First Pillowcase Project

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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?!

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

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

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

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.