Pinteresting: For the Super Bowl

I love sporting events, especially football.  I don't have a favorite team though.  Whenever people ask me who I'm rooting for, I always say "GO BLUE TEAM!!!!"  It's a totally unscientific way of picking the winner, but it works for me.  If there isn't a blue team, I cheer for whichever team looks better in the pants. 

Super Bowl parties are always loads of fun.  So much delicious food is consumed at these parties.  So much food.  Remember my bacon cheese twisty things?  Bring some of those to your party.  You will be the VIP at every event to follow.

Here's the pin too.

 

Pizza poppers.  Don't forget the marinara for dunking!

 

 

Made from scratch meatballs

Bacon, jalapenos, butter, cheese.  What could go wrong?

I was also digging these bingo games.  You could have a buy in with them, so players could win some money.  I guess it depends on how your Super Bowl parties go.  We are never in front of the TV the entire game.  Short attention spans I guess.

 

One for commercials

 

And one for the game itself.

Whatever you are doing for the big game, be safe and don't drink and drive.  I'm not a big proponent of PSAs, but I think that's a necessary one.

And GO BLUE TEAM!!!

Florida SNOWPACOLYPSE 2014!!

There isn't any actual snow yet, which is quite unfortunate since it's been a while since I've seen any snow.  I don't know what I would do in the snow...nonetheless, it would be pretty cool.  Here's what I came home to yesterday at about 4:30.

 

Icicles everywhere!  Growing up in the Poconos, we'd always leave some hanging to see how long they got.  Sometimes they went from the gutters to just a foot or two off the ground!  I don't expect these icicles to last to Friday, let alone get long enough to reach the ground.  Southern living at it's finest.

 

The branches of all the trees are hanging so low from the weight of the ice.  The branches of this tree are normally 8 feet up.  Still low relatively speaking, but not scraping the ground low! I'm concerned the suddenly low-hanging branches will damage my roof.  I have branches scraping overhead right now.

 

Frozen deck.  My dog was unsure what to do with himself.  The stairs were suddenly very confusing.  This bit of ice was from around 8pm.

 

Basically all the lower branches on the live oak trees in my frontish yard are brushing the ground now.

 

Ice balls falling out of the sky.  (sorry about the water spots on the lens.  It happens.)

 

This is my wisteria arbor.  Wisteria is like the lilac of the south. It's usually close to flowering this time of year.

 

Sad, sad leaves.

 

Frozen magnolia tree

 

Ice balls of ice.  I'm told this is sleet.  It is NOT snow.  :(

 

We really do wear flip flops year-round in Florida.

 

The rest of these photos are from about 9:30pm.

 

Ice and sand.  

 

Handfuls of ice

It's a perfect evening to lay under my electric blanket and knit.  This is the facing lilies stole pattern and I'm using Dye for Yarn tussah silk in Absinthe.  I wear scarves all the time and I need more of them!

Fashion Plate: Aisle Be There

 

This is the perfect Valentine's Day dress.  You better get on it ladies!  The inspiration is ModCloth's Aisle Be There dress in rose.  I think I featured Gertie's pattern once before:  Butterick 5882.  I scooped up a copy of the pattern a few months ago when JoAnn's was having one of those pattern sales.  Such an amazing dress deserves to showcase an equally amazing fabric.  For this dress, I thought a cotton silk poplin would provide the appropriate sheen and drape.  You could also use something like a charmeuse, though I'm not so in love with the kind of drape that would provide.  I think you need a bit more structure and the charmeuse would be tough to sew.  

I love this dress.  I need to find some fancy dress parties to attend so I have reason to make dresses as fabulous as this one.

Destin Bayou, Bay, & Back January 25, 2014

I ran my second half marathon this past Saturday!  It was amazing!  First, I'm in line for the toilet (as you do before a long run) and one of my friends was right behind me.  She moved away a couple years ago and I had no idea she was going to be in town.  I ran with her & her dad for about the first 5 miles.  They pace about a minute faster than I do and I couldn't keep up that pace any longer.  It was awesome running and catching up with her for an hour on the trail. 

 

This is the Bayou part of the race.  As you can tell, it was overcast at the start of the run and it remained that way all day long.  It was cold too!

 

Here I am just before the start of the race.  The above-mentioned friend's husband took this picture of me.  We have more photos of us together, but they are gubmint and I don't think they need to have their photos splashed all over the internet.  This purple jacket is going to be a permanent fixture in my running wardrobe if it doesn't warm up sometime soon.  It was a great $14 splurge at Target.  :)

 

We ran over the Destin bridge and across to Okaloosa Island on the bay side.  The boardwalk is on the Gulf of Mexico side. I stopped to take a few pictures along the way.  Whatever.  It's my run.  I do what I want!

 

Action shot!

 

Florida does too have mountains!  I wish it wasn't so overcast and dreary because those sand dunes really are snow white.

 

Gulf of Mexico.  Cold cold Gulf of Mexico.

 

Here I am a couple minutes after finishing.  I look remarkably the same.  It doesn't even look like my hair moved.  I know this is the end because I have a finisher's medal.  See?

 

Bling.

 

I'm starting a collection.  It's pretty much the greatest thing ever.

I finished in 2:34 this time, which is a full 15 minutes faster than my last race time.  I guess running people call that a personal record?  I'm having a hard time calling myself a runner.  Emily (the friend) said to me during the run that she found it hard to believe that I was never a runner because I'm That Fit Girl--the person people look to for guidance in kickboxing and tips on proper form and similar stuff.  I told Emily that I'm not a runner because I hate running.  She gave me the side-eye and said, "you realize you're running, right?"  I know, Em, I'm a running contradiction.

And with that, my next half marathon is February 15th. 

Fashion Plate: Poppy In for a Visit Dress

This week's inspiration is ModCloth's Poppy In for a Visit Dress.  It's made in such a simple fabric.  I chose this red stripe fabric from fabric.com, though this same fabric is in about a bazillion other colors.  My pattern choice is only marginally close to the inspiration.  I have long-coveted the Belladone dress from Deer & Doe, but have yet to purchase and make the dress.  The dress has a back cutout and pockets and a floaty skirt and and and...  I love it!  I enjoy playing with pattern placement when I'm working with stripes and this is something I hope to do more of this year.  I seem to have a lack of stripey fabric in my stash, however.

I'm back with the Fashion Plates.  I didn't intend to take a hiatus, I just lost my creative mojo.  I'm hoping it's back for a while.  My time is in short supply these days with work and running and other obligations.  I don't think I've sewn a stitch in at least a week.  I'm going to have to make a deal with myself to sew at least one seam a day to have something like progress on things.  Life:  Why you so hard?


Happy Tuesday!

Finished: Half Marathon Biggest Loser Style

I DID IT!!  I finished the half-marathon and did not pass out and die (though my absence might make you think otherwise).  The race was actually loads of fun, in spite of how much of a mess I look like in some of these photos. 

 

The race was put on by Biggest Loser, as if NBC didn't make that quite obvious!

 

Here I am at the finish.  I have this serious WTF? face going on because this woman put her hand up in front of her, like stop, and then thrust it out towards me.  Lady.  I don't want to touch you!  It was really awkward.  My official "chip" time was something like 2:49, not 2:52.

 

Here's the high five lady again.  My brain must be messed up because I was SURE she was telling me to stop.  Lol! I just ran 13.12 miles.  Give me a break!

 

I love this photo.  It's my favorite I think.  Even though I'm out of focus, it perfectly captures my spirit of the race.

  

I look so bad in this picture.  The finish line is in sight!

 

Another bad photo.  I might have been just starting or stopping a run interval.  I had a really good pace for the first 5.5 miles.  I was running 11:45 minute miles, which is slow, but manageable for me.  Any faster and I would tire really quickly.  After the first 5 miles, I decided I would give myself a mini-break and walk 3 minutes and run 9.  That was going okay until I got to a bridge.  I didn't know there was a bridge on this run.  All my momentum was gone at that point.  Stupid bridge.

 

It was cold for Florida standards at 50-something when the race started and 60-something at the end.  I wore pants and a jacket.  Great decision.  The sleeves got kind of annoying during, but I had pockets for my phone and my cough drops.

 

Another horibad photo.  Check out my other sweet shoes though.  Totally badass.  I love them.

 

One of my favorite songs had just come on my phone.  I was totally rocking out and loving it and that moment. The song is "I'm A Falcon" by Tornado Rider

 

Look at all these people that showed up!  It was a great event and all the volunteers and police who were out there were so helpful and friendly and kept all the runners safe.  I made sure to thank everyone I could as I was running past.

Now that the run is over, I need to compare the body changes.  I didn't take a new photo to compare side by side, so I'll just have to do the measurements.  I took these measurements the day after the race, but I'm using my day before weight because I didn't have an appetite after the race and I was positive I lost even more weight because of that.

Weight:  Started at 106.6; currently 104.4

Waist:   Was 27"; currently 26.5" (I think my skinniest possible waist is 26.25")

Hips:  Was 33"; still 33" (not surprising because I measured at the bone)
Butt:  Was 36"; currently 35"
Thigh:  Was 19"; currently 19.5"
Calf:  Was 13"; currently 13.25"

I lost 2 pounds and a total of 3/4" so far.  Because I'm not actively trying to lose weight or inches, this is important information for me to have.  I never notice when I'm getting too small and there is a point where it begins to become impossible for me to put weight back on.  Since taking those measurements on December 30th, I've lost another pound and I'm worried that the next pound lost might as well be 5.  Tiny violins?  Probably.  We all have our issues.

This run was so much fun and I got a badass finisher medal.  I'm planning to run another half-marathon at the end of January.  I haven't signed up for it yet, but I hope to take care of that today with the proceeds from my ebay sales.

Happy Hump Day!