Outing #3 & 4 with the Shoes

Friday night is date night. We were planning to go running together last Friday. My husband and I are both training for the Seattle Rock 'n' Roll Marathon, in June. We rarely get to run together, and since I'm also training for the Ragnar Relay Del Sol, this coming weekend, I thought it would be fun to run our scheduled 10 1/2 miles together. We can only do that when we have a baby sitter.

Earlier that afternoon, my sister-in-law asked us if we wanted to go to see the movie, The Lightning Thief. Originally I said no, because we were running. When I told my husband, hours later, he said, "I think we could go, and run later. Maybe Saturday." So that's what we did.

I wore the shoes (and the same, matching shirt) to Cafe Rio and the movie theater. The movie was great! That's about the perfect level of scary/suspense for me. I was even tense enough through the whole thing, that my husband's hand hurt and my neck could've seriously used a massage after wards. My 9 y-o saw it a week ago (before me) and he LOVED it. My 7 y-o would have had nightmares for the next year, had she seen it. It was my second time at Cafe Rio (I can't believe I've lived here for 5 years, and never went until a few weeks ago)! I am in LOVE with Cafe Rio! (I'm so grateful to some friends who introduced us to it!)

The fourth time I wore the shoes was two days ago, to church. I didn't take any pictures, but my friend, Amy, gave my ugly toes a beautiful paint job. (Thanks so much, Amy!) (I should still take pictures of them, soon.)

Outing #2 with the Shoes

My second outing with the shoes was actually last Sunday. I've been too busy to post. I wore them to church. Saturday night I realized that I still hadn't painted my toenails, so I quickly did a little french tip on my toes and called it good. I love that they matched this sweater perfectly. I always wanted to have shoes that matched it! I guess it'll only last a few more weeks, though. Darn! Wish I could keep them forever.


I've got to wear them again soon, because my friend, Amy, just gave me a pedicure last night! Can't wait to show you!

Sewing with Kids - part 1

Santa gave my 7 y-o a sewing machine. While Grandma (my mother-in-law) was here during the holidays, we made some time to sew with her! They made a girly cover for my daughter's boring computer chair. She did an awesome job and actually did a lot of it herself. She learned how to make a casing for elastic. The fabric we used was just from a pink sheet we bought at Ikea for $2.

BEFORE

AFTER

Valentine's Day Cards 2010

I found this idea on this site. We had fun making them and giving them out to friends and family this year for Valentine's Day. (We actually have some packages ready to go out to long distance family. They've been sitting in the packages for a week, on my counter. Why is it so hard for me to get to the post office???)

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And we finished our Valentine's heart garland last week. My daughter actually did most of the sewing herself. I didn't even know she was doing so well. I left her doing it all by herself. When I came back to check on her, she was almost done. This picture doesn't show the colors very well, but you get the idea. It was fun to have it up for the lovely little holiday.

Outing #1 with the Shoes + New Haircut

I had my hair cut and highlighted a week ago, today. (I'm finally posting this today, because I had a busy week last week.) That was the first place I wore these cute shoes!

(Goofy picture of me)
After the cut and color! It looks like not much has changed, but she cut at least a couple inches off and did a great job. I love it! (Thanks, Heather!)

After I arrived home from my haircut, I took this picture myself. It turned out pretty bad, so I played with it in photoshop... (It doesn't look much better I guess and I should've removed those wrinkles around my eyes!)

Friday Fun

Here's what I did today:

Sick kids, home from school. Watched many movies...

Sick baby, in my arms all day (my back hurts now).

I cut out felt hearts to make a valentine garland like this, only with pinks, reds, and whites (and lots more than the picture shows). I hope my 7 year-old and I will find time to sew it soon (like before Valentine's day). It shouldn't take more than a few minutes.

I also spent time catching up on blogs in my Google reader. Carrie at This Mama Makes Stuff had a great post about what gear she uses while running, most specifically while training for her upcoming marathon (and of course I'm interested in that). I use the same water bottle belt as her (I LOVE it) and I just recently got a garmin forerunner (which I also LOVE)!

I should have been reading this today, while I was holding my sick baby... Book Club is Tuesday and I have quite a bit left.

I was also hoping to get a chance to paint my toenails today so I could wear those cute shoes. But that didn't happen. :-( Maybe tomorrow.

Sisterhood of the Traveling Shoes

Look what I got in the mail yesterday!


I won something! (Thanks, Thelma!!) I get to keep these adorable shoes for a month, and blog about it. Then I get to send them on to the next lucky gal!

Several weeks ago I saw a post on While They Sleep, that peaked my interest. (Actually my interest is usually peaked there. She is very talented, inspiring, and fun. And I love the title of her blog.) I read the whole post and was really wanting to find out about Thelma's shoe adventures.
I checked out Thelma's blog and entered the drawing. I also found out that we know some of the same people. I grew up with her sister-in-law and she is in my sister's ward right now. Anyway, she keeps a very interesting blog!

So where did these shoes start, you ask? I hope I'm getting this right. They started with this lovely lady Diane (Thanks, Diane! What a fun idea)! Diane sent them to Christie (a talented, crafting blogger. Check out her blog). From Christie they went to Thelma. And now they're with me!

Now my challenges are to: find things to wear them with, remember to take pictures of me wearing them (and take good pictures - I struggle with that all the time), get my toe nails painted and looking much cuter than they look right now (I also struggle with that frequently), blog about the adventures, and most importantly get enough readers that this can be fun and they can go to someone I don't yet know, who lives far away (but if I do know you personally you could still be a contender, obviously). Can you guys help me with that last one? Spread the word, will ya?!

The thing about these shoes is they're size 9. Lucky for me, I am a size 9. I used to be size 8. Then my feet got a bit bigger with each kid. (I want to be done having kids, even if it's just for that reason... j/k). Anyhoo. I tried them on right away and I think someone with narrow feet or people with size 7 1/2 - size 9 feet, could wear these.

I hope to have a giveaway contest around march 3rd, to pass them on to the next lucky lady.



A super surprise about the package was the Dark Chocolate Flipz. (Thanks, Thelma! So nice of you)! Yum! I had never tried them before, but now I'm hooked! I am loving dark chocolate these days. (That's another story.)

Where should I wear these?? You'll have to check back to find out.

See you soon!

Another Green Smoothie Recipe

Remember my other green smoothie? We've been making them a lot around here. We try to change it up a bit every time, just to see what we like best. The other day I bought a few bunches of other types of greens. I set out to make a smoothie this morning and got all the greens in the blender and I realized I was out of pineapple juice. I didn't even have any cans of crushed, tidbits, or chunk pineapple. I usually use that as my base with the greens. It helps a ton with the flavor and texture.

Well, I had to improvise.

Here's what went into my blender today (in order):

• spinach
• kale
• collard greens
• 3/4 cup of water
• 2 lemons (ends cut off, peeled, then cut in thirds w/ seeds removed)
• 1 kiwi
• 1 orange
• 1-2 Tbsp blue agave syrup
  
• 3 Tbsp plain yogurt
• swiss chard
  
• 1 scoop (probably about 1 & 1/2 Tbsp) ground flax seeds
• 1 banana
• about 8 frozen strawberries
• about 1 & 1/2 cups frozen blueberries
• sprouted chia seeds
  

It was soooo yummy! I think it's the yummiest yet!

(The only crazy thing that happened to us while making it was my baby [20 month-old] turned the switch on the blender while I was washing the swiss chard, but the lid was only half way on. We had quite the mess to clean up. It was on the blinds, window, counter, wall, blender, grain mill next to it, the baby, me, cupboards, etc... you get the idea. Cooking with kids can be fun. But, you always have to expect the unexpected. And expect to make time for cleaning up A LOT more as you go...)

If you try this, let me know what you think.

Time for a Hair Cut?

I'm thinking about cutting my hair.

This picture of me was the only one I could find with my hair down (taken 3 months ago). From the looks of the pictures, 95% of the time I have my hair in a pony tail. Apparently I need to wear my hair down more often and my husband needs to get the camera on those days!

What do you think? Cut it short or leave more length?

I may just trim it a bit. Either way, it has to happen soon. It's been way too long since it was last cut and the ends look gnarly!