We did it! Race for the Cure Part Deux

If you were reading my blog last year you may recall that I decided to go out and learn to run again. I hadn’t run since high school and as a 30 something adult it wasn’t super easy to get back into running shape. I kept it up though and now I can say that I’m finally beginning to feel a bit like a runner. I competed in my first 5k last October in the Komen Race for the Cure. My husband dutifully tagged along and took photos and cheered me on. In May of this year, when a coworker was diagnosed with ALS, I decided to run another.

 This time my daughter joined me.  (I know she doesn’t look thrilled, but that’s just becuase teenage girls do not enjoy having their photos taken early in the morning, she actually had fun….but don’t tell anyone).

Again, my husband drove us to the race and photographed our finishes. It was after this race that he said that he too would like to start running, and so he did. I broke out the couch to 5k app again and we took off around the block. At first, he was a little overweight and miserable. He hated running, I mean really hated it. I’d prod him up the hills and force him to jog a mile and he’d grumble along beside me. Eventually he would get up and have his sneakers laced and ready to rock at the same pace as me. He purchased a new pair of running shoes and his own headphones for his ipod. He was keeping pace with me down and around the lake and back. He was running 2 or 3 miles now without any complaining. We signed up for the 2011 Komen Race for the Cure and he picked up his training. Some days he even beat me out of bed and more often than I’d like to admit, he put on his shoes and took off while I was laying under the covers grumbling about my alarm clock and nodding back off to sleep. As we approached the day of the race we took a long run together. He smoked me. I tried to keep up, but he was just too darn fast. Now a lean, mean running machine. On race day we both woke up at 6am and dressed for the cold weather. He drove us to the parking lot and we both whined a bit about wearing shorts in 40 degree weather. I still don’t have the proper running kit, I run in my two year old Gola tennis shoes that I wear for everything. I did grab some actual running shorts from Goodwill and I wore those. We wore our downhill jerseys because they are lightweight, breathe and wick away sweat. I grabbed gloves and ear warmers. We noted that the real runners were wearing tights and vests…good to note. I pulled my white gym socks up to my knees. I may look like a dork, but it’s nearly impossible to look fashionable when you are running anyway. I coach him on not taking off to run too fast, set a good pace  and stick to it. I warn him about the crowd surge when we first take off and that people will clump for the first half mile, so be patient and stick to the rear. Once you hit the one mile marker it’s safe to start passing people. There’s a big hill in the middle I warned him (he still hates hill climbing) and wished him luck. I told him I’d try to keep up with him, but I knew that I couldn’t. We hung together for the first mile or so and then he put on the gas. I turned on my Endomondo to track my pace. The first mile was crowded and difficult to get a steady pace. My first mile was the slowest as I jockeyed for position and walked a bit trying to move forward as the crowd initially surged and then came to a complete stop. I ran a 10:14 mile. Not bad for me, but not race pace either. The second mile was faster as I broke free of the crowd and really started pushing. I ran it in 9minutes flat. In the final mile I caught up with the faster pack and got choked in the crowd again. My knees and ankles burned from the overtraining that I had done in the two weeks leading up to the race. In fact, the Sunday before I took off on a seven mile jog. Not smart. I know some people run this distance for training all of the time, but I’d never run further than 4 miles, so this was not a good idea. However, I finished strong and I felt good. All told, I ran the 3.18 miles in 30 minutes and 13 seconds. I averaged a respectable 9:30min/mi pace. Not as good as last year, but about what I expected. My knees and ankles screamed and I hobbled off to find Jamie, tendinitis screaming at me to knock it off. Jamie and I met up and shared some water and swapped tales of our big race. He finished in 28 min and ran a 8:47 pace average. As he stood there looking svelte and accomplished I was proud. He ran his first charity race, hopefully the start of a long and healthy lifetime of running.

Did you run at the Komen 5K? If so, tell me about your experience in the comments below. Feel free to link to your blog, your Facebook or your Endomondo. I’d love to hear all about it. Congrats to everyone who competed in this year’s Race for the Cure.

It’s Yarn Season! Yeah!

From Crafty Projects

Now that racing season is over and the weather begins to cool it’s time to head indoors. As fall arrives I’ll begin to move inward again and focus more on my meditation, strength training and crafts. I know many people enjoy their knitting and crochet year-round, but for me, summer is for playing outside. I’ve already begun to pick up my projects from last winter and finish them up. I’ve been working on a cowl/hood for myself whenever I have a chance to crochet, but don’t have the ability to focus on something complicated (riding the bus, waiting in line, etc). I’ve just finished it up and I’m very excited about how it turned out. I made it from the stash of super-cheap clearance yarn I got last year and it was very easy to make. I did use only two skeins though and it’s plenty long enough. I’ve found that with most of the Lion Brand Yarn (LBY) patterns, it always calls for one skein more than necessary. 3 skeins in length would have had the cowl around my knees I think. I can layer this over a plain black dress or long sleeve t-shirt and then pop it over my head when I head out into the cold. It’s soft and comfortable and I’m pretty excited about it.

The second and more complicated project that I’m working on is a scarf for my husband. It is turning out well and it’s my first knitting project, but it is taking (what seems like) forever. I’m hoping to have it done before the really bitter weather hits so that he can have a scrumptious wool scarf to keep him cozy. It’s been very easy to knit and the pattern is forgiving of my beginner knitter mistakes.

Next, I plan to work on a a hat for myself and some gloves for Jamie and I, then off to knit for friends and family again. I don’t like the idea of exchanging gifts for Christmas anymore (since I’m a Buddhist and all), but I’d like to make some items for my family just to give them because…. I’ll be sure to post up my progress on any new projects as well.

I have also started using Pinterest where I post inspiration and crafty dream projects that I hope to be able to make some day. I pin all of the beautiful patterns that I find while scouring the web for my next big project. I have several boards now, each of them devoted to a different subject including: Places I’d Like to Go, Favorite Recipes, Bike Pr0n (mountain biking goodness), Abode (dream house type stuff), Style (what I would wear if I did in fact have style), Stuff I Want (buy me gifts!, Health & Fitness, Neighborhood Finds, Full of Peace (Buddhist inspired art, quotes, etc), Beautiful (wide-ranging), Green Stuff (environmentally-friendly) and Random Awesomeness (quotes, jokes, comics, photos, stuff). Find me and follow my pins and share yours with me too. What are you working on for yarn season?

If I’m Doing Everthing Right, Where the Hell Did I Go Wrong?

Warning: This blog post will be filled with a long rambling, obviously bitter rant filled with  resententment, frustration, desperation and maybe a little too much of the whiny Why Me attitude.

However, in my defense, I suspect that I’m not the only one feeling this way and I’d like to just use my blog to vent for a moment and express my general discontent. In fact, my blog coverage has such small readership numbers that this is merely therapeutic. So, on we go!

I went to college, I continued to receive my graduate degree, I bought a house. I followed the rules, I bought a house that I could afford. While I paid $220k for it 5 years ago, unfortunately it is now worth only about $135k and I still owe $200k. I keep my a/c set at a reasonable 74 – 76 and my heat set at 62 at night and 68 during the day. I haven’t purchased any furniture. My daughter uses my old bed, and my husband and I share his that he received bought in college nearly 20 years ago. Our sofa was given to us and we buy our clothes at Goodwill. We both own new cars, but that’s because we actually saved money by trading in my husband’s old Jeep for our new Honda Fit. The monthly payment is less and the gas mileage is far less expensive because it doubles the mpg rating of the previous car. My previous VW GTI was a fun car, but the gas mileage was terrible and it was beginning to require a lot of maintenance and I was still making car payments. I traded it in on my Nissan pickup truck because I wanted what I thought would be a practical family vehicle. I could haul around mulch and plants, bicycles and junk to the landfill. However, it turns out that the gas mileage is terrible and the maintenance more expensive than I could have imagined because I live in the city. At 36k miles I find myself needing new brake pads and rotors and four new tires. Ouch! I started taking public transportation to cut down on maintenance and save on gasoline. I only work 3-5 miles from where I live, but the $3.50 day pass for the metro bus is still cheaper each week. This week I’ll be either selling it outright or trading it in for an affordable subcompact if I can find a good deal. Luckily there seems to be a convergence of low interest rate options and incentives. I could always lease, I’ll continue to take the bus anyway.

I cook dinner at home nearly every night of the week. I don’t buy meat for a variety of reasons, but I cook mostly fresh produce and dried grains. I don’t buy or use a lot of the expensive meat substitutes. We were celebrating Taco Tuesday at our favorite local restaurant for a few weeks, but that will be short lived as even a $30 meal once per week doesn’t fit in the budget anymore. I pack my lunch of leftovers most days as does my daughter and husband.

I work a second job to help pay for the little extras, like mountain biking that we both enjoy. In fact we were both doing extremely well (I was in contention for first place in the Gravity East Series), but now we can’t afford to compete any longer.

We have burned through our savings because we live paycheck to paycheck; literally. A plumbing leak, a new roof and other unexpected expenses like medical bills and car maintenance and the savings quickly dried up. We didn’t save a great deal to begin wtih because we were committed to pay off the credit card debt that we had and not generate any more ever. In fact, it used to be that I received the low balance alert on the Wednesday or Thursday on the Friday before we got paid, and now it’s coming 2 days after the paycheck hits. The costs of everything seem to be sky rocketing, but I haven’t had a raise in 5 years. I’m not complaining though, because it’s a good job and I’m lucky to be employed. These are tough times for everyone and I know people who have been out of work for months on months. If that happened to us, we could be homeless after just a few pay periods. I mentioned that I graduated with my Master’s. Congrats! Now I have $70k in student loans to payback. The lowest monthly charges possible rival my mortgage. They will increase over time because I should be making more money right? Our credit card debt remains from filling the gap with my college expenses (books, etc). Uniforms and school supplies, high school field trips for my daughter. I mention that we live in the city and I was forced to send her to private Catholic school for her middle school years to ensure that she received a quality education. I’m fortunate that we have a good high school that she was accepted to attend. She’s extremely bright, so the engineering and math high school is now free. It seems that the cost of the private school tuition may have been worth it at least. We also used credit to pay for a portion of our wedding two years ago. It was fairly modest, although we did celebrate in Las Vegas, NV. That was our honeymoon included though. We had about 50 guests and spent 5 days enjoying the celebration with friends and family. We didn’t gamble and we didn’t see any shows. We did splurge and go out for a celebratory dinner with just the two of us, for sushi. We send most of our money to our debt and have paid off a considerable amount, but we aren’t in the clear yet. 

My husband’s job has informed him that they can’t afford to pay him for the next 3 or 4 pay periods and if their income doesn’t improve he’ll be out of work. We teeter on the edge of calamity every day. His parents are elderly and on a fixed income. My parents have divorced and each remarried. Neither of them are able to support us financially. My husband and I are both only children. We have my daughter from a previous relationship. Her father provides the minimum amount of support each month $170; not really enough to be even statistically relevant in our monthly expenses, but it’s better than nothing. He was court ordered to provide health care and pay for half of her out of pocket expenses, but that has never happened and it’s impossible to enforce.

So here I am, I find myself, like many others, over-educated, underpaid. Overwhelmed and overstressed. I played by the rules and made “smart” choices. How is it that two college educated, experienced professional can’t afford to get by and can’t even possibly entertain the thought of having a family of our own? I see plenty of people with designer bags and clothes that cost as much as my monthly mortgage payment. I have friends and family members who never went to college making more than my husband and I combined. I have coworkers with a high school education that own houses, boats, cars, gym memberships and go on all-inclusive vacations several times each year. It seems that I am surrounded by an incredible amount of wealth and poverty at the same time and there doesn’t seem to be a formula that can definitively lead to one or the other. I often sit and wonder, what happened? I regret my degrees, I regret purchasing a house. In the end, I feel like I was misled, and I fell for some big farce hook, line and sinker. Somewhere as a result of my “smart” decisions, someone is leading a better life, but unfortunately it isn’t me. I keep hoping that our political leaders will do something to ease the burden on folks like myself. My husband and I combined make over $100k so technically we are middle class. Somehow though I find myself hoping to be able to buy groceries this week and all of my change is going to pay my bus fare.

So, now that I’ve finished bitching and moaning, what’s your experience these days?

Shopping Local on Etsy

While I don’t really love to shop, when I do need to buy things I prefer to a. shop online, b. shop local, and c. buy used. Why? Well, I’m lazy, cheap and concerned about the environment. I also love hand made or artisan objects if a suitable vintage piece can’t be fuond, but I usally stick to pre-owned (see previous comment about beign cheap). Etsy is a great place to browse, buy and sell and I especially love their “Shop Local” button that narrows down my search to those items in the area that I list. You can even expand the search terms to narrow it down further. In my general browsing/shopping I just type in Baltimore, MD and from there I can just click on the “vintage” choice to find all things once loved, but now waiting for me. So, if you too love to shop online and want to save some dough and a little petrol, then buy local and if you need help finding some good vintage in your neighborhood try Etsy.

Moved to Action: The Cove and the Dolphin Slaughter in Taiji, Japan

TheCove Brochure FINAL

My First Downhill Mountain Bike Series: The Gravity East

If you have read my blog posts over the years you may (or may not) have notice my increasing involvement in mountain biking. Three years ago I purchased my first bicycle as an adult and learned how to ride (sort of). I grew up in the country, St. Mary’s County, Maryland where we had plenty of corn fields and even a major highway, but I didn’t have anywhere to ride a bike. My house was perched atop a steep hill that overlooked route 5, the main highway that ran North to Charles County and South to Calvert. I had one set of elderly neighbors on one side and acres of corn rows behind the house. All of this was bordered by thick forests (the woods) with streams (cricks) to play in. In the morning I went outside and ran amuck all through the corn and trees and enjoyed digging for fossilized sharks teeth and whale vertebrae in the water. My parents did buy me a 10 speed bicycle, but I soon learned that it wasn’t much fun to pedal around in our small grassy backyard and someone quickly stole it from our backyard anyway. To make a very long story short, two-wheeling was just not part of my childhood and I had not developed the interest as an adult.

My husband however, had ridden bikes his entire life. He was jumping his bmx bike from homemade ramps and tearing around on dirt bikes and graduating to motorcycles as he grew. In college he attended Frostburg State University in rural Western Maryland where he took up cross country mountain biking (XC MTB as we call it). These were all natural extensions of his love for the outdoors and adrenaline pumping extreme activities like snowboarding and skateboarding. Again to summarize, he was a practiced natural on two-wheels.

Years later when we moved in together and settled in, the urge to ride the local trails called to Mr. Jones again. I agreed (reluctantly) to try out mountain biking with him. On our very first mountain biking trip together we “shuttled” a trail down Reddish Knob and fell in love. I also tried a 25 miles “chill ride” through the George Washington National Forest and was thoroughly uninspired by the tortuous experience. I quickly learned that there were two types of mountain bikers, those that get off on the torture of pedaling up the mountain and those that get their fix pedaling down. I and Mr. Jones fall squarely into the latter camp. It’s not that I don’t enjoy a bit of xc riding, but I will never be someone who feels challenged by or excited about climbing up and over that challenging and technical root ball or spiky rock garden clad in spandex and a tiny aerodynamic helmet, clipped into my pedals sat upon a lightweight and frame. Don’t even get me started on riding a single speed bike, those guys are nuts! Rather, I will regard xc mountain biking in much the same way as eating my veggies. It can be satisfying, but mostly its because I know that it’s good for me. Cross-country riding improves your endurance and general fitness and can teach you very important bike handling skills, but for me, it’s just not that fun.  Where I really shine, is when I get to don my armor (flak jacket and shin guards) and a full-face (moto) helmet. I swing a leg over my burly rig that has flat pedals, a seat that is largely unused and a handful of gears that exist only to propel me faster when I prepare for a jump or drop or traverse the flat to head to my next trail. I look for the steep chutes and I too look forward to mastering the root balls and rock gardens, but in a completely different way. Downhill mountain biking is a completely different animal and one that I find challenging, empowering and just plain fun.  When I get to the bottom of the trail I toss it into the back of a shuttle truck or onto a ski lift and do it all again. You still need plenty of endurance and loads of skill because the risk factor of making mistake is significantly amped up, but at the end of the day when I’m beaten and exhausted I still keep going until I literally can’t hang on any longer.

As a wedding gift Mr. Jones bought me my first bike for downhilling. It’s actually a freeride bike that is more of a cross between cross country and downhill racing rigs. This is where my previous story about a lack of experience or skill come into play. Most people work their way up to the insanity of downhill. As also mentioned previously, mistakes = pain. Despite the armor wrecking down a rocky and steep mountain never feels like rolling about in a field full of marshmallows. It always ends in at least a bruise, and often times worse. I can admit that there was more than one occasion that I cried. When I started I was constantly covered in hematoma and I even broke my hand. In fact, did I mention that I’m afraid of heights and I occasionally get vertigo and the whole thing scared the hell out of me? Anyway, I’m a determined girl and I really wanted to recapture the fun and exhilaration I felt shuttling down the now seemingly tame Reddish Knob, but on a larger scale. Fortunately I’m stubborn and a little crazy. I’ve always been a bit of a tom boy and imbued with a sense of accomplishment thanks to my family who told me that I could do anything and I was naive enough to believe them. Last year was my first year really learning to ride. We rode at our local shuttle hill and took a few trips to nearby ski resorts for practice. I entered a small number of races as a beginner rider where many portions of the courses were well above my skill level. The risks were great, but the rewards greater. Racing forced me to overcome my fear, to try new things and to increase my knowledge of terrain and technique. I had intended to complete two racing series, but Mr. Jones was seriously injured and I wasn’t about to continue biking without him. I was mostly going because he enjoyed it and it was a challenging, but fun way to spend time together. Mr. Jones had already purchased a bike specifically for downhill mountain bike racing before his energy, so he greeted the beginning of this year’s racing season with renewed interest and vigor. I agreed to take on the challenge because as a woman there isn’t a lot of pressure, very few women compete in this sport. Just surviving to the bottom of the hill is often enough to earn oneself a trip to the podium. Having lots of friends and even strangers heaping adulation and showering you with medals and gifts can be a pretty strong influence on your willingness to continue in a sport that is male dominated, dangerous and expensive to boot. For all of the praise and patience I have been shown, I am very grateful. The series in which Mr. Jones and I have chosen to compete this year is the Gravity East. There are others, but the rigors of following a single series all over the East Coast from North Carolina to Vermont is likely more than I can handle. I suspect there will be many dust bunnies and piles of laundry accumulating as I work during the week and escape early on Fridays only to return in the wee hours of Monday morning and then do it all again. During the week I will have to keep up my cardio exercises for endurance, weight lifting for strength and cross country riding for skills. In my “spare” time I will squeeze in the responsibilities of daily life and sneak off on my bi-weeks to practice jumping, dropping and increasing my skills.  I will compete through fatigue and injury against myself and the clock. Others will compete on the same course and for the same prizes and status, but it’s really about pushing myself and less about comparing myself to others. We are all apart of the fringe, so we spend our time helping each other, encouraging and teaching new skills and having fun together. We take our racing seriously, but not at the expense of camaraderie. It’s survival of the fittest at the extreme. As I embark on this journey I’m a little excited and a lot terrified, but I know I’ll come out of this with new friends, once in a life time experiences and a new sense of accomplishment. Stay tuned for photos and results.

Fat Trackin’ Apps: Lose It! VS Tracknburn

Spring has sprung and it’s time to prep for swimsuit season (kill.me.now.) Also, after coming off of a foot injury I’ve been getting my buns back into gear. It’s darn near racing season and I’m in no shape to take on the challenge of the Gravity East Series. So, to get motivated and track my progress I purchased a new scale Escali High-Capacity Bathroom Scale with Body Fat/Body Water Monitoring (440lb / 200kg) and a few apps for my iPhone. I purchased the scale because it measures more than just my weight. It also measures my body fat percentage (most important) and my body water percentage. These are important because while I want to reduce my weight, I want to do it by reducing my body fat percentage, not my muscle or water. I’ve been working out on average 3 days per week doing a video in my workout space. The two that I use most frequently are Jillian Michaels – 30 Day Shred and Personal Training With Jackie: Xtreme Timesaver Training. I used two apps for about 2 weeks to compare and then selected the one that I found the most convenient and easy to use. Lose It! is a free app that I had downloaded last year, but never used. I purchased Tracknburn in the iTunes App store and tried that one out too. Each day I diligently tracked every calorie that passed over my lips and every exercise session that I completed. The apps varied significantly in what I should be able to eat each day and what I burned doing the exercises. As an example, Tracknburn says that in order to reach my goal weight using my current weight, age and mostly sedentary lifestyle, I can only eat 1,282 calories a day without working out, while Lose It! says that I can have 1,507 and still lose 1/2 lb. a week. A 225 calorie difference is prety significant. To give you perspective to how that relates to my current diet, that’s more calories than I typically eat for my entire breakfast. However, this is compounded further when you look at how the exercise measures up.  According to Lose It! 25 minutes of circuit training (what I’m using to log my video workouts) only burns 175 calories, but Tracknburn says I burned 200.  So Lose It! says that I can eat more, but gives me fewer calories credits for my exercise while Tracknburn restricts my diet more, but gives me more calories back into my budget  for working out. After using it here’s a comparison on the good points of each from my perspective:

In the end, while they both have great features and a few minor drawbacks I finally stopped using tracknburn and moved exclusively to Lose It! because it allowed me to review charts and track my progress easily on line or on my phone, connect with friends and quickly and easily log my activities. After a month of use I am also happy to report that while I haven’t really lost any weight (it fluctuates within 2lbs on any given day), I have lost a full % of body fat down to today’s 23.2%. Having to track my calories is often enough of a deterrent to keep me from overindulging and helps me to really gauge how much time I devote to working out. While I may not ever look like a Victoria’s secret model, I know that I am healthy, happy and fit. If you are concerned about getting into shape and staying there I highly recommend tracking your progress and the Lose It! iPhone app is a wonderful, free and easy way to do that.

Here’s a sample of the online reports availabe on Lose It!

Etsy Shop Feature: Sweet and Dirty’s Emporium of Good Stuff

This next shop feature is special because we are both members of the same Team on Etsy: The Etsy Recycler’s Guild Team. However, I noticed and marked a few of their items as favorites before I even realized that they we were teamies. So, without further ado, it has been my pleasure to interview Sweet and Dirty’s Emporium of Good Stuff.

ICouldSewDoThat (Serendipit): First, let me thank you for taking the time out of your busy designer schedule for this interview. Second, let me say that I love your stuff. I’m so inspired by it every time that I browse your shop. In fact, the rowdy girls bag is on my wish list right now; I love it!

What is your inspiration for these wonderfully unique items?

SweetandDirty: I was always encouraged by family to make sure that I love what I do,  and I really think just knowing that I get to do that everyday.. wake up, be with my kids, and sew… that is all the inspiration i need to keep on keeping on. Of course coming across some good vintage fabric is pretty motivational too

ICouldSewDoThat (SerendipiT): Wow, that is so cool that you had so much support from your family and you get to really enjoy what you do; congrats! I love vintage fabric too, for many reasons. I typically use vintage fabric because it’s eco-friendly. Do you consider yourself “green”?

SweetandDirty: Very much. My entire shop is made from vintage/recycled/repurposed materials… it’s so nice to give new life to something instead of discarding it. It all carries over into my home life too – compost pile, garden growing (soon to be canning this summer), crazy recyclers.. it’s true, my husband has been known to go get and give recycling bins to those we know who don’t! 

ICouldSewDoThat (SerendipiT): So, now we know that you are an eco-friendly artisan, who enjoys crafting with your family, tell us a little more about yourself.

SweetandDirty: My name is Logan and I live in the wonderful mountains of Tennessee. I am a stay at home mom to two sweet babes (Harvey and Ruby) and wife to a super encouraging husband.  I went to college and got a BFA in painting, worked a silly retail job for way too long, then decided to take what I was doing for my loved ones and try to sell it to a larger audience… so far so good. It’s amazing to be doing what you love. In my ‘free time’ i can usually be found putting on impromptu dance parties and concerts with ruby, she’s two.. Harvey is only 5months so he hasn’t joined in just yet.  I also love to cook!

ICouldSewDoThat (Serendipit): Wow! Well you sound like one very well-rounded and equally busy lady who really lives life to the fullest; good for you! I always find talkign with other artisans who have taken their craft full-time to be so encouraging. I hope that one day I can too. There are so many great artisans on Etsy who really focus on the quality and good design; I find a new shop that I love every day. Do you have any favorites?

SweetandDirty: oh my goodness there are so many sellers i love, if you take a look at my favorites it justifies that!
a few off the top of my head…
http://www.etsy.com/shop/necessityisthemother
http://www.etsy.com/shop/spinthread ( i have one of her lovely necklaces and wear it all the time, love it)
http://www.etsy.com/shop/chelebert12
http://www.etsy.com/shop/ziazia
http://www.etsy.com/shop/sohomode
http://www.etsy.com/shop/blackbirdtees

 ICouldSewDoThat (SerendipiT): I will definately be checking those shops out; thanks for sharing! So, besides creating and shopping on Etsy, what else do you really love?

SweetandDirty: I love it when my little Ruby gives me random hugs, Harvey smiles my way, I get a date night with my husband, I find “new” fabric, seeing someone happy with something I have made, oh and a good batch of gravy and biscuits works real well too!

ICouldSewDoThat (SerendipiT): Well, you are a woman after my own heart. I lived in Tennessee for a spell myself and I have to agree that it’s the simple pleasures in life that really make each day special, especially time with loved ones and the chance to express yourself through craft. The biscuits always help too.

Well, to close out the interview I always love to get at least one totally random fact about each person that I meet. Can you share an interesting tidbit about yourself?

SweetandDirty: Let’s see… I can’t drive a stick.. I have an unhealthy obsession with sweet tea…I know the words to lots of obnoxious rap songs…and I can weld!

ICouldSewDoThat (SerendipiT): Those are some really fun facts; thanks for sharing!  I’ve always wanted to weld, maybe I can trade you for some lessons in driving a manual. So, now that we know how to find you on Etsy, where else can we keep up with you?

SweetandDirty: I do a lot of local festivals in my area.. the two largest being The Big Crafty in Asheville, NC (it’s in July and December) and Rhythm and Roots in Bristol, TN/VA (it’s in September). I’m looking forward to doing a lot more here this next year though!

Sweet and Dirty on Twitter, Facebook and Blog.

 Thanks again for sharing your story; I really enjoyed learning more about a favorite teammate of mine.

Recovering from a Brain Injury: Post-Concussive Syndrome

On January 9th, I went out with friends to celebrate my 33rd birthday. I’ll skip the gory details, but suffice it to say that I learned my lesson about wearing dangerously high-heeled boots on a day that combines snowy weather and alcohol consumption. Slow reflexes is no time to attempt acrobatics on a precarious 4″ platform of plastic near an ice slicked hard surface with an unprotected skull. Anyway, it all ended in me toppling onto the sidewalk, smacking the back of my head on concrete from about 5′. Not good. A tumble like that is enough to reboot your brain unfortunately and mine was no exception. Unfortunately, given my current participation in a variety of extreme sports, I am no stranger to the concussion. In fact, this is at least the third that I can confirm in the last twelve months. As my best friend put it, if I was an NFL player, I would be benched right now. The initial blow was enough to cause a massive goose egg along with the concussion that put into motion an extremely unpleasant chain of events that ended in the typical symptoms that indicate a trip to the E.R. Unconsciousness, vomiting, a headache that feels like a migraine on steroids. I couldn’t stand bright lights or loud sounds. I was constantly nauseated and worse yet, there seemed to be a fog over my brain that wouldn’t lift. The next day my symptoms seemed to worsen and by the third day I was a stuttering, nearly incoherent, forgetful mess. I couldn’t read a sewing pattern that I’ve used at least 10x. I tried to go to work, but was so overcome by the flashing fluorescence and the refresh rate on my computer that I was miserable. In fact, I was so bad off that I couldn’t even figure out how to turn on my out of office notice. Even worse, for days I kept crying unexpectedly, without even being sad. My brain was on a full on rebellion. Yikes! I went to see my doctor who threatened to call the police to escort me to the ER if I didn’t go on my own within minutes. They were concerned about a subdural hematoma, what killed Natasha Richardson unexpectedly after a ski outing. A friend drove me to Johns Hopkins Bayview and sat with me for hours, what turned out to be an unacceptable 8 hour wait for them to read me the results of my CT scan. Fortunately I didn’t have anything life-threatening, just Post-Concussion Syndrome.  I was given anti-nausea and pain relievers (percocet and zofran) prescriptions, which I didn’t fill because I had taking pharmaceuticals unless I have to. I injure myself far too frequently to use narcotic pain relief, I’d end up like Rush Limbaugh I’m afraid, so I just took a bunch of motrin and started doing some meditation twice a day to help improve my clarity of mind. My regular Doctor and the Physician in the E.R. indicated that my normal brain function should return within two weeks. Each day I’ve felt a bit more of my normal motor skills, balance and concentration return, but I’ve got to say this has been pretty scary. I’m fortunate that I have a traumatic brain injury and not brain damage, the later of which results in permanent loss of function. I’m definitely going to do a better job of protecting my bean in the future, and I hope everyone reading this does too. If you play sports, wear a helmet and a mouth guard please. If you are out celebrating your birthday, don’t mix alcohol and high heels either for that matter. Your brain is a precious thing to waste and its a long, slow and very painful recovery. While I’m getting better each day, I’m still running at only about 75%, but hopeful that my daily meditation and yoga practice combined with plenty of rest will get me back to normal. I always joked that my final words might be “hey, watch this!” Let’s just hope that isn’t a self-fulfilling prophecy.  I think I’ll stick to knitting for a while.

2011 Is Here; Now What?

Well, it’s officially 2011. If you are into Mayans or Judgement Day there may not be much point in planning out your next project, but as for me; I’ve got a lot of work to do. I am extremely happy to have survived the holidays. Everyone seemed to enjoy the gifts that I made for them with a few confused looks but mostly happy faces. Lots of exclamations of “It’s my favorite color!” which is really what I was hoping for. Lots of promises to pair the shawls coats (apparently purple coats were very popular in recent years) and new soap savers being filled with beer soap. I hope everyone really loves their gifts as much as I loved making them, but now it’s time to work for myself. Well, for myself and my Etsy shop. I’m off to a productive start though. I’ve already made a brimmed beanie and a pair of sweater boots from the same sweater. I’m hoping to get well practiced at making these matching sets so that I can have a few for myself, a few to give as gifts and a few to sell in my shop. They combine all of my favorite things in a few fun projects: thrifting, recycling and crafting! I’m also planning to use my newly acquired knitting and crocheting skills to get to work on a few fun projects too. I’m hoping to make a few rag rugs, some stylish accessories and maybe a sweater or two. Of course, I’m already receiving family requests for a new knit scarf, patches and hemming and even a fun baby shower gift. I’ve also come up with some fun ideas for the shop and I’m going to try to start using patterns in my refashions, so wish me luck! I’m also studying up on photography so that I can improve my photos. Please be sure to comment on anything you see in my shop; I can always use feedback, pointers or advice. Finally, in just a few months it will be time to get started on those Christmas projects again. So who has time to worry about the apocalypse? I’ve got crafting to do! What are your plans for the coming year? Be sure to share photos of any projects that you get finished or links to any cool tutorials that you spot. Happy New Year to you gentle reader!