What Catie Wore #73

I just could not get up the effort to put this post together yesterday so it'll have to be a day late.  I actually have a ton of photos this week because we went to Calaway Park.  We bought memberships this year so this will be the first of many pictures to come.

We also spent some time at Grandma's house.  We told her it was lunch time and this is how she showed up to the table.

Then she discovered cousin Riley's baseball helmet.

Just about every Sunday this is how Catie and Daddy eat breakfast.  For some reason she never wants to share Mommy's cereal, only Daddy's.

It's far more difficult than it looks but how can you resist when she says, "I help you!"  It's usually not long after that she declares she needs her own spoon and runs over to the drawer to get one.

I went to get her after her nap the other day and she looked like this.  "I got bunny ears!"
(We've been watching a lot of Max & Ruby).

Then the next morning she wanted to go out on the balcony but it was cold so she put together some "warm" clothes.  Mommy's flip flops, Daddy's gloves and her "bunny ears"

Allright, here come the Calaway Park goodies.

They started on a spinny balloon ride, after it was over Bryn declared, "I didn't have a good time".  She held Brad's hand and had little tears during the entire ride but warmed up to the rest of the rides nicely.

Waiting for the carousel.

This was easily Gwen's favourite ride and I foresee a lot of carousel rides in our summer.

Piloting a plane.  I love that she's tall enough this year to ride a bunch of rides by herself.  She loved to pull the lever and go up and down.

I was excited for them to go on this swinging ride, I thought they'd love it but it turned out to be super boring.  Catie said, "Go fast!" but it really never did.   I think we'll be skipping this one in the future.  She looks really unimpressed hey?  Oh wait, she was crying because she had to stop eating popcorn long enough to ride a ride.

Riding an egg with Daddy.

Altered T

I've really been wanting a new T-shirt so when I found one at Old Navy for $10 I knew it was perfect.  I wanted something summery and light and I love the bright colour.  There was one slight catch though, I didn't love the way it fit.

Like lots of maternity t's this shirt has ruching down the side but for some reason they stopped the ruching 3-4 inches from the bottom.  This made the bottom sit funny and made the shirt look a little strangely long.  

I also discovered that my arms really weren't long enough to take a proper photo so if the difference doesn't look very big then go ahead and blame the angle of the photos.

She the little flare there right at the bottom?  It just wasn't very cute.  

This next photo shows it better.

To fix it I simply turned the shirt inside out and added a little thin elastic to the part that didn't have any, stretching as I went along.  It only took a couple minutes and made all the difference.

Here's the after but again, it hardly looks any different here because of the angle.

Here's a side by side to show you just how much of a difference it made.

The shirt is still just a little baggy but I think a turn through the dryer will make it just right. 

What Catie Wore Wednesday #77

Gwen came for a visit and we set the girls up outside to eat their lunch.  They loved eating out there by them selves.

We went to the zoo (again) and while it was a beautiful day Catie said she was cold.  We'd forgotten to bring her a sweater so instead she gave Daddy a really big hug.

Playing outside on a beautiful day.

She looked like such a rock star that I had to stop and take a photo.

And a bonus today, a video.  She loves to watch Backyardigans and we recently discovered an episode about spooky ghosts.  She can't get enough of this episode and we watch it at least once daily.  All sorts of things are spooky now, penguins and toys and just about everything.



In case you need some translating she says, "Scared me, ghosts!"
Often when we go in a store she'll hurry around a corner so she can jump back and exclaim, "BOO!" and tell me what a spooky ghost she is.

A Mother's Day Re-Cap

I try not to boast too much on here about just how awesome my husband is because I think it's not fair to the rest of you but I'm going to take this opportunity to brag a little.

I really do think I married the nicest, most considerate man on Earth.  He's always so thoughtful of me and my feelings that I honestly feel like I don't need a special day where he's extra nice, because he's always extra nice.  In our house Mother's Day and Father's Day are low key, we give each other gifts but nothing big or expensive.  Last year Brad gave me some new pink pins to sew with and it was such a thoughtful, inexpensive gift that I thought I'd get the same this year, boy did he outdo himself.

Being members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints we don't shop on Sunday so on Saturday night he came home with the most beautiful bouquet of a dozen roses and a huge bottle of tums (I've reached the phase where just about everything gives me heartburn).  I figured he'd add some pins on Sunday and I'd be one lucky lady.  Sunday morning though he said he needed to run down to the car to get my gift and that it was awkward to wrap so I shouldn't expect any wrapping.  Pins are real easy to wrap so I was intrigued.

Now let's back up a bit and I'll give you some back story.  About two years ago I went to Great Falls with my Mom and on my list of shopping items to pick up was a new large purse that could act as a diaper bag.  Catie wasn't very old yet and our current diaper bag was not even a little bit stylish.  I found this awesome yellow purse that was exactly the right size and just what I wanted and even better it was 70% off.  I used the purse for a while and loved it every time until one of the grommets from the handle fell off and I looked down one day and one of the straps was hanging on by a couple of threads.  I stopped using it always meaning to get it fixed but two years later it was still smashed in a bag with other things waiting to be repaired I and I was back to using a too small purse or a really ugly diaper bag.

Imagine my surprise when Brad walked in with my perfect yellow purse, fixed!  The best part is he told me it only cost $10 to fix, perfect for our financial situation.  My favourite part of this gift is that every time I use it I'll think of just how thoughtful he is.

To top off the day I got flowers at church and Catie coloured me the cutest construction paper flower with a sucker stuck in the centre.  She was so excited to give it to me but I particularly liked later in the day when she asked me to open the sucker so she could eat it :)  

After church we headed over to the park and then had easy left overs for dinner.  I think it was the perfect day, I'm so blessed to have the perfect family for me.

A Blanket for Mr. Brown

It's been a while since I've talked about him here so let me tell you about Mr. Brown.  He shows up in lots of our pictures because he's very important to us.

When Catie was much, much younger she had this bear that she loved and would take to bed but he was cheap and gross and his hair fell out and I hated him so before she was too attached we took her to the store to replace it.  Brad and I really wanted her to choose and interesting animal and we found her an adorable pink pig that we thought was perfect.  We handed it to her and she didn't care one little bit about it.  She instead chose a brown bear, that while cute is kind of ordinary.  We bought the pig too hoping one day she'd love it and I don't think she's ever looked at it twice.

Mr. Brown and her were immediate best friends.  When we're coming home after being out he's the first thing she looks for and I wouldn't even bother attempting bed time without him.  She talks to him and laughs with him and he kisses owies better.  She gives him cookies and she sets a place at the table for him at dinner time.  She loves him more than I can describe.

One day she started carrying around a "blanket" for Brown and carefully covering him and it was adorable but so sad at the same time.  The blanket she chose to use was a tiny blue glasses cleaning cloth that would maybe cover his torso.  She used it for months and one day I just couldn't stand to let her use that pathetic blanket any longer so I made him his very own little Faux Chennile blanket.  I know, it sounds crazy to put so much effort into a blanket for a bear but I had leftover flannel from the pink chenille blanket that I made for her baby sister and Catie loved that blanket while I was making it, I figured she'd love to have her own.  It really didn't take long and I only used scraps so it was free.  I used two layers of flannel, one layer of brown and the purple fabric on top.  The binding may not match the best but since it's for a bear I figured he'd be okay with it.

So now the photos.

And let me give you a size comparison between the pathetic cloth she used to use and what she has now.

And here's Mr. Brown all wrapped up and cozy, modelling his new blanket.

See those giant tears threatening to spill?  She was not happy when I took Brown to take some photos.  This blanket has been finished for a while now but I've been putting off photographing it for that very reason.  I decided why fight it and just let her hold him.

What Catie Wore Wednesday #76

She decided one day that it would be a good idea to carry around Daddy's backpack and was very proud of herself.

Playing with playdough.  Look at that masterpiece of an octopus I made for her (the hat was Catie's addition)

Licking the beaters again.  I loved all the dough on her nose, and she was smiling for the camera.

I had a doctors appointment this day and there's this really fun looking park right beside the office but it hasn't ever been warm enough to go.  Today is was beautiful so we headed over and they had these cool blue tubes to climb through.

I didn't want to pay for parking after already paying at the doctor so we just risked it, the parking official that drove by while we were playing scared me off so we headed to a different park.  This one had a fun climbing wall.

Daddy and Catie play this awesome game right now where she sits on the arm of the couch and Brad sits in the office chair right beside her.  Her blows on her and she falls backwards laughing hysterically.  Then she climbs up and blows Brad over, it's awesome to watch.

Pink Faux Chenille

When I found out I was pregnant one of my first thoughts was, "I can finally make a faux chenille blanket for me!"  I even had the exact fabric I wanted to use.  I've had it for a year and a half because I just couldn't resist, I just hoped I'd have a girl some day so I could use it.

The brown, flowered fabric is from Michael Miller and it's a super soft corduroy.  The bright pink is a basic flannel and I used three layers and then I used a yellow broad cloth to peek through the flannel. It turned out just how I wanted it too, only I'm pretty sure I'll need to wash it 15,000 more times to get all the fuzz off :).  These photos don't show the yellow very well but it looks awesome on the blanket.

I used a slightly different technique on this blanket that turned out to be awesome so I wanted to pass it on.  Normally I sew all the lines on the blanket and then I cut all the lines, but for this blanket I had a deadline.  Our church was having a showcase for talents and I wanted to display this blanket so instead of taking over a week to finish I did it all in two days.  When the monotony of sewing lines got to be too much I stopped and cut lines.   Then when I couldn't cut any more I started sewing again.  I figured all this would do was break up the boredom but it ended being far better than that.  The more lines you sew the stiffer the fabric gets and it's harder and harder to maneuver but with the lines cut the blanket stayed really soft and flexible.  It made the sewing far easier, I'll use this same method again.

This definitely isn't my first chenille blanket and I sort of look for any excuse to make them because I love them so much, you can check out the other's I've made below.

Blue Flowered, Black & Ivory, Brown & Gold

  Linking To Monday - C.R.A.F.T., Making The World Cuter, Polly Want a Crafter, Simpsonized Crafts, Sugar Bee Crafts, Sumo's Sweet Stuff, The Girl Creative   Tuesday - All Things Related, Creative Itch, Domestically Speaking, It's Sew for You,  Ladybug Blessings, Sassy Sites, Today's Creative Blog, This & That, Topsy Turvy    Wednesday - Blue Cricket Design, Me and My Bucket   Thursday - A Glimpse Inside,  House of Hepworth, It's Sew Stinkin Cute, Lemon Tree Creations,  Somewhat Simple, The Train to Crazy, What Allie's Making Now   Friday - Creation Corner, Finding Fabulous, Tatertots & Jello, The CrEaTiVe CraTe

Felt Hair Bows

Looking for a quick craft?  I saw this pin the other day and thought they were so cute that I whipped up a couple versions of my own.

They were super easy and look adorable in her hair.  I didn't actually put them on elastics I added them to clips instead which are perfect for some super cute little pig tails.

Housekeeping

I'm sure I've mentioned this before, because it's no secret but I am a terrible housekeeper.  I did really well for a while but then I got pregnant and I've sort of been using that as an excuse to do the absolute bare minimum around the house and things were getting out of control.

I looked around the other day and I was actually embarrassed and had to tell myself that I am a better than this, and this is shameful and it's time to pull up my socks and make an effort.

I've seen a bunch of different cleaning schedules on Pinterest and this particular day another one showed up and it seemed like the perfect solution so on Monday I started to follow this schedule.

Saturday is my favourite, we live in a condo so we're not in charge of anything outside meaning I get two days off in a row.  I know it sounds ridiculous but this week this schedule has worn me out.  Some of this stuff I hadn't done in an embarrassingly long time and I look forward to next week when it's all much easier.

I decided I wanted to turn this list into a checklist that I can frame and mark off as I complete each task or at least be able to easily see what I'm supposed to do so I slightly altered the schedule and made this really basic printable.  I printed it and put it in a frame I already owned and I hung it in my closet (I don't need everyone that stops by to see how well I've done).  Now I can use a white board marker to cross off what I've done or just easily refer to the list to see what needs to be done.

So everyday I'm supposed to de-junk for 10 minutes but this is probably the only housekeeping task I'm awesome at.  I have no problem throwing out junk and we don't collect it in the first place so I can skip that step.  On Monday I'm supposed to wash my bathroom floors and I'll also wash my kitchen floor that day too, then on Wednesday I'll sweep.  Tuesday I'm supposed to vacuum the bedrooms but I'll save that for Friday and vacuum the entire house.

Let's hope I can keep things up and have a presentable house, wish me luck.

What Catie Wore Wednesday #75

This week we finally did something we've been meaning to do for a while now, we went to the zoo to see the new penguins exhibit.  We'd heard that there could be as much as a two hour wait time so we hadn't been in any real rush but we finally planned an outing and the day turned out perfectly.  The weather wasn't actually all that nice, especially compared to the surrounding days.  Because it wasn't that nice out we didn't have a very long wait and went right to the penguins.  I had heard from a lot of people that it was a great exhibit and we were not disappointed.  The girls giggled and laughed and Catie even got a little splashed.  Catie still talks about all the penguins and we'll go back many times.

While we ate lunch the girls played on the park. 

We made cookies today and I let Catie lick the beaters, she sure thought it was a fun treat.

Waiting for cookies to bake.

Playing with Daddy.  She thought it was funny to make him turn off the mixer.  Then she would turn it back on, make him turn it off and then chuckle at how funny she was.

It rained yesterday so we went out and played in the puddles/rain.  She thought it was a pretty fun treat and had a great time with the umbrella (and yes, she's wearing pajamas.  I figured we'd come in and have a bath so what was the point in changing).