Moving on up!

Hey all! I really dropped off over here. This space that I created around 8 years ago wasn't feeling quite right anymore. I've started a new blog http://maketakeandgait.com where I'll continue to talk crafting, share some photography and write about running. Come join me there!

2015 Cherry Blossom 10 miler (or 9.4 miler)

The Cherry Blossom 10 miler takes place during the Cherry Blossom festival each year. Sometimes there are Cherry Blossoms, sometimes there are not. We hit the Cherry Blossom and weather jackpot this year. The blossoms were at peak bloom and although it was still in the 40s when the race started, it wasn't too cold and I actually found myself over dressed in my capris.

This was the third time I tried to get into the race and I signed up for the lottery as an after thought, so I was a little surprised when I got the email that I was in.

After the RnR DC Marathon I took a full week off from running. I only ran a few times the next three weeks, with the longest run being around 5 miles. I did manage to run some of those runs faster than during my marathon training. So I decided to aim for a 9 minute mile pace.

Brian and I got up early and took an Uber to close to the starting line. We walked over towards the start and heard an announcement that the race would be shortened due to an accident on the course. They announced it would be close to 9.5 miles instead of 10. The crowd seemed mostly happy that they would only have to run 9.5 miles. I felt fine about it at the time, I had no control so best to accept the distance and move on. I had never ran 10 miles so it was going to be a PR, now I would just have a PR for a even more special distance.

I was in the second wave and as expected it was a pretty crowded start. I've ran a lot of big races and I felt the other racers were a little less considerate of other runners than I'm used to. I got cut off several times. The run across memorial bridge and then up rock creek has gotten a little too familiar (I think I need to find some races along some new routes) but knowing the course also makes it go smoothly. 

I had heard/read that people thought the run around east potomac park and haines point was boring. I understand that it is kind of like an out and back and those can seem like forever, but I was so distracted by the Cherry Blossoms along this stretch that I didn't really notice how long it took. The trees were absolutely beautiful and practically covering the course in some spots.

According to my I was running a little under 9 min/mile pace so I was feeling good heading in to the final two miles. Unfortunately the last mile contains a pretty good hill and I was not ready for it. I'm usually very good at know exactly where I am in the city, but I got a little turned around coming towards the Washington Monument. Luckily it wasn't far to go and soon I was cruising down a short downgrade towards the finish. I didn't run the tangents so my finish pace was right at my goal of 9 min/miles! 

Finish time of 1:25:31 and official distance of 9.39 miles.

The race organizers projected our 9.39 mile times to a 10 mile time. According to them it would of been a 1:31:06 finish, but we all know that I would of kicked it up and finished in 1:30 something. 

After the race I grabbed some food and water and Brian and I walked around to look at some of the Cherry Blossoms. They were all perfect, but with the race and peak weekend it was getting pretty crowded around the tidal basin.

I don't think the weather is usually as nice and it seems the Cherry Blossoms rarely perform this well for the race. Since those two aligned the race gods had to sweep in and shorten the distance. Now I have a PR for the 9.39 distance! I probably won't sign up for this race again next year, but maybe again some time in the future.

2015 Rock 'n Roll DC Marathon

Mile 13 Wet but still with a little energy- photo credit to Becky

After several half marathons I thought I was ready to run a full marathon. A few weeks into the training I found out that double the distance equaled way more than double the training. The first long run was as long as the longest run I did for many of the half marathons I trained for. Complicating things were my active social life and signing up for a Saturday afternoon flag football league. Oh and also one of the coldest Februarys in recent years. I also only had a 14 week training cycle, because I knew for the half I always started right after the new year and didn't think "oh you might need a few more weeks to run twice the distance".

I worked my way up to 18 miles before my left foot started hurting really bad. After my Valentine's Day run my foot hurt when I walked for the next three days so I made an appointment with a foot doctor. He said he didn't think it was a stress fracture, which was my biggest fear but to take a week off and to take three ibuprofen with breakfast and another three with dinner.

Luckily that worked, but that hick up meant my longest run was 19 miles and an off week right before taper.

Luckily marathons are easy right?

During taper instead of getting more nervous like I hear a lot of people getting. I got more confident, maybe unreasonably so.

My sister signed up to run and Kristen and my niece got in to town the Wednesday before the race. They did some touristing around while I worked and we all went to the expo together on Thursday. The expo moved to the convention center, which was super convenient but the set up was basically the same as the last two years.

The 10 day, then the 5 day, then the 3 day, then the 1 day forecast all called for rain. The temperature jumped around a bit, but the rain stayed constant. When we woke up at 5:30 that morning we heard rain.

I decided to wear a hat to keep the water out of my eyes and a rain resistant jacket with shorts. I think my outfit was the right call, but I was soaked by the time the race started.

Kristen and I got to the start line with about twenty minutes till gun time, but we had to walk about a half mile to the end of the alphabet for our bag check then I did a final porta potty stop. I got into my corral a little after the race started, but since I was 10 corrals back I still had plenty of time.

The first few miles felt fine, at first I was trying to avoid the biggest puddles, but soon it was obvious that my feet would be soaked and going straight through them was probably the least exhausting.

Running up rock creek felt pretty automatic, I've run the first half of the route so many times, but as we approached the Calvert hill I first started feeling a little tired. I've never been able to run very strongly up the hill, but this year was a little easier. They people holding American flags all the way up and the crowd support was great like always.

Next we ran cross town, this is one of my favorite parts of the race. People are on their balconies having mini parties and offering beer to the runners. Then there is the run down North Capitol. I saw several runners get splashed by cars going the opposite direction and felt good about my decision to run on the west side of the street.

Soon we were at the point where the half and full split apart. The past two years when I ran the half marathon I always felt really happy I wasn't running another 13 miles at this point. Well I could tell the half runners were feeling this way too. A few of them wished me luck and I got a boost of adrenaline thinking about how I was going to run the full this time.

The Rock 'n Roll DC is definitely a half marathon focused race. After we split off I felt pretty alone on the course, which was a downer. But then I saw my boyfriend Brian and one of my friends Becky, who had run the 5K, were cheering for me! That gave me a big boost, I didn't know they were going to be there, but as I was running off Becky yelled something like "you are halfway there" and the reality of it hit again.

Mile 13- I kept having to wring my gloves out- photo credit to Becky

My first half was almost where I wanted it to be. I was planning on around 2 hours, but ended up at 2:10.

The second half of the race was colder, wetter, lonelier, and less scenic. At one point we ran three miles around an industrial area where they store the salt for DC streets. Then we ran across this terrible bridge that had huge grates on it, that I was certain I would fall over. The run in Anacostia would probably of been nice on a beautiful day. But in cold rain it was pretty miserable. I started walking through the water stations here, which was around mile 18. There was also serious flooding on the course here and we had to go off course in one area and through about six inches in another area.

Once we headed to Ft. Dupont park the rain started letting up a little. For the last 30 minutes of the race it pretty much stopped raining, but I was still soaking wet and was feeling pretty sore. My feet hurt the most and whenever I walked through a water station it hurt my bottom to start running again.

But soon there was only a mile left. But that mile seemed so hard. We crossed back over the Anacostia river towards the RFK stadium. The wind was blowing hard over the bridge. They had a nice loop away from the finish line, but soon I saw the finish and was able to kick it a tiny bit to the finish.

Dead in the eyes, but happy to be finishing

My finish time was 4:39. My biggest goal was to finish, but I also had a goal for under 4:40, and a goal for some other things that were apparently way too ambitious.

So I was really happy to be done, but there was a lot more walking to do before getting home.
Kristen, Brian and Becky were at the finish to help me celebrate and help me function. Kristen had a much faster race, but was also miserably wet and cold.

Kristen and me at the finish. Even though it stopped raining it was pretty cold and miserable still

I spent most of the rest of the day on the couch, eating, hydrating, and relaxing.

Throughout training and running the race I thought I never wanted to run another marathon. But now I feel like I could have a better race. I know what to expect now and would hopefully have a better weather day! So maybe....

For now I'm going to focus on some 5Ks...

Happy Valentine's & Galentine's Day!

Thursday I hosted a Galentine's party for all of my girlfriends. I had eight guests for wine, snacks, and a card making station. It was fun catching up with everyone. As cold as it has been we've all been a little hermity. 

My fancy card making station:

To get the creative juices flowing I hung up a few fingerprint cards I'd made earlier in the day:

I made some old school valentines to hand out:

I started out Valentine's morning with a 17 mile run and returned home to a delicious breakfast made by my boyfriend. Hearts make everything taste better. 

And some beautiful flowers!

Later we have a flag football game, dinner, and below freezing temperatures!

Happy Valentine's Day!

More Goals

Reading through all the New Year's posts and articles made me think of a few more things I'm going to try to do this year.

On Lauren Conrad's website* they had a list of 10 resolutions everyone should make. One of them overlaps with a resolution that apparently Pope Francis has for us all. That is to stop wasting food. I am very guilty of this. I'll buy something and use it for one meal, but never find a use for the rest of it. During the Farm Share I was super guilty of wasting fresh veggies! I know. I'm ashamed, but sometimes I just couldn't find a use for a whole head of cabbage when I had a busy week. So I'm going to clean the fridge of all out of date food and focus and using every thing I buy or putting it in the freezer before it goes bad.

Second goal is to keep learning. Last Spring I learned how to screen print, but then I didn't sign up for anything new. I'm going to try to keep something on the calendar. I found some cool online resources yesterday that I'm excited to try out.

General Assembly- https://generalassemb.ly/ has some cool classes and workshops in DC. Focused around web design, business and technology.

Codecademy- http://www.codecademy.com/ teaches coding starting at the simplest level. I already learned to make an animation from my name and start a mini solar system.

Coursera- https://www.coursera.org has college courses from all over, some are free and some are paid. You can take a class or they have specializations that have a series of courses.

*Yes I occasionally read Lauren Conrad's site. I may have a small girl crush on her.

2015 (BOOM)

Meeting and dating Brian, wasn't a goal, but has been a highlight of 2014

Happy New Year!

I know its been awhile since I've blogged, but I thought with the new year I should check in. 

My goals for 2014:

Year goals

Blog more consistently (I need to keep my parents happy)- This didn't happen at all, I dropped off the blogsphere in June

See something at the Studio Theater (for real this time)- SUCCESS I saw COCK with a group of girlfriends, it was a great production that we all enjoyed.

Monthly goals

Craft/Sew something new - I did do a lot of crafting including sewing a quilt top and making a bunch of bags for Christmas gifts.

Go somewhere new- I went several new places including Charleston and Columbia, South Carolina, Bonn, Germany and Tomball, Texas

Eat somewhere new- Eating new places is not hard in DC. New lunch places include Shophouse and Cava grill. Finally ate at the Pig, and am continuing to eat new pizza with Pizza Club.

January goals

Run at least one mile a day- I think I missed one day....

Do the Nike Training Club App Get Lean Advanced Program- Completed

Organize my photos and backup them up and print some- I printed some photos, but didn't do much organizing.

I don't remember making any more monthly goals...

For 2015 I want to:

Reset my healthy eating

Run a Marathon- I'm registered for the Rock 'n Roll DC Marathon in March, the first month of training has gone ok, but now I'm encountering milage I'm unfamiliar with.

Journal- I've actively journaled for much of my life, I'd like to get back to the pen and paper way. 

Meal Plan- I've been doing a lot of last minute shopping and cooking. For some reason this stresses me out so I would like to do less of it.

Focus on Happiness

EU Embassy Open House

Every Spring the Embassies in DC open up for tours. I went to some of them a few years ago with my cousin, but there were many more I hadn't seen. I'm a sucker for these types of things and luckily found that my friends Hannah and Adam were equally up for the tour. We decided to hit up the northern loop of Austria, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary, and Netherlands. Those five alone took us about two hours. So if you plan on visiting them all in one day, you have quite the challenge.

The EU was having a selfie contest so I took some goofy pictures at each spot... they haven't yet contacted me with my winnings.

Austria had free coffee and red bull and some other treats for sale. They had a chef demonstrating how to make apple strudel and lots of pamphlets on Austria.

The Czech Republic had a Kafka bug strolling the grounds and police dog demonstration using Czech Shepard's. They had free ice coffee and strudel.

Hungary gave us a cheesy bread upon entering and had some traditional dancing going on. They also had some liquor tasting that wasn't very tasty at all.

The Netherlands had the most going on. A Heineken beer garden, cheese, stroopwafel, little pancake things (amazing), give aways, and a photo booth.

Nashville at the Lincoln Theater

One of my favorite shows on TV right now is Nashville. A good mix of drama and good original country music. A few months ago I started buying some of the songs and rocking out to them. Then by chance I saw that they were coming to DC for a concert. I mentioned it to my friend Hannah and she was immediately on board. I'm not a big concert person, but I but the time the tickets went on sale in my calendar. Once 10 am came around I started trying to buy tickets... it kept saying to try again, try again, try again... finally after 10 minutes of trying to put two tickets in my basket it went through and we were set. The show actually sold out within like 12 minutes. Crazy. 

It was also my first time to the Lincoln theater. So I was excited to check it out. I had read some reviews saying that the line could get a little long. It was completely true and a little confusing as the seating was general admission and they had guys moving the through the line checking IDs, scanning tickets, and stamping our hands (with a blue light stamp!). 

Once we got inside it was a bit of a rush to find seats. We decided to start looking downstairs. A lot of people were saving seats so it wasn't easy to find two. We found some on the side towards the back, but they still had a great view of the stage. 

After getting drinks and visiting the restrooms it was time for the show to start.

Lincoln theater

The Lincoln theater is very ornate and pretty if not a little crumbly.

For the most part the performers came out one at a time and sang one song at a time with the occasional duet. They mostly sang songs from the first season and mixed in a few songs of their own that don't appear on the show.

Deacon (Chip) is actually from Alexandria and had a lot of friends and family in the crowd.

Deacon!

Did you know Gunnar (Sam) is actually british? I'm not sure if I like his southern accent or his british accent better.

Sam and Chip

They wrapped up the show with a group number, A Life That's Good.

the whole crew

Terrarium part two

So the first terrarium didn't go so well. It all started great, but after a few weeks went by both my chicks and hens died. They died suddenly. Like boom. The other guy lasted a few more months, but one day after feeling the dirt and determining it completely dry, I watered and boom it died too.

Jenn didn't have much better luck either. Hers all died by early this year.

Not to be discouraged we decided to try again. I think mine may of died from overwatering, even though I didn't water them that much. I also think they might of not had enough sun. Ace only had larger plants so we went up to Flowers on 14th. They had the right size, but were a bit more expensive. 

They had some ferns so I decided to try them. They lady said they love water and like covered containers. Hopefully this fern will love my jar!

I also bought two succulents to replace the dead ones I had sitting in my winery pots for the better part of the last year. 

Cherry Blossoms

A little late, but I thought I'd share some of the beautiful Cherry Blossoms from this year. I did my usual run around the blossoms and snapped some photos, but didn't spend as much time as I would like with them.

I kind of cut off everyone's bodies in the picture below, but you can see how crowded it gets around the tidal basin.

I also hit up the Cherry Blossom Parade with my friend Jenn. The highlight of the parade was Aaron Carter! He was even really singing as he floated by. Later I found out that he missed his brother Nick's wedding to be in OUR PARADE. haha.

Yoga on the Mall

Spring and Summer in DC means free outdoor workouts! As part of DC Yoga Week they had Yoga on the mall Saturday. The weather was perfect and the setting by the Constitution Gardens was gorgeous. The Yoga was so-so. It was more West Coast new agey than lets sweat and get a good workout. They did some drumming/singing/dancing before we started, which I kind of enjoyed, but then we were told to put our hands on our hearts and chant for like ten minutes. Heart chanting, not so much my thing...

Great company

Nike Women's DC Half Marathon 2014

This year I didn't get into the Nike half through the lottery system. After I was denied entry I moved on and signed up for the RnR Half. Then I was contacted by Nike in February with the opportunity to register and decided to sign up. Between the RnR half in mid March and Nike in late April I only ran one long run, a ten miler two weeks out that went fine, but totally wore me out. Its safe to say I'm burnt out on long runs and will be focusing on short faster runs for the next few months. 

Like last year Nike had some really fun details at the bib pick up and expotique. When you walked in to the expotique a big screen lit up with your name and a little message. They gave specialized hair ties according to how many miles we had logged with Nike +. I got blue ones! They also had gait analysis, sign making, hair braiding, and some luna bar samples. My coworker who also ran the race went with me and we headed up to the Nike store afterwards to join the run club and do a little shopping. We got a free headband at the store and had a champagne toast after the run. Joan Benoit Samuelson was on the run and ran beside me for a few minutes. We chatted about Boston Marathon recovery, running with a cell phone, weather, and she asked me to hold her cell phone while she took off her long sleeve shirt. So first time I've held the cell phone of an olympic gold medalist.

The morning of the race went smoothly as possible. Great weather, great bag check, tons of toilets, and only a little crunch entering the corals. 

Soon we were off. Nike changed the course in two spots from last year. They were both great changes. Instead of heading down to the Capitol building at the end of the race we headed there first. In no time we were heading back to ninth street with a mile down. We still ran through the tunnel under the Mall at 9th street, but since I knew it was coming it wasn't as bad. 

From there we ran along the south side of the Mall and across Arlington Memorial Bridge. After the loop around we headed back towards Rock Creek Parkway. At this point, around mile 5, my left foot started hurting. A sharp pain under the front of my foot kept throbbing. Every once in awhile it would go away for a few strides only to return. 

I just kept running. At mile 6.6 they had a video screen up showing us running with a message across the top about us being half way done. Soon after halfway we headed into West Potomac Park. They put up signs we had made at the expotique. Donna and I had made a sign so I kept my eyes out for it. There were hundreds of signs on both sides of the road so I wasn't very optimistic about spotting it, but I did! That gave me a little boost. 

Last year the loop down to Hains Point and back was a bit annoying, so I decided to enjoy it more this year. With my foot still hurting I tried walking and stretching it out at a few of the water stops, but it didn't seem to help so I decided I would just run as fast as was comfortable so I could end sooner. Nike also made some great changes in this area of the race. They bussed in some college students from George Mason and Howard to cheer at the Point. They had amazing energy and one of them was holding a "GO Courtney" sign, which I'm sure was for me.

At mile 10 there was a group from November Project cheering. They look like an amazing group, so I'm going to try one of their workouts this week.

Next up was the other change in the route. Instead of going back up the highway ramp to the tunnel we followed the water front. A few of the boats parked in the harbor were honking their horns to help us along. This area was also the "chocolate mile" where Whole Foods was passing out truffles. I didn't take one, not exactly the ideal conditions for me to eat chocolate, but maybe I should of saved one for the finish.

Then back through the tunnel. As we exited the other side they had another sign that was displaying our names and cheering us on as we were passing by. Again there was another turn away from the finish line before heading back, but I was able to kick my pace up a notch for this last mile and bit.

Approaching the finish line

Instead of photographers throughout the entire race, they had photo zones where they took our photos and gave them to us for free!

I finished in 1:57:25 

268/1,926 of Females 30-34

2,101/14,316 of Females

2,228/14,794 Overall

Well branded

I really like the necklace this year

Winners with Shalane and Joan
First place finished in 1:20!

Lately: Around Town

Recently I tried out one new and two new to me places around town. 

On one of the only warmish and dry days we've had this spring I met up with some friends at Dacha Beer Garden in Shaw. Its not much more than some picnic tables on a corner lot, but there was a line when I arrived. They serve a variety of German and Craft beer in a variety of glasses, including das boot. Even though it was crowded it was a friendly crowd and the line for beer and porta potties wasn't too bad. They don't serve food, but allow you to bring it in if you want. All in all its a nice place to enjoy a beer outdoors.

mural at Dacha.

Not too far from my apartment, but tucked away on a side street is TCB aka The Coffee Bar. I went with a friend on a Sunday morning. They have limited food, which included an everything bagel and cream cheese. Along with my bagel I got a latte. I was impressed with the latte art and thought the ingenuity of writing my order on the porcelain cup deserved a photo. It was a busy shop, but there were several seating options and we had no trouble finding a space to enjoy our morning. 

When you bring up pizza in DC (which I do a lot) someone always mentions 2Amy's. And until this week I always had to sadly admit I had never been. Its in Cleveland Park about a mile from the closest metro, so not the most convenient spot, but I took a bus and was there within a half hour. We went early expecting a wait and not wanting to miss the movie we had planned for later, but after getting there super early and getting a drink elsewhere we ended up not putting our name down till 5:20. By 5:20 they had a half hour wait. So just remember to plan wisely. 

when you walk in you are immediately greeted with pizza

For some variety my friend and I swapped half a pie. We got a certified Neapolitan style Margherita and a house specialty meat and peppers pie. The Margherita was amazing. The cheese was just amazingly flavorful. The other pizza was good too, but not crazy good. 

Hey, its pizza!

Rock N Roll USA Half Marathon 2014

I wasn't planning on running the Rock n' Roll USA Half Marathon again this year, but I got an email from them stating the finish line band would be The Head and the Heart. I didn't know much about them, but I knew that several of my friends were huge fans. So after sending an email alerting them of the news they were all on board. They added a 5K option this year so four of my friends signed up for that, but two friends wanted to do the half so I knew that is what I would be signing up for.

My training was less than ideal. The weather this winter in DC, like much of the country, has been miserable. I'm not one to run outside when its below freezing or when there is tons of snow or ice on the ground, which meant I was running on the treadmill a lot, which meant I was running shorter distances. I got two 10.5 mile runs in so I knew I'd be able to finish and that was good enough for me.

Race morning was cool, but was the best weather day in a week and two days later we got the most snow of the winter. So race day weather was perfect. I woke up in plenty of time, but fooled around like normal and headed down with just enough time to bag check and get in to the corrals. Too bad I also wanted to stop at the porta potties along with thousands of my other runner friends. After waiting a bit and running to some further away and then running back, I made it to my corral #6 after it had already left. Luckily I was able to walk to the front and slip in with #7, which was probably a better spot for me given my poor training.  

race morning sunrises are the best

My watch was off the entire race, which just confused me. It ended up a mile off! Luckily I had it displaying total time elapsed the entire time, so I could do my own math with the mile markers, which mostly confused me more, but helped me push the last three miles.

The course was the same as last year (other than a slightly different finish), which I actually liked. I knew what was coming up and could look forward to hills (up and down), bands (love the drums by Howard), and my friend Hannah! She took this lovely photo while doing some amazing woo whooing.

my gloves make a great thigh growth

While not my fastest, I finished in 1:56 and never felt like dying. In fact I enjoyed myself enough to sign up for the Nike Half in April.

After the race I met up with all my runner friends to watch The Head and the Heart. They put on a great high energy show for 10 in the morning. They performed for over an hour. I was joking that it was the best concert ever because everyone was polite runners and there weren't any drunks bumping in to me. But really it was also pretty good music.

After the show we headed out to brunch. Races are always better with friends.

Jenn and I after our races

Call Me Crafty: Screenprinting

It has been a long time since I challenged myself with an art class. So for the past year I'd been eyeing the continuing education classes offered at the Corcoran. They aren't cheap but I loved all the interesting options they had and I was able to take the audit option. So I narrowed down some options and decided to take the screen printing class. 

After being 45 minutes late to the first class (cross town during rush hour on a bus is the worst) I've gotten a pretty good hang of the process.

We have four projects this semester each one using a different technique of making our design, but the shooting and printing part remains essentially the same. We've just started our third project, so I'm a bit behind on updating you.

The first project was to take construction paper shapes to create a print with three layers of three different colors.

Most of the other students are "art" students either full time or are art teachers learning a new technique. So in the actual design of the projects I find I am much simpler. But when it comes to the actual printing, where being type A is beneficial I am having far fewer problems than the other students. 

This is a printing screen. When its clean it is the yellow color. We put the green emulsion on it and let it dry in a dark box. Then you lay your design in a light box and put the screen on top. Depending on your design you turn the light box on for a 45 seconds up to a few minutes. Then quickly take it from the box to the dark washing room to wash the emulsion that wasn't exposed to the light out. That area becomes your design. In the above photo I covered the areas I wasn't printing with tape and freezer paper.

So for my first project I did my cow.

The green was printed first, then the purple and finally the pink. I was just trying to use pretty colors, but my teacher has proclaimed it a Zombie Cow.

For the second project we used india ink to make abstract designs. I'm not so great at abstract. I started slowly and finally drew a few designs I liked. I printed each of them a little different. I used the same three colors in the same order, but printed the designs in different orders and used five different designs. 

This was one of my favorites. At first I didn't like the project, but I ended up with several that I liked and a few that I hated. I printed on small pieces of paper and was able to do three each pull so these went really quickly.

The third project involves india ink pens and tracing and text! I'm excited to see how mine turns out.

Call Me Crafty: Mason Jar Planter

If you follow me on Instagram you saw this project a while back. I took tons of pictures during the process then completely forgot to blog about it. So finally here you are! 

My friend Catherine discovered this idea on Pinterest and we decided along with our other friend Jenn to have a craft day to make some of our own.

We met up and headed to Home Depot where we picked up the hardware and wood. We had Home Depot cut the boards to size (which is a fantastic service!) and headed back to Catherine's to get to work.

Supplies we purchased per planter:

1. Three Mason jars
2. Three adjustable plumbing rings
3. Wall hanger and nails
4. Three screws
5. Wood- we took the jars to the store and measured the sizing on the go
6. Three plants
7. Cactus/succulent dirt

Supplies Catherine had on hand:

1. Drill
2. Hammer
3. Stain
4. Paint brush
5. Rag
6. Sand paper

Process:

We started by sanding our board a little and applying a layer of stain. After letting it dry a little bit we wiped down our board with the rag and then allowed it to dry some more.

While our boards were drying we planted our succulents in the jars. The jars have no drainage. After planting I wondered if we should of put a layer of rock on the bottom like you would in a terrarium, but not enough to go back and replant. However I think using the special soil for cactus and succulents works well. My plants are thriving so far. I just water them fully when I water them, which is about every week and a half, and then let the soil dry completely  before watering again.

After our boards were dry we attached the hangers.

Then proceeded to screw the rings to the boards. It wasn't as easy as we hoped. The slots in the rings were a little bit smaller than our screws. On my first attempt I completely stripped the screw. After that we tried prying the slots open a little wider and got the screw going a little before using the power drill and it worked ok. We were using wood screws, maybe a stronger screw would of just plowed through the ring, but I'm not sure.

I started in the middle

measuring was hard

After they were attached to the board I tightened the rings a bit before slipping the jars inside and finished tightening the screws.

Finished project!

Once I got home I immediately hung it up on the wall because I wasn't sure where else to put it. I hung it by my bedroom window because while by living room is over run with plants I didn't have any in my bedroom!

As I mentioned earlier, all my plants are doing well. But learned the hard way that the orange flower on the cactus was glued on! I know! The way the cactus was growing was moving the flower to the front so I pulled it off. I managed to get all of the flower off, but the glue is a bit more challenging especially with all the pokies.  Oh and the plant on the right is doing much better and not leaning so much.