Sewing in May

I did a lot more sewing than normal in the month of May.  Maybe it was because Brian was gone and I seemed to have a bit more free time.  Here are a few of the projects that I worked on in no particular order.

~ A pair of jammies for me that included a spaghetti strap tank top and mini bloomer shorts.



~ A nightie/sleeper for my niece.  It was made out of an old t-shirt.  The shirt says 90210 on the front and I picked that because my cousin used to watch it all the time growing up.  The funny part is, when I talked to her about it, she said that she had been watching that show on her maternity leave.

~ A Frock by Friday dress from Grosgrain.  I made the Shirtwaist dress.  It was a fairly easy pattern to make.  Funny thing is I started it when I came back to WA last summer and I finished it nearly a year later.  That is quite the lengthy project, don'tcha think?  I had a lady from church help me learn to make button holes that look presentable.  I had tried them before and they were always pretty shoddy looking.  These turned out really nice.  I was one step away from finishing the dress, all I had to do was hem it, when I decided to open up my button holes and put my buttons through.  To my horror I must not have learned how to properly measure the buttons to make the holes large enough.  Not a single one of my six buttons would fit through their holes.  I was about ready to through the entire dress away when the light bulb when off.  I cut my bottom four buttons off and then sewed them on through the button hole.  Now the dress looks like they work, but alas it is our little secret.  I think the next frock by Friday that I will try and do is the Tara dress.  I have this pretty pink fabric all ready to use.  Hopefully I can work on that this month.

~ A sparkly pink skirt to wear when I run races and especially to wear for my triathlon.  It makes me feel good which I rationalize makes me faster.  I usually wear it with a pair of black running shorts under it and either a grey or pink tank top.  I also wear a fun pair of argyle knee high socks.

~ Bookmarks for Angela and Connor's teachers and various members of our family.  I tried to machine embroider initials on each of the bookmarks.  That was something I have never done so I was a little nervous.  It was not as bad as I thought.  I don't think I would do full words or sentences but the initials were just fine. 

~ A draw string bag for my nephew who turned two.  Every little boys should have something to tote around their treasures in.  I forgot to take a picture of this but it was a very fun dinosaur print.

~ A bowl cover for this dish I usually take to potlucks.  It is just a piece of fabric to keep things from spilling out.  Next time I might try to use a piece of PUL fabric which is laminate so that I could use it while storing things in the fridge.  It was just something fun to make and share with the ladies at the potluck. 

There you go, all of my projects for May.  I have a few on my list for June but we'll see where life takes me.

Unofficial Blog Survey

After my posting May Thoughts I got thinking.  When we first moved out here I seemed to blog a lot.  Lately it has been less and less frequent.  So onto my unofficial blog survey. 

Is it better to:

1. Have many small postings

or

2. Have less postings that are larger

So let me know what you think by commenting on this post and I will see what I can do to accommodate.  

May Thoughts

With a lack of individual photos of the kids you would think that we didn't do anything during May.  To the contrary, we were pretty busy.  Brian left home on Saturday April 23rd to go on storm work in St. Louis Missouri (see posting here).  He came home late on Tuesday April 26th.  He then left early on the morning of Thursday April 28th to go near Jasper Alabama for more storm work.  Thus started off our month of May.  I am not very good at surviving within my four walls alone with the kids without going crazy.  Therefore, I set up different times for friends to come over and visit, for the four of us to be out of the home or for me to be out by myself.  

Mother's Day was a pretty enjoyable day.  It was also Brian's birthday this year.  I was able to work it out with Brian's boss and we surprised him with a web camera video chat.  It was nice for all the kids to see and talk to Dad and for him to see all of us.  Technology is wonderful that it can help people connect over long distances.  

As I mentioned earlier Angela got glasses.  She seems to be torn on whether or not she likes them.  Some days she wants to wear them non stop, other days she grumbles about wearing them.  I think it is just a habit she will have to get herself into.  

Angela's school started a new fundraiser last year, the Run for Rusch.  Instead of selling wrapping paper and things of that sort, they have a 1 mile walk or a 5K run/walk.  Last year the family walked/jogged the 5K.  This year, since I am working on learning to run and learning to like it, I ran with the boys and Angela walked with a friend.  I came in 3rd in my age group with a time of 35:27.  I was really pleased because I was thinking I could do a 12 minute mile and I beat that.  Angela came in over an hour and was a little disappointed with herself because she was almost one of the last people to finish.   

Brian got home from his storm work about bedtime on Sunday May 15th.  He was able to have the next four days off from work.  It was sort of a bummer for him to have a one day work week, but it was wonderful for us to have all of that time with him. 

Back in November I went on a girl's trip to Chicago with some friends from here.  One of the ladies and I got talking about exercising.  I had been doing some serious exercising since May of last year and told her that I would not make an exercise New Year's resolution.  So she and I decided to commit to some races this summer.  We agreed to both participate in the Best Fest 5K in May (she also did a 5 mile run in April and I will do my triathlon in August).  I got lucky at the Best Fest run since Brian was home.  He told me he would push the boys so that I could just run.  This time I came in 1st in my age with a time of 30:47.  Brian came in 3rd for his age around 45 minutes.  Angela came in 2nd for her age also about 45 minutes.  She shaved a little over 15 minutes off of her time from the week before.  She was super excited that she was able to push herself and improve.  Connor and Emeric each got ribbons too.  It was a joyful day for the Jamison's!

Brian had a short storm about and hour and a half from the house.  It lasted only about 30 hours from May 23rd to the 24th. 

Emeric is just growing literally right before our eyes.  It seems like everyday he is getting bigger or learning something new.  And as much of a joy as he is to our family he is also a frustration.  If anything is left out, he thinks it is fair game.  He really loves Angela's DS, you can only imagine the trouble that causes.

Angela started softball practice.  She has practices two days per week and soon will start having one to two games per week.  She is improving with huge leaps and bounds.  She enjoys throwing the ball around in the backyard.  If her arm gets any better we will have to move just to get a bigger backyard.  As it is, we may have to start heading to the park so that she can have a little more room.  She is also getting better at her batting.  It is a lot of fun to watch her participate in something that interests her.  She has also started a little Girl Scout introductory class.  It is a five day group (spread out over ten weeks) to introduce girls to Girl Scouts.  There might be a huge possibility that she will sign up to be a Girl Scout next year so be prepared to purchase your cookies.  I was the top seller in my troop when I was Angela's age and I DO expect everyone I and she knows to help her be the top seller too!  (You do know that I am just giving you a little gruff, right?)

Connor finished up his speech class.  He was a little sad that he was done seeing Ms. Mendy, but was excited to hear that he will see he again next year when he starts pre-school.  His clarity of speech has greatly improved over this school year.  If you would like to hear, give him a call.  He has a very limited attention span for the phone so you may only get a sentence or two out of him, but he would enjoy it very much.

My MOPS group had a party where we all dressed up in formal wear.  Then a big group of us, husbands included, went out to the bar for drinks.  It was a blast walking in there and seeing all the looks we got.  People kept wanting to know if it was a wedding or something.  They couldn't believe that it was just "Girl's Night Out!" 

(don't we all look beautiful)

 (I am sure my husband is the best looking one) 

To start Memorial Day weekend, I did another 5K, but this one was a fun run so there was no time kept.  I think I was around the 30-31 minute time frame.  The best thing about this run was that I got a free beer glass and beer to go in it.  Of course I let Brian drink my beer and he bought me a drink but it was totally worth it! 

We enjoyed a funny dinner called Frogmore Stew.  It had chicken, shrimp and sausage in it as well as broccoli, carrots, potatoes and mushrooms.  The funny part of this dinner was that it is severed with no dishes period.  The food and dip gets plopped right on the table.  The look on the kid's faces when I just spooned it from the pot to the table was wonderful.  It was a great way to make a family memory. 

It didn't quite feel like the holiday weekend because we were not camping with family.  But it was a good one none the less.  We finished off the weekend with a whorl wind Monday.  Angela and I went for a three and a half mile run (I ran and she rode her bike) that morning.  Brian and I went on a motorcycle ride/date that mid-day.  I headed down to the lake to swim in my new wetsuit.  I swam across and back which was about two-thirds of a mile.

(might as well get both views - just don't mention anything about my backside) 

We then had some friends over for a BBQ.  It was a really nice way to end out the day and the weekend. 

So now you see, May was not slow at all, but quite jam packed.  I will work to pull the camera out some more in June.

May - Photos of Kids

I seem to be getting worse and worse with using the camera.  Except for photos I have already shown you, I don't seem to have enough other individual photos of the kids for this posting.  It's okay, send me hate mail, I can handle it.  I will try to make up for it in June and the rest of the summer, but I can't promise anything otherwise I may be setting myself up for failure.  Sorry about dropping the ball in May.