2011 Point Bock Run

1,842 people finished the Point Bock Run this year. I was one of them and did my best time ever. My goal was 9 minute miles but I ended up with an 8:33 pace, finishing the 5 miles in 42:43. The fastest woman was Breeda Willis who finished in 27:52. She was already home and showered by the time I finished. LOL Race Results

Magnificent Manicures

Lydia got this Magnificent Manicure Kit as a gift for Christmas from her Aunt Tracey. We just pulled it out this past weekend to play with it. We did manicures on Saturday and pedicures on Sunday. We had so much fun. Lydia loved the science part of this just as much as seeing how nice her nails looked when we were done. We created our own lotion and sea salt scrub. I highly recommend this for anybody who has girls that enjoy science. It comes with a pamphlet that asks you questions about the different results you get by mixing certain things together and there are even answers for the moms like me who didn't do all that well in chemistry.

Crocheted Wrist Warmers

This was a super easy, quick project to put together. It only took 100 yds of yarn and 2 afternoon crochet sessions. I found the pattern at The Crochet Spot. This was my first practice pair. They need some flair so I may crochet a small flower to put on each and maybe add some fringe on the top end where your fingers are. The next pair I will make longer. I was thinking some leg warmers would be fun to make too and I could wear them to derby.

Winter Wonderland

Last night Lydia and I went to see the Rotary Winter Wonderland at Wildwood Park in Marshfield. We walked through it first for about a half an hour and then drove through. This was my second visit this year. They've been doing this for 5 years now and it's for a good cause. People donate canned food to get in. If you do walk through it, I recommend taking some cash with you so you can buy a hot cocoa while you're wandering about and dress warm!

Look at all of those lights!!!

Lydia took this last video when we were driving out of the park.

Lamp Shade Slip Covers

I have had no luck finding any lamp shades I like for a couple of lamps I picked up at a garage sale for Lydia's bedroom. I found this tutorial at Amy a la mode for lamp shade slip covers and I used it to make 2 slip covers today. Lydia likes them.

Candy Men

Lydia and I made these candy men for her class. We got the idea from Trey and Lucy. Perfect project for a hot glue gun!

First Day of 4th Grade

I walked Lydia to school today for her first day of 4th grade today. I thought that I wouldn't cry anymore since this was the 5th time we've done the first day of school thing but that was not the case. I am so excited for her to be starting a new school year. We went to find your room night on Monday. After we met her new teacher (who seems really great) and we filled up her desk with all of her new school supplies, we went to look at the art room because that is her favorite room. Her eyes light up when she walks in there. On the way she told me how she loves the smell of school. I am the same way. It brings back memories of my days in elementary school. I am looking forward to hearing how her day went when she gets home this afternoon. Time to get back into dance schedules, time with friends, decorating lockers, drawing on notebook covers, and trying to understand 4th grade math for both of us!

The Zoo

Lydia and I visited the Henry Vilas Zoo in Madison last week. It's a very clean zoo and amazingly, it's free. In just a few hours you can see lots of animals including tigers, giraffes, rhinoceroses, tigers, monkeys, otters, monkeys, snakes, birds, turtles, bugs, and more. Lydia's favorite was this big snapping turtle.

I liked the giraffes.

Need some lamp shades!

I bought this set of lamps at a garage sale for $6. This was my first paint with a spray can job and it turned out really well, although you can't tell because the pictures (taken with my phone) are so bad. I used a metal finish paint and it looks really cool, again you can't tell so you'll have to take my word for it. Super easy project and I'd use these lamps BUT they all need new lamp shades and I'm finding that I almost would have been better off buying 3 new lamps because it would have been cheaper. The cost of a nice lampshade these days is ridiculous! May as well just buy the whole lamp! Thought of other alternatives like using the crappy ones that came with the lamps and covering them with fabric BUT thought of that after I had already thrown them in the dumpster! On the look out for cheap lamp shades!

Derby Skirt

I picked up this skirt from Goodwill for $4. It was a size 13 and with a couple of swipes with my sewing machine it's now a 6 and fits great. Wore it to practice this week!

Happy 42

Ken turned 42 on Valentine's Day. A very talented lady at Dairy Queen decorated this cake for me. I think she did a fantastic job. They didn't have anything like this in the samples so she designed this herself based on my verbal description. I am going to make her something in return for doing such a nice job. It's nice when people do a little extra, more than you ask for. Not very common these days. I want to give her a big hug too! What a nice person.

Office Redo Progress - Curtains

This fabric by Jessica Jones arrived on Wednesday. I got everything cut last night and then today I sewed. I am very happy with how these turned out. Let me tell ya, it is very hard to get tired or crabby in this room which makes it perfect for me because I spend the majority of my days in this room for work. There are still a few things I need to do to complete the room. We're looking at ideas for lighting. I am also still looking for 2 retro chairs and a throw rug and I need to purchase a lot of picture frames because I have lots of photos to put up on the striped wall. Things are moving along well.

$1 Find

What the heck? Found these in the $1 section at Target. Thought they were kinda retro which I seem to be into big time lately! Too cute. For a buck?!

Fabric Soon to Arrive!!!

The fabric I ordered for my office (picture here) is scheduled to arrive this Wednesday. I am so excited to start sewing my curtains! I LOVE this fabric and it's going to make my room really pop. I bet I will be cutting fabric on Wednesday night!

Ken painted my light fixture the same red he used on the table top. I like it.

Office Redo - The Table

Since I go back to work tomorrow after having been off for TWO WEEKS (AHHHHHH!), we are getting things cleaned up and ready to go for 8 a.m. I've been sleeping in until 9 or 10 every morning so getting up tomorrow for work is going to be a shock to my system. Ken finished painting this wooden table we got from Saint Vincent De Paul for $22.50. He painted the whole thing in satin black except the top he did in gloss cherry. The gloss finish and lighting is causing the wall striping to show up on the top in these photos. The fabric I ordered for the curtains has shipped! Yay! We are still looking for two chairs for this table.

Spoon People

Lydia went through some of my craft books for kids. A couple are for 2 - 6 year olds but Lydia who is 8 still loves most of the craft projects in them. The books include The Little Hands Big Fun Craft Book: Creative Fun for 2 to 6 Year Olds and The Little Hands Art Book: Exploring Arts & Crafts with 2 to 6 Year Olds by Judy Press and Scribble Art: Independent Creative Art Experiences for Children by MaryAnn F. Kohl. I let her pick out some projects for us to do and the first one she wanted to do was to make these spoon people.

Lydia loves to create "doll houses" out of cardboard boxes so we made one of those as well. She decided it would be a school. She has an expensive Barbie house in her play room that we could have used but she prefers to use houses she makes out of cardboard boxes. Creating the house itself and the furniture and curtains and such for it is most of the fun for her. Sometimes her dad gets a little frustrated with her because she never throws anything away. She sees things she can create out of almost anything! I love that she loves to create like this and so I am a little more patient with all of the "junk" she collects for her arts and crafts. Her whole face brightens up when she shows me something she has made from these things.

I think we will pick out another project to do now. We are on vacation until the 4th of January so we can do that!

Office Redo Progress

I have been writing lately about the office redo we are working on. I have to give Ken most of the credit because he has been doing all of the real work like painting and hanging shelves. As you can see in the picture above, the shelves are now up! This is not how I plan to organize things. They just have everything from my desk piled on them so we could take the top off of my desk to remove a drawer. I LOVE THE SHELVES! Now that I have these, I will be able to see the top of my desk! Well, maybe.
Last night we taped off the stripes and...
...finished painting them. I love the stripes! The picture that inspired this room is in this post. The fabric I ordered is not supposed to ship until after January 1. I wish I had it now so I could start sewing the curtains! I am going to love my new office. So excited to finish it.

Christmas Stars

I made these Christmas stars this year for some friends. I stole the idea from Trey and Lucy. I thought it was a neat idea. Easy to make too.

Office Redo in Progress

We are working on the office redo. We have the lighter orange on the walls and WOW, it's orange man! No dozing off in this room! It still needs one more coat and then the darker orange stripes are going up on one wall. I just ordered 6 yards of this fabric from jcarolinecreative.com (pic above). I'll be making curtains out of it. The fabric is not being shipped until 12/31 so it will arrive when I am back to work. Bummer! The shelves in the inspiration picture in the post below have been purchased and will go up once the walls are dry.
I purchased this wall clock last night. I also purchased an old metal file cabinet and a retro end table from The Salvation Army yesterday. The file cabinet will get painted one of the blues or greens from the curtain fabric. I think the table will be flat black and I'm going to paint a peppermint on the top of it.

I am still looking for 2 shell chairs along this line--any color, I can have them painted whatever color I want. We had a few similar to this years ago and I think I didn't sell any of them for more than 3 bucks each at a rummage sale. Now?! Now, you can't find these for under $70 a piece!

Office Redo

I am going to cheer up my office and I'm using this as my inspiration. I found this photo via the How About Orange Blog. I was excited to find this blog because orange is my favorite color. It's a great blog and I highly recommend it. I will take a picture of my office before we start so you can see the transformation. I'm only going to stripe one wall because doing all of them in my 10x12 office would make the room feel too small to me. On the facing wall I will have shelves like the ones below. I so need shelf space. I'm going to pull the blues, greens, pinks, and purples for accent colors. That, and a red and white peppermint candy light that I have to include because it reminds me of The White Stripes which I am addicted to right now. I spend the majority of my day in my office so I want to make it fun.