Austin 10/20 Report

  We went up to San Antonio to camp with our son, Joshua, and his sweet pregnant wife, Rae, and we brought our older daughter, Crystal, with us for a mini-retreat of her own. The main thing on my mind was this race, however–the Austin 10/20: ten miles, twenty bands! I’d been looking forward to this since I found it back in December 2011!

  Stretching, trying to keep myself occupied till the race started. I was full of nervous energy!

  I was hoping to do fine with my left hamstring and my left IT band. My husband the photographer had a great time taking pictures of all the action. The announcer said there were 7500 runners present! The weather was perfect: a little wind, overcast, and sometimes a sprinkle. The course was fast and flat, though there were a few gradual inclines and declines…not bad, though.

  Hubby actually caught a bunch of good action shots this time! Here I am in the beginning of the race, with our Marine son-in-law Jose (Shammah’s husband). He’s the reason I’m a runner today. )

  I was amazed and grateful that my husband was able to get some shots where I’m actually in the middle of a bunch of runners along the way, especially this one at 15K, a little farther than the 9-mile mark. This race was not hard, since the I kept a pretty conservative pace and I added walks whenever my IT band started hurting a lot. During the race, I slowed at many of the water stations, adjusted my bands whenever I needed to, and ran again. To my surprise, I found that running the slight uphills was easier than the downhills, though I’m not sure yet why. Maybe the impact? Maybe the angle of the knees?

 Sort of blurred, but I like this one anyway. ) Can’t wait to show my mom! She and my brother can hardly believe I’m doing this (running), and they are always concerned that I’ll hurt myself, especially doing long distances, since I’m 55. I’ve already enthusiastically explained to them all the physical and mental benefits that I’ve experienced through running, but I don’t think they really get it. )

  See what it says on the back of my shirt? “Run or Die” was Jose’s idea; and he found the font, and made the suggestion that the last word be in RED, for emphasis. I learned how to do iron-on decals…pretty cool, I think! ) One lady passed me and said, “That ‘die’ option is looking pretty good right now!”

  Here I am with the medal I’ve been waiting for months! That thing weighs about a half pound!! I wore it all day, slept with it around my neck (hubby said to be careful that I don’t turn over and whack him in the face with it during the night), and took it to class the next day to show to the kids!

  Here is the cool Under Armor shirt we got. Wore it to class. Can you see that the general shape is that of a guitar pick? )

  We went to eat lunch Chuy’s in Austin, afterwards. Man, that place is great!! This was my husband’s plate: the Elvis Presley. Three different enchiladas, which were cheese, chicken, and ground sirloin, each with a different sauce. When we check out a Mexican restaurant, I always want to get beef enchiladas…I’d never had beef enchiladas that were actually made with GROUND SIRLOIN!

  This was my beef enchilada plate (ground sirloin). The sauce that covered them was a sour cream tomatillo and green chilis. Magnificent combination! The rice and beans were pretty good, too! We sat out on the patio, which was perfect because it started to rain; I absolutely loved it! It was so relaxing being in that kind of atmosphere, with the gray, rainy skies, under a straw roof, and also listening to the few sparrows which were in the beams above us. Needless to say, we’ll be coming back there after the next Austin race in December! )

I was so mentally tired from this–and I don’t know why, exactly–that I made a few academic boo-boos. First, I emailed my English teacher, asking for an extension on Sunday’s assignment, and then remembered that I had turned it in way early–the Wednesday before–because I knew I wouldn’t have any other time to do it. Then I went to my printmaking class and forgot my 6-print edition which was due that day, and I also forgot my 9 x 12 copper plate and the collage layout that I needed! I can’t remember when I’ve been that scattered! ) Thankfully, my teachers love me, and they just laughed it off.

Next: Beach to Bay in May! Woo-hoo! I seriously need to build myself some kind of heavy-duty wall mount for all these medals I’m accumulating. )

 

Day 5 Plus Woodcut

From Day 2 through Day 4, I have done a fast walk and two flat, snail-paced treadmill sessions at a little over 2 miles each, both with good results. Fine. So today I wanted to take it to the track since I haven’t been on it but once for a slow walk. Hubby suggested I just go one mile, not to push it. I wore my left knee brace and ran one, then two, then three miles, and kept going till I reached 5K, in little over 35 minutes. It was slower than I usually do a 5k run, but the good thing was that my hamstrings didn’t hurt. The outside of my left knee just micro-pinched, but quit when I stopped. All in all, I was super pleased. My breathing went well, and the burn/exercise soreness felt good. The stretching felt wonderful. And I ate a full lunch and had a great nap.

  This is a pic of one of my prints in yellow (we are doing 4 colors) that I pulled yesterday. I absolutely love the fact that my super thin cuts don’t get flooded out! They work! I want that rose to be red, with a few hair-thin yellow streaks in a few of the petals. I hope that works out.

  This is the woodcut as of this evening, after I made a mess big enough for a gerbil to love. ) This success inspires me to really want to try and do someone’s portrait! Tomorrow I have plans to do more of the lighter scales on either side. Side note: I love having my own tools and my own slip strop (for sharpening). Side note 2: I found a cut on one of my left hand fingers and I don’t know how it got there or when, though I know which tool did it by the shape of the cut.

 

Day 1 of Austin 10/20 Training

After being off the track for two weeks, nursing a slightly pulled left hamstring and sort of painful knees, I decided I needed to test myself out today, since I only have 9 weeks till race day! These past two weeks I have been riding the stationary bike and walking, at the base. No running, though I thought about it a lot. But I knew I had to do the right thing for my left leg, or I was not going to meet my April 15 goal! I flattened the treadmill upstairs, put on some running clothes and my Pure Flows, and started the machine at 4.0 mph, increasing it at a half mile to 4.5. I kept it there the rest of the time. I trotted, and it felt very good, very easy. Nothing hurt. Then Crystal started texting, and I texted back, and I noticed that my left knee pinched a little while I texted because my torso twisted somewhat. My fault, but the topic was interesting! ) I stopped the machine at 2.11 miles because I didn’t want to push past that little pinch–not the first day. So I have begun. I worked up a sweat, which I did not expect to do, but I’m glad! I just have to re-do my makeup, but that’s ok. )

 

Reversible Aprons

  I decided to make a couple of reversible aprons because Shammah said she and Cadence do a lot of work in the kitchen together and need aprons! The reversible part and the teapot appliques were my own touch just because it was a step up from just another apron. The pieces are lightly interfaced then zigzagged into place at the front of the apron; the opposite side has the same thing, but in reversed colors. This one is Shammah’s.

  This one is Cadence’s.

  Here they are: mother-daughter aprons. ) Easy and fun, as long as you keep the final image in your mind.

 

Marine Corps Blanket: How-To

  Jose, my Marine son-in-law, a key motivator in this family, expressed a serious need for a new blanket because he was using two smaller ones to cover with. Not good. Of course, I took up the request, and when I texted him about fleece prints, he said, “I’ll make it easy: my beloved Marine Corps.” With that devotion etched in my mind, I went to Joann’s and found one fleece with USMC designs on it…but I was sorely disappointed in the quality, because the logos were small, fuzzy, and NOT worth the price on the bolt; it wasn’t even worth half, in my opinion. I would be ashamed to give it, it was so inferior. So I looked at the camouflage print and decided on that, with a solid brown background. I got 6 yards of each: each side would be two sections of 3-yards-long fabric, sewn together side by side. Then–the birth of an idea: I would make my OWN Marine Corps emblem and applique it onto the camo!! Back home, I found a pic of the USMC emblem online and printed it. The only way I could enlarge it to the size I needed would be to use grids and a string-and-pencil compass. I did the math as I went along on this (one inch = 9 inches), BTW–same with the whole project. I hoped the idea in my head would be spectacular, but no way I had every single how-to detail in my mind. I started with the little I knew for sure, and as I pinned, cut, sewed, and painted, my mind was thinking ahead. It’s called stepping out in faith, praying as I went. )

  This is two pieces of butcher paper taped together, 9=inch squares drawn (actually, I ended up quartering each square because of the amount of detail in the emblem). I went over the pencil lines with a marker, after, since this would be the blueprint for the pattern pieces.

  I took a regular pattern that I wasn’t going to use, and used that tissue as tracing paper, then cutting out each part and setting it aside.

  Here is an example. I found out later that I didn’t need to put in all the feathers on the tissue, but since I was doing this on the fly, I added the detail in case I needed it.

  Finding the center of the circles was sort of an eyeball thing, carefully folding the 4-inch pic vertically and horizontally, then figuring out where that was on the blueprint, marking it, then rigging a string-and-pencil compass and adjusting the length of the string for each of the circles. After that, it was easy to place pattern pieces and cut them, just like with a normal pattern.

  Here’s the red. By the way, the material I used for the applique was 100% polyester (lining material) because the fleece was 100% polyester. If the whole thing gets washed, nothing will shrink. If I had made the applique pieces out of 100% cotton, upon washing, the applique would shrink, pulling and puckering on the blanket.

  For the globe, I drew 1-inch latitude lines, then sort of curved them a little at the ends to make it look 3-D. To transfer the lines to the material, I pinned along the lines, then marked dots with a disappearing ink pen (found in the quilting section of Joann’s). This purple ink disappears in a day, or sooner if you handle the piece a lot. NOTE: I fused light interfacing to all the applique pieces (before sewing) except the white and gold ropes. To make it easier for difficult pieces such as the continents and all the letters, I fused the interfacing to a block of fabric, then laid the pattern pieces and cut. Cutting the material and interfacing separately, then aligning them and fusing the interfacing is MUCH more difficult and time consuming. I figured this out AFTER I had done the continents the hard way. The lettering went much more smoothly. )

  Here I am, just connecting the dots (size 10 needle, regular point). ) I used the gold thread (all the thread is Coats and Clark, polyester-covered polyester) for the white globe. I figured it would look classier, not harsh, as it might have looked had I used another color.

  See the purple dots?

  I positioned the continents, glued them down with a little bit of permanent fabric glue (especially peninsular areas) so I wouldn’t need pins (How could I pin down Florida anyway?) and zigzagged it to the globe. These continents are much more detailed than those in the 4-inch picture. I refused to do continents that looked pretty much like rectangles. I mean, come on–this was going on the Marine Corps emblem. I couldn’t give something like that. I got better continents online and printed a simple picture as a guide.

  Here I’ve attached the globe and anchor pieces, following the blueprint (mostly eyeball), and I’ve pinned the rope, a small tube I sewed together, turned inside out, and ironed flat.

  Another view.

  I started to get excited, seeing it come together like this! )

  These are the colors I used, plus invisible thread to attach the whole completed seal to the blanket. But I chose to do this because my white letters were right on the black edge, and I didn’t want to go around the edge constantly changing threads from black to white and back. NOTE: You can avoid this step by making your letters smaller. I had not factored in the extra half inch that the gold rope would take up (between the red circle and black). That cut into the space for the letters that would go on the black. I had to do a lot of trimming and repositioning because of this.

  This is almost 30 feet of gold rope I made from strips of leftover gold (crepe back satin, also 100% polyester). This much rope is tedious to turn inside out, FYI! Another option that I tried but didn’t have enough rope: for the outside border, divide the rope into 3 equal parts and braid it! It would have looked gorgeous, but I was 5 inches short! Boo hoo! So I went with 2 straight bands. NOTE: If you braid it, know that the finished braid is shorter than the pieces you started out with, because of the braiding process.

  Here, the inner gold band has been pinned.

  I chose to paint on the feathers and face on the eagle because machine stitching this would have caused me to pull all my hair out. ) This is Tulip brand black paint, soft matte. It’s permanent, and you don’t need to heat it when it’s dry, to set it. I used two brushes: this little tiny-pointed brush, size 0, and a knife-edged, little bigger one, shown in the next pic. Use your eyes to make a dotted guideline for your layers of feathers (with the disappearing ink) before you start. Then do the rest by hand.

   The other side…don’t worry if it’s not perfectly symmetrical. Birds in real life aren’t symmetrical. )

  See how the black lines start defining the whole piece? I also added lines to the anchor parts after the eagle was finished.

  I drew around the stick letters I had made. If spacing was a problem, I just moved the paper over a little before making the next letter.

  Positioning to see what they would look like.

  I positioned and repositioned the letters onto the black till I got them exactly where I wanted them. Then I glued them and stitched them down. Remember, this is all done BEFORE attaching to the blanket. After the letters were all down, then I laid out the camo layer (which I had already pieced together the way it was going to be), positioned the emblem toward the top, where it would be close to his heart as he slept, pinned it, glued it, and stitched it twice around with my invisible thread.

  Here I’m attaching the two gold bands around the outside. I tell you what–moving this much material around (and this is only the camo side, mind you) is a trick!! Be patient, and give yourself space! )

  My husband took this as I sewed the camo side to the brown side with a nice blanket stitch. This is twice the weight as before: patience and diligence. Think like a Marine! )

  And there you have it. Something you’re proud to give. )

 

Editioning Lithograph, part 2

  This is releasing the pressure.

  Rolling this heavy thing back to starting position was fun and empowering! In fact, the whole process became easier with every print, and I was on a roll really quick!

  I’m pulling the print from the stone; I love this part.

  I’m happy with what I see!

  Here I am, comparing consistency; we have to have 6 consistent prints for critique this Thursday. I’m pleased. After this, they go onto the drying racks behind me, I clean up every drop of ink, grease, soy solve, mineral oil, simple green, and alcohol, and put everything away, including my stone, which will have the image ground off soon. Sad. But it had a good life!

 

Woohoo! My First Lithograph Edition a Success! (part 1)

   Today I printed my first Lithograph edition, and I put up a bunch of pics (taken by my husband) so you can see the process, basically. What a day! Here I am charging the leather roller (loading it with ink). I already have my stone in place and it is prepared to receive the ink.

  Here I am rolling the ink onto the stone. This is the process for each print; it’s a gradual layering process: count 6 rolls back and forth, on each of three sides of the stone…repeat this twice more, sponging lightly in between every 6 count.

 This is the sponging. Damp…no standing water allowed.

  Next is lining up lines on the paper with little marks made on the stone.

  A tough, clear acrylic “glass” is placedover newsprint which is over the paper, and then the “glass” is well-greased to allow the press to slide.

  I am now pulling down the lever that will apply 10,000 pounds of pressure onto the stone!!

  The roll through…one way.

(To be continued on another post…because for some reason I can’t upload any more pictures to this one!)

 

My First Lithograph This Semester

 This is my outline drawing before I added any values with the grease pencil (referred to as the “crayon”). Drawing on a smooth limestone surface is beautiful, if you aren’t nervous about the fact that YOU CAN’T ERASE!! But the image I chose really lent itself to that fact. If I made a boo-boo, I just turned it into a neuron or muscle fiber. I spent about 2 1/2 hours every day for 5 days, and that’s on my own time. But I really wanted this picture to be great. Besides…I’m retired; I have the time!

  This is my printmaking professor, Ryan O’Malley. Extremely skilled, very articulate, good sense of humor, and a stickler for details and clean-ups. He liked my work, and he gave great, clear suggestions to push my values (which means make the darks darker and work it to give it definition…so it won’t just look like 3 shades of gray).  :)

  This is it! I unveiled it today, and the prof said, “It’s ready to go.” I sure hope everything goes well; sometimes the unexpected happens in art…as in life. I put an etch on it today, tomorrow is another part of the process (2 hrs), and THEN…the reserved 6-hr block to print!! Woohoo! Critiques this Thursday. I love this class!

 

My First 5K!!

Today my quads, glutes, and calves are sore…but I know that’s a necessary part of my body’s reparative qualities, and it’s healing the damage I inflicted upon it yesterday in the Out For Blood 5K run at the Bayfront. I still can barely believe I did it!!

I was ready. I had trained, I had gathered information, I had learned some things the hard way. Yesterday morning I dressed, stuck on 7 bandaids in and around my ankle bones and Achilles tendons, and I laced up my Mizunos (with new quik-dri socks and new performance gel insoles). I ate a banana, a small frozen smoothie, and my vitamins, and I brought my pre-run gel for before the race. We made it in plenty of time, and I attached my timing chip to my shoelaces.

  

Jose arrived into the crowd and I pointed him to the check-in table. We walked around and stretched, in the pre-dawn light…I had no real idea what was to come. Sure, I had run around the track, but it was at MY pace; I had no one to challenge that. When the horn sounded, Jose bounded off, and his enthusiasm and strategy both startled and alarmed me. I immediately hoped that this was not the pace he was planning on for the entire distance, or I was doomed! After a few yards, he slowed a bit as I sped up to catch him. It was still faster than I had hoped we’d go. He had said that he would push me, but I thought that meant toward the end, not at the beginning!

   

And so we ran. Down the street, across the grass, and onto the bayfront sidewalk. At the first water station, I grabbed the cup, drank a sip, and tossed the rest onto Jose. That was for the quick start. )

  

It was sort of easy at first, and I caught a glimpse of the glassy bay and the big orange sun, but it wasn’t long before I was already looking for the half-way mark. This wasn’t as much fun as it was effort…and it was getting harder by the minute. It was forever till we actually turned around! And then, more of the same… Into the last mile, I knew I needed help, or I was going to walk…something I didn’t want to do, or I’d regret it. I managed to speak, asking Jose to talk to me because I was weakening…and he did. We ran, he coached, he monitored my breathing. He knew what to say, and I listened and tried to comply, working on control, taking a deep breath every so often, telling myself it was almost over. My calves weren’t really burning, though they were tired, and I was never so glad as when I saw that finish line nearing. The good thing was that I wasn’t gasping for air, though my heartrate got up to 210 as I ended the race. We were each handed a bottle of water and a towel…Jose said walk, and I just obeyed. I had done it! Not only that, I had set a new PR at 29.32, and that was for 3.11 miles, not a 3-mile distance around the track! [So was it all mental?]

   For the next few minutes, the only thing I did was drink water and breathe deliberately slower. I had survived. I ended up 3^rd in my age group, which was very cool!…no medals for 3^rd, but I didn’t care. It sounded good anyway! I texted the kids later, and they all sent congratulations!! What a day! ) Now to celebrate with a new James Avery charm!

 

First Day of School

  This is me on my way to my U.S. Art History class…first day of school, full-time, since spring of 1979! That’s over 32 years ago!! Can you tell I’m excited? My professor is very nice and funny, and we had an introductory day today, mainly. After class I walked around campus a little, taking pictures like a tourist. Silly, I know, but I didn’t care. )
 These beautiful flowers caught my eye and made me smile…so did seeing a pretty little stray cat! They have several around here, I’ve been told. Another touristy view. Love it.

 The back of my art history building. I think it’s the newest building here.

 This was on display, and I saw the bloodmobile…but I’m not giving blood until after my 5K Saturday! )

 My new Mizuno Wave Creation 12′s. I plan on doing the race in these. This morning I ran a mile in 9.36…a new PR!! Great way to start the day!!! )