Long overdue update

I can't believe how long it's been since I've last blogged. I'm ready to fix that and stay on top of it for the rest of this exciting month. First, let me get caught up.

I'm officially going to Virginia Tech this fall and working at Camp Roanoke June-Aug.

I'm graduating in three, count 'em THREE (3) days :) I'm not super nostalgic or sad about this, to be honest. Let me put it this way: I have loved my time at Roanoke, my friends, my major and the whole campus. I am so happy with my decision to go here and I feel that I have been successful in making the most of it. BUT there is a reason it is a 4 year plan. It's the right amount of time in a place like this and I am ready to move on to the next adventure. I have a fun and active summer planned and a spectacular next two years ahead of me at VT and I couldn't be more excited about my future. I'm ready to move on.
This week and weekend will be FULL of fun, family, friends and, of course, graduation activities. I'll be sure to share some pictures and notes about that when things settle down on Sunday.  For more frequent updates: follow me on Instagram @maggiemchrist and on Twitter @by_mags. I love posting pictures!

Last week I spent six days in High Point for Alex's birthday and we had a fantastic time. I can't believe I forgot to take a picture of his sweet birthday present, but I'm hoping to get him to send me one soon. I gave him a hand-made wall art. Spray painted canvas with "Don't Stop Believing" painted in his favorite color, orange. He and I both love that song, and it's not a bad message to see each day.

On to my fitness update: April got kind of messy and I slacked off a bit the last week and a half due to exams, stress and lots of fun at High Point. However, I managed to run 28.3 miles (an improvement from each of the months before and keeps me well ahead of my 300 mile goal for 2012).  I ran 2 miles this morning and have started the Mad Muscle May challenge. This is what it is so you can join me!

Lastly, thanks to Instagram and inspiration from other blogs, I've really gotten into taking more photos of special and simple moments. I've started the May Photo a Day Challenge and post my pictures to Instagram and Twitter.  Wanna try it?

 

Stay tuned for more about my upcoming weekend and have a happy Wednesday!

Fish Art

I had a wonderful weekend! I hope you did, too. I celebrated Easter with my man and his fam and then he stayed until this morning. Talk about a long weekend! It was a very special treat. Now there are only two real weeks left of classes for me and then I'll travel down to see him and celebrate his birthday. (I'm quite worried about present ideas, but that's not important now.) 

In other news, I finally finished my fish art.  It's a combination cut&paste and painting.  I made the fish by constructing scales out of magazine clippings for a colorful, shiny look.  Then I painted a small canvas (who knew they were so cheap at Wal-Mart?)  and pasted the fish on top.  Ta-da!

I think there will be more to come.  I just love the simple, imperfect look.  I have a fun little reminder that life goes on and you've gotta "just keep swimming".  Anyone have a little Dori singing in their head? Me, too!

Happy Tuesday and have a great week!

PS I just got Instagram (Android has it now!) so expect more fun photos!

Sun-Inspired Crafting

Yesterday was awfully cold and rainy, so it was a pleasant surprise waking up in the sunlight.  I worked for a few hours at the library today, but I had big plans for my afternoon off.  Let me tell you, I never liked sunglasses...until about a year ago.  I hated them as a kid and I never wore them until I was 16 and needed them to drive.  However, I've gotten a little bit more infatuated with fun and stylish sunglasses, to the point that I don't have place to keep them all.  So today, as soon as I got home, an idea hit me. I took two pipe cleaners (though ribbon and yarn would work well, too) and four thumb tacks and Voilà!  Not the best picture, but you get the gist. I'm kind of in love with this idea :)
I also have this problem of never having my sunglasses when I need them. Not because I'm super forgetful, but because I hate just throwing them in my purse or bag. This is because they seem to get all scratched and even the paint chips off of them.  Yuck!  Thus, I was inspired to make something to protect my sunglasses while in my purse without buying a regular glasses case.  Since I don't spend much on sunglasses, I refuse to spend anything on protecting them.  Here's what I came up with:

 I made a small sunglasses case out of felt! It was super easy and quick. Plus, it's something you can tweak and decorate to make completely your own.  This is what you need:

sunglasses (for figuring out the size), scissors,
felt, glue and I used a pipe cleaner to fasten (more about that soon) 

1) The first step is to use the sunglasses to measure out your case. I just laid them down and wrapped it up to measure out a front, back and a flap.  I cut off the excess.  To fasten the front and back pieces, I left short tabs to fold over front and back.  Mine were square but you can try triangular shapes too. This is envelope-ish in design, so play with that idea as you please.
2) Next, I glued those tabs to create the case.  I kept inserting my sunnies to make sure I had enough room, but be careful to remove them whenever you cut or glue.  

3) Next, make the flap. I cut mine rounded and put two holes in the front and the bottom to fasten.  (I had to use a knife to make the holes, but a good, strong hole-punch would be better).  4) Then I threaded a small piece of pipe-cleaner through the four holes to fasten.  I may try ribbon instead, so it threads and unthreads easier, but you could also try a snap or button to do this.
5) Now throw in your sunnies and be prepared for any sunshine coming your way!
I do have to say that this won't protect your sunglasses if you drop them or things fall on them as it is just felt.  My goal was to simply protect them from scratching against my keys or other things in my purse.  I advise you to still be conscious of them in your bag if you're worried about them breaking.

Happy crafting!

PS Here's a sneak peak at a craft/painting I've been working on.  I'm about to put on the second coat of paint now.  Details to come!

It's April?

How did that happen? What a great three months 2012 has brought. I'm so excited for April. It's one of my favorite months because it brings spring and flowers and baseball! Even though it's rainy today, it can't dampen the fact that it's Opening Day (go Yankees)! Even though, the real teams don't start until tomorrow. ;)

Besides that, April is bringing the end of my last semester of undergrad! It's much better this spring, since I have far less to do than most years.  Only two research papers and three tests to take before I am done! Woohoo!

Because of Easter weekend, a lot of people are heading home and I don't have class tomorrow. I plan on spending my free time working, working out and catching up on crafts. I'm going to finish a painting/craft I started, get supplies to stamp a dress I have like this and maybe dabble in some oil pastels.  At least until Alex comes to visit on Sunday!

I'll be back to share pictures and such from the weekend.  In the meantime, enjoy the iffy April weather and watch some baseball!

March Workout Plan

I know March is halfway over so this is a combination post of what I've accomplished and what I plan to accomplish the rest of the month.

So far I've run 15 miles this month (or actually in the last 11 days). My goal is about 25 miles a month to reach my goal of 300 miles a year. I hope I can get closer to 30 miles.

I've also worked out every SINGLE day this week, which is kind of crazy. I always make goals for the week and only do about 3/5 of whatever I plan.  That just means I plan bigger to get more done.  But now, I've decided I don't have to RUN or do a long work out every day for it to count as a workout. This makes it a lot less stressful and I know I have time for a short ab workout or interval training. It's also easy because I can do a lot of these things right in my room rather than depending on the weather or scheduling time to go to the gym.

I've made a schedule for the next 2 weeks that consists of a mix of running, interval training, and short ab or push up workouts.  I've also added a new health habit to the mix: not eating after 9pm on weekdays. So far, it's harder than I thought, but I figured I'd give it a try to see if it had any benefits. I don't really believe in dieting, but I do work to eat mostly healthy foods and no one ever eats anything healthy after 9pm anyway...

Today my short workout was 10 pike-plunge push ups, 15 tricep dips, 20 sec torso twists, cork screw x12, crisscross x20, 30 sec side planks, and 20 sec teasers.  I did it 2.5 times because the new push ups hurt a lot. My plan is to do more abs tomorrow before taking the rest of the weekend off.  But maybe I'll squeeze in hike on Sunday.

What are your fitness goals for this month?
Have a happy St. Patrick's Day!

5k Best

Friday, the day before we flew home from Florida, we discovered a 5k race on the island.  Of course, only my sister Rebecca and I would consider running a 5k while on vacation, just hours before we had to pack up and leave. But we did it! We were up before 7am on Saturday to register and run at 8.  

Here's me crossing the finish line.  Many of
the runners liked to give out high-fives.

It was already getting hot but it was a fairly flat race through a small neighborhood on the island. I had made myself a goal of going sub-30 minutes.  I've run a few 5ks over the past few years but most of them have been trail races, putting my time between 35 and 45 minutes.  I thought this was a challenging enough, but fairly reasonable goal.  Well, I was certainly shocked and extremely happy to see that I finished in 27:22 and came in 27th out of the 70 or so runners there.  Rebecca completed in her own personal record of 39 minutes and some change.  It was a great feeling to beat my goal by so much and it gave me the motivation again to try for longer races. I'm aiming to do a 10k this summer and then train for a half marathon in November here in Roanoke.  

The last day of vacation was great too.  We joined the kids at the pool for one last swim then we packed up and headed home.  Starting with a good, strong run makes the day so much more optimistic.  Plus I felt energized and got to eat anything I wanted for the rest of the day. ;) 

"I love Florida" - Declan

My spring break so far...I'll be sharing more in-depth later, but I'm sleepy and wanted to share some pictures.  1) Our first site of the beach after a long morning of traveling. 2) Everyone having a blast in the pool. 3) The kids playing cars with Pop Pop. 4) A fun (and accurate) notice about the weather. 5) The sunset! 6) Declan's first Klondike bar. 7-9) Attempting to get a picture of Declan in his beach gear...first his eyes were closed, so I said "open your eyes" and so he did...After we giggled for a bit, I finally got a good picture.