My 1st Wearable Sewing Project

A few weeks ago I saw a really cute maxi skirt tutorial on pinterest and decided I needed to pull my sewing machine out of the attic and make one.  I also went to the effort of purchasing material and a few other things to complete it.  I set them in our office and left them there......for about 3 weeks...because I was too lazy to move my car back 10 feet so I could get into the attic to get my sewing machine.

Sunday I went to my BIL & SIL's house for a little while and I was completely inspired.  She had been sewing up a storm and made about 10 different dresses.  They were all sooooo cute!  She had maxi dresses and shirt dresses in every color and pattern you could imagine.  She showed me the tutorial that she used and I immediately decided that my maxi skirt was now going to be a dress.  I pulled out the sewing machine when I got home Sunday and picked up a bright red tank top (and a few others) Monday after work.

And then last night I got to sewing.  I'm not going to lie, all of the cutting made me nervous.  I am a bit OCD when it comes to things being lined up and straight so I had this fear that I was going to end up with a crooked dress with holes in it and random seams going all over the place.  The only snag I hit (no pun intended) was after I sewed the top to the bottom the first time, the dress hit me at really awkward middle-of-my-knees length....not cute.  I patiently seam-ripped the entire top off the bottom (my eyes were crossing by the time I finished), and cautiously cut another 3-4 inches off the skirt. I sewed it back together and voila! I had a super cute dress!  I started out using this tutorial and used her technique for sewing everything (and using the elastic thread!) but also used this one for a little bit of clarification on folding the shorter version of the dress (the 1st one was a maxi and I got a bit confused at the beginning when she was talking about folding--maybe if I were a more experienced sewer it would have been fine).

My dress that I MADE!

It's a pretty basic dress, but I added a belt and some accessories and I had a super cute outfit! I think I impressed Eric, too!  He asked me when I was going to make a purple and yellow one for THS games.

I am that girl who likes to wear new stuff as soon as I possibly can so I am wearing this bad boy to work today. =) I wore it with my heels and added a cardigan since my office temp is comparable to Antarctica.

I have a feeling that my closet will soon be full of lots of cute tank dresses in the very near future!  I have 2 old curtains I made to cover doorways when I lived in an apartment that I found when I pulled my sewing machine down that I will soon be wearing!

P.S.  Please say a prayer for our little Cricket girl....we think she got bumped by a car yesterday and had a pretty bad road rash.  She is pretty roughed up but we're taking good care of her. She's a fighter!

I'm an Impulse Buyer (But it only when it comes to food)

....especially when I am in Costco on my way home from work and I am hungry.  

Hungry Me + Costco = random things in my cart

Several items happened to jump in my cart on this particular trip including a Tortellini Pasta Salad (I can have it for lunch this week), some frozen pot stickers (they were sampling them), and then as I was looking for our favorite pita chips I stumbled upon Beer Chips.  Kettle Cooked Beer Chips.  Naturally I had to purchase them because we HAD to try them.

I was a bit skeptical but they were really good!  They had a sweet flavor to them, but the first bite had a subtle but unmistakable beer flavor to it. You can't beat a good kettle cooked potato chip in my opinion.

The packaging was great too.  Someone had a lot of fun coming up with what to put on the bag.

I guess I've seen it all now.  At least they're tasty!

Fall is here!

What a difference a 10 days makes...

This was my sunrise this morning on the way to work (9/25).

This was my sunrise on my way to work on 9/14.

This the ONLY part of fall I am not looking forward to.  My mood is extremely dependent upon the sun being out when I leave for work and when I come home.  But I am very happy about the cooler weather!

Happy Tuesday!

Weekend Recap: Rollin' with the Tide!

Oh whatta weekend! It started out crazy busy, but ended up being quite relaxing.  I ended up having 150 bazillion things going on at work on Friday so I ended up leaving 45 mins later than I usually do.  Unfortunately that meant I had to rush home to let the dogs out because I had to be at the football game by 6pm to work the concession stands.  What a joy that was.  It ended up not being as bad as I was expecting it to be.  The game was a blow out so people left early and we were not too busy.  My non-existent math-in-my-head skills were put to the test, but I finally got the hang of it about halfway through the 1st quarter when I could remember prices without having to look them up. The boys won big, again.  Hopefully that will continue this week because we have a big game on Friday night against one of the top ranked teams in the state!

We were up early Saturday morning because we were headed to Tuscaloosa for the Bama game!  All week we were planning on going to Auburn to tailgate (which is I was unsuccessfully searching for a dress last week). Thursday morning Eric called me at work and told me that some friends had some extra tickets to the Alabama game on Saturday and we couldn't pass it up!  I have never been to an Alabama football game and the last time Eric went to one was when he was in high school.  We headed out early to get there in time to tailgate.  We met up with some friends and had some fabulous food and watched some of the other games that were on.

The game was awesome!  Bama was playing Florida Atlantic so it was not much of a game, but it was fun to be there and experience a game in person. I could not believe how packed the stadium was....for the Florida Atlantic game.  I can't imagine what it's like when they play a big SEC opponent.

Pics (clockwise from left):  Eric and I with the Bear [Bryant].  The field. The boys with the best dressed guy at the game.  The Million Dollar Band with alumni band members...900+ strong. Clearly I was able to find a dress that was long enough after going to my 10th store.  Apparently I was just looking for the wrong color because I was able to find a super cute and long enough red and gray dress that I can also wear to HC's Homecoming this weekend!

The only thing that would have made it better would have been to not to have to drive 2.5 hours home after the game.  I think I fell asleep about 2.5 seconds after I got in bed after we got home.

Sunday was the exact opposite of Saturday.  Aside from going to church and Eric's grandma's to eat lunch we did little to nothing.  I went to my SIL's house to talk a little basketball and of course discuss our latest crafts.  She's been making super cute maxi dresses the past couple of weeks and she had me so inspired that I got my sewing machine down when I got home.  I didn't sew anything but I have plans to!  It was an absolutely beautiful fall day so I of course let the puppies play outside.

We decided to let little girl out so she could run around today.  It's been a week since her surgery and she seems to be loving being able to run and play with her brother!

Happy Girl!

I can't believe that fall is already here and that October will be here next week.  Time is flying this year!  Here goes another week!

Where have all the Tall Girl Dresses Gone?

I've been tall for the majority of my life.  It wasn't too bad when I was little but once I hit late middle school I shot up to 5'10", which is where I've been for the past 13 years or so (if you're doing the math I've been this tall since I was 14 years old).  I hated it when I was in school because my pants were always too short and I was always a head taller than everyone.  I never wore shorts to school because mom had a finger tip rule (couldn't wear shorts that came above my fingertips when when my arms were by my sides), which meant I needed shorts with about a 7" inseam and pedal pushers were't quite in style yet.  I did not own a pair of capri pants until I was about a year into college (around 2004) because I could not understand why people wanted to wear pants that were too short for them.  I'd tried my entire life to find pants that were long enough!

via

I got used to it, but I still hated being so much taller than everyone else.  I tended to have taller friends which helped but there were always those situations when I'd end up looking like a giant, especially in pictures.

via

In college I learned to embrace my height. Playing basketball helped because there were always people around who were my height or taller. I also learned the art of the "knee-pop" that works wonders in pictures with shorter people.

Now I absolutely  LOVE being tall and I wouldn't trade it for anything. I LOVE to wear high heels and I wear them to work every day (but no platform heels...I'm not trying to be an Amazon woman).  I tend to not wear them as much when Eric and I are out because I still have the fear of towering over him or looking the same height as him in pictures (stupid, I know).  He is 4 inches taller than me but if I have on heels and a picture is taken from a bad angle I could look taller which is NOT good. I wore flat sandals for our wedding for that very reason.  I was not taking any chances with those pictures. I feel right at home with my family.  They're almost all tall and my in-laws are pretty tall too, which helps in picture taking!

Please excuse my attire in the picture of my cousins and I.  I was a sophomore in college and played basketball and apparently thought that extra large t-shirts and sweats were hot.  YIKES!

So why am I waxing poetic about my experience with being tall?  

For this reason:

via

I have some serious beef with the people who decided that super short dresses were going to be the current style.  I rode all over the city yesterday trying to find a cute dress to wear to a tailgate this weekend.  It's going to be 86 so I decided a dress was the way to go.  I bet I tried on 25 dresses yesterday and nearly every cute sundress was anywhere from 3-6 inches too short.  I realize that there are much bigger problems in the world today and that I should be very thankful that I can just run to a store to pick up a dress to wear this weekend (which I am), but is it too much to ask for another 3 inches of fabric on a dress so I don't flash the world when I lean over the food table to get a bite to eat? I know the people we're hanging out with would appreciate it!

Tall Girl Problems....grrr!

They're Back!

Puppy dog photobomb! He wanted to see what I was doing. =)

The puppies came home yesterday morning.  I can't say they were too excited to see us, especially the little girl.  I am sure she is cursing us for putting her through this.  We're keeping her kenneled outside so she does not run around.  Her sweet brother has not left her side since we brought them home.  They get really distraught when they're separated.  When we picked them up, they took the little girl to take the catheter out of her paw and he freaked out.  I picked him up and walked him over to the doorway where he could see her and he calmed down immediately. 

She seems to appreciate the kennel for now.  You can tell soreness has set in, and she prefers to sit still on a towel especially after the leash incident we had when we brought her home.  We put her on a leash to take her out and she freaked out.  She was jumping and flipping around because she was scared and I think she was feeling the repercussions of that.  We put one of Peanut's old harnesses on her yesterday afternoon and she seems more comfortable with that.  They've clearly never worn collars before.  They both tried to eat their tags when we put their collars on them.

Good news is they both still have their appetites.  They said we need to get some weight on the little girl as she had some kind of parasite that kept her from gaining as much weight as she should have been.  Poor girl has had a rough start.

Little girl tearing up her dinner and her brother trying to help her.

He scarfed his down in no time. 

It's a bit more work for us to take care of her this week but it's worth it, and it's not like we haven't done anything like this before.  We've been through extensive surgery recoveries and months of rehab with both Hawk (leg) and Peanut (back), so a week of keeping little girl in her kennel will be comparatively easy.  

Oh and apparently if you tell a vet that you will take a dog out back and "take care of them" they are a lot more willing to negotiate your bill.  I was unaware Eric used that line when negotiating the terms of their visit. He would NEVER do that (and not only because I would not allow it), but it worked.  His point was that someone dropped them off in our neighborhood and instead of us dropping them off at the pound or leaving them to fend for themselves, we were trying to do the right thing and get them shots and get her fixed.Luckily the vet was willing to help at that point and now they are home.  I am thinking the next step is going to be to get them a dog house to sleep in.  They prefer to curl up next to each other so we won't need a big one.  There was a chill in the air this morning so I need to get on that this week!  

Penne Pasta with Trapanese Pesto

It has literally taken me 15 minutes to start typing this post.  I've had the computer on my lap but I've been fighting off 2 needy puppy dogs who both think they need to be either on my lap or under my hand.  I have a feeling that after dealing with these 2 for as long as I have, children will be a cinch.  I constantly have dogs barking at me, pushing me out of their way, and of course interrupting time in the bathroom.  It's bad when you have to warn guests to make sure they shut the bathroom door all the way because the dogs WILL try to follow them.

Why is it that some days just feel off? I felt completely out of it all day Monday. Maybe it was the rain?  Who knows.  All I know is that the only thing I was interested in doing when I got home from work was taking a nap.  I managed to take the boys on a walk between storms and then crashed on the couch.....at 6:00pm.

I did manage to throw together a quick dinner.  I decided that barely cooking one night (like last week) was not going to cut it--at least not until basketball season starts. =) I found a recipe for Penne Pasta with Trapanese Pesto.  It looked enticing not to mention I had almost everything for it already.  I made a few changes to the original recipe by using whole wheat penne and because Eric is not too keen on eating vegetarian dinners I cooked some sausage and mushrooms to combine with the pasta and pesto.  It was definitely different but not too bad.  It had a really good and unique flavor.  I really liked the fact that I made the pesto out of all fresh ingredients.

Tomorrow night is breakfast burritos using the leftover sausage/mushroom mixture!

We get the puppies back today so I'll have updates on them tomorrow!

Canine Additions

I guess you could say that as of today we have officially adopted "the puppies" as part of the family.  We realized on Saturday night when we came home to find the puppies "stuck" together that the little boy clearly understood what it meant for his sister to be in heat (Eric had been saying all along that he was too young to know what it was) and that it was clearly time for us to either get rid of them or take precautionary steps to keep "the puppies" from having any more puppies.

Aren't they sweet!? 

Eric caught them this morning and took them to vet to get shots and to get the little girl fixed so that they can stay around.  Hawk and Peanut have been driving us crazy as well  since she has been in heat for about a week; they sit by the door and whine because they want to go outside to sniff her.  Men....they're all the same aren't they? Regardless of the species!

I don't think there will be much adjusting for Hawk and Peanut.  I don't anticipate us having them as inside dogs since they like to roam all day outside (and freak out if they get too far inside the house), and as long as they stay outside I don't see either of our spoiled rotten inside puppies getting jealous.  They'd gotten to the point that they ignored them before little girl went in heat. They seem to have adopted us and think of our yard as their own.  When Hawk and Peanut and I go for our evening walks, they go to the edge of the yard and wait for us to come back.  They won't go up to anyone or any dogs that walk by the house, but as soon as I get back with the boys they come running to us.  They have certainly earned their keep after the midnight door bell incident last weekend.  I kinda like the idea of having the little monsters watching the house for us. =) Looks like Cricket and Hollow are here to stay!

Friday Letters

Hello there Friday.  We meet again.  I was a little concerned that you would take a while to get here earlier this week, but you sped things up toward the end of the week and now you're here!  Please stick around for a while.

Friday morning sunrise!

Dear Eric, I apologize for my nearly total lack of cooking this week.  There was just way too much going on.  Although I must admit that the one dinner I did whip up was quite delicious! Whoever decided to make a hot roast beef sandwich on a loaf of garlic/cheesy bread is a genius!

I can'd even begin to describe how good this was.  The original recipe called for a loaf of garlic bread and cheddar cheese, but all I had in the freezer was 5 cheese garlic bread with parmesan and mozzarella so I decided to stick with those cheeses to top it.  And yes we ate the entire thing. 

Dear Pandora Radio, Thank you thank you thank you for FINALLY taking my advice and creating a SMASH Radio Station.  I think I started asking for one here and then again here.  It only took 7 months (but who's counting, besides me), but I guess better late than never...now how about a Sirius Satellite Radio Station? Maybe?!

Dear Dish Network, Thank you for for ending your dispute with Fox in our area this summer.  I thoroughly enjoyed getting to watch the Season Premier of GLEE last night.  It's been 2 years since I've been able to watch it and I missed it!

Dear Self, I came to the conclusion last night that we are officially old.  The greatest television sitcom ever created (in my humble opinion); the one I grew up on and learned a life lesson every episode is now on the nightly Nick at Nite line up. Yes that's right Full House.  (We'll overlook the fact that Full House ended about the same time that Friends started airing and it's been on Nick at Nite for a year now.)

Dear Mother Nature, Thank you for allowing the fallish weather to hang around this week.  Running outside has been 100% more enjoyable for me this week.  Hopefully my dates with the pavement will continue and I will be able to put the treadmill up until it's too cold/dark (boo end of daylight savings) to run outside.

Happy Friday!

Rolo Stuffed Cookies

I found a recipe for Rolo-Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookie Muffins the other day and could not stop thinking about them because I really really love chocolate chip cookies and I really really love Rolos and well, put them together and I will most likely eat every single cookie. Thankfully I had am oppotunity to take cookies to work earlier this week so I could not eat them all by myself  I had an excuse to make them. I am happy to report that they were the easiest and most declicious cookies I've made in a long time.  I decided to for-go puttin gthem in muffin tins because I really hate having to wash out my mini-muffin tin and because cookies cooked on my Pampered Chef Baking Stone always come out perfect!....meaning I can't burn them.

MMMMMMMMM!  COOOOOOOOKIES!

I went the semi-homemade route....I love me some Sandra Lee from the Food Network....and purchased a couple of packages break and bakes (that were on sale and used a coupon so I got 2 packs for $3.90), along with a big bag of Rolos (that I may have gotten into and ended up with fewer Rolos that I did cookies).

Step 1

Make an indention in the center of the dough.  I used my thumb which made a perfect Rolo-sized spot. 

Step 2

Place an unwrapped Rolo in the indention made by your finger. (My Rolos apparently did not like sitting in my car on the way home and ended up a lil melted before they were baked--no worries! they melt completely when they're cooked anyway!)

Step 3

I then rolled the dough into a ball around the Rolo.  One dough ball from a 24 pack of break and bakes is enough for one cookie. Be careful when rolling the balls because if your Rolos are soft they will smoosh, too. 

Step 4

Set the dough balls on your pan (or your baking stone) with about 3" in betwen each cookie.

Step 5

Bake cookies according to directions on the package.  These cooked for 11 mins at 350 degrees. I usually leave hot cookies on my baking stone for several minutes so they can cool.  That way they do not fall apart when I take them off the pan.  The Rolos will melt when cooked so cookies will  look like regular old chocolate chip cookies. 

But take a bite and there's the Rolo in all of it's Chocolatey and Caramely glory!

I took about a break and bake package and a half (30 something cookies) to work and came home with zero.  Did I mention there were only 8 of us that ate on them?  They are addicting!  The extra 12 or so cookies lasted a day.....and this is why I only make cookies when there are lots of people to share them with.  Hi my name is Betsy and I have 0 self control when it comes to chocolate chip cookies.

4 things...

#1  Whoever decided to air the Kris Kardashian interview @ NBC INSTEAD of the moment of Silence/Tribute to the victims of 9/11 should be FIRED.  Period. Bad call NBC, bad call. We will Never Forget!

#2  I am in the wrong profession.  I should not have gone into health education, that's what ordinary people do.  I found out this morning that I have the ability to be a time bending contortionist, like Keanu Reeves' character Neo in the Matrix. You know that scene where he is dodging gunfire (or something like that-I never saw the movie but I remember it from the preview) and leans all the way back without putting his hands down?  Yeah, I did that this morning.  Although I was not dodging gunfire (thankfully)....I was dodging a spider web booby trap that this little guy put up in my yard this morning.

Yeah, remember that "awesome spider" that was in my garden this past weekend?  He is no longer awesome in my book.  After trying to trap me in his web this morning we are no longer on speaking terms.  How did this seemingly harmless yet creepy look creature manage to nearly capture a human being in his web?  I was chasing a puppy dog who HAD to go out early because of an upset tummy around the yard this morning trying to get him back in the house so I could leave for work.  I ran around the corner of the house and was about to lunge forward to grab him (the dog, not the spider), and BAM...my face was mere inches from the web.  My foot was underneath the web, and I some managed to do a quick leaning-back giant lunge step (in my mind this is where I looked like Neo in the Matrix) to get the h-e-double hockey sticks away from it.  I turned around to look back at it, sure that the spider was gone from the web and somewhere on my shirt, but he was chilling on his still-intact web.  Mr director for the Matrix franchise, give me a call if you need a female Neo-body bending ability character, I'm your girl.

#3  Why is it that on the days I absolutely dread going on a run end up being the best run days?  Yesterday afternoon I had a serious battle of ideas in my head about whether I should stop by Little Caesar's and get a pizza and some Crazy Bread on my way home and spend my evening on the couch OR go for a run.  After talking with my Mom on the way home and hearing her tell me about the 20 mile--yes TWENTY mile run she went on this past weekend (Did I mention she is running the Chicago Marathon next month?  I am so proud of her!) I decided I could put in a measly 5K.  I made the decision to run outside since it was absolutely B-E-A-Utiful outside yesterday and I seriously felt like I could run forever. If it had not been for Hawk crying inside the house (I could hear him a good 5 houses away) I may have done more, but I stopped @ 3.25 miles and then got the puppy dogs and took them around the block once.

Beautiful sunset from yesterday evening.

#4  I am finally ready to get started on some fall crafts! It took me an extra week or 2 compared to last year, but after the gorgeous fall weather we had this past weekend had me chomping at the bit to work on some new projects. I made this banner for our front door this past weekend:

I liked it so much that I started working on (and ended up finishing) another one last night. I can't wait to put it up!

Happy Wednesday!  2 more days til the weekend...but who's counting?