still trying to be a mermaid

sometime before school started, i spotted something that looked pretty cool and fairly easy to duplicate - a variation of those mermaid tail blankets i was making all winter long, only this one was made of slinky, stretchy, shiny fabric.  and even better?  you can swim in it!

i took some measurements of the bean, drafted a basic pattern and went for it.  i gave her a choice between silver and purple, and this is what it ended up looking like:

since we don't have a pool, she hasn't gotten to test it out in the water yet.  summer is officially over, but the temperatures are still forecasted in the low 90s around here for at least the next ten days.  someone needs to invite us over for a pool party.  heh.

but then she was invited to a birthday party, where partygoers were encouraged to dress like a pirate or a mermaid.  and because the bottom of this tail is open, she can walk somewhat easily while wearing it.  so i had her bust out the t-shirt she'd worn for pirate night on the disney cruise, braided her hair while it was still damp to make it all wavy, and she got to be a pirate AND a mermaid.  with her permission, i wore my shirt too.

the party was in a local hall, the same one we'd used for our bridging ceremony when our daisy scout troop became brownies.  but it was all dressed up for the occasion, and the birthday girl's mom had done an outstanding job with the decor.

there was a candy buffet too:

about an hour into the party, after most folks were all done devouring the bbq catered by the new dickey's that just opened in town, the pirates arrived.

they kept the kids entertained and occupied with lots of games and a treasure hunt and fun stuff like that.  meanwhile, i munched on sweets from the candy buffet and enjoyed my very first macaron ice cream sandwich:

they all went home with a fun goody bag, a skull-shaped glass mug, and a certificate that declared each of them honorary pirates.

sometimes i kind of miss throwing the crazy pinterested-out parties like that, with all of the decorations and food and everything centered around a basic theme.  it's pretty fun to get all that stuff ready and see it all come together on the big day.  but then i think about the long hours of prep.  the late nights spent assembling this and that.  and then getting up at the crack of dawn on party day to get it all laid out just so.  not to mention the crazy blur of the party itself, where you're so busy making sure everything stays perfect that you don't get to enjoy any of it for yourself.

and then i think, nah.  bowling party with pizza and basic decor in the party room it is!  ha ha!

last call for stuff

this week has been full of all sorts of fun stuff.  like, i put out a "last call" post on my facebook page for those mermaid tail blankets - i figure, winter is almost over and nobody's going to want fleece blankets much longer, right?  and i had piles of excess material sitting around, which was driving the hub absolutely crazy.  so i just said something like "hey, if you want one, let me know" and immediately got requests for like 5 of them.  sweet!

cutting out fabric is my least favorite part of sewing in general, so i just sat my happy ass down one morning and got through all of it in one shot.  and then of course life got in the way and it was another couple of days before i could sit down at my machine and start sewing.  but i did it:

i actually have two more to get done, and then that does it for that round of mermaid tails.  i also need to crank out one adult-sized shark tail blanket to fulfill the IOU i gave the old lady's special friend back at christmas.  and the nice thing about all of this is that it's given me the motivation to start sewing again, which is particularly great because i have a ton of fabric lying around, just waiting to be used for something fantastic.  don't worry, piles of fabric, i'm comin' for ya.

because guess what?  this is the final weekend of girl scout cookie season 2016!!!!!

that's right, folks, this is it.  sunday is your very last chance to get your fix of thin mints, samoas, do-so-dos, trefoils, tagalongs, savannah smiles, rah rah raisins, and toffeetastics until next year.  look for your friendly neighborhood girl scouts in front of local grocery stores this weekend and show 'em some love while you stock up on treats that you can stick in the freezer to make 'em last for months.  and if you're local, hit me up - we can deliver!

i dragged the old lady out for a 3-miler the other day, and when i opened my nike+ app i found that i'd hit a milestone of sorts:

that's my lifetime mileage right there.  i suppose it's not particularly impressive considering a lot of my runner friends do that in one year, and that's taken me five.  heh.  but still...it was kind of cool to see the number.  i'm still adding to it, after all.

the old lady and i also attended the bean's award assembly for the second trimester of the year.  she's continuing to kick ass in school, and i love seeing her accept awards for her hard work.

that 60-day challenge is winding down to an end.  i'm fairly certain i haven't lost any poundage, or any inches considering i didn't alter my diet even one bit. i did, however, commit to doing at least 3 barre classes per week.  so when i found myself having to cancel one of my classes this week because of a conflict in my schedule, i realized i'd have to do something a little crazy to make up for it:  do two classes in one day.  eek.  thursday saw me in the studio for the early 6:05 class, after which i headed home to get the bean ready and dropped off at school.  and then i changed into fresh workout gear and showed up again for the 8:30 class.

i'm not gonna lie, you guys - that shit was rough.  and probably not something i'll do again if i can avoid it.  but i'm glad i did, so that i can at least tell myself i met the fitness part of the challenge.

oh, and one last thing - my friend jessica love released her second book this week!

i'm super proud and excited for her, and i can't wait till i have some free time to dive in and read it...most likely in one sitting because i already know i won't be able to put it down.  you should totally get a copy too!

and now i'm going to mentally prep myself for the weekend of running i have ahead of me.  this is after tonight's girl scout meeting and amongst a bunch of other stuff to get accomplished over the next couple of days.  phew...i'm tired already.

prepping for christmas

the days leading up to christmas were a whirlwind of activity.  not only did we have all sorts of stuff to accomplish, but i had the bean underfoot the whole time since she was on winter break.  i felt bad because i spent a good chunk of time sitting at the sewing machines to finish up a bunch of those mermaid tail blankets, leaving her to entertain herself.  luckily she's at an age where that isn't all that hard to do, but still.  and when i was finally done, i'd filled this entire tub with blankets:

i spread them all out so that i could see all of the labels of who they belonged to and started folding them into tissue to pack them for shipping.

and i managed to add a few tweaks to the pattern to make sharks, turning to one of my favorite models to get this picture:

this is the one and only mermaid tail i made with printed fleece.

oh - also?  don't wait till the week of christmas to decide that the whole family needs matching pajamas.  the pickins were slim, but the old lady and i managed to scrounge up a bunch of semi-matching t-shirts and found pajama pants on sale at old navy for $5 apiece.  there were none left in kids' sizes though, so we picked up the smallest pair we could find and brought them home for me to alter.  a little snip snip here and a bit of sewing there, and i managed to get 'er done.

i busted out the die cutting machine to jazz up our plain red tops a bit, too.

aaaaand pixie spent her last few days of 2015 doing some rather boring, uninspired things.

and everyone (sans the hub, who was happily out running errands) had to hug her goodbye.

 even mollydog.

her face kinda says it all, amirite?

she works hard for the money

i completely forgot to blog yesterday!  sheesh.  there is a reason for that, though, and it all stems from this photo:

my co-leader and fellow sewing addict introduced me to a pattern for making those mermaid tail blankets.  they're actually more of a sleeping bag, since you crawl into it and snuggle up while doing your best ariel impression.  and the pattern comes in sizes that span from a size 1 all the way up to a full-grown adult.  i held off on it for awhile, but finally decided to hit up joann's and pick up some materials to give it a shot.  as you can tell from that photo, it was an instant hit.

but even more so once i posted it on facebook.  holy cow.  one friend immediately asked if i was interested in selling them, and - well, it would kind of be fun to be able to buy some christmas gifts on my own.  and also, i am a sucker.  once i said yes, i found myself with at least ten tails to make.  ha!  'tis the season, after all.

a trip to another local fabric store with my co-leader (who actually went all out and opened an etsy shop, racking up an impressive number of sales in the span of just one week) yielded enough material to cut out the first 8:

i spent my sunday sitting at my machines, cranking out one after another until i finally finished them all.  two broken needles, a lot of swear words and an assload of thread later, i had this:

but it didn't stop there.  oh no.  because once i posted that picture of them folded and stacked, even more requests rolled in.  and so i headed back out to the fabric store and loaded up my cart till it could hold no more.

it took me an entire evening to cut out all of the pieces to make 15 more, and then laid them all out yesterday:

and even beyond those, i still have at least seven more to cut out.  i managed to eke out 7.5 of those by the end of the day, before my back gave out and i had to step away from the machines.  and thank goodness for all ten seasons of "friends" on netflix.  because while i'm totally occupied during the sewing process, it's nice to have something going on in the background that makes me laugh while not requiring my full attention.

i'm on a roll here, people.  my goal is to have all of these completely done by the end of the week, and if i can keep it up at this pace, i won't even be scrambling to finish two separate requests for cookies by saturday.

dolla dolla bills, y'all.  i need 'em to buy myself a nice massage after all of this is done.  heh.