Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Sandy

Hey everyone! We made it through Sandy with no damage to our house. There were some crazy scary wind gusts that reached 81 mph at our house. We lost power Monday night and it is still not back on. They estimate that they won't have it back on until Sunday at 11 pm.

We are lucky to have a nice friends who have offered showers to us and a place to charge our phones and warm up a little. We have a gas stove so I have been cooking. I even heated pots of water on the stove to wash the dishes. We have been seriously roughing it!

Not having power is seriously boring :) I have resorted to cleaning. I got a few things done that I have been putting off. The emergency cheese curls have been opened too :)

I hope everyone out there is as lucky as we are to not have damage. I might not be back this week for orange Friday. But I will have a post soon about all our awesome survival gear we got to use this week. Also a list of things we have in our emergency bag. My hubby has us really well prepared!! Have a Happy Halloween!

Monday, October 29, 2012

Orange Christmas Fabric!!!

We spent the last few days preparing for Hurricane Sandy.  Part of my prep was going to Joanns yesterday to get fabric to make my cards for card swap next week.  You know, the important things :)
I was crazy excited when I saw this fabric.  There is ORANGE in it!!!  It's called Merry Main Street from The Alexander Henry Fabrics Collection.  It reminds me of Hess', a department store, that used to be downtown.  It closed many years ago but when I was a kid, it was a big deal to go there.  I bought a little extra so after I am done making cards, I can make something else.  I am not sure what i am going to make yet!!

Anyone getting hit by this storm, stay safe :)

Friday, October 26, 2012

Orange pics this week

October is my most favorite time of the year! I love all the fall activities and the beautiful changing weather. So for this Orange Friday I thought I would share some orange things from our week.  No, I have not run out of orange things in my house to share :) there is still tons more!
My birthday was this week.  I am 33. PB wore orange for me :) Also we put a candle on the cake for every year.  Look at that glow off the cake! PB was very sweet to me most of the day. It was basically a regular Wednesday except we went out for an amazing dinner and had delicious chocolate cake.  

We carved our pumpkins last night.  Trick or Treat is tonight for our area.  I loathe that it is not on Halloween night.  It's like the whole holiday is over way too soon.  Oh and the best part is PB does not like to get dirty so he would only touch the inside with a spoon.
Hubby helped with our big pumpkin. We just carved 2 this year. PB painted one for school already.  My favorite part of carving is roasting the seeds.  Every year I burn them, but not this year! They are super yum!!!

I live on the East Coast and maybe you have heard of "Frankenstorm" that is going to hit us next week.  All the maps show the red line of the storm going by our town.  We are not buy ahead grocery people.  I do not plan meals more than 2 days in advance.  So that means I go to the store many times during the week.  So I went today to get dinner stuff through the weekend and some essentials that I thought would be sold out by Monday, like bread.  I also bought the most orange essential:
CHEESE CURLS!!! They are so delicious and when I am pregnant, I crave them.  I have held off on buying them this whole pregnancy and have only indulged in Spicy Doritos.  But I figured this was the perfect time to buy them :) We also usually don't eat things out of a can that aren't tomatoes or beans so I had to get some soup in case we lose power.  Our store wasn't too crazy this morning.  I think this weekend it is going to be absolutely nuts! And by Monday the bread and milk will be gone.  

The storm isn't supposed to hit until Monday so this weekend we are going to shove in all the rest of our favorite fall activities that we didn't get in yet.  We are trick or treating at our local zoo, going to a pumpkin patch to just take pictures, maybe picking up some apples, and if the weather holds on Sunday we are doing a corn maze.  Since PB was sick all last weekend, we missed a whole weekend of fun.  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Kermit Costume

PB is in love with The Muppets.  His favorite is Kermit.  When I asked him what he wanted to be for Halloween there was no hesitation, he had to be Kermit.

It is basically just a shirt and pants and I made little shoe covers to complete the look.  

We went to a local park for the pics that has a stream and pond. 

Here PB is doing Kermit arms.  He also may have dipped his feet in the pond right after this pic :)

So here is a very brief look at how I made it:

The hat I made last year.  I did make a new cowl with some more points.  The tutorial for those are here.   (I will admit that I did try to make a hood for the costume but decided that the hat I already had was perfect.  Also it did not go well at all.)

I bought 2 yards of green fleece for the clothes and 1/3 yard of a lighter green for the cowl. 
I used 1/4" elastic for the bottom of the shirt.
I used 3/4" elastic for the elastic in the pants. 

For the pants, I just traced pants that he already had that fit.  He is slim so I did take a little off the waist and legs.  

I traced a shirt that was the next size up for the shirt.
If you notice the shirt has an elastic waist, here is how I did it:

When I traced the shirt on the fleece, I added a few inches. I also made it wider at the bottom. Then when I finished off the bottom, I made the bottom seam wide enough to feed in some really thin elastic.  You can also see how high I traced the neck of the shirt.

I did not sew around the top of the neckline.  I wanted it to go up high and so he could get his (giant) head through I cut a slit in the back and sewed on a button and a little elastic. I left the raw edge on the sleeves and the pant legs.  Fleece does not fray.  Plus, it's just a Halloween costume, no reason to do extra work :)

It all gets covered when he wears the cowl.  

Here is what the feet pieces look like:
It is 2 pieces of fleece sewn together and then turned inside out.  The top by the ankle is sewn over and there is a skinny piece of elastic through to go around his ankle.

To make the pattern, I traced his shoe and added some extra behind the heel.

I hand stitched some elastic about 1/2 way down.  I made it long enough to go around his shoe.

Here you can see the piece that goes around the ankle.

There you go! I know it isn't very detailed.  I was much more focused on getting it done than taking pics along the way. This was my first time ever doing sleeves. I used what I learned in the Sewing For Boys book to help me out with that one but I did make my own pattern.  I have made pants before but these so far are the best fitting ones! The Sewing For Boys book also has a pants pattern that you could use for this.  Or you could even just buy a green sweatshirt and sweatpants.  And make the rest. 

If you have further questions, feel free to email me!

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Change of plans

Pb had a high fever from Friday afternoon through Monday morning.  We got an appointment at the doctor yesterday.
This is the grump face he likes to put on when I try to take his picture at the doctor's office.  He has never been sick like this before and he is one bossy sick kid! it has been a long couple of days :) 
That face is a little less scary.  He is on antibiotics but had to stay home from school yesterday and today. So no Kermit pictures or any fun fall activities for us last weekend.  Hopefully we will get his pics done this week, I really can't wait to share the costume with you all.  

Thanks for being patient.  Since you are all so great, here is a bonus:
It's some highlights from our ultrasound! We got a good profile, and a foot and look at that leg! Ultrasounds are just amazing.  I hope you all have a great day!!

Friday, October 19, 2012

Handmade Orange Glass Beads

Happy Friday!!! We got to see the baby today! I had my level 2 ultrasound and everything looks great.  We did not find out what we are having.  
These orange beads I made a few years ago.  I took a bead making class at a local art studio.  We used a blow torch and glass rods to make the beads.  It was a really cool experience.  These are 3 beads that I made and then I put them together to wear on my necklace chain.  I have always been obsessed with glass blowing and bead making.  I am lucky that I have gotten to give both of them a try.  

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! We are getting rid of a huge pile of stuff tomorrow morning at an electronics recycling drop off. I have been searching the house to see if anything else can go there too.  

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Painted Pumpkin with Shelf Liner Stickers

PB and I went to the pumpkin patch this week with his preschool.  It was his first field trip.  They picked pumpkins and have to decorate them at home and bring them to school tomorrow.  He was talking about painting it black, blue and red.  All I was picturing was a really ugly, messy pumpkin.
So I had an idea using some shelf liner.
I cut shapes out and put them on the pumpkin. Make sure you rub the edges really good so the paint doesn't seep under the sticker. PB was saying he wanted it to be a Jack O Lantern but he is 3 and can't paint that on there. So I thought this would be an easy way to get that face on there.  I didn't want his pumpkin to look like his mom did all the work. 
The back looked bare so I cut some eye shapes out.  Since I knew he was going to paint mostly black, I thought this would look cool.

I slapped those stickers on and let him go to town with the acrylic paint.  

It was a mess! I peeled the shelf liner stickers off while the paint was still wet.  I used an X-acto knife to get the stickers off.  Since the paint is acrylic, if you have a little paint leak, you can wait for it to dry and scrape the paint off with an X-acto knife.

Here is the end result! Turned out pretty cool! Definitely a step able a sloppily painted pumpkin :) It almost looks like it is lit up.  

The eyes turned out really cool too. I drew the eyeballs in with a sharpie. I also cut out his name in the shelf liner for him to paint over.  His name is right on there and blends right in.
  He is all ready for show and tell tomorrow!

Monday, October 15, 2012

Basement progress and 5K

We made some serious progress on the basement yesterday. 
and here is where we are now:
Hubby took apart all the furniture and made a nice pile.  He also stacked up all the bins that have to be moved out.  He has everything together so he doesn't miss anything.  

PB was thrilled with all the extra space.

Now our table is filled with stuff that has to go.  

We also have a very large pile of stuff to go to the electronics recycling day next weekend.  Everything is ready to get loaded into my car.  I am really thrilled with the progress.  We won't mention my craft area.  It's pretty bad over there.  I need to spend some serious time over there getting that together.  I am going to do it after PB's costume is finished. 

Saturday I "ran" in the 5K for breast cancer.
The survivors threw up some pink balls, to "pass the pink."  It is an event that one of the sponsors, a delicious chocolate store, is doing this month.  
This is the start line with the balloons.  
Here I am lining up to run.  I only ran a little over a mile.  I mostly walked.  It turns out that maybe 21 weeks pregnant is too pregnant to be running.  The baby is just a little too big and it was very uncomfortable for me to run.  I had some serious round ligament pain in the last half mile so that was the hardest part for me to keep going.  I walked pretty slow through that.  But I did finish faster than over 450 women.  We won't mention the 1500 women that finished faster than me :) I truly love this race and I can't wait for next year.  I won't be pregnant, so it should be a much better race for me, and it will give me some motivation to get moving after the baby is born.  

Friday, October 12, 2012

PB's orange coat

It finally got a little chilly here and PB got to wear his new orange coat.  I got it on clearance at Target last spring.  We also went to the best orange place on earth this week, a pumpkin patch!

PB didn't have school for 2 days this week so we went to a farm on one of the days. There was a hayride to the pumpkins that was very bumpy.  PB held onto my belly because he knew the bumpy ride was hurting me. He is so sweet.

This is the pumpkin he picked, all 20 pounds of it.  It was very hard for me to get it back to the car, but i managed.  In this pic his coat looks a little more red orange than orange.  

I am "running" a 5K for tomorrow.  It is the same one I did last year and trained hard for last year.  I signed up for this race in April, long before I knew I was pregnant. So there will be much more walking than running.  Especially since I haven't been running much because of all the barfing LOL! I am excited for this event.  It is such a moving run because it is all women.  They also do a survivors walk that is just beautiful and inspiring. I will try to take some pics this year.  I was so nervous about running for the first time ever last year that I didn't take any pics.  I did just have to buy some new workout clothes. This baby has made all my clothes too tight.  I hope you have a great weekend!!!



Tuesday, October 9, 2012

PB's past costumes and...

... a peek at this year!!

But first let's look back at the last 3 Halloweens:
When PB was a baby, he was a carrot.  It was one of his favorite foods :)

When he was 1 he was an owl. It was an easy choice because owl was his first word.  This is also one of my most popular posts.  I get emailed a ton about this costume.

Last year when he was 2, he was Shaun the Sheep! It was his favorite show.  

This year PB has one clear obsession.  Here is a little clue...

and now a large clue:
He wants to be Kermit!! I will admit that I am a little nervous about this one.  I am making the whole thing out of fleece.  I also really want to try to make a head piece but if it doesn't work out...
...I have the hat I knitted him last year.  I bought the fabric 2 weeks ago and still haven't started cutting.  I have been making excuses.  But today I took care of all those excuses and I clutter sharked my whole upstairs so now there is no excuse!! Time to get cutting!!

What are your little ones going to be this year?

Friday, October 5, 2012

Orange glass ring

Happy Friday!!  I am so glad it is the weekend.  It has been one crazy week and I am actually looking forward to making more progress in the basement.  

So this orange ring is made of glass.  I believe I got it in Italy when we were in a glass shop.  I am allergic to nickel so I can only wear 14K gold, platinum or a metal containing no nickel.  Silver is completely off limits, even for an hour.  I break out into an epic rash.  So when my Hubby or I see interesting rings or jewelry that are plastic or glass we jump on it.  

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Another I-spy swap!

2 non-orange posts in one week?!?! What the what? The baby isn't making me sick this week, YAY!!
Susan at Crafterhours is hosting another Spoonflower i-spy swap!!! I was beyond excited when I saw the post up on their facebook page.  I may have been scrambling to get registered instead of getting PB ready for school! This is truly one of my favorite things to do.  I know I still have quite a few squares left over from the last 2 swaps but it is just too much fun to have more!! 

I let PB pick the fabric out.  I asked him what his favorite things were and he said trucks.  I typed it in and he saw this.  He pointed out the garbage truck, ambulance and fire truck right away.  Letting him choose the fabric made it so much easier for me.  I could browse on spoonflower for days.  

They have been mailed and I can't wait to see what comes back!

Monday, October 1, 2012

Big basement project

We are starting a huge project in our house. That ugly red carpet in the basement is going and we are getting new floors, patching and painting the basement.  Oh yeah and we are getting rid of a ton of stuff.  All of this is in preparation for #2.

Here is the floor we picked out:
We are putting cork flooring in the office/craft area and carpet in the rest of the basement.  I picked out the carpet color and Hubby found the perfect cork to go with it.  I am having a love affair with grey right now.  I have always loved it, our bedroom is mostly grey.  We have some major patching to do on the walls.  The previous owners "finished" the basement.  The person they hired did not do a good job mudding over drywall seams and tape so you can see ALL of the seams.  There will be a lot of work to do.  It all has to be done before the new floors come in. 

Here is all our junk that has to be cleaned up and cleared out:
This is a realistic look at our basement.  We tackled a few areas (my fabric pile) before the pics were taken but you can see that it is still a mess.  
We have a lot that needs to be gone through and moved out.
Hubby emptied and packed his books off the shelves this weekend.  I went through my books and made piles of books that I am getting rid of. I also have a nice pile of teaching books and binders that I am going to box up and put with my teaching stuff. No reason to have that out right now :)

Here is a glimpse of our to do list:
This is a big project.  When you are tackling a large project it helps to break it down into small tasks.  So we made a list of the areas of the basement and the things that we need to do in those areas.  Some tasks are short and will only take 20 minutes others will take much longer.  Some tasks are for us to do by ourselves and others we have to do together.  Sadly most of the list is things I have to do alone.  

We are getting rid of some really big things in our basement. We have my Dad's old recliner, an elliptical machine that we never use, and that bed is going to go in PB's new big boy room.  

The pressure is on to finish this room because we are about to have another person in the house soon and it's not the baby :) My Mom is moving here!! She is living with us while she looks for a house. I am beyond excited about this.  We have lived so far apart for over 10 years, we talk everyday on the phone and she is my best friend.  I am so excited that I will get to see her more than twice a year! So this basement project is important because if she is still staying with us when it is time to move PB into his big boy room we won't have a guest room.  Our guest bed is going to move down into the basement. 

There are other projects in the house we want to get done before the baby comes, like paint our bedroom.  Hopefully we get that done too.

Thanks so much for sticking with me while I have been sick and not posting as much.  I am having more good days than bad ones so hopefully I will be posting more!
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