Labor Day Weekend 2008

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.