How to make Garden Art from Junk

I love to go junkin' and the other day I came home with some glass pieces to decorate my garden. Here is the result.

You can watch the video at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KDKzLoSaF8

Raw Food Video Salsa

I still can not load videos from my iPhone to blogspot.com because I do not want to pay.

So if you want to see my raw food Salsa Video please view it on YouTube at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzSog9U8tPs

How to make Raw Almond Milk from Almond Butter

Today I’m making almond milk using almond butter. This is the lazy man’s or should I say woman’s almond butter.

This will be rich in enzymes and oh so yummy. You can even make it chocolate by adding some ground cocoa.

I have 2 types of almond butter and let me start by saying that it must be RAW almond butter it will not work with roasted butters. I have Raw Organic Almond butter that set me back $23.99 for a pint (ouch) and I have non organic Raw Almond Butter that was on sale for $6.99. Buy which ever you like, they will both work.

To make 1 cup use 1 Heaping Tbls Raw Almond Butter, 1 cup of water, dash of vanilla and a pinch of sea salt. If you think you’ll like it a bit sweeter add a date or some raw honey.

Super easy, throw it all in a blender and blend until smooth. You can use as is or drain it through a nut bag. I like it as is.

You can use this in just about any way that you can use cow’s milk. It’s a great base for smoothies. I like it blended with a banana and some cocoa with ice it comes out just like a milk shake. You can use it on cereal, drink it plain, in coffee or tea, soups or cream sauces you name it. Enjoy!

I could not figure out how to upload a .MOV video to this blog so here is the link for the video on YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-rwyeLullE

How to Can Vinegared Onions

I just put together this little video on how to make canned vinegared onions. These are great to top off a salad. Be sure to watch the end for a little extra on how to make a complimentary salad dressing. Enjoy!

Couponing at Walgreens

Here was my haul for Walgreens today.

2 - 22 oz jars of Hellmans Mayo
2 - 9.6 oz bags of Hershey Bliss Candies
2 - 16 oz Old Spice Body Washes
1 - 16 oz Gillette Body Wash
2 - 18 oz Soft Soap Body Washes
2 - 4 oz Colgate Whitening toothpaste
1 - Dove Deodorant
2 - Sally Hansen Nail Polishes
1 - 12.6 oz Panteene Shampoo
1 - 12.6 oz Panteene Conditioner

Regular Price would be: $76.84
Items on sale saved me: $23.69
Coupons saved me: $22.83
Add $2.90 for Tax
I paid $33.22 including Tax (I used $11 in rewards from my last trip so my out of pocket was only $22.22)
and received $15 Rewards off my next purchase
Total cost for today was $18.22 (about $1.14 per item)
I saved $58.62

Extreme Couponing

I've been trying to get the hang of Extreme Couponing. I scored very well today at Rite Aid.

Here's what I got:
2- 50 oz bottles of Purex Laundry Soap Reg Price 5.99 ea
2- Oral B Satin Floss for Teeth Reg Price 3.99 ea
2- Colgate 360 Toothbrushes Reg Price 4.99 ea
1-Aquafresh Toothpaste Reg Price 3.99
Total without sales or coupons would be $35.45 including tax
Sale price brought it down to $19.92 (you can save a lot just by watching for sales)
I had $7.00 in coupons bringing it to $12.92
I got $11.00 in up rewards ($11 off my next purchase)

That makes my grand total...drum roll please....$1.92 including Tax

Another way to look at it is that I got them for .28 cents each
Not bad!

My Blooming Bottle Brush

This is the first time I've seen all the stages of bloom in a bottle brush. I hope this video turns out. It's also posted on YouTube under kjsartist1.

One Hour Runner COMPLETE!!!

If I do say so myself...What an accomplishment!

This is the actual path that I ran today.

I can't believe I actually did it. I wasn't feeling well, had a splitting headache, but I went anyway. I really wanted to finish the program this weekend so it had to be tonight. I'm not going to lie, it was tough. As a matter of fact I stopped at 51 minutes and had to walk it off, my negative..I can't make it..it's too this...I'm too that.. voice in my head before I could finish the last 9 minutes.

Here is another thing that makes it amazing. Let say you, the reader are an average sized person, 15-20 pounds give or take to what your weight should be. Now, pick up 7 sacks of potatoes and run for hour and you'd be me.

Oh and an amazing second point...after completing C25K a 9 week program and then the OHR program which was 10 weeks I didn't shed a pound. Life's a bitch huh?

So the question now becomes...what's next? I've been reading one of Runners World's books the Complete Book of Women's Running and there is an intermediate program in it that somewhat follows the same training as OHR with a few differences.

For starters it's a 16 week program instead of 10. It has 4 scheduled runs per week instead of just 3. It goes something like this:

For weeks 1-8: Each weekly run on day 1 and day 3 are always 30 min.

30, 30, 30, 35

30, 30, 30, 40

30, 35, 30, 45

30, 35, 30, 50

30, 35, 30, 55

30, 35, 30, 60

30, 40, 30, 60

30, 45, 30, 60

For the next 8 weeks you add a day, fartleks (speed play), and hills.

30, 20, 30, 30, 60

30, 20, 35, 30, 60

30, 20, 40, 30, 60

30, 20, 45, 30, 60

30, 20. 45 (middle 20 fartlek), 30, 60

30, 20, 45 with hills, 30, 60

30, 20, 45 (middle 20 fartlek), 30, 60

30, 20, 45 with hills, 30, 60

I don't know, the last 8 weeks sound serious. Am I that serious about running? What happens when summer comes again and I can barely walk in the heat let alone pull off an hour?

I think I'll end up doing a tweaked version of this. After all I'm only running 3 days a week, sometimes 4 and bumping up to 5 seems like a marriage, far too much work.

I'm also reading ChiRunning. Who knows maybe something will come of it. Stay tuned.

Hairspray

So...I go with a friend to see Hairspray. It was at a dinner theater, the food was pretty good, the dessert bar was another nail in my coffin, and then the curtain rose.

Within the first 30 seconds I was ready to walk out. Here comes this full grown woman on stage and starts singing in this whiny baby voice and the first thing I thought of is when I went to see A Street Car Named Desire and how I was ready to strangle the female lead. It took everything I had to sit through Street Car. The negativity and the constant yelling had my nerves on end and I was feeling the same thing with this chubby, chipper, leading lady.

I took a deep breath and ordered a Jack & Coke, I was going to need something to calm my nerves if I was going to make it through this play.

However much to my surprise as the play progressed I found myself not quite as annoyed as I started out. The other characters softened the blow of the whining as the story line progressed. Thank god for men in drag, nothing like it to lighten the mood. All in all the play was pretty good. I ended up much to my amazement, not even drinking the Jack and Coke at all. I've certainly come a long a way. Not a standing ovation performance but all in all an enjoyable evening with way too much sugar, in more ways than one.

I left satisfied with my commemorative Hairspray glass in hand anticipating which show I would come and see next. So...Bravo!

Veterans Day 5K Midpoint Madness 2010

Okay, here it is my second 5K of the season and guess what? My time was not as good as last time. :-( Not to make excuses but I had a real hard time breathing, I'm wondering if maybe I don't suffer from some sort of asthma or something. Sometimes I feel like I'm breathing through a cloth and I have to breath deep and cough to clear things out. Gross I know. Anyway another thing to put on my to do list, check out more info regarding asthma.

This race was run over the Midpoint Bridge, hence the madness. It was a night time race which was nice. I could see the moonlight reflecting in the water as I huffed over the bridge. At one point I had to walk for a minute and out of my mouth popped "Holy Shit". Getting over the crest of the bridge was glute burner for sure. Once I realized that I had actually expressed those words out loud I looked around to see if anyone heard my exclaim and a man about my age maybe bit younger shook his head and just said "I agree" we both gave a low effort chuckle and trudged on.

I ended up with a time of 37:18 giving me a pace of 12:01. That's 2 lousy seconds slower per mile than last time. If I wouldn't have take the time to stop and cuss I probably would have met my last time. See what happens??? That'll learn me. (said with a twang) LOL

More on the Cops & Joggers 5K 2010

I haven't been on here in awhile. Here is the scrapbook page that I made for my fist 5K of the season. Cops & Joggers. You can't really see my time but it was 37:11 giving me a 11:59 minute pace.

This was my first 5K since 2008 when I hurt my knee. It's also my first race where I ran it in under 40 minutes. Seems like a lifetime when you consider the elite runners finish in what???? 15 minutes? Oh well, at least I'm out there and hey, I broke 40 minutes and I set a new racing PR for myself of 11:59.

This race was run over a bridge as well and anyone that runs in Florida knows we don't have any hills. After this I can tell that I need to train by running over more bridges. Remind me to put that in my to do list.

Oh my ever lovin'....

ass and right knee hurt! Pardon me but I just did 3.6 miles for my One Hour Runner Week 8 Day 3. You know what that means don't you? There are only 2 weeks left before I'm supposed to be able to run for an hour. If you were to ask me right now I'd say that it's not going to happen but who knows, a lot can happen in 2 weeks. Then again if you had asked me 6 months ago I would have said you were nuts if you had any notion that I'd ever run more than 30-40 minutes...ever.

I have a couple of 5K's planned this month. It would be nice to see a new PR in at least one of the 2. I have to remember that rest is just as important as the workout and not push myself too hard in this beginning phase. Sometimes I feel like if I don't get out there for a couple days in a row that I'll give up and stop all together. I'd have to go back and check but I think just about at 6 months of running.

I started for weight loss and haven't lost anything but now it's morphing into something completely different. A challenge, and questioning myself. Like how far can a fat girl run? Can she run X amount of miles a week and still be fat? Is it all about the food and not about the exercise at all. What will be the thing that tips the scales? Who knows, maybe they won't tip at all. I'm certainly not going to starve myself as a means to an end. Besides been there done that.

OHR Week 8

I can't believe I'm on week 8 of One Hour Runner. I finished day 2 yesterday so my next run will be 49 minutes.


The thing that I need to work on is my mind. I'm slow and I know that my body will do the time but my mind is a different story.


I'm also finding that the more rural the running path is the better I like it. There is a nice park in the next town over that has several short trails and one of them is a dirt path and it's quickly becoming my favorite. It seems like I worry less about how fast or how far I have yet to go when I'm on that dirt path. I don't think about work, chores or errands that I have yet to finish, I just am. Just me and the dirt path. I'm going to have to get busy and see if I can find more places with dirt paths. There are several asphalt paths as well but those don't do the trick, they are nice but they still connect me to the city and to work and the million other things that tug at my life.


I'm definitely down with the dirt.

On another note, did I ever mention that my neighbors are rude and opportunistic? A pack of drunks and stoners (they all seem to stick together)....yee haw in the city? Self righteous, prejudiced, fist fighting, drunken brawl lovin' rednecks? Gee how did I get so lucky?

Video insert coming soon....the Halloween aftermath.

Alla Prima Koi Fish Painting

Here is a little something I painted in an Alla Prima class at the Art League. It was a really fun little class and everyone took home a completed or near completed piece. Great fun for the price. $45 gets you supplies, 3 hours of instruction, pizza, wine, and brownies….what more could a person ask for?

Cops & Joggers 5K Ft Myers Florida 10/23/10

Ran the Cops & Joggers 5K in Ft Myers today with my friend T.M. You know who you are! Wasn't sure if she wanted her name plastered across the internet or not. It was an awesome morning, we ran over the Edison Bridge. I had my best 5K time ever 37:11. Slow but still not too shabby. We got the mother load of a goodie bag as you can see in this pic.

Then I proceeded to wolf down a peanut buttered banana and part of a bran muffin before watching the awards. Pics are not up from the race but possibly post some later. Ta Ta and have a great weekend.

One Hour Runner Week 3 Day 3

My heart wasn’t in it but I managed to get out there and do Week 3 Day 3 of OHR. Believe it or not my time was even slower than yesterday. 30 min and only 2.09 miles. I swear I was running! LOL My Endomondo App read 30:34 for time and 14:37 for Average Speed. Could be because I had a high carb diet today. That always puts my mood and my energy level in a serious slump. I’ve already planned to have a more balance diet tomorrow.

Next week, my fourth week of OHR, they are finally mixing things up. Day 1 is 30 min, day 2 is 29 min (odd), and day 3 is 35. That will be my longest time should I happen to make it that far.

My new shoes were once again awesome. No problems with them at all. As I’ve mentioned before I walk before and after my run times so I figure if I was going to have any problems with these shoes it would have shown during these first 2 days so I am very happy with my purchase. Did I mention I got this pair on sale as well? Under 40 bucks!

Only 2 mosquito bites that I’m aware of today, not bad for sunset in swampland. I hate to use bug spray because of how toxic it so I tried rubbing a dryer sheet over my exposed skin and it seemed to help. Who knows, it may have more toxins than deet but at least I smelled a little better.

Running On

I can not believe that I have not blogged since December of ‘09’. I even managed to get my first Follower during that time. Thank you Feather Snail for being the first!

I have so many interests and they tend to vary. For instance I haven’t done much painting or crafting this year so I have not blogged. Well now that just doesn’t seem right. So I’m changing the blog a bit to include some of my other interests as well. Never fear art is a mainstay of my life and there will surely be artistic items to blog about along the way.

The inspiration for today’s blog is my new tennis shoes. You see, back in June I decided that I was going to take my then, 71 pound overweight body, and start the C25K (Couch to 5K) program. 9 weeks of what I though would be pure hell. Turns out only the first 5 weeks were hell, the rest were just really pushin’ it.

I am now officially what they term as a C25K Graduate. However I think the proper name of the program should be Couch to 30 minutes because at the end of the program, depending on many factors (mine being weight) you may not be running a 5K in the allotted 30 minutes.

As of today I am, according to my own standards, 65 pounds overweight and I’m still running my 30 minutes a few times a week. I’ve moved on to a new program called the One Hour Runner or more affectionately know as OHR. Who knows maybe I’ll finally get to that 5K distance because I’m certainly not anywhere near it as of yet. I am on week 3 day 2 of OHR. I’m going to spill it right now and confess that I may not make it to the end. My conviction isn’t as strong as it was for the C25K and I’m not sure if I even want to run for an hour or not.

I usually run on a treadmill at the gym as the dew point and the heat are higher than my body can deal with but today was a bit cooler out so I ran outside. Other than a few mosquitos’s the size of quarters and some misdirected love bugs it wasn’t too bad. I walk for a bit then do my 30 minutes of running and the walk a bit more.

Now don’t make fun of me because I can only run 2.2 miles in 30 minutes. I realize that some people can walk that fast and others wouldn’t even consider that running. Maybe they would call it jogging I say…jogging schmogging. If both feet are off the ground at the same time, I’m running. Besides, it’s all my body can take at this point in time and I’m proud of what I’ve done. I may get faster and I may not but speed is not the issue. That’s a whole other blog.

Back to why I decided to blog today, my shoes. I had a pair of these before but I decided, because they were on clearance, to try the Addidas SuperNova’s. They were also highly recommended for heavier runners but they didn’t work for me. I ended up with blisters from both pairs. Yes I bought two pairs they were ½ price and then another 50% off that so I got them for $20 each. Even though I had planned on running in them…they are still worth it for kickin’ around or working out on days when I do other things besides run. Anyway here are my new awesome shoes! The Adidas Cushion Response 18.

I ran in them today and they wore like an old friend.

Here is the link for C25K: http://c25k.com/

Here is the link for OHR: http://mindplunge.com/c25k/one-hour-runner.html

Playing

I've beed doing a little playing today when I should be studying. I made these for my Etsy site jibblesandbits. Travel Tissue Covers. They are a deal (hint hint). Here is the link. Wink wink. jibblesandbits ha ha I'm such a poet.

Duck Chase

This was taken out back yesterday. Too funny, mama duck just wasn't havin' it.

How to Paint on Porcelain or Glazed Ceramics

I thought I would show how I do or layer a one fire china piece. Most fine art china or porcelain pieces are done in 3-7 layers. Each layer is fired separately. On occasion a piece might be fired more than 7 times as in working with fine details like a portrait or if you are adding gold and/or enamels.

This happens to be a quickie that I do for a local shop. An experienced painter can do this in an hour or less. This also happens to be a ceramic piece instead of porcelain. The technique can be done on either as long as it has a smooth high fired glaze.

This will be sold (Here’s your plug Pat) at Naples Scent Chips located in Tin City in downtown Naples. This candle burner is being painted for her shop so if you are in the area please stop in.

Okay first the water and mountains go in.

Then I place the beach area in.

Then a palm tree or two.

Lastly I put in the location, this one if for the Naples Florida shop. I also drop in a few birds to give it some life and I sign them.

4 - 5x7 Tropical Acrylics

Today's pics are 4 tropicals inspired by the lovely surroundings in which I live.

My Little China Bird 5x7 Acrylic

Oh oh oh ohhhhhh my little chiiiiina bird

Daydreamer 8x10 Acrylic

This little bird looks as if he's just hangin' out daydreaming. I'm really having fun with the bright colors and straying away from my norm and into a cartoon like world.

It's tough being cool

This 8x10 acrylic was not my idea however sometimes you have to use someone elses idea while you are learning the technique so this is my version of someone elses idea. I think he's cool.

Here is another one in the same style of an African Grey Parrot. This one of course is all mine. Maybe it's missing something because it's not as bright but I like it just the same.

Green Is My Sky 5x7

Here is todays painting. It is a 5x7 acrylic painting. This painting is very bright and cheerful, would make a great gift.

Email me for purchase information at kjsartist@gmail.com

Thanks for looking.