Bloomin Arts Fair & 5k Race

This morning at the crack of dawn/oh-my-God-it's-early, I got up and headed on down to Bartow to participate in the 5K race held by the Polk Arts Alliance, which just happens to coincide with the Bloomin Arts Festival held by the city. Yay.  Three of my coworkers and I signed up to participate in the race and had a nice morning walk. My boss was there too and he's a runner, so he ran the race. Go Rob!!!

I finished in 58 min 30 seconds... others finished just a bit sooner with longer legs than me and mad dashes to the finish line.  Guess I did more talkin than walkin, but it was fun and I'll probably do it again next year.

L-R Front: Maddon, Ryne, me
L-R Back: Cindy, Rob, Mary Beth, Katie

Aaannnndd we're off! See the runners waaay off
in the distance?

A pretty dogwood in bloom along the 5k route

After the race, we went our separate ways, and I stayed to walk around the Bloomin Arts show. It was great...and still cool since it was still early morning. Double yay.  I saw some old cars, and lots and lots of great handmade items, and some fun vintage stuff too.

Of course, I couldn't come home empty-handed. I've been collecting pieces to create some vintage-inspired  jewelry. Here's what I found today.

Probably the only actual vintage pieces here are the one on
the left, starburst, and the bottome middle rhinestone piece.

A closer look at that rhinestone... how could anyone resist it?

I love these older rhinestone pieces. They sparkle so
beautifully in indirect light...so a candle lit dinner or
a night out at the opera would really make this shine.

And last but not least, I was totally drawn in by this near-antique; it's gotta be darn close if not truly antique.  A picture frame. It measures 2.5" x 2.5". It has a little latch hook to keep it closed. The interior on one side is faded dark red velvet with an embossed pattern and the picture itself is just a glass plate that has the image "ghost" on it...what actually brings out he image to see is the scrap of dark brown velvet behind the picture. So cool!! I had to do a little photoshop magic on this in oder to get the image to show up in the picture...the red is a bit more brownish/brick red than depicted here.

Thanks for joining me today! Now I think it's time for a nap.