Nordic Track, here I come

So I've been attempting to get back into the athletic shape I once was, which is somewhat difficult to do when you have children. I just hate exercise videos lately, so we joined the Y, but actually getting there during the hours they have childcare was another story. Then my parents bought this thing at Costco about a week or so ago. It is a monstrosity about 6 ft tall and almost 7 feet long. I feel like I have to climb it just to get on, but I tried my parents' and I was hooked. Ellipitcals are apparently great for your joints instead of treadmills. So dh and I picked one up tonight and he just finished putting it together a little while ago. Oh I can't wait to finish work and use it!! It's so much fun, lol.

County Fair Possibilities

So I'm trying to decide what I want to enter in the county fair. I have these three I've picked. Heck I might just enter them all, it's 50 cents to enter, lol.

Choice #1 - Lotsa Dots - did it for an ebay auction
I just love this little flower, lol.

Choice #2 - Asian Themed Set - for International Day at Em's school (she picked China as her country)


Choice #3 - The Mermaid Dress - for the Marth Pullen Contest

Yummy Yummy

So gosh, a few years ago Kraft Foods had this online thing where you signed up and got a big box of free food samples. So I signed up back then and ever since I've been getting their Kraft foods magazine, and it's full of recipes. Well I got one the other day and I was flipping through it at breakfast this morning and it had all kinds of yummy stuff, and I just loved the look of the Rustic Tart. So I made one today a little different and oh my gosh...it's heavenly. It takes no time to make. My entire family devoured it after dinner tonight. Here's my recipe:

1 ready bake pie crust
about 3 nectarines (peaches or plums)
4 oz of cream cheese
1 tbs sugar
sugar/cinnamon mixture
2 tsp flour

Preheat oven to 425. Grease pie plate. Lay pie crust in pie plate. Take softened 4 oz cream cheese and mix with 1 tbs of sugar. Spread in middle of pie crust, about 6-7 inches in diameter (I spread mine about a quarter inch thick). Slice up fruit, mix up in a bowel with cinnamon/sugar mixture and 2 tbs of flour. Pour fruit into tart and then fold down the sides of the pie crust onto the fruit. Bake for 25 minutes, or until crust is golden brown. And...voila! You have a wonderfully yummy dessert.

Spark People

So I keep seeing everyone talk about "Spark People" so I went to the website (www.sparkpeople.com) and it's a free place for a place to keep track of eating and exercising and losing weight and they have "groups" you can join and message boards. So I signed up. I am tired of sitting around telling myself one of these days I'm gonna lose weight and get back to my former athletic ways and the way I looked before kids. Well dammit, I'm doing it now. I'm tired of hideous big fat swimsuits. Cheer me on!

I've had Yoga Booty Ballet sitting in my closet still new in the package since February. February!?! Geez, am I a loser or what? So here is my To Do list for the next month.

#1 Jump start my ass into a lifestyle change.

#2 Start going to the Y (for which I've had a membership since January) and workout.

#3 Wean and potty train my 3 yr old, who is admantly against both.

#4 Get back into the swing of school work, I am doing a distance program and have majorly slacked off.

and most importantly...

#5 SOMEBODY BUY MY FREAKIN' HOUSE!!!

And...to make this somewhat sewing related, I found this cute little top on a website. You can buy the pattern I think, but since it basically looks like a tube with some shirring in the back and me being the cheapie that I am, have decided to just try to create something similar without a pattern, I hate other people's patterns anyway, lol. I'll post pictures in the next couple days.

Sassy Skirts

A local quilt store is having a "Sassy Skirt" contest. They have a little Inspirations Club once a month -- for $5, you get basically an hour long commerical to see all the new products and fabric and then get a discount at the end to shop, plus sometimes they throw in a freebie pattern. And they have a raffle drawing for a prize from the new stuff.

So with the contest, if you win, you get your choice of 40% off a Bernina or 40% off fabric purchases for a month. Woohoo!! Anyway, I'm entering. You get extra points if you use this book, but I make these twirlie skirts all the time, so I'm going to make one for my dd, and her skirt will be a bit funky with some tulle and lots of ruffles and maybe some glitz with some hot fix rhinestones. I picked up the fabric last night and plan to get started this weekend.

Speaking of contests, I'm debating on doing something for the county fair. It's due May 29th to turn in, but the fair is not til June 8th. I've never entered before, and it looks like fun. Plus, there's never much sewing stuff entered anyway. My mom used to have me enter the kids stuff for baking at the local fair where we lived, I won once for a cake. They have a kids contest here too, I think my dd would just love it. I'm going to ask her if she wants to sew something. She is a wonderful sewer. She's made headbands for all the girls in her class and she's made herself her own skirts.

Oh and I went to Hancock's yesterday and dug through their flat fold knit table. I just love that table, you never know what you are going to find. I found these two cotton knits. The retro 50s one I just love, the little thought bubbles say "Jeepers!" Too cute! And the white floraly one is adorable, it looks very kid's boutique-y. And the cool thing is, it's dyeable. The print is on top of the fabric, like PRR fabric used to be, so you can dye the background. I'm not sure what to dye it yet, green, peachy, or maybe lavender. I need to test some swatches first.

Save Jericho!!!

CBS canceled Jericho two days ago and there is a huge movement to get it back on the air. I am so sad they canceled it. Jericho, Lost, and Heroes are the only shows I watch religiously....ok, well throw Ugly Betty in there too (did you see the season finale on Thursday- wow).

This link will give you all the information you need, who to email, who to call, who to send nuts too, where to sign the petition:

Jericho Lives

The petition was close to 50,000 last I looked. And it's apparently working, last night on the message boards, a person in contact with Carol Barbee, executive producer of Jericho posted a message from her that CBS is rattled from all the emails, calls, etc. So there is hope!! And tonight a message from Nina Tassler was posted with another glimmering of hope.

This is the main Jericho message board where you can communicate with everybody and find out the latest news on the mission to save Jericho.

Jericho Message Boards

In the words of another, CBS, you suck.

Save Jericho! Thanks for your help!!

My Eyes, My Eyes!

Ok, I couldn't take the pink, it was just too much. I love pink, I live in pink clothes, but that pink was just driving me crazy, so I had to get rid of it. I am planning, very soon, to create my own blog template, but until then I'm not sure what I'm going to do, so you might show up and have a different everyday, but it's still just me...sewing chick.

The Inside Out Bag

I just love making this bag! I can run to my stash pick up a few prints and it takes almost nothing to sew, just 9 fat quarters, and I can stack, whack, and start sewing in minutes and it's done in about an hour. And I can make it any size from big to small just by increasing or decreasing the size of the squares. But most of all I love that it's....REVERSIBLE!! I have several myself, I use them for going to the library, stuffed with towels and sunscreen for the sprayground (if you do not know what a sprayground is, it's like a water park wrapped up in a little playground, they are building them everywhere), and packed full for kid night at grandma's house.

So Em's teacher left in December to have a baby and we got a new teacher and I had not had the opportunity to sew for her yet, so it was Teacher Appreciation last week and I sent Em to school with this funky reversible bag. The colors kinda look yucky in the pictures, but they aren't "neon" as the pictures show. I added some ribbon wrapped yummy soaps from Tami's Soap. Her soap is my absolute favorite. A little known secret is when she has leftover odd size bars you can buy by the pound, I buy up a few pounds and keep them tucked away for gifts because you get all kinds of different scents.

And...I put one of my cool tags on it too, lol. I love adding these little hang tags and making them too, since it's an art project all into itself. Here's a close up since I think they're so cool, lol. This one is a funky chick with rainbow pigtails and a rainbow felt bead head and a little tote bag on her arm. I thought I had made a tutorial for these hang tags....but the pictures came out terrible (I am in dire need of a new camera), so I'm going to reshoot another one with better pics and put it up this week. These are fun for you to make with your kids too.

Star Styles

So I finally tracked down this book, Star Styles. It arrived today!! I can't wait to delve into it. It's hard to find,it's a book and pattern for making baton twirling costumes. I don't think it's been reprinted since 1968 and I've had a heck of time finding it. But I managed to locate a brand new one, still sealed in the plastic with the pattern brand new, never opened for $4.50. I've seen it on Amazon for $25.

This past year was Em's first year doing baton twirling solos, so we rented a costume from her studio and it was just not up to my standards, lots of repairs from many years or use, so next year I'm designing my own with the help of this book. I'm so excited to get started!

So...I've returned

Well life got in the way of blogging. Ok, well, my job got in the way of blogging. I work on the internet, so I don't really want to sit on the computer more than I have to, but I am determined to take back my hobbies, darn it! I miss sewing and crafting, I just started sewing again in the last month. It was a dance costume, but it was sewing, lol and I forgot how relaxing it was. So I'm back to posting regularly, I have a cute little altered tag tutorial, I make these for gifts all the time, I think they are coolest. Heck, I wish someone would make me one.