Catch-Up, Week 1

Where do I begin?

Jason is camped out on the couch with three+ hours of motorcycle races ahead of him, so I have some guilt-free time to come downstairs and update the ol' blog. But as I sit here I wonder how I should go about encapsulating the last two weeks? To be honest, I had to scroll through the photos I've taken just to remember some of it! I guess I'll just start chronologically and see what I come up with! [If you follow me on Twitter/Facebook some of this will not be new news, but some of it will.]

Monday morning, June 15th, Jason left for work, not to return until that Thursday. John, being ever considerate, found someplace else to stay while Jason was gone. So I had four whole days to myself, woo hoo! :) All I had to do was hang out at home on Monday and Tuesday while some guys came to do some work in our attic to make our home more energy-efficient. I planned to spend the time in the basement, getting my studio in order and hopefully crafting.

And then the guys came, and asked me to show them the basement. Huh? Why? Apparently we were having some work done in our basement, too, as well as some other non-attic stuff I didn't know about. HOLD THE PHONE. I called Jason's cell, but he was in a cell-free zone... but I did have an "in case of emergency" number. So my first task (which I should have done before Jason left) was to determine what constituted an emergency... like, workmen are trying to hack up the drywall in my studio kind of an emergency, or I just got in a car accident and I'm in the back of an ambulance kind of emergency? Turns out it was the latter. So no talking to Jason.

I was pretty stinkin' sure that Jason did not know about the hacking-out-the-drywall-in-my-studio plans, because if he had he probably would have mentioned it. So then I called the guy we'd arranged all this with to ask what the heck was up. Is this what we'd agreed on? Is this included in what we'd put the partial payment down on? And he assured me that it was. So without being able to talk to Jason, and being told that this was part of what we'd paid for, I let them start in the basement. [Did you hear the da-da-duhn music in the background just then?]

First they had to clear a path around the wall of the basement. I was in the midst of arranging things, so I had piles of things scattered here, there, and everywhere. All of my recently-sorted piles got re-piled and moved around and it will probably take me a month to get things sorted out again. I'm so not exaggerating; it's a bigger mess than it's ever been (it's true, Katie!). Then they kind-of-sort-of covered everything in plastic sheeting. And then they cut 40 six-inch holes in my ceiling.

Here's a small portion of what the ceiling looked like Monday night. Sorry for the crappy picture, but you get the idea. [In case you're wondering the point of this hole-making, the energy audit guy had brought in an infrared camera and it showed heat escaping through the joists here at the basement ceiling/ground level. So they cut the holes and sprayed spray foam up there to insulate it. I understood that was suggested after our energy audit, I just didn't know "we'd" agreed to do it.] I was kind of disappointed that there were exactly 40 holes, because 40 just sounds like a number I made up to mean "a lot," doesn't it? But I actually counted them and there were 40.

Long story slightly shorter: Jason didn't know about it either. It was a huge miscommunication and I am in charge of the planning of expensive things from now on. It was a total stressor and it's caused me lots and lots of extra work, plus it ended up being a lot more expensive than we'd thought. We are looking on the bright side that our house is now so incredibly energy-efficient and I was reminded that I need to be in charge of the details of our financial decisions. Also, I have freshly-painted ceilings in my entire basement and first floor because the paint they got to paint over the holes they patched up didn't match and left a big ugly line, so they had to paint the whole ceiling instead. Whoops for them, hooray for me!

Wednesday started out a LOT better, especially considering it was Jason's birthday and I didn't get to spend it with him (remember last year's birthday post to him? It all still applies, and then some :)). First, I got an awesome invitation that I couldn't believe and I started to figure out how to make it happen. [More on that later.] Then I headed into Alexandria to go to a party on a boat! The Avon Walk staff throws a party every year for the super-star fundraisers and the super-active people who go to a lot of events before the walk (how I get invited). Last year it was a wine-tasting (and I won a one-hour massage)! This year it was on a boat. It was great talking to everyone, plus I won not one but two shirts! I spent most of my time chatting away instead of looking at the sights, but it was great to see this sculpture, called The Awakening:


It used to be in a different location and my aunt Susan took me to see it a couple times. Then they moved it, much to her chagrin, so it was a happy surprise to see it on our tour. :) It's hard to tell from this angle, but it's a huge sculpture that looks like the man is "awakening" and climbing out of the ground. Really cool.

On Thursday I cleaned the house, ran errands, worked on those aforementioned invite plans some more, and got straightened out at the chiropractor. I also finally got a photo of the geese who've been hanging around our neighborhood!


The babies are so big now that you almost can't tell them from the adults. Also, this is not my yard/house/car. Thank goodness. I hate goose poop. HATE. But they are cute waddling around in someone else's yard.

Jason came home on Thursday night and it was a mad dash to get him unpacked and then re-packed, because he was leaving again the next morning to drive to Georgia! His birthday present was a trip with his friends to a riding school on a track down there; his friend has a trailer so they loaded their bikes up and drove down together.

On Friday I drove up to Angela's Happy Stamper to take a class with Fred Mullett. I took the Elegant Mess class and it was quite fun. We spent too much time going over basic tasks (I don't need a 20-minute tutorial on how to turn a small piece of paper into a sticker using double-sided adhesive), but it was fun even if I didn't really learn anything of substance. For all my artsy friends (ie most of my blog readers), here are a few photos:


This is really thin Japanese paper that soaks up the Ranger Color Wash Dyes really well. I went to look at the package I bought so I could include the name of the paper on here, but all the writing on the package is in Japanese. :) He said it's used mainly to practice Japanese calligraphy if that helps. :) [Okay, I totally could not leave this hanging and did a Google search. It's called Washi, which, in Japanese, means "Japanese paper." Well, duh.]


We just sprayed different dyes in different areas using all sorts of masks and stencils. It was totally fun to just spray away with abandon and get all messy. I even had my neighbor take a photo of my hands so I could show Aimee 'cause she has the best messy-hands photo ever. My hands actually got A LOT messier than this, but by that point I didn't want to touch my camera. :)


After that dried we went back and added some Twinkling H2O's shimmery watercolors. We just splattered them on, or painted them onto rubber stamps and stamped with it (like the purple leaf below).


When it was all over we cut out small sections and pasted them onto pre-made cards. I want to do more of this fun messiness, but I will make other things than these cards, which I think are pretty (but kind of pretentious). I'm especially looking forward to making some of these sheets and then cutting out different shapes using my Silhouette!

When I got home I had a bit of awesome news waiting for me in my Inbox... my travel plans were coming together! When I wrote the Favorite {Photo} Friday post that night I was so happy I was jumping up and down, but I didn't want to jinx myself by talking about it until the plane tickets were booked. But they are now, so I can spill my excitement! :) Sweet Jilliene has been asking about it and now, dear lady, your wait is over! :)

Drumroll, please.... I'm going to CHA!!! Lori scored a floor pass and invited me to come down and spend the week with her since she lives in Orlando. So I e-mailed a few people "in the industry" and managed to score *myself* a floor pass, woo hoo! For those who don't know, the CHA--Craft and Hobby Association--trade shows are where all the top manufacturers debut all the new scrapbooking/crafting products they'll be releasing in the following months. ALL the Craft Goddesses (and Gods) are there. ALL the best manufacturers are there, showing the coolest new stuff before it's seen anywhere else. It's not open to the public. For as long as I've been crafting, I've wanted to go to CHA. And now I am!

As if that weren't cool enough, Lori was already signed up to take Donna's new class the weekend before CHA, and I got a spot in that class, too!

THEN, Lori mentioned that (OMG, I'm not worthy, I'm not worthy) TIM HOLTZ would be teaching a class about two hours away, but she thought it was already full. So I called up the store and talked to the nicest lady and guess what? Someone had *just called* to cancel two spots in the class. There was a wait list, I knew from the store blog, but apparently she didn't want to deal with calling people on the wait list so it was serendipitous that I called right at that moment. I know, I know, she should have called the people on the wait list first--but I didn't tell her what to do, and I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth! So we're signed up for that one, too! Stella took the class last month and loved it, so I'm super excited!

THEN, I e-mailed the lovely Claudine to tell her that I'd see her at CHA and was so excited... and she suggested that I get in her class at CHA. So I made another phone call (or did I send an e-mail? Anway...) and someone helped me out again and BAM! Lori and I are both taking that one, too! (Lori was already taking it but now I am, too.)

THEN, I booked my plane tickets using points from our credit card, which I consider to be like a mild form of MAGIC. You're telling me that I can use virtual "points" to buy actual, real-life, *things*? I swear, I never believe it until I actually land in the city for which I bought the ticket.

So our week will be thus: I arrive in Orlando on Friday (July 24), and we'll immediately drive from the airport over to the beach town where Tim's class will be. We'll stay the day and night there, then go to Tim's class on Saturday, spend the night again, and then drive back to Orlando to go to Donna's class on Sunday. On Monday we'll go to Claudine's class at CHA. CHA will be on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and then I fly back on Friday. (And then Saturday I fly out again to go visit my sister's family and go to my 15-year high school reunion, but that's another story for another time.) I'm SOOOOO excited!

The next week will have to wait 'til tomorrow, this is already sooooo long and I need to go spend some time with my Love! :)

Downtime.

Whatever part of my brain decided that it was reasonable for me to do the Avon Walk and Inspired back-to-back should be fired.

Both were amazing experiences, and each of them alone was enough to wear me out for two weeks at least.

I've been recovering all week, and my level of exhaustion is reminding me of the summer in college when I had mono; I'd wake up, lay around, eat something, and then have to take a nap. Then I'd take a shower and be so exhausted from the effort that I'd have to take another nap. Of course it hasn't been quite that bad, but I am tiiiiiiiiiiiiiired. I know that most of you Inspired ladies are so much better than me; you came back home and jumped back into life and are busy with 8 zillion things. La-tee-dah, of course you are! You are superwomen! But me? I am an introvert! I need me some serious downtime after two major events like this. And I am taking it.

Jason is gone this weekend at a motorcycle rally. When he told me that he was leaving straight from work on Thursday I nearly cried for joy--four whole days of the house to myself? The timing could not be better, I tell you!

I started out this morning by spreading out all the lovely things I bought at Inspired all over the entire living room floor and sat amongst them, admiring it all. I should have taken a picture. In fact, Stella even told me to take a picture, and I still forgot.

Anyway, my point is, I've been catching up on sleep and enjoying my downtime. But I thought I'd pop on here and post a couple of my favorite photos from the last couple of weekends.

Starting out the Avon Walk with Laura.


Forty miles later, finishing the Avon Walk with Laura and new friends Cindy and Sherri.


I'm so glad that everyone at Inspired had cameras and actually used them and are sharing photos, because I only took 79 photos all weekend and 10 of them are of a paint palette! Anyway, here I am at Inspired with some of my best friends: (from left back-ish) Deitra, Chiara, Jen, me, Katie, Lori, and then Aimee and Heather in the front. I love these ladies! Thanks for the photo, Zanne!


Jen and I in the Embassy Suites bathroom. :) Love this shot.


Love and miss you girls TONS! I'm saving my favorite photo for tomorrow since it will be Favorite {Photo} Friday. See you then!

Favorite {Photo} Friday #46--Avon Walk Weekend!

It's Walk Weekend!! This morning I ran around finishing packing and going to the chiropractor for a last-minute adjustment, and then my awesome aunt Susan came to pick me up. This afternoon I headed into D.C. for "Event Eve"... event check-in and vendor fair. I sold some jewelry and met some great people and got properly pumped up for this weekend! The excitement was palpable!

I turned in my donations and my total ended up being--GET THIS--$3964!!! Holy crap cow! I qualified for both the Champion Fundraiser workout hat (which I also got last year with my $2500 of donations) and the Fearless Fundraiser wicking sports shirt. GO ME! I'm so excited. A thousand thanks to everyone who donated to my walk!!

Now it's time for me to head off to bed since I have to wake up at--gulp gulp gasp--4:15 a.m.!! But I will leave you with another favorite photo from last year's walk.


I walked with Andrea last year and we had a great time! When we finished the entire walk we had a while until closing ceremonies so we headed over to a brew pub conveniently located across the street to reward ourselves for a job well done. Yes, I'm all sweaty and gross; but check out that dark beer---yummmmm. The memory of that beer, so good after being so hard-earned, makes this photo a favorite. And yes, I will be enjoying a good, dark beer after this year's walk, too! :)

Wish me luck and good weather!

Favorite {Photo} Friday #45--I Can Do It!

With only a week until the Avon Walk, and all my recent posts about it, if you read my post title I bet you're thinking that this will be about the Avon Walk, right? "I can do it! I can walk 39.3 miles in two days!"

Wrong. I mean, I can, and I will; I've trained and trained and "Walk Weekend" next weekend will be amazing, just like it was last year. But that's not what this post is about. This post is about ME getting back to the weight I want to be. I am soooo not there. But I WILL be!

I will tell you now--I am not all, "Woe is me!" Although I have felt that way a few damn times lately. Especially with the walk approaching and all the training I've been doing. I mean, if anything will make you feel like the pounds should be magically melting off, walking 22 miles will do that. When I arrive home I feel like I should suddenly slide into size six pants, I'm telling you. And everyone e-mailing me saying, "Wow, you must be in such great shape!" really makes a person think, "Yeah! I should be! I just walked 22 miles and then 10 miles! The weekend before I walked 20 miles and 9 miles! I must be in fantastic shape! So how come I'm not?!?!"

I can tell you one reason I'm not; I'm freaking hungry all the time. After I get home from my walks I eat and eat and eat and eat, and then the entire rest of the week I eat. I'm starving, and of course I feel like I should be able to eat anything I want, having just walked for six hours straight. Only I'm obviously not starving; after walking 22 miles on Sunday I weighed myself on Tuesday to discover that I had gained 4 pounds since Saturday. I know, I know, water retention, muscle gain, blah blah blah. But YOU walk 22 miles and then have your scale tell you that you gained four pounds in three days and THEN try to give me your logic. You will want to throw your scale out the window, I promise you.

But this started long before the Avon Walk training. It's been building up, as weight tends to--so very, very obnoxiously--do. I have a long list of excuses reasons, but suffice it to say that I got down to my goal weight in Italy (now that's a feat!) and maintained it for almost a year. [By goal weight I mean the weight at which I feel the healthiest and which is recommended for my height & age by medical professionals.] And then we traveled all over Eastern Europe and I wanted to try the food--gaining a few pounds wouldn't kill me, I could lose it again. And we were leaving Italy, so I had to soak up (and eat and drink up) all my favorite things for the last few months we were there. Then we went on a 12-day Eastern Mediterranean cruise; all the food is paid for on the ship, and off ship you have to try all the local cuisine! I can lose the few extra pounds once we get settled! Then we took about six months to find a house and get our stuff delivered, so I wasn't cooking much. [And of course it wasn't stressful at all to leave Italy and so many of our friends, move across an ocean, change Jason's career, and find and buy our first house in an area where we knew four people total. Not stressful at all.] And blah blah blah blah you get the idea. Suddenly I'm not fitting into any of my clothes, and I look at photos of myself like, "When the hell did my face get so ROUND?"

So here we are again, at "rock bottom." The place I was three years ago when I finally decided that enough is freakin' enough. I'm smart and I know how to fix this and it is absolutely ridiculous to not just put on my big girl panties and fix it. Say "No!" to Tostitos and queso and "Yes!" to weight training and running and celery. To live the mantra that my neighbor had on a sign in her kitchen when I was in fifth grade and cleaned her house for $6 every Friday afternoon (and could I find anyone to do that for ME now, please?): "Nothing tastes as good as being thin feels."

The only thing more stupid than allowing myself to slide back this far would be to try to start a new diet/lifestyle a week before the Avon Walk and then traveling to Inspired. I plan to do the South Beach Diet again because I read the book and understand why it works, and it worked for me last time and I was able to maintain my weight (until I threw everything I'd learned out the window, that is). And the first two weeks on the plan are hard. HARD. There's no way that I should attempt such a thing when I have any other stressors in my life. So I'm going to do it, but I'm going to start it when I get back from Inspired. That way when I'm cranky the only people around will be Jason and John. And they'll deserve it for one reason or another, anyway. :)

I know I can do it. I know I can get back to that elusive goal weight and/or fitting back into all my cute clothes. So I'm posting this photo on my fridge to remind me that I can get there again!


Our friend Shannon took this photo for us when we went on a little wine-tasting trip in Italy. I'd quite comfortably maintained my goal weight for about eight months at this point. Man I miss those jeans! And I loved that shirt. AND I think it's pathetic that when I look at this photo of us, standing in one of my most favorite places, in this gorgeous location, all I can think of is how small my waist used to be. ENOUGH of the obsession without action. I can do it!

A Few April Creations

I've been writing so many text-heavy posts lately that I thought I'd throw up an image-heavy post for a change with photos of some things I've been working on lately. :) Which I can DO since our big computer is back up with new photo-editing software (which I am slowly-but-surely getting used to!)!! Hooray!!!!

Here are some more charms I made for another swap with some Inspired ladies. (And oh my goodness I love my 50mm 1.4 fixed lens! Which I only used for this shot out of all of the ones that follow, for some reason; I need to play with it more.)


Another Inspired swap. This one is for art journal pages, designed for people to be able to draw and write on, focused on our personal One Little Words for 2009. It's hard to tell in the photo but the pattern is made by glimmery-inky spray (made by me) sprayed onto each page over a flower template (Maya Road Sheer Sheet). It's really shimmery in real life; see how there are variations of greens and yellows in the photo? Really it's just one color but the more yellowy parts are where it's reflecting the light more. Then I stamped my word on top.


I kind of wimped out on the back and did the definition on the printer instead of by hand, but as you may know I'm kind of anal precise about words and their definitions and I just imagined myself writing all this out 31 times and I almost passed out. So the printer won out, and then I stamped flowers in the top corner. Also, the outside edge is punched with a new EK Success mini scallop punch which is apparently so new that it's not even on the EK Success website until May 1 (as I found out when I tried to embed the link and there isn't one). Little did I know I'm such a trend-setter, ha ha! (The slimline punches are all AWESOME, by the way.)


Sweet, sweet Claudine lost her beloved adorable puppy Toby to cancer this past Thursday. Claudine was an instructor at Inspired last year and we've stayed in touch via Facebook and Twitter. (Yes, for real.) For the past few months I've been reading daily (and sometimes hourly) updates on Toby's status and was so, so sad for Claudine when she announced that he'd passed. She was so, so good to him and she is such an animal lover that I wanted to do something for her. This is a photo of Toby that's mounted in a sterling silver bezel setting and then covered in epoxy.


I gave this to her at the class Michelle and I took from her on Saturday but told her not to open it until she got home (she was doing a remarkable job--via avoidance--of staying upbeat and super-professional considering she lost her dog two days before!). I got an e-mail from her later saying that she loves it and was wearing it non-stop. Man-oh-man do I love to give gifts that touch people and that they enjoy.

Speaking of gifts, I've been busy fulfilling orders for Mother's Day. Here's one I just made (ordered by the grandma) for a mama with four kiddos. The crystals represent the kids' birthstones.


Here's another order for Mother's Day that my sweet friend Marliss ordered for her daughter. David is the husband/father and the three little hearts each bear the first initial of her triplets. (Triplets? Mamma mia!)


Remember when I had to get industrial? When I tried every-damn-thing and still couldn't fuse until I broke down and got propane? GUESS WHAT?!?! It was the stupid brick I was fusing on. Long dumb story, but I bought a new brick while I was in Seattle and now I am a fusing freaking expert. Okay, so maybe not expert. But holy crap, what a difference! I've been so busy I hadn't even had a chance to try fusing until this week and within a short time of using my new brick I'd made this sweet bracelet:


I freaking love it. I made it out of silver wire! It was a spool of silver wire and then a while later it was a bracelet! That's so freakin' cool. I put three little birds (which I did not make) on the end of it to remind me to not worry (if anyone knows why this is you get a prize. No, really, the first person to comment with the correct reason--and why they know it, and Google does not count--gets a prize!) but I'm going to have to take them off because they get caught on everything. Seriously. Today I was driving and when I went to click something on the GPS the birds got stuck in the air vent. The light was turning green and my right hand was stuck to the dashboard, which was a problem considering I drive a stick shift! I had to reach over with my left hand and unclasp the bracelet to change gears. So the birds are coming off. This is also a good reminder that I should personally field-test all my new designs before I sell them! :) But I still love the bracelet.

I took these last two photos while walking my 10-mile training walk on Tuesday. I love walking under these trees. I'm so tempted to bring a chair and a book and a glass of wine and set up camp under these trees!


I don't usually pick random people's flowers, but I must admit that on my way back home I snapped off one of these beauties.


They're this gorgeous for such a short time and I wanted to enjoy it fully. I kept smelling it and putting the blossom up against my cheek. Divine. Soft and fluttery against my cheek and all the more gorgeous for being so short-lived.

22 Miles of Tweets

The 22 miles yesterday was a LOT better than the 20 miles last week. I am worried about my hip problem since there is no jogging allowed during the Avon Walk. I'm crossing my fingers and praying that another visit to the chiropractor will fix me up. Rather than type out a huge long message like last week, here are all my recent tweets that have to do with my walk yesterday. [If you don't know about Twitter... oh, wait. Oprah signed up for Twitter so now everyone knows about it, right? Well, if not, learn about it here.]

Am not looking forward to walking 22 miles today. It is hard to get motivated to get ready.
9:55 AM Apr 19th from web

Heading out to walk 22 miles. May the force be with me.
12:36 PM Apr 19th from web

Mile 3.7. I just bought some Starburst and M&Ms to reward myself with throughout the walk. Very excited!
1:47 PM Apr 19th from txt

Mile 5.5 means I'm 1/4th done! My left hip is bothering me, I'm trying not to worry about it. Time for some M&Ms!
2:19 PM Apr 19th from txt

Just past 8.3 and stopping to stretch. My hip is really bothering me now. Jogged for a while 'cause it doesn't hurt then.
3:00 PM Apr 19th from txt

I might be the first person ever to JOG when the pain of WALKING gets to be too much, instead of the other way around. Almost to 11 miles!
3:36 PM Apr 19th from txt

13 miles! My hip is killing me and I'm jogging about half the time. Changed my socks. Listening to Mary J. Blige, aw yeah!
4:04 PM Apr 19th from txt

Mile 14. Stopped at 7-11. Wanted a slurpee. Got a gatorade and a banana instead.
4:31 PM Apr 19th from txt

16 miles down, 6 to go. Feeling good considering but could use a cheerleader... Please DM me or send an encouraging text to 571 225 4326 Thx
5:13 PM Apr 19th from txt

If I think too much about the reason I'm doing the Avon Walk and walking all these miles, I start to cry.
5:36 PM Apr 19th from txt

Back from 22 miles! Shoes off--no blisters!!,--beer poured, Chinese food ordered. Sooo happy to be done! Jason walked last 3.5 miles w/ me!
7:18 PM Apr 19th from web

I had Jason run to meet me and then walk back with me the last 3.5 miles of my 22 miles today. It wore him out so much he's already in bed!
about 23 hours ago from web

Just finished watching The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. Headed off to bed... after walking 22 miles today I'll sleep WELL tonight! :)
about 21 hours ago from web

Hobbling around today. I'm sore after my 22 miles yesterday! Can't figure out how to stream Netflix through the TV. Cranky.
about 10 hours ago from web

I should be walking 10 miles right now, but feel like taking a nap instead.
about 8 hours ago from web

I took a nap, and it was a great, great thing.
about 4 hours ago from web

20 + Wal-Mart Fundraising + 9

There's only three weeks until the Avon Walk; that means it's crunch time. I'm spending a lot (and sometimes A LOT) of time each day either training or fundraising. This past Friday I walked 20 miles. Saturday I spent much of the day standing in Wal-Mart asking for donations. Sunday I walked 9 miles. And today I spent hobbling around the house, sending out e-mails to just about everyone I know asking for donations, and then taking a hot, hot bath to sooth my aching, aching hips.

A lot of people have asked me questions about walking 20 miles. What's it like? How long does it take? So I thought I'd document it for posterity. You know, in case I get the crazy idea to do this walk again next year. :) This will be a long post without photos, sorry!

As I mentioned in my last post, I got a late start on Friday to head out for 20 miles. But I was happy to have my new pedometer watch and my new mp3 player loaded up with all the songs that had been on my old one (both of which went "missing" when my luggage was inspected by the TSA). I skipped my training walks the weekend before because we were at Wal-Mart fundraising Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. So I was making a big jump to walk 15 miles and 7 miles and then two weeks later walk 20 miles and 9 miles, but I really wanted to get back on track on the training schedule, so off I headed.

My route is really boring; I walk on the bike path that runs alongside a parkway, just down and back. There's not a lot to look at, but I can also just kind of zone out since I don't have to worry about making (or missing) any turns or putting my life on the line crossing big intersections full of cell-phone yakking drivers.

After my hectic week it was kind of nice to walk and only have to focus on the music and putting one foot in front of the other. I'm a math geek so I was happy to see that I'd calibrated my watch correctly so that when I reached crossroads that I knew to be a certain distance from home the watch said I'd gone that distance. And I was staying right at my normal pace of 4 miles per hour.

The first 10 miles were great. I felt good, my pace was good. At about mile 6 I had this weird experience where I suddenly felt in my body in a new way that I don't remember ever feeling last year during training. I felt strong and really tall, which is weird since I'm not really tall! I think it had something to do with my lower back being out of whack, so everything felt different than it usually does.

Two and a half hours after starting I got to the ten mile "marker." It's always good to hit the halfway point where I can turn around and start heading back home!

At mile 10.5 I had to cross the street so while I was waiting for the light to change I stretched a little and danced, I'm sure much to the amusement of the waiting cars. But it was The Ting Tings "Shut Up and Let Me Go," you can't not dance to that song, I'm telling you!

At mile 11 I stopped by the 7-11 to use the restroom and buy a LifeWater since I drank all of the water I brought with me. Then I ate the energy bar I'd brought.

By mile 12 I was getting tired. So when Destiny's Child "I'm a Survivor" came on, I sang along outloud, forced myself to keep my strides long, and then replayed it four times in a row.

By about mile 13 I was really thinking that walking 20 miles was a very, very bad idea. I just focused on getting through to mile 15, an easy marker since it's a bridge across a river.

At the river I realized that I was only 75% done and now I was really tired so the last 25% would be, by far, the hardest. The front of my shins were hurting, especially when I walked downhill. So I bent my knees and did a weird low walk to help ease it whenever I went downhill. I was still keeping up a pretty good pace, only about 30 seconds more per mile over the standard 15 minutes.

By mile 16 I was thinking of calling Jason to come and pick me up. The sun was going down, the clouds had rolled in, and I was hurting. I felt my face for some reason--maybe an itch--and it was gritty from the sweat that had dried on my skin. I made a mental note to put some wet-wipes in my bag next time.

When I got to mile 17 I decided to slow down--screw the 4 mph pace, I just wanted to walk the whole thing. About that time I felt that my sock was bunched up around my baby toe on my right foot. I knew I should stop and take off my shoe and readjust it, but I also knew that if I stopped and sat down I would not get back up, and I'd end up calling Jason and having him come pick me up. Momentum was the only thing keeping me going.

At mile 18 I had to cross a big intersection and go up and down curbs. My legs were so unreliable that I wobbled doing anything other than walking straight ahead. I imagined that people had driven out of town past me, ran errands for four hours, and then drove past me again on their way home, and I wondered what they would think I was doing!

I kept trying to keep my pace up, just so that I'd get home faster. If a song came on that wasn't one of the most high-energy songs I hit "next." A vision of the Soup Nazi came into my head: "No slow for you! Next!" Obviously, I was starting to hallucinate. :)

As I turned the corner onto our street I heard a motorcycle rev up and a second later Jason came around the bend. I can only imagine the look I gave him! I was thinking, "Where the hell do you think you're going? I'm going to need you in about two minutes to take care of me!" Apparently that was all written all over my face because he turned around as soon as he could and pulled up next to me. "I was coming to cheer you on! Good job, Baby!" :)

One of the neighbors was outside with his grandson, who was checking out Jason's motorcycle. I said hello and headed straight inside to hit the couch, but just before I went in the garage door I heard Jason tell him, "I have to go inside now to take care of her." The little boy must have asked why, because then Jason said, "Because I'm the husband!" Ha ha ha! Good answer. :)

I plopped on the couch, 5 hours and 11.5 minutes after I'd left. Jason brought me a good dark beer and a bottle of Advil. When I got up a while later to take a shower, I was really stiff and sore. Jason looked at me in wonder and said, "You're almost, like, totally broken."

I had a blister on my baby toe and also one on the back of my heel. After my shower I put on my favorite sock monkey pajamas (they're pink flannel!) and went back to the couch for the rest of the night. Jason and I watched Baby Mama, which was the perfect funny no-brainer.

****************************************

When my alarm went off on Saturday morning it was raining, which made it even harder to get out of bed than my sore legs did. But I got ready and headed back to Wal-Mart to fundraise with my team. Luckily they let us set up inside since it was raining, but it was really hard to stand on those hard floors all day! If I didn't move around enough my legs would stiffen up and I'd just about fall over if I tried to squat down to grab something, or move sideways to get out of someone's way. But we did pretty well and sold almost all of our little goodies we had for suggested donation amounts.

I still managed to run a few necessary errands on the way home and then once I'd been home and found a recipe online, to head back out to the grocery store for ingredients for a side dish for the next day. Jason didn't feel like eating the soup I'd made on Friday to get us through the weekend, and I didn't have the energy to argue with him, so I just asked him what he wanted from the store since I was going anyway. "Oh, I don't know, chicken strips from the deli, or sushi, or pizza...." I came home with six deviled eggs, six pieces of sushi, and boneless wings. This is the kind of thing that seems perfectly reasonable when you're completely exhausted. :)

****************************************

Getting out of bed on Sunday was a lot easier. I got up, cleaned the kitchen, boiled the potatoes I'd need later so they could cool while I walked, changed into my gear, and headed out. And I must say, I ROCKED the nine miles! I was still a little stiff and sore but loosened up through the walk and I kept my pace up and felt great! I finished up the side dish (red potato, asparagus, and artichoke salad), hopped in the shower and prettied myself up, and we headed over to Andrea and Scott's for an early Easter dinner.

My hips were really sore when I woke up on Monday, which is unusual for me, and I think is related to my lower back being out when I walked (time to head to the chiropractor!). What was really weird is that they didn't hurt when I was walking up or down the stairs, only when I was walking on flat ground. Weird. I took a long, long, hot, hot bath and that helped ease things.

This coming weekend I get to do it all over again, but with 22 miles + 10 miles. I'm trying not to think about it too much. :)

And if you think this post was long, try walking 20 miles. :)

Favorite {Photo} Friday #42--Avon Walk

I'm training and fundraising for the Avon Walk again this year, and I'm not going to lie to you: IT KINDA SUCKS. Walking 15 miles in the rain is not really fun. Asking my friends and relatives for donations is really hard for me (and really pushes my boundaries). Spending my weekends walking for hours upon hours (upon hours) and then standing in front of Wal-Mart with my teammates asking strangers for donations is not in the top ten of my list of Ways I'd Like to Spend a Weekend--it's not even in the top 25.

I did this walk last year, so I knew what I was getting myself into. So why am I doing this again?


This photo says it all; I took it during the walk last year. I just happened to be walking behind this lady and I couldn't resist taking a photo... I had tears in my eyes and I wanted to remember the moment. Breast cancer is still taking lives, so I'm going to spend my weekend walking in the rain and standing in front of Wal-Mart, asking for donations. Wish me luck.

Click here to visit my Avon Walk page and donate to my Avon Walk.

Click here to read about my walk last year.

Favorite {Photo} Friday #39--Sunglasses

Heya Friday, how the heck did you get here already?

This week was busy; I started my Avon Walk training, Verizon dug up our yard (and all the other yards on our street) to install Fios, I got my first jewelry order from Australia (!), I checked out the Pompeii exhibit at the National Gallery, and our computer started dying. I started a blog post about the Avon Walk training but then the computer gave a nasty "hard drive death is imminent" message and everything else kind of got postponed while we made sure everything was backed up. (Hopefully I'll post an Avon Walk update over the weekend.)

While I was out and about this week my beloved sunglasses died. They were just cheap things I picked up somewhere, but I've had them for who-knows-how-long and I loved them. The hinge broke and I'm taking it as a sign from the universe that I should start wearing some of the other dozen pairs of sunglasses I own. But before I do, here's my favorite photo of the sunglasses. Oh, I'm in there, too.


Daniele took this in Italy... we'd all come onto base for a Thunderbirds air show for the Fourth of July in 2007. He stole my camera and snapped away long enough that I'd stopped paying attention to him and trying to avoid the camera. :)


Oh, sunglasses, you've served me well and often, far and wide. I'll miss you!

LOTS up this weekend. LOTS. I need to do more Avon Walk training (hopefully 12 miles on Saturday and 6 miles Sunday); make 51 charms for a swap I'm in with the Inspired gang; scrapbook a couple pages for a gnome; get a bunch of packages prepped and sent; place a silver supply order (which means doing some inventory); compose and send out my first Avon Walk e-mail plea for pledges, which means I need to remind myself a hundred times that I am not asking for money for me, I'm asking for money for breast cancer research and programs; find another pair of those sunglasses I have around here somewhere; prepare my jewelry supplies for travel; and do enough laundry that I'll be able to pack a suitcase. Because on Tuesday I'm headed out to see one of my favorite people, Kellie, in one of my favorite places, Seattle!

Have a great weekend! :)

Favorite {Photo} Friday! #2

Stella is still doing Favorite {Photo} Friday and so am I!

I've been missing Italy a lot lately... it comes and goes in phases. Sometimes I can just cry if I think about it too much, and othertimes I'm just fine. I've felt crappy this week because of a pinched nerve in my neck that's caused pain and tiredness and crankiness a bunch of stuff I don't want to bore you with, so I think that's contributed to the general melancholy. Which I intend to kick outta here today, thank you very much!

Living an hour north of Venice was a dream. I hopped on the train and went down there more times than I could count. I have, literally, thousands of photos of Venice. But I chose this one today because of the sense of looking into the scene but not being part of it. {Hello, Symbolism, how are you?} I love how the photo is framed with the arch and the scrollwork iron gate at the bottom. I love that you can see the Basilica and also the campanile (bell tower), and of course the pigeons. I love, mostly, how it makes me feel. And to me, that's what Favorite {Photo} Friday is all about! :)

****************************************

Went to the Chiro yesterday and he fixed me up, but I'm still having some residual muscle crankiness. So I'm going to take it slowly today and, you know, not try to leap tall buildings in a single bound. I'm jaunting out to the Great American Scrapbook Convention, which may or may not be great--I'll be the judge of that and I'll let you know! :) Leaving my credit card at home and am seeking only inspiration this go-round.

Went to a special party for "Bonus Card" Avon Walk ladies last night, which was great fun. The Avon staffers were great--hi ladies!--and I got rave reviews on my book. I won an hour massage and brought home a huge hunk of cheese (literally, Manchego--they divvied up the leftovers!), and if that wasn't enough I also met a couple of fellow crafters. My kind of party! :)

Tomorrow we're joining Andrea and Scott for a baseball game--sweet! Besides doing the Avon Walk together, Andrea and I (and our husbands, obv) were in Italy together... so I imagine there will be some reminiscing going on, too. All in all, it should be a super weekend!

Happy Friday, y'all!

Outside of My Box

On Sunday I went and took a class with Carol Wingert! It was so fun!

When I first arrived at Scrapbooks Plus for the class, I put my bags down at a table and then went back into the main store to see what was new. When I came back to my seat I learned that by happenstance I was sitting next to another Inspired attendee! It was so fun to chat with her about the event--and how we're both going next year! Hi, Dolores! I didn't take any photos during the class because I was so focused on finishing, but Pam took a few and they're posted on Carol's blog here... you can even see me there, working away.

I "finished" the book in class, but it's meant to be a travel journal, so it won't be really finished until I travel somewhere and use it! [Plus, it's Carol's design and class and I didn't feel comfortable posting it in detail here.] So I decided that this type of book would be a great way to scrap my Avon Walk. It was such a big event for me and I really wanted to do something special to commemorate it; plus, there is a lot that I wanted to include and the pockets in this were just perfect!

So I grabbed up my bookmaking supplies and some pink cardstock, pink patterned paper, every pink embellishment from my stash that I could find, some pink ink and paints, some stamps, and a pink pen or four and got to work:

Everyone makes this much of a mess when they create, right? Now you can see why Jason gave me a studio downstairs so that this mess isn't always on the kitchen table! :)

Anyway, here's what came out of that mess (click on any of the photos to see them full-size):

This project is very outside of what has been (notice the past tense!) my very small, pretty, very neatly organized Box. Inspired and some of my friends have inspired me to try new and different things. Messy, lumpy, bumpy things. Which is kind of fun, especially when you "mess up" and can just blow it off as adding to the overall look. Like when I painted the Seven Gypsies photo turn and then promptly opened the book, smacking the cover onto the wet paint (see it there by the 39.3?). Anyway, this book is totally not anything I would have made before but I LOVE it!

Let's take a closer look, shall we? The main part of the book is constructed by gluing envelopes together in such a way as to make these honeycomb pockets:

Isn't that cool? There are five envelopes/pockets and a ribbon on each side to tie it all together.

In the first pocket is a card with my Avon Walk story from my Avon page.

On the back of this same card I'm going to put the photo from when I first signed up for the walk, but it's on the big back-up hard drive and I don't know how to get it off and printed, so it'll have to wait until Jason comes home. :)

In the second pocket is a mini-book that includes my entire training blog:

It was loooooong, so I formatted it in Word and printed it onto plain legal paper (which I then cut down into 6 x 12 sheets) and folded and pasted it into an 18-panel (yes, 18!) accordian book, then covered the end panels with cardstock covers for stability. This is the front cover and the back cover says, "Fear is a stupid reason to not do something good."

Of course I never would have included this in a "normal" scrapbook, but I really like re-reading it and remembering the preparation for the walk instead of just focusing on the walk itself; another reason I love this book!

In the third pocket is another mini-book about Event Eve, when we signed in and a few of us sold items to raise money for our walks:

I've had those Making Memories pink letter rub-ons for a zillion years and this is the first time I've ever used them. I'm surprised they still worked! :) The inside pages:

And the back cover:

Tell me, where is more appropriate for a Hiking for Headlights team dinner than Hooters?

The fourth pocket holds another single panel. Front:

...and back:

Inside the glassine envelope is a tag that "decodes" little Emma's message that she wrote on the participant columns, "Good job girls and some boys, too." So cute!

The fifth pocket holds my blog of Overwhelming Moments, another mini-book (pamphlet stitched):

It's stitched together on the side of the book, which is the bottom of the book in this photo. I used one of Sooz's punched tabs as a pull tab and added it to the bottom of the book (mainly because it was the only place where I could put it without it covering up some text). Thanks, Sooz! :) Your butterflies came in handy, too! :)

Re-reading this gets me choked up all over again!

But wait, we're not done there! The coolest thing is that this is a double book! Check it out:

The base of the book is a "Z" made by accordian-folded and -glued chipboard. The envelopes form one half of the book, but there's still "a-whole-nother" half! (Now would be a good time for a bathroom break if you need it, ha ha!)

Here's the back cover. Notice that the envelopes are now on the left spine:

Inside this half of the book I've stitched two folded sheets (making four sheets or eight pages front and back) directly to the chipboard in a pamphlet stitch.

Here's the inside back cover and the first page of the "pamphlet."

Those Terps for Ta-tas shirts were hilarious... especially the girl on the left because you can just barely see it under her other shirt... very funny. :) And on the other page is me and Andrea. This part of the book is pretty much chronological, so this is us starting out (with Starbucks!).

Pages 2 & 3:

I hand-wrote a lot in this book, because I spent so much time on the computer formatting that enormous 18-panel mini-book and the Overwhelming Moments mini-book that I didn't want to do all my journaling on the computer, too. I'm not super-crazy about my handwriting, but I think it's fine like this. I also didn't plan or plot out what I was going to write (like I usually do), I just went ahead and did it (gasp!). :)

Pages 4 & 5:

Our husbands came to one of the cheering stations to cheer us on. Jason's so cute! Mile 23 was a biggie for me because it's further than I ever walked before (in training I "only" got up to 22 miles).

Pages 6 & 7:

If I ever do this again I'm following Andrea's lead and wearing my sunglasses in every shot. :) This is the end of the first day, in which we walked an entire marathon (and then some), and the beginning of the second day. I love the vellum quote I found in an old DCWV Quote Stack, which I cut in half: "Take pride in how far you've come, have faith in how far you can go." How perfect for this occassion! I had really bad blisters so I was nervous about walking on Sunday; I definitely had to have faith that I would be able to make it!

Here is the end of the pamphlet and the "inside inside" cover:

The photo on the left still chokes me up, too! It was great making it to Mile 10 on Sunday because I knew that even though my feet and blisters were killing me I would make it from there on sheer determination alone!

I still had some photos I wanted to include at this point, so instead of just gluing stuff to the inside inside cover I made yet another accordian fold book and glued that down, giving me four extra panels! I wrote on the tab to "pull first lift second." So here it's pulled down:

And here it's lifted/flipped up:

Ooooh, that was a yummy beer. :)

Here is yet another sign that I'm outside my old box. Look at this "alligatoring"!

Whew! That was long! Thanks for sticking around this long if you're still here. :) I had a lot of fun making this book and I know I'll enjoy it for years and years, and it's encouraged me to make more lumpy, bumpy, messy, fun projects (and use up even more of my stash)! :)