A little teaser...

So I had a complete Sandy moment on Wednesday and decided that I just HAD to make a little gift for all of the girlfriends that are going on the trip. So...I spent Wednesday night and the better part of Thursday crafting. I don't want to post pictures before the cruise because I don't want to spoil the surprise...but I couldn't be happier with how they all turned out! I'll post pictures as soon as I get back...

Adios!

Greg and I are off to Mexico tomorrow. I can't believe this trip is here...we've been planning it for over a year and a half. We are headed to Cabo, Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta - via cruise ship. There are 5 other couples going with us...King Henry friends...the greatest! I'm so excited and know it will go by fast, so I'm going to try to enjoy every moment of it. Adios!

One more dress...

This is my latest creation for Ava! It's hard to tell from the picture, but the entire bodess is smocked. It is the most difficult thing that I've done, but I'm really happy with how it turned out. I have another pattern and some more fabric...but it will have to wait a week or two!

One more little fashion show...

So here is the same shirt...now with the matching little capri pants...

Then I made this little number - which is actually a variation of the same shirt above - just lengthening the sleeves and adding a ruffle to the bottom. I was a little surprised at how long the shirt is, but figure that it will be cute for a long time....right??

She is showing you the decorations on her jeans (which I didn't do - but she wanted to show)...alright, I'm done for today!!

A Tami inspired project!

A few weeks ago Tami came over and was showing me some of the crafting she had been doing. One of the things she showed me was a set of little beaded things...lizards, bees, people, etc. She loves them, but wasn't sure exactly what she was going to do with them. As soon as I saw the bees, I had an idea of how I could use them! So, she lent me a bee and I was off to the bead store to replicate! I also made flowers and a dragonfly. I made a new frame and used the same type of dremel tool to carve it as the first one that is in Ava's room. Then I took the mirror from her old frame and put it into the new one...I love how it turned out! It's a really great accent to the room and matches (but isn't exact) to the other frame. Yeah!

Just a close up of one of the flowers and the dragonfly...

And one of the bumblebees...

This was the original frame that the mirror was in. I put magnets on it and then covered it with green fabric so I could hang Ava's hairbows on it. Well...when I got it all done and hung it up, it looked like a crazy mess o' hairbows on the wall. I was pretty disappointed and wasn't quite sure how to fix it. Tami came over to see the new beaded mirror and agreed that the bows were too much...she however, had a fix! She suggested taking one of the decorative flowers that was on her dresser and just pinning it onto the fabric. Simple and perfect! Thanks Tami for both the inspiration and the fix!

I have even gotten a little bit done for me!

I added the ruffle to the bottom of this skirt...I have always liked this skirt, but I have also always wished it was just an inch or two longer...now it is!

Don't get too excited! I only made the shrug for this dress. It is a little number for the cruise (a Ross special) and it just had straps - no sleeves. I thought I was going to wear a little shade shirt under it until I came home and tried it and looked like a girl wearing a little t-shirt under a semi-formal dress...hmmmm...plan B. Well, here's plan B!

Ava fashion show: part 2

I just finished this shirt last night and am really happy with how it turned out. I am going to make another version of it where the waist doesn't have elastic and it has a ruffle at the bottom instead. The jeans are from the GAP - can't take any credit for those!

Ava fashion show: part 1

Holly asked me to have Ava put her outfits on instead of just showing them hanging...so here it is! This top dress is what they call a "pillowcase" dress. You can literally make one out of a pillowcase (and if you don't, you essentially make a pillow case and then cut arms in). It is a pretty baggy fit, but it sure seems like it would be comfortable...boutique - little girl moo-moo?

I love this outfit and so did Ava...she didn't want to take it off! I modified a pair of jeans that were too short, but fit great in the waist still and then just added a little heart to a $3 Walmart t-shirt.

See, I told you she didn't want to take the last outfit off! I love this skirt!! Obviously it will look a little more "done" with a matching top and hair bows...of course!

This is another jeans modification skirt. It looks a little wonky in this picture, but it's pretty cute on...

Ava loves this one too...it makes her spin and dance...what could be better than that??

Be the hero for a hero

On Saturday after we toured the Fire Station, Greg and I did something that I have wanted to do for a long time - we registered to be on the National Bone Marrow Registry. This is something that I have thought about a lot because of both the Johnson and Gustafson families, and this was the perfect opportunity. There was a 9/11 firefighter in Duluth who was hoping to find a match and came here because he is of Scandinavian heritage...you have a better chance of matching with someone of the same heritage. We ended up on the news! Take a look...it's only about a minute and a half and we are sprinkled throughout...and when you're done, go get on the registry!!

http://www.fox21online.com/news/nine-eleven-hero-travels-duluth-search-cure-cancer

I scream, you scream...

Yep, you know how it goes!

I'm not sure why they all wanted to sit on the counter, but they did...and then Zach said, "hey, take our picture"...so I did!

This one's for Grandma and Grandpa

My parents sent Ava an Easter dress for her birthday this year. My mom and I actually found it on Etsy and so they didn't actually see the dress before they sent it...so here it is! Ava loved it and when I put it on her I said, "oh you look so cute" and she said, "I don't want to be cute, I want to be beautiful". Well there you go.

She was still eating her pear when we were taking pictures, and so the pear got some good exposure yesterday.



There she is...and I do think she's beautiful...I'm such a mom!

We did it!

It was quite the whirlwind, but we completed all of our Spring Break activities! And...we even got to add a few extras in! My friend Cindy planned this treasure hunt for the kids and even made this great map for the Congdon Trail. The kids had an awesome time - complete with Trolls at the bridges and fairies blowing bubbles at the waterfall!

Here they are being silly after finding the treasure (and a little sugared up since the treasure was candy)!

So...we went to the zoo, the children's museum, had a picnic/movie lunch, game night, a special treat, went to the park, did the treasure hunt, went to the aquarium, played with sidewalk chalk, went bowling and to dinner and even found time to go to a Chemistry department fundraiser one evening where they probably did 15 to 20 reaction experiments in 1 hour. It was so much fun and the kids were totally entertained. Afterwards, we were the last ones there and so our kids got to go down to the front and smash some roses against the wall that had been dipped in liquid nitrogen...pretty cool!

It was a busy week, but the kids loved it and we spent a lot of time doing really great things...happy Spring Break to us!

How could I not have known??

I have never really wanted to sew clothing because I figured that whatever I sewed would look pretty home made. I am a self taught sewer and usually stick to straight lines...blankets and curtains. I have occasionally gone the way of recovering furniture, but still stick to the basics. Well, one of my MOPS friends showed me her stuff and I almost fell over. It is the cutest, boutique girl's clothing I have ever seen...and there was nothing home made looking about it. I was in awe and told her how much I loved it and she assured me that I could make it too. I always have a craft (or two) on my plate, but just kind of brushed the idea of that one off.

She emailed me this past week and told me she was going out of town for two weeks and wondered if I wanted to borrow her serger (the machine that makes the seams look so professional) and I said, "sure". I mean why not? Well, she gave me a quick tutorial of one of her favorite skirts, and let me borrow some patterns and I was off!

That was Friday and as of last night I had finished 3 skirts! It wasn't without any learning curve (at one point I had to completely pick out a ruffle that I had serged on wrong), but I couldn't be happier with how these turned out. I guess I'll be adding a serger to my wishlist!!

This is just a skirt from a pair of jeans where the legs are too short or the knees blow out, but the waist is still great. Cute and playful.

I took this picture so the seams were showing...isn't that serger great??

Here is an up close of the ruffle and the bias tape...I was pretty proud of myself!

I'm hooked...adding it to my list of crafty things I like to do...and now if I see a cute pattern, I won't be so afraid to try it!

Sir Thomas and Lady Carew

When we were in Utah over winter break, one of the many things we did was look at the artwork at my Grandpa Craig's house. Some of the family members have been working very hard to make sure that everyone gets something that they are fond of and that it is all very fair. The things that I liked best were the grave rubbings from England. Luckily for me, there were about 30 of them! So, I was able to bring these back and have them framed. We hung them up this weekend and are really happy with how they turned out. This one is about 5 feet tall.

Sir Thomas is a whopping 7 feet tall! He was my favorite rubbing of all and we are lucky enough to have a space tall enough to fit him!

Since the light was coming in the window, this picture is extremely dark, but I decided to put it up anyway because you can see how they are hung in the space. Sir Thomas is on the left and Lady Carew is on the right. We couldn't be happier to have our new artwork in our house!

A new way to do our Easter hunt

I was talking to Beth the other night about what we were going to do for Easter baskets this year and I didn't have anything planned yet. She told me that she has done a scavenger hunt before and gave some prizes out for things like, "a trip to the park", "you pick dinner" that the kids could redeem during the week of Spring Break. I thought it was a great idea and so that's what we did this year. The kids loved it!!

I ended up doing 10 clues (hidden in eggs) for each of the kids. Andrew's clues were little riddles, Zach's were more simple and Ava's said things like, "look in your rain boots". We gave each of them their first clue and then went in order of youngest to oldest to find everyone's first egg. Once they all had their eggs, they opened them together and then we went in order again. I was a little worried that the kids might get too bored, or be a little impatient, but they were awesome. Everyone loved when it was their turn to lead the way and have the whole family trail behind to watch them find their next egg/clue. We had put either a little cash or an activity coupon in each egg too. The last clue led them to a little "we love you" and a tiny stash of candy (3 pieces - just an egg of skittles, a chocolate bunny and a Cadbury creme egg). It took us about an hour and was so much fun. We'll definitely be doing it again next year...thanks Beth!

So, all of our pictures are of the kids reading their clues in random parts of the house...no picture perfect poses this year (especially since it was conference weekend and so we didn't get ready to "go" to church. Ava will be sporting her new Easter dress next week!

Here are the prizes to be redeemed this week while they are on break: Go to the zoo, go to the aquarium, go to the Children's Museum, go bowling, Andrew will pick a family treat, family game time, a picnic lunch and movie that Zach gets to pick, family sidewalk chalk time and going to the park...should be a fun and busy week!!

Sap tap

This past Wednesday we went to UMD with the cubscout troop to learn about tapping Maple Trees. We had a great time and it gave me (and my friend Leslie) the fever! It's kind of hard to tell in this picture, but the bad is half way full of sap. I was so surprised that the sap is water consistency and is barely sweet. It takes 32 gallons of sap to condense down to 1 gallon of syrup...there's your trivia for the day!

Here's the group learning about the boiling down process and getting ready to try the difference between "fake" syrup and "real" syrup!

Zach was just watching this bag fill up - drip by drip - it really is amazing!

This is one of the trees that we tapped. Before we put the bag on, we were all tasting the sap as it dripped out. Greg decided to go with the straight to the mouth option for tasting!

On Saturday we got together with Leslie's family and went to buy the spiles and bags to do our own tapping. Then...off to Two Harbors to look on the property where Greg grew up. Well...we had a fun little adventure, but there was not 1 tree to tap! That property is full of pines, birch and poplars...no homemade syrup for us! We had a really fun day and who knows, we may just find a patch of maples yet...so if you see us in your backyard, just let us do what we're doing and we'll bring you some syrup when it's all over!