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Gifts for our teachers this year; owl bookbags made with my sewing machine!

I am learning to sew

Madison's birthday gifts

 For Madison's birthday this year I presented her with a few items I made myself using my mom's sewing machine.  These are simple projects, as I am just learning on the machine.  All these are made with discount material from Fabricland's clearance section.

Piggy wallet

 The first thing I tried was this piggy change purse.  I found a detailed instruction list and pattern at http://www.noseynest.blogspot.ca/.  I thought it turned out really cute! 

Piggy magic bag

 Next I made this magic bag.  I didn't use a pattern for this, just made up my own shape, and I thought it would be cute to keep with the pig theme.  I researched what to put in the bag online, and tested a variety of materials before settling on pot barley as filler. 

Caddy

Lastly, I made this "caddy".  I thought it would attach just under the side of a mattress to put your book in etc beside the bed; but it can hold school supplies on your chair, or remote controls beside the couch etc.  Again, no pattern I just sewed squares of material onto each other to make pockets. 

Madison was thrilled with her pretty material, and she has been using all the things since her birthday.  I have made another gift set for my nephew (forgot to take pics), and have plans for many more fairly easy handmade things to come!

Spa Party!

Colour theme was pink and black.  Cupcakes instead of a big cake this year.

 Madison's 10th birthday and we celebrated in style with a spa party.  10 invitations went out to friends in her class.  I forgot to take a picture of them before she took them to school, but I had bought jeweled mirror compacts on sale at Claire's and cut a piece of cardstock to fit inside each one on which I printed the details of the party.  Unfortunately, several of the girls were away at camp that weekend, but we still had 6 attend (plus two little sisters).

The colour theme was pink and black, and we had lots of goodies to eat.  Not pictured were cheese and sausage canapes, pink popcorn, pink lemonade, and pink wafer cookies.  The food was prepared, now time for the guests!

Little coloured flags on toothpicks made plain fruit a little extra fancy.

Banana chocolate mini muffins with a dollop of black chocolate icing and a candy ball topper.  Mini pretzels with a Smartie topper.

When the guests arrived one or two at a time I had them sit in the "waiting room" with some magazines until all the girls were together.  I had a line on some teen mags but I never did get my hands on them, so we had OWL, National Geographic Kids, and Ranger Rick for them to peruse.

When we were all assembled, I had each guest put a shower cap over her hair and we started the movie The Princess Diaries.  By twos and threes I had them come to the bathroom where I had mixed a facial mask out of avocado, yogurt, oatmeal, and honey.  They smeared on the mask (they thought this was hilarious) and had a good laugh at each other with the goop on.  When we were all waiting for the masks to dry, I gave them some cucumbers for their eyes.  They thought the cucumbers were cold and uncomfortable on their eyes, plus they couldn't watch the movie with them on, but it made for a good picture.

While their skin was being exfoliated, I filled two footbaths and they took turns choosing the scented bubbles for their foot soak.  After each one had soaked and dried her feet, she picked a scented lotion to rub on.  While the rest of the girls were waiting and watching the movie, they helped themselves to the food and chowed down!

The girls basking with their masks and cucumbers.

Soaking their dogs in some warm bubbles.

 When everyone's feet were done, we started taking turns making the sugar scrub.  My mom had mixed a big bowl of sugars, and they filled little glass jars (Value Village finds) with the mixture.  Then each guest chose a flavoured extract (I had vanilla, almond, orange, mint, root beer, and anise to choose from) to mix with the oil, and poured it into the packed sugar.  This was a bit messy, but they loved it!  When it had been thoroughly combined, they tied a pretty ribbon around it and added a card labelled with their name and the scent they chose. 

Making sugar scrub!

Jars of scrub to take  home.

 Next we did manicures one at a time.  They chose from several colours of nailpolish and glitter or gems.  This took a while because we could only do one at a time, but they felt very fancy with their new nails.  When everyone's hands were done, we sat in a circle on the floor.  I gave each girl a bottle of nailpolish and turned up the tunes.  They giggled and passed around the bottles while bopping to the music but when the music stopped, they had to paint one toenail with whatever colour they were holding.  They loved this game, and after 10 music stops they had crazy multicoloured toes! 

Musical nailpolish pedicures.

While the toes were drying, I cranked up some more fun songs, and they played "freeze dance" on flexed, hobbling feet so they wouldn't mess up their pedicures.  The parents started to arrive and the guests started to leave.  Each guest took home a tote bag with her bottle of sugar scrub, a nail kit, a nail file, a hair accessory from Claire's, a necklace or bracelet from Claire's, and one of the bottles of nailpolish we had used for the party. 

Madison had specified that instead of bringing gifts to the party, the guests may bring a donation to cancer related projects at our local hospital.  The families were very generous, and Madison had a sizable donation for the hospital the next week.  They were so impressed, and made a big fuss over her; giving her a tour of the oncology ward, taking her picture, giving her a chocolate thank you, and even sending her name and picture to the newspaper!

#7: I Run

I ran. I finished.  It was good. 

The half marathon in Vancouver went well.  I felt relaxed about the race because I had not set a pace goal.  It felt nice to just enjoy the experience without worrying about how fast I was going and pushing the entire time.  That said, I was feeling pretty strong and was able to make some time during the downhills and the straightaways.  And then I "dropped the hammer" in the last 5k just for the sake of a fast finish.  Whoot!

My time was not anywhere near my last 21.1k race, but I had not trained with any speed in mind.  In fact, I trained at a SUPER slow, snail pace the entire time so this finish was a pleasant surprise.  My chip time was 1hr:55min:30sec.  Not bad for dogging the whole training program!

This was my first bout of running after almost an entire year off due to injuries, and I feel pretty good about it.  I might do some more no-pressure races this year! 

The dog days are over

This week I will officially start my taper period before the half marathon race on May 6th.  Taper is when the training "tapers" off towards the end so that I can rest up and save my strength for the race.  Running my recovery after the last long run (13 miles) of the training program, this song came on my ipod and I totally rocked out to it:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGrx6etMl0w

The Dog Days Are Over (Florence and the Machine).  I've always likened this song to the taper period because it feels like the dog days of the training are done and all that's left is the coast into the race.

 "Happiness hit her like a bullet in the back" is so similar to the ambivalence I feel at taper.  It's so great to finally be done the tough runs, no more long slogs, no more gutting it out when you don't feel like it.  However, the lack of confidence creeps up; have I trained hard enough?  Is my goal realistic for me?  Will I get sick or injured in the next week?  But like the song says, I have no choice but to let it come as it may; what's done is done. 

"Run fast for your mother and fast for your father
run for your children, for your sisters and brothers
Leave all your love and your longing behind 
you can't carry it with you if you want to survive"
I feel like this embodies the race itself.  Run as fast as you can, do it for all the people who have put up with your miserable self during the training period and who are cheering and encouraging you from the sidelines.  They are proud of you no matter what, give them what they deserve - the best you have.

"The dog days are ove-er, the dog days are done
The horses are coming so you better run"
I have no analogy for horses, but the race is coming.  The entrants are ready and you'd better be ready too.  Now that the preparation is over the only thing left is to run. 

Easter

I know, I promised pictures of spring break.  Well, they are delayed, but I really do have a reason. 

In the meantime, a brief overview of Easter.  We had a long 4-day week.  I cleaned up and unpacked from our trip and prepared for the feast this weekend.  We were graced by the presence of both Kent's parents and my Mom and Ken so we had a mostly full table on Saturday.  We stuffed ourselves so full that we had to lounge on the couch the rest of the evening. 

Sunday  morning the kids got up rarin' to get at the easter goodies hiding all over the house.  Poor Revy had to wait in his kennel until the chocolate had all been snatched up.  Brimming baskets out of reach of the dog, and the kids are enjoying their new puzzles (thanks, Nana and Grumpa!).  A nice, lazy Sunday was definitely in order. 

Monday will hopefully have warm weather and a successful run for me, and a restful day for Kent before back to school.  Hope all is well for all of you, Happy Easter to everyone!

Poor weather

Spring break is over.  It was fun while it lasted despite the horrendous weather we endured the second week.  It seems to have flown by and now we're back to school and routine.  Back to running again (today was windy and cold), and starting up soccer this week.  Between soccer and tae kwon do we'll be having a very busy schedule for the next few months, but the kids are looking forward to their activities. 

Revy enjoyed his stay in a kennel while we were away over part of spring break.  He boarded in a private home on a luxurious hobby farm with several other dogs to play with.  The hostess took him for walks in the country and laughed at his antics.  He was nevertheless very happy to see us upon our return and has been lavishing attention over us and the children ever since we picked him up. 

The first week of spring break was spent enjoying some downtime while the children attended a morning day camp with some of their friends.  They had a blast, and Kent and I got to do a few errands and solitary runs.  Next we made the trek to Vancouver for some visiting and appointments, as well as managing to squeeze in a visit to Science World.  Afterwards we drove to Seattle for a couple of days as tourists, and then back to Vancouver for a TKD tournament... pics of these marvels to follow.