It's Fall Y'all

Fall has finally made it to Texas, and I am so happy about it! I love not sweating my arse off when doing the most random thing outside, like walking to my office from the parking lot. ;)

Last Saturday, October 19th, I was all ready to run the quarter marathon again (same race as last year) when a cold front blew in Friday night, again. This year it was a little warmer than the 41 degrees at start time from a year ago. We had a chilly 50 degree race. It was fabulous! Prior to the race in 2012, which was my first ever, I had done ALL running at the gym on the treadmill. I was really happy with the result last October: 1:09+ and 5th overall in my age group. My goals had been to run the entire time and not use my inhaler. I achieved those goals, so I felt great.

Fast forward to 2013. Ever since that race in 2012, I've been doing my running outside. I got a taste of outdoor running and there is no turning back. I actually hate running on the treadmill now, so rainy days are not my friend. The course I typically run has quite a few hills and a large encline a the end so I was certain my time would go down some, maybe a couple minutes. Well, I was completely shocked when I shaved SEVEN minutes off my time and was 2nd overall in my age group. Speaking of age groups I entered a new one this year and according to last years times this "older" age group was faster so I was a little nervous about that. Anywho, I was SO excited when I saw those results. I don't try to compete with other runners, because let's face it, I'm not super fast or anything, I just compete with myself. But, my competitive drive is kicking in and now I want to get 1st. I should have known this would happen. haha!

I was actually using this year's quarter as a stepping stone to get ready for a couple half marathons I'm planning this winter and spring. One in December and the other in March, I'm really pumped for the December race. Megan happened to be racing in the quarter so we were able to hang out while we waited for the awards ceremony. She was 2nd in her age group too! We both received medals, it was so much fun! I've convinced her to do the half with my in December so I won't be heading out there alone. Plus, we were right about the same pace for the quarter so I'm sure it'll be the same for this one too. The marathon and half marathon on December 8th is supposed to be one of the best in Texas so I'm really pumped to try it out. Annnnd, it's much more flat than the course we just ran so there's that.

Hope everyone is enjoying the fall weather! I can't believe Halloween is next week, crazy how time flies. Happy Halloween! Be safe :)

xoxo,
kris

hiding

Has it really been three months? My goodness, time sure does fly by. I had decided to take a little break from blogging and time just got away from me I guess. So for the whole 2.5 people who read this ;) no worries I haven't given up all together, just enjoying the long summer days. Hope y'all have been doing the same.

Recently we took a trip out to the hill country and spent some time at the Frio. I absolutely love it out there. It's so peaceful, and there's always a breeze. Even though it rained a little at least every day, we had a blast and can't wait to go back next summer. I've been hitting up the pool as much as possible too, it's just so relaxing. Next summer I'm definitely going to a beach. Like a REAL BEACH. I love Texas, but our beaches are a little lacking in the awesomeness factor. I'm thinking something like the Mexican Riveria- I need white sand, blue water, lounges right out back of the hotel, and of course a very nice waiter person to bring me a delicious beverage right there on the beach. hahaha! Maybe I'll just hit up Grand Cayman again. ;)

I also became a great auntie this summer! I can't believe that Les is old enough to be a little mama.. or that I'm old enough to have a great niece for that matter! Miss E is a precious little thing though. I wish they lived next door to me, or heck in my house so I could just love on that little face and those little hands. Aren't tiny baby hands the cutest thing ever? OK, here are a few pics that I managed to get from the happenings. I promise I'll try to not go another three months.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hope y'all continue to enjoy the lazy days of summer, fall (and football WOO!) will be here before you know it!

 

xoxo,

kris

 

Cottonwood falling like snow in July.

I love this time of year, spring is in the air. Wait, did I say spring- I meant summer/winter. It's been getting up around 90 here but each week we have a little cold snap that drops us back down to the 40's for a day or two. Ridiculous, just make up your mind already Mother Nature!

Anywho... The arrival of outdoor weather definitely puts me into project mode! I've been hitting up some garage sales (hopefully there will be plenty more in the coming weeks) to find lots of goodies and then spending my Saturdays working away on stuff. I was finally got out my camera and took some pics of a big project I finished a little over a week ago. There are a couple photos up on the Ruffles and Lace page (HERE) along with 2 chalkboards I've recently made as well. I'm super stoked about this table, y'all! I had so much fun making it and LOVE how it turned out!

 

The tabletop is stained in a dark brown and has a stenciled pattern. The drawer has a vintage, yellow knob. The table itself is actually a one drawer desk, but I think it would be fabulous as a little fanity as well, just hang a really big mirror on the wall above it and you're set!

 

Here are a couple chalkboards I did. The red one at Fair on the Square was such a hit, I just had to make another one :)

 

 

Hope y'all are doing well and will be out enjoying the spring/summer time weather! (yesterday was Earth Day afterall!)

xoxo,
kris

so fresh and so clean...

I've been thinking a lot lately about this whole "clean eating" thing. I know there are varying degrees to making the jump and I have been trying to decide if it's something for me... Well, I've also had a major sweet tooth lately and been snacking waaaay too much, I think from lack of sleep from the time change, yeah I'm a grandma and still haven't adjusted. So, I decided to take the leap!

As of today, I am clean eating. I'm not going crazy hardcore with it, but I am cutting out processed foods and sugar and trying to just eat natural foods. Sunday evening I roasted a huge sheet of veggies and made my first ever batch of quinoa. If you've never made quinoa, it's definitely a task to make it, those suckers are tiny! *Note to self, buy a 'mesh' strainer.* I also made a homemade salsa to use as a topping/sauce. I'll be bringing this for lunch every day this week. Oh, and FYI quinoa is mega filling. I didn't even bring a full serving of it and I still didn't eat all my lunch because I was so full. Annnd in case you're wondering I brought grapes and baby carrots for an afternoon snack at my desk ;) I'm hoping this will not only make me healthier in general, but also translate into better running as well. We shall see!

Anyone else planning to try clean eating?

xoxo,
kris

ideas.

Ok y'all, I've decided to make the birthday volunteering a tradition! If you haven't read my post about the 30 for 30 challenge, check it out here, it may inspire you to do something as well! I will have to keep adding on each year, obviously, since we grow older with each birthday UGH. So, this year I will be at 31. I know some of the deeds will be the same, but I would really like to find some new and creative ones to add. If you have any ideas, please let me know, I would love to hear them!

What already got me thinking about this is I saw a link for the Charity Water page via Twitter last week and they do a birthday campaign. PERFECT! If you haven't heard of Charity Water, you should definitely check them out. http://www.charitywater.org/ They raise funds for clean drinking water and allow anyone who wants to be a part of it to do so through their birthday. 100% of the funds raised through the birthday donations go to fund clean water projects. After the projects are complete, you can see the exact project you funded through photos and GPS. It's a pretty great organization and all you have to do is pledge your birthday and round up some donations.

This will fit in perfectly with my goal and is already #1 on my list. Hopefully I can impact a lot of people this way and inspire many more to get out and do some Random Acts of Kindness in their community - or just create a Charity Water page on their birthday and raise funds online! Man, I'm already super stoked about this and I still have another 10 months before I really need to get down to business. haha!

Hope everyone is having a fabulous week and looking forward to a wonderful Easter weekend ahead. And seriously y'all, send me any suggestions you have for my list!

xoxo,
kris

Spring is in the air...

Well, sort of. I guess that title is a little misleading considering it was 32 degrees when I left for work this morning, just a tad chilly! But, it is officially spring and that means the flowers have started blooming and the beautiful days abound... and I get really bad at posting on here because let's be honest when the sun is shining and it's perfect outside, nobody wants to be sitting at a computer.

I have been able to run outside pretty much exclusively and it's been fabulous! Sometimes it's a little hard in the wind (March sure did come in like a lion!) but overall I have enjoy every minute of it. I get see the beautiful state flower of Texas everywhere along my route. Love It!

And here are a few other pics from random things lately.

 

I made this chalkboard for Miss Ellie's 2nd birthday party last weekend. I couldn't make the party, but I hear it was loads of fun!

 

Last weekend Bel and I went to ATX to see Gary Allan at the Rodeo. Love me some Gary!

 

 

Easter is this weekend, yay! Hope everyone is ready for the bunny :)

 

xoxo,

kris

Hiatus

I know, it's been like fooooooeeeeeeeverrrr since I posted. (who doesn't love the Sandlot, seriously?!) But, I've recently decided to back off the photo challenge. Yeah, it's barely March and I'm already backing out, tisk tisk. Let me explain first! I do have several weekends of photos I haven't gotten around to posting yet, and I feel rushed every weekend to get everything that needs to be done completed along with the things I want to do plus the photos, it was just getting to be too much. So, I've decided to just relax and focus and taking pictures of life as it goes. I'll probably still take my camera with me on the weekends most places, but this way awesome pics will happen more naturally and I'll get to enjoy my time more freely. PLUS as the weather continues to be awesome I'll be working more and more on Ruffles and Lace projects. So, in case you were wondering where the weekly pics were, there's your answer.

In other news, I am LOVING this springtime weather we're having, although the 30 degree nights are tad bit chilly! I can't wait for happy hour Fridays to begin- patio weather is the best. Spring also gets me into a major country music kick (like I'm not already in one 90% of time) I think it's the possibility of live music on the patio and just having fun. I'm going to the rodeo tonight to see Dierks and can't wait. I saw him a while back in Atlanta and it was a great show!

Anyway, hope you're having a great week!

xoxo,
kris

30for30!

For those of you that don't know, I turned 30 this weekend (GASP!) and had an absolute blast doing it! I decided back in December I wanted to do something really awesome to commemorate this event and really couldn't come up with anything. I had always thought about going to Vegas, however, it was Super Bowl weekend and airfare to the gambling capital of the U.S. was pretty pricy. I would have paid it to celebrate, but I definitely did not want to ask someone else to spend a ton of money just for my birthday- and who wants to go to Vegas alone right?

Like I said, this was in December and right around the time we started hearing a lot about people doing good deeds for random strangers. For example, paying for the person in line behind you at the drive-thru or something similar to that. This gave me an idea about doing some random acts of kindness for my birthday. I then remembered one of my fav celeb activists Sophia Bush used her 30th birthday last summer to do a project raising money to fund a school in another country. She called it the 30for30 project and raised $30,000 for her 30th to build that school. (well she actually had so many donation contributed to her fund that she raised $60k and built 2 schools!) Anyway, I decided to make my own 30for30 project. Let's be real, I don't have quite the following that a celebrity has so I opted to continue in the random acts of kindness direction and just make it a total of 30. And with that my 30for30 project was born. Over the month of January I compiled a list of things I wanted to get done, and with the help of my family and friends, I was able to come up with 30 things. I wanted to keep it local, to help the community here rather than venturing out, this proved rather difficult when coming up with 30 things, but by the end of January I had my list. Part of the mission was the complete all 30 random acts of kindness within that one day, 30 acts for 30 years. This meant the entire week before I was a busy bee getting things ready and then Friday night finalizing to make sure I had everything and the list was mapped out.

So, here are the 30 random acts of kindness! 

1. leave thank you note and candy bar in mailbox

2. deliver donuts to the police station

3. pay for the next person in line (we did this at a drive-thru)

4. recycle plastic bottles at the city recylcing center (next to the dump)
5. give donuts to the lady in the weigh shack at the dump (she sits out there all alone, so boring!)
6. leave money prepaid at a gas pump
7. tape money to vending machine
8. tape money to soda machine
9. recycle newspapers at the Try2Recycle by campus
10. took dog food to Rita B. Huff (the animal shelter)
11. a cookie package to University Police (Thanks for this one Mandy!!)
12. took dog food to an animal rescue shelter out of a home in Point Blank - they have 42 rescue dogs at their house! They are at Tractor Supply the 1st and 3rd Saturday of every month if you're interested in adopting.
13. a cookie package to a neighbor
14. a cookie package to EMS
15. a cookie package to the fire station
16. a cookie package to the sheriff's office
17. crayons/coloring books to the hospital
18. a cookie package for the nurses at the hospital
19. homemade flower bouquets in mason jars to the hospital
20. valentine's cards for a nursing home
21. a cookie package for the nurses/staff at the nursing home
22. made a monetary donation at the SAAFE House resale shop (they dont accept regular donations on Saturdays)
23. donated clothes to the C.O.M.E. Center
24. dropped food off at the Mission
25. returned shopping carts at Kroger (I thought this one might be pushing it, but they were actually out of carts and several ladies were waiting for them when I brought them in!)
26. a Starbucks gift card to a random person (gave it to the hospital receptionist, she was very sweet!)
27. left quarters at a laundry mat, tapped to a washing machine
28. donated diapers/wipes to a church that has a daycare program
29. took pizza to the State Park for the guard shack employees. (there was a HUGE race going on they were swamped and loved the pizza)
30. delivered school supplies to an elementary school teacher for her classroom and/or to share with other teachers.

I am so glad I decided to do this, maybe it'll become a tradition.. although coming up with more things could prove a little difficult. I could start the list now I guess! I had grand intentions of taking a ton of pictures but the day flew by and with getting everything to each place, I just plum forgot!
Here are a few that we managed to snap:



The cookie packages all ready to go in the car!

Flowers from the grocery store to make the arrangements Friday night. 

My parent's living room filled with SOME of the stuff for Saturday. 

Getting ready to take the flowers, cookies, and crayons/coloring books (Isabel had those) to the hospital! 

The vending machine with some change taped to it, for a yummy snack! 

 

My totally awesome friend Isabel came along for the ride and to help. I most definitely could not have done it without her, so thank you so much Isabel!! Also, a HUGE thank you to my wonderful mama for slaving away and baking 17 dozen cookies on Friday. I seriously used all the cookies, I didn't even eat ONE! Y'all Rock!

Hope y'all had a fabulous weekend and are feeling a little inspired to help out in your community, even if it's just a little. Think about all the good we could do if everyone did one random act of kindness a day!

xoxo,
kris

 

Photo Challenge x 2

I know, I know... I said I wouldn't be late with the photo challenge again, BUT last weekend (and then week prior) I was in out of state for work. At first, I thought this would be a good chance to get some out of the ordinary pics, however standing in a booth inside a convention center all day put a damper on those plans. I went to Orlando. It was my first time in Florida, and I basically saw the airport, hotel, 2 restaurants, and the convention center. I'm just glad it was last weekend and didn't interfere with my birthday 30for30 plans (more on that in the next post). So, to keep this short and sweet here are the pics from last weekend and this weekend. Future photos will definitely be better, I promise, for real y'all. January and then this first weekend of February have been crazy busy, but things are calming down, so there will be much more to look forward to in the photo challenge department!

4/52

This is what happens to the deck when you spray paint something and realize after you've begun that the cardboard underneath is not wide enough. OOPS!

5/52

This weekend I had a BLAST doing my 30for30 project on Saturday and then of course Super Bowl Sunday. (the next post will into more detail about 30for30 and explain the list!)

Hope everyone had a fabulous January! I can't believe it's already February, it feels like Christmas and NYE were just yesterday...

xoxo,
kris

A little of this and a little of that...

Ok, I'm finally sitting down to load some pics from last weekend! I promise to do better with my photo challenge goal in the future. =)

2/52:

Last weekend I went to Dallas to watch Miss Caitlyn cheer at the NCA National Cheer Competition. It was really awesome, pretty much like being on set of the movie Bring It On. These photos are from the routine portion, they also did a dance, which was fabulous and Caitlyn did a great job at, but it was super fast paced so I couldn't get a good shot in.

3/52:

Just a few shots of the pretty sky outside my front door.

We have had such beautiful weather this weekend! I was very appreciative for a three day weekend, which meant a much needed day of fun today. I met Bel this morning for an outing down south. We hit up several stores and had lunch on a patio and then went to several more stores before heading back. All in all it was a great day.

The adventure of the day = we saved a puppy in the parking lot! (well hopefully we saved him!!) We saw a cute little puppy strolling around the parking lot between Khol's and Petsmart, so we stopped and called the number on his collar. The lady who answered didn't seem too interested in meeting us to get him, she said "oh just leave him, he usually comes back him".. Seriously?! I told her that he was almost hit by a car and that we weren't going to leave him. So, she was sending her mom to pick him up. After waiting for about 20 minutes, we took him into Petsmart to see if they would hold him. Turns out that they see him on a regular basis. He comes there often and they have to call his owners to come get him. So, I'm not sure if we did him any favors giving him back to his owners. Maybe one of the Petsmart workers will take him home next time he shows up there!

Hope y'all had a fabulous weekend! This week is going to be crazy for me, I'll fill you in later, here's to it going by smoothly and super quickly! Less than 2 weeks until my 30th birthday, eeeeek!

xoxo,
kris

Photos

I know I'm slacking on my photos already and it's only week two! I will get them loaded soon I promise :)

Hope everyone is having a great week, almost Friday and the weekend!

xoxo,
kris

The Ocean and Ice

Last weekend I spent a good portion of my time watching football, it was Wildcard Weekend afterall, and the Kats were trying for the trophy one more time. Well, Saturday night I decided to give the sports a break and relax with a movie. It has been so dreary around here that staying in was the best idea...

I decided to see what HBO had to offer On Demand since it's included in my fee. I found this little movie and decided to give it a shot. I remember hearing a few things about Big Miracle but never gave it another thought. It's a really good film, based on a true story from the mid 80's. I vaguely remember hearing about this a kid, but not much as I was pretty young. Three whales are trapped in the ice off the coast of Alaska and it's basically about their harrowing journey and how they affected a nation and ultimately the world. Now I'm not a huge conservationist or an activist for Greenpeace or anything, but I definitely care about the environment, so I really enjoyed this movie and thought the message was great but not overbearing like some Hollywood stuff now days.

You're probably wondering why I'm telling you about this movie 5 days later, right? Well, this morning I was checking my daily news sites online and when I went to yahoo.com I came across this article. Before proceeding, you should really check out the link. It's pretty much the exact same thing, only this time Orcas are trapped and it's a slightly different coastline.

 It breaks my heart. It seems, that no rescue efforts are taking place this time around. We've only come 30 years since the whales the movie was based on were stranded in the ice, you would think something could be done in today's world.


xoxo,
kris

Week 1

1/52: Well the first week has come and gone for my photo challenge and thank goodness it finally decided not to rain today! I have not been able to get out with my new camera yet because of the yucky weather. Don't get me wrong, I love a dreary day as much as the next gal, but it's not really conducive to outdoor activities involving cameras (or running! ugh). So, here are a few pictures I snapped while out and about today. Nothing, fancy just getting to know my new toy :)

I went to General Sam Houston's Property, that's where all these shots came from. The last one is my favorite. The yellow leaves hanging over the top of his cabin in the sun were so pretty. I'm very excited to keep going with this challenge! Finding new and interesting things to shoot is going to be fun, especially when spring time rolls around and day trips out of town are more scenic.

Hope y'all had a great weekend, can't believe it's already over.

xoxo,

kris

made the decision

Well, I made the decision for my New Year's Resolution. I wanted it to be something involving photography and since I purchased a new camera for myself as a Christmas gift, I wanted it to involve that as well. I was thinking about doing a 365 photo challenge, which I talked about in my last post, however, that just would not be feasible with my work/running schedule during the week. So, I came up with the idea of doing a weekly photo. This will give me time to get out on the weekends and take photos of things besides my running trails/treadmills and while it's still light out. This will make 52 photos, for those that don't like math, or don't know there are 52 weeks in a year. I'm not sure if each one will only be 1 photo or if I will include multiple for events and such. I already know next weekend I will be having a fun outing that will produce some good (and different!) pictures so I will most likely post several from that excursion. I'm leaving the rulse open in that regard. The only constant will be 52 weeks = 52 photos = 52 posts.

Hopefully this will be a little bit easier than a 365 challenge, I've heard those are really hard! Maybe next year, baby steps..

Hope everyone's 2013 is starting off well! Mine has definitely started off with a bang and not in a good way, so I'm hoping to jump start my own awesomeness this year in several different ways- one of which is with the photo challenge. I'll have to travel around more on the weekends to see new things so I can get more photos :)

This does however mean that I'll have to move some craft time to weeknights, which is not cool during these winter days when it gets dark at 5:30pm. I love the cold, just not the EARLY darkness. It is not condusive to working on projects, or doing anything for that matter, at night other than putting on pajamas and reading a book/watching tv before you go to bed.

Anyway, hope you find your own way to kickstart the New Year into something fabulous for yourself! I'm ready for some football this weekend and round #1 of 52 photos!

xoxo,
kris

Eat 'Em Up Kats!