Map Love

I love maps and globes. I love the colors, the graphics and I suppose I love what they represent. I don't get to travel much but I do dream of traveling the world. Mom got us this school map at the Fredricksburg flea market in the Fall. We finally got it hung in our living room and I'm loving it!

The 10K is Saturday, yikes! I'm more worried about the cold than the running. It starts at 7am and it will be in the mid 40's. I ran Saturday morning when the sun was out and it was in the 50s and my hands and feet were numb for the first 20 minutes. I'm a wimp! We have been lucky to have a mild winter, though I probably won't consider it lucky come summer. I have been able to run through January and February, not as much as in the Fall, but I'm still proud. A customer at work told me that there is only one hill and it is in the beginning of the race. I have run up that hill and it isn't bad at all. Wish me luck!

Feeling the love

This is the extent of my valentines enthusiasm this year. A red carnation that my boss gave me to wear in my hair at work and a pink ruffly dress that I sent to Karlie. I also made the best chocolate chip cookies and sent most of them to my family.

My sister in law texted me yesterday that Karlie had worn the Christmas dress that I made her to school. I felt a little bad that I hadn't mailed this sooner so that she could have worn it yesterday, but I'm glad she likes the other one so much. This is the same pattern with ruffle knit added to the bottom, so she ought to love this one even more.

Work was hectic and the holidays there kind of ruin them for me personally. It is just so busy and exhausting that you have no energy left to do anything unless you have planned in advance and I'm not good at that. Last year I was working in floral on Valentines, so I saw it from a different perspective this time.  It was so funny to see all the men gathering around looking dazed and confused.  I was lucky to open yesterday and was able to enjoy the lovely sunshine with a cup of tea and my new Saveur Magazine in the backyard after work.

Happy belated Valentine's day!
I'm off today, recovering and getting stuff done around the house and errands run.

ps, I got this picture of Karlie wearing her dress to a birthday party.

Plant Life

Part of my Year of the Home New Years declaration has been sprucing up the house by bringing in more house plants. They really make me happy and give a more finished look to a room. Instant upgrade! I'm not usually good with houseplants, but do much better with my gardens. I'm trying to become a better caretaker to my indoor plants since they bring so much joy to my life.


I have been reminding myself of my PawPaw with my plants. He never met a plant that he didn't try to divide and multiply. I only do that with the easy ones, like succulents. I have my little pot full of succulent rootings by the window and check on their progress regularly. I love to see them grow!

Karlie's Princess Canopy

I'm finally getting around to sharing the Princess Canopy that I made for Karlie for Christmas. I had seen a pattern for such a thing but it was out of print and rather than spend $15 for one on ebay I just made it up and figured it out myself. I used an 18" embroidery hoop for the base. The curtains are from Ikea and I already had them on hand. I was able to machine sew them onto the hoop. The cone and zigzag at the top took some calculating. I used this tutorial to figure out the dimensions of the fabric cone. For the zigzag portion I measured the circumference of the hoop and then drew out a pattern for the zigzags. I cut two pieces and sewed them right sides together catching the tassels at each point. I love how it turned out and I hope Karlie loves it too.

The pillow is made up mostly of fabrics that I had on hand and have used for projects for her in the past. I bought short pieces of a bunch of trims and just played around with the layout until I was happy with it.
 

She was not feeling like posing for pictures and was being quite silly.

I love making things for Karlie and feel like every time I do it is the cutest thing I have ever made. This one was no exception and even Frank agreed that it was over the top cute and that the tassels added that finished touch! I'm hoping to get a little something made for her for Valentines too.

The 10K that I'm running is less than three weeks away, eek! Frank and I went to my new favorite outdoor spot in town, Sansom Park on Saturday. The weather was absolutely perfect and we hiked around for about an hour. I hadn't been for a jog in over a week because I got sick last week. I ran up hill as much as I could and hope to do that again next weekend. I just love it. The trails are really well maintained and there are ten miles of them to explore. You an hike down to Lake Worth and it is really beautiful. I'm going to get as many runs in as I can this week while the weather is so nice.