Safety pins and thrifty crafts

Safety pins... you might ask? I have found many great uses for this often forgotten and taken for granted household tool! One is that I now need one to hold up my pants- Yahoo! The running is finally paying off and I am starting to tell a difference in my clothes. What a relief! I was getting very discouraged and wondering what I was going to do to actually lose some inches. I am always amazed at how I can run 8 miles (yes, I did it on Saturday! Woohoo!) and burn that many calories and still build muscle so that my weight is exactly the same. However I am not one of those people who focuses on the "perfect weight". I just want to be in a certain size in my clothes and feel "good". Ok enough of that, the other reason I have found a new respect for the safety pin is because I finally have made curtains in my bathroom and dining room with those awesome little things! Thanks to Missy Davis, I have recently found one of my new favorite blogs the Nesting Place. When I saw on Missy's blog that she had made some very cute valances for her windows, I decided that it was high time I got that piece of remnant fabric that I bought for my bathroom a year ago and do SOMETHING with it! I found the Nesting Place blog and looked at all of her great ideas and inspiration to make what she calls a "window mistreatment's". It is a window treatment where you dont do a lick of sewing! Nothing against sewing but I dont know how and dont have time to learn SO I was so excited to see all of the great things that you can do with some fabric glue, safety pins, straight pins, and a little work. 45 minutes later I made a "mistreatment" for my bathroom and it only cost me $8! I purchased some remnant fabric at Joann's for like $3, the trim was half off and ended up costing $4, and the lining was $1 for this treatment. Everything else I ,and it was "sew" easy!

Safety pins to make the pleat...

The final product...

I also made this to go in there also and all it cost me was $1 for the mat! I used an old frame, used the extra fabric from the windows, some ribbon, and printed our monogram on some cream card stock paper. Cant take credit for this idea either... also came from a blog that I came across on Nesters.



Next I tackled the dining room. Now my Mom actually sewed these for me, but we weren't sure exactly how we were going to hang them or how they would look after she finished. I didnt want to use rods and planned on using hooks of some kind to hang them. I played with them for a while, trying to drape and fold and nothing looked right. I decided to make them out to be soft cornice's for the windows and simply "pinned" them with safety pins to fold how you see it. It is still missing something. I hadnt planned on using trim on these since Mom put a contrasting fabric on the top and bottom, however I still may do so. BUT it will be glued as "Liquid Stitch" is my new best friend! I also plan on doing some sheer fabric panels on the side windows to add another texture. I want lots of light coming in and dont want to cover up the windows too much. Thank you to Mom for making these for me so I didnt have to get out my glue and pins! *NOTE- something else I did was hang all of the treatments way above where the window actually is to make them appear larger. This is an old design trick that I always used for my clients but saw that the Nesting Place highly recommended it as well.Last but not least, I made this with a small left over piece of fabric that came from my guest room to hang in my kitchen. I had a small area of wall space that desperately needed something. Again...old frame, ribbon I already had, and printed this from my computer on some card stock. It is amazing what you can do with old stuff just sitting around the house. I cant wait to see what else I can create! I wanted to share this with each of you because if it wasnt for Missy's post I would still be looking at bare windows! I hope this can provide some inspiration for you all to make your home a happy place this spring! And once again a THANK YOU to Missy!!

No turning back now!

So I did it! I registered for the Country Music 1/2 marathon last weekend! There was a coupon out there, so I thought it would be best to take advantage and use it before the expiration. WOW, I totally got sticker shock when I looked online and saw that to enter the race it was $100! With a $10 coupon and the added fees at the end it came up being $96! So, like I said there is no turning back now!

The training is going well. We are running 4 1/2 miles two days a week, usually a day of cross training and then on Saturday we do the long run with the Fleet Feet crew. Every weekend it increases a mile. Last Saturday we ran 7 miles and it was very challenging to say the least. Keep in mind that running 4 miles is more than I have ever done, so when they told me 7 I thought "this should be interesting". This week we are running a different course than we have the past two times and they said it would be the first challenging run. "Hello", I think doing 8 miles in itself is challenging enough but now they have to throw in the hills! The trainer even sent out a separate email trying to calm peoples nerves about the hilly course we would be running. Needless to say I need your prayers to get me through this thing! The weather has also been so cold and that is a new one for me as well. I never would have thought that I would be running outside in 20 degree weather. However, as long as you have the right clothes after the first 10 minutes your body heats up and you dont even think about it. Tomorrow morning at 5 it is supposed to feel like single digits, SO we are running inside and since I love my treadmill at home so much better than those at the rec, I will be doing my run on my own. Please pray for me to do this on my own. It is so much easier with other people keeping you accountable!

I wasnt going to post about this because I didnt think anyone would care, but I have had a couple of you ask me about updates and thank you to you guys! You are so sweet to think of me.

I will be in this picture in April 2009! I am excited about this run. It is unlike most marathons because there are bands playing and cheering you on the whole way through. After all we are called the "Music City"! After reading some message boards online I heard most marathon runners say it was their favorite. Since it is my first I wont have anything to compare it to, but I am sure it will be very exciting and so worth it in the end!

Funny Boy

On this day, every time I would try to do a video of Connor he would stop what he was doing and act silly! Enjoy the laugh!

Children's Storytime at Nashville Library

Today I had the great privilege of meeting my sweet friend Carrie and her son Hayden for "children's story time" at the Nashville Public Library. Carrie had heard of it from some of her friends who have taken their kids and recommended it. I have been to the library a couple of times since it was built and it is a beautiful library! Hayden and Connor had such a good time at the story time. They had puppets and all. If you ever have the opportunity to take your kids, I would totally recommend it.

Carrie, I thoroughly enjoyed our visit and having lunch afterwards! Thanks for meeting me and Connor. We have to get the boys together more often. Love you sweet friend!

Connor and Hayden getting ready for the show. Connor was eating his fruit snacks as you can see (his mouth is a little crooked!) Ha!

Connor was a little scared when this "green" thing popped out of the door.

I took this picture to show how many people there were. Actually there were more, my camera wouldnt zoom out any further. They must have been regulars because they were singing all of the songs by heart!

Connor and Hayden wouldnt go up to the stage but I thought this pic was so cute!

Some big shoes to fill!

When Brad and I walked into the kitchen the other night, this is what we found...

All dressed up and nowhere to go...

So I got up at 4:30 did my run, had my shower, got dressed for work, car packed, etc and when I went in to wake Connor up (the last thing I do in my morning routine) his eyes were caked together. Yuck! I was thinking pink eye for sure since he has had this once before so I was familiar. Called the doc and sure enough they feel pretty sure it is. Funny I was saying to the girls this morning that I wished I didnt have to work today- well I guess I got my wish! Would rather it not be under these circumstances BUT C feels fine, just very contagious so I guess I will count it as a blessing...? Is that wrong?! Ha! Just kidding. Not a blessing for sure, especially when I have to put those painful drops in both eyes of a strong willed 2 year old twice a day! Connor was a little guy the last time and didnt have much strength to get away, so hopefully I can restrain him this time around!

Taking on a new challenges!

I am usually not one for New Year's resolutions simply because, lets face it we all know that we dont stick to them! This year I told myself that I was going to do a few things that I have been neglecting the past few years.

1. Get back into shape.

2. Get involved at church.

3. Get back into contact with old friends.

I am proud to say that at the end of January, I can now say I have accomplished ALL of goals I set for myself or at least I am working on them!

I have joined a Bible Study at church, and found a connect group (Sunday school class) which I love! AND I have talked with a few old friends which is awesome! Also, I have joined a running group which actually consists of a few girls from Bible Study. We meet every Monday, Thursday, and Saturday we go up to Fleet Feet in Brentwood and do a group run with 150 other runners. I have been running on my treadmill since October and went from running nothing to 2 miles this past month. My friend Beth asked me if I wanted to join her and run with a small group of girls from church. At first I was a little hesitant. I thought, Ok I am not a runner and if these people are hard core I am going to be running ALONE. Beth is also a beginner runner but very in shape because she has a trainer and goes to the gym 4 days a week. I also havent ran outside since this past summer and as we all know that is a very different ballgame. I skipped out on last Monday's run because I didnt sleep much and they meet at 5 am, which meant I had to get up at 4:30 just to get there. On Wednesday night, I was like "OK, I can do this." I set the alarm and got up and met up with them not knowing what was in store for me. We took off and when I told the girls that I didnt run outside, they seemed a little concerned! We meet at a subdivision and one of the girls maps out the runs and she had a plan for us to do a 3 1/2 mile route. When we got finished we all thought it seemed like we went a lot farther than that. She insisted that we were wrong but when we got online and did "map my run" we actually ran 4.6 miles! I still cant believe that I went from running 2 to 4.6 on the road in a day. When we finished they asked me if I was going to train with them to run the Music City 1/2 marathon and I was like, "sure". I figure this will give me a goal to work toward and keep me focused. We are doing the training program at Fleet Feet. You pay $50 and meet every Saturday to do large group runs and trainers talk after every run. This Saturday we ran 6 miles and it totally kicked my butt but I did it so I am happy. If you would have told me a year ago that I would be doing this, I would tell you that you were CRAZY! I will have to say that running with a group makes it so much easier. I never would have done this on my own. I cant wait for it to warm up because getting up a 4:30 and running in 24 degree weather isnt the most exciting thing ever! I also have to rush home just to jump in the shower, get ready for work, and get Connor ready go get out the door. It isnt easy, but I am determined not to let this stop me.

Also Brad has a challenge of his own... He has been looking for a way to make his golf game more competitive and has found a way. He is joining the Amateur Golf Tour! He gets to travel to different courses all over Middle Tennessee and get a chance to qualify for a national tourn. in Hilton Head! So everyone pray for us as we have a fun year in store for us!