Happy Halloween!

Lizzy prior to becoming a ladybug.

Trick or treat!

Lizzy the disheveled lady bug. :)



Me forcing Lizzy to take a picture with me.

Crafty weekend: Finished bird project and paper flowers

I finished the bird project! It's pretty cute. I had some issues hanging it since I didn't think out the logistics of hanging something that is top heavy. But as long as no one breaths on it, it should hold the proper position. (The bird patterns and idea came from Spool Sewing.)

Since I had a few extra birds, I added this guy to the mix.

I also created what I like to call the wave of happy flowers. (Don't mind the crafty clutter and the prehistoric ironing board.) I'm not 100% on the design, but it works for now. Yellow flowers make me happy.

Super successful crafty weekend. I guess that's what you get when you take Friday off and watch daytime television while getting your crafty butt in gear. (Sidenote: the Regis and Kelly Halloween show was HILARIOUS!)

Ladybug Lizzy

My little ladybug!!!! :)

I picked up the costume at the grocery store. I had been looking at it for a few weeks and decided to splurge. I really had no reason to get it since I'm not really in to Halloween and we're not going anywhere where she can show it off. Oh well. I think it's cute. I picked up a small and it was too small! But I was lazy and didn't want to return it, so I worked my sewing magic (ha). I cut it up and added some elastic to go around her body and the head part was supposed to be a hood, but her large ears kept popping out of it so I turned the hood into a headband. She's not too thrilled about wearing it. When I put it on her she just followed me around the the hope that I would take it off. Maybe we'll go for a walk around the apartment complex on Halloween. I'm sure she'll leave a lasting impression.

I have great friends

This week was a week of friendship for me. I spent two evenings on the phone catching up with Jess and Lisa (both of which I hadn't talk to in a while), and when I got my mail on Friday, this card from Alex was waiting for me:

In addition to that, I had the opportunity to hang out with Akasha TWICE this weekend. And watching her 5-year-old son play soccer was just pure joy.

I'm lucky to have such wonderful/crazy/passionate women in my life.

Adventures in sewing: Yoga mat strap and buttonholes

I started taking yoga again - YAY! I'm pretty sure it helps my mental sanity - I'm not kidding. Anyway, I decided that I wanted a yoga mat strap so I could be one of the cool kids. You can easily pick one up at Target and they're pretty inexpensive, but I figured "Hey! Why not make one?". The answer to that question is because that one I wanted to make had buttonholes (so it is self-adjusting, which is fabulous) and anyone who knows anything about buttonholes knows that beginning sewers/sewists should STAY FAR FAR AWAY FROM THEM. Ah yes, but not me. My books made it sound easy. Does your machine have a four-step buttonhole? Yep, sure does - PIECE OF CAKE! Ha. I tried to make a buttonhole on a scrap piece of fabric for about TWO HOURS. Keep in mind that I hadn't even made the actual strap yet. I had a feeling the buttonhole would trip me up, so I wanted to get that down before I got all excited about the strap and then ended up stalling on the buttonhole.

Here are my buttonhole tries:

Some of these look semi-successful, but I assure you, they only assumed that look because of me and my yanking on the fabric to sew something I could actually cut apart (novel concept for a buttonhole, I know):

At this point I decided to stop sewing and bake cookies. The good old "step away from it before you throw your sewing machine out the window" mantra worked! I returned after eating about a dozen cookies and decided that I was going to make the yoga mat strap and make my own buttonhole. Take THAT four-step buttonhole maker!  My "fake" buttonhole theory works, but it's just not as consistent, although, as you can see from above, the actual buttonhole maker wasn't very consistent either. Fake buttonhole = a little zig-zag action to form each long side and a couple zig-zags at the top and bottom with some extra backstitching for reinforcement. Ta-da:

And now for the finished product:

I'm now the proud owner of a homemade yoga may strap! :)

Friday afternoon work festivities

We made chocolate mousse Friday afternoon! Actually, Jennifer made it, but I provided moral support...and helped her eat it, of course.

It involved: Cool Whip, coffee and chocolate. It was a delightful break from the norm. :)

Look how happy she is!!!!!

Completely unrelated, but I wore my cowboy boots to work on Friday as well. They make me happy!!!

Lizzy and the orange ball

Lizzy is OBSESSED with this ball.

She plays with it all the time.

Every morning. Every evening.

When I'm looking. When I'm not looking.

ALL THE TIME.

Here's a series of shots from when I was brushing my teeth.

First she drops it by my feet and backs up:

Then she sits down and watches it:

So I roll it toward her...she watches:

Then she pounces and returns to her position:

Then she lets it roll:

And continues to watch it:

Then it starts all over again.

The best is when she plays this "game" in the kitchen. There aren't any rugs in there, so when I make dinner a little orange ball will roll by...at least 20 times...every night.

Darn her cuteness.

Adventures in sewing: The birds are DONE

The birds are done! The birds are done!

I still don't have the rest of the supplies I need to complete the whole bird project that's in my head, but I have 10 complete birds. Go me! (Some of them need a little cosmetic surgery, but I'll get around to that, or I'll just accept them as imperfect and be happy with that - I'm thinking option two.)

Cleaning, learning, optimism

This past weekend's motto (and probably next weekend's as well):

I didn't do my typical Sunday cleaning routine. This is momentous. I'm usually OCD about it. And ironically, I'd say I'm even more clean than my mother. But a quick wipe down and vacuuming is in order this evening. (Oh, and I love Dove chocolate!)


From The Daily Love:

"There are no mistakes. The events we bring upon ourselves, no matter how unpleasant, are necessary in order to learn what we need to learn; whatever steps we take, they're necessary to reach the places we've chosen to go." - Richard Bach, writer

"I have become my own version of an optimist. If I can't make it through one door, I'll go through another door - or I'll make a door. Something terrific will come no matter how dark the present." - Rabindranath Tagore, author

Make mistakes, learn, feel pain, be passionate

From The Wellness Warrior:

From A Beautiful Mess:

From The Daily Love:

"When you welcome your emotions as teachers, every emotion brings good news, even the ones that are painful." - Gary Zukav, author

"Be still when you have nothing to say; when genuine passion moves you, say what you've got to say, and say it hot." - D. H. Lawrence, author and poet

"Disappointment to a noble soul is what cold water is to burning metal; it strengthens, tempers, intensifies, but never destroys it." - Eliza Tabor, author

"Find a place inside where there's joy, and the joy will burn out the pain." - Joseph Campbell, American mythologist

Old pictures and mason jars

When my parents came to visit, they dropped off a few boxes of what they like to call "my stuff." I prefer to call it "mementos of my youth that they saved over the years and don't know what to do with." I now have quite a collection pictures, awards, drawings, certificates, trophies, news clippings, etc. Great. More boxes of stuff that I feel obligated to keep.

But I do have to say that some of the pictures gave me a good laugh and inspired me to want to actually do something with them (at least for the moment). So I took a tip from Young House Love and A Beautiful Mess and used some mason jars to come up with a little display. I love the idea, but I'm not completely happy with the way I have them set up, so I need to work on that (and don't mind the inspirational quotes plastered to the fridge).

Here are some of the images up close (and some that aren't in the jars).

 

  

Free bird necklace

My present to myself arrived the other day! It's a birdcage necklace that I ordered from a designer in Ireland. I love it!

Birds flying free and birdcages are my current life theme. I recommend life themes to everyone. My last (and still applicable) theme was/is the lotus flower.

Webcams and cupcakes

I wasn't going to write about this, but I changed my mind. I'm fired up.

First, there's the Rutger's University student who took his own life because his roommate was trying to be funny. It saddens me, angers me and makes me sick to my stomach. THIS IS NOT OK.

But Rutger's is ahead of the game when it comes to civil rights. I'm impressed to see that they were launching Project Civility prior to all of this happening.

Then there's the Indianapolis bakery that refused to make rainbow cupcakes for National Coming Out Day.  Oh, and you know how I found out about the rainbow cupcakes? Not on my local news, that's for sure. I found out about it from my BlogHer news feed! And that news feed? Yeah, it's national. Thanks local news. It's finally making the local news now, since, if you Google the issue, it comes up in the news for places like San Francisco. And the mayor is now involved! It will be interesting to see how this unfolds.

Discrimination is not ok.

Violation of civil rights is not ok.

Invasion if privacy is not ok.

I know there are a lot of people who don't agree with me and you're entitled to your opinion just as much as I'm entitled to mine.

But we should agree that everyone deserves to be treated with respect.