Busy Busy

One week until Thanksgiving! Are you ready? Are you cooking the whole dinner or bringing a side dish to someone's house? Traveling out of state? Side note on the word "traveling": I am incapable of spelling it correctly the first time. I always add an extra L.

I went out grocery shopping last week and got everything I could for Thanksgiving dinner. I have a few things to pick up and I'm debating when I should go to the grocery store between now and Wednesday without A) losing my mind and B) harming myself or others out of my complete lack of patience. (See last post on Black Friday to understand better where I'm coming from :)).

This week has been busy for me--I have a huge event coming up Sunday that I've been working on organizing for the last couple of months and I had a big project due this week. It's been eating up most of my "free" time and causing me to rely on Sesame Street more than I would like to during Charlotte's wakeful hours. Thankfully it will all be over in 3 days and I can get some sanity back. Oh, and clean my house again. And work on holiday projects that I'd like to get done before the holidays are over. And cook something for dinner besides grilled cheese. And play Frisbee with Howard again, go outside for longer than it takes to get the mail, and not have to haul my toddler around to run work-related errands while she comes perilously close to completely losing her marbles in public.

Here's a brief look into my week so far, taken from my iPhone since my camera has been neglected for awhile now:

Charlotte hanging out with my brother:

The first snow!!

Fun with swings:

Three deer in my yard:

And that's all she wrote for today.

~Stacy

I Don't Bust Doors

Black Friday. It's less than two weeks away and all the political ads have been replaced with Black Friday ads. Stores are opening in the middle of the night (because really, 3AM cannot be considered "morning" yet) and many stores are now opening Thanksgiving night. This, my friends, is madness.

Now, my relationship with Black Friday is kind of weird. Even though I hate everything about the idea of going out shopping on that day (and any day after it up until Christmas), I still look forward to it. I get a newspaper the day before that weighs more than a box of phonebooks, bursting with ads. I love me some Black Friday ads, even the ones for stores I don't shop normally shop at. Maybe Black Friday signals the official start of the Christmas season. After all, that is the weekend we usually decorate and hang lights. But even though I devour the ads, I don't go to any of the stores. I refuse. I cannot bring myself to care about buying anything enough to get up while it's still dark outside, drive to a mall or store, deal with unruly crowds of people, wait in ridiculously long lines, and tolerate parking lots and traffic on Black Friday. 

One reason I feel so strongly about this stems from the Black Friday of 2007. Chad and I had Thanksgiving dinner at my parents house and, while were there, combed through all the ads. We found some spectacular deals on things Chad wanted and some gift ideas for a few people. We decided we'd get up early the next morning and head out. It'll be an adventure! we thought. We'll get everything on our list and then have a nice relaxing breakfast after! Fools. Five years later and I'm still shaking my head.

We woke up the next morning at 4:00--the first store we wanted to go to opened at 5AM and we knew there'd be limited quantities of the things on our list since it's one of those places that normally stocks closeout deals. I'll withhold the real name of the store, but for the sake of the story we'll call it Jolly's. At Jolly's we were looking for a few Nintendo Wii games, a cordless electric razor, and something else that I can't even remember now. We drove there, bleary-eyed and caffeine-deprived, and arrived in the dark. We had Henry at the time and he was glaring at us from the back seat, disgusted at the whole situation. It took a lot to disgust Henry. He willingly ate frogs for Heaven's sake. 

Once inside I was shocked at the amount of people there. I worked my way through the crowd to the video game section. Nothing. I asked a clerk if they'd sold out. "Yeah, we only had 4 in stock so we sold out right away," he replied. "Four different titles?" I asked. "No. Four total," he said. ...Crickets... I went in search of Chad, after playing a rousing game of Marco Polo to find him. He was looking at the razors with a puzzled look on his face. "Is that the one you're looking for?" I asked. He said it was, but there was a problem. Apparently there was a misprint in the ad, because the box of the razor clearly declared "Corded razor", not "cordless." Just a few letters makes all the difference when you're trying to buy a safe electric razor for your blind grandfather to use. Strike two.

We wandered over to the tools/automotive section, figuring we'd get some things for my dad or at least a few stocking stuffers. A few seconds later Chad was stopped by a woman who either thought A) he worked there or B) he was nice (one of those is accurate) and proceeded to ask him about flashlight technology and recommendations for the next 20 minutes. When finished, we left as fast as we could. You'd think we would have thrown in the towel and headed home, but no, we soldiered on. Off to Target we went!

I love Target. I shop there quite a lot. I should never shop there on Black Friday. When we first walked in the store, it didn't seem too bad. The total lack of available shopping carts should have been a clue that trouble was lurking, but we ignored that small but important sign. We walked back to the Christmas light section and picked up a few boxes at 60% off. Woo hoo! The line was long--it extended all the way down to the makeup aisles. But all the registers were open so I figured it wouldn't be too bad, right? I got in line, only to have a crabby old bat a lovely older shopper grab my arm and point to her cart saying she'd been waiting in line over an hour and the back of line was back there, where she pointed to the back of the store. Yep, the line actually wrapped around the aisles and ended up back in the toy department. Not only did this mean that, unless I was purchasing an end to world hunger, there would be NO way I was standing in a line that long, but it also meant that a significant portion of that line would be spent in the toy department on Black Friday--aka A Special Circle of Hell.

I think Chad could tell that I was about 4.5 seconds away from ending up on the news, and no, not for my heroic acts of kindness. He gently removed the Christmas light boxes from my hands, placed them on a shelf, and we calmly left the store, drove home, carried our weary looking dog upstairs, and went back to bed until 10AM, vowing to never ever ever again ever go out shopping on Black Friday. Ever.

I still appreciate a good deal, but now I enjoy my Black Friday shopping (and really most of my holiday shopping) from the comfort of my couch, wearing pajamas, while I sip coffee and eat Thanksgiving leftovers and lounge by the fire. The only waiting I have to do is for a web page to load, or to update my virtual cart. I click my way through my holiday shopping and let UPS or FedEx handle the traffic. The only work I have to do is open the boxes that arrive on my doorstep and wrap them. I'll take it.

Howard's got the right idea.

Have a fabulous week.

~Stacy

Botanical Gardens in the Fall (and an Intro to Instagram)

I just started using Instagram yesterday and am liking it so far. While the vintage-y photo look isn't what I normally do with my photo editing, it's a great effect for some pictures and I'm having fun playing around with it:

You can follow me on Instagram by clicking here!

Aside from playing around on Instagram, we went to the Cleveland Botanical Gardens today. It was fun to go again, especially since we've never been there in the fall. We ate lunch there, and it's worth going just to eat there. Seriously, the food is amazing. After eating we walked around in the outdoor gardens for awhile and enjoyed the 65 degree weather and sunshine.

Thank You, November, for giving us a warm and beautiful day :) 

Have a wonderful weekend.

~Stacy

And So It Goes...

Fall is very much still here, but the change into winter has become more apparent the past couple days. The leaves that were vibrant reds and oranges just a few weeks ago and now mostly on the ground, leaving behind bare branches and cold looking trees. The days are getting chillier and the nights are almost always in the 30s. The heat is always on--the option of leaving it off hasn't been a real one in weeks. And there is just a change in the air. Kind of how August nights start to feel different somehow, how you know the summer is coming to a close and fall is making its way in. Now the air is colder, crisper, drier--winter air. Brrr.

Charlotte and I went to the park today to try and soak up as much time there as we can before winter shuts us out for awhile. Even if you ignore everything else, you can tell there's a change just by looking at the lake. The water just looks cold.

Take advantage of days like this! Happy Fall.

~Stacy

Thanksgiving Table Decor

Thanksgiving is two weeks away! I mentioned in my last post that Chad and I are hosting this year, which I'm excited about. I've been working on my grocery list and thinking of ways to dress up my table. Normally our table is dressed up with fingerprints, crumbs, random pieces of mail and at least two or three sewing projects. Aside from cleaning it up, clearing it off, and polishing it to a beautiful shine I'm not sure what to do.

I like simple designs and preferably ones that use natural elements or things I already have. And a tablecloth is preferable, but not a must. Ideas for holiday table arrangements can be found everywhere, but the hard part is finding a design that A) I like and B) is doable (read: very inexpensive or free) and C) isn't atrocious. Some are waaaay overboard for my taste, with dozens of candles, vases, flowers, gourds and other stuff that looks cluttered and leaves hardly any space for food or elbows. And some go a bit overboard in the creativity department--for example: I saw an idea for a Christmas table that used an old wooden toboggan as a large buffet. Cute idea for say, a magazine photo spread, but not necessarily a practical choice for the average hostess.

Here are a few ideas I've found that might work:

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I love this one, but I'd have to get my hands on some sort of wooden box structure that is rustic looking and not too big. Definitely a contender:

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I'm ignoring the super ornate background decor in this photo and just focusing on the centerpiece. I have vases and I have a toddler who will happily collect sticks for me. This could be the winner :)

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This one looks more wintery than the others, but I really like the cream colored candles and pinecones:

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Simple and cute, but would require buying flowers:

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This one is very pretty and wouldn't take up much space--bonus!

Image source and also here

I'm still not sure what I'll end up doing, but it'll likely be a combination of some of these ideas. And let's face it, all anyone really cares about is the food and the pie. Pie is non-negotiable. Specifically, pumpkin pie.

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Mmmm.

~Stacy

Once a Dress, Now a Skirt: Holiday Edition

Chances are if you've gone online, turned on the TV or radio, seen a newspaper or overheard anyone talking today you have heard little more than election coverage. You will find absolutely no election coverage here, so sit back, relax, and enjoy this post :)

I know it's a little early to be talking about Christmas, but I've been thinking about what to dress Charlotte in for the holidays. All the cute, fancy Christmasy dresses in the stores are adorable but I've been struggling with the idea of shelling out money for something she will only wear for one day (and most likely only part of one day). Yeah, yeah, I could dress her in a cute pair of pants and a sweet little top but let's be honest: part of the fun of having a baby girl is dressing her up for special events. Last year's dresses are obviously way too small and the least expensive store bought option that I liked was $34 on sale! If only her dress from last year fit. I loved that dress, I thought. Hmm...

This is the dress she wore last year for her Christmas photos:

This dress holds a special place in my heart, and not just because she wore it for her first Christmas. On December 23rd, 2010, Chad and I went to my 18 week ultrasound appointment and found out that we were having a girl. Immediately after we went to lunch and stopped at Carter's (a baby/kid's clothing store, for those of you who don't know) and bought the first thing we ever bought for our baby--this dress. We had held out on buying anything up to that point, which took a lot of self control. I had gone into this store many times before buying gifts for friends' babies and always hoping that the next time I walked through the doors would be my turn. When it finally was, I was overwhelmed by the choices of baby girl clothes all packed in to one fairly small store. I walked around in a daze for awhile until I spotted this sweet dress and snatched it up in a size that I hoped would fit when the time came. It did, thankfully, and when last Christmas was over I packed it up in a box in the attic, unable to even think about giving it away.

Today I remembered that it was up there and started wondering if I could repurpose it into something for her to wear this year. The thought made me nervous, because I could easily make one wrong cut and ruin it completely. But by now I've made enough skirts out of outgrown dresses to feel pretty confident in my ability to not mess it up. So out came the dress and the scissors.

I bit my lip as I cut into the dress, worried that I would rip it or measure something wrong or otherwise reduce it to a pretty pile of garbage.

I carefully removed the flower adornment to use later when I make a matching headband!

I cut according to the finished length of the skirt plus 1":

Then sewed the raw edge with a zig zag stitch to prevent fraying.

Made the casing for the elastic waistband and inserted the elastic and stitched closed.

And done! I'm thinking of adding some kind of detail to it, like a flower or some kind of trim on the bottom. But for now, here it is:

And the whole outfit (minus tights):

I'm so happy to have found a way to reuse this special little dress but I'm also thrilled that it didn't cost a dime! I'll take it, she'll look adorable and festive, everybody wins.

Try to keep your sanity during the rest of this Election Day, and let's all rejoice that no matter what the outcome, it will be a relief to live without political ads for awhile.

~Stacy

Halloween: That's a Wrap

Even though it's almost a week into November already, Halloween has just officially ended. Thanks to Hurricane Sandy, pretty much all of Northeast Ohio rescheduled trick-or-treating for Sunday the 4th. Halloween came and went without anyone taking much notice, in light of everything else going on last week, and it was a little challenging to get into the Halloween spirit last night but we did our best!

Charlotte went as a prairie girl (or, as many people commented when they saw her--a little Pilgrim). My mom made her costume and it was adorable. It also was roomy enough that she could wear two layers of fleece pajamas underneath instead of needing a bulky coat covering her whole outfit! It was in the low 40s, and due to the time change, pitch black by 6PM. Brrr.

Chad and I walked her to about 7 houses before she tired out and it was time for bed. She got the hang of it after 2 or 3 stops, but at first looked at us like we were crazy to walk up a bunch of driveways and get candy from people. Hopefully she'll forget and she won't be trotting up driveways expecting a Kit-Kat bar on tomorrow's walk.

I'm not thrilled with the quality of these pictures, but dark + wiggly baby = not so great photos. Oh well, enjoy!

It's weird to think that we just went trick-or-treating but Thanksgiving is in two and a half weeks! How did that happen?!? Speaking of which, I'd better start thinking about that since we're hosting it this year--only the second time I've ever cooked Thanksgiving dinner! But that's the best part about about hosting: everyone brings a dish and it leaves hardly anything for me to cook. I'll take it :)

~Stacy