Since Michelle and I got so many comments on our super cute necklaces this weekend I thought I would share with you how you can get one. Lindsay (mama, runner, crafty) from Eight Petals Design emailed me about a month ago and offered to make them. Mine says PIC and SONJA, and well…you can guess what Michelle’s says!

I just love mine, super cute. They are custom, so Lindsay can put whatever you want on there. How cute would IMCDA and 10:21 look? Or BOSTON and 3:05? Eh? What about SWIM BIKE RUN. Or IRONMAN and ROCKS. I could keep going all day. What about WONG and STAR for this super-chick, or HAWAII and KAINOA for this epic-chicka? No really, I could keep going here! HAM and BURGER. COOKIES and MILK. Okay, it must be about bed time, and the kitchen has been closed for almost 3 hours (still going strong with the kitchen thing).

Anywhooo, if you think they are cute, you want your own, or you want to become part of the PIC possee, well, you know where to order now! Thanks Lindsay, you are a sweetie FO’ SHO’!

In other news, I am now a mere 16 days away from Ironman Coeur d’Alene, and thus am starting to become “elusive, crawl in my hole, Sonja”. I don’t know why I get this way, but I kinda dig it. It’s like the calm before the storm. All I WANT (note the want in caps) to do is get in my workouts, take care of Annie, eat the right food, at the right time, get the right amount of sleep, get massages, etc etc. I’m so close I get a little strict with myself. Over the next 10-12 days I really just want to do everything right so that I don’t come down with a cold, or become overly tired. In about 10 days when I am packing I’ll start to get excited and feel like I’m in the clear, but for now, the rabbit is in her hole.

PIC and I got to go train with Chuckie and Angela yesterday. Just like last time, I can not smile for two days afterwards because my cheeks are so sore from laughing. If every day was this fun I would not survive it! Or I would have super strong, muscular cheeks (not those cheeks…well, maybe those too I guess)!! And since my last blog made Chuckie out to be hidden, well, he does in fact exist!

We rode up to Lake Brainard from Boulder, and it’s just so nice to ride somewhere new. It was a great climb, super steady, so much laughing I hardly felt like I was going up. The town of Ward is cute, and the secret (not really) spring on the side of the road was a highlight. As was the descent which is not scary and is a aerobar cruiser for the most part.

Total hilarity ensued when we were descending and we passed this guy. See, Angela (AKA mighty mouse) was long gone in front, and this dude said “Is that girl on the Orange bike with you guys”. Michelle said “Yes” and he said “Holy SH!T”. The way he said it was hilarious. We all had mental pictures of Angela passing this guy going 60 miles an hour to his 30. We laughed for awhile about that one.

So, as I sit here and write, all is very very good. Life and training is cruising along. I’m on my game, and I’m not going anywhere. I’m enjoying that game, I’m happy. Those of you training for an Ironman will understand when you get there and those that have done one in the past know what I mean. There is that lull, that calm, that you start to get when things are lining up, and the epic day is near.

I’m addicted. Made this little cutie this afternoon. Hoot Hoot.

Check out my little fairy. I take a lot of pictures of Annie and few ever turn out very good, but I really liked this one. She is playing with her best friend Kat tonight and they both dressed up as fairies. Too Cute.

Have a happy and thankful Thanksgiving.

Uh-Oh. I got the crafty bug last night! For several weeks I have been wanting to make something called a Wheat Bag. It’s exactly as it sounds, a bag full of wheat. Rather than choosing fabric from the store I got the idea from Eden on Your Balcony to procure used fabric in the form of thrift store skirts. I had a huge pile of clothing from Troy, Annie and I that was headed to the thrift store so we all pulled items from there.

The idea of a wheat bag is to warm yourself rather than your house. Turn down the thermostat and pop your wheat bag in the microwave for five minutes. When I brought this up to Troy, he totally wanted one too. Am I embarrassing him by saying that? He picked out a old fuzzy green Cabelas shirt from the pile and I’m pleased to say his turned out the best. We hung out with ours last night and we are hooked! We even crawled in bed with them after letting the heated bags lay under the covers for a few minutes while we brushed our teeth. I made one out of an old tie-dyed shirt of Annies that was my favorite and I never in my dreams imagined how much she would love it. We heated it up just a tiny bit and sent it to bed with her. Total happy clam!

The wheat I used was from Whole Foods and it was Cracked Red Wheat Berries. It was 57 cents a pound and I bought 16 pounds which filled all three of our bags. I just cut up the fabric and put right sides together and sewed around all sides, leaving a hole to put the wheat in. Then I stitched up the slit. They are that simple! I made all three of them while we watched a movie last night!

Then I woke up this morning, still in the crafty mood. I was hunting around the web and I found these awesome directions from Not Martha on how to make a skirt from an old pair of jeans. I remembered that I had an old pair in the goodwill bin so I pulled it out and threw this totally fun skirt together. Here is the front of it.

Here is the back of the skirt.

I love projects like this because they are quite willy nilly. You don’t really have to follow the directions, if your crafty, you just go at it until your done. These jeans had holes in the knees and I sewed them up all funky as the last step. I completely LOVE LOVE LOVE the back. I used old fabric out of my scrap fabric bin. If you are interested in a shorter skirt, you can wing it for that too!

Usually the crafty bug is like a 24 hour thing with me, so I’m sure it’s almost over! Ha!