15. Participate in the Crawl for Cancer

Last weekend I participated in the Crawl for Cancer and it was a phenomenal success.

Crawl for Cancer is an event that raises money for life saving cancer research while having fun in a controlled and safe environment.  My team (we were pink and never really came up with a good name) visited 5 bars in 4 hours, socialized with other teams, and caused a general ruckus.

My main goal, besides donating some money to a great cause, was to spend time with some really great girls and have a fantastic weekend.  Those goals were achieved.

I totally stole this picture from Lina, I hope she doesn't mind. :)

Here is some of my team with our friend Linda (in red).  This was at the end of the tour while I was waiting for Ry to come pick me up and the other girls were heading out for some more fun.

#20- Re-pot my House Plants

Number 20 on my list is to re-pot and not kill my house plants.  So far I've gotten to the repotting part.  This is what they looked like before getting a good dose of worm castings and rearranged into two pots.

This is kind of a year long project for sure.  I use to keep up with my plants pretty well while I was in college, but since moving to Ohio I have not been as successful.

I know part of this was that our apartments didn't get the best light.  And then I got ill and barely took care of myself.  Now that we live in an apartment with great light I'm going to try and not be such a bad plant mom.

I think, perhaps this is a bit about me being slightly more responsible, as well as taking interest in what my apartment actually looks like.  I have no design skills at all, so we've pretty much been living in a glorified college dorm.  Hopefully with some pretty plants, I'll be able to start making a difference.

Stay tuned for updates on how the plants are doing.

#4- Get a Crochet Hook Tattoo

My list got off to a good start when I learned to spin wool and the next day I completed another item on my list.  I have other tattoos, so this wasn't a first time experience, but it was something I had been thinking about for awhile.

I had put the word out to the Twitter crowd that I was looking to get another tattoo and asked for artist and studio suggestions.  I settled on Sweet Baby Octane simply because I had both heard good things about it and it is in the neighborhood.

Last Tuesday Ryan and I had gone in to see about meeting and artist and getting an appointment.  To get in with a good artist one often has to wait up to 6 weeks for an appointment so I wasn't expecting to get my tattoo right away.

I had the crochet hook with me that I felt best represented the size and shape that I wanted my tattoo to be and showed it to D.  I chose a size J hook because it is the one I work with the most and it seemed to be the perfect size for my forearm.  I had arrived at the shop at just the right time because there had been a cancellation for Friday.  I was pretty stoked that he could fit me in so quickly and was really looking forward to it.

D is not only a great artist, but a really great guy.  My tattoo was not too complicated so we did not spend a lot of time together, but he's a guy I totally could see myself hanging out with.  Both of my previous tattoo experiences were OK, but I was a little uncomfortable with the artists' personalities.  The first guy was a butthead (which is the nicest way to put it) but I am sure he thought he could be, being one of the only artists in a small college town.  When I got my second tattoo the guy was a hell of an artist but barely spoke at all, so I sat for over four hours in almost complete silence.

D was so easy to chat with and also efficient at his craft.  Although my design was not large or complicated it still required a good amount of straight lines which are incredibly difficult.  He completed my design and made it look easy.  The studio was incredibly clean and totally comfortable, and I was in and out in under an hour.  I will totally be going back to him for future work and I would totally recommend him to anyone looking for an artist.

I tried to wait till I had healed to post a picture, but I'm getting anxious and it's still not that pretty to look at.  So you only get a small peek at what it will look like.  Once it is healed I will come back and post a higher quality picture.

#1- Learn to Spin Wool

On February 27, 2011 I began the journey of completing my 30 things before 30 list.
It was number one on my list mostly because I knew it would be the first thing that I would be doing.  I will not be completing the rest of the list in any kind of order, so here it goes.

I signed up for a spinning class a few weeks ago at Wholly Craft in Clintonville.  I had seen it listed when I was checking out the listings for the classes that I am teaching in March.  I love buying and working with yarn and have wanted to learn to spin for quite awhile.  There are a few options here in central Ohio, but none that were really convenient for me.  This beginners class at Wholly Craft was the perfect opportunity for me to learn in a comfortable setting.

Embracing Life with Chronic Pain (Part 2)

This second part is about steps I'm taking to embrace this life that I've been blessed with. You can read the first part here.

Now that you know a little bit about my history with chronic pain, I want to move on to the real reason I’m writing, which is how I plan on coping with the pain, moving on, and embracing life.  2011 has already brought a lot of changes and challenges for me which I’ve been so excited to share with you here.  I bought my awesome new domain, revamped my blog, opened up the Etsy shop, and was contracted to teach classes.  This has all been part of me stretching out and beginning to embrace my life with chronic pain.

30 things before 30

2011 is the year that I turn 30 and I've been finalizing a list of 30 things that I would like to do this year.  For the most part they are things I've never done before, and focus around things happening here in Columbus, Ohio. There are a few exceptions to this rule as I do have other tattoos.  I still have to decide upon one more thing, so here is my list of 30 (29) things to do before I turn 30 on December 18, 2011.