Etsy Shop Update & My First Juried Show!

I can't believe I haven't done a post about this yet!  When I ran the Cherry Blossom 10 miler back in April, I bought a headband at the expo there.  I've never been able to find one that actually STAYED in my hair AND held my hair back.  This one did.  But I paid $15 and I realized that I could easily sew them myself and better yet, I could use vintage ribbon.  Yahtzee!

Here are what they look like.  You can find them in my Etsy Shop here.

Here's the best part!  They will be featured at my FIRST CRAFT JURIED CRAFT SHOW!  It's Saturday, November 16, 2013, at St. Peter Claver Church in West Hartford, CT.  Much, much more to come on that.

I also started a running blog, which you can find at The Reticent Runner.  I'd love to see you there!

Warrior Dash 2012 - More Fun Than People Should be Allowed to Have

So if you follow my blog, you know that I started running last December. I've been slowly progressing, and have run a number of 5ks. I try to sign up for races that will motivate me and be fun, not just grueling. I don't know who suggested it originally, but I signed up for the Warrior Dash early this summer.

For those of you who may not know, the Warrior Dash is a 5k, with an obstacle course built into the middle of it. It is known for mud, and racers getting completely covered and filthy. It is a huge national race that is held in many cities, all over the country, with the proceeds benefitting the St. Jude foundation. Good cause to get dirty for, right??

The race was this Saturday, and my cousin Amy drove from New York to join us. Here we are at the beginning of the race...clean. (I'm on the far right).

The waves of runners started every 1/2 hour. The race started out easy enough...3/4 mile of normal running...but then...the first obstacle.

It was a sea of old tires on the ground, leading up to a row of junked cars. You had to maneuver through the tires, and up over the cars. Tricky, but fun.

Then came the climbing. The walls were high...some as high as 20 feet. With just a rope, a few foot holds and your friends cheering behind you. We army crawled under barbed wire. We clambered up sand hills, and through mucky, smelly water in the woods. We jumped over rows of fire. And then...came the mud.

The last obstacle was a 15 yard crawl through soupy, thick mud. But there was that darn barbed wire again above you, so you had to get on your hands and knees, and wade through it.

Here we are at the end. Not looking quite the same are we??

It really was a lot of fun. Fantastic ego boost. Wonderful way to support and encourage friends to push through things they think they can't do. I loved it.

Color Me Rad - Hartford Style

What a day I had yesterday! I ran my third 5k, in a race called Color Me Rad. It's a race they set up in lots of cities all around the country. In each city they choose a local charity to raise money for. In Hartford, it was for the Greater Hartford YMCA. But that's not the fun part...

Everyone dresses in white, and at 5 stations along the course, they have volunteers throw colored corn starch at the runners, so when you're done, you look like a giant tye-died person. They give everyone a packet of color at the start to throw around too.

So, here's what I looked like at the start of the race

There were multiple "waves" of start times, and this is what the start looked like from the registration line.

This is what I looked like when I was done.

It was tons of fun. I have no idea what my race time was, but I ran for the first time without music. It was so much fun to see all of the other runners. There had to be at least 10,000 people. It was a wild day.

You Can Do Anything You Put Your Mind To

My Nonni told me that a million times. Of course sometimes I believed her and sometimes I didn't. With yesterday's accomplishment, I know now, that she was right. 100%.

I had always said "I can't run." "I can't get the breathing down." "I've tried so many times and I just can't do it." But I have some pretty amazing women that I am proud to call friends who encouraged me, and helped me conquer the "I can't" demon. They had me download the Couch to 5k app for my phone. And for 10 weeks, I worked up from mostly walking, to mostly running, and going a full 3.1 miles.

I suffered through hurting my knees, and four weeks of physical therapy in between. But I kept going. And yesterday, I ran (and sometimes walked) my first 5k race. It was called the "It's finally spring 5k" in Manchester, CT. The first mile was a horrid. Uphill. But after I got through that, the rest felt no so bad.

Here we are at the end of the race. We look happy to be done, don't we?? (Right to left are Nancy, Kari, Sue, Jen and me)



My fantastic husband took the kids and waited with them about 1/4 mile before the finish to cheer me on. It was fantastic and really pushed me to finish. (I'm blowing them thank you kisses)



It felt so wonderful to work that hard to meet a goal, and to have my friends and family there to support me.



May 2012 be a year of firsts for me. After yesterday, I'm feeling like that's pretty likely.