Happy 101 to me…

Did you know that you kind, wonderful people have been reading this wonderful, silly little blog for 101 posts already!?!

Some of the favorite posts that I’ve written over the past eight or so months include:

• All of the Swanson Family Reunion recap posts
• One in Six
• House remodel series

To thank you all for taking time out of your day to visit me and leave your thoughtful comments, and, of course, in honor of this momentous occasion, I thought I would have another giveaway!

But then I didn’t get the darn then finished…

So instead,  I will show you some pictures from the quilt retreat I oh so enjoyed last weekend.

The event was a tropical theme and the hard working organizers decorated the place accordingly.

There were about 40 or so attendees, ranging in age from about 27 to 87.  We sewed from early Friday afternoon until late Sunday afternoon.  We were hosted by the generous and kind sisters of the Mount Saint Benedict Monastery. They provided us with wonderful food and a terrific atmosphere for a relaxing weekend of sewing and fellowship with other quilters.

A lot of the gals took a class on the Positively pineapple technique. Here’s how some of the blocks turned out:

I spent most of the time working on Wog’s bed quilt using Rocket Scientist fabrics from In the Beginning fabrics and Katie’s Strip It Big pattern from Bay Window Quilts in Perham, MN.

I like how it turned out and will be excited to see it all finished. Plan on binding it in black.

I also worked on a few bags:

That black one in front was made using a pattern called the Hazel Hipster from Trish over at Two Peas in a Pod Designs.  I liked how it turned out, but thought it needed a little something…

That’s better, don’t you think?

:-)

Training update…

Ok – first, training update…. last week I didn’t start week two of the C25k program.

(hangs head in shame)

But, I did do W2D1 last night!

(Yippee – now feels better about self!)

I understand that here is the rest of the recap from our little team:

• Nate – finished W2D1 and W2D2… plans to finish up Week 2 tonight!
• Jackie – a.k.a. “The Rockstar” will start week 3 tomorrow – Nice work lady!
• Beth - has been working out on her elliptical, enjoying the last few days before her maternity leave runs out.
• Misty – WaHOOOOO! started W1D1 last night! Way to go girl!

Anyone else with us?

Photos from the Quilt retreat tomorrow… and a GIVEAWAY!!

 

 

More projects for the Quilt Retreat

As I mentioned, this weekend I’m headed out of town with about 40 other women.  We will all pack up our sewing rooms, gather our fabrics, and duck out of town before our husbands and kids realize that we’re not coming back until Sunday. 

Ok, I’ll probably let my hubby in on the secret.

Who am I kidding, they’re likely looking forward to this weekend as much as I am! :-)

Well, whatever, but I do plan to sew and quilt and eat and laugh and sew and cut and eat…. you get the idea.

I mentioned I have three projects on my “To Do” list for the weekend.  The first is a rocket ship bed quilt I mentioned yesterday.

The second project, which will likely be the first thing I do since the person who will be sporting the final project had her little guy a few weeks ago!

I’ll be finishing up this diaper bag for Christina.  I found and ordered the pattern online from Wired Up Designs.  It is called the Lucky Baby Diaper bag. So far the bag is still in pieces, but I did make some very good progress on it after I took these pictures. 

The final item on my list is a big one and I don’t expect to finish it this weekend.  I do hope to get a good start on it.  It’s nearly a queen size quilt and I haven’t done a project this big for a long time.

The pattern is Shooting Stars from Heather Mulder Peterson’s book Fat Quarter Cottage.  I’m so looking forward to this quilt because I’m going to use up a stack of Moda Wuthering Heights fat quarters I purchased online a few years (I know, years!) ago.  They were a great deal – only $20 for 20 fat quarters! And Moda at that! Again. I had no idea what I was going to make when I purchased them, and had been looking for just the right thing, and then I came across Heather’s pattern.

So, I’ll be off for a few days and back Monday – hopefully with pictures of some items I can cross off that UFO* list!.

* UFO =quilter’s slang for unfinished object

Happy weekend! Well… almost!

Baby bunting for the girl, Rocket ships for the boy…

Guess what I did last weekend ?  Then guess what I get to do again this weekend? Quilt!

And now you ask, “Why is this such a big deal? Don’t you do this every weekend?”

 To which I respond, defensively, “Well, um, yes, it’s true I do spend lots of time in my little sewing room, but I’ve been busy making so many purses… that I haven’t made any quilts in a while.”

Anywhoo… this past weekend, Miss Lou and I spent Friday night at home while the boys went to watch some hockey.  I had good intentions of finishing up Christina’s diaper bag (see, I haven’t forgotten about you!), but Miss Lou decided that we needed to do a project for her first.

Then I remembered this recent post from the Moda Bake Shop, and when I showed Lou the photo, the deal was done.

She picked out all the fabrics… handed them to me as I ironed each one, and sat on my cutting table as I cut out the blocks.  She arranged the blocks to suit her style, and then when I told her it was time to make a quilt sandwich she got distracted.

She went down to the kitchen and made us real sandwiches.  And she would not let me help. :-)

Yes, she’s a little Miss Independent and I have no idea
where she gets that! ;)

We enjoyed out sammies upstairs and finished the project about 45 minutes later. It was really fun, quick, and easy! It would be a great idea if you need a quick gift for a little girl in your life.

After we finished our little sandwhiches, Lou said to me, “Mom, I love you.  I always love you. Even when I don’t like you. Like when you don’t let me have  a lot of cookies, I still love you.”

It was a great way to spend a Friday evening.

———

This weekend I’ll be going away with some friends for a Quilt Retreat.  our local guild is hosting the event and it looks like it will be a fantastic time.  I hope to have lots of photos for you next week. 

I plan to finish three projects during the retreat.  The first item on my list is a Rocket Ship Bed Quilt for Wog using a pattern from Katie at Bay Window Quilt Shop in Perham.  I purchased a kit from their shop a few months back with fabrics from the Rocket Scientist line from In the Beginning.  I will have to alter the pattern a little so that it is about 10 – 12 inches longer and will better fit his twin bed.

In preparation for the retreat, I managed to cut out the fabric for this quilt on Saturday.  After the cutting for the main project was done, I combined the leftovers with a little extra black fabric I had at home and made …

… this tag-a-long mini quilt that he can use around the house and on trips. The “extra” fabric all happened to be inch and a half wide strips that were the width of the fabric.  (FYI: Moda calls these strips “Honey Buns” because they roll the strips into a ball that looks kinda like a bun.)

Well, after I finished that quick project, I still had some more strips left over, so I made this…

… a table runner for on top of Wog’s dresser!

I didn’t have a pattern for either project and had no idea what I would come up with as I started cutting and sewing… but sometimes, that is more fun than following the instructions! 

If I get ambitious in the next few weeks I might try write-up and post tutorial for these projects.  They are nothing fancy, but I know how nice it is to have those measurements all figured out for you!

Tomorrow I’ll show you the other two projects that are on the plan for this weekend’s Quilt Retreat!

Week One Training Recap

Thanks to all of you who are going along with me on the C25K training program! For those of you wondering, here’s our little team:

• Me
• Nate
• Leanne
• BP
• Sara (yep – I’m counting you here, but you can start after your defense date if you want – but no later!)
• Jackie (and Xav?)
• Nanc?
• Misty?

And as for an update on our progress:

• Me:  completed all three Week 1 workouts: (1/18, 1/21, and 1/25). Feeling pretty good.  The walking part is actually the hard part right now because I feel the urge to run for longer than a minute.  But I’m staying with the program and not doing too much too soon. 
• Nate: completed all three Week 1 workouts: 1/17, 1/20, and 1/24). Says he’s feeling great.  He does have his past cross country experience to draw on… but as he admits, he was a few pounds lighter in those days.
• Leanne – ?
• Beth – ? you did tell me you ran outside once, right? Otherwise you are on the elliptical?  No big worries here… she’s the old running pro in this group having finished a couple half marathons and the full Twin Cities marathon in 2003 (right, it was in 2003? right?)
• Sara – your big accomplishment last week was finally getting your dissertation defense date, right? Did you start running?
• Jackie – Yipee! You finished all three Week 1 workouts as well! Nice work buddy! Did Xav start/finish?
• Nanc - you are probably busy doing last-minute prep for your company this week! Sounds like fun – if all the dang girl cousins weren’t knocked up, I would have suggested a cousins trip… maybe next year!
• Misty – you’re starting Week 1 this week, right?

Ok, folks, good work on week one! 

Week two is another nice building week.  Five minute warm up,  and then I usually do my stretching after those quick five minutes for maximum impact…. some athletic type told me that once and it was confirmed by a few other people who have degrees in that sort of thing, so that’s what I do. Follow the warm up with 20 minutes of alternating 90 seconds of running/jogging and two minutes of walking.

Oh, and I found this link about how Running Can Boost Your Brain Power.

Let me know your progress and thoughts on week 1 in the comments!  Also, give me some ideas of what you are doing for activity on the off days… if anything.  I can tell you that I haven’t been, but would like some ideas.

:-)

Hoarfrost

First, I have been a sucky blogger of late.  Sorry.  And today’s post is about a week overdue as I took the photos on the 15th! Ahhh….

Anyway, here goes:

How can something so beautiful have such an awful sounding name? Or am I the only one who thinks this name does not do the resulting condition justice?

According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center,

Hoarfrost is a deposit of interlocking ice crystals (hoar crystals) formed by direct sublimation on objects, usually those of small diameter freely exposed to the air, such as tree branches, plant stems and leaf edges, wires, poles, etc., which surface is sufficiently cooled, mostly by nocturnal radiation, to cause the direct sublimation of the water vapor contained in the ambient air.

Well, whatever it is, it is a welcome sight whenever it appears on a winter morning and something for which to be thankful.

This morning (uh, the 15th was) was one of those mornings when we woke up to some beautiful hoarfrost.

And I just had to take a few moments today to not only take a few photos, but post them…

…mostly for my dear friend JP.  She’s the one who finally clued me into the correct term for this sight and for whom I thought of this morning as I took the photos.

Hope all is well JP – thinking of you and your new bundle of joy!

————–

tomorrow:  Update on Week One of Training

Training friends? Anyone? Anyone?

As part of my accomplishing three of my five goals for this, my 31st year on this lovely planet, I will soon be starting the popular Couch-to-5k Running Program.

I did this plan last year as I trained for my first ever 5k in May 2009… 

Did we really need to see that again?

After finishing the race and feeling great and super excited about this, I had a couple injuries/issues, and I stopped running… or doing a work out of any kind. 

And so even though I first wrote these goals at the end of August, I have done little to nothing to accomplish items 1-3 (which in case you don’t want to link, here’s a brief recap: (1) work out 3x week; (2) lose 20 lbs; (3) run a 10k race)… I gave myself some really “good” excuses in my head, including: I had scheduled the reduction surgery for the day before Thanksgiving and running was, let’s just say, not very comfortable.  Of course, instead of just going and walking 3x a week to accomplish goal #1, I did nothing. Which of course, in my little head, let me do nothing about #2, because if you’ve decided that you’re not going to exercise, why try to lose any weight? right?

It’s so much harder justifying these excuses in hindsight!

But, it’s a new year.  The perfect chance for a new beginning.  That’s what all the cool kids are saying anyway…

And on that note, I am pleased to introduce (drum roll please)…the

Friends of GIG Couch-to-5k running group

in case you missed the “GIG” reference, that’s short for good idea girl. Brilliant, I know.

I’ll be starting this 9 week jog/walk program on Monday, January 18th, (a week out so that I can reintroduce my body to excercise) and I would love to have you all come along with me.  If you are local-ish and want to join me, handy hubby, and my sister run the Fargo 5k on Friday, May 21, 2010, go here to sign up for the race.  Heck, even if you’re not local and need a lovely excuse to travel to the beautiful tundra that is the upper midwest, come join us. (Nanc? maybe a quick Allegent flight?)

Tundra was maybe too harsh. 
The snow should be gone by then.  I hope.

Here’s what I’m thinking… leave a comment in the comments section letting me know if you want to do this challenge with me.  Then, I’ll play around with a graphic, and put a list in the sidebar with our names and what week we are on.  Finally, if people want to do this, I’ll do a post on Mondays to discuss what I’ve been feeling, and what to expect for the next week.

And if none of you respond… well, let’s not go there.  I’m no fun when I pout.  

:-)

Ok, so are you with me? And if so, when/where is your race day?

———–

Quick Edit: I just saw this qoute here in a story about how to make your new routine stick:

Make It a Team Effort

All kinds of research has shown that people are more likely to stick with exercise if it’s a social affair than if it’s a solo exploit. For example, in one recent study, researchers followed 64 people who started a new exercise program, including 16 married couples and 30 married individuals who joined the program on their own. A year later, 43 percent of the individuals had quit, compared with only six percent of those who worked out with their husband or wife.

Nate – let’s not be in that 6%.

:-)

Wog’s First Skate

We got the boy on skates last weekend! 

Three year old Wog was all decked out in his favorite team gear before we headed to the rink.  His dad and uncle will argue this “favorite team” point, but oh well!

His little skates still had the “girly” blade protectors, but he still rocked the outfit.

He really enjoyed the skate aid and daddy being so close…

and he enjoyed watching his sister…

(Lou was doing a great job herself! After this photo she
skated across the rink – and back – by herself without the skate aid!)

… and Auntie Beth…

… but Wog did get a little skittish when he had to skate on his own…

Luckily, I don’t think we traumatized the little man…

 

and he did try again with mom and BaPa’s help.

All in all…

it was a great first skate!

Oh -

I almost forgot! I need to give a big

Happy Birthday!

 

shout out to Bapa Tom today!

Cookbooks, PW’s hubby and a Month of Menus

I can’t believe I haven’t told you yet about one of my most favorite Christmas presents:

 

Yep, my fantastic sister and brother-in-law got me her cookbook.

AND not only that…. it’s signed!

well, it’s not signed by her, but it is signed by her husband,
best known to her blog readers as Marlboro Man.

Just in case you haven’t yet taken my previous advice and visited her site, go now.

Seriously.  Here’s a link and everything for you.

go. now.

And when you are there, make sure you have some time to read their love story…. and by some time, I mean like enough time to read a good paperback book.

You won’t regret it.

… and if you ever come back here, I’ll tell you about how my copy ended up being autographed, my other fantastic christmas gift, and list my monthly meal plan for you…

 

Oh, hello there! I was kinda afraid you would never want to visit my silly blog again after seeing that. Isn’t she amazing?

Ok, I’m done telling you how much I love her, er, her site, I mean :-)

Where was I, dreaming of a ranch in Oklahoma?… no? christmas gifts… yes:

Ok, so my copy of PW Cooks was purchased by my brother-in-law in November during the Mall-of-America stop on her book tour. (You can read her description of the event here.)  According to my bro-in-law, the place was packed and aside from being one of the only dudes at the event (more proof that he’s awesome!), the author of said cookbook was chatting with everyone in line… so much so that he was not moving along at a very fast pace.  Once he made the, “How long do you want me to wait” call to my lovely sister, (who was at home with a one week old baby), they understandably made the call for JP to duck out.  And now that he had all this time waiting in line reading the book, he knew what to do as he witnessed other crazy bloggers attack Marlboro Man… he followed along, got the “goods,” and returned to his lovely wife and child.

I, of course, said that if they had the baby with them they probably would have had their picture taken by her because my nephew is the cutest little guy in the world, she would have linked to this funny little blog, and then the gig would be up on their Christmas gift. 

Probably best they stayed home.

Anyway, this is the other Christmas gift that I have not been able to put down:

 

 

I’ve told you before how much Nate and I love the Cooking Light magazine, but this complete (HUGE) cookbook includes so many quick recipes, that I will be using it for many months.

One pass through its pages and I created our entire month of menus for January.

And after I did that I thought to myself, wonder if anyone else would like to see our month of menus?

Before you have time to answer and say no… here it is:

 

 

If you want to see other menu planning ideas,
here’s a link to a post I wrote a few months ago on the topic.

As you’ll notice, I include leftovers because: (a) we usually have lots of leftovers; (b) putting it in the plan makes us eat that food; (c) doing so saves us some real money.

When I did my plan this month, I first went through the freezer and cupboards and made a list of what we have on hand.  I then looked for recipes that used those things, and then filled in with other things that looked good.  I also use a calendar and start by listing the events for the month so I don’t buy for days when we know we’ll be out of the house. Also, you’ll see that I stopped on the 24th… this is because in the poast few months of doing our monthly meal plans I found that we were planning for too much.  I’m stopping on a Sunday because if we do follow this plan, it will be a good day to go to the store and do another three week/monthly plan.  Or, we can decide at that time that we want to just eat “beans and rice” for the rest of the month and make Dave Ramsey proud by saving some more cash.

This whole post may leave you feeling a bit confused… for example, you might be thinking: why if you love that cattle ranch lady so much don’t you include more of her recipes in your monthly menu?

Answer: My husband and I sit on our butts all day in front of computers and we would both balloon in size if we cooked our way through the meals meant to restore the thousands of calories consumed daily by PW’s ranch hands.  So we will save her dishes for more festive occasions… like company… or when there are at least more than two adults around share in the buttery goodness.  And by buttery goodness I mean that nearly every recipe in her book has at least one, sometimes two sticks of butter in it.

And do I need to remind you of my goals?

So those goodies will have to be reserved … at least until February’s menu.

:-)

Ok, if you’re still with me, tell me a favorite meal that you’ll be making at your house this month?

 

Holiday reflections

It’s always hard for me to go back to work after the holidays.  I feel a sense of loss, expectations unfulfilled, regret on the scale… but not today.

Today, I am feeling more joyful, content, prepared.  The last 10 days have been somewhat of a blur, but the best kind of blur… the kind that when you take a moment and think about all that you’ve been fortunate to experience you are slightly overwhelmed, but oh so grateful.

And as I reflect and try to figure out why I feel different today I can only guess that it is because I tried to be more present during the holiday experiences.  More in the moment.  Trying to be there as the kiddos opened their gifts … as she crawled on the floor during Christmas Eve service … as he sat on the ice during his first time on skates… gently reminding myself to experience the moment now because this is the only time she will be five and he will be three at Christmas…

 

…and hopeful that I can do more of this during the new year!