the 10 minute cardigan from pinterest

In January, I decided that I would actually make/do/cook two things a month that I have pinned on my Pinterest boards.  I've been really good at doing it.  But not so good at reporting it on the blog.

Here is my badly photographed attempt at turning one of Husband's old sweaters into one of my new cardigans. The 10 minute cardigan.

BEFORE

I told Husband to do his best mean face.  It took about 4 tries because we both kept laughing.  I like this sweater and I'm not sure why he doesn't like it or stopped wearing it.  But it wound up in my "clothes I can do whatever I want with bc Husband doesn't want them anymore" pile.

AFTER

I tried to duplicate the mean face.  I probably shouldn't waited until Husband was home to take the picture.  Daughter kept putting her fingers over the flash.

What I used:

an old sweater (v neck)

vanishing marking pen

scissors

Heat'nBond Ultra Hold Iron on Adhesive (5/8in -- the kind for hems)

Iron and ironing board

What I did:

first I marked the middle of the sweater front and carefully cut all the way down the middle.

Put the Heat'nBond on the inside of one side of the new sweater opening, following the directions on the box. Iron the Heat'nBond down.

Once cooled, pull the paper strip off and fold over to create the hem.

Do the same to the other side

Kelsey at Vanillajoy.com finished the hem by securing it with a sewing machine stitch.  I haven't done that yet because I can't find tread that's a close enough match to the sweater.

It was another fun an easy pineterest job well done.  And one more thing I pinned that I actually completed.

Wordless Wednesday: Talented Friend

A Pinterest Shoe Makeover

Not so recently ago I found a great pin for turning regular old plain white canvas shoes into something a little less plain and white.

All you need it the cheap $5 white canvas shoes from walmart, Rit dye in your preferred color and a little elastic that 1.5 inches in width plus needle and tread (if you want to make your shoes laceless).   Simple, simple, simple.

So why did my white canvas shoes, fuchsia Rit dye and elastic sit in a bag on the back of my bathroom door for two months?   fear.  Mainly about the dye.  I'd never dyed anything before but I had convinced myself it was going to be a mess.

Well, imagine my surprise when it wasn't.   I just rinsed my shoes in hot water and followed the dye instructions on the box.  Then rinsed and let dry.

The next day I  just added the elastic in and let the kids have the laces.  (Visit the pin and blog for more pictures.  She dyed her shoes yellow and they look fantastic.)

So here's my first one.

And the pair.

I really like them.  And for $5 shoes they are really comfortable.  I always put mine on to go outside to water the garden or take the dogs on walks, or just piddle around outside.

It was a fun, fast, cheap project and now I am no longer afraid of Rit dye.

Mother's Day in a Cave

Our original Mother's Day plan was to go swimming somewhere.  But as it got closer to Sunday and the weather got cooler and wetter, Husband came up with a new plan.  We headed north for a cave tour at Cathedral Caverns.

Our tour group was a small laid back group of 6 adults and 7 kids (counting our guide). And it was a pretty great way to spend a cold wet day outside -- in a cold and also wet cave!

family photo

the cave has one of the largest "commercial" cave openings

 Unlike Mammoth Cave, this cave doesn't have a "good roof" and stalactites and stalagmites are still forming.  It makes for more interesting pictures.  But I won't bore you with the 20 I took ... just a few.

underground family photo

It was a fun Mother's Day that also included those great cupcakes Husband made for my birthday and post cave Mexican food.  It was a great day with my favorite people.

Spirits Sunday: Leese-Fitch Pinot Noir

I haven't posted a Spirits Sunday in a long time.  Not because I stopped drinking wine (and other adult beverages) I just haven't had anything that I really liked. A lot.

We got this bottle at Whole Foods for $9.99  

Yes, good inexpensive wine exists.

We had it with pot roast and french onion soup.  It was pretty much fantastic.

Our Sunday in Kentucky

Sunday we started our morning early.  Packed up, checked out, and headed north.  

First we visited Mammoth Cave National Park. fun.

Second we visited with BBWP and her family.  DOUBLE fun.

seriously.  sigh. two perfect days in a row.  rarely happens so I have to enjoy it while it lasts.

The park was offering free Mammoth Passage tours on Sunday morning.  We were there.

the kids liked the hiking in the cave part but not so much the stopping to hear interesting historical facts about the cave.
btw, you weren't actually supposed to touch the cave, DAUGHTER.  sigh.

Husband and I really enjoyed it.  We wished the hour long tour was longer  and the kids weren't with us.  (truth)

 The tour was fun but rather serious and we were in a group of over 40 people.  We did learn about the cave's sturdy roof and some of its really amazing history.

posing in front.

We weren't in Park City long before Son made it known that he had a new best friend.

Husband and the kids played hide and go seek and sweet sweet Son always tried to hide in the dogs' houses.

Until his new best friend showed him a great spot behind a tree.  It worked until he gave himself away!

Next we visited the cows.

and the tractor.

and had a great family picture made in the field.

Son's three favorite things: strawberries, chocolate, and BBWP. check, check, and check.

It's always such a fantastic time when you can get together with a dear friend (and her family) that you haven't seen in 3 years and it feels like you never left at all.

Our Saturday in Tennessee

A few Saturdays ago we set sail (or car) for a whirlwind 24 super fun time in Tennessee (on our way to our Sunday destination, KY)

First, we stopped in Pulaski, TN. Home of the Old Graveyard Memorial Park.  It's a place Husband and I found by accident on a day we were adventuring.  While there, we found Daughter's name ... even though we didn't even know she was a daughter yet.  It was a week before our gender ultrasound/anatomy scan.  Sigh, poor girl.  She came pretty close to being name Voltaire.  ;-)

We stopped for lunch in downtown Nashville, Puckett's Grocery and Restaurant.  It was fantastic.  We all enjoyed it.  Great turkey burger and sweet potato fries.

Next we stopped by Adventure Science Center in Nashville. Thanks to our McWane membership we enjoyed free admissions.  The kids played and played for about two hours. We were really impressed.  It was fantastic.

Our final stop was our hotel.  We stayed at the Opryland Hotel.  Swimming, Dinner, an indoor boat ride, we did it all before crashing in our room.

Daughter's name

Posing by her name.  I love how Son's head is randomly in my elbow crook!

The park was also a great place for the kids to get out and run off some energy.

This is the first of MANY turkey statues we stopped to take pictures with. Pulaski = the wild turkey capital of the world.

lunch buddies

lunch buddies

the view from the top of the play area at the Adventure Science Center

seriously, he needs longer shorts.

"being a hero and saving the peoples."  

climbing the spine

kiddie pools are favorite pools.

Son and Husband in the indoor pool

Daughter made friends with the 

lifeguard

the indoor pool, the outdoor pool, the kiddie pool.  We went back and forth for two hours. Fun was had by all.

Son was shocked and angered when he learned he had to share his queen sized bed.  He was able to sneak in a little rest before we headed back out for dinner.

I love that this kid loves having her picture made with statues.

boarding our boat ride in the Delta. She told the tour guide she was looking for land.

fantastic view of the delta

One of Daughter's favorite things to do is ride escalators up and down. again and again.  We obliged.  Son and Husband took a sit down break after about the 17th trip. 

We stopped to watch the fountain show on our way back to our room.

It was a super fun day. Made even better by the kids' amazement of all the fun they were getting to have ... next stop, KENTUCKY.

2012 Garden Excitement

Since I planted the garden on Easter, it's been boring.  Not much to notice.  Mainly I've just been watering and waiting (and picking basil, but more on that in a minute)

Until today ...

the first bell pepper

the first tomato (a juliet)

the first blackberries

Actually seeing things I can eat makes the garden more fun.  

Well, except I accidentally bought twice the amount of basil that I bought last year.  Which means I am making TWICE the pesto.  Great for Husband, the pesto lover.  I have made 8 cups of pesto this week.  On a normal week last year, I was making 2 cups a week!  This basil is Husband's dream come true.

It also means I have been buying large amounts of olive oil, parmesan cheese, walnuts and pine nuts!  It also means our freezer it filling up with pesto.  None of that is a bad thing according to Husband!

A Weary Mom's Pipe Dream

I love puzzles.  Growing up, I had about a dozen 1000 piece puzzles that I cycled through over and over again.

I can't even tell you the last time I finished a puzzle intended for a person over the age of 6.  It's been too long.

I have two toddlers who love to help but rarely give me the help I actually need ... you know, to leave me alone and let me actually do something myself.

Also, I have that grey cat.  The one who pushes glasses off the counter if we leave them too close to the edge.  The one who tries to use whatever fabric I'm trying to sew as a bed.  The one who never lets me read the Sunday news paper alone.  

When I saw this puzzle on clearance for $2, I got pretty excited.  In fact, I almost bought all for of the different 1000 piece $2 puzzles. Then I looked over at my kids in the shopping cart, sighed, and just picked the one I liked the best.

Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow but one day I'll open the seal on the puzzle box, pour it out on the dining room table and put this puzzle together in peace.

OR maybe I'll set up a card table in my closet and lock myself in and get started even sooner!!

Wordless Wednesday: Scorpion Suckers

Skill Builder Blocks 28, 29, 30 Odd Shapes

This month we focused on making odd shapes.  And continued using skills we'd already learned - sewing curves, triangles and template work.   

28, 29, 30

The first block was tumblers.  I love the look but it took me a few tries before I got the hang of how to sew them straight.  This is a design I would probably use on a much larger scale one I buy a plastic template.  The one I made out of card stock definitely got shaved down smaller and smaller the more I cut!  There's a pretty noticeable difference between the pieces I but first and the ones I cut last.

Originally, I wanted to do a completely random arrangement.  But after fiddling around with the tumblers for about a half an hour, I realized I would just have to make a design.  Random wouldn't work for me!

I also LOVE the look of apple cores.  I think entire apple core quilts are amazing.  I thought, if this block goes well, I have a future quilt idea.  sigh.  The thing I DON'T love about apple cores is because of the curves, cutting them out with my rotary cutter is out of the question.  And I don't have a cricut or any other such cutting machine so that left me with scissors.  After cutting 9 apple cores for a 12in block, I had definitely decided I was not adding an apple core quilt to my future quilt idea list ANY time soon.

In my always present thought of keeping the main fabric MAIN, I decided to make it  the corner fabric instead of the center. I didn't want the main green to be the border.

 This Equilateral Triangle Block was SUPER fast to sew together.  The longest thing was cutting out all the triangles.  And AGAIN my cardstock template ended up smaller than I started.  A would make a triangle quilt like this with a plastic template.  It definitely sews together really quickly.

I cut 6 of the main green triangles and the other greens (excluding the solid mint) only had two.  I accidentally flipped the top half and bottom half when I sewed them together, but it wasn't a mistake I wanted to fix.  It didn't really mess anything up, just changed my design

I really like working with all this fabric now.  Which is such a change from when it first arrived.  It's also fun to see 3 blocks a month added to the design wall.

Also Leila, who hosts the Skill Builder Sampler tutorial on her blog, does a random giveaway of fabric for everyone that finishes the 3 blog set on time.  The longer the series goes, the fewer people complete the blocks.  Sooner or later, I'm going to be a random winner.  I just know it.  ;-)