Happy Birthday?

 Well I knew back in March that I wanted to make my mother and mother-in-law some aprons for their Mother's Day gifts this year.  I'm always torn on whether or not to "make" gifts because I usually only make bags and dresses, so craft projects are a bit scary.  But when I was in Hobby Lobby I walked by some super-cute fabric that screamed "make me into an apron", so I picked it up and proceeded to find the easiest apron pattern I could find.  You see, my mother and mother-in-law are NOT into "frills", so I had to find something that went totally against all the cutesy little ruffly apron patterns that are currently available and trying to turn us all back into June Cleaver.  Well I found something from Simplicity's Sewing for Dummies collection (don't judge).

I spent 2 evenings finishing these and deliberating with my daughter on whether to put their grandmother names (which we obviously decided to) or their initials.  So when they were finished I packaged them up neatly and put their cards together, etc, etc.  Well my mother calls me on Mother's Day after opening her new apron and proceeds to tell me how much she loves it and it's exactly what she would have chosen, but she then told me that I signed her Mother's Day card with "Happy Birthday".  Oh well, maybe I can call this her card for the year, LOL!  I guess next time I put this much effort into a gift I'll check the details too, haha!!

Smith Mountain Lake Sprint Triathlon 2010

This blog post is a bit of bragging on my husband.  He did the sprint triathlon at Smith Mountain Lake this weekend and since it was his first OUTDOOR triathlon (yes, we've both done quite a few indoor ones) he was automatically classified into the "novice" category.  Being in the "novice" category turned out to be a great motivation because he ended up coming in FIRST in his class!  It was amazing!  I didn't do this race because I wanted to watch one before I participated so that I would know what to expect when I actually do compete.

For those who do not know much about triathlons, it is a 3 part race that is done back to back.  The first part of the race is the swim.  This particular race was done in Smith Mountain Lake (in Virginia).  It is a gorgeous, clear, clean lake.  Sometimes they're done in the ocean and it will be a cold day in hell before I will do that :)  And other times they are done in the pool (my preference).  Occasionally they are done in rivers too!

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This swim leg of this particular race was 750meters which Mike completed in 15:04

The second part of the triathlon is the bike portion.  

In this race the bike portion was 20K (about 12 miles).  Mike completed it in 41 min 25 sec.

The final portion of the race is the run.

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In this race the running part was a 5K (3.1 miles).  Mike did it in 25 min and 13 sec.  That might not seem very fast to those of you who run competitively, but get off a 20K bike ride and go into a run and tell me how you feel! Mike normally is almost 4-5 minutes faster in a 5K, that's how much is taken out of you when you do these races.  Crazy, huh!?!

His overall time was 1 hour 24 min 38 sec.  He only won his class by TWO seconds! TWO!!!  For those of you doing the math you might say, "Wendy, those times don't add up", you're right!  That's because there are these pesky little times called "transitions".  A transition is the portion of the race where you rip off your wetsuit, throw on your helmet, socks, and bike shoes and tear madly down the road to the bike start and then after the bike you tear off your bike shoes and helmet and furiously throw on your running socks/shoes.  And, yes, it is ALL timed!  Some of the super athletes get this down to an art, ie. no socks when biking and running and having bike shoes already clipped into the bike, etc.  Remember, Mike only won by 2 seconds!  

This was a great inspiration to me.  I am excited and hoping to do my first outdoor one soon.  Please don't expect me to have these kinds of times.  I am MUCH slower, but at the end of the day I am just proud of us for doing them at all and for setting a good example for our 5 year old (can't get use to that) little girl!

Here are some links if you're interested.  I've mentioned some before, but here there are again!

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/
http://www.setupevents.com/index.cfm?
http://trisports.com/
http://www.caitsnow.com/

My Big Fat 5th Birthday

My baby is 5!!!! I can't believe it.  The night before she turned 5 she also lost her first tooth!  She is growing up waaayyyy too fast, where does this time go?!

Well we ended up drawing this birthday thing out for about a week. 

We had friends over the weekend of her actual birthday and cooked on the grill and let her open her gifts from us.  She received a LOT of Zhu Zhu pets!

Since I wasn't going to make the cake for her big birthday party, I made her a little cupcake cake to celebrate with that night!  I LOVE pull apart cupcakes!  No "weirdness" in the cutting!

We ended up going to Charlottesville, VA (one of my favorite places) for part of the weekend to visit friends on her actual birthday!  So we didn't have a real party that day, but she got to stay in a hotel and she thinks that is so much fun!   So I guess it's the little things.  If you've read my previous blogs you'll notice that I did NOT have the dress on her that I was intending to make for her birthday, but it became so very very time consuming and tedious and I had a LOT of other orders so we decided (my husband and I) that she will have that dress for her preschool graduation.  I think it's a nice compromise and gives me a bit more time to complete it. 

So, now to her big birthday party (are you keeping up).  We had a giant bowling party with a bunch of the kids from her preschool! It was a blast.  It was a Hello Kitty theme, so I made her a pattern from Childrens Corner, but I forgot that the neckline on this pattern was a bit large and didn't cut it down for her, so I ended up putting the buttons all the way to one side, it looked really silly, but she didn't seem to mind and since I'm the queen of procrastination when it comes to my child, I let it go.  

I thought it was particularly cute with the bowling shoes :)  While this is NOT my favorite outfit, I think it was one of hers because it was Hello Kitty.  

Well

Well hopefully she'll look back on this birthday fondly, I know I will.  While it's heartbreaking to think about how quickly she is growing up, it is such a blessing to get to watch her do it.  

Pop's

I had an idea of grandeur after getting on the Bakerella website.  I saw her way-too-awesome cake pops done as Easter eggs and thought "oh, I could totally do that for the Easter party at Sam's preschool!"....ugh! The good news is that I had the foresight to do a run through about 2 weeks before the party.  I received help with this project from Samantha and my awesome sister!

Well after we did the run through I had learned a few things.  The first of which was that in the case of cake pops and 4 year olds, many hands do NOT make light work.  I also learned that I can't "paint" with corn syrup very well, so I used frosting on the new batch instead.  The last thing I learned was that the foam you put the pop's into should probably be floral foam and NOT regular packaging kind...too tough.
For the preschool I made over 100.  A ridiculous amount, I do NOT recommend this.  It took me 3 days to get them all done and painted and packaged, but everyone seemed to enjoy them.  I made these with strawberry cake...VERY delicious!   Here are some pic's of the preschool pops.  I also made some with out the stick (since I ran out) for the teachers and parents. I put them in mini muffin cups.

More Cakes

Well I was suppose to have a "down month", ha, yeah right!  I ended up having one of the busiest months EVER!  Mike and I have been busy wrapping up the indoor triathlon series and outfitting, planning, and registering for some summer races, that in itself took days. But I also finished up my cake decorating class, did a whole lot of sewing (still on that one), and planned the Easter party for my daughter's preschool. 

So, I guess these next blogs I'll be playing catch up the stuff I didn't record.  I'll start with pictures from the cake decorating class.  Lots and lots of fun!  I'm embarrassed to say that I made the purple cake with white flowers.  As it would turn out, making the frosting the right consistency is about 90% of the process, and mine was clearly too stiff on this day.  The little sports cupcakes were made by the 11 year old who took the class...she was doing a GREAT job! 

For our "Final Exam" we had to make those cute, but very irritating to make, roses you always see on cakes.  I personally don't know if I would put them on too many cakes, but I'll never say never!  I did the pink flowers.  They are actually HOT pink flowers, I may have used a bit too much pink, but now I know what to use if I ever want to make a Hannah Montana cake!  The other 2 cakes are by a mother and daughter...I can't wait to take my little Samantha to do this sort of thing!

Yummy!

Well as if I'm not chronically busy enough with parenting, sewing, triathlons, homeroom mom AND being a wife, I've decided to take on a cake decorating class. I was never taught to do it correctly and I was getting very tired of icing crumbs into my cake...eew. Our local Hobby Lobby store (which I spend way too much time and money in as it is) has been offering this class for a while now.  I've always wanted to take it, but never quite fit it in.  I had a lot of friends who've taken it and loved it, but I just couldn't get around to it.  So this month (refer back to icing crumbs) I had had enough and signed up for the class!  It is taught through Wilton ,so there is a consistent method that I can refer to online whenever I get stumped or have a questions...kind of neat! 

There are 4 class levels that are offered, I am obviously in level 1.  We are learning how to properly make icing, ice the cake (without crumbs!), and use several different decorating tips. Our first "homework" was to make and ice a cake, then we came to class and decorated them under the instructors supervision.  We are suppose to use stencils or outlines, but I wanted a Hello Kitty face for my little daughter to enjoy, so I did a freehand design based on one of my embroidery templates.  I'm not an artist by any stretch, but I think it turned out okay for my first try!  I would space her eyes farther apart next time and use peanut M&M's for the eyes and nose instead of icing. 

There are 4 other people in my class and they have generously allowed me to photograph their designs too, so here is a little smidge of what we're doing after 2 classes.

March and all its issues

If you're wondering where my store is, I've taken it down this month.  I'm working toward Easter and some new bags right now.  I'm also doing 2 dresses for Samantha for Easter and her Birthday.  I'm hoping they come out well.  If not, I won't post the pictures, ha ha!

The Birthday Dress is from Fledge

 

The other is from Sew It Up  

 

I ordered the Fledge dress as a kit from Above All Fabric.  The fabric is so vibrant and beautiful and I pray I can do it justice!  

I bought the other kit from Sew It Up and did the smocking on it last year but decided to wait and let her grow a bit before putting it together.  I bought some really cute shoes from Puddle Jumpers to go with it!  If it works out this will be her Easter dress. I had thought of matching her and I and then just decided that was too much.  

So here goes...