maisie lou

Look who is hanging out in the park with Graham and Christian. They are some lucky boys to get to hang out with this little missy. Graham obviously can't contain his excitement.

project fix my clothes: shirt #2

Who needs a long-sleeved shirt when it's hot? Certainly not me. So I shortened the sleeves and used the extra sleeve fabric to add a panel at the bottom of the shirt.

I didn't even mean to make the before picture look bad and the after picture look cute, but it seems the before version really did look bad and I had no idea until I compared the two photos. The newer version looks much better on me! Not to toot my own horn or anything...



And we made pizza. Soooooo good. I used a super easy and fast pizza dough recipe (see below) and I am in love. Looks like I'll be making pizza much more often.


(The recipe is from allrecipes.com, but for some reason the site won't let me copy the url. Strange. I doubled the recipe and used regular flour with a few tablespoons of wheat gluten.)

Ingredients

1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
1 teaspoon white sugar
1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
2 1/2 cups bread flour
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). In a medium bowl, dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
Stir in flour, salt and oil. Beat until smooth. Let rest for 5 minutes.
Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and pat or roll into a round. Transfer crust to a lightly greased pizza pan or baker's peel dusted with cornmeal. Spread with desired toppings and bake in preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Let baked pizza cool for 5 minutes before serving.

project fix my clothes: shirt #1

I love this shirt. I hate the little flutter sleeves. I can't even call them sleeves. They are little flaps that stick straight out from the shoulder. One wrong move or the slightest breeze will flip them straight up, where they prefer to stay. So I never wear the shirt.


I looked at it last night and thought about how I could add real cap sleeves. I didn't want to put some other fabric on it. That would look cheap. Then I realized that the little flutter flaps were probably made of quite a bit of fabric since they were so gathered. I took out the seams, ironed it flat, and sure enough--there was enough fabric to make cap sleeves that fit all the way around the arm opening.

I also noticed when I took the "before" picture that a button was missing from one of the front pockets. My solution? Cut the other button off, too. Way simpler than trying to find a matching button.

Voila! I love my shirt again.

new old clothes

You know those days at work that are so incredibly boring that you can't even convince yourself to start a new project, because you're so bored? I know, it doesn't make any sense.

Today is one of those days.

So I'm sharing with you my weekend goal:

1. Sort through all my clothes (including the stuff in boxes under my bed).

2. Donate EVERYTHING I don't use. Does anyone want to go through my old clothes before I give them to Goodwill?

3. Modify clothes that I am tired of but should really keep using. This includes adding sleeves to shirts so I don't have to layer, cutting long-sleeved shirts into short-sleeved shirts, adding embellishments, ruffles, pockets, pin tucks. We'll see.

I am in love with this cardigan and I want to modify a cardigan to look like it. Too bad I only have one cardigans. Hmmm. How do I only have one cardigan?

source

I'll be sure to post pictures of whatever I come up with.

Do any of you have clothes that you modified? Do you love what you did with them? Can you give me ideas?

(PS--My wish from my last post came true. My husband came home with two shirts and a pair of shorts for me. I am wearing one of the shirts today. Oh, how I love him.)

is it too much to ask?

Is it too much to ask to find cute, comfortable, stylish, modest, no-layering-required clothing?

And is it too much to ask to have those clothes magically appear in my closet?

Does anyone want to go shopping for me? I know some of you might disown me for saying this, but the idea of going shopping sounds sooooo boring.

Such a dilemma.

who are you, newspaper man?

Perhaps I shouldn't assume your'e a man. Perhaps you're a woman. But I don't think so. It's hard to tell when I can only see your hands.

I see you walking on El Camino. Always in the same place as I drive home from work. Some days I see you, some days I don't.

You wear black pants. Grey sweatshirt. Hood always drawn. You walk with an open newspaper held over your head and face. That's the only way I've ever seen you. Only your hands show. You can only see the ground. And your'e always walking South.

Why is this? Are you shielding yourself from the sun? Or are you shielding yourself from the world? Today you were sitting on a bench. The newspaper held dutifully over your face. Perhaps it's not the sun. Otherwise you could have just sat in the shade and put down the newspaper. It must be more than that.

Is there something wrong with your skin? Is there something wrong with your mind?

You make me so curious. And a little sad.

frodo baggins on linkedin

Sweet. I could be connected to Frodo Baggins on Linkedin. I wonder if I could get a job with the hobbits through him...

my vacation with graham

This week I used almost all my vacation time to stay home with my little Budders. It was SO worth it.

Christian and Richard went to our church's Zion's Camp this week (Richard as a youth participant, Christian as a counselor) and they had a blast. Seriously. They are gushing about how much fun they had. More on that later.

Because Christian is the full-time stay-at-home-dad right now, we needed someone to watch Graham. I gladly cashed in my vacation time and spent a week with my baby. Best. Week. Ever. (Well, would have been even better if Christian had been home with us.) It also coincided with a one-week healthy eating pact with my sisters. No junk food, no sugar, no processed foods, no animal products. I have eaten so well this week, which I probably never could have done with my carnivore/junk-food roommates around.

Monday:
Hung out with Budders.
Signed the Acura over to Dianna and Bob. (More on this later.) We are now a one-car family. I'm so excited. Seriously.
Hung out with my sister, Ashley. We made healthy meals, we went to Ikea, we sat around talking.

{I love this boy!}


Tuesday:
Hung out with Budders.
Cleaned.
Hmmm. What else did I do?

{Graham discovered the washer and dryer. Fascinating to watch the clothes go around and around.}


Wednesday:
Hung out with Budders.
Went to the beach with the girls from my ward at church. Graham's first beach experience. He ate sand. He laid down in the sand. He was obsessed with the sand. It was a lot of work and a little overwhelming.

{Roaming free at the beach.}


{With my baby!}


{He got a little tired and decided to lay down.}


{Sand-covered face. That's what happens when you lay down in the sand, Graham.}


{Leah posing just as pretty as can be.}


{Graham and Waverley. Once we let them swap toy for pacifier, they were all smiles.}


{So fun to hand out with these girls. I never see them.}


Thursday:
Hung out with Budders.
Rented a carpet cleaner.
Lugged it up to my apartment.
Cleaned the living room carpet.
Lugged the carpet cleaner down to my car.
Took the carpet cleaner to Dianna and Bob so they could use it on the Acura.
Lugged the carpet cleaner back up to my apartment.
Cleaned more carpet.
Lugged the carpet cleaner down to my car.
Returned it.
Ate cereal for dinner because my back hurt too much to make dinner. Next time I rent a carpet cleaner, I'll make sure Christian is here to do all the hard labor.

{Late at night I found this little guy sleeping on his stuffed giraffe.}


Friday:
Went on a walk with Julia and Maren and Leah. (Speaking of Leah, click on the link on the side bar and vote for Rett Syndrome!)
Hung out at the park with Erica, Hayden, and baby Chase.
Cleaned my house more. It still needs help.

Today I welcomed Christian and Richard home! Christian immediately left for work. Richard immediately left for San Jose. Looks like I'm on my own again... That's okay. I'm having fun with my baby. If only this week could last forever.

graduations!

Last week was a big one. Full of celebrations!


Christian graduated college! Go Christian! He deserves much praise. He endured years of being bugged by his school-nerd wife. He reluctantly let me read through his papers before he turned them in. He gave in to my need to be sure he registered for his classes the minute registration opened. And in his final semester, he finally succumbed to my constant offers to help him study, and he let me quiz him on flashcards.

He is a patient man, that Christian.

So after years of hard work, I present to you our official International Business graduate! Good job, babe! I love you!! You are an example to your siblings and to Graham!







And then, as if that weren't enough...

Richard graduated from high school!

Richard moved in with us 3 years ago. He is a great kid, but he needed a little push in the school arena. Just as Christian endured the wrath of the school-nerd wife, Richard endured the wrath of the Molly-Christian duo. "Do you have homework tonight?" "Did you finish your project?" "There's no way you studied enough for your test. Go study some more."

One time, during his first year with us, we stayed up until 1:00am helping (forcing) him to finish a huge project that he had procrastinated. It was ugly. We were all annoyed. We shed blood, sweat, and tears. Okay, no blood or sweat. BUT--we never had to stay up with him to finish a project again.

Richard did so well. He studied. He did his homework. He asked for extra credit when he needed it. He figured out how to navigate school. And by his senior year, he was doing it all on his own. We are so proud of him.

Congrats, Richard!

graham crawling

Graham took his first crawling "steps" on Memorial Day at Ian and Kitty's house. Amazing what a baby will do for some Mardi Gras beads.

Here he is two days later:

i want

I want...

...for you to click on the button on the side bar and vote for Rett Syndrome to win $250,000 for research. Little Leah would certainly benefit from more Rett Syndrome research.

...a Polaroid camera. How fun would that be?


...to go to Tahoe for an entire week. But I would need someone who would go hiking with me since I think it's a bad idea to go hiking alone with just a baby.

...to go mountain biking.

...to cheer on my friends at the See Jane Run half marathon this weekend. Think I can make it back in time for the primary party?

...a big yummy salad for lunch. With candied nuts. And grapes. And I want it right NOW. (It's only 11am.) Too bad I'm too lazy to walk to my car and drive to Plutos.

Okay. That was a nice break. Back to work.