Ouch- ouch-ouch

I'm here.

Sore.

Ouch.

I completed an 8K on Sunday in the beautiful Wildwoods of New Jersey.  Check out the beautiful, peaceful sunrise from the boardwalk.   I love sunrises.  For this moment, I was so calm.  Obviously, this was before race start. Me? calm? Haha!

 
  I'm not much of a runner, but I would love to be.  Runners always seem so carefree, so light and airy.  Not THIS runner.  If you can even call it that.  I jog a bit, walk a bit, jog a bit, walk a bit. I feel so uncoordinated compared to everyone else.

I try not to worry too much about time but I was happy with my finish time. One hour and eighteen minutes.  

and.... now I'm sore.  My thighs hate me, my calves hate me and my feet LOATHE me. 
I've been stretching, using a foam roller and Advil has become a close friend. 

My cousin did the race with me and a friend was actually crazy enough to complete the half marathon.   Well, it's not a full marathon so you know what they say.  She was only "Half Crazy".
Maybe if I can stay consistent with my training, I'll be only Half Crazy next year as well.

Despite the pains and soreness, I'm already trying to find another race to complete.  It was such a great feeling, passing the spectators- the volunteers and EVERYONE rooting you on.  It was such a great feeling to cross that finish line and hear my name announced! I breathed a sigh of relief, was handed my medal and proceeded to want to pass out, and yet I can't wait to do another one!

5 miles is pretty far when you think about it.   I completed 5 miles!

Go me!

Is anyone else out there a runner? I'd love to hear your motivational stories!

I get to be a firefighter for a day!

Well not quite.
I always have wanted to be one though. 

My grandfather, my dad, plenty of past boyfriends and now my fiance were all/are firefighters.  I've grown up around it my whole life.

I get to do the next best thing, HERO RUSH.  Hero Rush is a fire fighter themed obstacle course.

According to their website, I have 3 days- 21 hours and 6 minutes! Eeep.

I've done 5k's before but in no way can I call myself a runner.

 I'm more excited for the fun obstacles, getting wet and getting dirty!

Hopefully by the end of the day I will have completed the race and be wearing this bad boy around my neck!

Hopefully I can get some photos!

Anyone ever do a race like this before?

I will post a race report when I get back.  I'm so nervous.

You are my sunshine...

♫ ☼ ♫ ☼ ♫

Yes, I'm singing. 

Be glad you can't hear me.

 I had a friend ask me to make her a sign for her baby, to put in her room.

Said friend lives all the way across the country. 

I've never shipped a sign before. 

Let alone a large sign. 

I was nervous. 

I still have no idea how to ship it...but I finally made the sign.

I stopped putting it off. 

Now that the sign is made, I HAVE to ship it.

I HAVE to figure it out.

She loves it though- which makes me happy.

Spreading the sunshine at these parties:

Make it Yourself Monday

Pinwheels!

I work at a Halloween haunt during the month of October.  It's usually pretty scary stuff.

Halloween doesn't HAVE to be scary, I appreciate the cutsey Halloween stuff too.  I'm a non-Halloween discriminator :)  (If that made ANY sense!)

I dug around my scrapbook paper looking for any kind of paper that I could use to be "Halloweeny".  It's been a while since I actually scrapbooked, I wasn't sure what hidden treasures I may have had.

I wish I was able to find a cute Halloween movie to watch while doing these.

Hocus-Pocus....Beetlejuice....Halloween High....

Yes, I watch Halloween High- Don't judge me.

I used the tutorial by Style Me Pretty 

It really is hard to keep your folds the same size! I had some wider than others, but all in all it seemed to work out. 

My poor little fingers started to hurt after a while.  I stopped after about 5 of them.

That doesn't mean I won't make more later, but 5 was my limit last night.

Also in my scrapbook goodies, I found these little orange and black buttons and Halloween themed squares.  I have TONS of them.  What a perfect craft to use them on.

I should have taken more photos, but I was not really prepared.  I was sitting on the couch with a storage bin lid on my lap as my "table", paper all over, square tiles all over and a hot glue gun that wasn't very steady on this bin lid.

I just need to add some thin dowel sticks and plop them in a Halloween themed planter, vase, pumpkin- something.

Real sticks might even look nifty! Give it a little creepy factor.

What do you think? Have you made pinwheels before?

I can see myself making these for just about every holiday.

Partying it up here:
Redoux Interiors
Creat Craft Love- Pomp Party
Simply Designing- Simply Link Party
52 Mantels Thursdays are YOUR days
Make it yourself Monday