Arts and crafts for runners

Boyfriend has been bugging me, probably since THIS post, about putting my medals somewhere they can be better displayed instead of on a giant hook next to my desk. I really like them there because I can look at them as I write, but he has a point, and for a while I have been just waiting for some genius idea to smack me in the face. And then it did.

Ok so I had some inspiration from Danica when she posted about her new room - but I had a little something bigger in mind. When I moved into my apartment after college, I had this screen print project I was in love with (although yes it is a little disturbing - but it was one of my favorite projects). It is a series of images of a young girl hugging her knees, printed on flattened fast food containers. From left to right the girl gets thinner and thinner as the ink gets lighter and lighter finally disappearing into nothing. It said a lot about my relationship with food at the time (something I have long grown out of) and the expectations of society especially in my field of fashion. But I digress. The awesome thing about this was the frame I had custom ordered to fit it all in. It is ridiculously long and skinny which is perfect to showcase all my medals in!

My original artwork in the custom made frame (yes some of the pieces should be straight but some started falling down)

So on Saturday afternoon, after my long run and after cleaning my apartment I decided I had some time I might as well tackle this project before it got away from me. I did this knowing that once I sealed everything up in the frame, the likely hood that I would take it apart to add more medals was zero. In another few years I guess I'll just have to start another frame.

There was no real plan. I opened up my box of race stuff and scattered my bibs all over until they looked good. The funny thing about my race bibs is almost all of them still have the pins on them. I never re-use pins. I can't say this is wasteful because I use so many safety pins every day at work they will probably end up making their way to the office one of these days. But I had to sit there tediously removing all the safety pins from every single bib! I forget how many races I've run in the past few years, from 5ks to 5milers, to 10 milers and beyond.

Medals scattered about

laying everything out - finally getting confident this is going to work!

Finished result!

My favorite part of this project was it really gave me the inspiration and motivation I needed for my last few weeks of training. Taking out my box of runing mementos and looking at all my medals I relived a lot of race moments and remembered all the pride and accomplishment I felt after crossing (almost) every finish line. It was exactly what I needed and now I am totally ready for the next four weeks, race day, and beyond. Bring it on Philly!

xx Sara