Half Marathon

I recently completed the Savannah Rock & Roll Half Marathon.  It was SO MUCH FUN!  I started training in August with a group of friends here on the island.  To fit our runs into our busy "mom" schedules we ran at 5am on Tuesdays and Thursdays (and met at MY house--so no getting out of it!).  We did our long runs on Sundays at 6am.  The training paid off because I enjoyed every minute of the race and felt great when we finished.  We really savored every step, too, high fiving the wonderful people of Savannah who came out to support the race, getting on stage with one of the bands, and eating a Krispy Kreme en route (thanks to that little boy handing out free donuts--I was HUNGRY!).

How does this post fit into my "crafty" blog?  We embellished some Target shirts with the logo "SSI Moms Rock & Run" and made matching do-rags out of black knit.  Thank goodness we had those matching outfits--the streets were crowded and it was a good way to keep a visual on my running partners.

Crossing the finish line was such a great moment!

What an inspiring group of women.  We had a marathon pro (aka our fun-loving leader), a breast cancer survivor and a recent widow in our group.  It was the first half marathon for four of us.  We took a week off after the race, but missed our early morning chats, so plan to continue the group runs on a more laid-back schedule.  We're already planning to do some shorter 5K and 10K local runs, but I will definitely do another half again, too.

Making Play Dough

Little Man and I finally tried making play dough.  It was so easy and fun, we should have done this a long time ago!  We did a stove top method because I've read that it will last longer.  When it was cool enough to knead, I let him go at it.  His very favorite part of the process was shaking glitter onto the dough and kneading it in.  He sat at the table for over an hour and did not want to stop when it was time to get C at school.

It was so much fun we made a pink batch when C got home from school.  She has always loved glitter but I don't love the mess.  Glitter on play dough is fantastic because it doesn't fly all over the place.

We used tools from the kitchen and some plastic scissors that don't cut paper, but are great for play dough and they played for another hour.

This was so much fun we are going to do it again at the toddler play group in a few weeks.

Paper Dolls

I mentioned before how, when I've really got things together, I'll have some after school projects already set up for C.  Here's one that has often been requested, mostly by her Thursday play date pal, so we've had lots of fun with it.  The project was posted on This Mama Makes Stuff.  I've tried using fabric scraps as she described but found that for four-year olds, it's best to use paper.  They especially like it if I've pre-cut some dresses, shorts, etc but I don't always do that.

Here's a hodge podge of decorating bits ready to go.

And some finished dolls.

C's friend loves these so much that for her recent birthday I purchased a small three drawer container from Target and filled it with pre-cut dolls, clothes, new markers, scissors, glue, googly eyes, etc.  It was one of the last birthday gifts opened at the party, and I was afraid she'd not be sure what it was and just toss it aside.  You know how the gift giver--C--waits so long to see the birthday girl's reaction and I was afraid after the plethora of Barbies and Little Petshop that perhaps I'd made a bad choice, but the birthday girl was so excited.

Vegetarian Eating

I don't like to cook meat. We're not vegetarian, but if I'm in charge of the meal (as is the case most weeknights), it's not likely going to include meat.  Also, if I'm in charge of the meal, I'm going to make enough for more than one night.  These burritos are a perfect fit.  My sister-in-law gave me the recipe years ago, and I still use the basic idea.  I don't bother measuring quantities, rather just cut up one each of every vegetable I'd like to include, add LOTS of cumin (the kids enjoy it) and two cans of beans.  I was so inspired by all of the beautiful colors that I took a photo during the cooking process.

This batch contains most of a butternut squash, three small zucchinis, one onion, lots of garlic and one each of red, yellow and green bell peppers.  C helps assemble (don't forget fresh cilantro--my favorite part!) and we always have enough left to wrap individually in foil and place in the freezer for baking on another day.  The kids truly love these and I love that they are a meal all in one.  Yummy!

We love glue!

One of the kids' favorite activities is gluing.  I stocked up when school supplies were on sale, and Little Man has definitely made a dent in the stash.  Here's an example of his work:

Truthfully, many of his projects get thrown away because the giant mound of glue makes the paper quite soggy (I've since learned to use cardboard whenever possible).

 C, on the other hand, is more methodical.  Googly eyes always add to the fun.

One day, I cut paper into several small shapes and we made collages.  I even made two (top left and bottom right).  I like how C stacked the triangles from largest to smallest so made a flower in a similar manner.

Meanwhile, S practiced his cutting skills and made a million bits of paper.  Sorry, no photo to share.  He loves scissors, though.  It took quite awhile for him to learn how to use them (6 months???) but now he is so good that the other day he cut his hair. I can't even say that he was stealth about it--I was sitting right next to him!  I leaned down to pick up paper from the floor, sat back up and he had a giant pile of white hair on his shoulder.  As one of my mom friends said (after her daughter and C both went through similar hair cutting episodes last winter) "I guess you just aren't living life without a messed up hair cut". I know I've had a few at the hands of my sister! :)

Walking to School

Since I'm not computer savvy, all I have is a link, but check out this photo from Walk to School Day.

I can see the future

My little man and his closest cousin are a year apart.  She loves giving him kisses and hugs and he loves receiving them.  I am so looking forward to watching their friendship develop.  Their personalities seems to be a perfect yin and yang.  I could watch them for hours.  What are they thinking right here?

Q-Tip Pointillism

My kids love doing art and craft projects.  I've found that if I have a few projects ready to go, next time they say "let's paint" I can say "OK!" rather than "in a few minutes".  In fact, I found a nice little list here and now have it taped to the inside of my kitchen cabinet.  The list is also a great place for me to write down lots of other "quickie" projects.  I hope to post some of those eventually...

Anyway, here's the results of Q-tip pointillism.  I LOVE pointillism and always think of my high school art teacher saying "George Seurat invented the dot" and have now taught my kids this little tidbit of art history.    (I do know the proper French pronunciation, but saying "Sir-Ott" rhymes so much better with "dot".)

C got the idea with the flower and had fun doing some of her own techniques as well.

S didn't quite grasp the concept of pointillism (hey, they are kids!), but he LOVED making lines and completed several paintings, proudly saying "ee" (his pronunciation of "See") then asking for it to be hung on the art wire.

Quiet Book

I've contemplated making a "quiet"or "busy" book for the kids for ages, but it seemed like so much work.  Well, less than one week before our big road trip to Ohio, I decided to make one anyway.  Nothing like a deadline to get me motivated!  No matter that there is no fabric shop around here, I was determined to use what I had to make it work.  Oh, did I mention that I was also completing my niece's birthday outfit at the same time?

I only managed to eek out seven pages for the trip, and I'll share a few here.  Most of my inspiration was from the blog How to Make a Quiet Book.  Genius!  Homemade by Jill also had a really inspiring book, from which I used her barn and puppet templates and very cute mailbox.  There are lots more blog posts out there and it can consume a person looking at all of them.  To make myself stay focused, I looked at what I had on hand and made a list of the pages I knew I could complete before the trip.  I made another list of pages for my "second round" (probably two nights before our next road trip!) and a third list for "someday" pages.

This page was S's favorite (and the easiest to make).  He loved mixing up the colors and saying "no, no, yes" and practicing "red means stop, green means go".

This was another favorite, for both kids.  C obviously has it mastered, but she loved joking around and mixing up the numbers.  I eventually will add another page for 5-10 and yet another page to practice math problems.  

These pages were fun for me, but the kids weren't too interested in dressing her up.  I thought S would like to practice the zipper, but I guess that was old news to him.  I'm glad I didn't bother making a "boy" figure to dress as well.

You can see that I ran out of grommets so just make marker points of where to add them eventually.  I used a binder ring to hold all the pages together then easily take apart to give the kids separate pages to work on.

This kind of project would be great to do with friends, dividing up the work of each page then swapping finished pieces.  It was also a nice project that I could kind of tote around, cutting out little pieces of felt as I had time.

On another note, I took these pages outside to photograph, and it was so humid my camera lens kept fogging up.  Crazy!!!

Doodling

C loves drawing and coloring, something I also loved as a child.  I recently introduced her to the concept of "doodling".  Here's an example of a doodle around some names.

Recently, Daddy bought C a new book, Drawing, Doodling and Colouring and we've been having lots of fun with it.  Seriously, I want my own copy!  The Usborne website has free printable pages as well, here.  I also read that Costco will be selling some doodling books, too.  I like these books because it helps provide a little spark to her imagination, such as drawing monsters.

Or adding facial features (you can see I like to get in on the fun, too!).

One of my favorites:

Incidentally, I remember reading an article that sited some research that the most innovative scientists, whom people generally consider to be very analytical, are actually quite creative.  Their creativity helps them solve problems in ways never considered.  The article went on to describe ways to encourage this creative problem solving in children, and doodling was one such suggestion.  Personally, I just like sitting next to C and sharing markers while we complete pages from her book. :)

Happy 1st Birthday!

My sweet niece turned one last friday and C and I were happy to help her celebrate. What a blow-out 1st birthday party she had!  My sister and her hubby are excellent party-throwers, and the cuteness of the birthday girl was the icing on the cake! (Ha ha, some birthday humor.)

Just look at this face!

I made her crown my usual way with velcro for the "1"so that we can make her a special "2" for next year.

I must say she totally rocked the ruffled skirt and birthday shirt I made for her...

Check out this super-cute handmade tutu!  This thing was ADORABLE!!!

My sister also made some really cute flower vases and Happy Birthday bunting.  I regret not taking photos--such fun decorations!

OK, I think I've used the word "cute" enough already!  Happy Birthday, W!  We love you and are so happy to be only 5 hours away!!!

Beach Bag

As the weather grew hotter in April and May, we spent a lot of time at the beach. Seriously, I feel like I'm living a childhood dream. Will my kids take it for granted?  I hope not.

I love the beach for lots of reasons--the water, sunshine and sandcastles to start. It's also a great place to tire out the kids an ensure an afternoon nap.  Rarely do I also get to partake in that nap, because all the sand requires major post-beach cleanup.  One solution--a beach bag that lets the sand sift out.  I used screening leftover from hubby enclosing the deck and ribbon that I bought for a previous project.  Here's the mesh bag tutorial from Martha Stewart.

Photography courtesy of four-year old C, who also insisted on a photo of her "ballet shoes".

C's not taking ballet, these are just some sparkly shoes I bought on Target clearance.  That's her swimsuit peaking out.  She's become quite a fish already and I think we've found a perfect outlet for her energy.  We all knew she had the stamina, but I am seriously surprised by how quickly she's caught on considering she hadn't previously spent any significant amount of time in the pool.  I also owe a lot of credit to her amazing swim coach--another mom on the island who has graciously been teaching a few of the kids to swim.

P.S. Do you recognize my skirt?  I never fixed all that wonky sewing.  I figure who is really going to inspect the stitches that closely?  As long as the skirt stays on, I'm wearing it.  I did get a new sewing machine, though, and am loving it!

No Knead Bread

My sister-in-law has inspired me to start making homemade bread.  Here's my first attempt.

It was yummy.  Nice crunchy crust and a soft center, although mine could have used five more minutes in the oven.  I found the recipe here on the Steamy Kitchen blog.  I figured if a four-year-old can do it, I should certainly try.

Variations to the recipe can be found here.  I'm looking forward to trying the olive parmesan.

Happy Birthday!

Our little man has turned TWO!  He had a wonderful birthday.  We went to the beach, ate spaghetti and meatballs, and Grandma was here to help celebrate.  S looooved being sang to and blowing out the candles on his Elmo cake.  He kept saying "More, more!" so of course we gave in and did it again and again.  No actual pictures of him blowing out candles (you know I like to keep the kids' faces private), but here's Elmo!

I made a number "2" for the birthday boy's crown.

It's not my idea, but I can't find the original source to credit...the crown has a velcro patch so each year I can just make a new number.  This year I actually sewed it by hand, which I've found is a really nice activity during road trips.  Even C did some hand sewing and I made an extra to send on to a friend (Happy Birthday, J!).

My favorite project for S is the "2" shirt and Madras plaid shorts.  Is this fabric really popular everywhere, or is it an island thing???  Of course, I used my favorite pattern, Big Butt Baby Pants.  I've got this pattern down to a science and can whip out some shorts in under an hour.  C got a matching skirt, too, which she loves because it is very similar to Daddy's shorts.

 Happy Birthday, Little Man!  We love you!

Turning Two!

Our little man and one of my nieces both turn two next week.  I've been busy sewing and will share the projects for S soon, but wanted to quickly share this one for my niece.  Bub Bub modeled for the pic and he had quite a bit of fun twirling!

Happy 2nd Birthday to our other "S" who lives in Ohio!  We love you!

We made it! (a ramble)

It's been quite awhile since I've visited my blog.  The last 6 weeks have been a bit of a blur.  My sewing machines are still packed and prepared for a trip to Jacksonville, hoping for a decent trade on a brand new machine.  In the mean time, we've been doing lots of this:

That's a rocket ship, can't you tell?

Here is where C set up "school" for S.  We've since acquired an adult-sized kitchen table and chairs, thank goodness.

This is one of my favorite things, actually.  Above the windows in our kitchen we've installed an "art wire".  It's actually a curtain system from Ikea, but the clips are an easy way of displaying the kids art work.  It's since been filled with all kinds of creations.  Can you see the marsh outside?  Past the clutter on the deck???

Here is a better photo.

We look out over the intracoastal waterway and enjoy seeing boats run across, and storms roll out from the mainland. C thinks a pirate lives out there, and he'll make her eat grasshoppers if she doesn't behave.

This is a foggy sunrise, with C's bench in the foreground.

The kids enjoy seeing rain!  It's still a novelty coming from NM.  They've developed quite a little friendship over the course of this move.  It's definitely been a difficult transition for C, but having her brother around has helped immensely.  And on a totally random note, she learned to ride her bike without training wheels!  I just loved seeing how proud she was!!!

Happy Birthday!

Today's my sister's birthday and lucky me, it's mine, too!  You know, since we are twins and all.  She's older, though, just in case you are keeping track, four whole minutes.

My sister means the world to me, and I'll save the mushy stuff for her birthday card, but I will share that I am so, so, SO excited we'll be living only four hours away!  This is the closest we've lived since 2000!  And now that she has the cutest baby girl ever, I'll get to see my niece a lot more often, too.

My sister had inspired me to be and do a lot of things and here's one of her ideas that anyone can do:  keep a notebook in your bag to write stuff down.  It's not really a journal, just more of a list/idea/planning book.  Mine has all kind of random things in it.  It's the place I can rid my brain of those mental things that bog me down.  I save the books when I'm finished, because years from now it will be fun to see  how I planned C's birthday party, the measurements of that skirt I made, or what my Ikea shopping list was.

So, in honor of my twin sister's birthday, I decorated one for her.

Happy Birthday, Sis!

Crafting Caddy

Here's a quick project C and I made to store her pencils, markers, scissors, etc.

We've been using empty cans to store these things, but the twine pretties them up a bit.  I've seen this done with paper and other embellishments, but I was afraid the paper would get easily torn.  Plus, I like the natural look.  Once we were finished, I hot glued four cans together so we can grab and go.

This is the can opener I used, so no worries about sharp edges.

Clearing out the Pantry

Since a lot of things are packed, and we also need to use up our pantry items, we've been extra creative with outdoor playtime.  A few weeks ago I put all of the lentils, barley and quinoa I knew we wouldn't use in the water table (without water though). The kids had fun pouring, sorting, and mixing.

Not long after that, S emptied a giant jug of bubbles.  That wasn't exactly a planned project, but the kids loved feeling how slimy the ground got.  A bonus was that the patio got nice and clean.

Recently we used salt, flour and baking soda to feel the different textures, then eventually water.  The real fun began, though, when I filled a squirt-type water bottle with vinegar.  C knows how this works, as I clean the garbage disposal with vinegar and baking soda, but I never thought of letting the kids try it out until I saw this post on Tinkerlab.  I thought that baking soda and vinegar would be too dangerous in the hands of little ones, but the squirt bottle was perfect, and even when it seems everything has dried out, add more vinegar and it foams some more.

We proceeded directly to bath after this activity, too, but it was great fun.

Good-bye, sewing machine! We need a break...

It's time to say good-bye, and I'm ready for a break.  In fact, I put the machine away before I finished my last two projects, one of which had a deadline.  The first was a skirt I've been excited about finishing, but I've struggled terribly with finishing the waistband.  Just look:

See that mess of threads?  This will be the fourth time I'll tear out those stitches.  I decided I'll bring the skirt to my sister's and fix it with her machine.

Overall, though, I really like the fit of the skirt and will definitely make another.  It's based on the Party Skirt tutorial at Creative Spaces.  I found her site after seeing Homemade by Jill's skirt but made a few modifications including pockets! This was my first time making inseam pockets and I'm going to do it on every skirt now.  I followed the wonderful tutorial over at ikat bag.

The other unfinished project will likely never be completed.  I was sewing a gift for a friend that recently had her fourth baby boy.  But when I make a gift for someone I like to be happy about it, and with all the swearing at my sewing machine lately, I've decided to go with a gift card instead.  I hope you understand!

The kids and I are flying out on Saturday to stay with family during the big move.  I'm secretly hoping the moving guys drop my sewing machine so I can get a new one.  It's sad to say good-bye to something my grandmother used, but it's seen better days.  And sewing is supposed to be my therapy, not my swearing session.  

I want one

We've been having major discussion in our house about bikes.  Well, maybe not major discussion, but it's been on my mind every single day, especially since our future home is situated in a nice small community perfect for biking rather than driving.  To me, it's a hundred times easier to load up a stroller or bike with our park (or beach! yippee!) gear than to load the car.

Anyway, back to my issue.  C is learning to ride her bike, but she's too slow for me to ride with her (or even run with her) and S is totally not cool with extended trips in the jogging stroller.  My plan was to get C a little tandem thing to put on Daddy's bike, and then get a seat for S to ride on my bike.  I really like the ride-up-front seats, but since I'm short, and S is already tall, it seems that isn't going to work. Then I came across Madsen Cycles!  Just take a look at this!  Can you see me on one of these?  Like this mom? (Although we'd be wearing helmets.)  I like the blue one the best, but that's a hefty price tag.  Too bad I missed their giveaway last fall, but maybe someday...First I'll need to convince hubby.  What do you think?  Scary?  Or Fun?

Toddler Tuesday

Elizabeth over at Think Liz has been doing some great "Toddler Tuesday" posts. Her son is around the same age as S and just as busy.  Check out her blog for some great toddler-themed activities.  Here's one we did at our house...I poked holes in the bottom of an egg carton and then let S put the pencils through the holes.  When S was finished, he put the pencils inside the carton and brought the new game to C to try out, too.

C's preschool inspired this idea (although I do vaguely remember reading it in one of my toddler activity books).  They used big pieces of styrofoam and the kids hammered in golf tees.  I'm hoping to recreate this for our upcoming road trip as it was a big hit among the 4- and 5-year olds, I just need to find out where to get some styrofoam.

Oh, and while you are on the Think Liz site, check out her list of free patterns.  What a great resource!

More notecards

I made some notecards for a very dear family friend.  My sister and I adored her as children.  My sister even named her doll after her...now that's a real compliment coming from a 9-year old!

I sewed the fabric directly to the notecards, a few vertical and a few horizontal.

All tied up and ready for mailing.

Notecards

Here's a fun blog to peruse....Twirling Betty.  I originally stumbled upon the site while tracking down those adorable hats/headbands.  She also has some great mini-bunting for sale in her Etsy shop and when I saw this post I thought "I could do that".  So I did!

I found that blue painters tape was the perfect thing to hold down those little triangles.

Stitched really close the edge...

Ta-dah!  Mom received a set of these for Christmas.  I still have some itty bitty triangles left to sew some up for myself, but haven't got around to that yet.

Sewing 101

I love sewing.  I love seeing my kids wear clothes that I've made, I love giving gifts that I made, I love using my bags and key chain that I made.  But most of all, I love the outlet that sewing provides.  When I get all antsy and short tempered, or go through a bad spell of feeling like all I'm doing is (barely) treading water, I know that it's usually because my machine has been gathering dust for awhile.  I need to hear the hum of the motor to drown out my never-ending thoughts and mental to-do lists.  It sounds corny, but I love it.  I also love that my hubby recognizes this need and will entertain the kids while I have some quiet time at the sewing table.

One of my inspirations to keep sewing and trying new things is a local sewing lounge called Hip Stitch.  Besides having really great designer fabric that you cannot find at chain stores, the owner is so friendly and there is such a happy vibe when you walk through the door.  She doesn't even seem to mind when the kids run wild as I shop. Best of all, they have lots and lots of really great classes (not just sewing, lots of other fun stuff, too!) and free craft nights.  I always feel so energized after learning something new.

I am currently taking Sewing 101.  Look at this amazing project!

OK, so it doesn't look so fantastic, but basically it's a class where we learn all kinds of new techniques and then have a muslin with our work to refer to in the future.

I even did a button with my machine!  Oh, the simple pleasures to a novice.  Next week, pockets, fly front zipper and more.  Yay!