finally...walking!

Blake is walking!

Well sometimes anyways.  

He still is mostly crawling but he wants to walk so badly!  

He falls and gets right back up to try again.  I am so proud of him!

Video taken on April 27, 2011

Just 8 days shy of 15 months...

my week in weight loss

Its been a week since my friends and I started this Biggest Loser Challenge.  Its meant to go strong for 8 weeks and who ever has lost the highest percentage of their body weight gets the pot.  We all put in $10 and right now there is 20 ladies.  So its a nice incentive!  

Anyways, this last week was pretty neat. I am wanting to lose 12-15 lbs.  I am 5'3'' (small frame) and weighed in at 140 at the start of this challenge.  This morning I stepped on the scale and noticed that I had lost 3lbs.  That's a great start, I think.  I thought I did particularly good in the exercise category.  I spent at least 20 minutes on the elliptical 4x and I did my sit ups and body conditioning.  Which is pretty good for me.  I tried to do the calorie counting but failed a bit.  Each night I would end up going over my recommended allowance.  Oh well...at least it wasn't by a whole lot.

I am taking my multi vitamin and drinking lots of water daily.
Any other suggestions for me?

friday catch up

"One day there were three tomatoes walking down the street, a mama tomato, a daddy tomato and a baby tomato. Baby tomato is walking too slowly, so the daddy tomato goes back, steps on him and says 'ketchup!'"  -uma thurman, pulp fiction

I didn't realize that it has been well over a week since I last posted.

  I guess LIFE has gotten the best of me.

  

We went on a vacation last weekend.

  To Hoodsport, WA.  It was so much fun.

  Do you ever notice when you travel with kids, a lot of the time its more stressful then a vacation should be?  Well my kids did very well.

  Yeah, they probably got on everyone else's nerves but it could have been a lot worse.  3 days!

 And the best part?

 They slept all night without any problems!  Even Blake took his 2 naps a day without any fuss.

  I was amazed.  They did great.  

And we had a lot of fun too!

I was supposed to bring eggs for Lila to dye with her class in preschool.

  I remembered to bring them but kinda forgot the most important thing...to boil the eggs!

  Total mommy fail.  

OOPS!

The Biggest Loser competition is well on its way.  

Were into day 5 now.

  I feel like its going ok.

  I have exercised more then usual, been conscious of what I am eating and not eating any sweets.

  I don't feel like its helping though.  I feel fat.

  After last weeks vacation I literally gained almost 4 lbs.  

That's no bueno.  

But I am determined to lose at least 10 lbs.

Today is Earth Day.

Pick up trash when you walk by it and put it in its proper place.

Spend some time outside.

 and remember to smile, its a beautiful place to live.  

I'll leave you with some silly pictures to start your Friday out right.

wordless wednesday {intellectual}

edited with instagram

Look at my cute nerdy little boy.

happy wednesday, friends!

fabric easter basket {tutorial}

These baskets are super easy to make and you can whip one up in less then two hours.

My mom made one for me when I was younger and she filled it every year with goodies from the Easter Bunny.  It was something that reminded me of my childhood and I knew right away that I wanted to make one for my kids when I had them.  

I made one for Lila a few years back but it was HUGE.  So I took it apart and made new ones this year for each of my kids.  I hope to keep them around till they are 18 and out of the house!

I'm going to show you how to make one yourself!

what you'll need:

• 10 yards of cotton cording .99/yard.  

• 1 yard of fabric

• hot glue gun

• scissors

Please let me know if there are any things I wasn't clear about or if you have any questions.

•cut your fabric into 2in strips

depending on your fabric you can either score the fabric by making a small 1in cut at the top and ripping all the way down or just cutting it straight down with the scissors.  I personally liked the ripped look but my fabric didn't hold up that well.  The colors looked drab so I just used scissors and cut the pieces.

Next your going to want to start wrapping your fabric strips around the cording.  Start at one end and make your way up.  Make sure to swap securely so that there is no cotton cording showing.  When one piece is all wrapped add a small dab of hot glue and add another piece.  Keep wrapping until you get at least 2 yards covered.  

This is the fun part.  When you can actually see the start of the basket! 

Without the use of glue, just play around and practice folding the covered cording together to look like this.  Once you get it to how you want it to look unroll it and start hot gluing it together.  

Place drops of hot glue around the edge and gently squeeze the cording together and hold for a few seconds.  You want to make sure the glue is dry before letting go.  

Keep going until you get the desired width of your basket.  I counted 6 rows out from the middle on both of mine.

Now you can start on the sides of your basket!

Starting on one side of your oval bottom {without glue} practice how your going to wrap up to make the sides.  If you see on the picture above where the cording isn't secured with glue, that is where I started making my way up to make the side of my basket.  

Once you get the hang of it start using your hot glue.  Place large drops of glue about an inch apart and glue your pieces together.  Hold it gently and press it together to make sure that the glue dries before you let go. If you run out of fabric wrapped cording - start wrapping your fabric around some more yards of cording.  You can do all of it if you want.  I was too impatient and wanted to see some results before I continued!

This is where you get to decide how tall you want your basket.  I went about 7 rows tall.

End at the same side you started going up at.  Now you are going to want to start on your handle.  By practicing first what you want it to look like, start tucking in your wrapped cording under the first row on the side.  See the pictures below to get an idea.  I used unwrapped cording to illustrate how it should look.  

Once you get it how you would like it to look start gluing it together using the same press and dry technique as above. Use as much glue as you can without it showing.  The more glue used the more secure the handle will be. 

I cut the extra wrapped cording once I was done.  I made sure it reached the bottom of my basket to keep it looking finished. Make sure to glue the end so it doesn't unravel and glue it very securely to the side of the basket.  You wont see any of it with your Easter grass in it, so use as much glue as you want.

Here is something I thought of AFTER I made both of the baskets for my kids.  If you want a more secure handle you could always wrap florist wire around the handle before wrapping it with fabric.  

And of course add ribbon, flowers or any other accessory to the basket to make it your own!  I haven't gotten to the fabric store yet but I want to add a light blue bow to the sides of my sons basket.  I had green lying around and used it on my daughters.  

Have fun and happy crafting!

Let me know if you make one of these.  I would love to see them!

abc's

I am linking up with lindsay (what a great name!) at scenic glory for this fun friday meme.

the sun is shining today which makes me a very happy girl.

have a lovely friday friends!

Age:27 - i think, i seem to have lost track after 25...

Bed Size: queen.  i like to snuggle :)

Chore you hate:  folding laundry and putting it away!

Dogs:  border collie/springer mix named rusty

Essential start of your day:  a full coffee mug

Favorite Color:  red

Gold or silver:  white gold!

Height: 5'2" and a 1/4!!

Instruments I play (or have played): i played the violin in school but I want to learn how to play the guitar

Job Title: family planner, mother and wife

Kids: 2 of the cutest you've ever seen! age 3 1/2 and 1.  

Live: portland, OR

Mom's Name: sharon

Nickname:  lindz, neener, babe, mom

Overnight hospital stays: only 2 after having my kids.

Pet Peeve: "oh this stinks, smell it." NO! i dont want to smell it if its gross.  

Quote from a movie:  I will have to tell you: you have bewitched me, body and soul, and I love, I love, I love you. -mr darcy {pride and prejudice}

Right or left handed: right

Siblings: 3.  tracy, micah and hannah

Time you wake up:  usually 5:45 when the hubs leaves for work.

Underwear: color, black.

Vegetables you dislike: beets.  yucks!

What makes you run late: my kids.  always

X-rays you've had done: when I broke my collar bone about 15 years ago.

Yummy food you make: chicken verde enchiladas

Zoo animal:  hippopotamus

biggest loser challenge

I am going to be doing a challenge between a group of my girlfriends.  I am super stoked about it. 
Although I haven't actually seen the TV show I googled it and figured out how to start my own Biggest Loser Challenge.  It starts on April 18th and will run for 8 weeks.  So the ladies and I can get fit and sexy just in time for summer!  I will keep tabs on all our starting weight and calculate each week what our percentage of loss is.  To calculate your percentage of weight loss: multiply the total weight loss by 100 and divide by your starting weight.

I wont be posting all the details (I want to keep their privacy) but I will post every once in a while about how its all going. 

           Do you all watch the show? 
         Have you done a contest like this before?
         Any suggestions?

dirty sleeves

While I appreciate that my child wipes her mouth after it gets a little messy during a meal ...

It frusterates me that she chooses to use her sleeve and not her napkin!!

lose it or die trying

My last post about my weight loss journey was back in October of 2010.  Since then I have gained.  f&%# !
I am going to try to blog about my weight loss goals AGAIN with the hopes that I will have as much success as before.  BUT a few things have changed since last time. 
•I have weaned my son from breastfeeding.  Nursing can burn up to 500 calories or more a day!  HA.  I totally miss that.
•My motivation has been scaled back a bit.
•I am on a junk food kick.
•I am not as active as I once was.

SO...here I go again.  Once a week I will blog about how much I weigh, what I have done to change my eating habits, and what exercise I have done. 

Heres to hot mommas in time for summer, CHEERS!