Tips for Trekkers

 

We have been planning on going on the trek for about 6 months, we (my husband and I) were called to be a Ma and a Pa.  We do this with the youth of our church and we have done it every 4 years for the last 12 years. This is actually our 6th trek so I thought I probably have enough experience to give some of you that are thinking about going on a long hike or trek , some tips. I have very sensitive feet and I usually end up with blisters.  On these treks, we travel about 35 miles in 3-4 days, not just hiking but pushing and pulling a handcart. So you can imagine what my feet look like at the end of the 4th day.  This year my goal was not to get any blisters and I decided that it must be the shoes that were causing the blisters.  I have worn smart wool socks with liners for most of the treks, and they help a lot but I have blisters at the end.  I went through about 6 pairs of shoes this year and found the pair that was perfect for my feet. The La Sportiva brand was great and they are very comfortable.  I have walked or ran about 15-20 miles a week to get my feet ready.

 

My brother in law runs a lot of marathons and when I say a lot that means, 50 in the last 6 years.  I went to him for advice for blister prevention and he told me about these Compeed blister patches that you put on your foot where you are most susceptible to blisters.  The picture above is at the end of the trek with the blister patch still in place, if you don't get your feet too wet they will stay on for 2-3 days.

 

I had 3 of the patches with me and on the 2nd day we went through a river crossing and I lost the 2 that I had on the bottom of my foot in the river.  The next day I used the last patch on my left foot and a blistapatch on the right foot.  The picture above is of my right foot that did not have the Compeed patch on, yep, there is the blister starting.  I did have some moleskin and tape and I used that for the remainder of the trek on this foot, and it didn't get any bigger than this.

 

This is a picture of 4 years ago when I had 2 of these on each foot, yes it was painful.  So, I feel I did accomplish my goal of no blisters, and if I would have had some more Compeed blister patches I would have totally succeeded.  ( I am not making an advertisement for Compeed but they did work!)

 

Here we are near the beginning of our trek, the girls were in the front and the boys were pushing.

 

Going down hills you need someone to help put on the brakes. We carried our belongings in a 5 gallon bucket and used these to sit on as well.  I needed to get a bucket with a screw on lid though because mine was always so hard to get the lid off.

 

Here is the day we were going through the river.

 

We did take off our shoes and socks, it is not pleasant to walk in wet shoes.  Dry off your feet well before putting them back on.  This was the day that I lost the blister patches in the river.

 

Your clothes got a little wet, but in the wind and the heat they dried quickly.

 

We made it to the other side.

 

This was the day that the women pulled up a long hill, it definitely made us appreciate the men who were helping us while on the trek.

 

We were a little out of breath but all of that hill climbing before the trek, definitely paid off.

 

On  the last day we were able to experience what the  handcart pioneers had to eat.  In the history of the Willey Martin handcart company, they left late in the season and had to cross the plains with not a lot of food.  Near the end they got to the point that their rations for the day was just 4 ounces of flour. Our lunches for that day consisted of just 4 ounces of flour.  With a little water, you can make kind of a gruel, but by the 5th or 6th bite it was hard to stomach down.   We did have plenty of water, it is so important that you drink, drink, drink!

 

We came to a bog and it was pretty muddy, hubby decided to leave on his socks but he did have a clean pair to change into. Oh, the joys of "oxi clean" when we got home and washed this pair.

 

One last tip, make sure you have a very high SPF for your lips.  I had some chap stick with some in it but it wasn't strong enough, by the end I felt like I had bot-ox lip fillers, my bottom lip was huge and is still quite painful.  Of course wear long sleeves and a hat for the ultimate SPF coverage.  My face didn't get much sun but my lips needed some more coverage.  Hope this helps someone going on a hike or trek this summer.

It was so much more enjoyable when I didn't have painful blisters to worry about.

Happy Trekking!

more flip flops!

 

I had some visitors this last week and one of their most favorite activities was to make something!

We made pictures with glitter, monster boxes, and things to go in their monster box.  (  should have taken a picture, they were so very cute!)
Then we decided to make some flip flops.  I had some flip flops that I picked up at Michael 's and with a little felt and some old earrings we came up with these!

 

We cut out some purple and pink flowers and we them used some wire cutters to cut off the little hoop on the earring.  We used some E 6000 glue and glued them all together and we had some easy, cute flip flops!

It's Summer!

 

I made these baby flip flops for a new little one and decided to make a headband to match.

Once you start making these cute little sandals it is hard to stop!

 

They are quick to make up and who can resist little baby feet?  I found these cute little sparkly stones to go in the center of the flower.

 

and then decided that wouldn't it be fun to have a headband to match.  I don't know what it is about making miniature shoes, sandals and etc, but I have always loved little baby feet and shoes. What is it that makes them so cute?  I think it is the miniature part of them.  Can you tell I am tired? I think I am rambling but I thought I should show you these cute little things before I went to bed.

 

Can't wait to make some more, and I got some inspiration today to make some cute little hats, I'm not sure I am going to be able to fall asleep with these ideas roaming through my head!

 

If you haven't tried crocheting you should try, it is just fascinating to see what you can create from a piece of string!

What's on my door this week?

 

Well, I decided since it was Memorial Day this weekend that I better start thinking of something patriotic to put on my door. Memorial Day is the day that we officially start our summer!  It doesn't seem very summery today though because the weather has been very wet and the temperature was a whopping 49 degrees today! This kind of weather makes me want summer even more!

 

On to the wreath, I started out with a Styrofoam wreath that I had stashed up in my hobby room and I then cut some strips of, well, it really isn't burlap because it is soft and acts more like Aida cloth, anyway it fringes really well.  After I cut up the strips I fringed the edges by pulling out the threads on the out side.

 

I found these very cute pinwheels at Shopko, they are made out of metal and had these little metal stakes that I guess you could use in planted pot or something.  I could have made them out of paper but because I wanted the wreath on my outside door, I thought the metal would be perfect and besides they were 60% off!

 

I loved the vintage look they had and the glitter just made them say ,WOW!

 

They even had this little firecracker, on this one you can see the little metal stake and I just used hot glue and stuck them into the Styrofoam wreath. When I got finished I cut out some squares of the same cloth and fringed the edges and bunched them together to make some flowers between the pinwheels.  Then I used some more hot glue and added some red buttons of various sizes.

 

I think it says, "Come one in , your welcome, and this family is patriotic!

On this Memorial Day weekend I am remembering those who have passed on before me and I am so thankful for those who have lost their lives to protect our country. Yes, America is truly great!

Hope your day is great remembering all those that you love.

What do you have on your front door?

 

It is still spring isn't it? Well, maybe not because memorial day is kind of the official day of kicking off the summer season.  I enjoy spring so much but it seems it doesn't last very long.  I have had this wreath up since March and I still have it on my front door so I thought I would share how I made it.

 

I started with a grapevine wreath and added some greenery that I had stashed away.  I think both of the greens that I used were actually garlands, and I just cut them apart and attached to the grapevine wreath with hot glue. I then had some hops flowers that I added. (those are the white ones you see.)

 

I then had some eggs that I had spray painted a cream color and then speckled them with a dark brown, ( I use a paint brush with brown paint on it and then flick the brush through my fingers, it is kind of messy but I like the end results.)

 

I like the bright greens because it really makes the whole thing pop!

 

It is probably time to start on something for summer but I thought I better share before I take it down.

Now on to SUMMER!

another room from the flood

 

When the flood came through my home this was one of the rooms that was injured the most.  This bedroom had the bed beneath the window and because the flood came through the windows the mattress acted as a sponge and then when that was full it overflowed onto the carpet.  There was a little water damage to the drywall beneath the window and we had to patch that a bit.  Pretty much this room was recreated from head to toe!  I started with a blank slate and this is what I ended up with!

  

We redid the floors with a wood laminate, painted the walls, furniture and bought a new bed.

The bookcase used to be black and so did the small hutch under the mirror.

 

I moved one of the recliners in this room and painted the star a cream color.

 

Here is the bed!  I decided on one that had some shelves in the top because there is not a lot of room for night stands when the bed is facing this way.

 

I made some new pillows. The sleep and dream pillows were actually some old pillows that I had and I took them apart and used this canvas which was the back of the old pillow.  I used a brown sharpie pen and just started writing all I could think about sleeping and dreaming onto the pillow..  I then embroidered sleep and dream over the top.  The small pillow is a Vera Wang knock off and is made by just sewing little circles to one end of the pillow.

 

I saw the book idea at Restoration Hardware and loved it.  Do your remember that I got rid of a bunch of books from my library?  Well, I could have used them for this project!  These are just some paperback novels that I ripped the covers off and tied a piece of twine around them.(WARNING) Don't do this to books that you want to keep because it kind of ruins the book, but it looks cool for unwanted books!

 

Here is a close up of the pillows.

 

See, just round circles sewn onto the pillow.

 

I had some old music that I framed to put above the bed.

 

The mirror is an old dresser mirror painted and distressed. 

 

Here is a better view of the wood floors, I am loving having them in my basement!

 

I'm loving the results!

 

The books on this table were wrapped in craft paper, so if you don't want to ruin your books just wrap them in any paper and tie them up with some twine.

 

We are using the book case for our DVD library.

 

It has been a long process getting my basement back to working order but I am loving the results!