Odds 'N' Ends

It's been bugging me that I haven't blogged all week.  It's just been one of those weeks.  I've been frantically trying to catch up from everything that fell by the wayside when the kids were on Fall Break.  Two and a half weeks is TOO long.  It feels just right if you are planning some kind of vacay, but when you are stuck at home the whole time, it feels like an eternity! 

I've got projects and things I want to do piling up... and right now we are dog sitting for my mom and dad.  Charlie is staying with us while they visit D.C.  It's going to be an eye-opening experience.  I'm not used to little dogs.  I like everything about them, except two things.  (So far, it's only two...)  First, they run FAST, and it's no fun chasing them around the house when they are determined not to be caught.  Second, they have ear piercing yappy barks.  Everytime this dog barks, I jump out of my skin.  But you can't deny how cute he is.  I mean, he is seriously soooo cute!

One of my projects is to make an I-spy quilt.  Click here to see the inspiration.  Sweet Connie used to be in my ward and still lives nearby, so I took the time to drop my fabrics off in person so I could see her gorgeous quilt in person.  Isn't it awesome?  I really love it framed in white, but I'm terrified to actually do that.  With my kids, I know it would be a dingy mess in no time.  I won't have the time to dedicate to this project for at least a couple weeks, so I have some time to mull it over and make a decision.  But today my quilt squares arrived in the mail - aren't they super cute?

Today I spent the day camped out on the couch, watching some old stuff back logged on the DVR and downloading new Photoshop Elements Actions from this website.  (Thanks, Lindsey, for the heads-up!)The thing I love the most about this blog is that she gives a tutorial with each action so you can learn how to do things without hours and hours of trial and error.  It seriously took me all day and I'm still not done yet.  I still haven't uploaded them into PSE.  Hopefully I will have time for that tomorrow.  I could never justify that much "couch time" normally, but I'm nursing a sore shoulder.  On Monday morning, I noticed some stiffness and soreness in my right shoulder.  I ignored it, continued to exercise and live life in my normal routine, and by Monday night, it was worse.  Tuesday it was even worse when I woke up.  I was careful with it all day yesterday and it's still not any better today.  You don't realize how important certain muscle groups are until you get hurt.  The worst part about it is that I don't even know what I did that caused this.  I have an appointment with a sports medicine doctor in the morning to find out how serious it is, and more importantly if it's going to ruin my plans to do a triathlon on November 6.  As I sit right now, there's no way on earth I can do the swim.  Hopefully he'll have good news for me tomorrow!  Please keep your fingers crossed... I've already shelled out the money for the tri and I want that t-shirt, bad.  And you don't get the shirt until you cross the finish line.  I will be really mad if I have to pull out.  Right now it's time for me to test the power of positive thinking, no?  I mean, yes?

Customization

Four and a half years ago, I made these valances. I still love them! Two years ago, I bought my square kitchen table. Finding tablecloths that fit a table that's 54" square has been a huge challenge.

Then I was at a friend's house, who also has a square table, saw her tablecloth and had inspiration. That was probably six months ago. I finally got all my scraps out from the valances and used another tablecloth I already had to make this!

I am going to milk the last week of fall decorations for all I can. I can't believe Thanksgiving is in one week!

Christmas Projects

I can finally blog about my Christmas projects... until today they were all top secret and I couldn't risk the wrong people reading about them on the blog! (By the way, check out those cute cardboard gift boxes I got (they stack inside each other for storage!) Aren't they cute???

At the beginning of December, we still didn't know what we were going to do for Eric's mom. She is fun to shop for, but still challenging to come up with something that hasn't been done year in and year out (like stationary.... or fancy lotion, etc...) I've heard about this website called Blurb where you can make your own book and have it printed. I decided to do a blog recap of the last year and have it printed for my mother in law. She's not terrible computer savvy and so she rarely gets to see what's on the blog! So, I got online to find out that printing her a high quality hard bound book was within my allotted budget! The only issue was time... I had just 3 days to get my book uploaded to the site to ensure Christmas delivery... talk about pressure!

Here are some screen shots of my favorite pages... I'm going to order a book for myself tonight! I'm sure my mom is going to want one too...

I also took on the monumental challenge of sewing christmas pajamas for my family. I thought I could really save a lot of money and they would be so cute if they all matched! Well, I didn't save a whole ton of money, but they did turn out good! I can thank Sheri for helping me to realize that I can pump out a few pj bottoms in an evening (YW camp jammies)! My serger was invaluable on this project! Then I went to Target and got matching tee's for under $5 a piece!

After our bike ride around the neighborhood on Christmas Eve, dad made hot chocolate for everyone and we got ready for bed. It was a very relaxing Christmas Eve night... the best we've had in a long time!

This was the only gift I got to open that I didn't already know what was inside... (pathetic, eh?) But what a suprise! My mother in law has been busy with Christmas projects too... she committed to make this wall hanging for me a couple years ago and to be honest, I'd completely forgot about it! She took some scrapfabric from my curtains and then her and I picked out some calico prints to go with it. I absolutely LOVE it! I'm already trying to decide where it's going to go and how I'm going to hang it up... I'm thinking a wrought iron bar... what do you think? If not iron, I might go with a square dowel (if I can find any) stained to match my mission furniture. It will be fun to get this up on the wall!

I love this picture... it's just so darn cute!

Merry Christmas!!!

Design ReMix

Have you ever seen this show on HGTV? I don't have time to watch it much, but I've seen it once or twice over the last year or so... I love when they don't spend much money and they remake a room using things you already have in your house. Sometimes, it's just about fresh paint and rearranging the furniture that will transform a room.

I love to rearrange furniture. Nothing motivates me to really deep clean my house more than a good rearrange of the furniture. I guess I just get tired of looking at the same old arrangement. Friday I wanted to clean my "scrapbooking" desk off so I could start working on my Maui trip Friday night while Eric and Taylor were on a campout. While I was cleaning out the drawers and piles of junk stacked on the floor all around my desk, I stumbled across some fabric I'd bought at Walmart a year ago for $2 a yard. It's a cute fall colored gingham check and I bought 5 yards of it thinking that someday I'd find a use for it.

Well, in just a few minutes time, I'd changed directions completely. I finished cleaning out my desk and then went digging for more fabric left over from other projects that would match my check fabric. I found some leftovers from curtains I made in my Dublin house and started planning. For a long time, I've been wanting to make valances for the 3 windows in my loft and redo the fabric coverings on the two desks up there. I had just enough check and extra fabric to pull this off! I started cutting and sewing Friday afternoon and kept at it long into the night. By midnight, I was so tired I was making stupid sewing mistakes, so I decided to quit and go to bed. Saturday I got up and kept working and late last night (midnight again) I finished. I just need to mount the valances over the windows. I moved my desk so it no longer faces the wall and brought up our old DVD racks from the game room downstairs for extra storage. I'm really happy with how it looks and now my desk faces the computer screen, so I can pop in a DVD and watch a movie while I work!

This is the computer desk "before" picture... half the fabric covering was gone and the desk was a disaster.

Computer desk "after" shot... much better!I didn't think to take a before shot of my desk, but it was positioned against the wall in the background under the photos and had different fabric covering the drawers... everything about it was falling apart! And the piles of "stuff" everywhere had gotten out of control!View of the loft when you first come up the stairsHere's one of the 3 valances I made... obviously it will look much better over a window! Total cost for this project $20.04. I needed a 1x4, "L" brackets and screws. Can't wait to hang them up tomorrow.Now if I could just dress up the sewing table in my bedroom.... sigh....
I must put in a good word for my serger. If you do any kind of sewing, I highly recommend one of these! It's so awesome to run down a seam in lightning speed and have the seam sewn, finished and cut. You just can't beat the efficiency, especially when you are working with fabrics that frey heavily. And I only really know how to do one thing with it... imagine the possibilities when I can learn more than one technique!

Lofty Ambitions

I blame the designers on Project Runway for my current predicament. Watching that show over the last 2 months has given me the itch to do some sewing... My favorite designers Korto and Leanne make it look so darn easy and even FUN! This project has been anything but fun....

I've spent two whole days sewing Megan's dress and this is all I have to show for my efforts:
Yes, it's coming along, but I spent wasted 4 hours on Monday sewing the bodice and back pieces in all wrong. It wasn't until I put it on Megan Monday evening that I realized my mistake. So, I had to pick it all apart and start over again on Tuesday morning.... I still need to do the back closure, hem the sleeves and bottom and hand stitch some decorative trim all over it...

I haven't even started on the boys' tunics yet. I'm praying that they go smoothly and I won't do anything really stupid because I don't have any more time for costly mistakes!


On the exercise front, I do have better news. I've started working on "brick training" this week. (Brick Training is when you train for two events back to back as you would do them in the race.) Monday, I rode the bike for 45 minutes and then got on the treadmill. I managed to squeak out 2 miles before my knees screamed, "enough!" and Tuesday, I swam for 20 minutes and then got on the bike and rode for 30 minutes. The swim to bike transition isn't hard at all... maybe it's because you have a buffer zone in there where you spend time putting on your shoes. The bike to run transition is KILLER... so that will be my main focus over the next week. Today is my "off" day for training, so I'm going to spend 30 minutes with my Yoga DVD and then hit the sewing machine again.