Snowflake Ornaments on sale at Etsy

I was finally able to get some of my snowflake ornaments for sale on Etsy.  I would love it if you took the time to take a peak at the different items.  If you know of anybody who might like to purchase them either as a gift or for their own house, I would appreciate it if you passed the link.

My Grandma showed me how to do quilling when I was pretty young and I've stuck with it throughout the years.  Making snowflakes are my favorite thing to make, and about the only thing I make anymore.   This year I went out a limb and also made a tree, star, and poinsettia.

Thanks for taking the time to look!   If you want to make a purchase, feel free to send me a message on Etsy and mention this post.  I'll give you 10% off your order!

Thanks to a commenter on my other blog, I'm now aware that the widget doesn't show up in Google Reader. If you are having trouble viewing the widget, which shows my snowflakes, please click on the LINK to go to my Etsy Shop.  Thanks!

Super Holiday Bloganza!

I have decided to participate in the Super Holiday Bloganza!  What does this mean, well, basically one winner is selected to win a ton of gifts!  You have to be a follower of all blogs offering a giveaway, but that's it!  You can choose to do more for extra entries, but you don't have to.   Thanks to Terry for bringing this giveaway to my attention.  I decided to join because I thought it sounded like fun and I love making my snowflake ornaments.

Click HERE for more details about the Super Holiday Bloganza and to see what other goodies you could win.

My prize will be two quilling snowflakes.  One snowflake ornament will be all white and the other will be white and green.   The white and green snowflake will be a miniature version of the all white one.

Please note, if you heart my Etsy shop, you will get an extra entry into this contest!

(psst...I do sell these snowflakes on Etsy, if you are interested in purchasing please visit my Etsy shop)

Here's a list of all the blogs offering prices for the Super Holiday Bloganza:

Please help my school district!

While this idea was put forth by Parkway North and I'm a Parkway South alumni, I love that the idea is to first convert their school with the funds, and then convert each school in the district.    I might also add that while I'm a Parkway South alumni, I did move back into the district and my future kid will also attend Parkway South.  I would love for the schools to be run by solar energy by the time they get to high school (and middle school!).

If you have a minute, please take the time to vote, I would greatly appreciate it. (voting is open till Nov. 30th, so there's plenty of time to vote more than once if you want to!)

Show us your life - Bathrooms

I've decided to try and start doing the "show us your life" feature on Kelly's Korner.  This week the focus was on Bathrooms.  You all should feel very lucky because not only will I be showing you what 2 of our bathrooms currently look like, you get the before shots too.  I don't mean to sound like I'm living in some super fancy huge house by saying 2 of the bathrooms, but the couple who built the house 21 years ago also partially finished the basement and put a full bath and bedroom down there.  We haven't re-done that bathroom yet and it only gets used during pool season so it's not a high priority item, therefore I don't dare show pictures of that yucky bathroom.    Some of you have probably seen this pictures before, especially if you follow my other blog, Not Enough Books. However I think the majority of you will find these new to you and I hope you enjoy.

First stop is the hall bathroom.  As you can probably tell from the before and after shots, we gutted the whole thing..from the sink and counter top to the toilet and tub.  For those of you who follow me due to me eco-friendly nature, you'll be happy to note that from doing both bathrooms the only items that ended up in the dump were the flooring and pieces that couldn't be re-used.  Everything else (yes..including the toilet and some of the tiles that didn't break) were either sold or given away via Craig's list.

Ok..the before pictures (please forgive me for any crappy lighting/photo's, etc):

From the gold framed mirror to the frilly blue shower curtain

Let's not forget the gray tile in the tub area

The AFTER photo's:

Now...the master bathroom.  As you'll be able to tell from the photo's we gutted this entire bathroom as well. The only thing that remains is the tub and we even changed the plumbing on that, including the jets.  This one was more labor intensive because we took down the wall between the shower and the toilet, therefore we had to move the plumbing.  We also made the shower a lot bigger.  

Here are the before photo's:

And....the AFTER photos:

(oops..I just noticed that this picture is before we installed the handles on the cabinets, alas, I'm too lazy to go clean this bathroom and take another picture. You'll just have to trust me that it looks much better with the handles installed)

I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into my life/house.  Hopefully the feature will be kitchens soon..because boy oh boy, the remodel in that room was major and it looks sooo much better that it did when we bought it (think 80's pink kitchen..yikes!). 

Running update

I thought I would pop-in with a running update for all of you.  Not sure if anybody really cares, but it's a major part of my life, so I'm going to talk about it.

I think I've mentioned it before, but if not, I'm currently in training for a 10 mile race that's in a couple of weeks.  It's on the 27th of November, the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  What better way to burn off all the Thanksgiving food than a long run right?  Ok fine, I'll be honest, I think I'm the only person in the US who is not fond of traditional Thanksgiving food and therefore doesn't over-indulge.  However, I know there will be dessert (because I'm making it for one gathering) and I do love dessert.  

Back on point, 10 miles.  The last time I ran 10 miles was for this same race, The Great River Road Run.  This was way back in highschool, I do believe it was 1993. I might be wrong, but I can check because I still have the sweatshirt.    After that, I pretty much stuck to 5k (3.1 miles).    So working up towards 10 miles was a big push for me.  I had gotten to where I was running 4 miles in the morning, and sometimes running 5-6 on the weekend.   

Three weekends ago I was supposed to run 8 miles, but got lost (that's pretty common for me) at Castlewood Park and ended up running 9.  Then the following weekend my training schedule was to just do an easy 5 mile run.  Then last weekend I was supposed to do 9, but suffering a cold.  I did run all week but got out to run 5 miles on Sunday.    I'm hoping to get out and run 9 miles this weekend. Fingers crossed I do ok.  Last time I had major hip pain for the last 4 miles or so and I hope I don't have a repeat of that.

I'm getting nervous for the race. I'm just not used to the long miles.  I only have two more weekends to get in a long run and be prepared for it.   Stay tuned for updates on how my training is going and how the race turns out!

Great Wall Marathon? Oh dear

Remember this post, the one where I said one of my bucket list items was to run a 5k or a 10k on the Great Wall of China?

I actually found out, by accident, that there is such a thing.  While the main race is a marathon, a half-marathon, 10k, and 5k are also offered on the same day.  Before I realized that, let me tell you, for the first time ever I seriously considered training for a marathon.  For the first time ever I thought I could actually do it.  Then I found out I could do a lower mileage race and wiped my brow.  If I did it, and by golly I truly want to, I think my focus would be on the half-marathon.   Reading more about it, I find that the entire race is not run on the wall but parts of it are.  That's good enough for me.

I looked at the pricing for May 2011, it seems you can only sign up as a package deal.  I'm ok with that too, if I'm going to China I want to see some of the sights as well.    May 2011 won't happen, but now that I know it's a real thing, I'm going to keep thinking about it. I'm going to actually train for a half-marathon and work on running one or two a year and one day, I'll do this one.

The Great Wall Marathon

Have you thanked a Veteran today?

Today is Veteran's day, if you haven't already please take the time to thank a veteran today.  For me, be thanking my Grandpa.  My Grandpa served in the Navy during WWII.  He was one of those who signed up soon after the Pearl Harbor bombing.

The picture below shows my great-Uncle (he served in the Air Force during WWII and was then career Air Force), my Grandma (Uncle Joe's sister), and my Grandpa (best friends with Joe and future husband of my Grandma).