Accelerando: music

My June Challenge made on the very LAST day of June. This is a business card holder that will be a stocking stuffer for someone.

The inside...hope she likes it. :) I want to make myself one now.

July 4th. This was a fun day. It started out with a 10 mile bike ride with my brother at 6:30AM. My SIL was so kind to lend me her bike that is MUCH better than mine. I damaged my tailbone on mine and I had problems sitting for weeks. I need to invest in a better bike before I start my professional bike riding career!!!! lol After we biked the trails, we met Duane and my sil for breakfast at Bob Evans. I was STARVED after the early morning exercise!!

Here is Samuel chillin' on the chair....

Somebody's tired......:)

Doing what she does best.....computer work!!!:)

Nathan and I loved this fort when we were growing up. It's still standing in my parents backyard. The grandkids are enjoying it now.

Doesn't Samuel look thrilled to be with a bunch of girls!!!

Playstation 3----no other explanation needed.

A pair of gray culottes for Callie out of some scraps of fabric. I made 3 pairs of gray ones on Wednesday. 1 for her and 2 for friends. This was in between 9 music lessons and studying for kid's club.

The darker pairs of culottes were made on Thursday.

I've been frantically sewing myself more running outfits. My goal is to have 5 different complete sets. So, I don't have to keep washing and wearing the same old thing over and over and over again. :) Here's my second set in grays and red. Please excuse the red face and sweat dripping!! My kids took the picture after I had ran over 2 miles in 90 degree weather on Saturday. Don't think I'll try running in the heat like that again!!! It was brutal!!

I'm really loving how these running skirts are working for me. I no longer have skirt flapping around my legs while running down the road and I feel stylish and comfy. I really wanted to wear this all day long!!!!

I love, love, LOVE the color lime green!!!! I secretly wish for a pair of running shoes in that color, but havn't found any that are right for my feet as of yet. I couldn't wait to get up on Monday and wear this set. I was a tad more motivated to get up at 5:30AM to run when I knew this was waiting for me to put on!! I love this shirt fabric. It is super-thin and was so cool and comfy. I have plenty more, so I might have to sew me another one. I also bought lime green serger thread to match. You might think I'm a bit crazy, but it made me sooooo happy to have lime green thread in my serger!!!
Yep, the hallway is under renovation....excuse the half-finished closet.

This picture doesn't seem to capture the true lime-green of this stripe. Oh well.....

Since my quest in getting up early in the morning and exercising I've been cooking breakfast nearly every day. I am pleased to announce that I have become very good friends with my iron skillet. I have discovered that this thing makes an AWESOME omelet!!!!! Here's one of my creations this week.....egg, spinach, onions, peppers, tomatoes, cheese.....ahhhhhhhhhh.....yummy!!!!

These are 3 egg omelets and I split one with Duane. This skillet/omelet pictures is for the benefit of my brother-in-law!!! Check out how seasoned these things are!!!!! They are loving the daily use!!!! :)

My breakfast plate....half an omelet, 2 slices of turkey bacon, plain yogurt with fresh raspberries and flax seed. Yes, I eat this much each morning and I'm still managing to lose weight!!! I've found that eating a good breakfast helps me not want to snack on things all day.

Simon designed a Lego top that works while I was sewing on Monday.

A short video clip of the top in action.....

More culottes for the teens at youth camp. I managed to sew 11 pairs in 6 days!!!!

My 'knock-off' under armour compression capris. I have one pair of the UA brand that I love. They are sooooo expensive!!! I was delighted when I found fabric at Jo-Ann's just like what UA used. I bought 3 different colors. I managed to make 3 pairs out of the yard and a half cut of navy blue. I still have charcoal and black to sew up. The fabric cost me $4 per yard. I thought that was an AWESOME deal!!! I just used my capris and made a pattern off of them. Now I have 4 pairs to use when I run. No more having to wash over and over each day!!!!

Seth make a base out of Legos today. I just love the kids creating things and using their imaginations

The story of my running shoes.....

My husband bought me a beautiful pair of very nice running shoes for my birthday in April. They were gray and aqua. They were Saucony Grid Flex and sooooo comfy. I LOVED them!!!! I wore them out in just over 2 months!!! On July 1, I was stretching and noticed a hole in the bottom of one!!! I was just sick!! Running shoes are not cheap and the thoughts of having to replace them so soon was not making me very happy. Well, on July 4, after our 10 mile bike ride and meal at Bob Evans, we went in to the Finish Line at the mall in the Dayton area. I showed the guy there what had happened to my shoes. He asked if I still had my receipt. Well, I did, but at home hours away!!! He told me to take it into the store and they should be able to do something about it. I could hardly believe that. Well, I proceeded to try on several different kinds of shoes. He brought me a pair that he that would work. I liked them and gave them a test run around the store. lol He asked if I was ready to buy them. Well, I told him I wished I would have brought the receipt in, but never realized that they would do something like that for me. I never asked for any kind of compensation. He ended up giving me the full price of my old shoes to put toward my new shoes!!!!!!!! I only had to pay $30 for my new running shoes!!!!! I was happy beyond words!!! So far they have been working great for me. Here is a picture of the new shoes. These are Brooks Adrenaline GTS 11th. edition.

Yep, they've been used....see all the dirt!! lol I forgot to take a picture the day I got them.

I played the flute tonight in the Findlay Community Band. There are 80 members. We played selections from Gershwin. It was fun!!

I love this picture. Seth caught the girl next to me mid-breath!!

I love this picture of the band director getting into it!;)

Glad it was over....by the end of the concert I was nearly blind from the setting sun shining right in my face!! Now why didn't I think to wear my sunglasses like that lady? lol

If you made it this far....WOW!!!!! Thanks for reading!!!

Callie poses with the Christmas tree she helped me decorate for the church dinner. One funny story about this tree....On Sunday afternoon, the kids along with Duane & my father-in-law helped me finished up the decorating. (Thanks guys!) I brought a white lace tablecloth to use for the tree skirt. We didn't have one that matched and I didn't want to buy one. I asked Seth to arrange it underneath the tree for a tree skirt. A little while later he calls, "Mom, does this look ok?" To my shock, it was PERFECTLY arranged around the middle of the tree. He had covered up the entire tree with the white lace!!!!!!!!!! I nearly died laughing!! I wish I had brought along my camera to take a picture of that! :)

I wanted to have pillar candles in logs. My wonderful husband, with great effort, carved out 4 of these BY HAND! I wanted several for each table, but after seeing how much work it was for him, I told him 1 for each table would be ok! I LOVED the way they turned out though!

I decided we need new curtains for the windows to match the theme. I bought the fabric on Saturday morning. After lunch, I sewed & ironed for 4 solid hours to produce 8 of these for the windows. The fabric is a deep forest green sparkly satin backed crepe. I LOVE it! Very nice fabric to work with. Of course, I had to use my 'new' vintage black singer to sew them! :) The windows have fresh cut pine branches and pine cones picked up in the woods by Dad, Callie & I. I dried them out in my oven! Boy, did that make my kitchen smell good!!!!