We Built a Photo Wall!

Chris and I, along with friends Isai and Sylvia, built a photo wall for a recent church fair.  I think it turned out so great!

The wall. 

Our booth with our photographers.

Mommy friends!

Almost classy, Katy.  Almost classy.

During the fair, someone asked for my number and inquired about whether we take the photo wall to different events.  I was flattered.  Sylvia and I spent the rest of the evening scheming up different ways to turn the photo wall into a little side business, which was a welcome distraction given our net profit for the evening (a whopping $30).

Because no blog post is complete without a picture of Katy, here is Katy's face at the end of the fair.  She spent the evening eating lots of yummy junk food with papi.

Katy's Homemade Dallas Cowboy's Shirt

Several years ago, Chris and I made homemade shirts for opposing teams in a football playoff game.  I still have my homemade Vikings shirt, but I never wear it because I am not really a Vikings fan.  Chris, however, wears his shirt frequently because he is a fully committed Cowboys fan who also loves Tony Romo.  Chris wanted to name our daughter Toni and per our pact, she would have been named Toni had the Cowboys won the Superbowl on the same day she was born.  Phew, dodged that bullet thanks to the Cowboys' stinker of a season last year and Katy's birth several days after the Superbowl.

Back to the shirt.  The no-sew, iron-on adhesive used to make Chris' shirt did not fare so well with all the washings over the years, so I finally sat down recently and sewed everything down for Chris.  In doing so, I realized that I could very easily make a matching jersey for Katy.  Within days, I found a plain grey shirt at the thrift store.  With a little cutting and sewing using scraps one evening, Katy had a matching shirt.

Mimicking the homemade look of Chris' shirt.

Matching shirts unite!

I love that I found a heart to use in Romo's name,

Sadly, just days after repairing Chris' shirt and making a matching one for Katy, Tony Romo announced that he will not be returning as quarterback for the Cowboys anytime soon.  Perhaps this means I will be making new shirts for both Chris and Katy in the near future.

Falling Down and Getting Stuck

Today I fell.

I was outside with Katy and forgot Doug was outside with us.  I was busy sweeping and Katy was busy drawing with chalk.  Then I heard a skateboard rolling by on the street.  Doug hates skateboards.  He chases them down like prey, causing a lot of alarm to the skateboard's rider.  I immediately started yelling for Doug but could not find him.  I saw him just in time to watch him register the noise of the passing skateboard.  Doug took off in the direction of the skateboard, and I took off in Doug's direction.  And then I fell.  I forgot my bike, with Katy's trailer attached, was right in front of me.  I ran full speed into the bar that hitches the trailer to the bike and fell face down in the grass in front of me.  I continued to yell at Doug as I lay in the grass, wondering if my leg was broken, until I heard the skateboard stop.  As soon as the skateboard stopped, so did Doug's aggression.  When I eventually stood up to check on the skateboarder, who was fine, I saw Doug run by in pursuit of a cockroach.

Then Doug got stuck.

The cockroach fled under my car, which is so low to the ground that Doug would not crawl underneath it.  I ignored Doug's whining after the cockroach while I tried to regain my composure from the fall.  Several minutes later, I realized Doug had stopped whining for the cockroach.  I looked at the car and saw Doug had finally attempted to capture his prey, wedging himself under the car in the process.  I unsuccessfully attempted to lure Doug out with meatballs.  Katy thought this was great fun, and continued to offer Doug, "mas meat" while I went for the jack.  Katy innocently placed all of the meatballs out of Doug's reach, which made Doug's entrapment all the more stressful for him.  Eventually I rolled the jack into place, rolling over an ill-placed meatball in the process, and lifted the car enough for Doug to scamper free.

Today I fell face down in the grass while running full speed and Doug got stuck under the car while pursuing a cockroach.  It was a very eventful, and very disgraceful, 15 minutes.  

One Evening Tee-Shirt Dress for the Win!

I've been itching to sew lately.  Yes, I have been sewing felt food for the last month in preparation for Christmas (I have a sneaking suspicion Santa will bring Katy a play kitchen this Christmas).  And yes, I recently sewed Katy's Halloween costume.  Nonetheless, I've been itching to sew something of my choosing, not something in preparation for an upcoming holiday.

On Sunday I found the Easy Tee-Shirt Dress tutorial on Francois et Moi.  That evening, I identified a few shirts in Katy's closet I could use for a tee-shirt dress.  On Monday, Katy and I headed to Hobby Lobby in search of some coordinating fabric for one of the tee-shirts.  Monday evening, after Katy went to bed at 8 pm, I started cutting:  

No turning back now!

In one evening, I started and completed this project!  It was a late evening but I was in bed before midnight, which is not so late for me. 

 I added double fold bias tape to the bottom of the skirt to give it a more finished look, and to help tie-in the pattern of the knit shirt.  This being my first time using bias tape, I made a few rookie errors that added a good thirty minutes the project.  

I created the pocket using the pocket dimensions from a gathered pocket tutorial by Dana on Made Everyday.   I had never sewn with knits before, other than making a tiny shirt for Katy's miniature stuffed Elmo, so I was a bit nervous.  I compensated by using a TON of pins and going slow.  I think the final product turned out pretty well, even though I decided not to gather the pocket in the end.

So many pins!

I'm a beginner sewer when it comes to clothing.  This is the second dress I've made for Katy, but it was a lot of fun.  And I can't get over the cost of the dress: $2 for the tee shirt at a local thrift store, $2.75 for the skirt fabric, and $3 for the bias tape.  It's an $8 dress for the win!

A rainy day here in the Valley!

Walks with Katy

Katy loves going for walks and lately, she is not content to merely ride in her stroller.  She wants to walk alongside me, frequently stopping to pick up handfuls of leaves or acorns that remain squished in her tightly-balled, clammy fists for the remainder of our journey.  She also loves to walk on anything that resembles a balance beam, which causes her already slow pace to slow down even more.

Katy and I see a lot of things on our walks.  Last week, Katy and I found a beautiful, iridescent green fig eater beetle, recently deceased and fully intact.  A few days before that, we happened upon a fly who had just flown into a spider web.  Within seconds, the spider began spinning a web around the fly.  Before the spider finished spinning, however, a lizard devoured both the spider and the fly in one quick gulp.  A few weeks ago, Katy and I saw a lizard run into the street with his neck all puffed up as a Kiskadee pursued him.  The lizard froze in the street and gave his most intimidating looks, but eventually the Kiskadee swooped him up into the air.

Walks with Katy are slow but yield but wonderful results.