Happy Valentine's Day & Happy Birthday!

Today is a very special day.  Not only is it Valentine's Day, but it is my big sister's birthday!  Happy Birthday Heather!!  I love you and you are the best big sister a girl could ever hope for :-)  Here is some birthday bling for you!

And on the Valentine's day side of things, tonight I will be attempting to make lasagna for my special Valentine.  And tomorrow night he will be making me breakfast for dinner, complete with Cream of Wheat (I’m a southern girl at heart still)! 

This weekend we plan to go see This Means War.  Since V-day is in the middle of the week, we decided to wait till the weekend to go out to celebrate. 

On another note, this has been a very exciting week for me so far!  About a week ago, I purchased the Family Household Binder combo pack from Jen over at I Heart Organizing.  She has this crazy cool Etsy shop with all sorts of customizable printables.  It makes it so much fun to stay organized!  I just finished printing and putting together our Barker Household binder last night and I’m really excited to fill it all out.  I’m crazy I know…my husband tells me I get excited by the weirdest things…it could be worse though, right?  Getting excited about being organized isn’t a bad thing, weird maybe, but not bad.

The second great thing so far this week is that I am going to be a Co-Host for Jaime over at Crafty Scrappy Happy!  I will be one of 20 or so blogs helping her celebrate her one year Blogiversary by co-hosting a link party with her!  The link party will start tomorrow night so be sure to check back and check out her awesome blog! 

Thank you all so much for reading, and I hope you have a fantabulous (yep, I just created a word) Valentine’s Day!!

Winter Cleaning

I know it's supposed to be Spring cleaning, but I wanted a fresh start to the new year.  Hence the Winter cleaning that began this weekend.  Yes, that’s right, I said began.  The cleaning process is definitely not done.  I never really thought we had that much stuff, until we started cleaning everything out.  Holy smokes we have/had so much STUFF!  The major cleaning started with the bonus area upstairs.  We have sort of a “loft” type area upstairs that we use as our office area.  We have our desk/desktop computer, bookshelf, 2^nd tv, Wii, files, all that sort of stuff up there.  But lately (over the past month or so) that area has started accumulating all sorts of random things.  And it was really starting to bug both of us that it just looked like such a mess.  I admit that it was probably 90% my fault and my things (mostly craft supplies) that was creating the mess.  But my hubby is so wonderful and never said a word about it, just agreeing that it needed to be dealt with :) .  So this weekend was full of purging, and organizing and cleaning.  I finally got all of my Mary Kay products organized, and now I just need to label the bins and drawers.  And to give you a visual of how much stuff we actually had…my car now has 8 TRASH BAGS in the back for Goodwill, plus some other larger stuff for Goodwill that couldn’t fit in a trash bag!!!  My trunk (of an SUV) is now full of Goodwill items.  How in the world did that all fit in our house?!

Saturday morning I went for a nice long walk with Linda and the dogs.  I hadn’t seen her since before the holidays, and we had some catching up to do!  It was a really nice day out and felt good to get out and get some exercise.  Saturday afternoon was spent cleaning, and Saturday evening, my parents came over to finally do Christmas.  We got some great presents!  Thank you so much Mom and Dad!!  Also thank you to the Berger family and the King family! John also got to open some early Birthday presents.  I got him a new golf bag, and a new luggage set :)  My parents stayed for dinner, so we got to have some nice hangout time with them.

Luggage Set I got for Hubby

New Golf bag I got for Hubby :

Sunday was of course more cleaning (this is going to be an ongoing theme for a while), a trip to DSW for John to spend some gift cards (can you believe that I went to DSW and didn’t even try anything on?!  Maybe this living simply resolution is kicking in!) he ended up with two new pairs of dress shoes.  Then he went over so some friends of ours house to watch the Purdue basketball game.  Sunday night ended with a quiet night in with the puppies (one of which got a bath and a haircut this weekend), with some left over Fat’s (we went out for Hubby’s birthday on Friday night) and a movie.  We got Your Highness from Netflix.  It was……..interesting.  Not really my cup of tea.  We’ll just say that we were both glad we didn’t pay to see it in theaters.  Now, Mission Impossible 4 – which we saw in theaters on Friday night after dinner, was a great movie.  So much cool technology, and lots of intense chase scenes, which I personally like better than the shoot’em up type scenes.  We both recommend that one :)

 

I hope you all had a great weekend!  Anyone else starting the new year off with some house cleaning??

2012 Resolutions

I know it seems a tad bit late to start making New Years resolutions, but in all fairness, I had these picked out before the new year, I just didn't have time to post them!  I wanted to post my resolutions because it seems like that will be a good way to hold me accountable.  You know that feeling of - Now that you've told someone, it's real and you have to keep your word - kinda thing.

I'm not sure what the difference is about this year, but there is something that really makes it feel like a fresh start.   Maybe it's the fact that I knew my resolutions before the new year started?  Maybe it's that I'm finally settling into married life and feel much more confident about where my life is going.  Who knows!  But I do know that I'm excited to get started on my resolutions and see my progress throughout the year.

So without further ado, and to start my accountability as soon as possible, here are my 2012:

1. Make better food choices - i.e. No more cinnamon toast for dinner when hubby is away.  I really want to start making more conscious food choices.  I want to teach my body that food is fuel not comfort or reward.

2. Exercise more often - So often in the past I've thought that if I'm not about ready to keel over at the end of my workout, then I didn't do enough.  Now I'm sure that's how one would get into model-esq shape, but that's not my goal.  I'm trying to learn that doing anything is good: taking the dogs on a walk, going for a short jog, biking, playing tennis.  My goal is to get out and do something more often.  Every little bit counts :-)

3. Drink more water - Kinda goes along with the health theme here.  Water is good for your body and metabolism, it cleanses, helps your skin, and helps curb appetite.

4. Take care of my skin - Along with more water which helps your skin, one of my resolutions is to make sure I wash my face morning and night.  Sometimes I get lazy (especially on the weekends) and don't take off my make up, or just use some astringent in the morning instead of washing my face.  My new goal is to take the couple extra minutes and let that amazing Mary Kay 3-in-1 cleanser do it's magic on my skin! (Shameless plug...)

5. Live simply - This is my final resolution for 2012.  Live simply.  And by that I mean getting rid of all the clutter we have in the house.  All of the things we keep but never use.  And also, organize!  When things are organized, everything runs smoothly.  Along with the "purging" of unnecessary items, is to stop purchasing unnecessary items!  There will always be things that we want.  But are they things we need?  Probably not.  So, part of this resolution goal is to make use of what we have and only purchase what we need.  I think my SIL put it best saying that living within a budget is actually really freeing.  Instead of pondering over whether or not you should buy that new purse, or new pair of shoes.  You don't even have to think about it because you know it's not in the budget and you don't need it.   

So those are my 5 2012 resolutions.  Hopefully writing them out and posting here for all to see will help me stick to them.  I'm really excited for what this year will bring.  I know it will be lots of new adventures!  What are some of your resolutions for the new year?

Holiday Catch Up

Happy New Year everyone!  I’m sorry I have been such a bad blogger these past couple of weeks!  The hubs and I spent Christmas and New Years out in the Midwest.  We visited his family in Indiana, and also visited one of my friends in Chicago.  We didn’t bring a laptop with us, so I didn’t really have many/any opportunities to post.  I know you all have been dying to know what’s going on in my life ;-)  Well, worry no more!  I’m back with updates.  Prepare for a long post!

We left for the airport early Thursday morning the 22^nd.  HUGE thanks to Jamie over at thislittlehomeofmine for being so kind and taking us to the airport!  The flights on our way out were pretty bumpy and I nearly got sick on the second flight.  But we got into Chicago safely.  John’s parents picked us up from the airport and we headed to John’s sister’s house.  So we got there and settled in and got to visit with his parents, sister, her husband and their two kiddos.   We had a great time visiting with them and doing things with the kids.  We went to one of those indoor bounce house places, went and saw Santa, and went out to lunch. 

The Whybrew family with Santa

Christmas Eve we went to 2 different church services where Nathan (SIL’s husband) is a pastor.  The first service was the “family” service so we went for the kids.  The next service we went to because SIL, her hubby Nathan, and FIL were all playing their instruments for the choir.  Then we went back to the house and waited for Nathan to get back from the 11pm service.  Mean while I made my family’s tradition of Grasshoppers (1 part crème de mint, 1 part crème de cacao, and 1 part milk), as well as prepared my other family tradition of bubble coffee cake for Christmas morning.

Christmas morning we got up and went to church (since Christmas was on a Sunday) and then came back, ate, put the kids down for a nap while the adults opened presents, and then let the kids open presents after they woke up.  It actually worked out really nicely.  The little ones got to be the center of attention while opening their presents which was perfect J  There were some great presents to go around.  My most exciting present was the sewing machine I got from my hubby!  I haven’t gotten to see it yet, since he only brought the foot pedal and the user manual with him (obviously you can’t really travel with a sewing machine!)  But the pictures look awesome!!  You can see it here.

The day after Christmas we travelled back to John’s parents house (about an hour and a half drive).  And 7 family members from FIL’s side of the family came in from Virginia to join us.  We spent a fun few days with that crew (even though hubby was sick most of the time L  still is actually). They left on Thursday to go visit more family, and on Friday was the big family Christmas for MIL’s side of the family.  So there was about 30 people over on Friday afternoon.  Full house!  But a good time was had by all and it was nice to see everyone.

Saturday morning John and I trucked back up to Chicago to spend NYE with a couple of my friends.  New Years day my friend and I got to go into downtown Chicago and shop a bit on Michigan Ave.  It was a pretty magical site.  The street was lined with lights, there was a bit of a snow flurry falling, and people were bustling around all wrapped up in coats and hats and scarves and gloves. 

And now we are finally back home, and back to work.  John is still getting over his cold and we are trying to get back into a normal routine.  Phew!  If you read this whole thing and got this far…kudos to you!  If you skipped to the bottom…I don’t blame you J  Happy New Year!  

Here are some pics from our trip:

It snowed on the 27th :)

I started knitting a scarf for Tessa (niece)

Walking around Wrigleyville

Cubs themed Christmas Tree

Tree inside the mall on Michigan Ave - The Magnificent Mile!

Happy Hanukkah!

For those that don’t know me, I grew up in a mixed religion household.  My mother is Jewish, and my father is Presbyterian.  So my sister and I grew up celebrating both sets of holidays: Christmas and Hanukkah, Easter and Passover.  I always considered myself very lucky to have known both. 

Last night was the first night of Hanukkah.  So I got out my menorah, lit the candles, and said the prayer while John watched.  

Then we exchanged presents.  We each had gifts for the other that we wanted to give before Christmas, so we used those as our Hanukkah gifts J  I gave John a really nice wool coat from Costco, and I received the 2^nd Harry Potter book, Chamber of Secrets!!  So excited to start this during our travels!  I’m having to actively stop myself from starting to read the book at night before bed.  I’m a huge Harry Potter fan. 

Then I called my family (all down in Palm Springs) to wish them a Happy Hanukkah as well.   

I hope the holiday season is finding you all well!!

Weekend Recap

Happy Monday everyone!  Hope you all had a great weekend J  What did you do?  Finish Christmas shopping? Relax? Hang out with family?  We did a little of each.  Friday night was my company holiday party.  It was at a local hotel and it was a really nice gathering.  Food, friends, and door prizes.  Sadly we didn’t win any, but it was still fun.  Saturday I went and got a haircut.  This was the last one I’ll have from the amazing Erika L  She is packing up her shop and leaving the country for whatever amazing adventures she can find!  So brave.  So I got my last haircut in before she leaves and before the holidays.  Then I went and did some last minute Christmas shopping. 

Meanwhile, John was having  gravel delivered to our house for our back patio.  He really wanted to get that layer down in case it rains anytime soon.  Although according to the 10 day forecast…there is no such rain in our near future.  But, none the less, now if it does rain, the patio area won’t become a mud pit.  It proved to be quite the task to shovel and transport all of this gravel from the driveway to the back yard.  So about half way through, I pitched in and helped J  Have I mentioned how sore I am today?!  Wow I’m out of shape!

The pile of gravel

 

We also let the puppies have their Christmas presents a little early since we won’t be able to spend the actual Christmas day with them.  Lexi got a new bed, they both got fleece jackets, and new bones.

Lexi's new bed

Paddy's new camo jacket!

Dressing the baby girl

That night we went to dinner with my dad, and stayed at my parents house that night so that we could wake up and take my dad to the airport.  My mom already left for Palm Springs, and my dad flew down to meet her and some more of my family.  His flight was super early in the morning, so we thought it’d be easiest to just stay at their house, to save us some sleep.  Although we didn’t take into account the fact that Lexi snoring would keep us up half the night…oops!

So needless to say Sunday morning we dropped my dad off at the airport, and went back home and back to bed J  We ran some more errands on Sunday afternoon, and I was able to finish my casserole holder that I’ve been working on and off on for the past week.  You can find the tutorial here.  Although I did buttons instead of Velcro closures.  And I also did the handles more like hers.  It turned out pretty good for a first attempt at sewing something completely on my own!  It was a gift to my friend and coworker and his wife.  They love to cook J 

 Hope everyone else had a great weekend.  Let the countdown to Christmas begin!!

Friday High Fives

I thought I would take a moment to list out my top 5 favorite things from this week.  I got the idea from some blogs that I follow The Small Things Blog and From My Grey Desk (they are sisters and I love their blogs!)  And in the spirit of the trend I thought I would join in!

1. Walking my puppies at night after work and looking at all of the fun holiday light displays around the neighbor hood.  Some people are so creative!  It really gets me in the holiday mood.

2. Having Craft night with some awesome girlfriends and learning how to knit!

3. My beautiful new shoes for New Years that showed up on my doorstep this week

4. Holiday potlucks and holiday parties at work!  It's like holiday party time at school where people really only show up for the food and festivities, even though we're supposed to be working ;)

5. And last but CERTAINLY not least...my hubby finally coming home after being on travel for work!  I missed him so much!!

What have been your favorite things this week?

Dress Success!!!

It’s done, it’s done, it’s done!!! Ok, so it’s about 95% done, but still….SUCCESS!  Last night my mom brought over the Sewers Aid.  Let me tell you, that stuff works miracles!!  At least as far as sewing goes J  A drop of that magic stuff on the needle, and I was able to glide right through that sequin material with no problems!  I was able to get all of the pieces sewn together.  I sewed the seam on the arm, I sewed the hemline around the neck, and after my mom left, I sewed the bottom band of sequin material onto the bottom of the dress ALL BY MYSELF!  *Picture a little kid beaming from ear to ear*  I sewed the bottom on in two pieces, one in front, and one in back.  I even got them lined up on the first try!  Then I sewed the side seams, and now I have a complete dress!!  Can you hear my excitement as you read this with my excessive use of exclamation points!!  All I have left to do now is hem the bottom to the length I want, easy peasy. 

I am so excited and relieved that it all worked out.  And I’m really pleased with the way it looks.  It’s got a bit of a retro feel to it with the large sequin sleeve.  But I think it’s just the right amount of sparkle for New Years Eve.  And double bonus…my shoes came yesterday as well!  They match perfectly with the style of the dress J  All in all, a very good and satisfying day.  Here are some pictures I took of the last bit of progress:

This is the dress inside out after I finished the neckline hem

The shiny part is what the material actually looks like

Me...sewing away!

The whole dress - not hemmed obviously

The seams that I managed to line up!

And the perfect shoes to complete the look!

I want to give a VERY special thanks to my most amazing Mom!  This project would not have been completed without her and her willingness to spend so much time helping me out.  Love you Mom!!  And thank you to our friend Rachael for lending us her sewing machine as well! 

I do see a lot more sewing in my future J

Dress Update

Just a quick update on the dress progress.  I picked up the dress and the new sewing machine from my mom yesterday.  Last night when I got home, I was very excited to start working on the project again to see some progress!  Well I sewed up one seam (which was just the black material) and that worked great.  So, now I have a dress that is attached at the top, and on one side.  The side with the sleeve is still open (I’ll take some pictures tonight).  Then I pinned up the other side and sat down to sew.  Well, I got about 2-3 inches of the sleeve sewn together (the sequin-y material) and things started to go wrong again.  Ugh!  Really?! Come on, I’m trying to be frugal here!  The universe is just not with me on this one apparently!

Ok, so I gave up for the night, not wanting to completely resent sewing forever because of this dress.  Then I went online to try to see if anyone else in the online world had an issue with this fabric.  I searched and searched and didn’t really find anything that helped.  Then I had a light bulb moment.  I went on to the Joann website and found that fabric.  Luckily about 14 other people had left comments on their experience using this fabric!  Woohoo!!  Finally J

After reading the reviews and realizing that (thankfully) I’m not a sewing reject, the one common theme with all of these reviews was to use something called Sewers Aid.  It’s basically a silicon based oil that you can put on the needle, the thread, the foot of the machine…just about anywhere.  It helps keep the needle slick so that the glue (used to glue on the sequins to the material) does not gum up on the needle.   My mom (have I mentioned how amazing she is??) picked some up at Joann’s today and is coming over tonight to help me one last time.  I’m crossing my fingers that this is the miracle product to help solve my crisis!  Hah, I’m so dramatic J  Please cross your fingers for me!!  More updates to come…hopefully happy ones!

2 Post Weekend - Motorcycles and Jackhammers!

I know the title of this post seems super macho and manly.  And,...well...that's because this post sorta is too.  This Part 2 of my weekend post.  First let me premise by saying that Thursday night, John's good friend (and mine too!) Rob flew up from LA for the weekend.  Remember Rob from that Pismo camping post?  :)  We love Rob.  So, the plan for the boys over the weekend was DEMOLITION!!!  Enter: Jackhammer.  The boys spent the weekend totally demolishing our back patio.   It was 3 large slabs of concrete that they broke up with the jackhammer and hauled off to a local place that actually accepts concrete for recycling.

The before pictures

The after pictures

After all of the demo was done, both guys said something along the lines of "it was cool, and now I can say I've used a jackhammer...but I'm glad it's done!"  So, now we have a big empty spot where our patio is supposed to be.  Hopefully the pavers will get put in very soon after the new year so we can have a patio again :)  

The other even that went on Saturday was the annual motorcycle Toy Run that I do with my dad.  It's this huge even that bikers from all over the area come to participate in.  All of these bikers meet at a community center, and from there they all participate in a parade through this little town.  The bikes are decorated for the holidays, bikers dress up as Santa, or elves, and such.  And each person brings either toys, or food to donate to local kids in need during the holiday.  After the parade, all the bikers make their way to a fair ground where they can drop off their toys and food.  It is pretty incredible how many people participate in this event every year.  It's great to see so many people so eager to give back and help those less fortunate.  I will post pictures of this event soon, once I get them off of my dad's camera. 'Tis the season for giving!

2 Post Weekend - Dress Disaster?

This weekend I decided to work on my New Years dress some more.  My goal was to get as much of it done as possible on Friday so that on Sunday when I saw my mom again, we would nearly be able to finish it up!  Well.....that didn't quite go as planned.  

I came home Friday from work and got right to it.  We had already cut out the sleeve and bottom band pattern out of the sequin-y material. 

So, I sat down, pinned the sleeve to the rest of the dress making sure the right side of the black was up against the right side of the sequin-y stuff (to make sure the seam would be invisible when it was turned right side in), and started to sew the sleeve to the dress.  (I had already sewn the top shoulders together).

My excitement and determination slowly started to deteriorate.  For whatever reason, the thread was just not catching on the other side of the material.  My stitches were not working!  The black and sequin-y material were not playing nice.  My frustration was growing fairly rapidly with each attempt.  I must have called my mom 5 times in about a 10 minute window.  (Sorry Mom!)  And of course, to make matters worse, every time I tried to stitch two pieces of scrap together the same way, it worked perfectly!  But as soon as I got to the sleeve....no dice. UGH!!  

After about an hour I gave up.  Saturday morning I went and dropped off the material and the sewing machine to my mom so that she could try while I was out for the day.  Unfortunately she had no luck either!  Which means 1) It wasn't just me being a doofus - phew!  and 2) uh oh....

Sunday night a dear friend of the family dropped her sewing machine off at my parents house (which is newer than my mom's) and my mom attempted with that as well.  And guess what........SUCCESS!!  My mom was able to get the sleeve sewn on!  Woohoo!!  So today I'm off to go pick up the rest of the material and the newer sewing machine to see if I can continue on my own.  I will finish this dress if it kills me!!  :-D

Check back soon for more updates (which are hopefully progress!)

Sewing Lesson - Part 1

I finally started my New Years dress!  The beginning of the process has been slightly more complicated than I expected (enter Mother – whew!).  I apologize for the crappy pictures ahead of time...I'm attempting to be patient while saving up for a nice camera!  So, first things first.  I laid out the pattern on my dining room table (since I printed out my pattern, I had to trim the margins off of each page to make sure they lined up the way they were supposed to). 

Once we had the pattern laid out, we taped the pages together.  Make sure to tape within the pattern if you are doing it this way because once you cut away the excess paper, you want the pages to still stay together!  Then came time to lay the pattern out on the material.  Now here’s where it got tricky before I even realized it!  There are markings on the pattern that should say “Grain Line”.  It should be an arrow on the pattern that looks like this:

See that big arrow going diagonally?  That’s what you have to line up with the edge of your material.  So this line on the pattern, needs to be perpendicular to the edge of your material (the edge with the little dots on it, not the edge that the ladies at Joann cut for you).  I used a piece of string to measure the top of the arrow to the edge and the bottom of the arrow to the edge. The reason for this is to make sure that the fabric is sewn together in the right direction.  Since mine is stretchy, it needs to stretch in a certain direction.(** If you have a fabric like velvet or something of that nature, check the directions that deal with the “nap”.**)   See the picture below if you’re confused. 

Once you have your pattern lined up on the material with the grain and all that (your pattern should have instructions on where to place each piece of the pattern on your fabric to make sure they all fit), then you pin it down to the material.  Make sure to pin all the way around. 

Finally, find the dotted line around the edge of the pattern that corresponds to the size you are making and cut. (**If you need to lengthen or shorten the pattern, there should be a line on the pattern indicating where to do that.  Follow the instructions that come with the pattern on how to lengthen/shorten.**) - you can see the 4, 6, 8, 10 indicators in the picture above.  Cut the pattern and the fabric right on that line meant for your size.   While you are cutting, when you get to a little mark that looks like this :

That’s when you need to make a little outward notch in the fabric - can you see my little black notch?  This is what you will use when you are trying to put the front and back pieces together and line them up.  Once you are done cutting, it should look something like this:

And don’t worry, cutting on your size line already has a 5/8” seam allowance built in.  This is as far as I’ve gotten right now.  My mom is coming over again tonight to continue the learning process!  Tonight I’ll be cutting out the band of shiny material for the bottom, as well as the sleeve of the dress, and hopefully pinning some  material together to start sewing!  Wish me luck!  And check back tomorrow for more progress.  

Happy Monday - Ambitious Project!

Hi everyone!  Hope you all had a fantastic weekend :-)  I had a fairly productive weekend.  Last week I decided that since A) I want to learn how to sew better, and B) the dress I was looking at buying for New Years Eve was $80 before tax and shipping...A+B = Sew my own dress for cheaper!  I know its super ambitious, but you gotta start somewhere right?  And what better motivation than my very own New Years party dress?!  So I found the pattern online that I wanted to make.  $6!!  Score!!

On Sunday I persuaded my mom to go to Joann's with me to get some fabric and whatever else I may need.  Since I'm such a novice, I knew I would need lots of help picking things out.  I decided to go with black as the body of the dress, with a sparkly silver sequin material as a band at the bottom, and as the sleeve.  So my dress with be *hopefully* similar to the black and white one in the photo, except with the sleeve length of the pink one.  Does that make sense?  It will once you see the finished product.  Well...at least I hope its recognizable as a dress!  We shall see.



Over the next couple of weeks, (since that's about all I have) I will be documenting my progress on this project on here.  So, check back for my trials and tribulations :-)

Happy Monday everyone!