Finished!

This weekend I ran the Brighton marathon with my lovely partner David...well we tried to run it, I must admit to walking some of it. But we finished!

And there we are with our lovely medals in the glorious sunshine. It was very hot on Sunday which made it a lot harder to get round, but as soon as we'd finished it was lovely to sit down and relax in the evening sunshine.

I hope you all had a lovely weekend and enjoyed the sunshine wherever you were.

Take care,
Kirstin xx

Last minute preparations

Well it's less than 36 hours until the marathon and I'm feeling pretty nervous. This week I've been getting myself sorted and have still managed to find the time to get a little crafty. It's meant to be a great motivation to have your name on your t-shirt so people can cheer you on personally. So I thought I'd better customise mine. I found some iron on fabric and cut out the letters to make my name. Then simply iron on!

You can see from my face that it's been a long week and I still need a bit more sleep to ensure I'm well rested for the big day. And on that note, I shall take myself off to bed now!

I hope you all have a lovely weekend whatever you get up to.

Night night,

Kirstin xx

Brightening the kitchen

Yesterday I started brightening a few things in the kitchen. I started with the knife block, a nice and simple task to begin with

Whilst I love the natural look of wood, I'm on a mission to bring colour. So I started with two coats of paint

And then put some masking tape around the bottom so I could neatly paint a white line at the bottom. And ta-dah!

The white line isn't quite as neat as I would've hoped for, but I'm quite pleased as a first attempt. Do you remember the lovely flowers that David bought me last week? The lilies have opened up and look absolutely beautiful

I love all the colours around at this time of year, they make me all smiley.

I hope you're all smiley and happy wherever you are.

Take care,
Kirstin xxx

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all you mums out there. I hope you're having a lovely day.

I managed to go for a bit of a run today which I'm really pleased with. Only 1 week until the marathon now, and it's all becoming quite real now. I'm starting to get excited, thinking about the crowds, and the amazing feeling once I've crossed the finish line with my parents there. *fingers crossed* My legs will be ok on the day (well as much as they can be when running 26.2 miles!!)

I decided a little while ago that I wanted to brighten up my kitchen and add some colour to it. I went to Homebase and had so much fun walking around and looking at all the different paints, flowers, tools and everything else. It's sad isn't it? But I felt so grown up just wandering around, looking at all the things that I could use on projects here and there, to inject a little Kirstin on things. I bought some paints and headed home in the lovely sunday sunshine.

I've started with the fruit bowl and the knife block, but they're not finished I'm afraid, so you'll have to wait to see what I've done to them.

What have you been up to this weekend? I hope you've had a lovely one.

Take care,
Kirstin xxx

Fabulous Friday

I am so glad that today is Friday. It feels like it’s been a really long week, and I don’t feel I ever recovered from losing an hours sleep at the weekend. Sounds silly doesn’t it? But when it’s still dark when I’m trying to get out of bed makes it so much harder than when it’s glorious sunshine streaming through the windows. Still, a couple more weeks and it’ll be back I’m sure of it!

I’ve been having more physiotherapy this week to try and get my legs in the best shape possible before the marathon (which is only 10 days away now eek!!) I think it’s helping but I haven’t been out for a proper run for over three weeks now, which is quite worrying at this stage. Still I’m trying my best to keep positive and will go for a test run at the weekend maybe and see how they get on.

What are you all up this weekend? Any lovely Mother’s Day treats planned?

Take Care,

Kirstin xxx

Two weeks to go

Only two weeks to go until the marathon now. Two weeks. I can’t believe how quickly it’s come around (everyone always says that about these things don’t they, but it is so true!). As my leg has been so bad, I decided to take the plunge and get it looked at last week. I’d put it off until this point because I was scared they would tell me there was something seriously wrong, and thought ignorance was bliss. But with only a few weeks left I realised I needed all the help I can get.

The good news is that the physiotherapist thinks that I should be able to do the marathon.

The bad news is that it’s costing quite a lot and I wont be able to do another long run before the marathon. I think an investment in my health is a worthwhile one, and I’d much rather not do another long run, and be there on the day. It will be harder mentally, but that’s just part of the challenge. David was originally planning on running round himself to try and get a good time, but is now strongly considering running round with me which would be a massive help (he hasn’t done quite the amount of training he was planning on). I think it would be lovely if we did run round together, especially for when it gets really tough in the last 6 miles or so.

I wasn’t feeling too well last week so David decided to buy me a bunch of flowers

They're beautiful, I’m a very lucky girl. The added bonus was the cellophane they came in (I’m not sure cellophane is the right term, but I can’t think what else to call it).

I’ve saved it as it’s just so pretty. I’m sure I can use it on a little project later on.

I hope that you have all had a lovely week. Now I’m feeling better I’ll try to post more regularly.

Take care,

Kirstin xx

New skills - Decoupage

On Saturday I went to the Stitch and Craft show in Kensington, London. I wasn't too sure what to expect from it, but it was amazing. There was so many inspiring stands with lots of lovely craft materials and ideas. I thought that I would share my purchases with you along the way when I have projects in which to use them. I've started with decoupage. I'd never heard of this before, but it's "the art of decorating an object by gluing coloured paper cut outs on it" - thanks Wikipedia

It can be done on pretty much anything from what I understand and can look very beautiful

So I thought I would give it a go. I bought a brush, some glue, a couple of sheets of the special paper and a nice box to decorate.

You need to brush glue onto the surface that you want to put the paper on, and then brush glue over the paper once you've put it in place.

I did this in small sections along the box until it was finished. Ta da!

I'm fairly pleased with this as a first attempt. I've realised that you have to be really careful where you put the joins of the paper as they can be seen more clearly than I thought. Depending on what paper you're using it might be really important to ensure the patten is continued.

I might use this as a jewellery box, but it does have hooks on the back so I might decide later on to frame something in it and hang it up.

Any questions about decoupage, please feel free to ask me - i'll try my best to answer them. Or if you have any tips for a new beginner, I'd love to hear them.

I hope you are all having a good week.

Take care,
Kirstin xxx