Running on Empty

Usually, running on empty is something to be avoided.

Getting stuck on some country backroad with an empty gas tank.

Exhaustion and lack of sleep due to a newborn who’s been up crying and feeding all night.

Being spiritually depleted from serving serving serving without simply BEING in the presence.

But sometimes running on empty is a good thing.

Especially when referring to one’s bladder on a run during pregnancy.

Trust me.

I know.

Ducked into the public library to use the facilities the other day 3 miles into a 5 miler, sweaty and red, with old school running stroller that contained my sleeping child.

I ran 2.97 miles on “Full.”

The 2.03 miles on “Empty” were much more enjoyable

So be sure to run on empty once in a while.

You’re welcome.

My family buried a great man today. My great uncle Frank slipped quietly into the arms of Jesus early Sunday morning.

He was 93. Uncle Frank taught me how to garden and even bought me all my first plants when I was about 12. Tomatoes, peppers, zuchinni, eggplant… He was thrilled to teach me more about his passion for growing food.

He was enamored by the simple things in life- how amazing it was that one could put a seed into the ground and after some time and care, that seed became a plant that bore fruit. He said that year after year. His son joked today at the funeral that while the flowers at the altar were beautiful, his dad would have been equally pleased, if not moreso, with large arrangements of burdock, dandelion, and mustard greens.

My uncle Frank was a veteran of WW2, just like my grandfather was and countless others from that generation. The coffin was draped with an American flag, men in uniform gave a salute, taps was played.

We filed past Uncle Frank’s casket and out of the mosaleum. Everyone got into their cars and headed out for the breakfast at a local banquet hall.

I went to get into my car, but thought better of it. I walked the fifty yards or so to Uncle Frank’s waiting grave, next to my grandfather’s.

Brother in laws.

Side by side.

I looked at the tombstones, which I remember them deciding on and buying together. I remember the disagreements over inscriptions, how Frank and Anna’s tombstone would say “Together Forever” and that my grandmother wanted that on hers too… but my grandfather thought it was too sappy.

I laughed.

I smiled, even as I stood at the foot of my grandfather’s grave, becuase I knew he wasn’t there. He was absent from the body, but present with the Lord.

And now Uncle Frank is too. Standing on his own two feet, perfect, whole.

menus…

If my child could pick her own menu, it would be:

Ketchup

Hotsauce

French Fries (for dipping into aforementioned ketchup and hotsauce, not for actually eating)

Pinto Beans

Goldfish

and

Ice Cream

It’s a good thing she doesn’t run the show around here, huh?

Keeping that coffee cozy

Tired of using those cardboard coffee sleeves that waste paper and STILL burn your hand?

Why not try…

… the coffee cozey?

I found this easy cozy pattern from  House on Hill Road. Quite a bit of talent and creativity over on that Hill Road, if you ask me.

This project literally took 20 minutes. I was able to run around the house during Sweet Pea’s nap time and do all sorts (bake two loaves of banana bread, weed the garden, fold a load of laundry) of stuff AND finish this. I kind of thought I would just get to cut out the fabric, but no! I had the whole thing sewn, pressed and ready for a button with time to spare before my child woke up. Not to mention that most sewers have a few 6 x 14 inch pieces of already washed & pressed fabric left over from other projects… so there’s very little cost involved in this cozy. Bonus.

Once the little one woke up, we dashed to our closest Joann’s to get the right button, Starbucks to get a gift card, a little hand sewing action and our thank you gift is complete.

Growing Veggies like the Obamas… sorta…

I had a vegetable garden when I was a kid. We had just moved, albeit across town, but I was in a different school district, school was out for the summer, and for the first time in my life… my mom was out working. She had worked before, but always had off in the summers.

So I planted a vegetable garden, with the help of my great-uncle Frank, who grew up eating only that which his family grew.

I loved having a garden to tend. I was always making moats and trying different watering patterns… and discovering how amazing it was to grow something. It kept me occupied during those long summer days when I couldn’t really go anywhere and wasn’t supposed to leave the yard!

And now I have a vegetable garden once again. And a presidential family who also has their very own garden. Granted, they’ve got “people” to take care of it and they are in a different growing zone than I, hence the reason they have already harvested 85 pounds of lettuce and I only have this by way of lettuce:

Mesclun salad mix grown in a container.

I watched the NBC special on the White House last week and nearly jumped off the couch when they showed the garden, particularly when the chefs were harvesting some gorgeous Swiss Chard.

“WE HAVE THAT TOO!!!” I screeched! Keith was pretty amused.

Rainbow swiss chard… cuz it’s prettier than just plain swiss chard…

Three rows of spinach… to take care of that wierd pregnancy craving for spinach that I have…

Beets and marigolds.

Other garden dwellers? Tomatoes, peppers, peppers, more peppers, eggplant, broccoli (which may not survive), carrots, more tomatoes, green beans, pumpkins, cantelope, watermelon, zucchini, summer squash, and herbs.

We also planted two concord grape plants.

Our garden is also organic… so far… I have refrained from using oodles of Miracle Grow and am hoping to still have some good results. I’ve used bloodmeal to increase the nitrogen level of the soil prior to planting and will likely be adding some composted manure in the near future.

Everything’s still pretty small right now, but hopefully we will reap a harvest if we do not give up…

The little gardener who wasn’t

She was interested in helping her daddy garden. Really, she was.

Then she saw me, with the shiny silver camera.

Gotta go, Dadd-i-o. No time for pictures.

Must. Get. The. Camera. Maybe if I keep smiling she’ll keep taking pictures and I’ll snatch it out of her unsuspecting hands Muahahahah!!!!

I did manage to get the camera out of the way… within nanoseconds of being manhandled by sticky, apple juicy, garden grubby little fingers.

So much for documenting the cuteness of Sweet Pea gardening. Maybe I should get those camoflague cameras that hunters use.

Sprucing up the bistro table

Since I don’t usually spend the big bucks to inve$t in durable patio furniture, I have a bistro table set from Joann’s that is several years old and starting to show it’s age.

The base of the chair is all wonky and starting to rust; I’ll likely have to clean it with a wire brush and repaint it by the end of the season.

BUT! I thought it could use some cushions, since the chairs have never really been all that comfortable.

Enter one of my design heroes, Kristin Nicholas. You may remember I made some wicked cool leg warmers she designed. I don’t wear them nearly often enough, as I am generally more conservative in my color palate than Kristen is, but everytime I do don my legwarmers, it’s a good day.

Kristen shared this fabulous tutorial last summer on printing your own fabric, using a canvas dropcloth as the fabric (AKA- cheap!) and basically whatever paints you have lying around.

I really liked the affordability of the project, because I wasn’t about to shell out $30 a yard for some Sunbrella fabric that was going to sit on my rusty bistro chairs.

I cut and preshrunk my canvas cloth, then I cut out a stamp or two like from kid’s adhesive foam.

A little stamping action with some random acrylics I had lying around, a little striping action, some sewing and stuffing of foam padding…

I only used one color, because I didn’t want the cushions to stand out too much. I wanted the main focus of the flagstone patio to be the garden, not the bistro set.

and…

TADAAAAA! My spiffy bistro table. Now, for some iced tea and some quiet time…

back again…

It’s been two months since I’ve blogged…

Things have sort of changed since the inception of this blog- when I first started, it was mostly knitting & running. Since then, we’ve had a baby, bought a fixer upper, ran a half marathon, and are now expecting baby number 2. Oh, and I’m coordinating the Moms of Preschoolers group at our church.

So I guess you can say my free time has shrunk since those days when we were DINKs (dual income, no kids).

However! I’m feeling the blog is coming back this summer…

The Butter Lamb

This……

Is the butter lamb.

I live in an area with a large Italian population, as well as Polish, Irish, and German. My great-grandparents came here from Italy in the early 1900’s. There’s always good food around here.

The butter lamb is apparently an addition to the Easter meal for Polish Catholics, according to wikipedia I guess I always knew it was a polish tradition, because of the name on the box.

Anyways, we had a family get-together at my aunt’s house, where Sweet Pea saw her first butter lamb.

“Doggie!” she said, pointing to the lamb molded out of butter, with peppercorns for eyes.

Minutes later she had a confused and slightly horrified look on her face as the lamb was passed around the table and cut up to butter bread.

Whoops. I never saw that one coming.

It’s been a while

Yeah, it’s been a while.

I just got busy, I guess, but I have missed the blogging world and all the creative energy that comes along with it.

I made a new purse, just in time for us to go to Orlando in the beginning of the March:

It’s the “Covington Bag” by Amy Butler, a discontinued pattern that I purchased on ebay last year. I’m still looking for her “Big Nap” pillow pattern that was discontinued but have had little luck in finding it. The fabric I used for my purse was from the Stonehill collection that I picked up at Joanne’s for a very very reasonable price. I thought it was cute, kinda Amy Butler-ish, but much more affordable. I think the bag cost me about 6 dollars in materials (thanks to a sale and a 50% off coupon), and I have a decent amount of extra fabric left over for a small project. Maybe a matching wallet?

It felt so good to have a new bag to take on vacation!

We went to Sea World while we were in Orlando and checked out the stingray pool, among other things. The stingrays swim around the pool and let you pet them! Sweet Pea thought it was fun.

Another favorite activity of hers was the kiddie fountain at our hotel.

The water was really cold, but she didn’t seem to mind. Looks like I know what to buy her for this summer! A sprinkler.