Glow 5k race, graduation, and summer time...

It’s been a while since I’ve updated my blog. A lot has been going on. I’ll try to cover it all as concisely as possible.

I did a night Glow 5k trail raise back in my home town. I got my friend Stephanie to run it and my parents to watch it. Neighbor Bob (Stephanie’s dad) came to support us.  We decked ourselves out in bright colors, head lamps, and lots of glow sticks.  It was a really fun race to be a part of. It started at 8:30pm and was completely dark by the end. There was 403 runners/walkers total.  I placed 15th overall. My time was 24:36. I placed 1st in my age group 30-39 and got a cool trophy.  The only disappointment is I later read the trophy and they gave me the male 1st place trophy for my age group. ;(

The next day I headed back up to Rochester and threw an impromptu fire pit party that night. The weather was sooo beautiful and perfect for a cook out.  21 of my closest friends from all parts of my life got together and brought a dish to pass including smore making goods!  We played bocci ball until dark then got the fire going and made some smores. Oh, and we even did sparklers!!! It was an awesome time!! I have such wonderful friends.

Since then I’ve been busy with the HESAA graduation dinner and award ceremony where I along with two other classmates were chosen to graduate with distinction.  That same day I took my student worker who turned 21 for froyo and we biked a total of 8 miles along the canal to Bushnel’s Basin in Perrinton. A co-worker came along and it made for a fun time. We tried to be good samaritans and help a woman out who had dumped herself and her kayak in the canal. We attempted to bike and carry the kayak all the way to the parking lot. We did pretty good until my colleague turned right before saying he was turning right! Yep- you guessed it. The kayak was on the left side, cut across in front of my tire and I went over the side of the bike and the kayak landing on the pavement. Not fun! Hurt pretty bad and I was sore all over the next day but I survived and did a good deed. Now that’s called “paying it forward”!

I’ve spent the past week running along the lake and my neighborhood streets taking in the great weather and eating ice cream almost daily. I was lucky enough to spend Mother’s Day with my family and celebrate my grandma’s 87th birthday with her (with a lovely piece of cake I got her from Savoia’s). And I got to meet up with my undergrad college roommate/friend and her second baby boy who is now 3 months old.

My chaotic crazy life continues…coming up:

• Blues Travelers this Wed. at the Lilac Festival
• Movie with friends
• a Nighthawks game
• New Mexico and Thailand 3 week adventure 

Recycled Art

I found one last piece of wood/artwork left over from the Bike MS fundraiser I did back in August/September 2014. Some how (perhaps due to my lack of care) the adhesive photographed began to wrinkle. I was able to tear it off and reuse the beautiful piece of wood block I had created.

I'd been trying to think of a piece of artwork that I could create in a short amount of time that I could include in a gift basket for my Art Therapy Intern as she has been closely with me for the past year and is getting ready to complete her internship.  I felt that most of the time I was the only person in our office to truly value the effort and handwork she put into helping our Center out and I wanted to create a unique thank you gift.  I'm putting a basket together with things to remind her of this internship and our quirky staff.

I ended up painting a sunrise/or sunset (however you choose to perceive it) on the recycled block of wood. I put "Live Simply" on the art piece as it not only reminded me of my intern and her wonderful idea of life.  Once I put the acrylic sealer on the piece it really perked up and turned out beautifully!

It's about that time...

Life has been speeding by and it's been hard to keep pace.  I'm overly excited that the weather has finally improved and it's staying lighter out until past 8pm now!! Woohoo... it's a natural motivator to get out hibernation and be active. I've already started running more, but of course I'm already eating ice cream more (daily for the past 5 days)!

Here is what else is new...
1. Graduation for my second Masters is very near. I turned in my thesis and gave my final presentation! So thankful that is over with.  I was asked by my presenters to present in CARS (Creative Activities Research Showcase) that is held before graduation. Any student undergrad/grad can submit an application to present a poster presentation based on research they have conducted. You have to have the support and backing of at least one faculty member.  This was the first year they gave awards and to my utter and complete shock I won 1st place! Since, I honestly dreaded this extra work on my plate and gave forth minimal effort I was very surprised to have won. I will say that in the end it was a positive and worthwhile event. While standing there articulating to the judges my research and the results I realized how far I've come as a professional in the field. I'm pretty pleased and proud of the work I've overall put into the thesis.  It doesn't hurt that I won $100 for CARS though I must say I deserved that $100 simply because I wore pantyhose, heels, a dress and stood for 3 hours!

2.  In other adventures I've had a good time going to another Rochester Nighthawks game (where they crushed Colorado State), been to some wacky yoga sessions, seeing my friends for book club, having numerous dinner, drinks and ice cream dates with my fabulous friends, and hanging out with my mom for a great weekend taking in the beautiful weather with long walks, (yet again ice cream) and catching a funny romantic comedy to boot.

3. There were a couple highlight of the past few of weeks was FaceTiming my nephew to celebrate his birthday and watching is obviously delighted reaction when opening the Pokeyman packs I had sent him. He apparently got two ultra rare cards in the packs and went wild. It was great to witness. My only regret is that I couldn't record it. I'd love to show him his reaction someday when he is older.  Another highlight was going home to visit my family for Easter. What was not a highlight was the 4" of snow they got on Easter in the form of a white out.  My parents surprised me with giving me my graduation present early.  They had my grandma who has passed away original engagement ring restored (it was cut off her finger when she was in a car accident many years ago).  There are a couple of small pieces of the original ring that were left over and it's crazy to think that the fragile state of the ring could have been restored to what it is today.  I love vintage jewelry and clothing especially circa 1920's-1940's. My grandma's ring is from the early to mid 1940's.  It's perfect and means a lot to me!  The only other piece of jewelry I have that compares in sentimental value and beauty is the circa 1970's estate ring my dad got me for Christmas 2013.

Book Update

The Raven Boys Series by Maggie Stiefvater (books 1-3)  ****

book club book ***

Daring Greatly by Brene Brown  ****
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie   ***

The Field Guide to Getting Lost by Rebecca Solnit   **

Coming Up

I’m debating on running a 5k race that is being held at work to benefit Mary’s Place.  The next race I’ve actually registered for and am excited for is the Night Glow 5k trail race on May 1st.  This has been a race my friend and I have been wanting to do for a while. We’ve never had one in Rochester and were trying to make it our distance race for 2014 but the travel dates never worked out for us.  Surprisingly, this race is being held in my hometown. It started last year as a fundraiser and was successful so they are bringing it back this year.  You can also walk it. My parents are considering walk it and a friend of mine is going to run it also.  I’m excited for this one! I have to find some glow bracelets. ;)

Art, Art and More Art

Last weekend was pretty wonderful. While I had some things to accomplish like laundry, cleaning up the house, getting the car inspected, and so on I was able to sleep in a little on Saturday, finish a good book and then hang out with some good friends and create awesome cards.  My friend Marcy is a card making guru. I don’t know where she comes up with the ideas for each card but they pretty amazing. One of my favorites is her hand carved/made godzilla stamp.  A bunch of us met ate great food and made the cards you see below. I love these get togethers. I just wanted to keep on creating.

My creative juices carried over to the week. On Tuesday evening instead of coming home after work and running I took a nap and then got up and searched for a piece of wood that I had laying around to start working on an art piece idea I had.  When at my friend’s house for the card party I saw a piece of artwork on my friend’s wall, took a picture of it and used it for inspiration.  My student worker has been “bugging” me for a while to receive a “Casey Original” piece of artwork as inspiration.  

I used this painting I saw that my friend purchased from an artist at the Cornhill Festival.  I found a piece of new pine wood in the basement and used that as my canvas.  I gessoed the wood with a few good coats and then using white paint, I used a few others colors and some water and created the base of the painting.  I took some stamps to add texture to the piece and then used a blow dryer to dry everything quickly.  I took a couple of images I found online of leaves/branches and a bird and cut them out. I added black paint and then pressed them on the canvas.  I rubbed the cut outs on and then pealed off. It was a spotty transfer so I took a brush and gently applied more black paint on to touch up the images.  I used block lettering stamps to put on the quote to finish up the piece.  Total project time 1.5 hours. Cost nothing as I had all supplies. I love the end result and I think my student worker with like it too.

The creative juices continued into my AT groups at work.  The directive for group members this week was to depict something/what inspires you.  I liked this quote I found about being yourself. I used tissue paper and decoupage to plaster an art board with tissue paper. I used a blow dryer to dry it. Then once dry I took pages from an hilarious book I found at the library sale earlier in the week.  I cut an owl image with one of the pages and then used the other pages to create where I would eventually put the quote. I adhered with decoupage.  I used my letter stamps to put the quote on. Then with the owl I used acrylics, watered them down and painted it. Once dry I used a permanent marker to outline the owl and the outside edges of the quote pages.  Overall I like the painting. Not sure what I’m going to do with it. Probably give it to someone who wants it. :)

While visiting with my parents I helped my mom make a doggie birthday cake for our family dog fatty Patty. She got this batter from a neighbor. It was pretty dense. I added the peanut butter frosting and the mini doggie biscuits.  Fatty Patty appeared to like her cake. She scarfed it up pretty quickly! :)

Out and About in the Art World

I went with a friend to the The Brainery 2nd Anniversary a week ago.  It was a pretty nice set up. They had free food from ButaPub and Scratch Bakeshop along with some adult beverages. The gallery had some interesting art being shown at this time.  We could fill out a 4 page multi choice test based on questions from all of the classes they've had over the past year. I totally guessed on 95% of the questions- it's not a surprise that I didn't win. :)  It's hard to believe The Brainery has been up and running for 2 years. I'm excited for the owners and hope that they continue to grow and prosper.

Just yesterday I went with a friend to City Hall for the opening exhibition from Genesee Center for the Arts & Education for the Studio 678 show. http://www.geneseearts.org/Studio678  This is a Community Darkroom collaboration with some City Schools.  The photography and poetry/writings from these 6,7 and 8th grade students is fantastic.  It's frustrating to see that this type of wonderful supportive program has to struggle every year with funding instead of being able to offer this program to every city school.  It disappointments me that as a society we cut the programs that could help the most and fund the programs that are least effective. Check out the website above and support this program!