The truth is, I’m not great at the business side of things so that’s what puts me off building up the soap business. If it were just a matter of making more soap, I’d be all over that. It’s fun, creative and relaxing for me – but doing paperwork, keeping track of expenses and inventory makes my brain go numb! I can’t stand it.

I got a new camera for Christmas, so I think I’m going to take advantage of that to post here and share my photos more often. There are blogs I read all the time that are just about everyday things, and I find them interesting. Maybe someone out there would be interested by my everyday life- can’t imagine why, but you never know, right?

This past week I’ve been making soap for my wholesale customer, Carberry Soap Company in Pickering, Ontario. I make round olive oil soaps for them in several different scents: Unscented for babies or sensitive skin, Lavender, Citrus blend, English Rose and a Patchouli soap made with a blend of veggie oils including hemp oil.

In other news, we got new blinds for the kitchen windows and it’s all looking very ‘finished’ now. There’s just one small thing to complete, which is some final painting around the small window over the sink. Somehow the small jobs just get put off, but I’ll get to it soon. We also need to touch up some of the caulking under the crown molding where it has cracked.

The spring after we moved into the house in 2005, we had the tiny bathroom downstairs completely gutted and renovated. We ended up with a beautiful, big, very WHITE shower stall. It looked lovely- for about 5 minutes. Then I started to realise that there is no good way to keep white tile grout clean long term. It just doesn’t happen. Nothing I did worked and I was sick of scrubbing and spraying with bleach solutions. After a couple of years it never looked white again, no matter what I did. Recently I was searching aimlessly online for a solution to this problem. I actually considering having the floor of the shower ripped out and replaced with a solid surface of some kind. I gave up on that idea pretty quickly when I found out what would be involved and how much it would cost. Thousands of dollars and basically an entirely new shower stall= not happening!  I tried to scrape out the grout myself using a dremel tool but I soon realised my knees weren’t going to take it, let alone my back. So- the shower sat unused for months during our kitchen renovations because we had to deal with that first. Luckily, we have 2 other showers in the house.

Eventually, I came across the website of Laurentian Tile & Grout. Looking at the before and after photos on his website, I realised I had found my answer! This miracle worker replaced all of the grout in the shower walls and floor in 2 days and it looks completely brand new again. The new grout is an epoxy that is guaranteed not to stain. Check this out.

Before: (this is clean, by the way)

After:

Yeah, I’m pretty happy with how this came out. Totally worth the cost.

I was just reading that last bit over and realised that I sound like a late-night infomercial!

“But wait, there’s more! If you act right now, we’ll rip out the grout in 2 showers in your home for the price of one!”

Just to the right in this photo is the rest of a very large (23′ x 17′) room, so the kitchen itself is closed into this very small corner by the wall and the peninsula. It is a crazy design, but I guess kitchens were built only as work areas back in 1980. Too bad only one person can work in there at one time. It was a constant frustration for us. You want to see me going insane? Making Christmas Dinner in here! Ugh!!

In the next photo you can see the peninsula with the bulkhead or…what is this called?…soffit? above it. I think there were originally cabinets attached there. Wow, can’t imagine how closed-in the kitchen must have felt when they were still there! Don’t you love the old-newspaper-looking wallpaper? (because oh yes, we want to draw attention to these useless empty soffits along the ceiling- pfft!)

So, I spent years planning and designing what I dreamed of having in this room. Ikea has an online planner that lets you lay out cabinets and appliances to get a feel for how things would fit and how it would look. I tried a few different combinations, but I knew I wanted an open kitchen with a huge island. This is the basic idea I had:

It’s hard to see in the ‘before’ photos, but the original kitchen had a pocket door opening on the wall where the stove is in this plan (into the dining room), and another one where the wide doorway is shown here farther along that wall (leading into the hallway). We decided to take out both pocket doors (they no longer functioned anyway) and make one wider opening instead.

Over the years, we made a few changes to try to make it a bit more comfortable. We changed the light fixtures, painted over the wallpaper and the walls, and changed out the ugly old light switches and plugs. We replaced the old stove and fridge at different times when they died on us. This is how the room looked the night before ‘demo day’. Of course, it’s empty because we had packed everything away already.

In this next photo, you can see that our contractor had already taken out the small pocket door and widened the opening. This was to make it easier to unload the furniture before demo.

On the wall to the right in this next photo, you can see one of the three windows along this wall. It’s a very bright room with lots of natural light. (and little Molly who always seems to get into the photos) but this was in the evening with not much light for photos.

Finally- DEMO DAY! Here’s me taking a few (pathetic) swings at the hated bulkhead/soffit box-thingy over the peninsula. It was nice to get the chance to wreck that thing finally:-)

Here’s how the room looked after the first day of hammering, ripping and sawing. The huge hole in the wall is where the other pocket door was removed. This has become a solid wall, as later photos will show. The dining room became our makeshift kitchen area, but at this point it was a disaster area too.

Next came the electrical work, so lots of drywall was torn out, and the new section of wall was framed in. You can see where the ceiling is being cut up to put in the new pot lights.

By Day 4, all of the flooring had been torn up. We were conflicted about taking out all of the hardwood floor, but we couldn’t come up with a good way of saving it without having an odd transition into the kitchen area and we didn’t want to try to match the wood since it has yellowed quite a bit from light exposure, and there were areas where the finish had worn off (under my office chair from the casters- guilty!) We decided to go with cork for the whole room, which of course added more $$ to the job…like everything does!

By Day 11, we had new drywall all over the place and things were looking much cleaner.

Day 16 and we have a new sub floor and the footings for the base cabinets are being installed.

Base cabinets and the island!

Day 28 was pretty exciting- granite countertops! Oh my gosh the island looks MASSIVE!

Then we had a visit from the plumber and we’re back to having running water. We had a filtered water tap and a soap dispenser added too. We love our new pull out sprayer faucet and the new sinks!

Subway tile backsplash with glass tile accent strip. I agonized over the grout colour and finally decided on Delorean Gray. It turned out exactly like I wanted:-) Just enough colour to show the pattern but not too graphic.

The new cork floors! I love the pattern- it’s impossible to see crumbs:-) We decided to go ahead and replace our foyer flooring at the same time. Renovations are like a virus, once you get started they keep spreading!

Foyer Before: Ugly, damaged parquet floor:

Foyer after: Lovely cork, yeay! It feels so good on the feet too.

Here’s where we are today (Day- oh sheesh, let me count- yep, it’s Day 58!) We have some of the cabinet doors and our garbage and recycling pull-outs are installed. The crown moldings are up (but not yet painted) and we are still waiting for the island cabinet doors, the cabinet and drawer handles, the glass fronted cabinet doors and glass shelving, the baseboards and a fresh coat of paint on the walls,  the painter to finish the ceiling, the electrician to install the ceiling lights…then I get to decide about window coverings.

Along this set of base cabinets there are two which we decided to change to drawers. Base cabinets drive me crazy- I can never find anything wayyy in the back of them. The drawers are built but not yet switched out.

The upper cabinets on either side of the sink will have glass fronted doors, glass shelves and interior lighting. We decided on a cross-hatch patterned glass to disguise the cabinet contents a bit.

The hood fan still has the protective paper on it and it still needs the cover for the chimney pipe. Stuff is all over the counters because we aren’t using the cabinets yet. Hate the mess but we are LOVING the kitchen already!

Later today I think we are getting the cherry doors installed on the island and all of the cabinet handles put on. At that point I think I will feel safe enough to start bringing everything back in and organizing the cabinets. We’re on the home stretch- more photos to come soon!

If you’re like me and you want to see all the nitty-gritty details and lots more photos, I’ve been photo blogging the whole renovation since we started in a set on Flickr. You can check it out by clicking HERE There’s an option there to watch them as a slideshow but then you don’t get to see my rivetingly interesting written commentary

Comments welcome!

Why does it have to be so HARD?

The weather cooperated yesterday afternoon, so we packed up a picnic,  loaded our bikes onto the back of the car, and went bike riding on Westham Island. Lots of farms-  not terribly interesting though,  so we packed up again and headed over to the dyke in Richmond and rode along there for a while. There are picnic tables dotted along the dyke so we stopped at one for our picnic before heading back. It was really nice to get out and do something active and fun together. It doesn’t happen often enough. Daily life gets in the way and it’s so easy to just fall into the routine. Days like yesterday remind me that life is short and we should seize the day with the ones we love. I know it sounds cliche…

Which brings me to my Mom. She’s got some kind of dementia, probably Alzheimers disease. About 18 months ago she saw a specialist who thought she probably had early Alzheimers, but we took her to another specialist for a second opinion and he disagreed. Either way, there was really nothing to do at that point other than keeping her on the medication (which may or may not help in the early stages) and try to support her as much as possible. Since then her memory has gotten quite a bit worse. She calls me regularly with questions and gets confused about paperwork and things that come in the mail. I’ve taken over her medical insurance claims because she was getting them mixed up. Luckily, all of her other bills are paid via pre-authorized payment. The one thing she is still doing is paying her Visa bill each month. All her life she has saved all her receipts- writing the date at the top and then checking them against her statement each month. Lately she’s been having more difficulty with it. She frequently calls Visa to send her copies of certain bills she can’t find, but for the most part she’s managing that pretty well.

My big concern about her is that she is still driving. Last year after she had 2 accidents close together and her car was wrecked,  then had eye surgery and couldn’t drive for at least 6 weeks we thought we could convince her to give up driving but it didn’t work. After her eye healed, she convinced my brothers to take her car shopping (in hindsight they should have refused) and she bought a new car. She can no longer drive anywhere she hasn’t been many times, and even needs written directions to get to my house reliably. Recently she was supposed to follow me in her car to go to a specialist appointment, but as soon as I got into my car she didn’t know where I was. She had no idea what my car looked like, so she just went home and then was upset with me because she said I didn’t tell her to follow me (of course I did). So- she still drives to her credit union and to stores she knows and to my house. She says she doesn’t drive very often, but I wish she would make the decision to stop herself. I think this is going to be a big problem because she doesn’t see the danger. Maybe it’s going to take her getting lost before she realizes she has to stop. I just hope it’s not an accident that decides for her.

1. What did you do in 2009 that you’d never done before?
I learned to make soap.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

No, I don’t make any actual new year’s resolutions. This year I do hope to get back into better physical shape. I really dropped the ball on fitness in 2009.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Yes, my niece had her third son.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No, and I’m very grateful for that.

5. What countries did you visit last year?

No travel for me last year, unless you count hops over the line to Bellingham and Seattle. My sister and I did a 2 day road trip to shop in Seattle and it was so much fun. We haven’t had time alone together to reconnect in years and we laughed and cried. I want to do it every year now, at least!

6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
A full-time-employed husband. He wants that as much as I do though. Here’s hoping that 2010 brings a great career opportunity for him.

7. What dates from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
The actual date numbers don’t stick in my mind, but the weekend garage sale I had in March to raise money for the Weekend to End Breast Cancer was crazy. I almost killed myself and Jon too, but we raised $1700 so I consider it a great success:-) The actual weekend walk in August was an amazing experience. The day my daughter surprised me by turning up back home suddenly after being in Calgary for several months. The day that a doctor told me and my mom that she probably had early stage Alzheimer’s Disease. May 1st, the day that me and my family helped my mom move into her new apartment.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Finishing the Weekend to End Breast Cancer walk of 60 km over 2 days, and raising over $2000 for the BC Cancer Foundation.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Neglecting my physical health by avoiding regular exersize.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Nothing serious, thankfully.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
The soaping supplies from a soapmaker who was going out of business. It was an incredible deal and it really got me jump started with my soapmaking!

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
My brother’s. He fundraised and then rode his bike over 400km in one day from Kelowna to Delta to raise awareness and money for the Canadian Cancer Society in the Ride 2 Survive. It was an amazing accomplishment.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

I wouldn’t go quite as far as appalled or depressed, but I was pretty irritated with the moderators of a certain soapmakers’ forum for banning me. Get over yourselves, seriously. Your loss

My son gave me a few moments to be appalled about here and there (what teenager doesn’t?) and when he was struggling with anxiety and depression early in the year it was pretty sad for me, but I don’t get depressed easily.

My mom’s ongoing struggles with her memory make me sad. I try not to get depressed over it though, just try to help as much as I can.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Most of it went for just keeping us going day to day, but another large portion went to get me set up for making soap as well.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
I don’t think anything was quite THAT exciting in 2009, but selling nearly $500 in products at one small craft fair I did this fall was exciting for me.

16. What song will always remind you of 2009?
I don’t know that it will stick in my mind for always, but Adam Lambert singing ‘Mad World’ on AI was pretty cool. He made the show fun to watch last year.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? A little sadder.
b) thinner or fatter? Fatter.
c) richer or poorer? poorer (we’re talking money, right?)

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
I’ll say it again- physical activity. Also- wish I’d done more fun things with Jon. Life can get kind of routine at times and we forget to enjoy our time together and just do fun stuff.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?

Eating. Complaining.

20. How did you spend Christmas?
With my family at our house, we had everyone here for dinner.

21. Did you fall in love in 2009?

No, but I stayed in love.

22. What was your favorite TV program?

Definitely LOST. Can’t wait for it to start again next week. It’s the last season though:-( I also had a lot of fun watching American Idol with my son, Devon. It’s our mom-and-son bonding time. We don’t get much of that anymore so I really enjoy it. Other than that, I don’t really watch TV anymore.

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
Hate is a very strong word. I don’t have true hate for anyone. There are a few irritating people I try to avoid though.

24. What was the best book you read?
The Time Travelers Wife. Absolutely pulled me in. I didn’t want it to end, but couldn’t stop reading.

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?
I don’t really discover music. That’s Jon’s area:-)

26. What did you want and get?
A new washer and dryer- front loaders, they rock.

27. What did you want and not get?
A new kitchen. (not expected, but still wanted!)

28. What was your favorite film of this year?
Nothing sticks out in my mind other than Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. I don’t think it was the best of the series but I’m a big HP fan, so I enjoyed it.

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 46. Jon took me out for dinner to the Washington Avenue Grill. It was lovely.

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
If I could have had the kitchen renovated, or finished all the half-done projects on the house.

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009?
I’m pathetic in this department, as all who know me are aware. I spent most of the year in my jammies working from home, or in my comfy jeans- mainly because I’ve gained weight and don’t feel good about how I look

32. What kept you sane?
Being loved by a wonderful man.  Having a hobby that I love. Working from home.

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Embarrassingly, Adam Lambert. I know, he’s young enough to be my son and he’s gay but he’s adorable and his voice is incredible *shrug*

I also really admire Brad Pitt for all he does for people in need. That makes him pretty fanciable, and he doesn’t look half bad either, let’s face it .

34. What political issue stirred you the most?
I really wish I were more interested in politics, but I’m just not. It was pretty exciting to see Obama getting inaugurated, for many reasons.

35. Who did you miss?
I missed Jon’s parents, who live in England. I wish we could see them more often. I also missed my dad as always. I can’t believe it’s been 11 years since he died.

36. Who was the best new person you met?

Nobody in particular sticks out in my mind. I guess I don’t meet too many new people.

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009.

Make sure the people you love know it, and show them often. You never know when you might not be able to tell them again. (related to my mom’s memory problems)

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

??

Only 5 days till Christmas! This is the week where I start getting really anxious because I never have all my shopping done.  We are having Christmas dinner here for the extended family, so the house needs to be cleaned, food (and booze!)  shopping needs to be done, presents wrapped….and probably a million other things. I’m working today and then overnight tomorrow, so my time is getting really crunched. Hopefully I can motivate my men to help me get things ready. So, just need to work a night shift tomorrow and then it’s full-on Christmas prep!

Every year, we do a big Christmas breakfast to eat after we open our gifts. I do an egg strata the night before that goes straight into the oven in the morning, and overnight french toast for Devon. Maybe I can actually get all my gift wrapping done before Christmas Eve this year. I hate that late-night frantic wrapping and tagging!

In other news, I’m waiting to hear back from a leasing agent about renting a selling cart space at Semiahmoo Centre during the week leading up to Valentines Day to sell my soaps. There’s a Body Shop in the mall though, so I had to submit a letter describing my products and how they differ from The Body Shop’s stuff and we’re waiting to hear back from the mall administration. No word this week- hopefully Monday! If it’s yes, then I’ve got lots of soap to make by then. Of course I have no way of knowing how much I will sell, so it’s really guess work knowing how much to prepare, and which products to include. I’m planning to focus on my soap though.

Here’s a pic I took of part of my soap display at my last pre-Christmas craft fair. I loved how my soaps looked on this. I made it out of scrap styrofoam packing materials!

Here’s my most recent batch right after cutting. It’s scented with Pineapple Cilantro but I think it smells just like fresh pineapple. I added some coconut shreds for scrubbiness too. This one will be ready for sale on Jan 13th.

I got my first 2 sales from my Juicybath Etsy shop this week! Out of the blue– a Rosemary Mint bar, and then later the same day, a Licorice scented Lump of Coal. I was so excited. I actually found a couple of local buyers to purchase the rest of my batch of Lump Of Coal Soaps. I was so glad because I did a lot of work to get the packaging and the tags just right.  I think they turned out really well.

In case it’s not readable in the photo, the gift tag says:

You’ve Been Naughty

Here’s Your Lump Of Coal

Handcrafted Soap

Licorice Scented

]]> http://www.triagefromhome.com/2009/12/the-countdown-is-on/feed/ 1 http://www.triagefromhome.com/2009/11/birthdays-arent-all-bad/ http://www.triagefromhome.com/2009/11/birthdays-arent-all-bad/#comments Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:14:41 +0000 Helen http://www.triagefromhome.com/?p=1205 …but they feel that way anyway…

Last week was my birthday. I don’t get excited about them anymore. Who wants to be older anyway? (besides my teens that is!) Jon is always sweet and finds a way to do something special for me. This year he gave me a card, inside he listed reasons why he loves me. It is just beautiful and something I will treasure. We went out for dinner too and spoiled ourselves with 3 courses. We don’t do that often, so it was a real treat.

My friend Yvette made my day by having a bouquet of pink roses delivered to me! Wow….somehow flowers just make me feel so loved and appreciated. Maybe because they seem like a decadent gift, something I wouldn’t buy for myself.

My kids, on the other hand, were pretty lame about my birthday this year. I try not to let it bother me, but I wish they could put a bit of effort into it. My son remembered and wished me a happy birthday, and my daughter bought me a generic card. Is it too much to hope for a thoughtful gift? Nothing expensive. Just something that shows they thought about my birthday for more than 15 seconds, you know? They could make me something or clean the house for me, or even bake me a cake— but they just don’t. Some years they do better, but maybe it’s just their ages. They are still so wrapped up in themselves that they don’t think about me much anymore. My daughter spent days on end planning her friend’s birthday party and creating a slideshow video for her…..I got a card (not even a MOM card, just a generic card you could give to someone you work with!) That shows you where I rank on her priority list right now! I’m sure when it’s my son’s girlfriend’s birthday, he’ll be stressing for days about what to get for her. (and asking me to buy it since he has no job!)

I guess that’s why I try to keep myself so busy all the time. I wonder how they would feel if all I did for their birthdays is give them a hug or a card?

My daughter Alison is the inspiration for these. She’s a big fan of the Twilight books and movie(s). Her bedroom walls are covered with posters of Edward and the rest of the vampires. Last Christmas, I bought her some Twilight-inspired pendants made from Scrabble letter tiles. They were a big hit, so this year I decided to try to make them myself. Alison suggested that I make them into cellphone charms, so I ordered some little coloured looped cords with split rings on the ends.

Once I got the hang of how to trim the pictures properly, they were really fun to make! I just ordered more supplies. I think I’m going to sell lots of these at the craft fairs this fall.

Anyway, some of the members got into the discussion and I think I posted one comment in jest that said something like “whoa, I guess you knocked me down a peg. Have a super day” but nothing really nasty at all. Other than that, I’ve just been posting photos of my soaps, commenting on other photos (positively!), asking questions and generally just trying to have fun being part of this community. Well….last night I tried to log on and couldn’t. Long story short- my account was deleted by the admin. Another member sent me a link to my last forum comment which had been replaced by this:

“Juicybath2′s account has been delted. Admin has determined her attitiude and bahavior to be detrimental to our community.”

Ok, what?? I have NO CLUE what they are talking about. Some of the other members have been discussing my banishment on one of my threads, and this is part of what the admin posted tonight:

“No one will ever get banned for just giving their opinion, so don’t be scared of that at all!
Juicybath turned out to be not that kind & sweet towards others, and got personal with some forum members.
She did not get banned for selling (too) early; although the mod team does not encourage that.
When a member gets banned they get informed about it. With a rolling IP you could sign up again; but the admin always deletes these new accounts.
The mod team does understand the impact of banning a member; and we do not enjoy it. But we do take pride in having a friendly forum where everyone feels respected. That’s why sometimes it just has to be done…”

Wow. I would love the admin to show me where I ‘got personal’ with other members! I honestly have no idea what they are talking about. I was never nasty or unkind to ANYONE on that forum. I challenge anyone to find an unkind word I used there. Oh, and as for the part about INFORMING me…..NOPE. No emails, no discussion…they just deleted my account without a word.When I contacted one of the moderators to ask what was wrong, she answered and said she would talk to someone about it and then….nothing.

Real nice way to run a “friendly” forum, right? I guess this is a first for me. I’ve never been banned from anywhere before

Update: I’m sad to find out that other members are leaving the forum after this fiasco.  I guess this is what happens when a moderator decides (for some false reason) they don’t like a member and ban them. They are trying to tell everyone that I was harrassing members via email and PM. NOT true, but of course they don’t have to prove it because they just say they aren’t allowed the post the private comments. The other moderators don’t even understand it. Other members have sent me links to other soaping forums, so I’ll go and have a look at those today. I don’t want to be part of a toxic environment anyway, even if it’s on the web!

I just found a blog (via Twitter) this morning, asking about S’mores. Well, you  might have seen my previous posts about how I made homemade marshmallows. Later, I turned them into S’mores and sold them at work and at my son’s spring hockey tournament for donations for the Weekend to End Breast Cancer.

This is how I did it: The first batch is pictured above– I dipped the marshmallows into milk or dark chocolate and then into crushed graham crackers. Later, I made them with whole crackers like this: I put a little chocolate onto each graham cracker and then placed a piece of marshmallow on each one. Then I dipped them into the melted chocolate, and let them cool on parchment paper. They were incredible! I think Jon may have taken some photos of those- I will post them up later. Next, I want to try making different flavoured marshmallows to use- such as chocolate, mint or raspberry- maybe coconut!

This morning I sit here with aching legs and tingling feet to report that I MADE it through the entire 60km Weekend to End Breast Cancer this weekend. I underestimated how difficult it was going to be. After all- how hard can walking be, right? (shaking my head at myself right now) It was HARD, but as I kept reminding myself all weekend- it was not nearly as hard as fighting cancer would be. There were women walking who are going through that fight right now and they did it, so there was no way I was giving up if my legs were still moving. Let me tell you, it was very tempting to jump onto one of the sweep vans and be carried in comfort to the next pit stop!

I should start at the beginning though. Back in February, I signed up for the walk. I was intimidated by the idea of trying to raise $2000 at first, but in the end I raised a total of $2985. The biggest event was the massive garage sale we held at the end of March. I collected items for 6 weeks by advertising for donations on Craigslist. My garage was packed with stuff. I learned a lot that weekend about garage sales, including the 2 most important:  #1 ONLY collect items in very good condition- forget the junk! #2 Get lots of HELP!

The great news is that I raised $1700 that day, so all the hard work was worth it. Besides that, I held auctions on the blog for donated items. Most came from fellow Etsy sellers. I also made homemade marshmallow s’mores and chocolate covered oreo cookies and sold them at work and at my son’s spring hockey tournament.

I was so impressed to find out that there were 1300 walkers taking part, including many cancer survivors. There were volunteers in the form of cheerleaders, sweep van drivers, crossing guards, medical staff, and the folks who met us at every pit stop with treats, water and gatorade. One of the crossing guards shaved his hair into the shape of the awareness ribbon on the sides and dyed it pink–that’s commitment! Wish I’d gotten a photo of him. The cheerleaders were wonderful. They decorated their cars and honked at us  and cheered us along the route, and then stopped and played great dance music, danced and waved pom-poms or gave us little treats as we walked by. They kept us smiling the whole way. Here is a shot of some of the walkers along the seawall (look close, they are tiny!)

The first day, we walked 35km with a 45 minute lunch break. I was able to get a turn with a massage therapist at the lunch stop to pull some of the tightness out of my lower back. I had strained my back doing gardening about a week before so I was really worried about it holding out all weekend. Saturday I had real trouble with it, but between taking Advil and stretching it as often as I could– I got through it, but those last 5km were pretty painful. I was thrilled to find that I ended up blister-free at the end of day one. I had taken some good advice and slathered my feet with vaseline under my cool-max socks, changing to a new pair at lunch time.  I think doing that and having the great new running shoes saved my feet. I felt so badly for all the walkers I saw getting their feet bandaged and taped at the pit stops. Some of them had to stop walking due to the pain. Here is one of the volunteer’s decorated scooters.  That’s a balloon-filled bra on the front!

All along the route people came out of their homes and clapped for us, some yelling things like “thank you for walking!” “way to go!” “you can do it!” A family on E 37th (I checked so I could blog it) had a table set up outside their house where they served us an array of snacks and drinks as we went by. Two little girls stood on their front step and cheered “2-4-6-8, who do we appreciate? The walkers, the walkers, yeay!” and they jumped up and down and waved pom-poms for us. They were so cute- we all clapped and thanked them as we went by. One woman had a sign on the tree outside her house that said “You are walking for me. Thank you!” and she sat on her porch with her partner and they thanked every walker as they went by. Cars honked and waved at us all day long. People called out encouragement from their car windows. It was so nice to see strangers smiling so much! Some kids at Kits beach stood with buckets of mini chocolate bars handing them out to us as we went by and calling out “thank you for walking”. It really was an incredible experience.

Back at camp in the evening (after completing 35 km) I just wanted to get to my tent and collapse, but I’m so glad my friend Deb stopped me. She said if we stayed moving and even…gasp…danced for a while after dinner it would prevent us getting too stiff for Sunday’s walk.  Deb is a veteran of the walk- she’s done it 5 or 6 years now so figured she should know, but at that point I really couldn’t imagine dancing for 5 minutes- let alone walking another 25 km the next day. The lower half of my body felt like I’d been chewed up and spit out. I was really regretting the fact that I hadn’t done more training…not to mention the extra 20 lbs I’ve been carrying around for a while now. For at least the past year I just haven’t been motivated to work out. This walk really made me realize how much I’ve missed being fit. Once I recover I’m determined to get back into a fitness routine and shed these nasty pounds. Life is too short to feel uncomfortable in my body! Anyway- After hitting the showers (OH YES- that felt GOOD) we had dinner,  drank the champagne brought by Deb’s family and listened to a few speeches, then Bif Naked took the stage for a few songs. I have to admit I missed most of her set because I was arranging my nest in the tent. Then there was a DJ and dancing. I was amazed that I had any energy left, but we danced for about an hour! I finally hit my tent around 9:30 pm and with my earplugs firmly in place I slept solidly till about 4:00 am.  I was lucky to end up with a tent all to myself. Normally it’s two in each tent, but Deb and her family stayed in a nearby hotel, so I was able to spread out and enjoy a little extra space. I had to get up at 4:00 to visit the ‘sanctuary’  (as it was so delicately referred to) and I nearly fell over when I stood up- my legs were so stiff I had to grab the tent for support.

Sunday started with a nice hot breakfast (well, the eggs were a little scary, but the rest was nice:-) and the coffee was wonderful. We got out on the route by 7:45 am. My back was much better on Sunday, but the muscles in the back of my right leg started getting pretty tight and then by the time we stopped for an early lunch around 10:40 I found two small blisters-one on each foot. I was hoping to make it all the way blister-free, but it was not to be! (hey-I made a rhyme:-) A very helpful medic taped up my blisters and we were back on our way. The second half of Sunday was very difficult for me. Every step was painful and I had to stop and stretch at least every 30 minutes to keep moving. The route was beautiful though. We finished up by walking the south side of the seawall around False Creek. I dropped behind my group and had to take it slower, but I was able to catch up before the finish line and we all crossed together. What a wonderful welcome we got with cheering and high-fives galore. It was such a relief to know it was over!

I met these two ladies at the closing ceremonies. They appeared to be mother and daughter.  Mom is a cancer survivor as you can tell by her t-shirt slogan. Love their senses of humor! IF you can’t make out the text, the mom’s shirt says “Yes, they’re fake! My real ones tried to kill me!” and the daughter’s shirt says “No, they are not fake. Do you really think I would pick THIS size?”

I’m proud of myself for making it through, and I’m already thinking of ideas to fundraise for 2010. Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who supported me – the money, your time, all your blog comments and good wishes,  your tweets and re-tweets, and all the great handmade products I was able to offer for auction. A special thank you goes to my husband Jon who supported me with my fundraising efforts and saved my ASS on garage sale day. You rock sweetie! Think of all the lovely breasts you helped to save :-0

This year’s event raised about 2.9 MILLION dollars to benefit the BC Cancer Foundation for womens’ cancers. Pretty impressive!

Next year, the name of the walk will be changed to The Weekend To End Womens’ Cancers. The scope of the funding is being spread to include all cancers that affect women.  I hope I can inspire more walkers to join in next year. We need as many as we can get. It’s a great experience and a chance to be part of a cure for cancer- how cool is that?  Grab a friend (or a bunch of friends and start your own team) and sign up for next year’s walk.  You won’t regret it- I promise you.