More putzing: Rainbow Scraps w/mini 4-patches, Walker's quilt, and we got our run done.

Does anyone else set their alarm on weekends?  I mean, I do, but I don't know why since I'm up most days between 5-6:00 AM regardless of said alarm or not. This morning... Bailee and I rolled out of bed and started the day with some coffee (me obviously, not her) while updating the blog, but then put some plans in mind for the day of putzing.

There is something to be said about a great "putzing" schedule!  With 💙blue still in mind from SoScrappy's Rainbow Scrap challenge, the set-aside box of left over 1" strips from the Omigosh quilt was dug through.  Plenty of blues and neutrals remained, and these tiny units are crazy adorable.  

And WHY do we wait so long before changing our blades?  Or, maybe you don't... I shouldn't assume. 

Always on the hunt for a deal, after Christmas, I stopped in at JoAnn's on the search for some replacement blades (and a cutting mat) knowing they would be needed soon.  #STICKERSHOCK at the pricetags!  I passed up all options and not having many more shopping options in our area, I went off to peruse Amazon.  These titanium-coated blades were found after a fair amount of searching, reading reviews, repeat.  The reviews for THESE seemed decent, so the purchase was made.  My goodness!  The ol' adage 'you get what you pay for' went by the wayside.  I've been quite impressed!!  Besides, being a frugal ol' fuddy-duddy, TEN blades for the fraction of a price elsewhere has been quite impressive!  I have another set in the cart for when I place my next purchase of Bailee's treats. 

Walker's quilt definitely needed to be on the agenda today.  I'm going the easy way out by edging it with simple borders.  Two smaller inner borders were added today before closing up shop; next week the final set (or two) will be added.  It's currently 89"x89" and is intended for a king size bed.  I think I'll be shooting for 105"x105"; this post back in July has certainly been helpful on how the different sizes fit a king size bed.

As hoped, Bailee and I hit the snow-covered roads for a run as well.  The day TRULY has been quite nice, all things kept in perspective that we live in NW Wisconsin.  No wind, low teens, and dressed for the weather, we set off to complete a 5K training run.  However, we were both feeling pretty good, so we turned it into a 5-miler.  Can she get a whoop-woop!?!

A few weeks back, some snow-boots were purchased for her and she's taken to them like a fish to water.  

Post-run snack of choice:  Greek yogurt with apple slices.  We still have probably 2-dozen apples left downstairs in the root cellar from our harvest back in October. [the January update of that process]  The apples are showing some dehydration with their skins, but inside they are still crisp -n- juicy!  

I'm off to fry up some taco meat for a Taco Bar potluck the 7-12 staff is hosting tomorrow for school.  
Then tonight... full intentions of putting the feet up, turning on the Super Bowl (most likely background noise), and will turn out a few rows on the Sky, Sand & Sea scrap afghan.

What a glorious day!

Happy Sunday.

Today's link ups:
SoScrappy's Rainbow Scrap Challenge

Kathy's Quilts Slow-Stitch Sunday

Rainbow scrap, Old Town mystery, Walker Wedding quilt... and all the rest

 The weekend run-down...

Rainbow Scrap Challenge - breaking into February's BLUE.

The 1.5" strip bin was sifted; and there weren't a LOT of blues available, so the Dawn's Early Light pile was sifted as well in order to find a nice mixture of blue pieces for 4 of these scrap blocks for the Rainbow Scrap challenge.  I'll be linking up with SoScrappy; be sure to head over there to see what everyone is up to at the start of February's blue month.

Putzin' - putzin' - putzin' along with Bonnie's '24/25 Old Town mystery.  Definitely not in any hurry here, unlike earlier years, so taking my time to trim up each block unit to assist in a neater assembly.  The matchy-matchy of seams CERTAINLY makes assembly much nicer; much more stress-free (err... much less stress might be a better description) ... regardless, piecing the blocks will be MUCH more enjoyable.

... and the first block was pieced this afternoon, waiting on the design wall for the rest.  Clearly, I've changed up the colors of the mystery, choosing only to use what's on the shelves.  Overall, I'm super pleased with how they've been arranged and are playing quite nicely together.  This block almost reminds me of the Hawaii Sunset a few of us pieced back in the years 2012-2014 (give or take).

And PROGRESS on Walker's Wedding quilt.  Whoop-whoop! The top center is pieced!  Next up, to figure a plan of borders;  plain, intricate, pieced, combo...? All these thoughts will be on the docket next weekend.

I've decided to part with the Juki TL98Q.  She certainly gave me many great years paired with the Grace Company GMQ Pro quilting frame, but since the upgrade to the Q'nique 15 almost two summers ago now, I simply haven't touched the Juki.  Therefore, mindset shift; why have it sit in storage when someone may find use from her??

A few other goings-on around the ranch:  time was spent with Bailee girl this morning. 
Bathed, fluffed and groomed in my basement grooming center (ie: former bedroom of one of the girls). 

She's once again a soft-n-fluffy CLEAN golden-doodle who can pretty much beg for anything using those puppy-dog eyes of hers.

The Christmas tree was also finally cleared, and in its place, one of the portable mini-greenhouses was set up in hopes to give my Alocasias some new life.  Additionally, starting up one small tray of 4-6 tomato plants is on my mind.  Just a few; nothing of surplus quite yet.

Livin' the life as best we can with our new-found empty nest household.  
#GrowinOldTogether

Weekly recap of training [Running 2025]

Not a lot of quilting or crocheting going on around here this week.  Most school days end with coming home and gearing up for one training run or another.  I know most of this blog's followers are quilting friends met over the years, but if anyone is also on the Garmin fitness app, come join me as a Connection: (Garmin profile)

(Garmin profile)

Monday: Long & Strong & Fast via NRC Interval run (8:00/10K pace; 4:00/5K pace; 2:00/mile pace - repeat x3).   Ended up tallying 6 miles.  Roads were clear and dry so I wore my Brooks Adrenaline 23s; truly my favorite running shoe currently.  

Bailee and I put the sun to bed that night, which isn't all that hard.  More and more minutes of sunlight are coming our way daily, but the sun still sets right around 5:00, so Bailee and I are donning our safety harnesses glowing ever-so-brightly, for most of our runs. 

Tuesday: Just a simple 5K recovery run with Jen, a colleague, directly after school (~11:34 pace)

Wednesday: An even easier run - "Bring It Down" via NRC; working to hold a tempo pace of 10:30s for 15 minutes after a warmup.  End up tacking another 1.86 miles to the tally.  But Bailee and I weren't done with that simple task, so we added a powerwalk of 2.8 miles @ 14:32/pace as a cooldown.

Thursday:  Powerwalk time with Bailee for the 'rest day.'  We clipped along nicely for 3 miles @ 13:58(!)

Then on Friday - man, I was dragging.  Body was tired.  Mind was tired; t'was the first day in quite some time when I couldn't wait for the final bell to ring in order to simply GO HOME.

I ate.  I rested.  I ate some more.

And Saturday morning was an entirely different story.

Bailee and I start the day with a powerwalk of 3.29 miles (14:08), then a different colleague (Lisa) reached out to see about walking 3 miles in the mall; check. And THEN... laced up during a light snowfall for an EZ long run around our town's lake.

The New Balance Hierro V7 Trail Runners were worn due to the snow cover.  They are heavier and quite a bit clunkier, but the traction seems to handle the covered roads decently enough to keep me feeling confident with my cadence and strides.  

This morning, the week was wrapped up with a short, easy recovery run with Jen after a few fresh inches fell over night.  We wound up driving into town in order to run roads that had already been plowed.

I thought today would bring on some quilting, but in full honesty, I've had my feet up for much of the afternoon, watching Virgin River (and now the Packers).  

Slow-Stitch Sunday - Sky, Sand & Sea; some progress on Old Town

Made some progress on Old Town mystery step #9 (reveal) this morning before the Packer game at noon.  Another row of Walker's wedding quilt was also pressed; baby-steps with that project; a little bit at a time.  The draw of piecing the blocks for Old Town was simply more appealing than the wedding quilt.

By noon, the feet were propped, crochet hook in hand, and settled myself in with the Sky, Sand & Sea afghan on this Slow-Stitch Sunday, adding a few rows during the Packer/Bear showdown.  The plan is to add a few more rows later this evening when the Lions & Vikings square off.  I can't believe I'm admitting to being excited for that showdown, but.... c'mon man.  It's bound to be a darn good game to watch, even for a Packer fan.

My Beach Life afghan has needed some TLC attention for quite some time.  I never had intentions of using this afghan; rather it was meant to either be gifted to my sister or someone else 'er other.  However, it never made its ways downstairs to the storage bins.  Most of the yarns used were Hobby Lobby's "I Love this Yarn" yarn.  This yarn is currently my favorite to crochet with even though I haven't purchased much in recent years.  It's so soft!! The current Sky, Sand & Sea afghan is being made using the leftovers from this project. 

I'm sure, since I was down in her space on the floor, Bailee couldn't resist thinking it was play time.

Eventually she settled down and took comfort ...

The repair isn't perfect, but it's completely functional once again.

Every sunrise begins with new eyes.
-Richie Norton

 Linking up to Kathy's Quilt for her Slow Sunday Stitching.  Take a peek at what others are working on.

Apple storage; Back to school; Interval training

Back in October, many of my weekends were spent harvesting our apples.  On October 20, I was reaching my limit of APPLE processing!  For others who preserve anything, I know you know the feeling of: 'Limit-Reached.'

Some time was spent researching different ways to process and preserve apples, and one site suggested an intriguing method.  Namely, the best of the best apples, blemish free, were individually wrapped in newspaper and then stored in our root cellar.  

Fast-forward two months to last night, I grabbed a few from the top layer; they were pretty much as crisp and juicy as freshly picked!  

Our root cellar stays right around 40 degrees F, so this specimen was also perfectly chilled.  Chopped up and mixed together with some light greek (vanilla) yogurt and PB2 powder -- you can bet it was a great lil' evening snack.  CONCLUSION: definitely going to keep this method and will continually track monthly progress to see how long these apples remain stored in good condition.

"Mrs. S, we're twinning today!"

It was back to work today after the nice, lengthy holiday break.  A handful of absences (staff and students alike) were observed; the crud-bugs of cold-n-flu season have been around our area over the entire break.  Ughers!  I kept my hand-sanitizer readily available in the pocket of my vest -- no lie!  lol.  I can just fathom all the bugs floating around with the ultimate goal of wiping us (ie: me) out for the weekend.  Nope-nope....not gonna happen!

Today is always the toughest day of the school year, IMO.  After almost 2 weeks of "their own schedules" - OY! It's not uncommon to see dragging feet from the teens (specially when the same is true for many of the adults in the building 😂), but... today was pretty darn good!  Only a little bit of extra patience and grace was needed.  This teaching thing really has some perks and is a pretty good gig.

No quilting on the docket today, but definitely stayed true to the training log...

Today's run was some Interval Training;  5x5:00 @ 10K pace (roughly 9:30/mile pace).
"Being back" (running) feels great, really!  The mental anguish of knowing I was completely back to square one in September actually wasn't that big of a concern because....well... MINDSET!  Speed/pace/times -- all were kept in perspective of 100% beginning stage versus where I left off waaaay back in 2013.  I can't even really say WHY I got back into running.  The whole fitness shift started in August after returning from my FL vacation visiting sis;  and it started with nutrition.  I simply wanted to eat better to feel better.  Anyone who knows anything about fitness and nutrition knows the saying, "you cannot outrun a bad diet."  Being empty-nesters now, it was MUCH easier to manage nutrition, and (not meaning to flex here) the first 10 lbs melted off without any extreme effort; nutrition and lots of walking with Bailee-girl, essentially.
I guess the running just started happening on its own once I dropped those pounds, and then a colleague of mine (also a former athlete, now busy teacher-mom) joined me in a pact of being accountability partners.  Then... race websites were perused... a local-ish race was bookmarked... a certain half-marathon registration link was followed one night when I was in an up-beat, awesome mood, and... v'iola!  Race-date placed on the calendar, training plans set up in the NRC app, and.... there ya have it. And here we are.

And THIS girl has been on most of my runs.  She is my other accountability partner!  Truly, a woman-runner's best friend!!!!!!! 💗🐶🏃.  Can't imagine these runs without her, as I've said before. But I'm not sure about the meteorologists up here;  ummmm, this picture does NOT portray "18 and mostly sunny".  

...and a good day, t'was

Happy Thursday!  Make it a great day 🙌

Running in the New Year & Old Town quilt steps 7 & 8

**heavenly sigh**

Happy New Year.  Happy 2025.  Happiness to ALL in ALL you endeavor.

Imma start with the short recovery run that Bailee's puppy-dog eyes INSISTED we take this afternoon (I think she was feeling lonely and bored after I had been (almost completely, but not entirely) ignoring her while in the quilting loft for 6ish hours)

LOL.  Having taken the day off of running yesterday, it didn't take much convincing...

... even though t'was a bit on the not-so-nice scale outside.  I really don't mind running in cold weather, but that wind is another story.  Ughers!  BUT... I bundled, and we got out for a simple down-n-back to the corner.

Truly an easy run:  1.77 miles (11'37/mile pace).  The knees were apparent right off the bat, but by the end, they had loosened nicely.  When we ran the Half on Monday, it wasn't initially on the weekly plan; actually about 4 weeks too soon, but we only 'ran' it versus 'racing' it.  I wanted to end the year meeting my December goal of >100 miles having only done it once before in 2013. Despite, the knees were starting to become a bit tender during the last half mile or so. 

December wrap-up: 104.5 miles 👊, my second highest monthly mileage ever.

I use the Nike Run Club (NRC) app on my phone to track all my runs.  I LOVE this app!  There are plans available for many different race-lengths and/or for simple walks or runs a person may be interested in, all for free, and coach-guided for EVERY plan.  Today, Coach Bennett had us focus on the purpose of every run.  During Monday's Half-marathon training run, right around mile 8, he had us focus on two things that were going well, and then later at about 8.5 miles, two things that weren't going that great.
I was brain-dead.  I couldn't come up with ANYTHING!  Not a brag at all.  Just... wow; like I really couldn't think of anything that was going poo-poo.  

For the most part, life is good!  The run was clipping along.  Bailee is an amazing partner.  I LOVE running with her!!!  She really makes my time laced up SO enjoyable!  Things are going well with a couple colleagues who have also been on a fitness journey.  School, for the most part, is going swimmingly well.  Family is good.  AND, I've been on holiday break, and the stress had started melting away already last week.

So, I am knocking VERY loudly on the wood armrest of my glider-rocker.
Life. Is. Good!  And I TRULY hope the same is true for you!!!

Okay, now onto the quilting.

#Clue7done Trimmed and tidied right away; that certainly doesn’t always happen

And bless this guy; he schlepped up one of his Little Giant ladders to replace some dead bulbs in my quilting loft;  I was down to three from six, so some supplemental lights had been sufficing in the meantime.  And me?... I continued on with the Old Town mystery, cutting, cutting and more cutting of browns and neutrals for clue #8 for about four hours to completion.

And all of THAT while, making continual progress on the star blocks for Dawn's Early Light.

Bailee at least seems to be content now.  And after 45 minutes in my portable steam sauna (a Cyber Monday self-purchased Christmas present to myself), I too am quite content.  I am not an affiliate to Amazon or the likes, but maaaan oh mannnn, this Portable Steam Sauna has been one of my Top10 best purchases EVER.  The picture here is my POV to the sauna's window viewed through the steam from the chair that included 😊💆

Happy New Year, 2025.  And remember to #MakeItAGreatDay!

Bailee earns her Half-Marathon pin today

This girl!  Although the pic doesn't show her excitement, she definitely knows some quality time together on a road or trail is about to happen when her vest appears.  After Saturday's GORGEOUS weather and impromptu interval run together, we took the day off yesterday, outside of a few ball-tosses in the front yard.  Initially, the plan this morning was to meet up with a friend for a 6-mile walk, but unfortunately she was struck with what I call the "Teacher's Murphy's Law" - namely, when one is on holiday break, one gets sick.   Ughers.  SO, my day opened up.  And long story short, after looking at the weather forecast for the next few days, knowing I had been toying with the idea of tackling a truly EASY long run of a half marathon tomorrow (New Year's Eve), the mindset shifted late last night to run around our town's lake (9 miles) with an extension of an out-n-back on the corridor trail TODAY to accumulate the 13.1miles to check the half-marathon box.

There's been a heavy fog lingering in NW Wisconsin for DAYS.  I waited until 9AM to head out; temps hovering at 30 deg F.  Stopped at the bank super quick before hitting the parking lot by the trail.  And oy-oy-oy!  SLICK n ICY roads and sidewalks.

Bummmmmmmmmmmer, because I really wanted to run around the Lake for a change of scenery, but... that asphalt was nothing to play around with.  Not deterred in the least, we took off on the corridor trail, mentally accepting we'd be running an out-n-back...and out-n-back... and out-n-back.  LOL.

The longest run she's given me prior was a 10-miler last weekend.  I don't take much with me on most runs, but for the 9+ mile runs, I pack a few fruit snacks to eat about every 3-4 miles.  Today, it occurred to me, what about Bailee??  Goodness, does she need any refueling too??  So, once this posts, I'm off to research that exact question!  I've changed her daily nutrition to include some performance canned dog food in addition to her little kibbles, and she certainly enjoys the new daily Joints/Hips supplemental treat each evening as well.  She just turned 7-years old on 12/14, and got her clean bill of health from the vet last week.  I simply can NOT fathom completing my runs without her anymore!  Unfortunately, she's not allowed on the course for a half-marathon on my calendar for April 26, but until then... she's by my side!

Certainly no record setters, and this run truly only was intended as base-mileage versus any form of race-pace.  

The afternoon has been pretty quiet for both of us.  There were a few errands daughter #3 and I needed to check off the list, but other than that, just a bit of sitting and prepping this blog post.

The jury is still out if I'll hit the quilting space yet tonight.  If not, tomorrow's ALLLLL DAAAAAAY plan will find me in that space <3

👆Today's motivational tattoo of choice 👆 - "Live Your Story Before It's Over"

Happy Monday everyone.