Crafty Crafterson

Project #2 on the sewing machine.

I saw this amazing blanket on the make happy blog.
I then went to Aesthetic Nest for a great tutorial on how to make my own.
It's called an heirloom cut chenille baby blanket.
It only took one month to complete in my spare time.
Yowza!

Hopefully Baby Krenz loves it!

And who can resist my picture-taking helper!

God is in the mountains

Today in the car while we were driving home, with a view of the gorgeous snow-covered Enchantment Peaks in front of us, Olaf said "Mommy, God lives in the mountains."

What led him to that particular thought at that moment, I don't know, but I think he was right.

This last weekend a friend of mine from high school was lost in those very mountains we were looking at, in an avalanche while back-country skiing.  Scary.  And very, very sad.  He was only 28.  You can read a brief bit about it here.  One of our good friends was with him on the ski tour, along with a few others. 

He wasn't one of my best friends, but I sure enjoyed the times we hung out.  This is going to sound totally cliche, but Dan was one of those guys who really did get along with everyone -- both in high school (where kids can be SO judgemental) and beyond.  I wouldn't even say that about myself.  Though he had a close group of friends that were climbers, hikers, skiers, and snowmobilers, he pretty much had friends everywhere else too.  Evidence that Dan really was friends with all -- I have a picture of him at my friend Mariya's 18th birthday party surrounded by a bunch of our friends (including me) who were, well, total dorks.  We had 3 salutatorians, 3 band members, 3 choir members, tons of drama-nerds... oh yeah.  We didn't really care, but no we were not the most popular kids in school.   But apparently we were still fun, because though none of Dan's close friends were in that group, he would still hang out and have fun with us.

Fast forward 12 years.  I managed to run into Dan a few times a year when Steve and I moved back to the area.  Probably more before we had kids, and less after (when we stopped attending every party and bonfire).  We seemed to run in the same circles.  He always had a ton of questions about how I was doing, and always had some sort of story to share of an adventure he had recently taken.   Who would have thought that the last time I would see him would be in the local liquor store, chatting as we stood in line to make our purchases.  Certainly not me.

I just can't stop thinking about what happened.
Can't stop imagining what it must have been like for him in his final moments.
Can't imagine what it was like for his friends who were with him.
And can't imagine what it is now like for his family and closest friends, as a whole community mourns his loss...
So I have just been praying prayers of peace to wash over everyone. 
Prayers of peace.
If you have a moment please do the same for his family and close friends.

Life is so very fleeting.

Dan, you were loved and respected. 
Gone, but certainly not forgotten.



"Going to the mountains is going home."  --John Muir

i am the biggest loser

I am proud of myself.

In the last 8 weeks, I lost 5.1% of my body weight!  That’s 6.6 lbs folks!  Maybe it doesn’t seem a like a lot to anyone…  but seriously.  It is.  For my body. Trust me.  I can now fit into clothes that I haven’t worn since before being pregnant with Olaf!  (that’s 2007 people).  I can’t believe I hung on to clothes for that long without wearing them…  ah well, most of them are still not too ‘dated’.  Probably because most of what I own is jeans and tee-shirts.  And the outdated jeans with way too big of bootcut bells on the bottom can always be made into cute jean shorts for summertime.  Bonus.

And I did it the healthy way – cutting some calories and exercising more.  I couldn’t cut too many calories since I am still breastfeeding Forest, but I did cut out some and it seems to have made a good difference.  Only a few more pounds to lose in the waistline and I’ll be set.  This was the first time in my life I have ever really tried to lose weight, so it’s encouraging to know that it can actually be done!  Let's be honest though, I wasn't dieting because of a huge vain desire to be a size 2.  I just wanted to finally be healthy again, and active, and have more than 2 pairs of jeans that fit correctly.  I think I had a bit of a reverse psychology thing going on -- You know, where you look in the mirror and go, "DAMN I LOOK GOOOOOD!" when in reality my love handles were just a bit too lovely... and my pants a bit toooo tight :)  But I didn't see it that way for a long time.  Ha ha! 

I am not going to lie though – it was HARD.  Mostly it was hard to find the time to work out.  Because seriously, I am busy with kids/commute/work/commute/kids/dinner/kids until about 8pm every night.  Luckily Steven was motivated to work out also, so we do it together at about 9pm usually.  6 days a week.  60-90 minutes.  It is HARD to get motivated.  It is HARD to make your body move that late at night.  It is HARD to give up my evening wine or ice cream.  But we are doing it, and it feels good to be much healthier these days.  And we give ourselves a little grace…  when we start falling asleep on our mats doing yoga at 10:15pm we just get up, turn off the DVD, and go to bed!

I can’t wait until spring when I can get outside with the boys more often and start doing activities for exercise instead of videos!  Softball and road biking.  Mmmmm yes.  My goal is ride in one road race/ride this summer.  Not sure that I’d have time to train for much else.  I think the triathlon training is going to have to wait for another summer.  And play softball once a week.  And also have a great time playing with the boys!

Filling in the Blanks

I've been wanting to fill in one of these for a while now.
This gal, Lauren, does it every Friday.
I find that they are always interesting to read, and in absence of any other topic, I am going to play along!

1.   I am      almost 30. (whoa) Motivated, but sometimes lazy.  A follower of Jesus.  A wifey, and a mommy.  A sister and a daughter.  A total nerd.  A wanna-be master gardener.  Urban granola with a hint of redneck.

2.  The bravest thing I've ever done was  hmmmmmm.  My definition of brave might be different than some others.  Let's see, jump out of an airplane?  No.  Climb Mount Rainier?  Nah.  Very bravest?  I think I was pretty brave to flirt with my husband back in the day before we were dating.  After all, I was the nerd and he was the super social ladies man.  It could have been complete rejection.  It paid off though!

3.  I feel prettiest when      my babies are patting my cheeks and giving me sweet kisses and snuggles.  I know they don't care about the lack of mascara or unkempt hair.  (Here's to hoping Steve doesn't either!)

4.  Something that keeps me awake at night is  Forest.  Seriously, he needs to get over this cold.  Oh, and thinking about the million things I want to accomplish the next day.

5.  My favorite meal in the entire world is  Oh boy...  Anything Italian.  I'll go with butternut squash ravioli, good garlic bread, salad, and a glass of a fantastic ($3) bottle of red wine.

6.  The way to my heart is       showing me you care by doing something very thoughtful for me, remembering tiny details from memories with me in them, or really customizing a gift to show me that you care about the little things in my life.

7.  I would like to      lose my last 5lbs of baby weight (go P90x!) and then hit Seattle for a major shopping spree.  You know, at least $150.  That's huge to a momma on a budget!  (and goes a long way at Nordstrom Rack).

a little giggle

Olaf can make Forest laugh harder than anyone else.
I absolutely LOVE watching it!

So if you need a little smile...
just watch! 
(and pay no attention to the poor video quality)

sunday was super.

Really, truly... Does it get much cuter than this?

 

Maybe only if there was a little dimpled fellow by the name of Olaf in this picture too :)

We went ahead and wore our Seahawks gear while rooting for the Packers last Sunday.  Well, Forest did anyway.  Steve was just rocking the WA gear while Forest wore Steve's/Olaf's/his vintage Jim Zorn jersey #10.  Can't wait to pass it along to my grandsons someday!

Project #1

For Christmas my lovely husband, parents, and in-laws combined their pocketbooks and bought me the gift I've been dropping hints about, well, all year probably :)  A sewing machine!  I feel like a whole new world of crafting has opened up to me.

I didn't get around to using it until about 2 weeks after Christmas.  My first project was a sleep sack for Forest.  He's about to grow out of his small sized one, and I didn't want to spend $20 on a new size medium.  Plus I really wanted to try it, because it looked easy.

I laid out the littler sleep sack, traced around it (but bigger) and cut out my fabric.  Then I looked at original, studied it, and sort of deconstructed it, and wrote down the order of steps I'd need to sew it together.   Then I stayed up working on it until 1:30 in the morning when I realized that Forest would be up in 3.5 hours.... oops.  Guess I got carried away!

Here's my fabric all cut out!

My sewing station = the kitched table.

And here's the finished product, next to the original.  One thing I missed when cutting - should have left the neck opening in front a little bigger.  I'm planning to fix that before Forest uses it.

That's right, I installed a zipper on my first project.  Booyah.  (Just don't look too close).  

I have since found many many inspiring sewing blogs, and as I create things I'll show the links where I got the ideas from!  Up next:  Faux chenille baby blanket for Jaimi.  Actually it's already done.  It was on my kitchen table for an entire month.  That's how long it took me...  Because I only had weekend naptimes to work on it, as well as my housework.  Finally finished it with some help from Steve!  But anyway, it will be next on the blog!