Just thought I’d mention to y’all that I’m now a featured lifestyle blogger on the Des Moines Register. To quote my friend Corey, it’s the modern-day equivalent of having a cable-access show!
Which reminds me of some of my favorite SNL sketches … and best movie to spawn from SNL characters.
I always have something cooking. So I’ve decided this is the year that I purge. And by purge, that means I honestly use all of the stuff that I’ve hoarded (ie. art and craft supplies) or they go to a good home or good will.
So, to start the year, I’m going to go through my apartment once a week with three bags (or boxes). One bag for things that are recyclable. This will go to work with me so I can put it in the bins that don’t need sorting (cuz I’m lazy and apt to get rid of more this way). Another bag for things that can go to Good Will. And the final is for anything that doesn’t fit into either of these categories but that I do need to get rid of. Hopefully it won’t be anything, but just in case.
In addition, I’m going to finally FO all of my WIPs. For you non-craftsters, that means finish off all my works-in-progress.
This includes, but is not limited to:
Also, I realized I have a lot of stuff that I can do things with that I have just been hoarding. Example — jeans. I refuse to throw away jeans. I need to get rid of them. Good will? Likely. BUT I could be crafty. I could cut them up and make some patchwork things out of them. Patchwork pillows? Patchwork wallets? How fun. I could have a whole jeans line this year. That would be fun. Maybe I shall. But I need to figure out some sort of twist so it’s not just the kitschy “let’s make things from jeans” look that everybody else has. So maybe I’ll master wonky log cabin patchwork and create potholders, pillows, coasters and the like. We shall see. Instead, I’m going to blog about it. But maybe I move my jeans from the random spot they’re living to my fabric pile so I at least have a head start there.
So I guess that’s it for projects. I have a few other freelance pieces that are in the works.
So I recently got a hold of my hard drive that has ALL of my projects on it from college. My ex-boyfriend had it because he was trying to fix it for me, but didn’t succeed. Well, maybe he did because I got it to work again. 
Anyway, I found a lot of my old stuff that I just love and I posted it online. www.chimesdesign.com/2007 if you’re curious.
Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad, but when it rains, it pours.
I’ve been kind of complaining about money lately (really, who isn’t?). I’d taken out some extra flex dollars this year to pay for physical therapy, so my paychecks are $100 less each month. I also bought a car, which means I’ve got a $200 bill each month after insurance. So anyway, things are a bit tighter than I anticipated. I hadn’t banked on the $100 less on my paycheck. I realize that I’ve also been really dependent upon freelance and crafting for some extra income.
Anyway, somebody upstairs (or downstairs, or somebodies, or somebody who doesn’t exist at all — depending on your religious beliefs) was paying attention because fortune has smiled down upon me.
Not everything will pan out right away, but once things do, I will be sitting pretty, or more comfortably at least.
First, a local law firm asked me to redesign their logo, letterhead, business cards and other business materials. Possibly a website. They are a serious client (yay!) and are willing to compensate me for my work. This is exciting as many people don’t value design enough to seek out a talented professional and pay them what they’re worth. Anyway, I sent them an estimate and contract and I’m just waiting to hear back to start. Should be an interesting endeavor! Something different from most law firms, so it’s very exciting for me to be able to help them out and brand them.
Also, I’ve been working on a website for my friend Kim’s friend, Lisa. I’ve put the bare bones together and I just have to work through all the technical stuff (you know, the hard part!) … and then we’ll be off and running. She has really amazing work, so I’m glad to be able to help her on this project. She’s my first official BIG paying freelance job, so I was very thankful for that. Most freelance stuff I’ve done has been pretty small, so I was excited for this opportunity. Plus, I love helping out the artist community.
AND I found a few other art/craft shows to participate in the next few months.
First — Relish the Hellish. This is going to be way cool. I’ll be able to sell some of my rock/punk/dark stuff here (I don’t usually at Market Day). It’s basically an art/music event held at a local tattoo shop. There’s going to be a lot of local vendors there, and I’m especially excited because Sew Zinski is going to be there (I blogged about her awesome work a while back) so I’ll finally get to meet her in person. We’ve been tweeting back and forth and I hear things about her (and vice versa) from my co-worker. She seems like a cool cat.
Anywho — Relish the Hellish is the SAME DAY as Market Day!! Eep. Oh well. I’ve got it under control!
The other craft show is actually in my neighborhood — I’ll have more details later — but it’s the same day as Market Day in September! This one’s even crazier because there’s only an hour between events… I might need some help for this one!
ALSO, I won two blog giveaways today!! Wow.
Crazy.
I will blog more about the giveaways, Relish the Hellish and the other craft show! Right now, I’ve got to get headed to bed.
I haven’t updated much lately because I’ve got way too much going on!
Quick updates:
As you can see, I’m super busy!! Soo I probably am not going to update again until next week or even the week after that. I’m going out of town for 4th of July and may not bring my computer again.
Today was my first day of my self-imposed spring break. I didn’t really have anything planned this week other than to get some rest and catch up on some running and possibly get some shopping done and MAYBE getting my hair cut.
I drove back to eastern Iowa today. Got up at 8ish, threw my stuff in my car and went to Ames to say goodbye to Kasey before he left for work. He’s coming back this way on Wednesday but I’m not sure how long I’ll be back, so I didn’t want to chance not seeing him all week.
Drive went okay. I immidietly regretted taking 30 instead of 80, but I got to see Kasey so I guess it was okay. I forgot to mention that I managed to drop off 5 bags of stuff at GoodWill while I was in Ames. I’ve been meaning to do that since January. Anyway, I hate 30 because it’s 2-lane…4-lane…2-lane…etc. Annoying. The speed limit changes about 50 times and I always get stuck behind a slow person.Today I got redirected around an accident involving a semi-trailor around Tama/Toledo…30 minutes out of my way. No biggie. I made it home.
I got home, turned around, went back outside and ran 4-5ish miles. It was too warm. I had a really tough time pulling that mileage even though it’s not even near what I should be running right now, but whatever.
I got about halfway down my street and ran into two older ladies walking up the hill. The one lady stopped me and said, “We’re out walking, but we want to look like you! How do you get to be that skinny?” (and if you know me, I’m never skinny enough for myself) I told the lady to try running a marathon… and that oughta do it. haha.
After I got done running, I hit the monkey bars at the elementary school down the street. I spent hours on end when I was in 4th-6th grade trying to cross those damn bars. I did it today. I was pretty proud of myself. I rock.
Went home and did some pilates (mostly planks) and showered. Then I ate all the Valentine’s candy that my mom had given me earlier since I haven’t been home since January. I started my laundry (10-11 loads?)… and hung around the house for a while.
I called my friend Danielle at some point and she invited me to go to women’s choir with her. Our choir director from high school (back story: she retired our senior year and everybody was really close to her) is the director of the choir and was excited to see me (back story: I used to be a phenom at singing). I informed her that I’m now tone deaf, but I’d be up for singing anyway. It was a fun time. I didn’t feel too out of place or as tone deaf as I thought.
I got home and my sister and I went for a walk… actually I walked to her boyfriend’s house where I found the 2 of them scratching lotto tickets and took her for a walk around the block a few times.
I got home…threw some more laundry in, and recapped the day. All and all, not productive — except for the laundry part. Either way.
Tomorrow I plan to do a bit of work on the INK tattoo site. I might try to find something fun to do for St. Patty’s day. I’ve never thought of it as much of a holiday since I’m not a huge alcoholic and I’m definitely not Irish, but it seems wrong to stay in tomorrow…so I’ll be going out. I’m also supposed to run 15 miles, but I don’t see that happening. I’m going to shoot for 8-10. MAYBE 12. I need to hit 12-15 at some point so I know I can do the half in a month (EEP!).
Sitting here on a Sunday night watching family guy and painting my toenails. Exciting.
I have no desire to be going to bed anytime soon… Which stinks bc it’s Sunday night and we lost an hour this weekend and I have a hard time sleeping on Sundays anyway.
Plus I missed out on the gym being open… So now I’m really not going to be tired.
The weather today was perfect for staying in and chilling out so imade some progress on some freelance projects.
Other than that it was a pretty uneventful weekend. Stayed in and watched movies with Kasey on Friday, made a BLT omlette with hashbrowns and cheese for Saturday breakfast, hit the gym for a few hours, hit the bar for a fewhours (side note: did you know Welch Ave. does dollar pints on Wednesdays too? Of olde main beer!)… Then I drove home in super crappy/scary weather and did some freelance and made some cookies.
Yup. Exciting. Next weekend I hope it’s nice out so I can do my long run outside. This weekend stunk!
I realized that I haven’t blogged about running for a while, and since the title of my blog is “running+life” (or is it life+running) I think I should probably do that from time to time.
Last weekend I was supposed to run 10 miles for my half marathon training plan (did I mentioned I started that Feb. 2?). I’ve been kinda half-assing the plan on the weekends (ie. not completing my super long runs)…partially b/c yes, i still have an injury i have to watch but mostly because I’m lazy. Needless to say, I did not complete my 10 miles. BUT this time it so wasn’t my fault. I was ready and rarin’ to go.
What happened was that my friend Kelly and I were going to go to Revenge of the Prom (see future blog post) and I didn’t know what time she wanted me over there to get ready. Anyway, I got up at 9 AM or so…ate breakfast…and then immidiately had stomach cramps. Fabulous. So I had to chillax till those went away because God only knows what happens if you run with stomach cramps (i’ll give you a hint…it’s not pretty). Meanwhile, I went grocery shopping because I was all “oh I have plenty of time… prom isn’t til 8 PM!”
So at 2 PM Kelly calls and is all, “welllll you should probably be here around 4.” Mind you, I hadn’t a) ran or b) showered or c) finished packing all my prom attire. I told her I’d be looking at more like… 5:30…maybe 6. We had a pre-prom party we were going to (that I completely forgot about!) so I had to somehow squeeze in a 10-mile run. I told Kelly I’d be there as soon as I could (because I had to do her hair and makeup too — just like real prom) and I’d try to run faster.
I decided 10 miles FAST wasn’t going to happen because I hadn’t ran 10 miles at a decent pace for about 2 weeks. I tried for a 7-8 mile workout and went out the door.
Randomly, I ran into hills. Apparently Waveland in DM is called that for the hills…? or at least I’m going to assume that. MAN those totally sucked. I was about ready to die. Somehow I made it home though…and in record time. I beat both my mile PR (as in the mile recorded on the iPod PR) and my 10K PR (again, on the iPod — this was about 1 min slower than my real PR…but that was for JUST a 10K and it was a race).
Woo hoo. So this weekend I’m scheduled to run 15 miles…and it’s definitely going to rain/snow/hail/sleet/do-god-knows-what to make it impossible. YAY!!!!!
Also new on the running front, Kasey’s older brother, Cory, (not to be confused with my sister, Coree) signed up for the Chicago Marathon. I challenged him to a most miles over 3 or 4 months on nike+. Somehow, I’m kicking his butt. Not sure how b/c I’ve been sooo slacking (I do cross train twice weekly now instead, so not skipping workouts).
AND I bought Kasey an iPod nano for Valentine’s day (went way over budget, but he bought me a wii fit, which I should probably blog about at some point) and a nike+ with the appropriate gear. He’d been wanting to get back into running but didn’t really have time…so I thought this could be a motivator for him. I challenged him to a fastest mile competition since I knew he wouldn’t be putting up the miles I do anytime soon (if ever, really… I wouldn’t expect that of anybody unless they were as crazy as me).
but…here’s my runs and challenges, yo.
I’m so excited I just had to blog about this.
Went to the eye dr today for the first time since 2006. Shockingly my eyes have gotten better. I was surprised to hear that because they’ve consistently been getting worse since 4th grade (especially the left eye w/ astigmatism that is now apparently gone).
In my efforts to use my flex dollars before the end of the fiscal year (which is May at Drake), I bought a fancy new pair of glasses by Coach. I don’t really NEED a new pair…but I kind of wanted a new pair. Normally I’d just buy the el-cheapo kinda cool pair, but I figured, hell, if I don’t spend my flex dollars, I’m just going to lose them… so I splurged. I’ll have to pay for my prescriptions until May, but that’s only $10 per prescription, so who really cares (not me!).
Here are my glasses. I’m excited. I can’t wait to get them in 2 weeks.
omg a brand name. a DESIGNER brand name (not that I really care about that, these were just kickass cool)
I restrained myself from getting them in pink. Pink is definitely my style, but I thought the sand color would be more practical and 'adult' of me to purchase.
so now I play the waiting game.
Also, I need to check my flex balance and I can’t figure out how to do that. I know I have enough to cover these cool specs, but it would only let me ring $100 through. I wonder if there’s a daily limit or something? Who knows. As long as I can pay the rest when I pick them up I’m good to go!
Holy Toledo Batman, it works!
Or at least it worked last night for the half hour drive from DSM to Ames.
In case you haven’t noticed, the appearance and electronic functionality of my car has gone way downhill in the past 3 years. It started with the dent in the side (from backing into a dumpster), then the interior lights went out (which I got fixed, but the fuse blows everytime a new one is put in, so I quit spending money), then the LED light on my clock/radio went out (I can’t tell what station I’m on or what time it is!) and finally somebody ripped off my driver’s side mirror and I replaced it with a mismatched color of mirror (grey).
The LED light on my clock/radio will blip on and off ocassionally, but usually for no more than a minute or so. I’ve only documented this occurance once or twice before. However, last night, it returned in full force for the entire drive from Des Moines to Ames. I had a CD in the player so maybe that had something to do with it. Either way, it excited me enough to make sure to take a picture of it (after I parked of course!) and blog about it.
YAY.
On a side note, my co-worker got a new car this week. I’m really excited for her because I know she’s wanted one for a while. I’m hoping my car will last me as long as her old one lasted her (I think 8 years she said). Her old car was a pontiac too, which gives me hope that this one will last a couple more years. Aside from that, my friend Steph from back home had a Pontiac Grand Am and drove it until it hit over 250,000 miles. I think the transmission went out so she sold it to a friend who’s a mechanic for $250 and he fixed it and is still driving it. I’m only at 140,000 so I think I can get some more life out of this beast! I’m not putting any more money into it (except gas/oil change/normal maintanance) unless I have to.
