Apron and chef hat

I finished a couple gifts I've been making for Molly's birthday next week! Yay. Cross it off the list! Now back to the party planning :)

Isn't this a fun little apron? My mom bought the pattern and let me borrow it :) I thought it was so cute and girly. The necktie has velcro on the strap and on the back of the apron to connect the two. The pattern had you use buttons, but I thought it would be nice to have it adjust. So I sewed in some velcro.

I bought the fabric probably a year or so ago and am finally just finishing it! I thought the fabric was so cute and would work so well for an apron.

And then I found a cute chef hat tutorial and since I had so much left over fabric of the coordinating fabric, I figured why not? I will complete the ensemble!!

It velcro's in the back so you can adjust it however you like. To view the tutorial, go here. The directions were simple and it made up very quickly.

It would have been cute to add a few more embellishments, but I just wanted to be finished!

So hang it wherever you want...

Find some tools and get your little one working in that apron! Hmmm...maybe Molly can learn to make me cookies?!!!

Here is the pattern I used for the apron. Sassy Little Sisters is the company and it's called Child's Apron. It has 3 sizes, small, medium and large. I made a small (size 3-4 I think).

Backpack before and after

 Here's Molly's backpack that we bought (again, at DownEast for $4.99) that needed to be fixed. I was planning on having it done before she started school....but that didn't happen. Well I finally got it done! Yay!

 My other problem with getting around to this project was that I had a bunch of different ideas for this. At first I wanted to have it say Molly instead. I called my mom's friend about her embroidery machine, but sadly it was broken. Well my machine does have embroidery. I tried it, but it was too small and it wouldn't let me make the letters any bigger.

 This is finally what I came up with. I decided who needs it to say her name? My backpack never did!

 I already had all the stuff in my stash, so after a few other ideas didn't pan out, I went with this! Now I can look at her bag and be happy since someone else's name isn't on it! Even though Molly doesn't know that :)

P.S. Back to pinterest for one last time, then I will be quiet! I didn't' realize you have to use a facebook or twitter account to sign up. I don't have either of those and to be honest, I don't really want them! I'm not into social networking except for blogs. I start and end there. I waste enough time online with blogs and my email. So I'm wondering which is the lesser evil. What do you think? I think I might go with twitter. Then I won't get harassed by people on facebook...I'm just kinda anti-facebook. Sorry to everyone who loves it. I see good things with it, but I'm just not interested right now!

I'm in

No worries, everyone! I got my invite to Pinterest this morning. Haven't done anything about it, but I feel much better about the situation :)

I can't wait to delete some of the tabs on my computer and "pin" them instead!! I still don't really get all of it but I'm sure I'll figure it out!

Didn't know

Today I thought I would join the bandwagon and join Pinterest! So I got on the website and tried to register. Well there was only a spot to login. I also saw "Request an Invite". So I did just that. I checked my inbox thinking they would automatically give me the info I needed to login. But no! The email said, "thank you for joining the Pinterest waiting list." What?! Since when is there a waiting list? And why? Anyway, I just thought that was odd. I'm not totally familiar with their website, but I think the idea behind it is really cool. I hope they let me in soon!! Are you on Pinterest?

Keeping it Real

I have been thinking about blogging, but haven't really felt like anything is going on. So this might be a really boring post, but here's what we've been doing lately.

Molly is pretty funny these days. She is quite particular that you call it "preschool" and not "school." We will ask, "Molly, how's school?" And she will say, "It's not SCHOOL, it's PRESCHOOL!!" Ok! Today we were outside and she said "I just went into the mud. That was a little awkward." I'm thinking, what?! How does she know that word? It was pretty funny. Then she kept saying, "That's a little awkward." So silly.

I've been getting used to Molly's preschool schedule. It's amazing how quickly my day seems to go by now! Here's the daily schedule: we have breakfast in the morning, go over to a neighbor's house that I clean (laundry, dishes, making beds), go to the gym, come home and have a snack, take Molly to preschool, put Ali down for a nap, personal time/cleaning/whatever needs to be done, pick up Molly and by the time we get home it's about 4 pm! It's crazy! But it's kind of nice. Molly has been in dance class for a few weeks and sadly her class is only her and one other girl right now! There were a few more, but they dropped out for very legit reasons. So the teacher is hoping to get more girls. I'm fine with it, but I hope more will add so she won't have to drop the class! I kind of planned preschool around her dance class not thinking that she offers an afternoon class, but now that she's going afternoons, I really like how it's all worked out!

Ali has been waking up at 5:30 am for the past week or so. I'm not totally sure why, but I think it's because she gets uncovered. She's a totally crazy sleeper. We cover her when we check on her before we go to bed, but there's no way she stays still! She usually has her binky in, so we know it's not that. But we can't really let her cry it out since she's in the same room as Molly. I think she would HATE one of those sleep sack things because her legs wouldn't be free. Any suggestions?!! Justin gets up around 6 so if I take her with me to my bed, she might fall asleep, but there's no guarantee I do!

Another question. We keep our diapers in an open trash can in the room with the water heater and ac unit, etc. So we can't smell anything until we open the door and whoa! Totally smelly. I even tried the febreeze trash bags but they only work for like the first day, then the yummy smell is gone. We also put the poopy diapers in a plastic bag before going in the trash can. What do you do? I've thought maybe a trash that has a lid might not make the room smell bad, but it still would once you open the trash obviously.

My sister and I have considered another tri, but as of yet we haven't signed up (or maybe I should say I haven't...maybe she has and hasn't told me!). She doesn't have the luxury of a gym with a swimming pool or babysitters like I do so it's a bit harder for her. But I still train in a way. I try to keep up all the stuff I worked really hard on. I go to a cycle class on Wednesdays, I swim when Molly's at her dance class (it's down the street, how convenient!) since I only have an hour, then the other days I run/jog/do whatever.

I've also been working on some projects. I have a few things I'm working on for Molly's birthday and I have some Halloween fabric I bought last year and I'm working on making it into a table runner. I've been making plans for Molly's birthday party and go from wanting to go all out to keeping it simple. We are doing a friend party for her this year and I know she will love it! I'm gonna do a strawberry shortcake party.

Justin is just busy, busy, busy!! We are lucky to see him for a few hours at night. This semester is probably his worst, so hopefully next semester will be better. He won't have as many classes and he won't have to worry about applying for jobs (well, hopefully!!). He's working on that right now. Anyway, it's kind of crazy that this whole school business is almost over, but I know he is counting down the days!

If you read all of this, congrats! Hopefully I will have some of my projects to share soon!

1st day of Preschool!

Yesterday Molly started preschool!! She has been so excited to go!

Molly is in the afternoon class. She goes M-Th from 12:15-3:30 and she gets lunch and a snack! She attends headstart at a local elementary school.

She has been really excited about her backpack. We found it at DownEast for $4.99. It does say someone else's name on it, but I'm getting around to fixing that!!

Here's how her first day went. We got there and I have to sign her in. She puts away her backpack and the kids wash their hands. We were waiting for a sink. There are 15 kids in her class but add parents and it was a lot of people! And kind of overwhelming for 3 and 4 yr olds! While we wait Molly starts freaking out and crying. I'm trying to figure out what the problem is but I can't understand anything she's saying. We finally get her hands washed and she calms down.

Then they get to play for a few minutes. I'm not sure if Molly was more excited or Ali! Ali loved the classroom!

 This is the "house" area. So cute.

The rest of the classroom. After a few minutes they had the kids line up and hold onto a long line with circles on it so they could all walk down to the cafeteria. I walked with her and helped her with lunch.

 She has a spot for her backpack of course!

Here she is at lunch! She finally let me go at this point. So we left! I came home and put Ali down for a nap and enjoyed a few hours to myself! Of course I did exciting things like laundry and cleaning :)

When I picked her up she said she had fun! She said she played on the playground and played with her friend Windsor. The teacher told me that she cut her lip by accident with her name tag (it's laminated) and she was a bit sad about that, but other than that she was good!

Today I took her and we did okay with the hand washing part. I kept asking if we could leave a bit earlier today than we did yesterday, but she said no! Ali booked it out of the classroom at one point, so I had to go over and get her and when I came back Molly was in tears. Poor girl. She thought we had left! So we went to lunch again with her and then left. When I picked her up she said she had fun and that they had purple plums for a snack. "I love purple plums!" she said. Ha ha. She told me her friend didn't like her plum so she ate it for her. So nice :)

I think the main thing is getting to know the kids and getting used to the routine! Then we can leave within a couple minutes and she won't be nervous. But so far so good!

Have you been?

Last week we went to a little beach in Herriman! Yep, you heard me! I just recently found out about this place. I think it's technically a reservoir but they dumped sand around it. So viola! It's a beach! We went with our friends and had a fun time!

The water was a bit cold. You won't find me in there! Ha. But my girls went in a little ways.

Here's a picture of what it looks like. It's kinda pretty! They even have port-a-potties. So nice!

Ali seemed to be more into the snacks than the beach at times....

We brought some stacking cups. They tried to build a sandcastle with them!

They also found some nasty bug that they were playing with. Thanks to Kati and her boys for taking us!! We had fun!

Favorites?

We jumped ship from Sam's Club to Costco and I'm wondering, what are your favorite things from Costco?? Obviously we are purchasing wipes and diapers. But I'm wondering if you have something you love there that's always on your list. My brother loves the Johnny's garlic seasoning stuff. My sister buys their breadsticks that are like Olive Gardens (Nat, what are they called? Or what brand?). So what do you buy that you can't live without? I just need to know about these things!! I do like their Hanna Andersson jammies!! How can anyone resist those?! Ok so let me know if you are a frequent shopper!

Passed

Justin found out that he passed the MPRE! I have no idea what it stands for, but it's the ethics section of the bar. You can take it whenever you want. He took the class spring semester and took the test about a month ago. 5 weeks later he got the results and he passed!! Yay! It's pretty much a pass/fail thing, but people often have to take it again. We are so glad he won't have to! He will take the rest of the bar after school ends in the spring.

Justin has started school and is really busy! He is still working at the same firm part time, has a very full class load and is president of the Federalist Society. Oh and on top of that now is the time he will start applying for jobs!! I'm glad to be playing the role of supportive wife :) ha! He is planning on applying in Utah and Colorado. He hasn't heard either way from the firm he is working at if they have any future plans for him, but I'm sure they will address it sometime between now and January or February probably. The area of law he hopes to practice is civil litigation. This means no criminal law, no family law (too sad), but things like companies breaking contracts, malpractice of any sort, etc. Wish us luck!

Labor Day Weekend

We went to Star Valley this weekend and visited Murphy Creek and Murphy Lake on Saturday. It was so beautiful!

 The water was so clear. So pretty!

 Molly was brave and tested the water out.

 Molly wanted a picture with Grandma!

Ali had a fun time too. She was excited to see a few dogs in the area.

 All of us that came! Scott, Brooke and girls, Val and Shelley, Mark and Ashley, and us!

 We took up a picnic and 2 four wheelers and all took turns. It was a fun afternoon!!

 Grandma and Grandpa had a new bubble blower and the girls had a fun time with it.

 Ali loves these rocks! She throws them out and then puts them back.

We also got to celebrate Laney's 3rd birthday! My girls loved watching to see what she got! Molly even got to open an early birthday present from Mark and Ashley!

We had a great weekend! The weather was beautiful and we had a fun time! Thanks Val and Shelley!

New look

Sorry, I didn't get a new look, but my bed did! I know. You are thinking that I'm crazy because I just showed you my new bedding a few months ago. But the really fun thing about this quilt is that it's so easy to mix it up! Honestly it was really cheap. Justin couldn't even complain!

Ok let's start in the back. I have 3 euro shams. I already had the two green ones. I switched out the cream one that was in the middle for this houndstooth one. I saw the houndstooth sham at the Village Quilt Shop where my quilt is from and it was on clearance for $16 down from $80! And since I'm kinda obsessed, I knew I had to have it! It worked well with my fall color theme, so it was easy. I didn't get the best picture of it so sorry about that. I tried to use manual mode on my camera for these pics but since we are in the basement there wasn't much so up came my flash!

By the way, I really want a light scoop!  http://lightscoop.com/index.html It will totally fix my problems with the flash! Check it out. Back to the pillows...

The regular shams are next. I bought two brown quilted shams at the Village Quilt Shop. I actually bought 3, but when I came home I remembered that I had 2 red ones that match the quilt my mom made us for our wedding, so I pulled it out and I liked it better than 3 brown. So one is going back!

They had a bunch of cute toss pillows at their store but they are really pricy. I'm talking $40 to $50 for one (or more)! So silly, in my opinion. I checked out a bunch of fabric stores and found this orange and cream print at Hobby Lobby and knew it should be worked in!

The flower pillow was also something I was really excited about. I found a great tutorial that I used to make the burlap pillow with the red flower using felt. The pictures don't do it justice, sorry, but I am really happy with how it all turned out!

Flower Pillow Tutorial

The brown throw I bought about 2 months ago at the Village Quilt Shop. It was on clearance for $10 and I had an inkling that I just might want to do this, so now it works perfectly!

I should tell you that the 3 toss pillows in front (the pillow forms actually) I found at Bed Bath and Beyond on clearance for $3 each! I just pulled their covers off and made these new ones! Pillow forms can be expensive, so I was really happy to find them! If you are looking to do the same thing, you can do just that. Make your own covers and use cheap pillow forms. You could also check at a thrift store and take off their covers!

I also used the same tutorial for making the orange pillow covers. I just didn't make flowers on those, obviously.

I pretty much love it! I'm ready for fall now :) Do you decorate for fall and Halloween? Or just one? I usually just throw out my Halloween once September hits (although I haven't done it yet!) and then after Halloween, I bring out my Thanksgiving/Fall. Now go and make yourself a cute flower pillow! You can put it on your bed or couch. Or as decor somewhere!