Sunday, February 8, 2009

Valentine's Day Project: Woven Heart Baskets

Since I've been into crafts lately, I really wanted to make my own V-Day cards to give to everyone at work.

I thought that Woven Heart Baskets would be a good way to venture into paper crafts. Boy, was I wrong.

After doing this project, I remember why I have not gotten into scrap booking. I am Terrible with paper.

Suddenly, my school years come back to me. Glue everywhere. Misshapen crafts. ugh. But....I did the craft anyway. They didn't turn out as well as I wanted them to, but I will still give them to my co-workers and, with a big cheesy smile, say, "I made these alllll by my self!"



The finished product in 3 variations. I like the red and white best. You can't tell from the pic but the white paper has these little embedded hearts.








If anyone would dare to challenge me, you can find tons of tutorials on the web. One good one is on a Texan teaching site (go figure, its a kid's craft) at http://www.laits.utexas.edu/hebrew/personal/toolbox/acm/heart/heart.html

Thursday, February 5, 2009

See me rollin', flossin'

I have been doing most of my running at work during my lunch break. At first, I wanted to avoid telling my co-workers for some reason. But then I thought that maybe I could motivate them somehow. So I tell them when I'm running. I tell my teammates, I tell the woman at the desk, I tell my friends. And I have to say, I like that they know my schedule. It's kind of motivating me. Yesterday, when I was just walking to the bathroom, I had three people, in a row, ask me if I was going running. "No, but I am tomorrow.""No, but I am tomorrow.""No, but I am tomorrow."


I digress. The point of this blog will be to describe how exactly I can run in one hour. One of the most important aspects of running at work is preparation. Not the H type. Although that my help some. :-)

What I do is pack everything I need to run and to clean up after the run, the night before. I use my old college bookbag which is great because it is a big back with 3 different sections. To pack my running clothes, I first fold everything in half, then I place my "shield" on the outside: my coat, a long-sleeved shirt, and my outside pants, if applicable. Next is my "insides" such as my t-shirt and second pair of pants (these are usually cotton or some other thin fabric). Last, my really, really inside: bra, undies, and socks. One thing about the undies, I usually change out of my work undies (who would've thought I'd have such a thing) for my run. This helps a lot in making me feel cleaner when I change back. That's as far as I'll go to describe that! Lastly, I roll all these things up. This rolling is very important when it comes to changing in the bathroom's handicapped stall because there is a little shelf that I can use to unroll all my run clothes.

Okay, so I run, run, run. Come back and I will do 3 important things. First, I will use flush-able baby wipes to wipe myself. If anything, it wipes the sweaty smell off me. I also splash my face with cool water and swipe it with some Oxy pads. The third most important thing for post-run, work-ready freshness is a hair dryer. I stole the little portable one from my boyfriend and its great. I use it to dry and style my hair but I love to use that Cool function to, well, cool off. Ahh, it feels soo good some days. And I'm ready. Some other extras that are important: deodorant, body spray, and make-up (if you're that type of person).

When I first got into this routine, it took me about 15 minutes to change. I'm now able to do it in about 10. And, I am getting much better at putting on my sock while standing on one foot! And, I need to add, today I wore a skirt. There is something empowering about going for a run and then changing into a skirt.




Shell layer.




























Insides Insides







































The final roll.







































My running bag waiting to go. Note my favorite shoe bag, "Politics is My Bag."

























I love to run at work now. There is a great path by my work (that is currently under snow) that I would love to run on come Spring. Plus, I may have a few running partners. Hey, maybe talking about my running is paying off after all.