Whitniffic Whatnots

When I grow up, I want to be an artist. At least I'm 98% sure I do... sometimes it's so hard for me to even imagine owning a studio and selling work for a living. I have a full-time job, and by the time I get home, get my run in and eat dinner, I don't feel like doing anything other than sitting on my butt and watching TV. And then I read the blog of photographer Kirsty Mitchell . How incredibly inspiring! She and I are alike in many ways, and reading about her transition from full-time fashion designer working the grind in the city to full-time artist working her own crazy hours and building her dreams really inspired me to get working on my own portfolio. Maybe some day I'll be able to grow some guts and venture out into the art world too. Kirsty's elaborate costumes, incredible props and meticulous installations are so detailed, I get sucked into each and every photo as my eyes try to take in every last bit of hand-crafted beauty. See what I mean? Wow... not...

When I get into something... I tend to go all out. Anything worth doing at all is worth doing 100%, right? Recently, I've applied this philosophy to my newest hobby of running. I never, ever, EVER thought I'd consider myself a runner. I always hated running, and usually lived by the "If I'm running, you'd better run too because something is chasing me" rule. I remember in middle school when they made us run the mile in gym class... pretty sure I cheated and only did 3 laps instead of 4. And that's probably what saved me from the embarrassment of puking my guts out afterwards. But I've really impressed myself lately! The other night I ran a little over 7 miles, which is my longest run to date. I'm actually training for a half marathon in September (what's WRONG with me?!?!). I don't really run fast- my PR for a 5K is 29:56, and 1:07:06 for a 10K, but I like to think that's amazing progress since I started running in April! I keep a...

We went camping for the first time in two years a couple weekends ago. Well... I guess I can't really call it "camping". The weather forecast called for rain (which it did- a lot) so we decided to leave the tent at home and rent a cute little cabin instead. It turned out to be a great idea. Our cabin was equipped with two bunk beds with nice soft mattresses; we supplied our own pillows, sheets and blankets. We also had a little fridge that really came in handy and a microwave which we never even plugged in. Aside from having a roof over our heads and a modern way to keep our food cold, it was practically camping. All of our meals were cooked on the campfire (once we finally got the logs dry enough to light), and it was our first attempt at vegetarian camp cooking. Everything was amazing! We had brought along some tofu dogs (the jumbo sized ones) that cooked up really nicely and tasted just like real hot dogs- maybe even better! We also brought along Qrunch green ch...