The One with the Photo Walk: Circles and Swirls

Today Matty and I biked the Tour de Whatcom in Bellingham. He did the Century and I did the 50 miler, so I ended up starting about two hours after him. I had lots of time for a strawberry scone and a photo walk.

I decided to focus on circles and swirls. Generally I aimed my camera at anything round.

This is my first SLR photo walk with a theme, and I loved it. :)

Tonight Matty and I are resting from our hard rides. We are watching the Olympics!!

The One with the Triathlon

Its been nearly a week since I returned from Chelan!

Life has been a bit crazy, so I apologize for lack of blogging. In the past four days I have hardly been home at all, thanks to two movie theater excursions, spending time with family in Auburn, and getting to see my baby friend Pippa. Tomorrow we are headed to Bellingham for a bike ride. Fun stuff! But CRAZY busy. Needless to say, I haven't been cooking a ton or eating all that healthy either. Oops!

Back to Chelan.

Yes, I did complete my triathlon! The bad news first....I felt sad for my poor swimming teacher who put so much time into me....I completely forgot how to swim! The morning of the race I warmed up with my cousin and could swim quite well. In fact, she said I had an excellent stroke. But as soon as the race started, I began to hyperventilate. So of course breathing under water was out of the question. I ended up doing most of the swim on my back, doing the backstroke. I also did a little breast stroke and a tiny bit of crawl when I could get my breathing under control.

When I got out of the water my adrenalin was rushing like crazy and I just BOOKED it. My transition was fast. I started out on my bike super quick and passed everyone in sight. Eventually my hand went numb (poor bike fit...I'm borrowing it) but I still pressed on. I said "passing on your left" over and over. When I got back to transition I was completely zonked. TOTALLY exhausted because I had just pretty much sprinted for 13 miles. Still, I tried to run as fast as possible. I kept telling myself that I was a runner and I sure wasn't going to lose on the run. After about half mile I felt much better and started passing people again. Eventually I finished in second place! There were a few guys ahead of me, but I was second in my age group....I think 11th overall once all the heats finished.

Needless to say, I was super excited! My first triathlon was a success! I still have lots to learn on the swim, but at least I didn't die, and I ended the race well. That's all that matters.

I just wanted to give you a little 30 before 30 update. Here is the complete blog post of all the things I wish to accomplish by the time I'm 30. I just have a little more than 3 years!

So far I have:
10) Run a Marathon
14) Mini Sprint Triathlon
19) Learn to Really Swim.

Its been a pretty active summer so far. :)

The one with the Night Out layouts

Amidst the swimming, biking, running, eating healthy (and not), photographing, working and spending time with friends, I have been SCRAPBOOKING!!

I haven't really gotten much sleep lately, but I sure have been productive.

I made these two pages with my July Studio Calico kits, as well as some new fun stuff that arrived in the mail last week. I sure love scrapbook shopping!

They will sit side by side in my album so they share some similar papers and colors and are about the same event. This is my solution to scrapbook lots of photos and still not make two-page layouts.

Thanks for looking!

(Only THREE more days until Chelanman! AHHH!)

The One with the Lake Stevens 70.3 Ironman

Yesterday started at 4 am. We turned on the french press coffee pot and got some last minute things ready (checking and re-checking!) and headed up the dark I-5 corridor to Lake Stevens.

Matty did his second half Ironman course yesterday! The one in Boise was unfortunately cut short due to weather, so he was so happy to participate in the full length event.

Swim 1.2 miles.
Bike 56 miles.
Run 13.2 miles.

Its a lot! And he did it! I was his personal photographer and bike pump holder. :)

It was a bit rainy and chilly but overall a wonderful day. I am so proud of my hubby. :)

(And now only five days until my mini triathlon. I am so NERVOUS!!!)

The One with the Scrap Room Tour

I finally cleaned up a bit!!

This is what my scrap room looks like normally. Its never super clean. Never super duper organized, but still very usable. And I love it. :)

The wide angle photo shows the most. The Iris container the center usually has lots of pattern paper from Studio Calico kits. The computer is super useful for watching Shimelle videos or episodes of White Collar while I scrapbook.

 Here are some washi photos as promised...(I still need to line them up in a rainbow and take photos)

Thanks for looking! I figure my scrapbook room never gets REALLY clean. So I might as well photograph it in its normal glory. Have a great weekend!

The One with a Washi Tape Idea

I think everyone in my immediate family knows that I have a thing for washi tape!

(My immediate family being Matty, Flash, Leo and of course my mom and Renae)

I love to stack it up in rainbows and make it look pretty. Recently I have acquired some new ones and I have the intention of photographing them and will hopefully be sharing an updated photo soon. (The photo above is an instagram from a couple months ago.) I love to use it with my Project Life and on scrapbook pages.

But did you know that you can use it on the wall?

I have been using it to tape grocery lists, meal lists and most recently our camping list onto the kitchen wall. Its super useful and also pretty.

So until I become crafty enough to make my own chalkboard, this washi tape will have to do.

The One with the Exciting News

Okay...not that exciting. No baby is on the way or anything. :)

BUT...I learned how to swim!! Yes, I can finally do it. I swam 400 meters today in my swimming lesson, and that was after warming up with 50 and then swimming 150 meters. So...that's 600 meters total!!

I also swam around 400 meters in Green Lake yesterday.

As you may tell, I am SUPER EXCITED about my accomplishment. :)

I have been so busy with my swimming, biking and running, that I haven't had much time for cooking healthy meals. So its been all about what's quick and available. Lots of salads and quick veggies and hard boiled eggs and such things. Right now I am eating a Swordfish steak made by Matty on the BBQ.

And I am off to watch Season 4 Premier of White Collar. So excited. :)

The one with the Roof

Matty and I have a new found love for the roof. Our neighbors have recently painted and remodeled it and the latest edition this week was NEW CHAIRS!! Yay!!

 

Needless to say, we are in love. The weather is finally warm enough so that its comfortable to hang out in the evenings. Give me a glass of red wine and a good book, and I'd be up there for hours. Speaking of that. This book is awesome. Hannah gave it to me as a gift last weekend and I'm about half way through. I will plan to finish it up this weekend on our camping trip. Yay!!

Life is speeding by. I have photos to share of the Forth of July, which was fabulous this year. I also have a couple food photos/recipes to share. But this weekend I will be relaxing at a campsite off of Highway 2...so no internet service around. More coming next week!!

One quick note...I plan to try a new recipe from my Paleo Cookbook each week. So I will be reporting on that.

Also another quick note...I actually got in the lake last night!!! (See instagram feed if you don't believe me.) Swimming is going pretty well, I just wish I had longer to train. I guess sometimes procrastination/cramming doesn't really work.

Have a great weekend!!!

Project Life

 Week of June 10-16

On our way back from Boise we stopped in Yakima for a quick rest stop. I managed to snap a photo of BOTH mountains, Mt Baker and Mr Rainier. We even saw both mountains from Pendleton Oregon. It was incredible! Of course the mountains showed up super tiny so I labeled them with bright orange arrows. :)

 The rest of the left side was all photos from Hannah's party. It was a really fun roof top party at E. Lake Bar and Grill.

 The rest of the week I recorded on the left side. It was a pretty normal week except that I started eating healthy! So of course I started photographing my food. :)

Week of June 17-23:

 This week was crazy busy and I didn't end up putting it all together until the end of the week. Usually I go day by day (more or less) The first side is all from Sunday, which included lunch with the girls at Shabu Chic (Japanese food), Father's Day dinner and family family portraits

 I added an insert this week which was all triathlon related. I included some clothing tags from my new swimsuit and shorts, as well as an instagram announcing my first swimming lesson from Matty.

 One of the clothing tags is pretty translucent so you can see through to the other side. This week I started recording my workouts, so I added that card on the back of the insert. The circle on top is a coaster from a restaurant which had "note to self" on the back. Of course I took the opportunity to write a note to myself. This one is about NOT letting yourself go on a Saturday night because it just might ruin all your hard work from the previous week!

The last page is lots of the usual...instagram photos and food photos. Also included is a roof top photo! We sure love our rooftop in the summer.

Week of June 24-30

Much of this week I have already posted on the blog, so I will be quick. Mostly this includes the pesto, salmon patties, Fremont photo walk, and seeing the Super Guppy.

 Much of this week I have already posted on the blog, so I will be quick. Mostly this includes the pesto, salmon patties, Fremont photo walk, and seeing the Super Guppy. My favorite photo this week was one I captured of my two kitty cats sitting on the porch side by side. This is a very rare sight!!

 On the back of the collage from my Fremont photo walk, I added random Instagrams from the week. I punched out 2x2 papers to go with the photos since I did not have quite enough to fill up all the slots.