This is what I’ve always said. I’ve always thought that maybe I just wasn’t built for running. I can walk for days but running …two steps and I’m done. A challenge has been posted at my favorite forum to try a Couch to 5k program so, in spite of the 100 degree in the shade weather we are having, I am going to give it a shot starting next week, August 2nd.
What prompts this you say? Well maybe its time to stop making baby weight excuses or maybe is because vacation eating was WAY too good this year (I’ve got a new “this is not health food” post forthcoming)
So why delay a week? Well first of all thats when the blog challenge starts and second Scott is gone for work part of this week
I will be following this program from CoolRunning.com with podcasts for my ipod. Since we are so close to the park
AMAZING! We celebrated Katie’s first birthday along with her little cousin-in-law and birthday buddy little miss Ry. We rented a room at the local recreation center which was a fantastic idea. The theme was butterflies. I had a cake made instead of making my own this year but made cupcake in case anyone needed a chocolate option. Refreshments were simple, just chips and punch in addition to the cake but everyone seemed to have a good time.
It was in that dreaded 2pm time slot so the birthday girl arrived still sleeping.
This little cake just for Katie was used the day before for her birthday portraits but she was so dainty with it that I just propped a pinwheel against the side to hide the smushed spot.
I had planned to make more of the decorations but decided to save my energy for other things. I did make the crown using this tutorial.
And of course a hand made birthday dress. I was sure I had the Oliver + S bubble dress pattern so I waited until the last minute to start putting it together. Well in all of my foresight I bought the 2T and up pattern last year rather than the NB-24 month pattern. I didn’t feel like attempting to size down either so I started hunting through my patterns and came across the issue of Stitch Magazine I had just purchased which happened to include an O+S shirt pattern that went as small as 18 mos. It would do just fine for a almost dress length top with a tutu skirt.
A really neat thing about this pattern is that these ruffles are cut on the bias and are really intended to be left raw making this extremely fast and easy to put together. I, however, have this small ric rac obsession so I used my edge stitcher attachement and Featherweight to add a ric rac trim. It made a sort of picot effect on the edge.
And yeah … about that tutu skirt… well after pulling out the nylon chiffon heap AGAIN and getting a little spinny in the head looking at it I went to Target.
And coming sooner or later (probably later) some back-blogging. I have all sorts of pics to accompany currently imaginary posts.
So this is an effort to post here more regularly. Facebook makes for a lazy blogger.
Anyway, we moved back around Christmas and the temporary occupants of this property just before us were, lets just say, less than fantastic people. Besides smoking in the house making one bedroom unlivable for months they left this eyesore in the yard.
We discovered it had belonged to one of the occupants grandmother or something like that, and that she was pretty sad that it had been left out for ruin. There was nothing I could do for it to make it a functional rocker again and I was contemplating leaving it by the curb. But then I started my garden project and thought that it might still be useful for something.
I have a pretty cool husband. I mentioned I might like some tools of my own and he came home with these.
I decided against the suggestion of my brother in law who suggested I make short work of it with a sawsall. I went for the more difficult ahem dignified route and took the rusted screws out.
This took much longer than I thought it would
Now the rockers will be a trellis for cucumbers on the right and peas on the left.
I’ve stolen borrowed the twirling thingamijig there from Alyssa to deter birds. Now I need to make a trip to the Habitat for Humanity Resale shop to see if I can find something interesting for the tomatoes to climb on. With such cool trellises for the peas and cucumber we can’t have boring old tomato cages.
oh yeah and we can’t have a post without a cute baby so..
I always said I’d take up quilting when I retired. Well chalk it up to too much time spent browsing great and inspiring projects online. I’ve got a few projects in the works now. I’ll be posting them as I complete them.
Don’t you need a new project too? Get some inspiration by checking out the blogs of some great fabric designers. Lila Tueller is having a fabric giveaway of her latest line. Check it out and enter! Lila Tueller Designs Blog
I live in a neighborhood that is just country enough for people to feel comfortable ditching their animals here.
So this story starts back in maybe October 2008, when I came home to discover a deceased kitten on my sidewalk. After freaking TOTALLY out for several minutes I discovered that I…well my car, in fact, was the cause of the kitten’s demise. That day had seriously sucked already and Scott was in Florida on business. So my preggo self ended up burying a kitten in the back yard trying to prevent Alyssa from figuring out what I was doing.
Apparently, someone had dumped a lovely calico who had taken up residence with a rather stupid looking (his eyes are too close together) gray cat under my house and they produced 2 kittens. I’ve spent the last several months trying to catch the remaining kitten. The mama calico I only even laid eyes on twice and it has been quite a while. Papa cat, in his defense, stayed around for some time but has been notably absent lately. Other visitors to the porch include an orange cat as well as a giant fluffy black cat that Scott and I refer to basement cat. We already own one cat, a stray we took in when we moved in, who is a fixed indoor cat and at times seems like one cat too many already. Anyway, survivor kitty is just friendly enough to come up and speak but not let us pet or catch her. For the past several weeks I’d seen less of her and she was looking pretty bad …then I realized… the poor thing has had kittens! She is just a kitten herself, not even a year old! I started keeping my eyes out for kittens.
So today I was in the yard in a short lived attempt to play in the sprinkler with Alyssa. It was too hot and she was scared of the sprinkler. I saw the big orange cat flouncing across the yard and noticed he started acting weird when he reached the steps. I looked past him and there they were 3 kittens under the front steps. In an attempt to break the cycle I scooped them into a box and called Animal Control who will pick up stray cats if you have caught them. While waiting for the officer I found a 4th kitten under the lattice of the porch and I hope that is all. Mama porch cat appeared at the same time the officer did, so I put some food down so he could snag her too. Despite the hook she kept coming to the food so he managed to catch her.
So please spay and neuter your pets folks and don’t dump them in my neighborhood anymore…plskthnks!
A basket cover!! I didn’t use a pattern, just traced the bottom on some plastic and measured for the rest. I probably could have used on though becuase the inside it a bit wonky. Some playsilk easter grass fixed it right up though! I was pretty proud of myself for pulling my embroidery attachment out for th first time since Christmas! Alyssa carried it around for the rest of the week calling it her “dolly baseck”
It held the haul quite nicely
We were very serious about Easter morning.
Egg hunting with the cousins
After I pulled that fabric out I remembered how much I liked it! So I stared at it for a week and decided it was time try the Round Neck Top/Dress from That Darn Kat. It’s a little big on the skinny kid but she’ll be able to wear it for quite a while. I was unsure of how these fabrics would look together, even though they are from the same series (something Alexander Henry but I don’t remember what). Now that it is all together I just love it! We are calling it “The Zoo Dress” so I guess now we need to go to the zoo!
I love this garden and can’t believe how long it had been since my last trip there. It is a wonderful setting for photographs. My sister and I had our wedding portraits taken here and many shots taken for my photography classes in college were done here. Some of these are by me and some by my sister.
I didn’t make the babe’s dress for this one. It’s Gymboree and to be honest I didn’t like it at all when I pulled it out of the box. It grew on me until I decided to actually put it on her and I think it turned out very cute. It is by wild chance that she let me put a bow in her hair. Most days she won’t even let me brush it!
The little pond is full of silvery little fish and a few gigantic …well…. monster somethings fish. Maybe they are some kind of carp. I tried to get a picture but they flashed away too quickly. Although who really wants to look at carp? How about this instead.
Sometimes I get used to looking at her and forget how tiny she is
Something very Alice in Wonderland about this I think
Kissin’ baby sister
I hate to just shove this here at the bottom but if you need a comfy way to carry your baby or toddler this is a mei tai made by Silly Goose Baby. It is so very comfortable even being so pregnant. This one was made as a custom project from Alexander Henry’s Tillbrook Sprites line of fabric.
This is how it goes with South Carolina weather. It can be a bit undecided this time of year. We had some summer last week with a touch of winter over the weekend and the first part of this week. I think it might be spring today. It reminds me of an animated movie I watched when I was little where the bird said “Autumn!!” and suddenly the season changed.
So with the momentary onset of summer I decided that it was time to break out the pansies and dirt and a little bit of summer sewing.
First of all the dirt
And now the heat has melted us
But we have flower boxes!
This is a project that I started last year. I finally talked my serger into working properly so I could finish it. YAY for rolled hems!!!
SWING!!!! If someone would stand and push her in the swing 24/7 I think she’d stay there.
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