the hardest part of this whole adventure so far. I'll be logging my travels on this blog. I leave for London tomorrow. I'll be in touch soon.

Scrapbooking Weekend with the Jensen Girls

2009-02-24T09:36:00.007-06:00

I spent this past weekend scrapbooking with the Jensen girls. We got a lot of pages done. I think I did 22 myself! I finished an entire album of our trip to Disneyland last March. Yeah! It was a fun time but we missed you Linda! I hope we do this again so I can get some more done. Scrapbooking is much more fun for me when I do it with other people.

Big Heart

2009-02-12T09:20:00.003-06:00

Valentines are always fun to make. I would have liked to have made time to make more!

Cooking with Lydia

2009-01-04T15:09:00.005-06:00

This post is for Grandma Jensen. Lydia made the Shake-It-Up Chicken Nuggets from the cookbook you gave her for Christmas (Kids' Cookbook: All Recipes Made by Real Kids in Real Kitchens). We had a lot of fun together making them and they were really delish too! We will make these again and other recipes for sure. Thank you for the cookbook!

Totally Awesome 80's New Year's Eve Party

2009-01-01T18:41:00.003-06:00

We rang in the new year in 80's style. Nobody told each other what they were wearing ahead of time so we laughed even harder when we saw each other for the first time. It's a good thing the black onyx eye liner I wore was water proof because I was laughing so hard I had tears. You can see more of the high fashion from this party at my Shutterfly site.

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-28T21:10:00.005-06:00

Lydia was wanting a cupcake pin cushion so I finished this one up for her for Christmas. She loved it.

I just love this time of year. The time spent with family, Christmas music, Christmas Eve service, helping others, celebrating the birth of Jesus, and visiting the Emergency Room at 1 a.m. on Christmas Eve because your daughter has an ear infection (sigh).

We spent Christmas Eve with my family...

And Christmas day with my husband's family...

Lydia enjoying a rare moment...a spot in Papa's chair!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to You!

We are going to an 80's New Year's Eve party. I'm still working on our costumes. I will share pictures. Should be a blast.

We've Been Crafting, Just Not Posting!

2008-12-22T19:47:00.007-06:00

Lydia and I pulled out the sewing machine the other day and made this pillow for her baby panda bear.
Lydia also did some cookie decorating at a holiday party...
I think she did a great job. So detailed!
I didn't finish the frog cross-stitch for Christmas so now this is a birthday present for my grandma. Her birthday is January 27.
Once I finish this I plan to get back to the "Strength" (tree) cross-stitch. I learned that I had been suffering needlessly on this. When doing work on such a small thread count you don't stitch in EVERY hole, you do every other. What a difference that makes! WOW! No more need for dramamine when working on this project.

(The above picture is owned by monsterbubbles.com.
You can purchase the pattern from monsterbubbles.com.)

Cross-Stitched Frogs

2008-12-16T21:52:00.004-06:00

My grandma collects frogs and my goal is to make this cross-stitch for her for Christmas. I should have lots of time to craft until Christmas now. Work is slowing down and my vacation starts this Thursday. I will not go back to work until January 5th. Woohoo!

Scrapbooking Po the Owl

2008-11-09T09:56:00.006-06:00

Lydia and I did some scrapbooking last night. She is holding up a page she made for the owl she and her class adopted. His name is Po and he currently lives at the Pineview Rehabilitation Wildlife Center. Lydia raised $21 for him by doing a mathathon and completing 113 math problems. Thanks Grandma Jensen for your donation.

'Tis the cold season and I have one. Ken and Lydia went to church without me this morning while I sit here drinking echinacea tea. I was up most of the night coughing and just basically feeling really yucky. I see out the window in front of me some white flakes drifting down. It is a great day to scrapbook in comfies and that is what I plan to do.

Anything wrong with this picture?

2008-10-31T14:11:00.006-05:00

Lydia's off from school today and it's a beautiful day outside so I decided to take her with me for a run on the trail down by the river near our house. Threw her bike in the back of the truck; her helmet, nano, water bottle, and jacket followed. Grabbed my water bottles and waist belt for them, heart rate monitor and watch, ipod, and my green tennis shoes from our shoe box and threw that all in the truck too and then we were finally off. Parked at the head of the trail and put my right shoe on. All is well with my life. Put my toes in the left shoe. Notice anything wrong with this picture??? I considered driving back home for the left shoe for about 3 seconds but with all I wanted to get done today, said screw it and ran 5 miles wearing 2 right shoes. Not the most comfortable run I've ever had. We passed about 6 people on the trail at different times and nobody noticed. They were probably distracted by Lydia's whining about her ear buds not staying in her ears. It sure was a beautiful run though.

Pumpkins and Brain Cupcakes

2008-10-30T13:47:00.005-05:00

I had off from work for most of the day today so Lydia and I decided to make some cupcakes -- brain cupcakes that is.

We carved pumpkins this week too. Ken's is on the left, Lydia's is in the middle, mine is on the right. I think Ken and Lydia's pumpkins turned out great. Ken said his looked like he felt the day we carved these and I believe him (sore neck).

Lydia also painted several pumpkins and had lots of fun with this.
Lydia is a cheetah for halloween this year. I totally misunderstood the look she was going for. I bought the leopard jacket thinking she wanted to be one of the members of the Cheetah Girls singing band but when she asked me to paint her face I realized she was going for the actual animal. Hey, she's happy with it, so I am too.

Cupcake Card Swap

2008-10-09T21:15:00.005-05:00

This is a quick post. Just wanted to share these really cute cupcake cards I got this month in the swap. The card I made is the set of 5 above and in return I got the following 5. So fun!

Halloween Banner

2008-10-06T20:39:00.005-05:00

I love all the banners I see people making so I thought I would make one for Halloween to hang from my fireplace mantle. I made it too darn big for my mantle so here it is hanging from my curtain rod. *sigh* Next one will be smaller so I can hang it from the mantle!!
Scout turned 13 yesterday. Never thought he'd see the day, especially when we found out he had emphysema at age 7 and he was given one week to live without surgery. He had the surgery and here we are 6 years later. We celebrated with presents and pup cups. Love you Scout!

Happy 40th Birthday Dawn!

2008-10-05T17:14:00.004-05:00

My good friend Dawn turned 40 on October 2nd. Happy Birthday Dawn! I remembered she had commented on this book I got a few months ago called Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts. She said she really liked the birds from the book. So, I made her some for her birthday. The first one, which Lydia got to keep, was a little tricky until I got the hang of it. If you make some of these birds from the pattern in this book, do not sew the loop in where the patterns says to. Move it up closer to the head or your bird will hang crooked.

5th(?) Annual Door County Weekend

2008-09-30T23:30:00.006-05:00

Cheers to another super fun weekend with the girls in Door County. We laughed until our stomachs hurt and shopped pretty much until we dropped. We hit the thrift stores and garage sales hard and I came home with some fun treasures.

My friend Dawn tells me this embroidered piece is probably a pillow case. There was also a "Good Night" that I didn't buy. It would go on the flip side of the pillow if I were to use these as originally intended. My plan for this is to frame it for my kitchen.

I really like this table cloth and these napkins and glasses I found. We used all of this for supper last night and it made a very pretty setting. (Orange is my favorite color.)

Lydia wants to be a Cheetah girl for Halloween. I found this jacket and boa at Goodwill. These will be perfect for her costume.

I am looking forward to next year!

39th Annual Art in the Park

2008-09-20T14:19:00.006-05:00

Today we attended the 39th annual Art in the Park event held at Pfiffner Park in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. It brings artists and crafters together to display and sell their work. I remember being Lydia's age and attending this event. We started off doing some painting, compliments of the Art Village. Above, Lydia and her friend are painting a square with blue and white paint which will become part of a larger composition like you see in the first picture. The piece in the first picture was created last year and the theme was circles. This year, the theme is blue and white.
The two girls on the left are the crafters who made these bracelets. I should have asked for their names! Lydia and Emily each bought a bracelet from them.
These are locker pockets. They have magnets on the back so you can hang them in your school locker and put pens and pencils in them. Each of the girls got one.

The cardboard box painting is what Lydia was really looking forward to.

The girls had a great time painting the boxes. I think they spent just as much time painting themselves too! They definitely had a lot of fun with this.
The weather was perfect today for this event. We saw lots of neat things and I came home with a few ideas too.

Pleated Handbag

2008-09-16T21:31:00.005-05:00

I have been a busy sewer these last few days. Today I finished this pleated handbag which is a pattern from Amy Karol's bend-the-rules Sewing book. This was my first time creating pleats. They are so easy to make! I will be using this bag for sure. It's a keeper. I love the shape and I like where it lays when I have it on my shoulder. Very comfortable. The instructions called for cotton flannel lining but all I had was a sheet of batting so I used that. It's a very cushiony bag.

When my mom was going through chemo a few years ago we went to Hancock Fabrics and she picked out this red fabric for a head wrap I was going to make for her. I never got the chance to make the wrap because she didn't live long enough. There was just enough of this fabric to make this bag. Also, the yellow fabric is a table cloth I got from my mom's craft room. Still using up the supplies I have on hand and I think my mom would really like this bag.

By the way, Amy Karol's bend-the-rules sewing book is a great book for beginner level sewers, FYI. I have made several of the projects now. There are many cute and useful projects in the book and they can be completed in relatively short amounts of time which is good for people like me who need to see results quickly.

Reversible Purse - Trick or Treat Bag

2008-09-15T16:50:00.004-05:00

Lydia really liked my reversible purse so I made her one for trick-or-treating with some fabric I had left over from some bandanas I made the dogs a few years back. I am trying to use up some of my old stash.

Reversible Purse

2008-09-15T00:08:00.006-05:00

I found this really cute pattern for a reversible purse at www.marthastewart.com. I thought it would be a great bag for church as well as for my annual weekend in Door County with the Jensen girls which is just around the corner! Woohoo! Can't wait. I used fabric I had on hand. I love this print but I thought it was too busy to do the whole bag in it so I cut up an old pair of jeans and used it as an accent. I am happy with how it turned out even though it does have a few imperfections. This would have been a lot easier had I not made modifications to the pattern to accommodate the printed fabric.

First Day of 2nd Grade

2008-09-02T21:48:00.003-05:00

The big day finally arrived. Lydia was very excited for school to start. She loves school.
I had tears a few times, once when waiting in line for the rest of the kids to arrive she said to me, "You can go now mom. I'm OK". I am continually amazed at how fast the days and years go by.

Labor Day Weekend 2008

2008-09-01T20:59:00.006-05:00

We enjoyed the holiday weekend. Ken and I had an opportunity to visit with some friends from way back, about 17+ years. Lydia had her friend Emily over for a camp-out. We made smores.
Lydia and her dad play "Natural Disaster Barbie" and "Smash Barbie". Smash Barbie is when they get hit by cars or they fall off of stuff or get launched across a room. Natural Disaster Barbie is when they get caught in an earthquake or get sucked up in a twister or they get burned in a fire. (Leave it to my husband to dream this up.) Today I had the opportunity to play "Natural Disaster Barbie". An earth quake caused the car to land on Barbie. She broke an arm.
The theme for the card swap this month is "cupcakes". I came up with this so far. The top of the cupcake flips up to open the card.

Tomorrow Lydia starts 2nd grade. I remember starting 2nd grade myself and now my daughter is. (sniff sniff) We had to run to get some gym shoes today. Other than that we've been ready for this big day for awhile. Lydia loves school and is looking forward to getting back to it. As for me, I am a little sad because the summer is over and it feels like yesterday that I was waiting for it to start. I do love Autumn in Wisconsin however. It's my favorite season. I've noticed the different colored leaves on my runs already, and the cooler mornings. Love that stuff.

Dog Fashions

2008-08-30T14:20:00.007-05:00

After our babysitter commented on how well she likes the bandanas our dogs wear, I have been wanting to make some for her two dogs. I went to the fabric store yesterday looking for fall fabric and found this. I will have these wrapped up for her when she comes over tonight. It was nice to use the sewing machine today. It's so relaxing. I enjoy dressing our dogs in different bandanas. Since Ken won't let me get a chijuaua (yet), this is as close as I can come to dressing my dogs.

Crafter's Block

2008-08-25T22:41:00.008-05:00

My blog posts have been few and far between lately. I seem to be procrastinating about crafting. What the heck?!? I am observing, partly due to the lack of posts on this blog, that whenever I find some free time I come up with something else that "has to get done" before I craft; Stuff like organizing all of my daughter's hair gizmos (rubber bands, barrettes, etc.), cleaning out desk drawers, file cabinets, and closets. I usually don't get the urge to do these things. Ever.

Today I actually crafted some things to necessitate a post. The card above is for a swap I am in that I turned in a day late but nevertheless did finish. We were given the owl stamped in black. I am looking forward to seeing what the other girls in the swap did with this guy.

I didn't feel like putting the paper, stamps, and inks away just yet so I made this card for a relative whose b-day is coming up soon.

My friend Dawn put one of my cupcake pincushions in a cupcake swap that she is in this month. I had the cupcake close to being done (as shown in this post) but she needed to finish it off with some embellishments which I never got around to doing (shocker). I am looking forward to seeing what she did with it because she is super crafty. I love cupcakes. The theme for the card swap in September is cupcakes too!

Talent Show No. 1

2008-08-14T23:16:00.007-05:00

Lydia decided to put together a talent show. She recruited her dad and her cousin Laurel to perform. Lydia has planned another talent show for this coming Tuesday and I am a part of the show this time as well! I will be doing card making.

7th Birthday Celebrations

2008-07-28T20:58:00.007-05:00

Well it's been more than two weeks since we celebrated Lydia's 7th birthday but when thinking about a crafty project to post, her birthday cake was the most recent thing I could think of that I have "crafted"! That is pathetic! I am going through a very long crafty dry spell.
Lydia and her friends enjoyed the birthday party very much. One of the games we played was a scavenger hunt. I took pictures of 12 items. I cut each of the pictures up and put each in a sealed envelope. The girls had to put the pictures together like a puzzle to discover the object they needed to find. Once they found the first item, they were given their next "clue", and so on. I split the girls up into two teams. The first team to find all of their 6 clues "won". This game was a huge hit with the girls and Ken and I had just as much fun watching them.

Back from Vacation

2008-07-13T08:39:00.006-05:00

After talking about my "little monkey" in my last post, I thought this picture from our vacation to Bayfield/Madeline Island was fitting. The monkey on the left is a good friend of Lydia's who came along with us on our trip. We ran into the middle one at the Monkey Business store by the ferry dock in Bayfield.
I picked up a lot of this vintage fabric at a garage sale we stopped at on our way home. I LOVE it and I am itching to make something out of it!

American Girl Dress & Hat

2008-07-06T08:00:00.005-05:00

Here's the American Girl outfit I mentioned yesterday. I think it may have taken me longer to make the hat than it did the dress. Now that I did it once though, I think the second would go quicker. Lydia loves the outfit and it's gotten her interested in her doll again. Ken mentioned yesterday he thought it was pretty cute to watch Lydia walking her American Girl in the stroller up and down the road along with Zoe (our Samoyed) wearing her matching bandana.

We went to the fireworks last night. We got about 2 blocks from where we parked when Lydia realized the hat wasn't on her doll any longer. She looked at me panicked and then asked if I could make another one. I had to smile and I laughed to myself because it took me 4 or 5 hours to make that hat, I wasn't going to let it go that easily! I walked back the way we came and found the hat a few feet from our SUV. Phew!

One more quick story. After I got home from biking to the pharmacy for some medication yesterday, the neighbor stopped by to ask me if I need drugs. He followed that by telling me that Lydia told him "my mom needs drugs". He replied to her, "oh really?" She then told him "my mom needs birth control pills because we already have one monkey and we don't need anymore monkeys running around". If you know my husband you know where she got this from. Sounds just like him. I had a good laugh from it.

Happy 4th of July Bandanas

2008-07-05T09:10:00.005-05:00

I ran across this fabric that I found in my mom's craft stash when we cleaned out her craft room a few years ago. I decided it would make great bandana's for the dogs to get them in the festive spirit of the 4th of July. I decided I wanted to use all of the fabric up so I made a pillow case for a doll pillow of Lydia's and then I still had some of the fabric left after that so I made a dress for Lydia's American Girl doll. I plan to make a matching hat for her doll today so I will post a picture of the rest after I finish the hat today.

By the way, Scout is doing much better since he started his medication!

First Pillowcase Project

2008-06-27T15:24:00.003-05:00

Lydia and I attended a sewing class together today. With a little help from mom she made this really cute pillowcase. She learned how to sew straight lines and how to press seams. Great job Lydia! I hope you will sew with me more often.

The Old Man

2008-06-26T20:19:00.003-05:00

We've had Scout since he was 10 weeks old and he'll be 13 years old on October 5. He's really never been a very loving dog, just not the shnuggly type, but there is something about him that makes US love HIM quite a lot. He almost didn't make it to 8. We found out he had emphysema so bad that portions of his lungs had to be removed to save his life. Lately, he has really slowed down. He uses the house for a bathroom. He has also lost his hearing and about 10 pounds of muscle. We can tell he is really achy too. We took him to the doctor today and learned he has a tick born infection (curable) which is causing some of his pain, that and arthritis. We have started him on arthritis medication and an antibiotic. We're hoping the fact that he has been achy is what has caused the bathroom problem and it's not that he has started to lose his training. Time will tell. The arthritis meds should help him to be comfortable and as long as he is comfortable we won't have to say good-bye yet.

7th Birthday

2008-06-25T21:16:00.006-05:00

This is the invitation Lydia designed for her 7th birthday party. We will be on Madeline Island for her actual birthday so we will have a party with her friends the weekend after we get home. She got her birthday present early (below) so we could take it with us on vacation.

Lake Delton Burgle-ation

2008-06-19T21:58:00.007-05:00

Ken and I took a motorcycle ride down to Lake Delton in the Wisconsin Dells last Sunday to see the results of the flooding for ourselves. I have more pictures of what we saw posted in my web gallery.

Walk Wisconsin 2008

2008-06-10T20:40:00.006-05:00

Ken and I did the Walk Wisconsin 1/2 marathon this past Saturday. We had pretty decent weather. Just rained for the last couple of miles. Last year I did the marathon in a downpour. Let's just say that walking the last quarter of 26.2 miles with wet feet is mighty painful and leave it at that to spare you the details.

With about 3 miles to go Ken commented that maybe next year he will train. He said he thought it was going to be a "walk in the park". Well, we did walk in some parks but 13.1 miles is not a little stroll in the woods. Today is the first day my muscles don't ache.

Congratulations, Ken, on your first 1/2 marathon!

Talent Show

2008-06-04T17:48:00.006-05:00

Lydia decided on her own to try out for the talent show with her friend Maggie. She passed the auditions and we went to watch her perform today in front of the entire school. I am so proud of her! Maggie taught Lydia the choreography which she learned in her dance class. They practiced during recess. Did I mention how proud I am?

Single Tracking Again

2008-06-02T20:45:00.003-05:00

Yesterday it was beauuuuuutiful here in central Wisconsin so Ken and I packed up the bikes and headed back out to Standing Rocks for a solid hour of single tracking. It is so much fun! Couldn't have asked for better weather for it.

Only 4 more days of first grade left for Lydia and then it's summer vacation! She wants to go back to Madeline Island this summer. We have taken her there a few times now. She loves riding the ferry and the whole idea of visiting an island. We are thinking we will skip the tenting this year and stay at the Tree Top Bed & Breakfast in Bayfield. Ken and I stayed there in 2005 and enjoyed our stay. Looking forward to Gruenke's pizza again too. We'll take the bikes with us so we can do some biking on the island.

Ken and I registered for the Walk Wisconsin 1/2 marathon next weekend. I do hope the weather cooperates. Last year I did the marathon in the rain and I do not want to do that to my feet again. Wet socks and 13 miles are not a good combination.

Single Tracking

2008-05-29T16:29:00.006-05:00

I have not done any crafting lately. Spare time has been limited and after a long Wisconsin winter when I've had any spare time, I have wanted to get outside to do some single tracking. These pictures were taken when I went single tracking by myself at Standing Rocks. I am loving my new bike. I was pleasantly surprised to learn what a great workout this sport is.

It's hard to see but there is a brand new fawn underneath this mother. I didn't want to pause too long and scare the mom too much so the picture is not that great.

I call this the "endo spot" (endo, short for end over) now because coming up this hill I did not go over the step to the right of the tree (hard to tell how deep it is from this angle) but rather when my front tire hit the log the rear wheel came way off the ground and my chest landed on my handle bars which by the way was the only part of my body left touching the bike besides my hands. I knocked the odometer off the handlebars with my chest, my camera went flying, and I bruised the heck out of my knees when I somehow landed standing up with the bike still under me. There is quite a drop off to the left of the tree and I was very thankful that the landing wasn't worse than it was. It was quite an adrenaline rush.

The single tracks I did are one-way so I took this cross-country ski trail back to my truck. After pedaling up this hill I decided the name of it is more appropriately named for those who are riding/skiing down it.

Can't wait to go again.

Cupcake Pincushions

2008-05-11T16:58:00.006-05:00

Now these are not finished because I still need to put the cherries (felted balls) on top but I was too excited to share to wait for those to arrive! I ordered the felt balls yesterday and I hope they won't take long to get here. I need to find some more fancy trims too. I have lots of wool now to keep me busy for awhile but I can always use some more fun colors if you run by any sweaters you need to get rid of--wool or otherwise. I scored at a rummage on Saturday and got these 4 wool sweaters for $4. I plan to felt them for more projects I am making from the Warm Fuzzies book.
I held Craft Night at my house on Friday night. Just one person came. On a positive note, I got to know this person a lot better and enjoyed our conversation. My craft room is also very clean and we have a lot of yummy double chocolate cookies I made for all the girls I thought would come. Also, I finished sewing the binding on my quilt so it is DONE! On the down side, dang, it was a lot of work to prepare for everyone and I was so excited to spend time with the girls to do crafting and socialize so when only one person came I was pretty bummed. I am going to plan another night and give it another try. If I get a similar turnout, I may have to give up on the Craft Nights but I hope it doesn't come to that because Craft Nights would be so much fun.

Happy Birthday - Running with Crafts Turns One

2008-05-08T23:30:00.006-05:00

Running with Crafts turned 1 on May 6th. I had intentions several times to post on the big day but I have had a really busy week. I will have put in 77 hours at work this week if I get done after 8 hours tomorrow. I am also solo with Lydia in the evenings so by the time the end of the day rolled around this week I was ready to pass out. I also work at a computer all day so the last thing I sometimes feel like doing is getting on my home computer, especially on weeks like this one.

I want to do a give-away for this special event but it is going to be delayed because I have not created the item yet that I want to give away. It is a surprise so I won't say anymore about it.

I thought this would be a good time to reflect on the past year by listing ten cool things that happened in my life this year.

10. Learned how to make books

9. Learned how to quilt

8. Learned how to knit

7. Watched Lydia learn how to ride her bike without training wheels

6. Finally visited my life-long girl friend in Oregon (she has lived there for over a decade)

5. Completed the Madison Half Marathon

4. Completed the Walk Wisconsin Marathon

3. My husband turned 40 (gets better with age) and decided to go back to college (I'm proud of him)

2. We visited Disneyland for the first time

1. Completed the Portland Oregon Marathon

When I started this blog I was just getting back into running after being out of the sport for a couple of years. I also had a desire to make more time for crafting. I am happy to say that a year later I am still running and doing a lot of crafting.

New Ride for the Summer

2008-05-03T21:05:00.005-05:00

Ken's new toy. I have been hearing about this for months now. It's all he has talked about and I am ready for a new subject! I worked today and then babysat so no crafting today. I am behind on my blocks of the month. Hope I can work on them soon. If nothing else, I can work on them next Friday because I'm having Craft Night with the girls at my house (6 til ???). If you're in the area and have a craft to work on, you're welcome to join us. Only thing is, you have to bring a treat to share. Have to get these girls into bed now...it's late!

Super Star - Spring Showcase 2008

2008-05-02T15:56:00.004-05:00

I was so busy with work this week that by the time I had time to post, I was ready to pass out in bed and the last thing I wanted to do anyway was get on my computer after being on my computer alllllll day. So this post is way overdue. Lydia had her big dance performance last weekend. She did such a great job. Watching her perform is so much fun. She has really learned a lot in class and she is growing up to be a very good dancer. I hope she sticks with it. Here she is before the performance with her friend Jurnee.

2 Sisters Living the Dream

2008-04-22T21:41:00.009-05:00

While I was in Madison, WI, this past weekend I stumbled across a very cool indie craft shop called Anthology. It was just opened by two crafty sisters in March. They have done an outstanding job with this. They feature the work of about 20 indie craft artists, or so I have read. You can read about all of the details at madison.com. If you are near State Street in Madison any time soon, I suggest you give them a visit. You will not be disappointed.

They had a table set up in back where you could try some veggie stamping.

And there were the yummiest looking softies!
These felted treats reminded me of the Warm Fuzzies book I just got by Betz White.
We went rummage saling and I was on the lookout for wool sweaters for my newly found craft of felting but I only found one drab black sweater for $5 and I couldn't get myself to pay that much for a sweater at a rummage sale, plus I was looking for bright colors for the cupcake pin cushions I want to make.

Car Art

2008-04-20T21:43:00.005-05:00

Ken and I spent the weekend in Madison (capitol of WI, which is a state in the central U.S. -- New Yorkers often ask me where WI is and I find that funny). I went for a Mac class and since my brother lives there we made a weekend of it. During our outing on Saturday in the downtown area we came upon this car that I had to take a few shots of so that I could share with you. Is this person artistic or what?! We wonder what kind of glue they used. You have to appreciate this person's artistic flair. There is no lack of flair on this car.

Speed Queen to the Rescue

2008-04-18T21:26:00.006-05:00

Warm Fuzzies by Betz White arrived today. So many CUTE projects in this book! After I read the section on how to felt wool sweaters, I hurried to my closet to see what I could find to felt. I found one 100% wool sweater that would never fit me in my life time since my husband already started the felting process on it! I would have continued with a second attempt to felt it but by quite a coincidence, my dryer broke today! I discovered this when I was about to put the second load of clothes in the dryer and found the first load was still wet and cold. Both loads ended up in the Speed Queens at the laundromat. We are heading to Madison tomorrow to visit my brother and we will be doing some rummage saling so I will be on the lookout for more wool sweaters--brightly colored ones for the cupcakes I plan to make from this book. I can hardly wait to make them, they are so cute and yummy looking!

First Quilt is Almost Ready for the Wall

2008-04-16T21:24:00.006-05:00

Sewing is very relaxing for me and I can sew for hours and it seems like 15 minutes. I continued hand stitching the binding to the back of my first quilt this evening. I can probably finish it in one more sitting. I have no idea how to hang a small quilt on a wall so if anybody can give me any pointers on how to do that, I'd appreciate it very much. Here is the nearly finished quilt with 2.5 sides of the binding completed...
I haven't been talking much about my marathon training. That is because I am getting discouraged. I have been very tired on my runs lately. I had to split a 6 miler into 2 separate runs today. I am planning on doing a 1/2 marathon in May so things need to improve soon. I need the right mix of proteins and carbohydrates and much more water in my diet. If any of you are runners, I'd like to know if you ever get into these zones where you repeatedly hit a wall too early in a run and if you do, how do you deal with that?

On another subject, we are nearing the one year anniversary of my blog! Crazy. One year. Time could slow down and I would not complain for one second. I have been putting some thought into a give away to celebrate this anniversary so stay tuned for more information on that.

Scrapbooking 2 Days in a Row?!

2008-04-15T21:52:00.011-05:00

I have this softies book, by Therese Laskey, checked out from our local library. There are several really cute projects in this book that I want to make, two of them being the tooth and the tree on the front cover. The cupcake inside looks good enough to eat as well. I may have to purchase this for my craft book library.

We were back to scrapbooking this evening. Scrapbooking, let alone two days in a row, is somewhat out of the ordinary for me these days but then again, it's been awhile since I've done any and I like to change things up a lot so in all actuality this is probably not so unordinary for me. Lydia created two of her own pages while I decided to finish this 7x7 album I've been working on for her. It contains pictures from last summer and every picture is of Lydia with either mom, dad, or the both of us. Two things prompted me to make this. One, I noticed that a very outdated picture of the three of us was very important to her and realized it was really the only picture she had handy of the three of us. (It's in a frame and she keeps it under her pillow and takes it with her on sleepovers too.) Two, she loves to look through other albums I have made for her. I thought she would like to have a entire album containing pictures of just the three of us spending time together and so now she does. This size album will pack nicely in an overnight bag for when she sleeps over at auntie's house.
I can focus on starting that Disney album now.

Scrapbooking & Butterfly Nets

2008-04-14T22:02:00.006-05:00

Lydia helped me organize all of the photos we took while at Disneyland last month and I now have all the supplies I need to make an album of our trip, thanks to Sarah. I was going to get a start on it tonight but instead I helped Lydia create a page in her scrapbook and she did a great job as you can see! This was all after she rode her big girl bike with mom to the Little Plover River Park (which is a couple of blocks away) to do some "fishing" with her butterfly net (dad does not fish, can you tell?). She didn't have any luck catching fish with her butterfly net so she called Uncle Matt for some fishing pointers when we got home.

Crafty Books to Inspire

2008-04-12T22:34:00.006-05:00

I ordered these books this weekend and can't wait for them to arrive! They have received great reviews on Amazon.com and several blogs I follow. I will be sure to post the projects I make from these. So excited!

Birthday Girl

2008-04-12T20:20:00.003-05:00

Zoe is twelve today. We celebrated with a nice supper, peanut butter pup cups, spice cake with cream cheese frosting, and presents. Happy Birthday Zoe! We love you! Zoe is wearing her fancy shmancy bandanna that I embroidered especially for her last year.

Trashed Office

2008-04-11T19:19:00.005-05:00

This is my home office and no, I don't throw trash around if I am having a bad day. This is what my dogs do if I forget to shut my office door. I don't know for sure why they do this. My dogs are not puppies any longer, they are twelve years old. Scout has an attitude. I used to think it was him who was doing this to annoy me but one time after I had left the house and returned within a minute to grab something I had forgotten, I caught Zoe in the act of digging through my garbage can.

This is Zoe, she will be twelve tomorrow. Her dad makes her get this haircut every summer. She normally looks like this.

And this is Scout. These pictures of the dogs were taken on a vacation we took last summer to the Porcupine Mountains in Upper Michigan.

Creepy Crawly

2008-04-09T21:26:00.005-05:00

How do you like our new sunglasses?

Well, we had to give these glasses back after the movie. When we were at Disneyland we went to the It's a Bugs Life 3D show. It was pretty creepy because bugs were flying right at our faces. There was also something under our seats that when activated felt like bugs were crawling over our legs!

Look Mom No Training Wheels!

2008-04-08T21:39:00.007-05:00

Lydia and I went to a stamping class tonight and we each made 4 cards. She was so interested in what we were doing and had so much fun. I really enjoyed doing this with her because she enjoyed it so much. She is very proud of her cards too. She already has one written out for dad when he comes home from work tonight.

Lydia rode her bike on Sunday for the first time without training wheels. It was so cute and she was so proud. Two of our neighbors were over and after we were all watching her for quite awhile she got off of her bike, brought it close to us and asked who wanted to see her bike. We had all been "seeing" it for quite awhile and now we were all within 3 feet of her bike and could see it quite well but she wanted each of us to touch her bike. Shortly thereafter she asked (quite seriously) if any of us would like her autograph. So sweet!

Sparkly Card Swap

2008-04-06T11:07:00.007-05:00

I am part of a monthly card swap. The theme for this month is "sparkle". For this card I was inspired by a card in the latest issue of Paper Crafts (page 54). You can download the template for the bird and flourish from the Paper Crafts web site. Ken, Lydia, and I are going for a bike ride now to deliver these and they are ready to go...

Family Time + Crafting Time = A Great Day

2008-03-30T21:55:00.010-05:00

Today was a very nice day. We had a lot of family and crafting time. After a great sermon at church we had a nice brunch at Stone Crop Organics. If you live in the Plover area, I recommend it. The food is delicious. Today I also started and finished the baby blanket I blogged about here. I am happy with how it turned out. I would make another one of these. It's a good project for those of us who are beginner sewers.
I took a break after I had it cut out and we went to Emy J's for some coffee and a blue moon ice cream cone.
After Emy J's and some more visiting and hanging out around town we were back to crafting. Lydia had a lot (and I mean a lot) of fun breaking in our new Cuttlebug. She LOVES this thing.
and she created this beautiful hat.
Spring is upon us (although snow is expected tomorrow). Registration for the Cellcom Marathon is now open. The run is on May 18. I will be doing the 1/2 marathon. It should be a fun time. Several people from our church will be running this one and Dana will be running with me too. I need to take my running a little more seriously again and look into a training schedule to prepare for this half because the longest I have run since the marathon in October is probably 7 miles at one time. I am planning to do the Walk Wisconsin marathon on June 7 and I am considering another marathon in the fall.

What a Ride!

2008-03-28T22:39:00.005-05:00

Front row (left to right): Lydia, Me
Second row: Ken

While at Disneyland we rode Space Mountain three times. It was our favorite ride with California Screamin' a close second. I am framing this picture and plan to hang it somewhere in our house because it captures how much fun this vacation was. The week we spent in California was wonderful and I hope to go back again next year.

I worked on a 7x7 scrapbook this evening for Lydia (that I started in the fall). It captures a sprinkling of the fun times and special moments we had together, starting off with her kindergarten graduation going through the summer and ending up with her first day of first grade. I just have some journaling left to do on a handful of pages. I would like to do more of these because Lydia absolutely loves to look at the albums I have made for her.

If things go as planned, I should be a busy crafter tomorrow. It is nearly April and so that means I need to finish my March block of the month and pick up the April Block. I would also like to get started on the baby blanket I mentioned a couple posts back because the baby shower is not far off now. While it was very nice to get away for a vacation, I am looking forward to getting back to my craft projects.

Greetings from Disneyland

2008-03-19T14:33:00.004-05:00

We're in Huntington Beach right now having lunch. We are spending the day heading up Pacific Coast Hwy. We also plan to visit Universal Studios and Hollywood today after we stop at West Coast Choppers. Monday and Tuesday we spent at Disneyland. Tomorrow we will head back to California Adventure Park. We needed a day to rest our legs! Thanks for the comments on my blog. It is always nice to hear from you. We have had a hard time finding free WiFi so not sure when I'll be able to check in next. I have so many cool pictures, can't wait to share them.