More about Berlin and the fall festival

So, more about our trip to Berlin. I'm telling you, if you want to find some cool shabby chic/vintage stuff, the Saving Grace Salvage Company in Berlin is the place to go. It's well organized and they have a wide variety of goodies. My most favorite find was the vintage jewelry! Because...my friend Dawn makes THE MOST beautiful bracelets (and sells them on Etsy by the way) out of this stuff. I scored a bunch of pieces for her (and it just happened to be her birthday) and I was smiling the whole way home, seriously. I didn't take any close-ups of what I got for her and I wish I would have!
We met Simone Lapierre (I am probably really messing up the spelling!) who is a beautiful girl inside and out, I'm telling you, so nice. She was face painting when we met her. Besides being an artist, she is also an actress.
She also helped Lydia make a lantern.

We did some shopping too and Lydia picked out a new outfit for her American Girl.
Saw some chain saw carving...
...and of course, no trip is complete without a stop at Taco Johns!
On the way home Lydia told us she had a lot of fun. I think this is a day Lydia will remember when she gets older because we had a lot of fun as a family.

Pumpkins on Petunias Pumpkin Drop

It's Saturday morning and we're all sitting around trying to decide what to do with the day. We searched at www.travelwisconsin.com and found Pumpkins on Petunias in Berlin, WI. It mentioned a farmer's market, crafts, bake sale, great shopping in the local shops, and a pumpkin drop. We like visiting small towns and decided that would be our destination for the day. I'm so glad we went. It was a great day! We met so many friendly people.

We didn't get very lost on the way but had to stop at a gas station to ask for directions. The gas station clerk ended up being from BER-lin (emphasis on first syllable) and smiled when Ken asked her where Ber-LIN was. When we arrived in town we parked and walked down Broadway looking for where this pumpkin drop may be. We weren't quite sure exactly what the pumpkin drop was. I was picturing them dropping pumpkins all over the road and thought that would be pretty messy. When we saw the fire truck and the large crowd standing around it, we knew that was it. We stood in the front with all of the locals (and 3 lovely girls from Chicago) and watched them drop these 3 huge pumpkins on this car. [Sorry the video is sideways. I don't have time for video editing these days. I would love to have more time for that some day though.]

There's much more to tell about this day but I must get to work now so I will have to share more later!

Merry Christmas!

Lydia was wanting a cupcake pin cushion so I finished this one up for her for Christmas. She loved it.

I just love this time of year. The time spent with family, Christmas music, Christmas Eve service, helping others, celebrating the birth of Jesus, and visiting the Emergency Room at 1 a.m. on Christmas Eve because your daughter has an ear infection (sigh).

We spent Christmas Eve with my family...

And Christmas day with my husband's family...

Lydia enjoying a rare moment...a spot in Papa's chair!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to You!

We are going to an 80's New Year's Eve party. I'm still working on our costumes. I will share pictures. Should be a blast.

First Day of 2nd Grade

The big day finally arrived. Lydia was very excited for school to start. She loves school.
I had tears a few times, once when waiting in line for the rest of the kids to arrive she said to me, "You can go now mom. I'm OK". I am continually amazed at how fast the days and years go by.

Labor Day Weekend 2008

We enjoyed the holiday weekend. Ken and I had an opportunity to visit with some friends from way back, about 17+ years. Lydia had her friend Emily over for a camp-out. We made smores.
Lydia and her dad play "Natural Disaster Barbie" and "Smash Barbie". Smash Barbie is when they get hit by cars or they fall off of stuff or get launched across a room. Natural Disaster Barbie is when they get caught in an earthquake or get sucked up in a twister or they get burned in a fire. (Leave it to my husband to dream this up.) Today I had the opportunity to play "Natural Disaster Barbie". An earth quake caused the car to land on Barbie. She broke an arm.
The theme for the card swap this month is "cupcakes". I came up with this so far. The top of the cupcake flips up to open the card.

Tomorrow Lydia starts 2nd grade. I remember starting 2nd grade myself and now my daughter is. (sniff sniff) We had to run to get some gym shoes today. Other than that we've been ready for this big day for awhile. Lydia loves school and is looking forward to getting back to it. As for me, I am a little sad because the summer is over and it feels like yesterday that I was waiting for it to start. I do love Autumn in Wisconsin however. It's my favorite season. I've noticed the different colored leaves on my runs already, and the cooler mornings. Love that stuff.

Look Mom No Training Wheels!

Lydia and I went to a stamping class tonight and we each made 4 cards. She was so interested in what we were doing and had so much fun. I really enjoyed doing this with her because she enjoyed it so much. She is very proud of her cards too. She already has one written out for dad when he comes home from work tonight.

Lydia rode her bike on Sunday for the first time without training wheels. It was so cute and she was so proud. Two of our neighbors were over and after we were all watching her for quite awhile she got off of her bike, brought it close to us and asked who wanted to see her bike. We had all been "seeing" it for quite awhile and now we were all within 3 feet of her bike and could see it quite well but she wanted each of us to touch her bike. Shortly thereafter she asked (quite seriously) if any of us would like her autograph. So sweet!

Family Time + Crafting Time = A Great Day

Today was a very nice day. We had a lot of family and crafting time. After a great sermon at church we had a nice brunch at Stone Crop Organics. If you live in the Plover area, I recommend it. The food is delicious. Today I also started and finished the baby blanket I blogged about here. I am happy with how it turned out. I would make another one of these. It's a good project for those of us who are beginner sewers.
I took a break after I had it cut out and we went to Emy J's for some coffee and a blue moon ice cream cone.
After Emy J's and some more visiting and hanging out around town we were back to crafting. Lydia had a lot (and I mean a lot) of fun breaking in our new Cuttlebug. She LOVES this thing.
and she created this beautiful hat.
Spring is upon us (although snow is expected tomorrow). Registration for the Cellcom Marathon is now open. The run is on May 18. I will be doing the 1/2 marathon. It should be a fun time. Several people from our church will be running this one and Dana will be running with me too. I need to take my running a little more seriously again and look into a training schedule to prepare for this half because the longest I have run since the marathon in October is probably 7 miles at one time. I am planning to do the Walk Wisconsin marathon on June 7 and I am considering another marathon in the fall.

Woohoo! Look Who's Two!

My neice Laurel turned 2 on January 19 and we partied in style with Mickey Mouse. She is so cute I just want to s-q-u-e-e-z-e her whenever I see her.

Sweetest Thing

My six year old daughter wrote this in her diary but I didn't think it was wrong to post it because she gave it to me and didn't tell me not to share it with anyone. I will be holding on to this to remind her how special I am when she is a teenager and realizes I don't know everything. Joking aside, I think this is the sweetest thing (besides her) and it's a keeper (and so is she).

Hanging out at Home

We were invited to a few things this weekend but we all needed some down time so we stayed close to home. Today Lydia tried out her new apron and a recipe, Reese's Haystacks, from her Silly Snacks recipe book that she got for her 6th birthday from her friend Jurnee. She did a great job at making the haystacks and we had a lot of fun.

Yesterday I was able to spend some time at my sewing machine and got a ton of mending done. I turned two pairs of Lydia's pants into shorts because the knees were completely blown out on them.

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth!

My crafting pal lost her second front tooth while having breakfast this morning. It's under her pillow right now, waiting for the tooth fairy.

We celebrated her 6th birthday on Monday with friends and family. My very crafty friend, Dawn, made this apron for her (the day of the party)! She also gave her the Silly Snacks cookbook Lydia is holding. Just the cutest things.


Lydia and I beaded some bracelets this evening. She made 4 while I made 1! She is really interested in crafting and I am thrilled about that.
My friend who inspired me to run a marathon this year is here in WI visiting from Portland, OR, and after visiting with her this past week I've regained the enthusiasm I had earlier for a 26.2 mile run. It wained a bit after finishing a 1/2 marathon and wondering if I could do two of those back to back. I'll be registering very soon!

Graduation Day

(Left to right: My sister, Sara, brother Matt, me)

My "little" brother graduated from college today. I am very proud of him. He had a lot of major life changes during his time in college like losing both of our parents a couple years apart, unexpectedly at very young ages. I am excited for him because he will be travelling to Europe for a month and I am looking forward to what is next for him when he returns.

I took a craft project to the graduation ceremony to work on while waiting for Matt to get his diploma (his last name begins with a "Z" and he was the 5th to the last person called up). I embroidered some flowers on Lydia's shorts.



We also had some friends graduate from college today and I made this frame for them this morning:
I registered today for a 1/2 marathon in the Madison Marathon next weekend (route). Will let you all know what my time ends up being. I ran 10+ miles yesterday and today was my rest day.

Rummage Saling & Kite Flying

I recently learned that Lydia is quite a kite flyer. She got her kite off the ground without much trouble at all. She let me hold onto it for awhile once she got it up in the air. I was glad she did because I wanted to see if flying a kite felt like I remembered...it did. Reminded me of being a kid and it was pretty exciting actually.

I'm keeping on track with my marathon training:
Sun., 5/12: Ran 10 miles/2 hours & 3 min
Tues., 5/14: Walked 3.5 miles/1 hour
Wed., 5/15: Ran 6 miles/53 min.
Thurs., 5/17: Ran 6.6 miles, 70 min.
Friday., 5/18: Walked 3.6 miles/60 min.
Tomorrow morning is my long run day.

Rummage saling season is upon us in Wisconsin. Going to rummages is like Christmas for me. It's so exciting because you never know what goodies you are going to find. Yesterday on a run I had to circle back around to a rummage I could not pass by without stopping at. I'm so glad that I did. I ended up with a box of Legacy magazines (16 in all). Legacy magazine appears to be another cool magazine by Stampington & Company. The articles I've read so far are not surfacey blah but really meaningful and well written. The combinations of materials they use in the projects pictured throughout could be used on all sorts of altered art projects (I am pretty fired up lately about this style).

Hoping to post some pictures of my projects soon! We are going to see Shrek 3 tonight...looking forward to the popcorn!