We Survived Camping.

Hope everyone enjoyed their holiday weekend. We braved a 6 hour car ride to do some back (and I mean BACK) country camping near Gunnison. It was so beautiful and so exhausting. Ever try sharing a sleeping bag with an almost two year old???

Can you see the elk?

mmmm Marshmallows 

This was right outside our tent!

My two little camping monsters.

Button Monogram Tutorial - Cocktails and Crafts

Today we got back on track with Cocktails and Crafts. It has been forever because people were busy having babies! Now that all the new people are here we are ready to craft and drink.

The drink today was a classic mojito. Here is Food Network's recipe.

• Ice
• 6 ounces light rum
• 12 mint sprigs, or spearmint, 8 roughly broken apart
• 6 tablespoons fresh lime juice
• 4 tablespoons sugar
• Club soda
• 4 slices lime

Place ice in beverage shaker then add in the rum, 8 broken up mint sprigs, lime juice and sugar. Shake well and serve over ice in a high ball glass. Top off each glass with a splash of club soda.

Garnish each with a slice of lime and a sprig of mint.

Today's craft was button monograms. We saw some great ones on Pinterest and knew we had to give it a shot. 

 

Step One: Create an outline of your letter. I used Photoshop and printed it on card stock. I think a block letter works best for this craft because it would be hard to get a lot of detail unless you had really small buttons and a really big letter.  The big splotch in the middle is mojito!

 

Step Two: Using a hot glue gun, add buttons to the inside of your letter, making sure not to go over your outline. Also helps to keep a cup of ice water to dip your burned fingers in.

Step Three: Repeat Step Two until you have a couple layers of buttons.

Look how beautiful it is on fabric!!

New Chairs

So they aren't exactly "new" but they are reupholstered and monogrammed by yours truly. Here is a before and after shot.

We received our table and chairs as an engagement gift from my in-laws and at the time white padded chairs seemed so grown up and practical. Once my son came along with his sticky fingers, dirty feet and generally sloppy eating habits I knew that something was eventually going to change. Fast forward three and a half years when we are now high-chair and booster seat free and it was high time to recover these bad boys.

 I found some very inexpensive dark denim at a wholesale home decor fabric place in Northern Colorado. I think it was about $8/yard, which for home decor fabric is practical free! It was really easy to get the staples out of the chair once I had the correct tool (offset pliers). I then measured the grimy fabric and cut the denim to fit (25 inches x 25 inches). I probably could have gone even smaller (21 inches x 21 inches) because the denim stretches a lot but it doesn't really matter unless you happen to be at my house and decide to look under my chairs and see all the access fabric.

Once they were all covered I printed out the first initial of our names in Cochin font and traced them on freezer paper. Ironing them on was a little hard since there is a slight curve in the chair but it worked. I know some of you might be thinking, "Gee - I have a Silhouette machine that does that, only better!" To which I would reply, "Suck it!" (unless of course you are Silhouette representative or a craft benefactor that would like to gift me a free machine!) 

Since my edges weren't as crisp as I wanted I took a black Sharpie marker and outlined each letter. Set the fabric paint with your iron and you are done. Oh, I did one more step - I broke down and bought theses bad boys to save me from having to do this process in the near future.

Two-Tiered Simple Skirt

I am back home, unpacked and busy going through all my photographs. I had a great time but it was a looooong trip! I plan to entertain you all with my favorite photographs from the trip but until I have gone through them you will have to wait. It will be the modern version of someone getting out their screen and slide projector when neighbors come over.

I did manage to get in a little sewing when I was home. I made my favorite niece this colorful two-tiered simple skirt and matching headband. Her mom picked out the beautiful fabric and I can't tell you the designer.

 I added a cute stitched hem of course!

The headband I made by creating a bias tape and then used some of the left over elastic attached to the bottom to give it the necessary stretch.

You can find the tutorial here. I didn't exactly follow her steps because I was too lazy to pull them up but I got a super cute skirt.

The best laid plans.

Note to self: NEVER, never, never travel at a time when your children should be in bed for the night!

This has been one of the worst travel experiences of my life, heightened by having two small children along for the ride.

We we were supposed to leave NY at 6:30 pm last night, have a one hour lay-over in Atlanta and then be in Denver by 11:00. Not ideal, but doable.

Our plane was delayed and hour and a half but with so many passengers trying to make the same connection they told us they would hold the plane. They were big fat liars!

Dammit, I would have just stayed in NY an extra day if I knew I would have to drag two very tired and sad kids around Atlanta at 10:00 at night. The worst part, the first flight they can get us on is 9:30 pm the next day.

I love my husband because when I called him in tears he gave me some tough love and told me to make do and get a hotel - no pity parties on that end of the phone. By the time I got to the hotel my son was crying because daddy wasn't here and I just wanted a stiff drink and a soft bed.


We got checked in, stripped down to our undies because we have nothing with us (sorry going out to whoever has to sit with us on the plane tonight), and got in bed.


We called and said good night to daddy and he was much sweeter telling me to buy whatever was necessary to survive the next 24 hours. Having no car or car seats leaves me at a bit of a loss on how to do that.

Plan B is to visit with my husbands family that lives here, but that may be hard given that they had no notice...

Update: they just called and are going to come get us! Yay!!!!!

So now we wait until they get here. Should be easy for these two very tired kids.


Wish I didn't check my knitting! Maybe I will get to see Project Runway tonight.

Two more days

We have two more whole days and then I can rest at home from my vacation.

We tried to take a sweet picture to send Daddy but all we could manage were these:

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

County Fair

I am in upstate NY with my family and tonight we visited the county fair.

Mmmmm fried dough.

Fried waffles, which I have only seen on the east coast. They aren't really waffles but batter that is placed on an iron design and then deep fried and covered in sugar. So good.

Fried pizza logs (I didn't make that name up). Is there anything that isn't good fried? After taking this picture I realized it resembled something a little less pizza-like and more Georgia O'Keeffe-like.

After the food the poultry tent was our next stop.

I want one of these Cochins. Don't know much about the breed yet but they are a round ball of a bird that isn't a heavy layer but super friendly.

My niece checking our where they sheared the sheep.

My daughter loved the goats. On my good camera I have pictures of her kissing a friendly goat.

I must be spoiled in Colorado because the home arts section was...lacking. There were some beautiful flowers but only one knit blanket, a couple quilts and one crocheted blanket.

And to round out the trip- one of the many creepy garbage can.

We have one more week here and the kids have turned their whine on to full blast and I am looking forward to not sharing a bedroom with them. Apparently vacation for a toddler and a preschooler means testing the patience of their mommy to the extreme limits.