Busy, Busy

The wedding is over but things have not slowed down. I had a few semi-official photography sessions and I'm starting to get phone calls from prospective new clients. So exciting!!

I did finally knit something (a baby cocoon) for my newborn session and a baby hat that havn't photographed yet.

Really like how it turned out:
My aunt from Poland gave me the yarn and it was perfect for the project, have more of it and will be making another one for my friend Nong.

My next session will be a lady and her black lab, I can't wait. Sounds like a blast, hope Baci isn't get jealous thought ;o)

In running news, I'm signed up for the St. Pete Nike Womens Half Marathon on Nov. 22. Totally scared, only started running this week since my injury. It's been 8 weeks and honestly my foot still feels a little weird, I'm just hoping it'll go away and I can at least run most of the half marathon, I'm ok with not doing well i just want my medal. I only have 4 medals this year all for half marathons ;((, totally pathetic. I got 8 last year and 10 in 2007. Maybe 2009 will be my comeback year in running. ;o)

Last Weekend!

What a crazy weekend but i guess that's how they will all be until after the wedding and the marathon in September.
On Friday I ate some really good food, first at Vegiterranean (a vegetarian restaurant owned by Chrissie Hynde) for lunch and then at D'Agnese's Italian Restaurant for dinner. I would just like to say that Shrimp D'Agnese is fantastic!!
On Saturday I got a 14 miler in, perfect day for it no sun and only in the mid 60's. And that night went to see V's brothers band play at Borders (nice relaxing jazz) he's the drummer.

On Sunday I decided to redo the bathroom but had to watch the Tour first so had a late start. So far I have only cleaned and primed but am hoping to finish this weekend. So many more things to do before the wedding, I'm exhausted.

Almost forgot, I got to visit with my friend Pam and her sweet doggie Roxy. I think she's sticking her tongue out at me, funny!

Florida Trip

Went to Florida 2 weekends ago to visit my mom and do some wedding type shopping. Well I got a lot done but I swear I felt like I was on tour. From the time I step foot off the plane it was a race with no water stops. In the end I got a lot accomplished I actually found a dress. Yes, I got a dress and it's not any of the ones i posted but I think it's perfect. My mom and I walked into this little bridal store with only a few dresses in each size. There was only one there that i considered trying on and it fit (well it's a little tight) and I love it. So we got it! Will show pictures of it after the wedding don't want to spoil it for V.

As for running I did get a nice 11 miler in on Friday thankfully the sun didn't come out but it sure was hot. I started at 6:45 and was done before 9 (running time about 1:52). Running in Florida is so different, you sweat from the time you get out of your car. When I run in Lakeland I always go to Lake Hollingsworth (pictured below), it's a little less then 3 miles around but the scenery is really pretty and it's right by Florida Southern College. The only bad thing is that cars drive around the lake so you're constantly breathing in fumes. oh well ;0)


The other great lake in Lakeland is Lake Morton, it's probably less then 1 mile around but it is the home to many different species of birds. They are so pretty!!

While in Florida I also had a quick photo shoot with some doggies and my friend Khim.



Once i got home from this exhausting trip it took me two days just to catch up on my sleep but all is well now.

Stuff

Dress No. 1 got the most votes, but I'm still not convinced. Maybe I should take the dress i have to a seamstress and see if anything can be done to make it work. I'll keep you posted of the progress but a part of me wants to order one of those dresses even just to see how close to the picture it would end up. They can all be made in 3 weeks for $150-200, not a bad deal even if they don't end up exactly like the picture.

In other news, I participated in a Secret Pal on this Polish website. What great fun, my package came on friday from a girl in Lodz, Poland and these were the contents:

Two skeins of beautiful blue colored yarn, 2 of my favorite chocolates, other candies (yum!), wonderful rasberry tea, knitting magazine and little lady bug clothes pins. So cute!!

The package I sent went to a really nice girl in Gdansk, Poland and I think she was happy with what i got her:

Also the wedding shawl and V's wedding socks are completed. Satisfied with both and glad they are finished!

Next on the horizon is this little beauty:

As for running, I'm planning on a 12 miler on saturday. Marathon training is in full swing!

A little about running

So my poor blog has been all about knitting (btw, socks and shawl are almost finished), so here's a little about running:
Official training has started for the Akron Marathon (Sept 26th) 100 days away. What??
So last weekends long run was 10 miles and this Sunday it'll be 12 and on from there. This time I will be doing 1-16 miler, 1-18 miler, 2-20 milers and 1-22 miler, which is a lot more than any other marathon training. I think last year when i trained for Akron my longest run was 19 (I also think i got injured on that run), hopefully that won't happen this year. The other problem is that I will be getting married the weekend before which is also making me wonder about my training but I guess time will determine what happens. All I know is that no matter what I will run the Akron Marathon, finish, get my medal and go home happy. I would love to beat my time from last year which was a PR at 4 hours 11 minutes, but Akron is a tough course and I won't get my hopes up.

Memorial Weekend

Had a great time on my knitting weekend!! Went for a great 5 mile run on the nicest golf course (Peek'n Peak) that was quite hilly, but fantastic with awesome views. Knitted at the pool and ate some fabulous food. Even got a tan, Yay!

Love this view!!

On the knitting front, made great progress on the wedding shawl and the asymmetrical (muti-shape) top is almost completed. If I didn't continue to screw it up it would have been done by now, but it's a learning experience.

Wedding shawl at the pool

The Girls!

No PR

So this morning my friend email me that her time for Cleveland has been changed, quickly I looked up my results and mine was changed too. Damn it!!! No PR 1:56:41. I had 1:56:43 on my watch but figured I didn't stop it as soon as I crossed the finish. I'm disappointed but it is only 1 minute right? One minute = no PR ;(

Cleveland Half - Race Report

Well Cleveland went retro this year!! Very cool, all the marketing had retro/vintage logos and the medal instead of being the typical blue and red had orange, bright green and yellow in it. It's adding a lot of pizazz to my medal wall for sure. Super Cool not to mention the famous spinning guitar! I can't believe i've done this race 4 times now!
That being said I thought it was awesome especially since i PR'd (yep 1:55) absolutely thrilled!!! (and on 4 hours of sleep cause i can't put that stupid asymmetrical cardigan down and was knitting till midnight and had to watch some SNL with Will Ferrell before i finally fell asleep at 12:30). That breaks down to an average pace of 8:50, with mile 10 and 13 at 8:35 which makes me super happy. Now if i could just do that for a full marathon!
As for the race itself, the weather was absolutely perfect 50s with clear skies, sun and some wind. Started downtown ran toward rock and roll hall of fame and then around the browns stadium then headed over the bridge toward west side of downtown and into lakewood then back to downtown on the highway by the lake. There were parts of the race (at least the half) that didn't even feel like you were in Cleveland but some much cooler place by the water :0). Reversing the route did make it a little more hilly instead of pretty much flat but i didn't mind. Good Race Cleveland, be back next year!


It was so nice that I hung around after to see all my friends finish! My throat is killing me today from cheering everyone on. It was really exciting watching the marathon finish, I was in awe of some of the finishers, amazing!

with Jolene at the start

with Karrie after half

Jolene and Karrie at the finish

Elaine (red shorts, black shirt) sprinting to the finish!

with Krissy after the full marathon

Cleveland Half

Sunday is the Cleveland Marathon, woo hoo!! I will be running the Half and I'm really excited for the new course. For the most part they just reversed the course but I think it's going to make a big difference and again will be nice and flat. I'm also excited for my two friends that are running the Full, they've trained a lot and I'm looking forward to see how they do. Good Luck Girls!!

Also, I will be changing the medal picture above on Monday. Three medals will be added. So the questions is should i continue to add medals (currently they are organized from first race to the latest race)? Should I take the 5K, 10K, 15K, 10 miler medals down and only have half marathons and full marathons on the rack?? Should I organize them by color or distance?? or keep ones that I've done more then once together?? So many possibilities, so little time!
The curtain rod that I'm using still can expand so i could keep it the way it is for a lot longer but is it too much??

Anyway, wish me luck on Sunday (last half marathon until September)! and Akron Marathon training starts on the 25th.

Indy Mini Marathon Race Report

What a great day for a race! 46 degrees at the start, perfect running weather.
The Indy Mini Marathon has just become my favorite half (out of 18) of all time right behind Kentucky Derby Half. Also my time was my 2nd best 1:58:09 (9:02 pace).
It was just the perfect race from start to finish, I loved it!

First and foremost the Marriott (thank you Amy!) that we (my friend Kristi and I) were staying at was in the perfect location. It was between the expo and starting line, literately between the two. Once we parked at the hotel we never had to drive again until it was time to go home after the race.

View from the hotel window.

So at 7:30 the race started with 35,000 participants. We were in corral G and it still took 13 minutes to actually reach the start (the corrals went all the way up to Z). Then we were off!! For the first 3 miles or so i was totally preoccupied looking up at the balloon race (what a great idea), made the time go by pretty fast and it was just neat. I was feeling good trying to maintain my pace and not worrying too much about the fact that i was running in a brand new pair of shoes that i purchased at the expo the previous day, i like living on the edge. Oh did I mention that i loved this race??

By another few miles i was ready for the track, and there it was. I never felt such a rush as when i got to run down the shoot the cars come out of onto the race track, it was a fantastic feeling. Not to mention running on the track itself ,which was 2.5 miles long, was invigorating (the nice smooth asphalt made the miles fly by fast). After the track, it was back on the road to downtown Indianapolis. I absolutely loved this race, and felt good and healthy to the finish. It's weird running this big of a race there is never a moment when you're not surrounded by other runners for the entire 13.1 miles, pretty cool! I ended up with my 2nd best finish of all time, with a per mile breakdown of - 9:20, 8:42, 8:53, 8:44, 9:06, 9:01, 9:08, 8:52, 9:14, 9:13, 8:52, 9:09, 9:01, my slowest mile was the first one. The race was so consistent for me, I'm amazed! This never happens, usually the first few miles are so much faster then the last 3.

My friend, who just had baby Grace less than 2 months ago, did fantastic also and finished in 2:16. Which by the way was faster than my first half marathon and i think even faster than her first half. We will be running the Akron Marathon together again this year, she's going to kick my butt.


Do I dare say that I want to do this race again?? I think I do.

Stuff

So I've been working on my shawl, 400 + stitches on the ruffle part and 9 rows into it i realized that I've been doing it wrong. what!!! so i think i have to rip it out, that's probably like 4 hours of my time gone down the drain, I'm so disappointed and frustrated that i might have to put it away for a little while.
I did start another project a baby sweater. Actually all the pieces are knitted, all I have to do is sew it together which is quite difficult. Hope to have it done soon so i can post some pictures.
And I'm getting ready to leave for the Indy Mini Marathon on Friday. I'm really excited although i still hurt after my 10 mile run on Saturday which was really hard. Not to mention I had this brilliant idea to try out some new shoes. What?? on a 10 mile run, very bad idea, toward the end i had to totally loosen the laces on the right one just so i could continue running not to mention it was 80 degrees out (which is great except it was 40 a couple days prior) and the body just can't take that kind of difference. But I made it and will go for a couple short runs this week and head to Indianapolis on Friday, run on Saturday and drive home. Should be fun plus my friend is coming with me and we always have a good time on these running trips.

Run 4 Home Half Marathon

Yesterday was the Run 4 Home Half Marathon in New Philadelphia, OH. The race started at 1 pm and for me that was entirely too late. I was really hoping to do good at this race, I've trained a lot better than for Disney and my time was 1 minute 44 seconds slower than Disney (2:04:44). It's still a good time but I wanted better, so after the race i didn't even go to the award ceremony because there was no chance that I placed. Low and behold this morning when I checked the results I came in second in my age group. I'm so mad, I want my trophy!


As for the race itself. The course was pretty but there were a few big hills that really slowed me down. The entry was only $30 and for that I got a nice long sleeve dryfit shirt, a nice medal and a pretty nice after the race spread (subway sandwiches, pizza, brownies, cookies, chocolate milk etc). The race was well organized and finish was in a stadium which was nice. Oh, and Miss Ohio handed out the medals at the finish line.

I can come up with many excuses why I didn't do that great i.e. started off too fast, didn't eat enough before hand, and I'm pretty sure that my shoes are done but really it doesn't matter, second place in my age group does make everything better.
Next race is May 1st in Indianapolis, wish me luck!

Happy Easter!

Hope everyone had a nice Easter!

We colored Eggs and put Peeps in the microwave which is just hilarious.

The blue one on the end is my favorite.

Baci inspecting the finished product, he approved.


Also we spent some fun time at the park.

My two favorite guys!

Baci trying out some acrobatics!

and Vince's adorable nephews all dressed up for Easter!

As for knitting, since I finished the Forecast sweater, the next thing that I'm working on is a shawl (ravelry link) for my wedding in September. You will have to wait until September to see pictures if in fact it turns out. It's quite tedious work because the mohair yarn that I'm using is really thin and hard to work with so I'm taking a little break from it.

So in the mean time (this past weekend), I made this chocolate bunny for Vince's nephews(pictured above):
and some baby booties:
And lastly about running, my training has been going pretty good, I've ran between 8.5 to 10 the last 4 Saturdays and will be running a half marathon this Sunday. Actually in the next six weekends I'm running 3 half marathons (is that too much?, i don't think so). I'm really looking forward to it. Especially since one of them is in Indianapolis (and we get to run on the race track) and I've never been there before. The great thing about the run this Sunday is that it starts at 1 pm, I've never ran a half marathon that late in the day, will be interesting for sure. Wish me luck!

2009 Race Schedule

My tentative Race Schedule for 2009.

Races I'm signed up for already:
4-19 - Run 4 Home Half Marathon - New Philadelphia, OH
5-2 - Indy Mini Half Marathon - Indianapolis, IN
5-17 - Cleveland Half Marathon - Cleveland, OH
9-26 - Akron Marathon - Akron, OH

Races I'm thinking about signing up for:
6-24 - Seattle Marathon - Seattle, WA
9-13 - Buckeye Half Marathon - Akron, OH
10-18 - Detroit Marathon - Detroit, MI
11-29 - Space Coast Marathon - Cocoa Beach, FL

I know it's pretty ambitious but time will tell and at the end of the year we'll see how many of these I'll actually complete. Also, this would give me 3 more states to add to my 50 by 50 list for a total of 14. So I would have 15 years to get the rest ;)

Sun

On Saturday morning I was driving to meet my friends for a 10 mile run at 7:30 in the morning and this is what the sky looked like. Since I don't go anywhere without my camera I got this great shot.

That afternoon this is the sunset I saw.

Life is too short you never know if you will see the next sunrise or sunset so I captured both that day. It was so pretty!

Disney Princess Half Marathon

7,000 Princesses woke up at 4 a.m. on Sunday March 8th to run the Inaugural Princess Half Marathon at Disney. Tiaras and all!!
What a great time it was with absolutely perfect weather!!
I do have to admit that Disney is not my favorite race simply because a lot of time is spend on the highways connecting the parks and very little time in the actual parks. The highways are boring and there are no spectators on them and the on and off ramps are slanted which just kills. But somehow I keep on forgetting about this because this was my 4th race at Disney. At about mile 9 I had a brief moment where I didn't think i was going to be able to finish but it didn't last long and I pushed through to the end.
For this race especially, most women were dressed in princesses costumes. Not me, I only managed to deal with a tiara pinned to my hat. But it's great looking at all the costumes, people put in a lot of time and effort in their outfits and it shows.
So my time was 2:03:00 which breaks down to 9:24 pace. There were 1047 women in my age group and I finished 125th (12%). It's definitely not my best time for a half marathon but it's my best statistically.
My good friend Khim ran her first race ever and did awesome. She has definitely caught the running bug and has been planing her future races. Now I have to convince her to run a full marathon.

at 5 am, I love this pictures the camera caught some of the car lights

hanging with the characters after the race!

with our well deserved tiara medals!

Last weekend

Last weekend was pretty busy. I ran my 10 miles on Saturday (17 degree weather) yuck! It was a nice run but come on already it's time for Spring.

Then we went to the Home and Garden show and saw Ed Begley Jr. (from "Living with Ed"), what a great speaker he is. He talked mainly about being green, sustainable energy, and his show. Very interesting stuff.
Then my friend Fiovi (God love her!) signed me up for a card exchange (and she will never do this to me again). I had to make 11 birthday cards, I was pretty mad the entire time but somehow managed to get it done. Now I'm suppose to get 11 cards back (some of you might be getting them from me for your birthdays).

these are my 11

The best part of the weekend was when i came down the stairs and saw this going on. I guess I'm not the only one that loves the electric blankie. How cute are my fur kids?? Love them!


So nothing much got done but we sure had fun. Now I'm off to Florida tomorrow (yeepee 80 degree weather), will be taking my Forecast sweater on the plane with me so hopefully i'll finish it and have photos soon. The Disney Princess Half Marathon is on Sunday, can't wait to add the new medal to my wall. Wish me luck!

Crazy

So I ended up doing 9 miles at 7:30 am on Saturday morning in 7 degree temperature (icicles formed on my eyelashes like glider mascara). Can I just say how crazy that was, I couldn't feel my fingers for about the first 30 minutes. When i was done the temperature was only at 18 degrees, which is still way too cold to even be outside. I'm glad i did it but there is no way i would be out there if it wasn't for that half marathon coming up. Of course I wasn't alone in this craziness, there were 4 of us (2 doing 15, 1 doing 12, and me with my 9). I'm praying for warm weather!

Back on track

Finally i feel like I'm back with my running. I did 7 last weekend, 6 last night, hopefully another 4-5 on Thursday and I have 8 planned for this weekend. Then next weekend i will do 10, and the half marathon is the following weekend (March 8th). I think I'm going to be ready! I didn't think it was possible but it's definitely happening and it's makes me so excited and happy. So I'm hoping that we don't get any more snow. I think I'm delusional since it's only February, but a girl can dream right?

V-day Weekend

After way too many revisions the hat that matches those booties in the previous post got finished and mailed on Friday. Now i have to wait to see if the recipient of these gifts approves, I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Sadly i didn't have a baby close by to model the finished product so this is the best i could do:


Now that the hat is finished I can go back to working on the forecast sweater. This is how much i have so far. It's going pretty slow but it will end up being a really thick warm sweater, i only hope that i can finish it before it gets warm out. The picture doesn't give the color justice though it's more of a deep sea shade.


Lastly, Valentine's Day was great! At 7:30 am I got an awesome 7 mile run in (thanks to Elaine and Krissy), it was the farthest I ran since October. I felt pretty good even though it was a rolling hill route. Later I made another attempt on making something from my favorite website. And unfortunately it didn't turn out (not even worth being photographed), but we ate it anyway. Sometimes i want to give up and admit that I'm not a baker but NO i will keep trying. This is what i have in mind for this coming weekend (of course i pick the most complicated recipes i can find). Also, I got a nice card and gift card to Joann Fabric (so i can buy more yarn ;0). Saturday night ended at Outback for a nice steak dinner with a sweet potato and a Pineapple Chipotle Margarita (Yum-O).