Sunday, November 18, 2012

13.1 Here I go!

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The race starts in less than two hours.  I’m sitting at my computer eating oatmeal and trying to ignore the major butterflies I have in my stomach.   I’ve done this before.  I’ve run several half marathons, why am I so nervous?

I get nervous, I do know this about myself, so I shouldn’t be surprised.  I get nervous for myself and I get nervous for others.  I think I was even MORE nervous for my younger brother last year when he was running his first marathon and trying to qualify for the Olympic trails. 

Race day is finally here.   I know I can run.  I know I will finish.  It is the anticipation of what I’ve been training for the past few months.  It is the hope of finishing with the time I want… but not knowing if being sick and not training for the last two weeks will hinder that.  It is the unknown of what the weather will do.  The weatherman is calling for rain.  I’m hoping he is wrong.   I don’t mind running in the rain.  I mind racing in the rain {sort of ironic I guess, since my times aren’t much of ‘race’ times}.   It is the thoughts of ‘did I hydrate enough?’  ‘Did I eat the enough of the right foods?’  ‘Did I avoid the wrong foods?’ Did I? Did I? Did I?...  guess there is only one way to find out. 

Bring it on half marathon!   


Friday, November 9, 2012

Thanksgiving Fall Wreath Tutorial

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Supplies Needed:
~ Styrofoam Wreath {can be found at any craft store}
~ DMC floss, various colors
~ Burlap or any fabric, cut into strips roughly 2” wide
~ Felt, various fall colors
~ Fabric flowers {mine are made of felt and silk}
~ Needle
~ Pins

Cut burlap into strips, roughly 2” wide.  My strips were about two feet long, so I needed roughly four strips of burlap.  


Then take the strips of burlap and wrap them around the wreath, overlapping as I went along.  I used pins to make sure the ends of each piece stayed in place. 

Next step, and the most time consuming part, making the leaves.  Cut leaves from the various colors of felt.  Depending on how many leaves you want on your wreath will determine how many you’ll need to cut.  I used about 20 on my wreath.


Take your first color of DMC embroidery floss and cut a piece {I cut about 15 inches}, thread it into your needle, then tie a knot at the non-threaded end.  Starting from the backside and bottom of one leaf, push the needle and thread through.  Put the needle back through the felt leaf roughly ½ centimeter up the side of the leaf.  Continue this process all the way around the leaf.  Tie a knot at the end, cut the remaining thread, and start the process all over again on the next leaf.  



Making the fabric flowers {you can skip this and leave the flowers off the wreath to save more time}.  HERE is a fabulous tutorial on how to make fabric flowers by Tatortots and Jello.

Once you have ‘decorated’ all your leaves and created your flowers, you’re ready to finish the wreath!

This is the fun part {but also the part that took me the longest- cause I couldn’t make up my mind!}  Take the felt leaves you made and lay them around the wreath however you like.  Place the fabric flowers on top of the leaves.   I put the majority of mine on one half, and three on the opposite side.    Once you have the leaves and flowers where you’d like, you can use pins {or glue, or whatever you’d like} and stick the leaves and flowers in place.  


 
And… done!  You have a fun and festive wreath for fall and the Thanksgiving season!


What do you think of this wreath?  I'd love to hear your thoughts! 

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Thanksgiving Fall Wreath

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Now that Halloween is over, and the pumpkins are {mostly} put away, I wanted to make something festive for the Thanksgiving season.
Since I often choose to spend time creating something fun and new, instead of doing things I probably should be doing {housework can wait, right?!}.  I decided the empty space on the wall needed a fall wreath.   

Fortunately, I was able to use supplies I already had on hand.  I’ve had the styrofoam wreath for a while, waiting to be used for a project.   I used burlap, felt scraps and DMC floss I had left over from various previous projects.  

Some left over supplies, a little time and viola!  New wreath!  The little man even told me he ‘loves it!’- huge compliment for sure!!


I think it might be missing something…or have too many leaves.  What do you think?  Do you think it needs anything else?  What would you add/ take away?

Easy tutorial coming soon!

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