Red Red Wine

My friend (goth girl mentioned earlier) gave me a mixed bag of beautiful dark red beads. I decided to make a necklace with some of them and her leftover silver chain.

I am not sure if I like the result and I'm looking for some feedback.




What I like about it is the big gangsta-like chain (though maybe not with these stones??) and I like how the stones are all different and random.

Maybe the "big" stone isn't big enough for this big chain?





Regardless, here are the matching earrings. I really like them because they are simplistic. But I just realized that I have 2 other red earrings and I hardly wear them.

Anyone want to buy these? Eh, maybe I'll just get rid of another pair of red earrings I got from Target pre-jewelry days.

Necklaces and Earrings

I went shopping with a friend of mine to make some necklaces for her. She's kind of a goth girl so I knew that it I would make some fun things. See below for the results (or at least part of them).

This is much like my other necklace. The changes are that it is a chain all around and it is a little more focused. There is a big key in the middle, a little key on the side and also a heart with a key hole. We'll call this one "You Got My Heart Locked Up."

This necklace is probably one of my favorite things that I've made to date. It is a cameo with softer details and then we thought it put it on a square chain. I love the mix of softness and toughness (which is a good description of Teresa).

Let me just say that I love a pair of earrings that don't match perfectly. So that is what I did as a surprise b-day gift for Goth Girl. The earring on the left is a rose with a skull on the bottom and the one on the right is a spider web heart with a skull and roses on the top. kewl!

This last necklace was made for me. Yes, it says "One of a Kind" but let me explain! Its a nod to irony. I got the bead idea from a co-worker's necklace. I thought it needed something so I used this one of a kind charm, because the necklace itself is not one of a kind, I stole the idea from someone. But I'll probably give the thing away, I don't want to seem vain.

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

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.

First Big Jewelry Project: Lucky Charm Necklace

I got this idea from the book "Beadalicious" by Sonya Nimri. Its such a great book that has a lot of trendy jewelry ideas. I'm excited to have found a book that has cute ideas instead of the books that are focused towards older women. This one was definitely made for young women.

I made this necklace because I need more gold in my accessories and this was a pretty necklace. It was hard to make because I obviously couldn't find the exact charms but I used my creativity and worked with what I had.

I'm still trying to figure out how to wear it!

The beads I that I bought at Michael's were the big heart (love it!), the leaf, and the Chinese coins, and of course, the gold chain and the beautiful green "semi-precious" stones in the back. No wonder my total at Michael's was $45.00!!

The two I had from my own collection were the rose pendant and the ruby heart (reminds me of my mom).

Now I just need to find something to wear with it!

My Run Today

Today I was blessed to run with my boyfriend Chanh! He hasn't ran in months so I figured it would be an easy run but it wasn't because the weather was against us. When we checked weather.com the weather was 8 degrees, feels like -5. But we ran anyway. We planned on only running 2 miles (because of his hiatus and the fact that I ran 3 on Friday) but we kind of got lost around the neighborhood so we ending up running 2 1/2. Towards the end of the run, things got hard. I think it was because I started off fast so it was hard to keep that pace. I don't think I dressed warm enough because my shirt was riding up and after the run I had a red mark on my belly. I think it was from the wind and cold even though my overcoat/windbreaker covered my tummy. That's how cold it was! It was no joke!!

I wore the following: two pairs of pants, cotton yoga pants and windbreaker pants, two shirts, a running t-shirt and a longer cotton shirt, big snowboarding gloves, a neck protector, and a sweat resistant cap.

Chanh wore running tights underneath some cotton workout pants. He was wearing 1 long-sleeved cotton shirt and then the windbreaker. He also wore a great warm, sweat-wicking cap. Can you tell he loves Nike??

Here is the front of our apartment building with all the snow.

Running and Shunning

Like many other highly dedicated runners do, I've decided to start running at work so I do not have to run at night when I get home at about 6pm. I have been doing it for about two weeks now and I have to say that it's pretty fun. Of course, there are some downfalls; I have to change twice, I eat my food at my desk, but mainly the sidewalks are not shoveled around my work so I have to run on the road (as runners are encouraged to do anyway by running communities). The problem is that my work is located in an industrial park where the surrounding streets are heavily used and have high speed limits. So I just run up and down the hill in front of my building. This hill looks low when I'm sitting at my desk or even at the bottom of the hill. But once I start running up the hill, its is obvious that the hill is steep. I tried to take some pictures of my weekly run. See below. The captions for the pictures are below the pictures.

This is the road in front of my work. Again, you can't really see the hill part from the bottom.

This is the top of the hill where it flattens out. Can you tell that it looks like it drops off?

I run by this area everyday. This is my idea of what it looks like as the icebergs melt. They're all dirty and the ocean is dark, dirty, and cracking.

Now this post was intended to be about my latest running exploit at work. However, since I had my camera with me when I went to Planned Parenthood to get my last month of birth control from them (thank you insurance), I figured that I would take a picture of the crazy people that stand in front of the building to yell at the patients. This is an attempt to show everybody what women and girls in Aurora have to go through to protect themselves from being pregnant at the wrong time in their lives. These people really annoy me. They are protesting abortion but the funny thing is the abortion services weren't even open when I went to the clinic. So they were protesting my supply of birth control. I have thought of so many things to say and do to them but then I realized that it would be in vain. They would still come. Nothing would change their mind because they mindlessly do these things without an independent thought in their head. See the robots below.

I thought this picture was ironic. These people are standing out there with their rosary beads so they are obviously Catholic. The third person from the left is wearing a blanket with a pattern on it that resembles a Native American pattern. The irony is that Catholicism had a big hand in civilizing the American Indian. They had schools for all the savage Indian children where the children weren't allowed to speak in their native tongue, sing their native songs, or even see their parents. Now they are civilizing all of America. They're on a rampage!

I stopped my car in front of them and took a pic just to piss them off. It looked like it worked. Dummies. Revenge is sweet.

But not sweet enough. I think I will try to volunteer at Planned Parenthood. I will sit out in the cold. But I will be in front of the building, and not on the side of the road. I will talk to the patients. But just so they can't hear the protesters. I will hand things to the patients. But just so they know the clinic's hours of operation. I will win.