Running Shenanigans

I will admit I begin a Southern wimp in January 2016. I was registered to run in the Red Shoe 5k Race and totally wimped out because I had to wake up really early in the dark and it was snowing and freezing out in SC. I chose to stay in a warm bed instead.  I made the mistake of checking the race results and discovered if I would have ran I totally could have taken first place for females in my age group. After being highly disappointed in myself I signed up for other races and made sure I ran them!!

In February, I can the Mardi Gra race in Columbia and places 2nd overall female which was pretty cool. I decked myself out in Mardi Gra colors and decorated my face in 30 sec. the morning of the race.

I also at the last minute decided to do the Polar Plunge to raise awareness and funds to support the Special Olympics. This is an organization that is close to my heart and I fully support year round.  I was able to do the Plunge this year because while freezing it was not frozen like in Rochester when they do this each year. I raised about $90-100 bucks in about 2 days. :)

In March, I ran in the Myrtle Beach half marathon with my friend from work.  It was horrible...I thought I was dying...but I pushed through it and made it to the finish line. My time was 2hrs 3 min.  Not to shabby since I was in so much pain that I thought I was running it in 2hrs 40min..  I'm still not sure if I ever want to do a half marathon again.  The slogans are a description of how I felt running. Although I do feel like I need to redeem myself.

Also in March, I convinced my boyfriend to run the Leprechaun Leap 5k in Chicago with me. It was his first race ever. To show my support I ran at his pace and felt like I did a pretty good job cheering him on along the way. It was also fun because they turned the river green that weekend so we got to go check it out.

Upcoming race lineup:
April- Heart and Sole 5 miler
May- Xtremeair 5k obstacle race
June- Glo 5k -night race

I'm pretty excited for these races!!

Love Notes

I've been wanting to create homemade cards for a while but dreaded dragging out all of the art supplies. I finally did this around the middle of December on a mellow weekend.  I watched some Christmas Movies (or rather listened to them while I created).  To help motivate me I got a couple of art related books from the library and got inspired.

I'd been spending quite a bit of money on cards to send to my boyfriend since we have a long distance relationship. While they were beautiful cards I also wanted to have even more meaning behind them by making some of my own.  I ended up creating a bunch of cards that I can mail to him randomly to surprise him.  See them below...

New Year New Resolutions

It's a new year and with it comes new resolutions. I had a great New Year's Eve hanging out with my family, reflecting back on the year, playing games and eating food.  We decided that all of us wanted to work on losing 5 lbs this year so we started a little friendly competition with a goal of seeing who can lose 5 lbs and maintain it by 5/5.  I'm hoping to get myself back in shape this year. I logged 665.50 miles last year which is just over half of what I ran the previous year.  I started out fairly strong with an 11 mile run on 1/2. I signed up for a 5k race on 1/23, "The Ronald McDonald Red Shoe" race. I have a couple of others lined up also on top of the Mryle Beach 1/2 Marathon. So we will see what happens!

Other resolutions...to take care of myself by eating healthier and exercising more and creating more art. I'd love to do a weekend getaway with an workshop such as the ones Sweet Repeat host. Stay tuned to see if I can make any of these resolutions happen.

Other Adventures...

Part of the reason I have neglected blogging lately has been due to my efforts to spend time with my niece and nephew, enjoying my new SO relationship and being being in love, meeting new people and getting out and around in my new city to see what it has to offer.  Here's some of the adventures I've been up to:
1. Weekend in Asheville, NC with Mr. Pilot - Amazing food, art galore and the Biltmore Estates tour

2.Taking part in a new bookclub through MeetUp- books read:
-Offshore by Penelope Fitzgeral * not good at all
-Agenda 21 (read on my own) by Glenn Beck ***.5
-All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr ****

3. My apartment complex had a wine and cheese night which had great food and I got to meet some cool people that live here. They also had door prizes and I won a gift card out to eat!

4.  I was a mentor for the Girls On The Run race/program and ran with an awesome 5th grader during the race. She came in 1st place for her school.  Mr. Pilot was the best and came with me and we volunteered to help with parking before the race. We had to be there at 5am which was way to early and it was freezing out. He was such a trooper!!

5.  I started participating in a Sat. morning running group. They run a couple of different distances but a few weeks ago without training for it I ran 10 miles with them. It was a bit painful towards the end but I was so proud of myself. I plan to go again this week if I can get rid of my sore throat and congestion.

6. I'm signed up for the Myrtle Beath 1/2 marathon in March and Mr. Pilot and I are planning on signing up soon for the Disney World Star Wars 1/2 marathon in April. Stay tuned for more news on that one!

7. I just recently joined an Arts and Craft Group on MeetUp. I was suppose to go to the first event Monday night but I had a wicked time flying back from NY Monday. I could have driven the distance in the time it took to fly. Needless to say I didn't get back in time to get to the MeetUp but I can't wait for the next one!

Stay tuned for more projects and adventures...

Pottery Christmas Gifts and More...

I went back to Madd Platter in early Nov. to create a travel mug for my dad for Christmas. His mug turned out really well. I tried to make it about nature and animals since. I got to practice with foreground, middle ground and background which went well. I just hope the main color was manly enough so that he will use it. While making it I saw the "horny mug" on the shelf and thought of my friend Libby. :) This was perhaps one of the most difficult paint jobs due to the fact I decided to use stripes.  I use painters tape but it still left uneven lines with white spaces in between the stripes.  It was challenging to do 3 coats of each color while not hitting the others. It took forever but the results was pretty good.  My niece and nephew loved the mug.  Of course I wouldn't let them read the inspection on the bottom nor will I show you the viewer. It's a private comment between my friend and I. :)

I continued to think of gifts I could make and saw the ornaments.  I knew on my trip back home to Western NY for Thanksgiving I was going to see a couple ofmy Naz peeps and wanted to give them a little something. So I created these ornaments. I later designed an inspirational notepad with one of my images on it for another Naz peep who was in ned of some inspiration. I made that through York photo where I made my Christmas Cards this year.  I them realized I had to get a gift for one of the referral sites I work with at my new job for stupid gift exchange they do each year. I went back on York photo with a 40% coupon and used my images and created some designs and had a mug made for around $11.

I forgot to take a pic of the ornaments after they were fired and I gave them away this weekend.

work gift.

dad's travel mug

the horny mug!!

Inspirational Sketchbook Completed

Early November I completed the last few pages in my sketchbook for a year project.  I started it last Dec. over the holiday breaks. Once I finished the last few pages in the book I went back through and looked over what I had created over the past year. It never ceases to amaze me how a project like this can result in a visual representation of my life over the past year.

While at times during my life I wish I had different strengths like a technical mind, a majority of the time I'm so grateful for my creative mind.  It has not only helped me to create things for others but it's helped me to express myself and work through my feelings in ways I'm not able to verbally communicate.  Also, I turn believe it's helped me to learn skills and values such as being resourceful, creating awesome things while on a budget, and appreciating what I have.

Finally Sketching Again

It's been a crazy week here in Columbia, SC.  The flooding that occurred was insane and because of it my work was closed 4 out of 5 days this week. In my area we are still under a water boil advisory.  I can't say I've done a ton with my time off other than finally relax and enjoy my new apartment and catch up on sleep.  I did go through some boxes my storage area and bring some more stuff to Goodwill. I also caught up on 6 months of filing. Yuck! And I started working on gathering the information I will need to apply for my LPC and the equivalent of the CASAC in SC.  In addition, I tried to work out most days and I helped my sister out 3 of the days watching my niece and nephew because daycare and schools were closed all week.

I read a few books and watched a few movies. Got caught up on my blog. And last but not least I finally opened my pocket art journal and started creating again.  I will admit, it's been almost 2.5 months since I last created and I was a little intimidated at first. I just had to break into creating not worrying or judging myself for what I created.  Below are 4 images that I created over the past few days.