Monday, November 22, 2010

Giving Thanks

I wanted to write an awesome blog update, but I'm afraid I got nothin'!  But I am going to give it a go anyway, maybe it will come to me as I write.

I am working on some Christmas presents, but can't blog about those just yet.  Let's just say that I love to create, but I am not always certain that my recipients will love what I create.  Nonetheless, if you are a female member of my family and you are getting a Christmas present from me it will likely be homemade. 

If you are a male member of my family you are less likely to receive something homemade, but then again you are less likely to receive anything at all.  Men are hard to buy for.  And harder to make for.  Sorry.

I want to share at least one thing I made recently, so here are a couple of pictures of another sweatshirt I embellished.  Fun?  I think so.





















These sweatshirts were $8 each on sale at Joanns, so I thought I would try embellishing them, and they would be so much more economical than buying the sweatshirts at Disney.  But will I have the self control to not buy one anyway?  We will see.  I will offer Jamie the choice of one of them ( I posted the other one here) and keep the other one for myself.

Lastly, but most importantly, I want to write about what I am most thankful for. Because it is the season for that.   Most of it is obvious I suppose, and hasn't really changed much from year to year, but I want to document it anyway, mostly to remind myself how good I have it when on occasion it may not feel that way.

My top 5 things to be thankful for in 2010:
  1. My husband.  He is the most loving, caring, thoughtful, easy going, hard working, patient person I know.  And I am so lucky to have him.
  2. Our 5 boys.  They have all grown into fine upstanding young men.  And they all continue to grow, and I love watching it all happen.
  3. Our jobs.  I don't really love my job these days, but I am so lucky to have it.  My day job supports my other loves.  It allows me to create and give, and it allows me to vacation and spend more time with family.  All of my favorite things to do.
  4. My Mom's health.  I am so thankful that they found the problem early and were able to take care of it and there were no complications.  After losing my father to pancreatic cancer, I know what can happen if things grow unnoticed inside of you.
  5. Our simple life.  I have watched my sister and her family move multiple times this year, change jobs, change schools, drive over an hour each way to work, work 14 - 16 hour days, and I know that we have it really easy here.  Short commutes, 8 hour days, no traffic.  Life is good.
I am so incredibly blessed.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Travel Accessories - Disney Style

I had fun making a few accesories for our trip, and I learned a few things too.  First off, don't try to do a machine applique satin stitch on vinyl, unless your intention is to remove the vinyl.  As in it ends up cuttting it out.  So that is one lesson learned.  But I did eventually successfully complete my first I Spy bag and it came out cute.  I think I probably overfilled it with poly beads, another lesson learned for next time, it is a little bit hard to manipulate the beads around, but it works.


I also made a Crayon Art Folio.  I used a directional print and a fairly large print, both of which were probably not best for this purpose.  Then I used fat princess crayons to fill it, and it was designed for small crayons.  So the crayons barely fit in the pockets, and it pulls at the edges.  But if I didn't tell everyone my mistakes, maybe they wouldn't really notice.  It will serve it's purpose.



















So those 2 items are going in a bag of things to do on the plane to Disney, for Hayley I mean, although I am sure I will want to play too.

I also made an autograph book, using images that other people have created and shared on the internet.  I have access to print all I want on a thermal photographic printer at work and it is completely legal to use all we want, so I just printed them that way, and put a plastic binder on them. 




And then I also printed out invites to most of the meals we have planned and for the princess makeover at the Bibbidy Bobbity Boutique.



I think I may be done with all I wanted to do for the trip, and it is still almost 3 weeks away.  Of course I started on some of the clothes as early as Feb so I have had plenty of time.  And I may come up with more ideas before we leave.  I certainly won't run out of things to do regardless.

I also finally got around to making Greg an apple pie yesterday (Sunday).  He loves them and they are not hard to make, but I put it off anyway.  It is apple season and I just hadn't gotten around to it.  So I made one, and then wouldn't you know it the neighbor next door came over to give us a cheesecake/pie she made.  Good thing we were having my in-laws over for dinner last night because with just the 2 of us we really don't need 2 pies to eat. 

We are bringing the leftovers to Shawn and Jamie's tonight (Monday night) for dessert.  We are going over there for dinner tonight, as we need our Beaner time.  That is what we call Hayley - 'Beaner'.  Strange, I know but it is true.  And she calls us E-Pa.  As in E for Ellen and Pa for Grandpa and collectively we are E-Pa. 

And I will leave with that for today.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Happy and Sad

Well it has happened.  Michael is not going to be able to go to Disney World with us. 

I am so extremely happy for him.  He started a new job back in Feb and he has not been happy with it just about right from the start.  So he has been sending out resumes, and applying, and interviewing like crazy.  And he never gave up despite a few disappointments.  And now he has gotten an offer for a job that he really thinks will be a lot better.  So of course I am extremely pleased and proud!

But unfortunately they want him to start Nov 29th and he doesn't want to say no, so of course he won't be able to go to Florida the following week.  And I am sad.  I completely understand, and I am so happy for him, but I am sad.  But that is how life goes.  You try to bring up your children to be successful and independent, and then if your lucky that is what happens.  So you just have to be proud.  Even if you are sad.

So enough about that topic.  I tried on the ill fated Stitch shirt and it just wasn't going to cut it on me, so I had to salvage it yet again.  I used Lil Blue Boo's Recycled Sienna Dress pattern to upcycle it into a comfy girl's dress or nightgown.
Very cute, not sure if Hayley will want to wear it, so it may be up for grabs.  We will see.

Also up for grabs will be one Mens size Medium Chef Mickey's t-shirt in Royal Blue, as I am sure Michael would not wear this outside of Disney World and I don't know who would.  Maybe it will end up useful for a Big Give some day, but if any of my Dis friends are in need or want of it just let me know.  It is the blue one in this picture.

I will also eventually have to decide what to do with the rest of the t-shirts I made him.  I made this hitchhiking ghosts one just before I found out for sure he isn't coming.  There are a couple I think he might wear so I will send him those, but the rest I will save for a big give or to upcycle/recycle into something else at some point.  Thankfully these t-shirts cost $2 or even less sometimes, so it is not a big loss or anything.

Also, I bought a new camera this past week and hadn't really had any opportunities to play with it and make sure I like it so I took it outside today and took a few pictures.  It has a 24x optical zoom lens, so I wanted to test that out and also see if the image stabilization really worked.

Here is a picture of our house taken from the street.  There is a squirrel's nest in the tree that is sort of centered if you look in a line from the top of the garage (you may want to click on the photo to enlarge it to see it better).

And here is the squirrel's nest taken from the same location zoomed in:


I think it came out extremely clear for being zoomed in that much.  Cool.   Still need to keep playing, but so far I think I like it.  Here are a few other shots I took today outside.  These were all taken in auto mode, I am not up on all of the manual settings yet.









And last for today, I did finish the sweatshirt I wanted to make for myself.  It came out pretty good and I like it, so I will definitely wear it in Dec if it is chilly out, which I expect it will be especially in the evenings.


So that's it for today.  Gotta go for a walk and enjoy what is likely the last weekend of nice weather we may see for awhile.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

We are going to Disney World (yes, again) in a few weeks! 

We will be going Dec 4 - 11th and using our Disney Vacation Club points to stay in a 2 bedroom villa at Saratoga Springs Resort.

The cast of characters will of course start with me and my amazing husband Greg. 


Going with us from Rochester are Greg's son Shawn, his beautiful wife (and our only and favorite daughter) Jamie, and our beautiful granddaughter Hayley, who happens to be turning 4 years old on this trip (Yay!!)

Here they are from our trip to Florida in May of 2009


Also, my son Michael is planning to join us from Atlanta.   Hopefully he will not have to cancel, but he is in the midst of possibly changing jobs (We'll know more by Monday).  This is a good thing, so if he has to cancel we will understand (and be disappointed at the same time!)  He is planning to ride the greyhound bus and bring his bike along, then ride it from the Orlando greyhound terminal to Disney World.  I know this is crazy, but he takes after his mother and obsessives over things (although certainly different things), so there is no changing his mind!


Since I am obsessive about just about everything I do, I have gone overboard planning what I hope to be an amazing trip!!  I wanted to share some of the craziness....

I have made an outfit for Hayley for each day of our trip.  Most are for a specific event each day...

For arrival day dinner with Mickey Mouse and friends at Chef Mickey's:
And her entourage will be wearing these:

Won't we make a cute picture all together?!!  I hope my family doesn't disown me before it's over. (Or before it starts?!)

If we aren't too tired after travelling today we may head over to the Magic Kingdom after dinner to see the nighttime light parade and the fireworks.

Next day (Sunday 12/5) is Hayley's 4th birthday and I know at least a couple of us (meaning the girls) are soooo looking forward to this day! 

We will be headed to the Magic Kingdom and at 2pm Hayley has an appointment to be transformed into a princess! (Actually she already is one but they will be doing her hair and nails to match!)  For the occasion I made a Belle dress that I think came out really beautiful, and hope will live up to the birthday girl's beauty:

After the makeover at the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique (and many many pictures) we will be eating dinner in Cinderella's Castle with the princesses.  A day fit for a princess, if I do say so myself.  We will be done early and head back to our villa to rest tonight, as we don't want any royal birthday princess meltdowns on such a special day!

On Monday we will be headed to Disney's Hollywood Studios.  Here we will be having lunch at the 50's Prime Time Cafe and Hayley will be dressed appropriately in her "Pluto" skirt and bowling shirt:

On Tuesday we will be arriving early at Animal Kingdom for a breakfast with Mickey and friends dressed in their safari gear and we will all once again be dressed to kill.  Hayley will be the center of attention, and the rest of us will coordinate once again:

In the afternoon the guys are very excited to try playing golf at the Lake Buena Vista course.  The girls will have a leisurely afternoon shopping at downtown disney and perhaps lounging by the pool!

On Wednesday we will head back to the Magic Kingdom for rides this time, and dinner that evening will be at the elegant Grand Floridian Resort at 1900 Park Fare.  We will be dining with Cinderellla and Prince Charming along with Cinderella's Step Family.
Hopefully we will be on the steps good side when they see how cute Hayley looks in her step family dress:


On Thursday Hayley will be dressed for our trip around the World at EPCOT in her Small World Dress

This night we will dine at the Beach Club Resort enjoying the Cape May Clam Bake!  And hopefully have enough energy left to head back over to EPCOT to see the nighttime show Illuminations.

Friday brings us back to the Grand Floridian for breakfast to dine with Mary Poppins and Alice in Wonderland and then we are heading back to Hollywood Studios.  Hayley will be dressed for the movies in her filmstrip dress:

This dress is one of my favorites I've made so far and I can't wait to see her wear it in the parks!  Today the rest of us will be dressed in our favorite characters to go along with the filmstrip theme:


Sadly Saturday is our last day and we will be headed home this evening.  But since we have a late flight home we still have some plans!  First is breakfast at Ohana at the Polynesian resort with Lilo and Stitch.  Hayley's outfit for today will once again fit the theme.  After breakfast we will head back to Animal Kingdom to see anything we missed.


I had originally planned on having Michael wear a Stitch t-shirt for this breakfast, but I had a bit of a mishap with the embroidery and ended up sewing the sleeve to the back of the shirt. Ugh!! To fix it I had to cut the sleeves off very short, so now I think I will end up wearing it, as it looks a little feminine with the shorty sleeves.  I have made a couple more extra t-shirts for Michael though so he is definitely not going to feel too bad about the stitch shirt, in fact he may be thankful, LOL.


That looks pretty ugly, but I think I salvaged it pretty well considering!  And I didn't scream or anything.

Doesn't Stitch look cute?  Too bad I messed up the shirt.

I'm planning some down time each day for rest and/or pool time, we will have to see how it goes.  I must try to be flexible and not overdo anything, but you know me!  Or if you don't you will if you continue to follow along!

Meanwhile I have also made a countdown calendar, an autograph book, a hair bow, an I Spy bag, and I am working on embroidering a sweatshirt for me.  I also ordered the most amazing hairbows for Hayley from a lady I found online.  More pictures of those later.

We are counting down... I think we are now at 23 days.. (the calendar is now with Hayley so I can't check to be sure!)



So that is more than enough for today.  If you made it this far, thanks for following along!