to do, or, procrastinating just a bit longer

I've been hard at work on my To Do list today, which is to say that I'm not actually doing anything. I feel productive, because look! A list! Of Things To Do! But what am I actually doing? Uploading photos onto Flickr, reading teh internets, and posting to my blog. I think it goes without saying that I am still in my pajamas, too.

Things on the To Do List:
-Clean the entire downstairs. There are actually 11 points detailing this, but it is essentially: the downstairs is a wreck (I have been gone for a week, left in a shambles when I hurriedly packed before my trip)

Okay, that is really all that's on the To Do List. So instead of mopping the floor, I made a Crafting To Do List too!

• Finish Elbac (not pictureD)- I am about 1/3 of the way through, thanks to four hours on a plane last week.
• Work on my Crafting binder (on my 101 Things list)- I've been printing out or copying projects and ideas for a few weeks. I put them in plastic sleeves rescued from the trash bin at work, and an old binder I found in a drawer here. I also need to make a cover for it.
  
• Sew a dress (also on 101 Things)- from a pattern I bought last year at this time. Maybe this year I'll buy the fabric and next spring actually make it! Ha!
  
• Butterfly collage inspired by Ali Edwards and craftster
• Hoop circles inspired by The Purl Bee. I found most of the circles at the thrift store near my house, although they also seem to be VERY inexpensive at Michael's and Hobby Lobby. I probably paid about the same price.
  
• Wooden Christmas Tree inspired by the ones in this C&B catalog (although it's not actually IN this catalog, just on the cover?). Red and flocked in the photo, mine will probably be a white/blue/green color, though I would love to try flocking some day.
  

new blog love

I've taken several days off from blogging daily since I finished my 101 Things goal to post daily for the month of October. It was a great exercise, but difficult to come up with something useful every single day, especially as my day job was busy, I was training for my marathon, and was trying to get those baby blankets finished (result: still only ONE done). I'll try to post more often, instead of once every quarter like I was!!

Blogging daily has also forced me to find new and different blogs in an effort to find inspiration and new craft projects. I've realized that a lot of crafty projects by crafty people are created out of necessity- a need for a themed baby blanket, a need for a certain knit hat, a need for a child's costume. I don't have children (Bristow would eat anything I made anyway!), so it's hard for me to craft original projects because there are very few things I need around the house that I can make. Except clothes, but the baby blanket project taught me I'm a crap seamstress (I wrote "crap sewer" first, but thing it looks like soo-er, not so-er. ha!).

I've stumbled upon a few different blogs lately:
One Pearl Button- I think I found her through CraftZine but now I can't find the link
-Sweater Cloche and Gloves- she remakes the cutest things with old sweaters. I want to start knitting and sewing more now!

Zakka Life- I've found this previously a few times, but am loving some of her older projects (or, okay, ALL of her projects). I'm sad we don't have cute Japanese stuff in my town.
-Christmas Star Wreath
-Christmas Card Luminaries, which would be great for using up the hundreds of leftover xmas cards I have from last year's projects
-Vase made out of recycled bottles

Crockpot 365- I've been reading a lot of coupon clipping sites lately, and one of them linked to her. She's gluten-free AND is making a new slow cook recipe every day. Insane! But she has some delicious ones I want to try!!
-Like this Autumn Sausage Rice Casserole. Must have. NOW.

i say goodbye, you say hello

Say goodbye to this little guy! I found him running in traffic last week, but found him a new and loving forever home this weekend.



Bristow was both a huge fan and not a fan of the little guy (whom I referred to as "Lil Dude" or "New Puppy" so as to not get too attached)- he went straight for Bristow's favorites toys and bed when he came inside. On the other hand, they played tug of war for hours!



I'm also marking "get a dog" off my 101 Things list. I seriously considered keeping the little guy, since he just wants to love and cuddle with you- things Bristow is rarely a fan of. But Bristow kept tripping over him every step of the way, and it's not fair to him to have to constantly jump around to avoid stepping on another dog. There was also the issue of not being housebroken, although I'm told that he has no problems with that in his new house. But in the end, I realized that I am not fully ready for another crazy pants dog, especially not a young puppy. And if I do get one, he/she needs to be closer to Bristow's size for more equitable roughhousing!

now i'm a marathoner

Yesterday, I finished my first (and probably only) marathon. It was far and away the hardest thing I've ever done. It was wildly painful and not at all fun. But, I finished and I'm so proud of myself. I definitely wanted to quit before mile 5- that's when I knew it would be a loooong morning. Two weeks ago I had a PR at the Indy Half Marathon, but yesterday was nowhere near record pace. I was feeling it before mile 5, my calves and hips started to hurt before mile 9, and by mile 15 I had blisters in some painful places.

My spirits were buoyed by my family and friends who came out to support me: my sister came home a day early to surprise me; a former running buddy flew home from California to surprise our running group; my co-workers made a sign and cheered me on in Broad Ripple; another running buddy who jogged with us at different points in the race; a friend, her husband and new baby on Meridian Street; another co-worker and his son near Crown Hill; and my mom, dad, and sister at 38th Street.

Now I can mark another item off my 101 Things List. It was my original goal to run a marathon by the time I was 25, but three years ago I had some back injuries and a big weight gain to overcome. Thanks to a lot of miles, several massages, no small amount of anti-inflammatories, ice packs, an AWESOME running group, and two cortisone shots later, I achieved my goal. I certainly was not the fastest out there. I was actually among the slowest, but I finished with a respectable average of a 12-minute-mile.

happy halloween!

I won our office's Halloween costume contest :) I've been doling out finger guns ALL day. Plus, since I won, I get to mark that off my 101 Things list too!

one and done

If you are my real life friend and just had a baby, close your eyes and leave right now! Your husband is bringing you this gift tonight :)
I finally finally finished one of my three in-progress baby quilts. And not even the one I was working on earlier this week. This is a baby quilt I started working on back in September, although I saw the fabric back in March. I based the blanket off of an idea in Last Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts- "Follow the Lines."


I didn't quilt nearly as much as that quilt called for, but I started in the middle by outlining every third or fourth animal, spreading outwards towards the edges. This way there would be no bunching or wrinkled fabric.


The fabric is Alexander Henry 2D Zoo in the blue colorway, and it's for a lucky baby boy! I bought flannel backing from JoAnn's, and regular blue double-fold bias tape for the edges, which I zig-zagged on.


The outline stitching did indeed take forever, but I made double use of my time by watching Season 1 of Mad Men (although the beautiful sets and costumes made it hard to focus on sewing). Last night I watched an episode of Samantha Who, The Daily Show, and two of Colbert Report while finishing and then re-fixing the bias tape.

I'm very proud of this blanket. The sewing might not be the best ever, but I love love love the fabric and hope that his (super cool) parents like it too!

dia de los muertos

I was at the Indianapolis Art Center last week for my running club, and took several pictures of their Dia de los Muertos/Day of the Dead exhibit. I loved their decorations, including those made by local school children. Then, last night at the Dollar Store, in search of a flag lapel pin for my Halloween costume (which I cannot find ANYWHERE), I found these:

Felt shapes, five for a dollar, in bright colors. It reminded me of this:

I love the bright shapes and different sizes of the felt shapes. Plus, I can use them again for birthdays or come springtime! I'm going to join them with a needle and thread, strung through the tops of all of the shapes, and hung from my stairway.


ETA: The Felt Mouse had a similar idea, and added fabric skull accents too. Too cute!

101 Things Update

An update on my 101 Things list:

100% completed:
#40. Vote in 2008 elections (10/27/08)
#42. See Broadway/musical show (Avenue Q- 10/16/08)

In progress:
#1. Post on my blogs every day for a month (28/31)
#17, 18, 19. Pay down three debts
#5. Make extra cards for my stash (2/20)
#31. Send 10 Thank you cards (1/10)
#22. Put $5 for every task completed (3/101, I went ahead and put my marathon money in while I was at it)
#32. Send special cards to my mom 30 times (1/30)
#34. Freerice.com- (17140/1000000)
#36. Donate 100 things to goodwill (30+/100)

I'm currently working on several thank you cards, but I need more tape, and stamps!! I also started to clean out the closet but it's nowhere near done. My sister MIGHT move back in with me; we'll see, but that will move up some of the painting stuff if I can get her to help. Oh, and my mom picked four pictures for my living room frames one day while she was at my house, so I could technically cross that off my list. But I'm not convinced that those are the four photos I want to keep. I'll be able to mark off some of them soon- like my marathon. T-minus four days!!!

i voted!

I can cross a second thing off my 101 Things List- I voted early! There was a line at the building, but it moved very quickly. So that's it! Next Tuesday I can sit back and relax...and watch the results roll in!

in progress pictures

I figured out bias-tape binding, for the most part. Let me start by saying that making your own bias-tape? SO NOT WORTH IT. Even if it does coordinate with the fabric, it took two hours to make. And it's still not even. Do you know how much it sells for at Jo-Ann? Like two bucks.

I used a tutorial to cut one long continuous strip of bias tape. I'd say it was easier than cutting each strip individually and then trying to sew them all together, but it wasn't easy. I also had problems seeing my lines on the fabric, even with yellow colored pencil (busting out the art supplies!). When it came time to put the tube together, I had to just hope that the lines would line up after I sewed it. They did, but they were just a wee bit off. That made my strips a bit uneven, which I could have fixed but I was not in the mood.

I used the needle-method to fold my bias tape. It's easier if you think of the needle only as a guide- you still need to fold the fabric to the middle, but the needle is there to help hold it while you iron it. I was expecting it to just magically fold my bias tape for me. Sadly, this was not the case.

I still have to sew the bias tape onto the back, but this is roughly what it looks like. Please ignore the dangling threads!

so close

I was so highly productive today...but I didn't quite get everything accomplished. I:
-donated blood (1/8th of my way to a 101 Things goal)
-ran a bajillion errands, including buying two new shirts for work- one a Colts Jersey on clearance at Marshall's for $15! SCORE!)
-picked up a new wooden Christmas tree cutout to paint, since the dog ate my last one
-signed up at postcrossing
-watched Iron Man
-watched Jane Austen Book Club, and now I need to read Pride and Prejudice again
-quilted the top of the pink/brown baby quilt- simple but completed!
-painted the tree's first few coats
-began making bias tape with my new bias tape doomaflager, only to discover it's not very wide and not very straight
-found this tutorial instead and will have to try it tomorrow. How wide should bias tape be??

not much to say today

Notice I am typing and surfing the internets instead of working on my quilts. I started machine quilting the pink quilt I'm working on and blah. I hate the pink thread, but my brown thread has been chewed on by Bristow (Surprise!). I could work on the binding for the blue one or the piecing for the other blue one, but I just have no motivation. I should have just bought them some books instead :) I did finish the wordle cards for some other baby gifts, so at least I finished one thing today. Sigh...I'd much rather curl up under my blanket and watch Iron Man or Mad Men. :)

PR but not Project Runway

That's as in "Personal Record," which I set for myself today by running the Indianapolis Half Marathon in 2:11:56! My previous best time was 2:14:57 in the Philadelphia Distance Run four years ago. I beat my time for the same race last year by six minutes. Last year's race was about 75 degrees and I was boiling. Today was in the low 60s, but warm enough to run in just a tank.

I know that two hours-eleven minutes is not a great time by any means. The marathon winner crossed only about ten minutes after me, and he ran TWICE the distance I did! But I'm very proud today because I've been battling injured feet for several months now, and even though I'm training for a marathon, I can only handle running about twice a week. The rest of my training is in cross training, swimming, weight lifting and sitting on the couch...I mean...okay, sitting on the couch. Not only that, but there is a huge hill at mile 10.8. Last year, I was cruising along at a sub-10 minute mile pace until I hit the hill, and I actually cried, it was so hard. This year, we've run a few training runs up the same hill (it's actually hillS, three biggies in a row) so I felt prepared. It was definitely still difficult, since we were running about two minutes a mile faster than we have been training, but I made it up running, not walking. You could tell who had trained and who hadn't; my running buddy and I were chanting, "We heart hills!" to motivate ourselves, while others walked up the hill shooting us daggers.



So all in all, a great day!

Marathon: t-minus 13 days!

i'm finally catching up

So I just figured out how to edit photos on Flickr- through Picnik, and I spent all day doing it. I'm sure this is old news to, umm, everyone else on teh internets, but I think it's just swell!

I loooved the Lomo and Holga filters (of course!) but as they costed extra, I instead used the boost filter with a vignette over it. Love it!

I'm totally in love with the saturated colors I can add to my photos now- can't wait to print these out for cards or for the hallway or something.

look what i found!

Yesterday, I was surfing along through some design blogs and I re-stumbled upon Hula Seventy. I followed her blog for a long time and somehow meandered away from it. I love her photographs, the colors, the saturation. She had posted some beautiful, Holga/Diana-like photographs taken for the "Through the Viewfinder" project. She listed a very helpful tutorial the other day on the project, which made me want to take my own TtV photos. Through the Viewfinder (TtV) involves two cameras: an old-timey camera with a bubble viewfinder, and a newer digital or film camera. You align the newer camera's lens to shoot through the viewfinder of the old camera. The result is a slightly distorted, but entirely charming, photo of your subject.

I started to look on eBay for old cameras- a Kodak Duaflex is the preferred camera, because of its wide availability, inexpensive cost, and large pop-up viewfinder. There were a few up for auction, but even with shipping it would have been $20- too much to spend on yet another craft project!

Last night I went home to watch Project Runway with my mom, and lo and behold! My mom has my grandfather's old cameras in the basement- and one is a Kodak Duaflex! Complete and utter SCORE. She said I could borrow them for my project, so immediately I took an old cardboard box to make the contraption to block out any additional light. I only got a few pictures shot before Runway started, but I'm excited to try out Through the Viewfinder on my own now. I'm very, very excited about this project...I've been wanting a Diana+ or a Holga film camera for over a year now, but I never win the eBay auctions. I love that ethereal, old-fashioned look of the photos. I can't wait to start taking my own photos!

My first shot- the kitchen at my parents' house

blog action day

I was surfing through my RSS feed, which includes a lot of personal finance blogs, when I ran across FiveCentNickel's post on Blog Action Day. This year's focus is on poverty, as they say, "By all posting on the same day we aim to change the conversation that day, to raise awareness, start a global discussion and add momentum to an important cause."

One of the ways they suggest combatting poverty is a micro-finance loan through a microlending site such as Kiva. I recently scrapped my Citibank credit cards in favor of a Kiva.org credit card. Not only did it have 15 months at 0% interest, it supports giving small loans to entrepreneurs in developing countries.

Right now, I don't have a lot of extra money to donate to a food bank or other organization, but I do have a lot of free time. I play FreeRice.com in my free time (it's one of my 101 Things to do), and BlueSky mentioned the other day that AidToChildren.com is another great way to raise money to feed children by learning vocabulary words.

Another website I actively follow (and it's on my sidebar), is One.Org, committed to reducing poverty around the globe. I don't see that they are participating in Blog Action Day, but they have a lot of initiatives right now because of the upcoming election.

the general idea

I made yet another trip to the fabric store for these baby quilts I'm making. I have lost track of how many trips/yards/patterns I've purchased. I had three rows pieced together for J's quilt, and yesterday when I ironed it, I realized I hated it. I'm not very good at combining patterns. So I'm on version B now!

pink gone wrong:


what's with all the purple?

I blog gluten-free

Three years ago, I went to an allergist to see if I was allergic to anything. I knew I was mildly allergic to cats, but never had any other allergies growing up. They did the skin prick test and OMG the itching. I was diagnosed with a severe allergy to raw eggs, and mild to moderate allergies to everything else except ham, peas, and dogs. I was prescribed several allergy medicines, took the shots, everything. But the reason I went in in the first place- inexplicable hives- never went away.


One year ago, I went into my osteopathic/holistic doctor for a checkup. I mentioned that my stomach was always upset, I had these hives, I felt like crap, and I couldn't lose weight. He looked at me, paused, and said (duh) you're gluten intolerant! Stop eating wheat, you'll feel better instantly. He gave me a 30 day trial, and sure enough, I felt better the next day. I lost about eight pounds the first week, and my stomach issues and hives went away. I happened to see my allergist shortly after, and he said there was no way I was allergic to wheat, it didn't come up in the tests. Whatever, doc, but it's working.

Giving up wheat has not been nearly as hard as I imagined. It was tough at first- giving up Christmas then Girl Scout cookies, skipping beer and pizza after work, living on rice for the first few months. But it's actually really easy. I found a few good food blogs and resources, and I learned quickly what to avoid on labels. I cheat a little, of course. Beer doesn't bother me nearly as much as liquor does, a cookie here and there only makes me feel like crap for a day, and once every six months I have some pizza.

When my best friend was diagnosed gluten-intolerant about six months before me, I had barely even heard of gluten. I had no idea what contained wheat; I'm a crappy cook so I didn't know what kind of ingredients went into the things I was eating. IT seemed unfathomable to have to give it up- it's everywhere! But since then, it's gotten easier, and more and more people understand what I mean when I say I don't eat wheat. Yesterday, I was at a wedding and didn't get a slice of cake. My friends at my table asked if I was just being good (I'm also training for a marathon), or if I didn't like cake. I simply said, I don't eat wheat, and they all understood. It's surprising how many people are celiacs or have a gluten-intolerance now.

Some of my staple foods:
-candy. I had an immediate craving for chocolate after I went GF (gluten-free). It was a little out of control, even. A poster on the gluten-free forums mentioned that he had a similar problem, but magnesium supplements helped curb it.
-rice cakes with peanut butter
-brown rice
-corn chips and salsa
-fresh fruits and veggies to snack on
-Luna or Lara bars

Favorite blogs
-Karina's Kitchen
-Celiac.com
-Gluten-Free Forums

twilight

I just finished reading all four of the Twilight books this week. I liked the first three, am still undecided on the fourth. But I ran across this photo on GoFugYourself today, and laughed b/c it linked back to a post I read long before I read the Twilight books, but I have to agree. I don't get that Edward is super hot here! Wtf.

a little bit a day adds up

That is one of the underlying themes of my 101 Things list. A lot of my goals involve a little bit of something every day, building up over time. Paying off debt, donating rice on FreeRice.com, reading the classic books, making extra thank you cards, etc.

One problem I run into is that I can't do a lot of those things at work, in my downtime at lunch, or while I'm traveling. It's kind of hard to pack my sewing machine while I'm away for a weekend, you know? But, I recently re-discovered DailyLit, where you can read books via email or RSS. It's great- you just pick a book, how many chapters you want to receive a day, and they automatically email it to you every day at a specified time. I read all of Cory Doctorow's Little Brother this way- in one day! Once you finish a section, you can opt to have the next section sent automatically. It's addicting!!

The selection doesn't include a lot of new releases- it does include some for a small fee, but the bulk of the offerings are older books no longer under copyright. This fits in well with my Big Read List, since a lot of those books are classics.

I like saving up a week's worth of emails to read in one sitting- right now I'm working on Middlemarch.