The Habulous Blog result tavistock

At this very moment in time I ache like bloody mad, my legs and my butt in particular.  I definitely feel as if I have overestimated my ability to run a marathon, I won’t give up but I am getting worried.  I’ve not long come back from my long run for this week,  a mere 14 miles, I say mere lightly, it’s a massive achievement for me and one I would be really happy with, if it wasn’t for the pressure of training for London.  I need to run an additional 12.2 miles on the day, which right now I really can’t imagine doing. 

Today’s run was the furthest I have EVER ran and I must add if it wasn’t for my commitment to the marathon it would be the most I’ll ever do.  I’m not good at repetition so today I ran a new route,  the cycle route from Yelverton to Plymouth, this meant that until the half way mark I was running a gentle downhill slope, so when I turned around all I could think was “Bugger” I should have thought that one through a bit more before setting off.

When I finished the run I had to nip to the local shops for a few essentials, I got out the car and started to sway on my feet, as if I’d just left the pub after way to many units of alcohol, I did a quick recky to make sure no one had noticed and then hobbled around the shops before heading home, where I planned to jump into a steamy hot bath.  As soon as I walked through the door the doorbell went and I had the sinking realization that I had a meeting with a rep to place some orders for the stores.  Oh well life goes on, a little stiffer than normal.

Last week was half term for my kids and my eldest was off skiing.  I was so pleased for him (even though I will admit to being very jealous).  It was certainly strange for the rest of us, who had to carry on as normal, knowing one of our clan was having the time of their life.  The week was spent juggling work with occupying FFion our youngest.  I’ve got to say I’m glad they are back at school today and the juggling can stop, anyone else feeling the same way?

So this week its back to normal ish, we have an exciting new project on the go, which I’ll share with you all soon.  In the meantime I’m really looking forwards to getting some time on my pottery wheel, as I have been working on some new decoration styles that have worked really well on the testers and I want to get more done as soon as I can.  So I’ll leave you with a photo of my new jugs and a link to my fundraising page!

I feel like my feet haven’t touched the ground since my last blog post, I have been a very busy bunny.   Marathon training, another tradeshow, pot throwing, lots of visual merchandising in the stores, training a new team member, lino cutting and of course the dreaded admin (I really couldn’t ignore the pile on my desk any longer, I’m hoping to see the wood again by the end of next week!)

The days don’t seem to have enough hours to get everything done, I have noticed that day light  appears to be lasting longer at last, I think it was nearly 6pm when darkness over took last night, Yippee, I for one am so much happier with more daylight in my life.  Things are so much easier when we have longer days; it seems there is more time to do all those things we need to do on top of work.

Last week I returned to my lino cutting classes, something I am particularly enjoying.  I love the way lino print challenges the way in which I tackle an image; you have to think in terms of colour blocks rather than gradients. I had been working on a drawing of my local town over the Christmas period.  This image is going to form my first reduction lino print (I’ve heard this method appropriately called suicide lino, if you make a mistake there is no going back).  I’ll try to explain further, Lino printing is a form of printmaking, where the printing plate is cut into lino. Yes your right, lino as in linoleum, the stuff that also is used for floor covering. Once cut, a piece of paper is placed over it, and then run through a printing press or pressure applied by hand to transfer the ink to the paper. The result is a linocut print.  For a reduction print run, used when working with more than one colour, after the first colour print, normally the lightest colour the lino is then cut into again, re-inked, first print paper re-applied and then ran through the press again, are you still with me?  I hope so.  Anyway at my first session I managed to get 20 prints of my first colour done, I was literally running to complete the job.  Here’s a picture of my first colour, I’m hoping to complete the rest of the cutting before returning next week, so my next blog may well include images of the final piece.  Fingers crossed it works. 

The weekend was spent in Birmingham at Spring Fair a massive tradeshow which uses up all 20 halls at the NEC; I had an exhausting two days walking all the halls, in search of new product lines for the stores.  I love seeing the ways in which the exhibitors put their stands together, trying to entice us buyers to part with our budgets, this year I can safely say the cactus is a big thing, the bigger the better!

Somehow I did manage my long training run on Tuesday morning. I had to persuade Paul my hubby to drop me 11 miles from the house, I didn’t want to have the option of shortening my run and this way I had to get home.  It was literally the middle of nowhere, the end of a road somewhere in Dartmoor. The run was a pretty pleasant one, crisp with bright sunshine.  As I neared my home the heavens opened and throw  what felt like heavy pins down on me, hail, my god its evil stuff and when clad in lycra it hurts that little bit more.  The end result was a good one though I did manage to run the last mile in just over 8 minutes and 30 seconds quite an improvement on my 10 to 11 minute miles; motivation really does come in lots of different ways!

I had a lovely surprise sponsor this week too; the chairman of Back Care has sponsored me which has really touched my heart. It wasn’t something I thought they would do so a big thank you to Back Care and the rest of you lovely lot that have done the same, if you haven’t and would like to support me here’s the link. Please don’t forget to let me know you’ve read the blog, a comment or like would be great. More rambling soon, bye for now.

Well Christmas day is getting so close only 5 sleeps to go as those who love Christmas will quote.  I do love Christmas but find the time before so hectic, that I never feel organised enough for my own families Christmas.  Yes, I am one of those people who never gets everything done until very late Christmas Eve. I’ll rush out from work on Christmas Eve to get those last few things on my list and stand in the cheese shop queue to get our rather delicious cheese board (we have the most amazing cheese shop in Tavistock).  With a bag full of cheese and any last minute presents purchased I'll head home and out for a quick social with friends. Once back in our own nest, Hubby and I will desperately try to get the kids off to bed so that we can begin the mammoth task of wrapping their presents until who knows when. Just as we are heading to bed we will no doubt realise we haven’t put the carrot out for the Reindeer or the drink for Father Christmas.  Thank god I'm not cooking this year, so one less thing to worry about.

It has been an eventful week; you might remember I was off to a bottle auction on Friday night last week.  It’s a great event that raises funds for our local village, needless to say after one too many JD and Cokes, I did bid on way to many lots of booze and have enough to last a rather long time (possibly even open a new shop!).  Included in my wins are some rather dubious looking bottles of mulled wine and quite a few bottles of Rose (I don’t even like Rose).  Oh well I’m sure I know someone who does! 

My marathon training was all good, until the dreaded lurgy hit, but it seems to be on its way out now.  I say well, I still haven’t run more than 7.5 miles, so only another 18.7 miles to go. I’m going to need to get really disciplined after the New Year.  Any offers of company on my runs or anyone willing to ride a bike beside me, yelling encouragement or profanities is welcome! 

Don't forget to help me reach my target you can sponsor me here