My 100 Mile Running Challenge

So my friend has been challenging herself to running 100 miles in a 1 month period.  I told her I needed something like that, and we can up with my 100 mile challenge.

I will run 100 miles before the marathon in May.  So basically 50 miles per month, which breaks down to about 2.5 miles 5 days a week. And I started yesterday with running 5.25 miles!!  Yay!  I can't believe it!

Follow my challenge by checking out my calendar on the side!

Happy trails!

Ash

Finally posting! Looong but eventful week

The past week was crazy, but very eventful as well.  Here are the highlights:

Monday - Saw a random giant stuffed bear on the hood of a postal van.  When I walked back by it was gone...but it made me stop and smile.  I didn't get a pic tho...

Monday eve- I volunteer with a environmentally mined political group and we interviewed some of the people who are running for our county's commission seat to see who we would endorse.  It is really interesting!

Tuesday eve - My honey bought me a dishwasher!  I have been wanting one forever and we had a little extra from taxes to buy one.  We got it at Best Buy - the people there were sooo nice and helpful (and we got points... :)  Here is the pic....

Wednesday eve - Went grocery shopping with my hubby and sister, and after got side-tracked and stopped by the Hollywood Video that is going out of biz.  I found (and am super excited about!!) the first 2 seasons of this show that I loved called "The Pretender" which premiered in 1996. 

Thursday eve- I went running with my friend and I managed to run the furthest I have so far....drumroll.....5.3 miles!!  I was sooo excited! (And so sore the next day!)

Friday - I came across another randomly placed stuffed animal.  Maybe it was just a coincidence....but I like to think that someone is placing stuffed animals around for people like me to come across. I got a pic of this one.  I love koalas!

Later Friday - I got the opportunity to speak on a panel about how to help the environmentally friendly elected official.  This was at a huge Enviro Law conference they do here.  It is always nerve-wracking for me to speak publicly, but I am always glad that I did (whether or not I think I sound awful :P )

Here I am on the panel.  Not the best pic, but I am the one with the animated arms and white shirt:

Even later Friday - Went out with friends, and had a blast!

Saturday - Went running with my friend again (this time slightly incapacitated due to the previous night's shenanigans) and was able to make it 5.25 miles.  Not too shabby!  And my friend and I came up with my challenge for running.  It will be in another post. 

The rest of the day on Saturday was spent enjoying the gorgeous weather.  I am pretty sure it should not have been as nice as it was in late February, (and they say climate change is a hoax...lol) but I took advantage of it.  I worked on getting my new garden bed set up (almost there) and on trying to tame the invasive species of blackberry brambles.  They tried to get the best of me, but I won!

Then we met back up with friends and went out on the town.  Had a great time and saw some other friends!

Today - I plan on installing my new dishwasher.  I bought myself a jigsaw yesterday (also very exciting to me) and can now install the dishwasher and work on other little projects.  Maybe I will finish the garden beds, too!

Enjoy your Sunday!

Ash

My new challenge-

So my friend has started running and she is loving it.  And now she has totally gotten me into it! I have almost no lung capacity (and no...I don't even smoke...it would be bad if I did!!) so it has been hard going, but I have decided that I am going to do the Eugene Marathon in May.  I will be doing the half marathon which is 13 miles. Below is a little video of the whole course.


Eugene Half Marathon Course 2010 from Brian Flindt on Vimeo.


So my goal is to just make it through this!  Eeeps!

Last night, my friend and I went running together and she is up to 5.5 miles without stopping.  I had been able to do 2 without stopping, but I am super stoked, last night I was able to go just about 3 miles, then walked for a bit and did one more.  This gives me hope that I can actually do this marathon!

Oh, and I forgot to mention that Ric, my hubby, will be doing it too!  But he will most likely ditch me...he is actually a runner, unlike me. :) He wants to push himself and see how good a score he can get.

Now all I need is to make a concrete training plan and stick to it.... Any ideas? :)

Ash

Finally! I have added our esty to my blog!

Hi Everyone! So I have finally added my etsy store's link to the blog.  My sister and I started working on recycled crafts a while ago, and we are now having fun with our etsy account and we also sell our goods at the local Saturday Market here in Eugene, Oregon.

We do a lot with bottle caps (my sister is the bottle cap queen and she makes awesome jewelry) and plastic bags. You'd be surprised, but VHS tape makes wonderful evening bags! I have been working on handmade stationary with my sister as well, and hope to have that in our shop soon, too.  We are always having fun looking for new ways to use the old stuff that is often thrown away.

Please check it out (it's in the sidebar) and let me know what you think!

My very first tutorial! My new felt wallet!

I am very excited to share with you my new felt wallet!  I think it came out great, and I even took enough photos to do my very first tutorial with you!

I started with all kinds of fun colors of felt.  I have been using the felt made from recycled plastic bottles, and it works fine for these types of projects.  Wool would work great, too.

First I cut out the 'outside' of the wallet.  I made mine 4 1/4  inches tall x 9 1/2 inches wide.

Then I cut the 'inner' piece which was smaller.  Mine measures 4 inches tall x 7 3/4 inches wide.

Then I cut out the card pockets.  At first I cut out 3 pockets per side (as you can see above) but then I realized that would make my wallet really fat.  So I paired it down.  The purple and yellow pockets below measure inches 3 inches tall x 3 1/2 inches wide and the smaller blue pockets are 2 1/4 tall x 3 1/2 wide.

Next I got out the fun colors of embroidery thread and started with the purple larger pocket.  I did a blanket stitch around the top and inner sides to finish the edges, then I used a card to measure how far I wanted my cards to sit in the pocket. I then did a quick running stitch across that measurement:

I then blanket stitched around the smaller blue pocket that layers on top of the purple pocket:

Since the bottom and sides are going to be stitched in with the rest of the wallet shortly, I left those unfinished for now.  I made the pockets stay securely tacking the pocket corners to the green 'inner' piece.

I did the same thing to the other pockets but opposite :)

And:

The right side of the 'inner' pieces needed to be finished, as well as the top and upper left side, so I sewed a blanket stitch (surprise!) around that, too:

I decided I wanted something on the face or 'outside' of the wallet, so I just did a basic heart with a cute little button:

And now it is time to blanket stitch them all together!  I have to admit that the bottom is a little thick, but it works:

And the inside:

Almost done!  Now we need some way to close it up.  I decided to to cut little circles out of the felt for the closure.  I cut 4 small circles about the size of a nickel, and then took 2 and used my favorite stitch to sew them together to make them thicker.

 And now we are ready to sew them on!  I folded my new wallet and sewed one onto the flap and one onto the mid but sorta left side of the folded wallet to allow for varying thicknesses (in case I have a bunch of money....hahaha).  I then used embroidery thread as my string to loop around in a figure 8, but you could use ribbon, etc.

And its done!  Here are a few more photos of the finished product:

Some more Valentine hearts

Here are a few more of the little V-Day hearts that I made.  I already gave a few to my friends.

I have been having so much fun with felt stuff!

Wondermark Comic Strip...totally me....

#595; In which All is safe

Click on the link above to check out this Wondermark strip.  I love them, and think everyone should check them out.

I think that my husband would argue that this is how I am.... lol I tend to be over paranoid and him not enough.... :)

Chickens!

I realized when I was visiting Lola Nova that I had not posted any photos of my chickens!  Here is a timeline of my girls...I love them!!

These were the girls as babies!  Sooo cute!

Here are some photos of me building the chicken coop :)

Teenage chickens watching me build their coop.

My dog, J.B., checking out the girls.

Two walls!

And two more!

Tada!  Well not totally done in this photo, but close.

The teens checking out their new home.

And a more recent photo of the girls. The yellow Buff Orpington) is B.W., the Rhode Island Red is Peeper Planes, and the Black Sex Link is Xiao Ting.

My dog is soo good.  He and the girls can hang out together. :D

Getting ready for the garden!

So I have vowed to have a real garden this year.  One, because it is so great to grow your own food.  Two, because I have said that I would do this for years, and this is the year I am going to follow through.  Three, my chickens give me manure and then they can have the scraps...it is an awesome cycle in which I benefit with eggs and produce!  And four, my husband is going to China for almost three months in the summer, and I will need something to keep me busy and my mind off of that!

So I decided to try and start some of the seeds inside.  I had bought a full spectrum light to help cheer me up during the gloomy, rainy Eugene winter, and it is now doubling as artificial sun for my new plants. :)

This is my seed spread before they started sprouting.  So far I have planted Brandywine heirloom tomatoes, Black heirloom tomatoes, yellow pear tomatoes, Gusto Purple hybrid hot pepper, Gourmet Sweet peppers, borage and Golden bantam corn.  

And here are my little sprouts! 

I am planning on starting my arugula, mustard, lettuce and spinach soon!

New felt crafts...

My sister's birthday was at the end of January, and I had gotten her some new water color pencils.  So I thought that I needed to make her a pencil holder.

Just a little basic robin bird...

I got this idea from the adorable little pouches that are on Paper and String's blog here.

Then I decided to make a little valentine heart.  It's simple, but I think its really cute. :)

New blogs and sites to check out-

So before I started this blog, I would go to blogs and sites and I would email myself notes on them...lol.  It made it somewhat more difficult to check back in with these sites.  BUT NOW....I can keep track of the ones I love here!

For instance...a while back I started to get really enthused with felt and found this blog:

http://feltorama.blogspot.com/

It then led me to all kinds of blogs from people who love felt.  It is soo much fun!

Also, a friend of mine has a blog called waxy pin that is great.  She has some great recipes and I am glad that I can follow what arts/crafts she is working on easier now!  Her site also turned me on to a site called SpoonFlower which is amazing....

Speaking of which,  I have recently found that I really like steampunk stuff.  It's a little funny, because my hubby tried to show me the steampunk stuff and I totally snubbed him.... Basically I told him it was silly.  Yet, little did I know, I was already looking at sites that had steampunk humor (like Wondermark, which I love!!) and I really do like it now.  So back to Spoonflower, they are having a contest this month for people to come up with fabric designs that are steampunk inspired.  I am trying to talk my sis into helping me do this....she is the serious artist (oh and her blog is HERE....) and I think it would be great fun!

Anyway, this is a very long winded way of saying...check out the new links!  Hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

How to Reuse Books (with pictures) - wikiHow

I really like this post. Here are some really cool ways to recycle old books into something really cool and new!

How to Reuse Books (with pictures) - wikiHow