Belated Post on Mountain Crafting

With all that's been going on here this week, I forgot to give an update from last weekend, when we "headed for the hills". Training was great, as it was a rest week, so nothing too long. A nice ride on Saturday, about 4 hours, and a 2 and a half hour run (in the rain that I totally didn't expect) on Sunday. Lots of time for crafting. I'm on a Halloween roll! I made these "spooky" decoration-blocks in Arnold, and started making several of each of these 2 Halloween cards. I actually made these wool felted cat-pins before leaving and may give them to the vets who come out to work at the next clinic. More to come! Sporty Spice has been home sick from school the last two days and there has been a little crafting to get me through the enforced captivity.

Goodnight Little Thunder-Man

Thunder the pygmy goat came to us with his pygmy goat friend, Isabel, a little over a year ago, when his parents had to move to retirement living. He was an older goat when he arrived, but was the sweetest spirit, friendlier than Issy. The two of them were so funny to watch, like a little older couple, butting heads, literally, over the food bowl. They made friends with the two little larger goats next door and the four became inseparable in the past several months. We are so sad this week, as Thunder has left us to go over the Rainbow Bridge, "to the trail" to join Gracie, and Buddercup and Phaedrus and so many others we have loved and lost. Isabel is lost without him; we will have to find her a pasture pal soon. For now she is hanging out as close to her two nextdoor neighbors as the wire fence between will allow. Goodnight little Thunder-Man.

Look what flew onto my porch last week!

This is one witch who won't be put away after Halloween! My friend Amy sent her to me(I shall have to figure out the mystery of how to put in a link to her blog). She's a kitchen witch! The tag attached says she will protect the cook from burning things or ruining others. With as out of practice as I've become lately with cooking anything besides microwave enchiladas, goodness knows I can use all the help I can get. Thank you Amy!

...and You Know You Have Been Swimming Too Long...

when you have a swim like I did today!

Usually I swim at 6:30 in the morning, but this being rest week, I was able to head to the San Ramon Olympic Pool in the full glory of daylight. And yet...just like in the dark of the morning...the moon was still out!

Hear me out. I was in the second to last lane on the deep end, and two lanes over to the left was a male swimmer in his 30s or 40s, swimming well, in a dark blue speedo. He was doing a set, and being faster than me, he was just in my peripheral vision. Soon after starting, I pushed off the wall and took my first left side bilateral breath..and it was about then that I noticed, well...his crack starting to show. Hmmm. He was about half a dozen strokes away from the wall ahead, and by the time he reached it, his speedo was at his knees! Interesting. He got to the wall and pulled it up, but I must say he now had at least MY attention. So we both carry on. And it keeps happening! Swim....migrating speedo...full exposure...pull up...swim...repeat. For, like another 500 yards. I thought, "well, this guy HAS to be one of those anal (pardon the pun!) triathletes, because he is NOT going to miss this workout, elastic or drawstring be damned! I was so glad when he finally got out, because half the goal of my workout was to give 100% focus to my sets of 500s today.
Will the perks of this healthy lifestyle NEVER END?!?!?

You Might Be Running Too Long...

When, half way through a 20 mile run on a hot day, while listening to your I-pod...
You start not only enjoying, but identifying with...a Miley Cyrus song!

I can almost see it.
That dream I'm dreaming, but
There's a voice inside my head saying
You'll never reach it
Every step I'm takin'
Every move I make
Feels lost with no direction,
My faith is shakin'
But I gotta keep tryin'
Gotta keep my head held high

There's always gonna be another mountain
I'm always gonna wanna make it move
Always gonna be an uphill battle
Sometimes I'm gonna have to lose
Ain't about how fast I get there
Ain't about what's waitin' on the other side
It's the climb

...and Crafting.

The swap that never ended! But it was fun. A vintage abc swap where 26 participants made 27 copies (yes, 27! one for charity) of a very themed little four by six inch card representing a letter of the alphabet (they were assigned). The swap organizer is, amazingly, going to assemble these into little books and send them back to us with the full alphabet!


Some Back To School Notebooks (one for my friend Amy)

Twelve Weeks Out--Ironman Meltdown

I am not entirely sure WHAT happened this week. Granted, it was a tough week. Second week of minimal childcare and trying to get one of our spay/neuter clinics together for a week from today. Sporty Spice went to Science Camp in the mornings and I scrambled to try to get the training done during that window. Then he and I were home most afternoons with me trying to work, feeling bad because I couldn't concentrate on the clinic and bad that I couldn't concentrate on my kid. By Thursday I was starting to disintegrate. By Saturday I had burst out in some sort of stress RASH (oh, it's lovely) all over. I had tried to re-group today, to no avail. I've got twelve, count em TWELVE weeks to pull this Ironman together. I feel so angry with myself and struggling to regroup. One more week until Sporty Starts kindergarten and I have lots to do in that area this week. I'm going to carry on with the plan, meaning this week is a Rest/Test week. I'm frustrated and worried. And itchy.

As a consolation, I did get done a few projects I had half-finished, which was nice. The roll of Cath Kidston wallpaper goes on. I finished this (somewhat large) serving tray I made from an old picture frame I painted white and added little feet to. I also added wallpaper to shabby up this little green table I bought at a yard sale years ago. And these little rocks....they are "memory rocks" I've been meaning to finish...with the names of all our precious foster bunnies we've had and have passed over the "rainbow bridge" in the past few years. The passing of our sweet Norton a couple of weeks ago finally got me going to make finally finish these.

The top photo is of some very cool little push pins I made to put on my new bulliten boards. A bag of craft buttons from Michael's, some thumb tacks and a glue gun. Presto.

My little training hiatus has also allowed me to finally get started on the 27 (yes 27) little alphabet pages I need to make by September 10th for the fun (but right now bitty bit stressful) abc swap I'm participating in. More on that later, I'm sure. I'm letter E, and was very relieved to see some emails this weekend from other participants, that they were not all that far along either.