Ace Attorney 'Papa' Hat

This is a very belated post because I was waiting for a picture.

When we were studying for our exam (and getting distracted half the time) a few months back, Ms Yee Chien requested a hat similar to that of Ace Attorney Phoenix Wright's. I wanted to give fair isle/intarsia a go, so I was pretty excited. We went to Lincraft for the yarn immediately after our exam.

I charted out the letters on graph paper before starting the project. Had to tweak the size a few times before I got it right but it was a fun exercise. The dreaded puckering happened when I started the fair isle portion, shock and horror. I tried fixing it but it just wouldn't lie flat, and in the end I was too lazy to frog and start over :P

Pictures!

The original hat

This is the picture I have been waiting for! So otaku~!

YC the model made the smiley face! That took a lot of effort. The initial plan was to use felt but it did not work out too well, so she came up with the brilliant idea of cross stitch, which was glued to a special iron-on fabric. I didn't know such funky things existed before this! The finished badge looks exactly like the original though, so yay!

The hat is not perfect, but boy do we feel accomplished :D

The weather forecast lied. It was supposed to rain over the weekend, but there was not one drop today. My plans for squeezing in a long run failed miserably - mostly because I was too lazy to get up, and by the time I did I didn't feel like running. It's just better to blame the weather :P

Also bought 4 balls of cotton yarn for another Kim Hargreaves hat! The evil yarn store is having a sale now. I wanted some Eki Riva, but couldn't decide on a colour. Another day muahaha...

It's been 2 weeks since the half, and I have only been running for 20 minutes each time ever since. Have yet to start swimming seriously for Fiji too. Not good indeed. Ugh.

When something becomes routine, at times one stops for a moment to think - Is it still worth it?

*

I ran in the rain today.

Recipe for happiness

1. Run a half marathon

2. Drink A&W Rootbeer after the run

3. Watch a nice Spanish film

So happy the poofy hair post-run doesn't even matter :P

My run this year was better than the last. The cramps came back to annoy and slow me down again at around 16k, and I finished about 1 minute slower than my target time, but no matter! The original goal of improving last year's time was achieved (shaved 10 minutes off), and that is enough :D

The rootbeer totally made my day.

Now, time to get serious for marathon training!

A little surprise

I was down with the cold last week. When I felt better the weather turned chilly, and laziness took over. My last long run was about 2 weeks ago with nothing since then, and my half marathon is this Sunday. Finally feeling guilty, I decided to go for a short run today after class. The goal was 8ks. I ran to Centennial Park (~1k), but before I reached the main entrance I was already feeling rotten. Although it was sunny the winds were strong; I was gasping for breath and wanted to turn back. Once I reached the park I decided to just take it easy, slow down and take walking breaks every 8-10 minutes. That didn't work well either. I could not decide whether to leave my windbreaker on, my nose started to run from the cold air, my breathing became worse because of the runny nose etc. Miserable. I wanted to quit after 1 round, but not being able to run even 5 ks a few days before a half is embarrassing. I kept going.

Surprisingly, when I finished the 2 rounds and checked my watch, I had managed to shave 1.5 minutes off my usual time for the same distance. That was inclusive of the walk breaks and water stops. Despite how I felt throughout, it turned out to be an OK run.

So it is true, those motivational books about running marathons. All it takes is the first step. And maybe some tissue paper next time.