Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
The Boithday Week
This last week was the only week that matters in DD's entire year. She looks forward to her next birthday before her current birthday is over. This years preparations started, in her eyes, last year the week after her 3rd birhtday. We were going to have a princess party, a fairy party, a dino party, a halloween party, a chuckecheese party, a bubble party, and these are only the ones i can remember there were more much more.
Ultimately we decided on an OWL party! Cause hooo doesnt love owls ;)
I did lots of research on the interwebs to find the cutest owl party stuff and came across a blog where i used every thing they used(but i cut alot of corners) behold pictures:
Then there was the cake... i had originally seen an owl cake in parents magazine that i was going to use, but then ran across this book Cupcake Cakes in Wegmans, and thought it was such an awesome idea i had to go with it! This was not the cutest cake in the book, and i didnt do to good of a job on it. In hind sight i should have used homade butter cream icing for the white icing, instead i used a tub of icing, and it was not stiff enough to hold up over the cupcakes... i did make the chocolate icing(as per the books recipe) and it was super easy and really tasty so i am kicking my self in the butt for not going all the way and making the white icing too. The cupcakes were devils food cake and it was pretty delish :-d
We had the party at a local park, and i now know i we will never do it at our house again!! Bringing all the stuff to the park was a little bit of work, but oh how fun and easy the rest was. Cleaning up was so simple too! We let the kids play at the play area until everyone arrived and then gathered all of em up to go on a scavenger hunt. That morning(cause i kept putting it off) the husband and i went down the nature train and picked a bunch of leaves, i took pictures of them and put em this collage then taped them onto the front of paper lunch bags. We handed the paper bags out and took the kids down the trail and helped them find the items on the bag.
I was worried about them liking this since they were all about 4-5 years old, but it was AWESOME, they really really liked it!! At the end of the trail Husband was waiting with little favor boxes full of tootsie roll candy (cause its an owl theme hehe).
Then we headed back for cake!! and pizza and fruit... it was all gone, by the end of the party, we had some hungry little owls!
notice the ballons sitting on the table in front of the cake, they were stuffed with felt Numbers that coincided with bags that had the owl pillows tucked inside. We blew up the ballos and let the kids pick one and pop it, then they got to open their own owl pillow!!
Then of course we opened presents, and then got kicked out of the park for closing time!
So thats it for the party let me show you what else we did that week.
Ultimately we decided on an OWL party! Cause hooo doesnt love owls ;)
I did lots of research on the interwebs to find the cutest owl party stuff and came across a blog where i used every thing they used(but i cut alot of corners) behold pictures:
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| the invite |
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| the first 6 pillows(there were 11 in all) each one had a pocket with a tootsie roll pop in it! |
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| the first pillow |
Then there was the cake... i had originally seen an owl cake in parents magazine that i was going to use, but then ran across this book Cupcake Cakes in Wegmans, and thought it was such an awesome idea i had to go with it! This was not the cutest cake in the book, and i didnt do to good of a job on it. In hind sight i should have used homade butter cream icing for the white icing, instead i used a tub of icing, and it was not stiff enough to hold up over the cupcakes... i did make the chocolate icing(as per the books recipe) and it was super easy and really tasty so i am kicking my self in the butt for not going all the way and making the white icing too. The cupcakes were devils food cake and it was pretty delish :-d
We had the party at a local park, and i now know i we will never do it at our house again!! Bringing all the stuff to the park was a little bit of work, but oh how fun and easy the rest was. Cleaning up was so simple too! We let the kids play at the play area until everyone arrived and then gathered all of em up to go on a scavenger hunt. That morning(cause i kept putting it off) the husband and i went down the nature train and picked a bunch of leaves, i took pictures of them and put em this collage then taped them onto the front of paper lunch bags. We handed the paper bags out and took the kids down the trail and helped them find the items on the bag.
I was worried about them liking this since they were all about 4-5 years old, but it was AWESOME, they really really liked it!! At the end of the trail Husband was waiting with little favor boxes full of tootsie roll candy (cause its an owl theme hehe).
Then we headed back for cake!! and pizza and fruit... it was all gone, by the end of the party, we had some hungry little owls!
notice the ballons sitting on the table in front of the cake, they were stuffed with felt Numbers that coincided with bags that had the owl pillows tucked inside. We blew up the ballos and let the kids pick one and pop it, then they got to open their own owl pillow!!
Then of course we opened presents, and then got kicked out of the park for closing time!
The big gift this year was... A BIKE, but not just any bike, a STRIDER bike. we ordered it off the google and payed for expedite shipping... and it still didnt get here on time so the monday after her party she got her bike.
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| we decided to test it out at the skate park, little guy had to take his bike too! |
FONDUE
Some hats for some baby showers
And a much needed Recycle Can I am hoping that the pretty blue letters i sprayed on will convince Husband to stop throwing all my recycling into the trash bin on trash day and put it out on recycle day!
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Vinyasa Hatha Dilemma
Today marks the return of my worn down beaten pregnant body, to yoga. Oh how i love love love yoga!
It is a strange thing for me to say that because it wasn't always this way... Highschool and a few years of college was spent on anaerobic exercises and trying to become "as strong as possible" and then killing myself on a treadmill or elliptical for, what seemed to me, absolutely no reason(i hate cardio). It was one semester after a particularly intense tennis class that i decided to take "a cheat" PE class. What would be easier than YOGA, it's just breathing and silly names, the hardest thing i could think of about this class was that it was at 8 in the morning(ludicrous). The first class was spent talking about our feeling, and the all importance of breath and oxygen, the negative aspects of judging ourselves and others, and inner peace... and i am pretty sure the teacher, though born and raised in SoCal was buddhist. I almost quit the class, were it not for the need for another PE credit, i guess i had negative energy ;)
Then the real classes started, we were being taught Hatha yoga. Slow and easy and super duper relaxing, it quickly became what i looked forward to every week!! Of course i was much skinnier and more flexible, than i am now after 2 children and lots of sunday dinners, so it came so very easy to me.
Now 5 years later i am a full on Vinyasa fan. I love that i sweat without really doing anything. Then there is feeling soar the next day without ever exerting any energy(i hate cardio did i mention that). Really though the best part is my posture... its amazing, everything looks and feels different after yoga. Unless you dont drink enough water then, well, you feel like poop. I know that my first yoga teacher was a little out there, but now i can honestly say i understand what she was so excited for.
Allow me to expound on my yoga deficiencies...For my first two pregnancies i have been so out of it i couldn't do ANYTHING. For Baby A i was sick THE WHOLE TIME, i think there was one month(around month 7) that i wasnt throwing up daily, so obviously no time for downward dog. For baby B i was sick for only the first 3-4 months and then i used the ever so enduring excuse of chasing around my 15 month old daughter. There was something new in the mix too, my pelvic bone was just way to lose, i would be in ridiculous pain while walking, laying on my side or on my back or even sitting for any amount of time. But i blamed this on my pregnancies being almost on top of each other. So once again sliding into a sedentary life style (luckily my eating habbits were moving towards healthy by this point.
Baby #C... this is where the dilemma comes in. I am no longer "tossing my cookies" so to speak and i am feeling pretty energetic, so i went to my usual Yoga class this morning. It is Vinyasa, but is even leaning a little to the ashtanga side of things. I really felt so awkward doing it being pregnant, even though there were other pregers present. It may have had something to do with me being in terrible shape after a 4 month absence, or it could have been the honey dew sized belly i am now dealing with finding a spot for in some of the poses. Either way it was tough, and my pelvic bone is no better this pregnancy that it was last(in fact it has been painful since the 6 weeks mark). I thought that if i just go and tough it out, feeling more aligned and having a bit of a core workout would help, but i have been walking funny ever since. So now i have to decide to stick with it and hope it doesnt get worse, move to hatha yoga(where the geriatrics go) and just stay flexible but not really get a work out, or just go swimming to keep the pregnancy weight down (i am determined not to let myself go to far this time) and i HATE swimming, in the worse way possible!
At any rate i did enjoy myself greatly this morning and i will probably go with the husband a few times, cause he finally sees the light in yoga (i couldnt resist), but i shall see if i can actually stick with it!
thats about as enlightened as i get so deal with it ;)
It is a strange thing for me to say that because it wasn't always this way... Highschool and a few years of college was spent on anaerobic exercises and trying to become "as strong as possible" and then killing myself on a treadmill or elliptical for, what seemed to me, absolutely no reason(i hate cardio). It was one semester after a particularly intense tennis class that i decided to take "a cheat" PE class. What would be easier than YOGA, it's just breathing and silly names, the hardest thing i could think of about this class was that it was at 8 in the morning(ludicrous). The first class was spent talking about our feeling, and the all importance of breath and oxygen, the negative aspects of judging ourselves and others, and inner peace... and i am pretty sure the teacher, though born and raised in SoCal was buddhist. I almost quit the class, were it not for the need for another PE credit, i guess i had negative energy ;)
Then the real classes started, we were being taught Hatha yoga. Slow and easy and super duper relaxing, it quickly became what i looked forward to every week!! Of course i was much skinnier and more flexible, than i am now after 2 children and lots of sunday dinners, so it came so very easy to me.
Now 5 years later i am a full on Vinyasa fan. I love that i sweat without really doing anything. Then there is feeling soar the next day without ever exerting any energy(i hate cardio did i mention that). Really though the best part is my posture... its amazing, everything looks and feels different after yoga. Unless you dont drink enough water then, well, you feel like poop. I know that my first yoga teacher was a little out there, but now i can honestly say i understand what she was so excited for.
Allow me to expound on my yoga deficiencies...For my first two pregnancies i have been so out of it i couldn't do ANYTHING. For Baby A i was sick THE WHOLE TIME, i think there was one month(around month 7) that i wasnt throwing up daily, so obviously no time for downward dog. For baby B i was sick for only the first 3-4 months and then i used the ever so enduring excuse of chasing around my 15 month old daughter. There was something new in the mix too, my pelvic bone was just way to lose, i would be in ridiculous pain while walking, laying on my side or on my back or even sitting for any amount of time. But i blamed this on my pregnancies being almost on top of each other. So once again sliding into a sedentary life style (luckily my eating habbits were moving towards healthy by this point.
Baby #C... this is where the dilemma comes in. I am no longer "tossing my cookies" so to speak and i am feeling pretty energetic, so i went to my usual Yoga class this morning. It is Vinyasa, but is even leaning a little to the ashtanga side of things. I really felt so awkward doing it being pregnant, even though there were other pregers present. It may have had something to do with me being in terrible shape after a 4 month absence, or it could have been the honey dew sized belly i am now dealing with finding a spot for in some of the poses. Either way it was tough, and my pelvic bone is no better this pregnancy that it was last(in fact it has been painful since the 6 weeks mark). I thought that if i just go and tough it out, feeling more aligned and having a bit of a core workout would help, but i have been walking funny ever since. So now i have to decide to stick with it and hope it doesnt get worse, move to hatha yoga(where the geriatrics go) and just stay flexible but not really get a work out, or just go swimming to keep the pregnancy weight down (i am determined not to let myself go to far this time) and i HATE swimming, in the worse way possible!
At any rate i did enjoy myself greatly this morning and i will probably go with the husband a few times, cause he finally sees the light in yoga (i couldnt resist), but i shall see if i can actually stick with it!
thats about as enlightened as i get so deal with it ;)
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Procrastination is what Anitra's do best!!
Hi my name is Anitra and I have a sever case of, "I'll do it tomorrow's".... sheeewww i am glad i got that off my shoulders! Now that i have admitted to my problem, i can start working on correcting it! But that is a project best suited for tomorrow ;) Any-who, lets talk about the past. these past few weeks have been spent tying up loose ends (OH so many loose ends) and, of course, starting some new things to put off!
Case Number... lets just call it one(to simplify things): The garden! I spent the last bit of winter building a nice looking box, and then didnt fill it till mothers day! OBSERVE:
* it has been a fair amount of weeks since planting and apparently i am not the only creature in the back yard that likes egg plants, and they have since been destroyed MERCILESSLY. But all is not lost, metaphorically speaking (because they really are all gone) i shall take my revenge, i have made a purchase of organic insect torture--> ORANGE OIL. i shall melt the exoskeleton's of those pesky bugs and let them dehydrate to death, all without damaging what is left of the environment, behold the power of Citrus!
Case Number... lets just call it one(to simplify things): The garden! I spent the last bit of winter building a nice looking box, and then didnt fill it till mothers day! OBSERVE:
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| Honey Dew |
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| pretty cucumbers all in a row |
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| my Box filled with bug bait* |
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| a view from the tomato cam |
But really the garden has been quite rewarding, no food yet, but it is nice to get out of the house to water it and pull up weeds, or just go sit next to it and ACT like i am doing something, just so i am not in the house!
Case #2: Baby gear! i finally finished the EPIC ruffle binding on the baby blanket. Lets have a look at the evidence:
Case #3: Board and Battened living room: It only too a few tantrums and more back pain than it may have been worth but I can finally chalk up a win for house insert my last name!
Heres a Before-ish photo
After:
Now we have a few more projects going on, the first of which is removing all the carpet in the house and cleaning the floor underneath, on Husbands last trip out of town, some friends came over for what was suppose to be a quick project (i should know better by now, that no project is a quick one) we were going to pull up the spare room and hall way carpet. We wound up pulling up the stair well carpet and the upstairs hall way also, and then discovering the disaster that lay beneath, spent the rest of the day scrubbing what ever this stuff was off of the floor!
Case #2: Baby gear! i finally finished the EPIC ruffle binding on the baby blanket. Lets have a look at the evidence:
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| I didnt put batting in it, and my thinking was because little Paislee is a summer baby, so I didnt want it to be too hot. Though in hind site i should have, so she could have a cushy blanket to roll around on. |
Also in the box of goodies a plethora of essential, and then a few more hand made bits of cuteness!
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| A knitted balloon bunny, courtesy of a free lion brand pattern! |
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| some wool soakers designed by yours truly |
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| This one is my favorite, Ruffled Baby Bottoms pattern to come, as soon as i write it :) |
Heres a Before-ish photo
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| Carpet removed and holes being patched. There used to be this really ugly built in book case on the side wall, it was so old i think it may have been structurally significant to the house, we took it out the week we bought the house! |
After:
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| new carpet and new blinds... and there is something else different, I just cant put my finger on it. |
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| a new perspective |
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| a new light fixture(lowes), and some pretty hooks (ikea) |
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| my new window frame!! My favorite feature! |
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| Its the little details that make the biggest difference |
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| a huge upgrade, multi directional air flow!! |
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| Tamper Resistance built right in!!! |
Thats all the finished stuff for now and the rest will wait until tomorrow... or maybe the day after that
....well eventually
Friday, May 6, 2011
Tea dresses, and panda pancakes!
I have added a new title image(i am sure you noticed) and i know exactly what you are thinking, "I want some piggy shaped pancakes too!!!" well let me assure you they tasted more like pig than they did pancake(and i'm not talking bacon), i had ran out of vanilla, so opted to make them anyways, and they tasted like salt and backing soda. The kids ate them up anyways, River thought they looked like panda's, and though i explained to her that they were in fact pigs she insisted on having panda shaped pancakes.... so her pigs were actually Panda pancakes! We also made an homage to angry birds Pancake:
its so realistic i want to shoot birds at it!!
River was to attend a tea party today, so naturally i had to make her a dress appropriate for such a cordial occasion! As i had mentioned before, I've been wanting to smock up some dresses and skirts, so this morning i hopped to it. I shall provide a quick tutorial on how i made the dress on a machine with a drop in bobbin . From what i have read you need a machine with a bobbin case to stretch the elastic thread enough, but that is not the case.
FOIST: Pick out some cute, very light weight material. In my case i used some pin stripe seer sucker. Cut the material, chest width times about 3, and start byt making a tiny rolled hem at the top of the dress. If you have a serger, serg the edge and then fold over about a quarter of an inch, and stitch in place.
THEN:You need some elastic thread... found at joanns. The color of the thread is not so detrimental because it will not be seen.
Now you must tighten the bobbin tension. This is really the tricky part, if you have an older Singer machine you will have to use a penny to turn a dial at the back of you machine, but the newer singer machines have a teensy little screw on the bobbin case itself: the green screw
This is the back side of your fabric:
AFTER you have sewn 4-5 inches of shirring, you can sew the seam up the back, and hem up the bottom. Remember to readjust your bobbin tension. I used a wide hem.
SLEEVES: you can now add ribbon, for a quick strap or you can make gathered sleeves. I cut four inch strips, and made a small rolled hem along both long sides(again if you have a serger you can do it the easy way) Then loosened my top tension to 0 and sewed about a quarter inch from the edge each short side of the sleeve. Then you pull the top thread so that the fabric bunches. Put the dress on your little model or guestimate and pin straps to the inside on your dress and sew on the top seam so as to hide you line. 
Finally: let you little lady of society wear her new dress proudly!! Couple it with a stately hat to polish off her tea party look :)
I also made my skirt, but i havent taken pictures of it yet, so it will have to wait for another post. I hope you enjoyed my tutorial!! TTFN
River was to attend a tea party today, so naturally i had to make her a dress appropriate for such a cordial occasion! As i had mentioned before, I've been wanting to smock up some dresses and skirts, so this morning i hopped to it. I shall provide a quick tutorial on how i made the dress on a machine with a drop in bobbin . From what i have read you need a machine with a bobbin case to stretch the elastic thread enough, but that is not the case.
FOIST: Pick out some cute, very light weight material. In my case i used some pin stripe seer sucker. Cut the material, chest width times about 3, and start byt making a tiny rolled hem at the top of the dress. If you have a serger, serg the edge and then fold over about a quarter of an inch, and stitch in place.
THEN:You need some elastic thread... found at joanns. The color of the thread is not so detrimental because it will not be seen.You can wind it with you regular machine bobbin winder. Then insert it as per you machines directions into the bobbin.
Use your little screwdriver, put it in the provided notch and turn it till the spring is tightened almost completely.
You must also increase the top thread tension to between 7-9, and thread it with coordinating all purpose thread(or whatever thread you have that matches)
NOW: Sew your first smock or shirred line just under the rolled hem, then each subsequent line 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch under the previous. You will need to stretch you material as you sew to get the desired effect.
AFTER you have sewn 4-5 inches of shirring, you can sew the seam up the back, and hem up the bottom. Remember to readjust your bobbin tension. I used a wide hem.
SLEEVES: you can now add ribbon, for a quick strap or you can make gathered sleeves. I cut four inch strips, and made a small rolled hem along both long sides(again if you have a serger you can do it the easy way) Then loosened my top tension to 0 and sewed about a quarter inch from the edge each short side of the sleeve. Then you pull the top thread so that the fabric bunches. Put the dress on your little model or guestimate and pin straps to the inside on your dress and sew on the top seam so as to hide you line. 
Finally: let you little lady of society wear her new dress proudly!! Couple it with a stately hat to polish off her tea party look :)
I also made my skirt, but i havent taken pictures of it yet, so it will have to wait for another post. I hope you enjoyed my tutorial!! TTFN
Monday, May 2, 2011
The First of Many
Welcome to my continuous stream on nonsense. It took some convincing, internally mostly, to finally start a blog... i came to the conclusion that if i blog about my projects then it is very likely that i will finish them! I dont have to terribly much to say, i guess i can tell you what i need to finish, and what i want to start. First and for most i have a baby blanket to finish for my sister in law, all that it requires is the binding, and yet here i am typing about it, rather than working on it. Then there is the living room, it needs to be board and battoned and then painted, then i have to finish quilting a picnic blanket that i started last summer, its a monster and i will probably put that off for an even longer time, and then there is the room upstairs that is torn apart ready to reassemble(completely unusable at the moment) and the Bus sitting in the garage that is inoperable. These things are all Old news to me (which is probably part of the problem for why they are not finished yet) Let me move on to more pressing items :) What i want to do, i have decided to make smocked skirts for my summer wardrobe!!! YAY it is so dang hard to find skirts the length I want... Prepare yourself for a skirt rant (also the first of many)... All i want is a comfortable summer skirt that A: fits my ever expanding belly(baby in it or not it is expanding) and 2: is long enough to cover my knobby knees, and short enough to not trip over!! this may seem like an easy task but as life would have it there are only two options in the skirt world, that i have seen anyways, the 16 year old length: oh the days of not caring about cottage cheese, this length would be scary for every one standing around me at the time of my wearing it, and i am personally terrified when anyone over the age of innocents is sporting this length skirt! Then there is the breakyourneck skirt: i have owned and chopped up a few of these very popular skirts, they make you look like a gypsy or you are on vacation in Bora Bora, walking up stairs is rendered impossible due to the risk of stepping on the hem and either pulling the elastic down your hind quarters, or falling teeth first into the steps a head of you. Chaseing after children is COMPLETELY out of the question, my solution is generally to cut it off at the calf, but i am not satisfied with paying so much for a skirt that i am going to have to fix myself. So Smocking my own skirts will be my next line of business!! and also a dress for my dd River! At this very moment i am going to go make some pig shaped pancakes for my title thingy at the top of the page. So live long and prosper homies <--- my impression of Spock if he lived in the hood ;)
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