October 2013 Adventures

I spent all summer training for my 4th Portland Marathon and I did it! I made it through Portland Marathon number four and again I fell in love with the event. Here's a video of the National Anthem before the race started. Wow! It was an awesome way to start the race, all 15,000 participants singing together.

Then a couple weeks later I completed another marathon... a marathon of pumpkin related events all in one weekend. Below is my mini-movie created in iMovie of the fun.

Charlotte Made An Adorable Apron

I'm so proud of my 8 year old (almost 9) daughter Charlotte. Here she is posing with an apron she made (mostly) by herself. We used the new Riley Blake Verona Apron Panel, which I highly recommend for beginners or sewing with kids. It was quick, easy and a lot of fun. Plus look how darling it turned out. You could easily add your own embellishments to really make it your own masterpiece.

It took Charlotte maybe 15 minutes to cut everything out, give or take a few minutes if you add time to play with Sparky and scraps while cutting.

Then the next night we started sewing the pieces together. I had Charlotte do most of it herself. I've had her help me make other little projects (we're both beginners) and she's gotten better and better and handling the machine. At first it was scary, I was worried about somebody loosing a finger, but now that thought only occasionally pops in my head. It would be neat to get her into a sewing class for kids, and maybe she could eventually teach me a few techniques.

She sewed and turned the pocket and straps.

I had her do the pressing too.

I did the finishing edge all around the apron.

She chose the layout of the apron with the pocket at the top and buttons. It turned out great and she's so proud of herself. Now I'm thinking it would be fun to get another colorway (this one is calling my name) and making matching Mom & Daughter Aprons. I bet our cookies will taste even better when we make them wearing these adorable aprons! 

Oh Thank Cuteness!!

Happy Thanksgiving! Generation Q asked readers to share their cute blessings this Thanksgiving. So here are my FIVE awesome kids. I never thought I'd have five kids, but life has a way of working out a little different than a girl "thinks" sometimes and lucky for me it did. I LOVE having this big family!

For a few years it was just me and my sweet girls. Miss Charlotte who is always ready with a big smile when a camera is nearby. Seriously, ever since she was a baby she has a great big smile in every picture. That is definitely — Oh Thank Cuteness!!! 

And my other sweet girl, Miss Josie. She can be a real fire cracker but I just adore this spunky girl. So it was us three lovely ladies, 'til the one day when I met this fellow, and we knew it was much more than a hunch, that this group would somehow form a family....  (sound familiar?)

Anyway "POOF"... I end up with five kids. Kyle my oldest step-son who is so helpful and sweet. And just like his dad, he loves taking things apart and putting them back together. He even taught Josie to ride her bike without training wheels this summer. 

And Alex who is so funny and entertaining. Also one heck of a sweetheart and always ready to help out however I need him. Plus he is so clever, he's always coming up with a punchline. 

And little Jacob. Look at that smile!! Heartbreaker! That little guy is always smiling too, he's so easy going and funny. So there you go. Lucky me to have all of these blessings in my life this Thanksgiving, plus an awesome husband who's making an AMAZING homemade, New York style cheesecake for dessert tomorrow (HEAVEN!) 

There's rarely a dull moment in our house with all of these kids running around, and I'm so thankful that life worked out a little different than I planned.

Pinkalicious!!!

We went to Pinkalicious the Musical presented by Oregon's Children's Theatre last night. It was so cute! I got the girls and their cousin Cambelle all dressed up for the event. Pink! Pink! Pink!

I won tickets this summer from a local radio station. And we've been anxious to go ever since.

Pinkalicious is a children's book that I've read many many times to the girls. It's a cute story and I like how the artwork is done. It's a different style, sort of like a collage.

We met the cast afterward and had them sign our poster. And the girls told Pinkalicious they had all of her books (Pinkalicious, Purplicious and Goldilicious). So funny they were acting like long-time fans.

Dr. Wink did a tap dance routine which the girls really liked too.

Papa's Packing Heat Zinfandel

What else do you give a guy who's turning 70? A bottle of his favorite wine decked out with a birthday label of course! This is the first wine label I've made —usually it's the hard stuff— but I think this turned out really cute. First it's orange, and I'm still loving orange lately, and second, check out the AWESOME pic I had to work with — serious, vintage, pro bowling shot! 

Saaaaaaaa - weet! I totally love old pictures.

The back of the bottle has the logo and a little tribute to the birthday fella. It says "A wine for the master of unusual sports. A champion of pole vaulting, trap shooting, arm wrestling and bowling. This spirit is aged to perfection for a man who is an amazing husband, father and grandfather — Papa."

I had a lot of fun with the typography on this one. I wanted a funky vintage look for this label. I added a toile background to the orange to give it a little texture and I stayed really simple with the colors. The joke is Papa is known for always being armed and dangerous, so they wanted to have a little fun with that — "Always Locked & Loaded" and "Papa's Packing Heat Zinfandel".  He used to be quite the rough and tumble sort of guy and he has a knack for mastering unusual sports like arm wrestling and bowling — he sounds like a pretty fun guy to me. 

Special thanks to my helpers. Josie provided entertainment dancing around the original bottle while I worked on the computer and my dear, sweet, perfectionist of a husband helped trim away the excess pieces on the label. He has the eye for detail and patience for perfection that I am sometimes lacking. You guys are the best :)