New Stash

Late last week Bonnie came by for a visit, and brought me some new stash!

First, this chart Lives to Stitch from Stitchy Kitty. I have this vision of someday having this wall near my stitching chair (aka nest) full of all these little stitched pieces all about stitching!  I've already got two up there, two more are stitched but not finished. It's a nice vision, but I've got to get un-lazy and actually do some finishing. 

I also had Bonnie pick up from a local quilt store a couple of spools of Sulky Blendables in 12wt. I've seen some chatter on blogs about using this to stitch, you only need to stitch with one strand over two on 28 or 32 ct. I've started a little Ink Circles piece to test out the purple one (iris). I'll save that for tomorrow!

I got out for another run today. I thought it was a great idea to tackle this hill on the edge of the village before hitting my regular route. (It's steeper than it looks here) My quads assure me it was not (a good idea).. It is good to get some hill work in to be a better runner. I'm still not running non-stop, but I managed to run for 4 minutes and walk for two. On this run I managed to run for about 26 minutes. I'm impressed with how well I'm progressing, I know that going to the gym twice a week since September is paying off. 

TUSAL and Some Finishing

It's TUSAL time again. 

This month it's quite a mix of threads as I've been working on all kinds of smaller projects. 

This weekend has been rather productive, too productive to share it all in one post!  Since I'll be blogging daily for the rest of November I'll need to spread things out a little.   I did the finishing on my exchange ornament for next weekend. 

Being in the finishing groove, I also did the finishing on the six JBW Doves I stitched up earlier this year.   I like the simplicity of this finish. 

In the last few weeks I've started running again, albeit slowly and with frequent walk breaks. This weekend I braved the cooler weathers and got out on Saturday for a "long run" on my favourite trail!  I did over 7km walking 2 minutes, running 2 minutes. There's something about being on this trail that I just love that I'm willing to bundle up and risk getting rained on to spend time on it. I pretty much had it to myself, only running into one person in the 70 minutes I was on it. 

Today I did a shorter run in my village, over 3K. This time in increased my run intervals since it was a shorter distance. I walked 2 minutes and ran for 4. 

I'm so happy to be running again, I had to stop due to a foot injury, a month ago I hand a cortisone injection and so far it seems to be doing its job... For now. The last one I had only lasted six weeks. When I run I feel powerful, I feel alive, unstoppable. I just ordered a new pair of running shoes and I look forward to hopefully picking them up this week.  I'm taking it slow and trying not to push myself too hard hoping that my foot will hold up. 

Its Race Weekend!!!!

 My Run Gear, tank top, shorts (jiggly thighs oh my!), running shoes, run belt with pouch and water bottles

Back in the fall I registered for the 10K event for Ottawa Race Weekend.  I had all the best intentions for this year's race, to beat my time of last year (71 min 11 seconds).  Like they say for best intentions.... hmmm yeah.  I haven't trained properly for it this year, I the longest run I've done to date is 8K and in the last few weeks I've been doing about 3K per run.  So I've not been looking forward to the day because I know I'm not properly trained, also last week the forecast was upwards to 30c with high humidity maybe rain.  The last time I did a run in high heat (Perth Kilt Run 2011) I almost died and had the worst run EVER.

Well the weather gods have smiled on us today!!!  Its clear, sunny, and the warmest its going to get is 24c!  Wooo Hoo!  Gun time isn't until 6:30, so by then temps should be dropping to about 22... sweet!

So I've been dreading this day for weeks, but now I'm REALLY looking forward to it!  I'm going to try my best to run the whole distance ... as I said I've not run far enough but my adrenaline might carry me through.

Wish me luck... shout out if you see me!!!!

Crazy Challenge Day 8

Sadly I won't be able to dedicate as much time as I'd like to stitching.  Its time to get back to the real world, and things are going to be busy this month!  I'm sure I'll find the odd moment of sanity here and there through stitching.

Eat, Sleep, Stitch

c2010 Cherrywood Design Studios

Stitched on : 28ct African Daisy Joblean

Stitched with : DMC floss

When I finally did pick up my stitching on Sunday I felt more like finishing something instead of starting a new project (which I did, just in the evening).  Eat, Sleep, Stitch was just a few short hours away from Happy Dance status, so I decided to focus on that first.  I am proud to share with you my first finish of 2012!

As you can see, I was a little challenged in the measurement department when I started this... heck I didn't measure, I just started.  Pretty close to the edge eh?

Polar Friends - Day

Stitcher's Habit

Stitched on 32ct Ocean Fantasy Linen from Silkweavers

Later in the evening I stated my project for this Day 8 of the Crazy Challenge.  It was another small one, Polar Friends - Day, I started night earlier in the week.  This pair is a pleasure to stitch.

Yesterday afternoon, it was Zeus's turn to find a lovely patch in the sunshine.  Very pretty!

Finally on Saturday our replacement treadmill was delivered, and Todd put it together on Sunday morning.  I took it for its inaugural run that evening.  I have to say after a month of not running, plus having a remnant of my cold boy, my cardio, endurance, and speed were all GONE!  How frustrating.  It took me quite a bit of effort to put in about 15 minutes, and I had to do it in a run/walk.  Prior to this whole circus I was running for on average 20 minutes on the treadmill at 5.7... today 5.4 was challenging.  Oh boy... I've got a lot to get back.  There's work to do before my first race in May (Ottawa Race Weekend 10K).

I use the Nike+ GPS app when I run and I got this neat little re-cap of my running year.  I'm quite happy with these results!  I guess I should aim for 500 KM this year?????