eating… broiled grapefruit. A delicious, but very healthy breakfast or dessert. I followed this recipe, but you can easily modify it and use whatever fruit or nuts you have on hand.

playing with… the A Beautiful Mess photography app. If you like Instagram, but want to add a bit more to your photos, you will love this app. It allows you to add text and doodles and novel borders and then share your creations via Instagram or other social networks. It is a lot of fun and totally worth the .99 cents!

prepping for… the Trail/Road Challenge next weekend. I’ll be running a 15k trail run on Saturday and a 5k road race on Sunday. In between, I’ll be partying with my Brooklyn Team in Training in the Berkshires!

trying something new… swimming! I am taking a weekly lesson with my friend Suzy. It is a beginner lesson geared toward triathlons. I have always known how to swim, but swimming competitively or for long distances is totally new. I think I am making progress…

::

What are you currently up to?

So. Running.

I am still at it, running races and training for my upcoming Trail/Road Challenge next weekend… but I have also been trying to take it easy.

So far in 2013, I’ve run three full marathons and five half marathons (if you count the Brooklyn Half I’m running on Saturday), plus assorted smaller races and trail miles. I am not bragging. When listed out, that race count looks obnoxious and dumb. I am still paying for over-doing it. I am sluggish and slow.

My favorite recent race was the Nike Women’s Half in DC on April 28th. I ran it with Chelsea and I felt good the entire race. Our time was not overly impressive, but it was much better than what I struggled to do at both the NYC Half the month before and the NJ Half the week after. Plus, the Tiffany necklace at the finish and lots of treats in Georgetown made it a fun weekend.

So, I’ve had a few fun races, a few terrible races, and some low key, relaxed training runs in between. Where do I go from here?

I still love Team in Training. My Brooklyn team is just a few weeks away from finishing up our summer season. I say it all the time, but it is the truth, TNT people are the best people. So fun! I mean, look at this gorgeous group! And these lovely ladies. We run for Boston. We run for equality. We train in storms and in the dark. Oh ya, and we all raise money for cancer research. It is a win, win, win. (hint: Join TNT!)

Some of my most fun and rewarding experiences ever have been with TNT… but I am tired. I need to pull back a bit and re-group. My running enthusiasm is injured and I’ve discovered something about myself: I’ll never be hard core about running. Sometimes I think I want to be, but the truth is, I don’t want to put in the work. I’ll never qualify for Boston or win my age group in anything. I’m into running for the fun, fitness, and friends… which are all great reasons, but they are difficult to shape into concrete goals and motivations. Do I want to run more fulls? Try a triathlon? Train for an ultra? I’m not sure.

My short term goal: focus on general fitness, listen to my body, and enjoy it! It might mean walking, hiking, doing more swimming, more cross training… or even running. I don’t have a plan… and that is the best part! I can do whatever I want!

Happy Mother’s Day to all the great moms out there, but especially my mom, who, let’s face it, is really the best.

I don’t know if Mom will be thrilled with the photo I chose this year… but I’ve already shared many of my other favorites here, here, and here. Now that I am actually older than my mom was in most of these photos, friends keep saying how alike we look… which I don’t mind at all.

I like to think I am fashionable, but in reality, I have a fairly consistent history of questionable fashion choices. Prime example: This Banana Republic poncho I bought in 2004. I loved this poncho so much that I blogged about it THREE times: here, here, and here. It was basically just a rectangular piece of knit fabric with a hole for your head, but I thought it was cool.

Sadly, after purchasing the beloved poncho, I fell out of love. I think I wore it three times. BUT! I had this brilliant idea! I could make a nice striped pillow cover out of the poncho! So… I moved that poncho across the country with us twice, sure that I would enact my pillow plan soon… very soon…

It only took me nine years! I finally made the pillow cover this week. Sweet. It was super-simple. I used one of my existing store-bought 20-inch pillow covers as a template and basically just folded the knit poncho fabric around the template and created an overlapping envelope closure on the back. Then, I stitched straight lines down the sides with my sewing machine. I reinforced the stitching a bit, trimmed off the excess fabric, then turned the whole thing right side out and stuffed a pillow inside. I think it took me fifteen minutes!

Well, nine years and fifteen minutes… ha.

On Fridays I often share fun, crafty links on the Swap-bot blog. I compile them all week during my Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, and blog browsing. They usually follow the craft and snail mail theme, but I always include some tasty recipes, too.

But what to do with links that don’t fit into those categories? Why not share them here?! Maybe once a month, I’ll gather up some of my favorite recent links… like these!

march 2013 links to love:

♥ Usually I recommend ignoring the Westboro Baptist Church completely, but the Planting Peace Equality House really touched my heart. The non-profit bought a house across the street from the Topeka church and painted it in rainbow colors. They will be supporting anti-bullying and equality initiatives. More info here. You can donate here and here.

♥ Read this interview about time travel and other cool topics with a very wise man (who also happens to be one of my favorite authors).

♥ If you like design, you must check out Stitch Design Co. Their work is too good.

♥ My health kick continues and I have been cooking dinner at home most nights. If you need a unique and healthy dinner option, try these Healthy Delicious Chicken & Spinach Flautas. I made them last week and they take a bit of prep, but are really tasty!

♥ Speaking of recipes, I made these Oatmeal S’more Cookies over the weekend. They are quite sweet (and don’t really fit into my low-sugar health plan) but the oatmeal cookie is very good and soft. I think they would be even better with chocolate chips and mini marshmallows mixed in and no topping.

♥ Vampire Weekend has two new singles out. You can listen to them here. I really like Step: “Wisdom’s a gift but you’d trade it for youth. Age is an honor – it’s still not the truth.” Their new cd comes out on May 6th.

♥ I’ve been accepted into Marathon Maniacs!! Check out my profile page.

What links have you been visiting and sharing this month?

The first day of spring is tomorrow… but you’d never know that in Brooklyn. It snowed yesterday! It is rainy, cold, and overcast today. The cloudy coldness is bringing me down, but I really can’t place all of the blame on the weather. I need to make some changes, to my life and to my attitude.

My spring cleaning goals:

• running – Running is discouraging. It is not fun, not energizing, not empowering. It is only discouraging. I know that it is my fault for over-doing it — three marathons in two months, plus the NYC Half on Sunday, was NOT smart — but my bad attitude is deeper than merely being burnt out. I have this unrelenting feeling that running is completely unfair and no one understands how difficult it is for me. Boohoo. I shouldn’t have such angry feelings about a freakin hobby. I am scaling back. I plan to only run two days a week (with Team in Training) and cross train a few days a week. I usually enjoy exercising, but I need to find a new activity that makes me feel fit and powerful, not sluggish and discouraged.
• food – I have already been on a bit of a health kick. (Flax seed oatmeal with raisins and bananas for breakfast this morning!) But I want to stay committed. I have not quite decided how I feel about Mayor Bloomberg’s “soda ban”, but I know that for myself, I will always limit my refined sugar intake. I’ll never say that I am cutting out any type of food completely because I want to be a flexible and adventurous eater, but I certainly don’t need sugary beverages or processed junk food. I plan to cook at home more. Healthy dinners and lots of fruits and veggies!
• swap-bot – Swap-bot is my constant companion and an unrelenting source of never-ending work. I don’t mind. I’ll keep working on it forever if users keep swapping… but I need to reframe my focus. I want to work harder on improving the site for ALL users, not just tread water trying to put out all the many tiny daily fires. I have said this before and I still believe it: art + community = a better world. I want to work more purposefully toward the goal of fostering creativity and friendship around the world via Swap-bot. And I want to make the site look and function better. There is a lot of work to do.
• self – I plan to focus more on my own feelings and desires. I want to stay home more. Work on projects that improve my quality of life. Watch some tv. Make a quilt. Take it easy. I love socializing (probably too much) and I know it sounds crazy for someone who works alone everyday at home to want more time to myself, but I do. I love going out with friends, but I love hanging out with my husband more. I need to rest and recharge and remind myself that my priorities and ambitions may be different than others, and that is totally ok.

Once the sun comes out, I am sure I will be feeling more upbeat. Until then, I am going to take it easy on myself and do my best to foster my own happiness. What changes do you have planned for spring?

I love my birthday month, but this February seems to be dragging on. So cold and rainy and grey. I have lost my enthusiasm for a lot of things… except this stuff:

♥ watching… X-Files! Oh, how I love Mulder & Scully! I am working my way through the series. I just finished season three (Queequeg just got eaten by an alligator) and started season four (my favorite). Such a thoughtful, mysterious show! Definitely one of my all-time favorites.

♥ enjoying… spring pastels. Like this handbag, this rug, and this scarf.

♥ eating… grapefruit and pistachios. My two current healthy favorites. I believe that I eat pretty healthy in general — fruits & veggies, whole grain, low-fat dairy, etc — but I am on a renewed health kick since I read this article about junk food engineering.

♥ wishing that… my new iMac would arrive. It is back-ordered until March. My current desktop is broken — it crashes every 10 minutes — and it is difficult to do serious work on my tiny travel laptop.

♥ hosting… the Sweet Spring Time Matchbox Swap on Swap-bot. I am really looking forward to spring and thought I’d host one of my signature craft swaps to hurry it along. Join us!

//

what are you up to?

Leading up to (and even during the race yesterday) I was composing a manifesto in my head on the stupidity of marathoning. And even now that I have completed my 8th full marathon, the Inaugural NYCRuns Central Park Marathon, I really can’t argue with myself. Except, maybe I’ll change the title of my treatise to: The Stupidity of Running TOO MANY Marathons.

The Central Park Marathon was my third marathon in two months. (Bermuda & Disney being the other two.) Not recommended! It was my fourth marathon on the same pair of worn out Nikes. (Philadelphia being the first.) Not recommended! I ran this marathon without team or coach support. Not recommended! I went into the race without a specific race plan. Not recommended! I also ran this marathon while sick with a head cold and cough. Definitely not recommended!

So, if I knew all of the reasons why running another marathon was stupid, why did I do it? Basically because I knew I could. I knew I would finish. Plus, I felt I had missed out on the NYCRuns Brooklyn Marathon in November and wanted to experience one of their smaller city marathons. Sure, sure. I think I was just being stubborn. And I wanted the medal!

I want to keep racking up my marathon & medal count, but why? A marathon is a cool accomplishment, but at this point, I don’t think they are helping my overall fitness. I skipped a speed, a cross training, and a trail workout all in prep for yesterday’s race. Not smart. Those workouts would have been more beneficial… and I doubt I would be in as much pain today.

I finished the Central Park Marathon just under the 5:15 time limit. Just under! I crossed the finish line at 5:14:30. ha. A mediocre time for me… but actually not bad, considering. Five loops of Central Park is difficult. Especially when you get overly confident on the second loop and go much too fast, and then spend the next three loops alternating between panicing, coughing, and wincing in pain. Stupid!

So, learn from my mistakes!! Your body can handle almost anything you ask of it, but be wise about what you ask it to do. I seriously recommend doing only one marathon a year. And I am going to try to stick to that myself! Quality over quantity.

I do have five HALF marathons scheduled before June… but no more fulls!! What races do you have planned?

Someone very kind and special to me passed away last week.

I was lucky to have known Travis’ grandmother, Vicky Johnson, for nearly half of my life… and I will miss her for the rest of it.

Vicky was always sweet to me. Remarkably so. One small example: When I transferred to Graceland University my freshman year of college, she sent me a long, hand-written letter describing her experiences there in the 1940s. I was touched then, but now, in retrospect, that gesture seems incredibly kind and welcoming. I was just some 19-year-old girl dating her grandson then. She had no way to know if we’d last… or maybe she did.

Vicky made me feel loved. I hope I did the same for her.

Vicky painted the flowers you see above. She was very crafty and I have kept all of the handmade greeting cards she sent over the last few years.

Travis and I are on our way to California for VIcky’s funeral tomorrow. It will be good to see family.

I love presents just as much as I did at my 8th birthday!

Sunday was my 32nd birthday. I had a little party because – hey – I love cake and balloons and friends! Complaining about age is lame, but 32 feels quite old. Like, I should probably be an adult by now… isn’t that one of the items on my to do list?

What now seems like a very long time ago, I made a list of 30 things that I wanted to accomplish before turning 30. I didn’t get all of the items completed, so I converted it to a 30 WHILE 30 list, then a 31 while 31 list. I still haven’t gotten all of the items checked off, so I am turning it into an ongoing project. I’ll carry the list over each year, crossing off the things I finish and adding new items to fill out the list to match my birthday number — this year, 32!

32 things to do while 32:

♥ Visit the Museum of the City of New York.
♥ Travel to Europe!
♥ Eat the Moules Frites at Balthazar.
♥ Create a new craft tutorial for Swap-bot.
♥ Stop biting my nails. For good.
♥ Redesign the Swap-bot homepage.
♥ Get super-comfortable using our DSLR camera.
♥ Be noticeably sweeter to my husband.
♥ Run a marathon in 4:30.
♥ Lose 15 pounds. (Isn’t this on everyone’s list?)
♥ Make marinara sauce from scratch.
♥ Visit the Bronx Zoo.
♥ Make Crusher a super-cute Halloween costume.
♥ Try to live in the moment.
♥ Start taking a weekly yoga class. Changing this to: Cross train once a week.
♥ Buy a brownstone! (A fantasy, but a girl can dream…)
♥ Do all of my mending.
♥ Make cupcakes with some sort of filling.
♥ Reduce my internal negativity.
♥ Call my brothers and sisters-in-law every week (or at least more frequently).
♥ Read a novel. (Maybe this one?) Um… it is terrible that I haven’t done this…
♥ Promote peace.
♥ Get a unicorn face painting!
♥ Run a sub-2-hour half marathon. (This may be impossible.)
♥ Set up an online Swap-bot merch store.
♥ Eat less candy.
♥ Run a trail marathon.
♥ Make a quilt.
♥ Visit the New York Transit Museum.
♥ Bake a loaf of bread from scratch.
♥ Become an adult.
♥ Embark on a grand adventure!

————

Completed items:
This list could get really long!

♥ Experience Mardi Gras in New Orleans! Had a great time with my brother Seth.
♥ Learn to tell a really funny, family-friendly joke. Why did the fish get kicked out of school? ………because he was caught with sea WEED!
♥ Figure out how to style my hair in loose waves/curls. I think this counts.
♥ Visit The Cloisters. Went with mom & dad in June.
♥ Run the San Diego Marathon. For the second time. Done!
♥ Attend a taping of the Wendy Williams Show. Done and it was awesome.
♥ Take an overnight trip with my husband that is not at a relative’s house.
♥ Take my donation pile to the thrift store. Housing Works got a big pile!
♥ Buy a really beautiful and practical dress. Thank you Rebecca Taylor!
♥ Go to dinner at Al Di La.
♥ Run the NYC marathon!
♥ Watch every episode of Tosh.0.
♥ Make blueberry pancakes.
♥ Get the Florence + The Machine album on vinyl.
♥ Watch Meet Me in St. Louis again.
♥ Drive upstate to see the autumn foliage.
♥ Visit all five boroughs in NYC (should happen during the marathon).
♥ Get a new laptop. Love my Air!
♥ Reduce the amount of time I spend on Facebook. Done, except for today.
♥ Vote! Always.
♥ Buy awesome, new, flattering jeans. These from J.Crew.
♥ Force Travis to watch Star Trek: Generations with me. He loved it.

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You can check out my past lists here:

• 30 before 30
• 30 while 30
• 31 while 31

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What is on your list? What should I add to mine?

Valentine’s Day is my favorite holiday! I love making Valentines.

You know what else I love?? Helping to find a cure for cancer. Yes.

I have started my seventh season with Team in Training. This season I am mentoring and training for the New Jersey Long Branch Half Marathon and the Memorial Day Road Trail Challenge. I am also raising money for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Want to help?? And, want to receive an awesome hand-crafted Valentine sent from me to you via Snail Mail??

Make a donation (of any size! big or small!) before my birthday on February 10th and I will mail you one of my Valentine matchboxes. The tiny box of fun will be a one-of-a-kind creation made just for YOU and it will contain some sweet Valentine goodies. (I once taught a craft night class at Etsy on how to make these little boxes… so I guess you could say I’m a pro!)

More info: The LLS is an awesome organization that funds cancer research and supports patients both emotionally and financially. The research they have funded has led to medical advances and extreme increases in blood cancer survival rates. Your donation will go 100% to the LLS. I pay for all of my own race and travel expenses for every event I do with TNT so that all of the money donated via my campaign goes directly to the LLS mission.

Trying out the #Vine video app on my sleepy puppy. vine.co/v/bJ1xE2XgePa

— Rachel Johnson (@rljart) January 28, 2013

They’ve been telling us that video is the next big thing on the web for a decade… and obviously it IS a major part of the online world. (YouTube was the third most visited site in 2012.) But I am still skeptical. I hate the long load times, the 30 second ads you have to watch before getting to your content, and the long length of the videos. My time online is spent so frantically — always something to do, always new links to click — that I rarely take the time to watch video.

So… what am I doing using the video app, Vine??

Vine is a free, cute, little iPhone app that allows you to take tiny, 6-second videos and share them online. It’s format and usability is similar to Instagram, so it is easy to dive right in. A few of my favorite bloggers have been buzzing about the Twitter-owned app since it was officially released last week, so I had to give it a try!

So far, I think I’ve made seven vines, but my favorites are:

• Sleepy Crusher (seen above)
• Tiny office tour
• Trip to Post Office

Vine Positives: It is free! No ads! (yet.) I LOVE the short format. Six-second videos are just my style! The app is easy to figure out and use. The videos are easy to browse on your phone — they load and play immediately — and give a fun glimpse into the lives of your favorite bloggers and Twitter-ers. Many users have already mastered the stop-action format and have posted some amazing stuff.

Vine Negatives: Well… porn. Boo. Porn was the first thing I saw on Vine when I downloaded the app on Monday. A porn video was accidentally tagged as an “Editor’s Choice” and showed up in everyone’s feed. It caused a bunch of controversy and even got the app dropped from Apple’s featured apps section. But the issue has now been fixed and I have not seen any porn since, so no big deal. One serious complaint: I don’t know how to tell you to follow my Vine feed… I think you must search by my Twitter handle (@rljart) or by my full name (Rachel Lamble Johnson). I wish I could give you a straight link to my Vine profile.

Have you tried Vine? What do you think? Please link to your Vine videos in the comments!