Coming to terms

Caroline (8"x8")

Jessica (11"x14")

Kazia (8"x8")

These are the other 3 paintings I did for gifts last year. I wasn't allowed to post the family tree, but maybe I will replace it with my family and post it. (hmmm... Christmas presents for 2011?)

In regards to running, or well, not being able to run... I was thinking about screwing what the doc said and train for the 1/2 marathon anyway, but here and there, my knee would bother me and reassure me that running is not the smartest thing to do. ...at this point in my life anyway. I figure I will still make running a 1/2 or even whole marathon a life goal. I still have the rest of my life ahead of me. I'm not even 30 yet (for another 10 months)! I have a kid, a full time job and therefore virtually no time to do any training right now anyway. Maybe in the future, once Liam is able to wipe his own butt, I will get back into running. And who knows, at that point there may be some miracle cure to crappy knees. When I'm older, I'd be in a better place to afford the knee surgery anyway. Not a great way of looking at that, but whatever. I'm not giving up ALL hope, and I refuse to give up running. I just have to put it on hold for the time being. I am fine with that.

In other news, I'm only FIVE lbs away from my pre-preggo weight! I weighed myself on my cousin's bathroom scale for the first time since I was back in Savannah (Dec '10) - at the scale in our house. I think I have lost at least 7 lbs since then. I had some progress with the weight loss due to diet changes, but I was fluctuating. December was tough with the holiday treats! (I can't deny myself Holiday treats!!! They only come once a year!!) I got back on track with eating less after new years and I'm back down if not more so to what I was before the December eating madness! Weight loss with NO exercise!! Ha! It is possible! I can still be a lazy bum and lose weight!

But I need to start back on some type of exercise routine. I feel more tired at night most nights. Maybe my body's making up for the lack of sleep I got in December and parts of January. Who knows. Or maybe I'm being a normal person by trying to get 7-8 hours of sleep at night...

December = no sleep + sad news for my running shoes

Between Liam's 1st birthday and Christmas plus my normal day job and a couple freelance projects sprinkled in between, I have been getting zero to little sleep.

James and Jen

Jerry and Pennie

Paul and Shonna

Tracy and Eric

Val and Andy

This Christmas, I decided to go the handmade route for a few people to save some $ and to try out a new painting style - similar to my pet paintings I did a couple years back, but more simplified and mainly black and white. I did 10 total, but I did not get photos of 2 of them before I wrapped them and the other 3 I have not yet given to the recipients. I plan to do a couple more, I just didn't have time to do them and I also have to figure out a way to send a 20" x 16" canvas across the country! I will post the others on a later blog entry.

The freelance projects I did were for a friend's coworker's family album. He asked me to design a cover for the album and a family tree for the back cover. I really like how the family tree turned out. It's nothing visually spectacular, but if you appreciate clean/neat layouts you would like it too! I may post it in a later blog, I just haven't gotten permission to post it yet.

I also made some snowflake cupcakes for Christmas (with my high school favorite cookie - Peanut butter kiss cookies), which turned out really nice as well. I piped some snowflakes made of melted white chocolate and placed some on the cupcakes. (P.S. I LOVE my Ikea dessert platter! Thanks Sharon!)

In other, unrelated news... On the fitness side of things, I finally weighed myself when we went down to Savannah the 2nd week of December. Turns out I lose 3 lbs. since we moved back up to MD! Woohoo! 3 lbs. in 2 months may not seem like a big deal, but after being at a plateau for the longest time, it is progress. Though, there has been very little fitness associated with that loss (due to no gym access). It was mainly diet changes.

Also, last week, I decided to get my knee checked out since it had been bothering me ever since the last time I ran last month. I didn't want to run any more until I got it checked out so I could start my 1/2 marathon training. Well, the good news is that my knees are perfect. The bad news is that the pain I am feeling is due to my f'ed up cartilage rubbing against itself. The doc said that my body is trying to tell me something: that I should not be running. He said that If I want to get surgery, that I should keep running. It crushed me when he told me that, and I felt like crying. Running had been something that I liked doing; I could always run even if we didn't have a gym. It was fun entering races and trying to beat my previous time. It gave me goals to strive for. It was something that Joel and I could do together (even though we never actually ran together - side-by-side, we at least ran at the same time and location, haha). *sigh* I don't know. I wanted the doc to tell me that my knee would get better with time, then I could start my training. Looks like I have to see if I can get someone to run in my place next year. I don't know. I really want to do the 1/2 marathon and then just quit my running career there. If not, it will be a weak end to my running life. I kind of want to go out with a bang.

Fall/Thanksgiving Cupcakes

I survived Midnight Madness at the Mall on Black Friday!

...should be a t-shirt. My Black Friday (BF) cherry was popped with the help of Shonna and her sister Tracy! Shonna was a BF virgin too. I'm glad it was another thing we got to experience for the first time, TOGETHER!

Pics of my cupcakes...

Turns out the frosting was too buttery. I did use one WHOLE stick of butter. In the future I might use more cream cheese and less butter. I prefer the cheese flavor over the butter, but that's just me! They were still pretty damn good though, if I say so myself. :)

Crafty

I've got a few things up my sleeve for Christmas gifts... I'm planning on giving personalized *******s for presents this year. Not making too many of them because I have no time to do one for every one I know, so if you get one, you are special. Or more like, you are probably close family or friends that are pretty much family. I hope to post them all on here once they are all complete. I think photos of all of them together will look pretty cool. I just hope they turn out how I have them envisioned in my head.

Also, this Thanksgiving I'm making pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting with chocolate leaves. Much like the style of the cake I posted last year for my in-law's birthdays (see this post). Just in cupcake form and with REAL fallen leaves, instead of basil leaves. :) I hope the leaves I picked up are not poisonous... I made sure I washed them thoroughly, at least! Picture to be posted later.

And to add to my repertoire of craftiness/creativity... I'm planning my first birthday party! Liam's 1st birthday! It's on a budget (sorta), so I had to go cheap/lazy on a few things that, knowing me, I shouldn't have: like invitations (they were sent out via eVite...and you can't customize the templates!) and cake (no time!). I hope it all goes as planned. There's still a lot to do before then.

Pics of stuff coming soon. This is such a crappy art blog... no pictures!

P.S. On the weight loss front, I have no scale to weigh myself on, but I've been eating a LOT less in the past few weeks. Trying to maintain the "food for fuel" mentality, although I am pretty sure that tomorrow (Thanksgiving), I will break my streak! haha

Back up north

We moved back up to the DC area a couple weeks ago. The whole month prior to the move, I didn't go to the gym or run or anything. AND I had just joined a gym and was going somewhat regularly again! Now, I have to start at square one again. I don't want to join another gym until we can cancel our membership with the one in GA.

Last Saturday, Joel and I went to the Park (Ft. Washington Park) and ran the same trail route that we did the last time we were up here (July). It is a nice shady trail, but depending on the way you go, it is REALLY steep. There are stairs at the end of the 2nd mile and they are killer! There was no way I was running up the steps. Especially after not doing ANY sort of exercise (unless packing and moving counts) for a month. I'm really feeling it today as both my quads and knees are sore. :( BUT... I am looking forward to running more regularly so I won't feel so crappy!

In other news... I can fit back into my pre-preggo jeans again!!!! With my "new abs" (aka loose preggo belly skin, haha) the waist is a little tight, but they still fit fine! Woohoo! ALSO... the running pants I bought a few months ago are loose on me now too! I ran with them the other day and I kept having to pull them up every so often so that I wouldn't moon anyone! The bad news is that I really liked those pants and it was only the 2nd time I ever used them. Now I have to spend money (that is pretty tight these days) to buy new clothes that fit properly. Ugh...

I have no idea where my weight is now. Last I checked I was still hovering around 145. I'm sure I lost muscle, but probably gained fat. The last week in GA we ate horribly!!! *barf*

Quick update (supposed to be working!)

Just wanted to update on the weight loss "project"... the needle FINALLY made it under the 150 mark!!! Woohoo! It's like a few notches past it too! Woohoo! Next milestone is 145...

I JUST joined the gym again, and even started going somewhat regularly... but now life takes another turn and we find out that we are MOVING (in a month!)!! A very exciting time, indeed, but with the packing, cleaning, etc... there really is NO TIME to work out.

Being busy also means: hardly any time to eat. But I'm actually doing what I should have been doing all along and just eating for fuel. It's not bad. (unless you stick a cupcake in front of me)

But I also want to attribute some of the credit to switching up the BC pills. I'm back to what I was on pre-preggo and my body seems to like it better. Although, my skin is not agreeing --- I'm breaking out more! But that might also be due to the stress of the move. Who knows. I'd rather deal with breakouts than a weight plateau! And who knows... I just might be off of ALL birth control and be au natual (no drugs in me!!! 'cept for multi-vitamins) pretty soon!! ;)

Stuff

IMAGE DUMP!! So I'm actually posting a bunch of things for once! WOW!

The first image is a logo I did for my good friend Tracy who is starting her own business in the handmade baby items industry. Check out her blog: http://thecheekybootique.blogspot.com/ I drew the flower out on paper and was just going to scan it in and vectorize it, but my drawing skills are not up to par these days (working on it!), so I ended up just tracing my messy flower drawing in Illustrator to clean it up.

The next two are business card designs I created for 2 clients for their jewelry selling businesses. I've done these before for a few other people in this line of business and they love the "cartoon" version of themselves. Got to love word-of-mouth networking!

The last one is obviously old (as shown by the date), but it was one of the many small projects I did last year that I never posted. It is a wedding logo that was also used as a gobo light.

More to post soon...

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I am still sore from the Sunday gym escapade. I got way too excited about all the machines they had. I think I feel even worse than I did yesterday. I shouldn't have jumped into it too fast! Oh well.

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Oh, and regarding the project that I plan to do for myself... I COULD try to do it all with photography, but I think that may be an easy way out. It is easier, but it will be expensive since I want it to be large scale and printing photos that large can get expensive. If I did it the traditional way (the way I initially planned) by drawing everything, it would take more time (a LOT more time), but materials would be cheaper. I dunno. I want to do the traditional way, but I'm kinda scared to start drawing again, but I want it to also show the technique and style that I have. We'll see. I still haven't nailed down a concept yet, but I have ideas. I don't want to talk about it here until I narrow down my options.