chair II

a while back, i mentioned that i savaged two chairs from the side of the road. well, they are finally finished and here is the end product:

(sorry it's sideways)


i also re-covered the top of these two ottomans i have but i'm not sure if i like them in front of the chairs (i do know that i need to recover the bottom in white and get rid of the gold but since i'm out of white fabric, that'll have to wait for another time).

composting II

my composting is growing growing growing!! a friend of mine sent me directions for making my own compost bin so i'm debating about making it. it does call for worms to be on my balcony so that does make me pause before i go head strong into this project...

however, here's the article if you feel so inclined to make your own compost:
Vermi-Composting
Vermi-composting creates a rich compost fertilizer from food scraps. It's a process that promotes easy cleanup and is odorless.

Tools and Materials

Plastic storage container with a lid

Drill with 1/8-inch drill bit

Wooden blocks

Newspaper

Red wiggler worms (eisenia foetida)

Garden soil

Vermi-Composting How-To

1. Create a well-ventilated bin by adding air holes with a drill and bit. Drill many holes on the sides, top, and bottom of the bin.
2. Place the bin on wooden blocks in order to keep the air circulating under the bin.
3. Soak strips of newspaper in water (avoid using colored paper). Wring out paper, separate, and add to bin. Fill bin 2/3 full with bedding.
4. Sprinkle worms gently over bedding. Two thousand worms eat around 7 pounds of food each week. Leave the lid off for a few hours so that worms will burrow.
5. Add one cup of garden soil which will add bacteria, protozoa, and fungi, aiding the composting process. This also adds minerals that will help with worm digestion.
6. Bury food scraps deep into bedding. Rotate placement, encouraging worms to disperse. Feed daily or weekly. Avoid fats or meats in smaller bins. Don't place anything in the bin that is non-biodegradable or pet waste. After a few weeks, bedding and food will start turning into mash. Matter will completely break down in 3 to 6 months.
7. To harvest: Push compost to one side of bin. Fill other side with fresh bedding. Bury food into new bedding. Worms will migrate to new food.
8. Use the compost to top-dress potted plants, incorporate into seed-starting mix, and sprinkle on seed beds. Soak 2 tablespoons in 1 quart of water to create a fertilizer spray that won't burn root systems.

weekends are for family

my sister and her family came yesterday and it was such fun. it's the first time they've been down our way (i usually go to see her since she's the one w/ two kids, including a new born). i have to admit that i was a little nervous about them coming here because there aren't a lot of good places to eat (that we've found) and as a family we're kind of food snobs. whenever we go up there, there are lots of great places to eat where she is but down here, well, hummmmmm... but they ended up enjoying the subs i picked up. the wings that we got were just ok - not the greatest. but honestly, i think i like going up there more as far as food is concerned because i can always get my korean food fix when i'm there.

anyways, our jewel and my nephew play so great together (for the most part) and as my nephew gets older, i think that they're able to play together better - (he recently turned two). it was so fun to see them play and build up all that great little kid sweat!

we went to the playground and while some people were going for a ride:



others were doing this:


the evening didn't end well as a water heater broke above us and it leaked water all over my kitchen and parts of the dining room. but i have to admit that since it's not my place (we're renting), i didn't stress at all. oh the joys of renting :) nice!

random observations during my run

- i did NOT want to run today. i was supposed to do a long run this morning but instead i procrastinated until 7pm before i ran out of stuff to clean in the house so i didn't have an excuse not to go.

- sometimes wearing your running clothes will motivate you to get out there. but today, i wore my running clothes ALL day and it didn't give me the usual push i needed to get out the door.

- i eventually did 5 miles today but i was supposed to do 10. that means i've got to get up extra early tomorrow morning so that i can squeeze in the 10 miler before church. (it's the price i pay for procrastinating).

- i saw 2 dead birds today during my run. ok, i know i don't smell pretty when i sweat, but COME ON! i can't be that bad?! :) (they really were already dead so it wasn't me).

- i had a headache all day except the time when i didn't run. why is that?

- why did i pass another runner and smell detergent??? i'm not sure what she's using but i've got to get me some of that!

run-ability

i was driving through a neighborhood the other day because someone mentioned that they have good hills to run. is it weird that i wished i lived in that neighborhood just because of the great hills? is it odd that run-ability of the neighborhood is one of my "needs" on our next house?

my man said that if we get a plot of land big enough, he'll asphalt a 1/2 mile track around the circumference of the land... sweet!

off to a great morning, end with a bad day

you know those mornings where things just work so well? i went for a run at 6:30am (which never happens if i'm not meeting someone else), got home, had a kale smoothie, then off to the doctor's appointment, and then our jewel and i stopped by the canal for a nature walk. sounds so great right? well, after that the rest of the day was pretty much downhill and it ended on a very stressful note.

the funny thing is that during my run this morning, i had a really wonderful time reflecting on God's Word. i'm listening to Tommy Nelson, pastor of Denton Bible Church
i'm listening to his series on Matthew and today's sermon was on unforgiveness. i even had a tangible illustration to accompany the sermon. see, there's a route that i run and i noticed several days ago a dead deer thrown into the bushes. you can only see it from a certain direction because the overgrown grass and all. anyways, the first time i saw it, i was completely taken by surprise. you're not expecting a dead deer to all of a sudden be RIGHT there. but the next time, i knew it was coming so i kind of braced myself for it. well, the last few days have been really hot and i hadn't run that route. so this morning when i went back to the route, the stench of the deer hit me like a ton of bricks and then i spent the rest of the run trying to figure out how i could reroute my course so i could avoid it. i couldn't figure out how to do that without cutting into my miles, so i ended up just going that route, but i went onto the road for a short period to try and escape the nasty stench. the point of this all is that it was a visual reminder of sin. first you see it and you're caught off guard. then the next time you see it you kind of brace yourself for it. well, when you let sin fester for a while, it gets nasty and before you know it, it's so gross that others see it and want to avoid you because it's so overpowering. pretty powerful stuff as you're listening to a sermon about the consequences of unforgiveness and what God says about it.

ok, so back to my point - was a great morning. great sermon. great run. great time of reflection. but when the rubber met the road and i was presented with a "test". i failed miserably. i knew i failed as soon as the nasty words and attitude came out of my mouth and heart. so between that and oh yeah, some other external issues that presented itself today, it's just made for a miserable end to what i thought was going to be a great day.

have you had one of those?

chardonnay and PB&J

that's what i'm having for dinner. i know, you're probably jealous - such an elegant dinner, right? ok, it wasn't all that bad - it started w/ a glass of chardonnay w/ raw oysters and cocktail shrimp. but then i got hungry and so i moved onto a pb&j.

maybe it's the 5 miler run in 85 degree sun that made me so hungry... oh who am i kidding? i'm always hungry - no matter what i did or did not do that day.

sundays are for running

or at least that's what the running group thinks around here.
they meet at 8am on sundays. are you kidding??? don't they have places to be, people to see? down south, i had to beg my running partners to meet me at 7:30 - that was the latest i could get them to meet me!
while i really love running with people, i love worshiping God w/ people more. so i laced up my running shoes and went for a short run in the AM all by my lonesome (not fun since i did a 10 miler by myself the day before and did i tell you that i am a social runner?). then when i got home, we had kale smoothies that were to die for! it was THAT good!! and then off to church. it was a great morning.

kale smoothie:
2 big kale leaves (de-stemmed)
1 pear
1 banana - frozen
handful of grapes
1 orange
a little water

if you don't have any frozen fruit in the mixture, then a few ice cubes will do the trick. blender up and enjoy!

long runs

i did my first 10 miler on saturday... in over a year. i can't believe it's been that long. i could feel myself getting tired and honestly i kept thinking that it's so strange how i would be excited if i only had to do 10 miles that week as that was considered a short run and now doing 10 just seemed so long and tiresome. i'm hoping that muscle memory will come back to me.

next time i'll need to make sure i plan ahead as i ran during dinner time and when i got home i was famished but had nothing prepped for dinner.

ps. a funny confession - i kept thinking of little facebook status updates that i could post when i got to keep myself occupied. isn't that a hoot? i didn't end up writing anything but it was still funny that to think of such shallow things to keep my motivated, heh? next time, i'm going to have to have a running buddy to keep myself more engaged during my run :)

what's for dinner

it all started w/ frozen salmon and frozen fish sticks. i usually never get those frozen dinner things but i had a coupon and well, my principles can be bought! so i got home rather late and didn't have much time to really think about dinner so i pulled them out of the freezer. then i saw that the potatoes needed to be eaten before it started to grow roots. then i thought i should probably make some risotto because i made chix stock in the crock pot while i was gone today. and then i saw that i had some brussell sprouts that needed to be eaten and before i knew it - i had quite a spread for dinner.

so we ended up with :
salmon and/ or fish sticks
potato fries
brussell sprouts
chix risotto
and it all went really well w/ a glass of pinot grisio.
i was supposed to run tonight and do another 5 miles (i did 5 this morning) but i had more than 1 glass of wine so i guess my 10 miler will have to wait for another day this weekend.

it's an illness

my name is ______ and i am a composter.
i have become fanatic about composting. i have a very dear friend who has a compost in her back yard. she lives 4 hours away. i collect compost for her. why? because i can't bring myself to throw away this great stuff that will turn her garden into greatness. meanwhile, during the several times that i've taken this down to her we've had spillage, smelly spillage, gross spillage in the car. but i still can't bring myself to throw it away in the garbage can.

it was bad when one day i was at au bon pain and the guy was cutting up several pineapples in front of me... and i just wanted to reach over and take up the peelings for the compost. i kept smiling while thinking it all through and i think the guy thought i was flirting w/ him or something because he was kind of looking at me w/ caution.

oh dear me! i need help. or i need a compost bin.

i know better...

my man and i are fasting today as we pray over some issues in our lives.
at the 23 1/2 hour of the fast, i decided to work out. does anyone see the problem here? 40 minutes in, i called it a day!

i wanted to go running but it's raining and cold outside. i don't mind running in the rain, but when it's cold then it's just plain miserable cause the coldness goes to the bones.

can't wait for my man to get home. turkey pot pie, cucumber and tomato balsamic vinaigrette awaiting the end of our fast :)

the itch to race

ok, talk about making up for being MIA the last few weeks... but this is the last post for the night, i promise!

we're coming up on training season for fall marathons and i am really getting the itch. i know which race i would sign up for if i did run but i'm just not sure if my back can handle it. i've started to slowing pick up the miles to see how the back takes to it and so far so good. i really want to run this race, but even more i really want to have some semblance of a back when i'm 80. so we'll see how things go.

for now i've signed up for my first race in a year and a half - it's just a 5K so no biggie, but it'll be interesting to see how i do.

it's a mystery

since we've been in jersey (5 months), my man has had 10 shirts and one sweater rip in the same spot on his left sleeve. this has never happened before!! AND 7 out of the 10 shirts are brooks brother shirts as well as the sweater. WHAT IS GOING ON?

AND one of his coworkers has also had the same problem - several shirts ripped in the SAME SPOT! how is this possible?

i asked my man if he was doing anything different... nope - apparently everything's the same, even the way his desk and computer are positioned is the same (as when he was in DC). i ask you, what is to become of his wardrobe?

mid may update

i was reminded that i hadn't posted in a while... not sure why. i thought about what has been filling my schedule the last few weeks:
homeschooling, my chair projects, running, church,... much of the same, really. but then it dawned on me. i have a new running partner who is really cool. i met her over the internet and we have so much in common... and trust me, in jersey the chances of someone having similar interests as me - pretty low. (just in case you're curious, she's a christian, who homeschools, runs, and is also interested in nutrition). anyways, perhaps it's because in the short period that we've gotten to run together that we've been able to be so real and open about our lives has perhaps taken the place of what the blog did for me. i guess i don't feel the urge to feel myself being heard on the net/ blog when there's someone who's hearing me -- in person. (not to say that my husband isn't the BEST, but sometimes a gal just needs her gal pal, ya'know?) or it could be that there's just nothing interesting to blog about :)

having said that, i'm eager to post my chairs when they're done. unfortunately, i forgot my camera at my sister's and i forgot to take the before pics. of further frustration (rookie mistake), i started on the cushion today and i realized that i don't have enough fabric and i got the last of the bolt at joann's. i'm hoping that i'll be able to find it at another joann's.

sushi lover

we found this place right around the corner from our place that does 1/2 price sushi Mon through Thur. so it's become an unspoken "tradition" to go once a week. we ordered 7 dishes of sushi for under 25 bucks!! (one of the dishes being spider rolls). spider rolls are our FAVORITE so you can just imagine my glee. can you hear my squeal w/ delight? we also learned that it's BYOB. so we're going to have to swing by and pick up a nice bottle on our way to the restaurant next week :)

more chairs?

ok, so i seem to have a love/ hate relationship w/ yard sales. some years, i feel like i've got so much junk that i want to purge and some years, i'm willing to switch around my running schedule to make room for them. this was a year for the later. i found this one neighborhood that had 62 yard sales!!! i didn't even make it to 1/2 of them. while i was driving around, i saw two chairs on the side of the road for FREE. you know that caught my eye, right?
so i popped them into my car. of course my man's face was just priceless when i popped the trunk open and he saw what i brought home. mainly because he knew as soon as he saw them that i just added another painting project to his to-do list :)

the only thing that i'm thinking about is that the chairs are low. so i'm not sure if i should leave it like that or if i should try to figure out how to make it taller... i'm not even sure if i can safely do that since these are rockers.

i'm excited to go shopping for some fun fabric for my new additions :)
(i'll post the project later)