Ways to make a Tuesday better

I was in the middle of cutting out fabric for my French Dog cushions this morning, when the buzzer went and I answered the door to a delivery of a big box of these amazing Cocofina coconut & date bars!  If you know me you'll know I love whole foods and healthy snacks and so when I won this last week on 2itchyfeet blog I hobbled across the room and threw a fist in the air.

These bars are 100% vegan and 100% organic. And they're delicious!

The highlight of this post is the bagel

Last week I did such a good job of being a girl.  Went to look at pretty white dresses and I bought something! Yep, a new tank top and some jazzy running shorts.  Go me, right?

(My Nike T shirt from the Nike store in Paris. A gift for running the marathon from my other half! It got me up some hills on Tuesday night.)

Juneathon is still happening, you know.  On Saturday I got 3 miles in on the way to the grocery store and on Sunday I took my jazzy new kit and my bearded man out for 4 miles along the canal.  He's very good at casually pointing out interesting birds, dogs and so forth - because he knows I won't see them right away and thus we'll have to stop.  So smart/lazy.

Monday was just a stretch day/did I take the day off? I'm not sure.  Pretty sure I ate a bagel filled with yoghurt, though (try it.)  Last night at run club we did some efforts and some hills.  It was a nice session.  I always feel so lucky to be able to train down by the canal and the water park. It's super nice and green this time of year.

Now I'm going to do some Nike Training Club as this hayfever is making me ever so sleepy and if I don't increase my heartrate somehow I think I may fall asleep standing up.  Well I'll either do Nike Training Club or watch Breaking Bad. YOU KNOW WHICH ONE YOU'D CHOOSE don't lie.

By the way, if your mind is still on the bagel/yoghurt combination don't worry, mine is too.  This is how it goes: Toast bagel (I like to use the raisin ones. You're meant to actually use english muffins for this but I had bagels. Muffins actually work much better, especially the spiced fruit ones they sell in Sainsburys.) and while bagel is toasting mix in a bowl: yoghurt (blueberry is my fave) seeds of any sort or nuts.  Slice up some canned pear (or any fruit really but I like canned pear) and after buttering (don't have to) bagel, lay sliced fruit and blob yoghurt filling on top. Sprinkle cinnamon or honey. Cover with top of bagel and eat like a sandwich.  Watch out cuz it really is a messy thing to eat. You'll get yoghurt all up on your business. Enjoy!

What up Dog

 Drawing dogs, packing up pillows, and eating crazy health foods. That's what I do mostly, round here.

I'm not sure what I'm talking about

How do I look today? Verging on positively mental.  With an unfortunate arrangement of crispy, wild hair, not a whisper of makeup and to make matters worse I've been gorging on quorn scotch eggs since late morning.  What's happened to me, Monday? Some sort of crazy ups and downs.

Believe it or not, despite my unruly appearance I'm on my way up.  We might need to start fresh with the not-looking-like-a-crazywoman thing tomorrow, but I promise I'll even wear deodorant and I promise we're still on with this Janathon thing.  (Illustration above done for Whitelines magazine issue 106, January 2013)

It's just been - well - you know, sometimes you just gotta stick up for yourself and say what you want.  (Sometimes that involves taking a day off, whether you like it or not.)

When in doubt: hibernate, cry if necessary and say what you feel.  Cake also helps.  As does cheese.

I didn't take the whole weekend off, nooonono.  Just Friday.  Although snow+rain+freezing temperatures makes for very challenging running conditions, so Saturday was almost a no-go as well!

Fortunately the pretty blue sky on Saturday morning was too hard to resist so I got my butt outside for 5 miles and I didn't land on said butt once.

Turns out the run was a perfect start to a top day that involved lots of time with my other half, coffee, new runners, and a lunchdate.  I was back in the game :)

PS: LOOK AT MY NEW SHOES LOOK AT MY NEW SHOES LOOK AT MY NEW SHOES

And yesterday I put these pretty things on my feet and went out for a slow and steady 13.6 miles with my training buddies.  It was followed nicely by another lunchdate - delicious sweet potato sandwich and hot cup of tea.  mmm.

And here's an absolutely irrelevant photo of some dried chillis from our chilli plant.  Give me a break, it's Monday, and I have spent a large amount of it consuming imitation meat with egg.  I need to lie down now.

Cats, cards, peanuts and porridge

Hey Cool Cats! Are you making it through the week in good spirits?  Despite it being super cold and frosty here in Manchester there's been some beautiful blue skies, which never fail to make me want to smile and dance.  What have you been up to?  I've been here packing up your orders and designing a few new products for you to see.  There's still a few of the oldies but goodies hanging about:

(My man got made to model aprons at the weekend.  I think he did a great job, hey?  Turns out taking 5 MINUTES BREAK from watching golf on the tv didn't cause him to keel over and stop breathing...)

Speaking of tv, if you happen to be in the mood for something way more entertaining than grown men knocking their balls across the garden, there's a new show which I worked on last summer with a really awesome animation agency.  It's called Let's Play and it's for kiddies.  I got to draw the backgrounds for the different worlds that the characters visit, alongside two other illustrators chosen for the job.  The animators turned our illustrations into awesome 3d scenes for the real-life characters to walk around in.  You can see my handiwork next week on Tuesday, the 'Doctors' episode is on at 10.30am/2.30pm on CBeebies (SKY channel 614).  You'll see all of the pretty backgrounds I drew.   Then the 'Farmers' episode is on Wednesday at the same time.  There are 26 episodes in total, and I am pretty excited to upload some of the artwork onto my website for you to see.

In the meantime, if you're in need of Valentines Day cards, there's plenty in my etsy shop including these foxy foxes who are also stocked at Bowery on Otley Rd, Leeds.

And I guess you'd also like to hear my Janathon update! So Monday my hips were feeling a little angry with me after my 14 mile jog on Sunday.  I did some leg stretching and a lot of walking but as it was a recovery day on my training plan I did just that.  Tuesday at run club I did 5.8miles worth of tempo running, and yesterday involved a super sweaty 90 minute Bikram session.  I got my 3 mile run out of the way this morning before my egg breakfast... I beat my 5k pb on today's run, so I guess that means I get to celebrate with chocolate covered peanuts.

I'll leave you with a photo of my chocolate protein porridge from the other day with apple, flax, sunflower & pumpkin seeds, linseed and cacao.  I'm much better at drawing cats than I am at making porridge, and I'm not very good at drawing cats.

12 miles, cheese love and poncey powders

A couple things that made me feel emotional this week:
1. Got to Dance.  Just pretty much all of the contestants always ever, dunno why but I cry at every single one.
2.  My mom and Dad moved to France to begin their dream of running a business and living a sustainable life together.  Mom tells me they have been given fish pie by the neighbours and my dad has told me to download a new app called 'whatsapp.'  I feel confident in saying they are going to be just fine.
3.  My freaking aprons only went and got a total big deal blog mention last week and sold out.

Turns out, PEOPLE LOVE CHEESE hey.  There were some funny comments on the blogpost specifically one person who adapted a Beyonce song to incorporate cheese. Of course.

Oh if you want to buy aprons, you still can do.  Just click over to my etsy shop.  

I also chose a winner for the giveaway on my facebook page.  Well, two winners because two is better than one (unless you're talking measures of spirulina cuz that stuff stinks and I mean it's mega whiffy) 

So yeah I'm excited to send out some love to these ladies.  Oh and speaking of sending love in the post, check out Creative Pay it Forward.  I got involved on facebook and if all goes to plan I should be receiving something handmade and also sending out some goods to old pals I've not seen in a while.

And speaking of old pals, I may have to reward my legs with denim this week as they covered some mileage this weekend and deserve a present.  2.5 mile yesterday and 9.6 mile today.  That's a new jean-worthy 12 miles. Go legs! I love you. Now please, choose expensive jeans and I shall buy them for you guiltlessly.

Last week I was having some issues with hydration/moodswings but it seems a combo of some crazy healthfood powders I can't even... Baobab (how is that a thing?) and Spirulina (don't even) along with my other protein/crazy diet stuffs my post-run hunger rage seems under control and I'm not getting major thirst headaches anymore.  Was really hoping to avoid sugarfilled sports drinks and fingers crossed I might be on the right track.  

Alrighty! Off to eat some fish, pack up some aprons and hopefully finish the book I'm reading.  Thanks for being wonderful.  It's been emotional but nothing some new jeans can't fix. 

Dehydration, yoghurt, men in a box

Did 5.8 miles tempo run last night with run club (5min/90sec recovery  4min/90sec recovery  3min/60sec recovery, 2min/60sec recovery, 1min/60sec recovery, 1min/60sec recovery, 1min/60sec recovery, easy run home.)  Felt great. Did drink too much water before bed in effort to rehydrate- needa work on the electrolyte situ. Been chowing on toast+yoghurt this morning.  Not tried it? You'll be amazed how good it is.

Been packing up a bunch of orders again today.  Seems peoples are getting sorted for Valentines Day early this year.  I'm stocked up again on aprons, and don't forget you can get a discount if you buy two!

And I updated my 'about' page in my etsy shop.  Check it out.  Hope you're having a wonderful Wednesday.  I've got a one mile time trial to do later today.  That calls for a snack-tastic afternoon.  Oh, did you enter my giveaway? It's still on. 'till Friday, yo. 

Vitamins and purple food

Did a 6.5 mile run this morning.  I crammed some real sugary fruitcake (for breakfast? I know, I'm so healthy) in my gob and downed a protein shake pre-run and then afterwards took down a brew (love a brew after a run) a banana, walnuts, peanut butter, followed by massive mushroom+chicken sandwich.  Sometimes the feeding/nutritionising can be more tiring than the exercising itself.  Will there be enough time in the day to get all the food in, when I'm up in the 18 mile distances in March?  So boring, remembering to eat all the gosh darn time!!

I'm thinking of doing another Vitamin/nutrient chart.  This one helped me process all the info I was reading when I was training for my first half marathon.  I turned it into a tea towel late last year, for kitchen exposure!

In the meantime, here are some photos from my instagram feed of my colourful daily graze.  I guess as my training goes on I will have to start tripling my purple smoothie intake and use it as an excuse to bake more rainbow carrot muffins. (and of course an excuse to take more photos of my food. As if I don't take enough already.)

In other news, you can now order custom tote bags and custom pet portraits through my etsy shop.

These things happened

1.  Pocket manfriend number 250 emerged on the scene.  Peter.

2.  New tote bag packaging happened and thus everything fit into my mailing boxes much nicer.  With room spare for bee stickers, of course.  

3.  Things got folded

4.  New mirrors appeared.  Two of them.  

4. These coasters have been asking me to sew them for at least one month.  There are loads now! 

4.  My hair did that.  A bee necklace from Jenny Topolski was worn.  (Amazing, no?)

5.  Boiled eggs and avocado on toast became top of my list of priorities.  Get this combo in your life. 

6.  Some words were said about my things here, here and here.  

Cheese love

I made cheesy jalepeno scones, yes I did.  Recipe here.

Embrace the cheese, give love to circular bread.

Life's good.

Get your vitamins!

Are you getting all of your essential vitamins and minerals? Use this handy chart to figure out what you're missing.  (Available as a print or card in my shop)

Appreciating disc-blasting technology

So here's what I've been learning/reading/making/watching/listening/eating/drinking/wishing:

Spent a whole day with my brother and sister, my parents, cousins and my aunts and uncles, a large dog, some cows, giant Jenga, a moderate amount of rain and a lot of cake.  Lucky me for having a pretty nice family. Funny how it takes a nerf gun and a game of tetherball to make you realise things like this.

I'm reading Extremely loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer - I'm halfway through it on my kindle and still not completely sold.  Might not be up there on my Goodreads list but it's alright.  Looking forward to starting a handful of other books that are on my shelf.  Anyone have good book recommendations? I will add them to my list! 

I did a 10k run in May and totally made these lemon date bars from Tracy Shutterbean's website as a pre-run munch.  They were delicious and maybe even partially responsible for my (personal best) finishing time of 53 minutes! I'm running the British 10k on July 8th and if you'd like to sponsor me I'm raising money for AKU, a lesser known charity setup by a friend of a friend.

We went to see Moonrise Kingdom the other week.  It was wonderful and funny and just so clever.  I suggest you go and see it. 

I'm listening to TriSwim coach podcasts - and I don't care what you say!  Been training for a one mile open water swim which takes place next weekend so it's good to hear some tips and motivation in my ears while I'm working.  You can still sponsor my swim and even sign up yourself if you fancy!

Totally addicted to coco pops and just discovered Chipotle Tabasco sauce.  I'm not sure these two things should ever be combined but they will most definitely be appearing in my life in excessive amounts until I no doubt overdo it.

Minimum of two black coffees before 11am or things can get nasty.  Brew Dog Punk IPA has had me loosey goosey a few times this month - good stuff but strong.  I've also been really getting my drink on with my water intake.  I deserve a sticker or something.

I need a helmet.  I wish I would hurry up and decide on one.

Other things of interest:
I totally got interviewed by etsy for their "Quit your day job" series.  You can read the post on the etsy blog.
I designed some cards for a lady to send after a close family member of hers died.  I chose a Johnny Cash quote and some thistles and had them printed on some nice textured matt card.
I've become mildly addicted (I'm pretty sure this is entirely normal) to Pinterest and relatively obsessed with the idea of buying a new (different to the one I already have) bike.

I'll leave you now, as I have some delicious pulled pork rolls to eat.