35:02

That was my finishing time for my 5k this morning.

My first 5k ever.

which I ran without walking.

Woot woot!!

Slowly mind you (see my time?), but run it I did.

With one of my shoe laces untied for 2/3rds of the race.

That should count for something right?

(I was just so determined not to stop!)

In our haste to get to the race on time we forgot our camera (gah!), but my friend took pictures so I'll post them when I have them.

It was awesome and I totally want to keep training and run another in the spring with my shoe laces tied and at a quicker pace.

Homemade Fingerpaints

I love to fingerpaint and it's something I've been looking forward to trying with the boys.

(They already create works of art on their high chair trays with their food, so I figure they'll be naturals.)

But I had several problems. 1) I'm cheap and didn't want to pay for fingerpaints, especially not knowing how it would go. 2) They are going to eat the paint. I just know it will happen and I didn't love the idea of them eating commercial paint with chemicals.

Well pinterest saved the day yet again, by exposing me to the world of homemade fingerpaints!

So, so, so easy and fun to make.

{I used this recipe}



{brown, pink, blue, purple, green, orange, yellow, red: all made from a basic blue/red/green/yellow food coloring kit}

BONUS: I found a use for all those baby food jars that I convinced my husband we needed to hold onto so sure they'd be useful for something.

Here a few things I learned/want to try differently:

1. One batch of the recipe I made filled 4 baby food jars (each baby jar held ~1/2 cup).

2. I mixed the base paint with food coloring before putting it into the jar. This was much easier than trying to mix them in the baby jar with that tiny opening.

3. The recipe was easiest to work with while still warm (see below).

4. These paints were the perfect consistency warm, but once they cooled they were super thick. I think I'll try cutting down the cornstarch next time to see if that helps (or maybe cut down the cooking time?). For now I'll trying warming them up a bit before using or adding some water to them or maybe just doing both. I'll let you know how it goes.

5. Go easy on the food coloring! A little goes a long way and adding more or less really gives you a lot of options for colors (i.e. pink and red are the same food color just with more or less added).

6. So I made these for the boys' birthday or and Christmas present (let's be honest I'm pretty sure they'll be thrilled to open these on their birthday and then pull them out of their stockings one by one Christmas morning.) But in my haste to get started on Christmas and birthday presents I didn't think through the fact that these are made out of food products (do homemade fingerpaints get moldy? Anyone?). Hmmmm...I decided to store them in the fridge until birthday time and see how it goes. Worse case scenario I cook up another batch post haste, but they are so easy and cheapity-cheap that it wouldn't be a big deal.

I'm pretty sure I set the stage perfectly for the boys to want to dig into these. How you ask? By taking these pictures while the boys were awake and wanting to get their chubby little hands on them, which of course I didn't allow. Forbidden object + my children = pure childhood joy and delight. Maybe I'll try this reverse psychology if they ever refuse to eat their vegetables...

If the boys enjoy these as much as I enjoyed making them it'll be a happy day in our house!

A first

Oh boy. So a couple months ago I started the Couch to 5k program, determined to run a 5k once and for all (call me crazy, but I've always wanted to run one).

I was going strong thanks to my fantastic running buddy (thank you Kristen). I was even going on my own on days when she wasn't able to. I was committed.

You'll notice I'm using the past tense.

So I was doing so great with my training and then the last couple of weeks happened. Between a new calling, helping plan the ward trunk or treat, Halloween costumes, Nathan studying and taking his licensure exam etc., I totally dropped the ball on my training.

My 5k is on Saturday. As in this Saturday.

The furthest I've run is 2.5 miles....

Needless to say I'm a little nervous, but I am committed to finishing the race even if I have to walk part of it (which would be a bummer).

But if that happens I'll just remind myself that finishing the race is better than finishing it perfectly.

Wish me luck!

Loveys

The first project I tackled from my pile 'o sewing projects was our boys' loveys. Our twinners fell in love with these sweet cozy monkey blankets. Like head over heels, can't go to sleep without them, love. Only problem was we only had two and it was getting hard {READ: impossible} to keep them clean. Oh who am I kidding I would have settled for clean-ish, but not even that was happening. So I thought we'd just go grab a couple more from the store, right? Ha! Turns out they no longer sell my boys beloved monkey blankets. Unless I want to buy them off ebay, used, for $20/blanket.

Ummmm...I don't think so.

So then I embarked on the mental journey of how to create 4 loveys out of two. I knew I wanted them to have a satin binding and then I got a little obsessed with them being identical. I didn't want fights breaking out over them in the future because one had monkey on it and one didn't etc.



And I thought and stewed and bought some white satin remnants and then rethought the wisdom of white satin on something my kids will likely drag all over the place...

and that's where my enthusiasm for the project fizzled out.

Until now!

I stopped obsessing over the blankets being identical, scrapped the white satin for something I already had on hand, and got to work.

1. I took three flannel receiving blankets of various sizes and created my own "bias tape." I cut the blankets into six inch strips (creates 1.5 inch binding after folding and pressing) that I then sewed together to create enough length to go around my blankets.This was a great way to reuse/make use of some of their old baby stuff. I personally don't understand the utility of store bought receiving blankets since kids out grow them in about a month. (Seriously, enlighten me here if I'm missing something)

2. I cut the boys current blankets in half and then used my bias tape to bind the edges. This was a learning process to be sure. I definitely got better the more blankets I did, but believe me these babies are faaaaaaaarrrr from perfect, but they are done which was the point.

{I used this tutorial for both the bias tape and binding.}

{Happy Dance!}



{The finished product!}


A bonus feature of doing this is now these sweet loveys are the perfect size to be toted around when our guys start walking. Before they were way too big for that. Awesome!

It felt so good to get this project done and I'm really happy with how they turned out!

The beginning

I've had something of a personal breakthrough in the last couple of weeks that started with this realization:

If I can't do something the way that I want to I usually don't do it at all.

This, my friends, is a problem. As a busy caretaker of twins I often don't have the time or energy to do things just the way I want to, but not doing them at all is unacceptable as well.

It keeps me stuck.

It keeps me from making the changes I want to.

It keeps me from accomplishing things I want to do.

It keeps me from becoming the kind of person I really want to be.

Which is why my house is usually a mess, dinner not on the table as often as I'd like, and it explains the pile of unfinished projects on my sewing desk.

So I say, no more!

Done is better than perfect in my {new} book.

So I started a new blog to sort of track my progress and celebrate my successes as small as they may be.

You are welcome to follow along if you'd like.