Thanks to all those that participated this year! I know the weather affected a lot of you and you found a way to still work out. You all rock! 😀

Me!  Riding on the bike trainer doing intervals.	John also on the trainer! His legs in the mirror	Bonnie and her family did a group race of a Marathon, 1 the half and 1 a 5k
Amanda and her husband finishing a WOD at their local crossfit	Sara – 3 mi run, 15 min elliptical, and 30 min weight session	Debby – 20 minutes on the exercise bike, 15 minutes on the weights, and 20 minutes “jogging” in the pool
Shelley – 3 mile run	Jen – 2.5 mile walk	Emmaclaire – 4 mile run
Fran – Friday: walking 2 miles Saturday: walking 2.7 miles. Sunday: running 2. 5 miles and walking 1.7 miles	Cammy – treadmill incline workout	Cathy – 5k in 7 degrees, then biked 12 miles and walked 2 miles inside at the local YMCA
Judy – Walked and ran on the treadmill	Leah 7.25 mile run	Biz – 90 minutes of cardio
Roz – 2 hour walk	Kim T – Saturday  ran 5 miles. Sunday  ran 12 miles	Helen – 5.5 miles
Kim K – lots of snow shoveling!	Carrie a treadmill run. With a long bike ride of 12 miles	Lisa H-  1/2 an hour on the treadmill with weights
Julianne – lot of activity including tide pooling!	Jody – running

Thanks to all those that participated!  And now for what you all have been waiting for – the winners of the giveaway!  Three randomly chosen names via random.org

Jen – Saratoga Maple Peanut Butter

Cammy –  Stevia!

Lisa H – Shelley’s Hand Knit Hat!

Please email me at javaqueen01@yahoo.com with your addresses so I can pop these in the mail this week.

Thanks again for participating everyone!

Yeah, more snow.  This was taken after the snow fell last night. We got maybe 4 or 5 inches?

John was out of town this weekend and missed this snow.

4 or 5 inches isn’t enough to stop girl time for breakfast for us northern peeps, though 😀

Now we are supposed to get a lot more tonight and tomorrow.  The snow wouldn’t be so bad if it got warm enough to melt off some before piling on new stuff…

Anyway, one week to the Healthy Heart Weekend!  Here are the prizes that will be given away this year:

Locally made peanut butter:

A huge jar of Stevia.  Please when you send me your photo, tell me if you would use stevia or not. 

And – A hand knit hat from Shelley!  I asked Shelley last minute  if she would be able to knit something and she busted this hat out so fast!

It’s very cute and super soft. 😀  The winner of this is going to be very lucky!

It’s been project weekend around here at Radiance Manor. John was away for the weekend and I seem to get super productive when he is gone. Hmmmm…

Anyway, my projects have long wait times in them, so I have a few going on at once.  The trunk is getting lined now.  There are time consuming stages with the trunk. Not so much the doing, but the waiting. Waiting to dry between cleaning, waiting in between coats of paint, waiting between coats of waterlox, etc. I spent the weekend working on the tray:

It was in decent shape, so I cleaned it, scraped off the old paper, glued any loose parts and put primer on it.  I was going to do the tray in gray, but it looked out of place in the trunk, so I went black – which is pretty unusual for me. I am not so much the dark color person. However, it goes really well with the fabric I chose.  Anyway, see there is a broken plank in the bottom of the tray?

 I didn’t want to pull off the broken board because I was afraid the whole tray would break since it is probably 120 years old. So, I cut some fiberboard to fit in the bottom of the tray and then covered that with fabric.  Adhesive and some weights:

All pretty:

I had a wee bit of trouble lining up the pattern since the insert wasn’t completey square, but it looks 100 times better.

I also have been working on the headboard while the tray was in various stages of drying, but I will save those pictures for another day.

I also got our bedroom paint color, except I didn’t get around to any painting of that.

 I will have time with the snow coming in tonight and tomorrow!

 It’s that time again!  The 5th Annual Healthy Heart  is coming up!   Can you believe we have been doing this for 5 years?? 
If you want to see some of the previous years’ results, click here, click here, click here or click here
Here’s how it works: During  the weekend of February 13-15, do some kind of activity on 1 of the 3 days of Friday, Saturday, or Sunday.  You don’t have to have a blog in order to join, either.

This weekend is all just about getting moving. If you want to walk, that’s fine. Elliptical bunny? Knock yourself out! Take a long bike ride? Go for it! Play date with the family? Have a blast!  Slinging the barbell around counts, too   The only stipulation is that you need to take a picture of yourself before, during or after your event and send it to me. I will post the pictures in a wrap up post. Get creative, too! You don’t have to have your face in the photo if you don’t want to, so have fun with it!

Date:  February 13th, 14th and 15th! Feel free to chose Friday, Saturday, or Sunday to complete your event.

Activity: Your choice!

Distance/Duration: Your choice. I know many of you are training for an event, so you can use whatever distance fits in with your training plan. It’s all about a healthy heart, not a specific distance or time.

After you complete your event, please email me the photo and what you did at javaqueen01 (at) yahoo.com .

Please post below if you would like to participate and what you plan to do! Feel free to post about it on your blog if you have one and see how many people we can get to participate! You may grab the logo above and link as well. 

I will be giving away some prizes, too.   There will be at least a jar of locally made peanut butter, a large jar of stevia (which seems like a lifetime supply) and I am going to do another prize or two. I will update this post as we go along with the prizes. And since I am hosting – anyone in the world is eligible for the prize drawings!

It’s actually really fun doing a virtual event.  I loved getting in the emails all weekend with photos and what people did. Let’s get a lot of people involved this year!

So sign up below if want want to join in! I’ll be bugging reminding you on the blog over the next couple weeks, too, so you don’t forget.

Thanks for all who participated this year!

Me!  Lifting and renovating!	John – Cardio and lifting.
Shelley – 3 mile run!	Sara – 14 mile run!
Kimberly – Yoga!	Julianne – 4 mile walk/jog Also note – “In honor of Pixie, I used the Charity Miles app and did my workout for the ASPCA, which added up to 10 puppy/kitten vaccinations! 🙂 “
Fran – 13K walk with Bella!	Helen – 6.4 mile run!
Kim – 5 mile walk!	Jody – Sunday run!
Suzi – 1 hour walk!	Debby – gym workout on the bike and circuit training!
Rachel – T25 workout and a bunch more!	Cathy – 8 mile run!
Linda 2.3 mile runwalk!	Amanda – rainy run!
Cammy – 6 miles of walking over the weekend!

Thank you to all who participated! And now for the prizes!!

Winner of the art pin from New Orleans:

Amanda!

Winner of the Adirondack blend coffee:

Sara!

Winner of the Saratoga Maple Peanut Butter:

Cathy!!

Congratulations! Email me with your addresses and I will get these out to you.  Thanks for playing everyone!

It’s time people!  Not as many participants this year as usual, but those that are will be awesome I am sure!  It’s not to late to join in, either.

Remember that any activity counts from Friday through Sunday. Just email me a photo of yourself or what you did to javaqueen01@yahoo.com  by Monday.  I will compile the results and then do a drawing for some prizes.  One of the prizes is this lovely pin I picked up in New Orleans from an artist in the French Quarter.  It should make the wearer feel closer to spring, I think 😀

I will be doing a lifting workout. I just rejoined my old gym – only $99 for a whole year WOOT!

Pixie will be doing what she does best, which is getting into stuff.  I was lifting the first layer of plywood off the counter and she just had to be there checking it out.

Her look says What.The.Hell?

My other activity this weekend will be working on the counters. Have a great weekend!

It’s time!!  February will be the 3rd annual Blogger’s Healthy Heart Weekend!  Yay!  I have fun doing this every year.

If you want to see last year’s results click here.  For 2011 click here. 

On this weekend, do some kind of activity on 1 of the 3 days of Friday, Saturday, or Sunday.  You don’t have to have a blog in order to join, either.

This weekend is all just about getting moving. If you want to walk, that’s fine. Elliptical bunny? Knock yourself out! Take a long bike ride? Go for it! Play date with the family? Have a blast!  Slinging the barbell around counts, too :D  The only stipulation is that you need to take a picture of yourself before, during, or after your event and send it to me. I will post the pictures in a wrap up post. Get creative, too! You don’t have to have your face in the photo if you don’t want to, so have fun with it!

Date: Just after Valentine’s Day, of course! February 15th, 16th, and 17th! Feel free to chose Friday, Saturday, or Sunday to complete your event.

Activity: Your choice!

Distance: Your choice. I know many of you are training for an event, so you can use whatever distance fits in with your training plan. It’s all about a healthy heart, not a specific distance or time.

After you complete your event, please email me the photo and what you did at javaqueen01 (at) yahoo.com .

Please post below if you would like to participate and what you plan to do! Feel free to post about it on your blog if you have one and see how many people we can get to participate! You may grab the logo above and link as well. Last year we had 50 sign ups, but only 36 actually did it.  Let’s get at least that many this year!

I will be giving away some prizes, too.   One prize will be some coffee roasted by yours truly. Or some local tea if the person selected doesn’t drink coffee (GASP!!).  I will update this post as we go along with the other prizes.  I got a bit distracted this week with my bathroom demo.  And since I am hosting – anyone in the world is eligible for the prize drawings!

It’s actually really fun doing a virtual event.  I loved getting in the emails all weekend with photos and what people did. Let’s get a lot of people involved this year!

Happy Valentine’s Day!  This is  a perfect day to to the Healthy Heart Weekend Round Up!

Okay, here are all the participants that got me their information!  We had about half of the people who signed up participate.

Leah5 mile – run!	Shelley2.5 mile -RAWK!	Linda10 mile – run!
Aimee5K – run!	Julianne25 mile – bike!	Julie5K run!
Lori 15 mile bike!	Jane (and hubby) 45 minute elliptical/30 minute bike	Cammy
Kathy (aka Mom!!)60 minute walk/60 minute aqua fitness!	Jody80 minute run!	Kim5 mile – walk!
Satu75 minute walk!	HelenA little bit of everything!	Katie3 mile – run!
Biz 5 mile – run!	Jan4.8 KM – walk!	KimberlyYoga/swim/cycling!
Tish2.36 mile RAWK	Cathy5K!	DebbyWalk/weights/bike/stroll!
Kristin4 miles/3 miles!	Sharon6 mile hike!	Jenn60 minute run!
Tami

Look at all those happy faces and fun places.  Thanks so much for participating! I really hope I didn’t miss anybody! I checked my spam box.

Now for the winners! I just labeled the boxes numerically and used random.org to pick 3 people.

1. Winner of the coffee (or tea):  Biz!

2. Winner of the Coconut products:  Aimee!

3. Winner of the 2 bars of Lindt Intense Dark: Kristin!

Please email me at javaqueen01 (at) yahoo.com with your address and I will get these out to you. I still have to roast the coffee, so it might be a day or so on that one.

The Healthy Heart weekend emails have been coming in! Every one of them made me smile.  That is the best thing about doing the challenge.  It was so fun knowing we were all doing something this weekend!  Make sure you get your updates and pic to me by Monday so that I can post them and the drawing winners on Tuesday.

I did my 15 miles on the trainer on Saturday.

Why yes, I am wearing a tiara, albeit a cardboard one.  I had to split this up. I did 11 miles and then  had to get ready to go out to lunch with my mom to pay her back for taking care of Pixie and the house while we were in Florida!  I did the other 4 miles later.

We went out to O’Tooles, where I had soup and a baked potato.  Yum.

It was a fairly relaxing weekend other than that.  No travel, no football, no parties.  John is feeling better, but not 100%. We did go out browsing Lowe’s for home improvement ideas.  I have the bug again to work on the house.

We have 4 big projects in mind.  One is laminate flooring for the whole downstairs.  (We did the upstairs 4 years ago).

Then there is redoing our upstairs bathroom.  Hello 1980s and cracked floor tiles.

The other 2 projects are outdoor projects.  Working on our front porch with painting and new shingles, and then resurfacing the driveway.  Of course, we won’t be doing the resurfacing ourselves, but we will supply the $$$ for it.  That’s the trouble with a 100+ year old house.  You can always fix something.

John has been working on the innards of his piano, speaking of things that are over 100 years old (110 to be exact).

John and I did get some coffee after browsing Lowe’s and I had a Valentine cookie!

Got an early start on Valentine’s Day!  I did nibble a bit too much today, which I think is a result of riding 15 miles yesterday.  I have done so much walking the last couple months getting ready for Disney that I put the bike on the back burner so to speak.  Not used to all that riding.

Hope you all had a healthy heart weekend!