Weekend Wrap Up

Long weekend, what with Thanksgiving and all. As previously mentioned, I ran the Homerun for the Homeless in Akron. 4 miles in 40F, rainy weather through a very hilly cemetery. I did okay, nothing that's going to break any records, that's for sure. But hey, at least I finished, right?

Between the run and Thanksgiving dinner at the in-laws, I whipped up another version of the Vogue 8597 shirt, this time in black poly-jersey stuff that I had in the stash.

The solution to the prior V8597 length has been settled for me by virtue of the washing machine. Apparently I hadn't pre-washed the fabric like I thought I did and it shrunk to shirt-length. Heh.


Friday was spent running around with my dad who is visiting from Georgia. We went to JoAnn's and he bought me a new dressform. Due to my diet / exercise, the dressform I have (had) is too big, so when I saw they were going to be half off on Black Friday, I actually braved the stores to get one. The surprise was when my dad whipped out his card to pay for it! Merry Christmas to me! We also went to the Village Discount Outlet and Goodwill, where I scored a pair of brand new w/tags Nike Dri-Fit running pants for $5 and Miss P got a few new books.

Saturday morning found me running a quick 3-mile neighborhood roundabout in 30F w/snow. That was fun. My splits showed that I actually ran the last mile faster than the first. Of course that could be because the last 150 yards or so are completely downhill to my house (which, conversely means the first 150 yards are completely uphill). Either way, I was happy with my run. After that I took Miss P to Music Together class, and then off to more shopping. Dad wanted to go to the giant Salvation Army down in North Canton, so I took him there. While he was busy buying whatever crap he buys, I had to entertain the girl. Which, honestly, not much fun in the Salvation Army. We had lunch at a yummy Mexican joint, P fell asleep on the way home and I was able to get 8 loads of laundry done. Man, that's a lot of laundry. Of course, it's my fault there was so much - I didn't do any last week. Oops.

Miss P did a little light reading in preparation for the sewing machine that she thinks Santa is going to bring her:

Sunday morning we had our ritualistic breakfast at CoCo's in Brecksville with Judi & Judi. We then went to Judi's so P could help her decorate one of the many Christmas trees that will make an appearance in Judi's house over the holiday season. I think that eventually there will be 13 trees in her house - one for each of the 12 Days of Christmas. She hosts an annual "12 Days of Christmas" party where we get together with 100 of our closest friends (snerk) and at 3pm we run from room to room, tree to tree, singing the 12 Days song. In the past couple of years the party has gotten so big that we pretty much just pick a tree and sing that particular Day when our turn arrives. It's a lot of fun.

Judi also decided to let P play with her makeup:

Cute, eh?

So that was my long weekend in a nutshell. Hubby got home yesterday afternoon from a three-day out. He's actually home all month (yay! he's home, boo! no paycheck!) until the week between Christmas & New Year. He's out the entire week and won't be home until the 2nd. I was hoping my dad would stay through the holiday, but I'm pretty sure he's going to bug out before then. He really doesn't like the cold. No matter that it really doesn't get cold until January here... damn southern blood.

Run, baby, run!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I just finished my first 4-Mile run - the Homerun for the Homeless through Glendale cemetery. Lots of hills. Heck of a workout, my friends, heck of a workout. But the fact is, I ran it in 50:05, meaning less than 13-min mile over hilly terrain! Go me! It was 40F and raining, but by the 2nd mile the weather didn't even bother me. Now off to enjoy a turkey day feast at my in-laws. Who wants to run a Jingle Bell run next weekend?

Sent from my iPhone

Pre-Thanksgiving Stuff

In honor of tomorrow's Thanksgiving feast, here's my list of things I'm thankful for:

* Miss P. She's awesome and funny and even though she's in the midst of the terrible threes (terrible twos have nothing on three), she's still the best thing that ever happened to me.
* Life is good. I have good health, my family has good health and all in all, everything is good.
* My father is visiting with us. He's a handful, but he's my dad and I love him. And I'm glad he made it up here for the holidays.
* I'm still employed. That's a big one.

There's many more, but I'm not that good at articulating stuff like this.

Yesterday's running recap: 40 minutes in the am, lunchtime run home. I recalculated the distance to the house from the office and it's 1.6 miles. Mostly uphill. I did it yesterday in 17 minutes with such a strong headwind that at times it seemed like I was running in place. Oy. Today is a rest day as I'm running a 4-miler tomorrow morning. Or maybe I'll do some time in the basement tonight before bed. Who knows.

Opinions needed - V8597. Do I keep it long, or do I cut it down?

 

I don't know... so far the votes have been split. some people like it long, some people like it short. I'm leaning towards short. 

A couple of past pieces.

As an introductory post to my sewing creations, here are some pictures:

My first sewing project, a FauxBBO Mei Tai carrier for my hubby:

A fancy silk ring sling that was a present for one of my agency's clients:

Miss P, modeling her "Genevieve (Choo Choo Soul)" Costume:

The very first pattern I ever followed. Boy was it a doozy. It was a vintage pattern that had NO markings on it. Just holes.

A shirt for my hubby:

And something more recent, a Belle dress for Miss P. (She's always asking for costumes. I indulge her.)

I don't have any projects currently on-deck. I have a bunch of patterns that I keep looking at in my stash that I really need to attack, including this one:

Vogue 8667.







On the running front: I ran 40 minutes this morning and if the weather holds, I will run home for lunch again today. It's only 1.5 miles, but it's mostly uphill, so it's a good, quick workout. If I were any kind of real runner, I'd probably run back, too. But then I'd be a sweaty mess all afternoon and we just can't have that, now can we. Question, though. The run up one street includes a sharp, but relatively short (maybe four blocks) incline. There's another way to go that includes a more gentle incline, but much longer (closer to 3/4 mile). Which would be better? Keep in mind at the end of the short incline, there's a long downhill stretch that leads to another hill. The long incline just leads to another incline. Hrmmm... What to do, what to do?

My reason for everything.

Welcome to my world.

A brief introduction:

Full-time worker bee, mom of one, part-time seamstress, and newbie to the world, nay, cult, of running.

I started running in August of this year doing the C25K app for the iPhone. Why did I start running? Because stupid me agreed, no, insisted on running the 3.5 mile leg of the Road Runner Akron Marathon. Yeah, that was stupid. Of course, I'm not a runner. Not even remotely. But gosh darnit, I was going to run and NOT embarrass myself. Yeah, not so much. I ran my 3.5 miler in 41 minutes. Boo! Hiss! Now I have something to prove to myself - that I'm not pathetic and can handle a stupid 3.5 mile run without having to walk. I haven't done it yet, but I will.

As for the Sew-N-Sew... I started sewing two years ago as a way to "save money" on baby carriers. See, I joined the cult of Babywearing when Miss P was six weeks old and within a couple of months I had spent way too much money buying new and different carriers. I didn't know how to sew, but I looked at what I bought and thought "hey, I can do this!" Untold gazillion dollars later, I'm no longer babywearing, but I am wearing clothes that I made. So is Miss P. So is the hubby, my friends, people I've never met, etc. So even though it's become an expensive* and time-consuming hobby, it's been good for me.

So on to the meat of why I want to do this blog: I need to be accountable to someone. Anyone other than myself. Here's where you come in. I need encouragement. In running, in sewing, in life in general.

Thanks for stopping by.

*by expensive, I mean I bought myself a stupid expensive ($2600) serger for my 40th birthday. Now that's an expensive hobby.