Wow! I’ve been a serious slacker for a while. In hibernation for the holidays I guess! haha

I had a lovely Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s, and I’m ready to get back into normal sleeping, eating, and working habits. Also, planning some more serious training on my bike and some craft time. A rubber stamp store not too far away (at which I was actually employed for a while!) has a super fun altered book club! I was a member since its inception, but I had dropped out for a year or so. Anyhoo, I’m planning on getting back into that! Making altered books is such a fun, spontaneous, and unrestricted art/craft. You are nearly unlimited in your choices of subject matter, medium, size… You can paint in a book, rip it up, glue things into it, saw it into shapes, add in pop-ups and containers, collage on a favorite subject, create journal pages, scrapbooks… You give unlimited potiental, new life, to a book that might be considered obsolete, a book that someone has discarded. You can also give new life to all variety of ephemera, junk, even straight-up garbage! Nearly anything can be used as craft materials for altered books.

Here are some spreads I did in the group’s very first round-robin (we each have a book, trade books, and alter a spread or two in each others’ books). These were done maybe about 5-6 years ago… Each book had a theme for the participating artists to focus on. Don’t ask me what these were… can’t remember.

Along with getting back into altered books, I have some plans to do some more beading. Annnnd, I’m updating this blog! I’m nearly done with a new theme. Here’s a peek! The new theme will feature a wintery look (this locks me into making a new one for spring), and it has a more interesting and useful sidebar. Now you can view my latest tweets via Twitter, the last songs I’ve played via Last.fm, and some random books from my library via LibraryThing! (BTW, LibraryThing is super cool!)

So some of my (few) loyal readers have wondered what the hell happened to my blog, and why I’ve neglected it over the past few months.

Well, I’ll tell ya what the hell happened… THIS!

After completing the MS150, I was hooked, and dove head-first without looking into the wonderful world of road cycling. My parents were at the finish line of the MS150 to cheer me on, and were very enthusiastic about my accomplishment. My dad is certainly a fan of anything with wheels that can race, and offered up that he should buy me a proper road bike. We didn’t go out and buy it that day, but I did hold him to his word a little later on in the summer. So my new baby is this lovely 2008 Giant TCR C1.

I did a few other organized cycling tours in the area, the Tour De Tonka - 67mi and the Rum River Bicycle Classic - 63mi, and I’ve been riding as much and as often as I can on my own. I want to use what little outdoor training time is left this year (cold winter approaching!) to work on general skills, endurance and speed. When spring hits, I want to learn racing skillz and maybe find a team I can ride with. Minnesota is a great place for cycling. There’s tons of places to ride, lots of great teams and events.

So, being obsessed with cycling, dancing with a Japanese dance group, and spending long days at work… my summer was pretty well packed! I didn’t have time for crafting, and thus, haven’t posted. I have enough crafty ideas floating around in my head, that I could darn near write a book! When I have time, I’ll make some stuff and post it! But, when I’m not feelin’ crafty, I think I’ll write about some of the other things going on in my life too. (You might hear a lot about biking next summer! haha)

Not to bore you completely, here are some thrifty things I got at the last 50% off sale day!

Some linen-y fabrics and a crazy retro print on stretch knit. Couple bucks per chunk.

A copy of McCalls Needlework & Crafts - 30 cents, Folk Tales of China cute 1st. ed. book - 50 cents, a knit mice kit - $1.50. (I think I’ll stuff ‘em with catnip for the kitties!)

This cute little Ukranian apron and potholders set was 85 cents.

Cute retro cross-stitch kit for $1, and The Wilton Way to Decorate for Christmas - 30 cents! This book drew me in with it’s musty, sitting-in-a-box-in-the-basement-for-years smell and it’s retro holiday goodness inside.

This page was dog-eared. I wonder if someone made a few of these cakes with plastic doll heads on ‘em!

One of my favorites are the “Gay Holiday Wreaths”. Despite them being coated in acrylic spray and assembled with airplane glue and wire, I think these mint sugar wreaths would be a sure-ticket for holiday pest problems! ha

This was my cheapest find, but one of my favorites. This darling little television has a lenticular image of hula dancers on the screen, they dance when you tilt it back and forth. Then, look through the little hole on the back and it’s like a mini View-Master. There are 8 uber-vintage looking photos inside that change when you press down on the little white lever. (Images are titled: Kamehameha Statue, Aloha Tower, Pagentry of Old Hawaii, Nuuanu Pali, Graceful Hula Maidens, Kilauea Volcano Eruption, Waikiki Beach, Surfing & Canoeing At Waikiki) I’d guess this as being from the 60’s or 70’s?? I can just picture it in one of those shops filled with crummy souvenirs. The original tag says it’s from a shop called Nagasako, and it cost $1.25. I paid a mere 15 cents for this little made-in-Hong-Kong plastic treasure! A steal at twice the price!

Haven’t posted for a while, and here’s why!
June 6th - 8th, I did the MS150! It’s a 150-mile bike tour ridden in two days. 75 miles on Saturday and again on Sunday. It was definitely one of the most challenging physical endeavors I’ve ever undertaken. I didn’t do much training for the event - the longest ride I attempted beforehand was 40 miles. I was incredibly sore at the end, but I surprised myself by making pretty good time on both days. I averaged about 15mph on Saturday and 17mph on Sunday. And to top it off, I was riding a mountain bike! I’m really hoping to get a new road bike for next year. I signed up to do it again in ‘09!

In order to carry more stuff with me on the ride, I made this “box” that attaches to the top bar of my bike with velcro. The commercial version of this is called a “Bento Box” and it can be had very cheaply, but by the time I decided I wanted one, it was too near the date of the event to order and get it shipped in time. So I made my own! It is constructed from pieces of plastic canvas sandwiched between layers of heavy black canvas fabric. I added a vinyl top that attaches with Velcro for quick access. Once it’s all sewn together, it’s quite stiff and once attached to the bike, it can hold a slew of energy bars, a cell phone, tools… any small items you need on the road. Mine had a tendency to lean to the right a bit, so I think I need to adjust the way the Velcro is sewn on. Overall, it worked very well though!

After the MS150, my husband and I went on a trip to the Chicago area for the week! We visited family who live in the area, went to the science museum, ate tons of Chinese food and did a lot of shopping. One of my favorite shopping spots is Mitsuwa Marketplace in Arlington Heights. There’s a great Japanese bookstore there that carries Japanese craft books. I bought a handful of crafty books and magazines that looked inspiring! I’ll definitely feature some of them here in the future.

Soooo, I’ve been busy, but I’m back in action now and should be posting regularly as before!

If anyone is actually reading yet, and wanted to make a comment… you can now. I fixed it.