Ta da!

Here it is, the finished Jedi robe.

30 while 30 - The Sewing Project

One of the tasks on my 30 by 30 list was to sew something. I purposely left it vague and open-ended, knowing my own history of crafty disasters. There was the time I tried to sew cow-print pajama pants, the time I tried to sew the holes on my jeans, the time I tried to hem my own pants, the time I tried to sew the hems on the curtains... I could go on. Stitch-witchery (the white tape that you use to iron-bond things together) is my best friend.

Growing up, my mom was the queen of craft. You name it, she could do it. She really shined on Halloween. While everyone else went to Bradlee's (like kmart, today) to get their cheap-o plastic Halloween costumes, my mom would go all out and create real works of art. She made costumes out of boxes and scraps and paint and glue and paper mache. I think the two best were my brother as an astronaut and my brother as the Empire State Building. I need to try to dig up some pictures. I wasn't as creative in the costume idea department - I went as a witch, a cat, a ballerina, a cheerleader. How boring. I think the worst one was the year I insisted as going as St. Lucia.

What, you don't know who St. Lucia is? Don't feel bad, neither did the rest of my 5th grade class. Or the people who answered their doors while we trick-or-treated.

Does this jog your memory?



I must have said "Swedish Patron Saint of Light" a million times. I should have just gone as a princess.

Anyway.

So now I have a kid of my own, so of course I'm continuing the tradition of handmade costumes, right? Sort of. Yes, they're handmade (with the exception of Brobee last year, because a friend offered to let Charlie borrow it), but my mom is still the one doing the making. Well, this year I decided that I was going to do it myself. Charlie wants to be a Jedi for Halloween. How hard could a brown robe be?

I searched the all-knowing Google for a pattern and found an Easy Jedi Robe, spent an hour at the fabric store trying to figure out the difference between cotton and broadcloth, measured, cut, and pinned, and bribed my neighbor with pumpkin chocolate chip cookies to bring over her sewing machine.

We were going for the Obi-Wan look.



I think we came pretty close. Maybe add a belt around the middle, and we're good to go.

It's the End of the World as We Know It

After this weekend, I think I can say that Charlie has officially given up on naps. Ugh, it pains me just to type that out! That glorious 90 minute period that I have come to expect between 1:00 and 2:30 every Saturday and Sunday is gone.

That means, on productive days, there will be no more afternoon workouts. On unproductive days (which seem to be the norm, lately), that means no more relaxing time on the couch with a book without pictures, no more naps of my own, no more catching up on junk TV on rainy afternoons.

And then I feel like a horrible parent for even thinking about mourning the loss of naptime. I should be overjoyed that we get to spend another hour together. Don't get me wrong, I love Charlie, and love spending time with him, but by the time lunch rolls around and we've played Star Wars action figures and cooked pretend grilled cheeses in the kitchen and built the same lego house over and over again and walked to the park and back... well, I'm tired. Shouldn't he be, too??

Perfect timing, too, because we had our 3-year well-check at the pedi's office last week. I blame her, because she asked the question. "Is he still napping?" Then I blame myself, because I smiled happily and said "Oh, yes! 90 minutes every day!" And then I'm back to blaming her for telling us that we should expect those to come to an end.

Now I'm WTF-ing her, too, because she also said that when the naps go away, we still need to encourage him to have at least an hour of quiet time. Quiet time? 3-year-old? Those two phrases don't really belong in the same sentence.

Of course, I took the question to Facebook. All moms commiserated with me on the loss of naptime. Some offered "Quiet Time" advice. It ranged from books and quiet toys to making them lie down anyway to (my personal favorite) Blackberry Whiskey (is that for him? or for me?).

Looks like we'll be hitting up Target this week for a quiet toy and an egg timer. I also found a super cute pattern for a Jedi Quiet Book online. I may have to get it, it can be my second crafty sewing project.

What, I didn't tell you about the first? That's coming soon :)

Ummmm, oops.

I think we may have figured out why Charlie may have recently developed a fear of lightning...



I don't know why we failed to connect the dots, earlier.

Mom fail, of epic proportions.

Recipe: Chocolate Cupcakes with Ganache Frosting

I love chocolate. I love cupcakes. I LOVE chocolate cupcakes. Naturally, Charlie does, too, so that's what I decided to make him for his birthday. Not just any cupcakes, though - these were going to be Star Wars cupcakes, thanks to the super cool cupcake stencils that recently showed up on the shelf at Williams-Sonoma.



I needed a relatively simple recipe, since I had to make them on a Tuesday night and decorate them on a Wednesday night so that Charlie could bring them to school on Thursday. I consulted my favorite baking blog, Beantown Baker, and found these Chocolate Chocolate Cupcakes. And then I read the recipe wrong, and realized that I didn't have all of the ingredients, after all, so I went back to the basics, and used this Perfectly Chocolate Cake recipe from Hershey. I still used Beantown's Ganache recipe (at the bottom of the cupcake link), because it was exactly what I was looking for - spreadable, but hard-drying. Perfect for cupcake stencils. And perfect for having lots of tasty chocolate ganache left over. That's what spoons are for!

I made the cupcakes one night, frosted them the next, and let them sit in the fridge until the ganache had set and hardened. The stencils were super easy - put one on top of the cupcake and then dust powdered sugar on top. I was pretty happy with the final product. Charlie was, too :)





Unfortunately, the ganache started to melt again and the sugar became runny once they had been outside, but that was my fault because it was 90 degrees out and I should have kept them in a cooler. Lesson learned!

I Have a THREE Year Old

Charlie turned 3 on Saturday. THREE! Can you believe it? I really can't. Three years since I spent 12 hours howling in pain, puking in the elevator, and screaming for the epidural. I didn't make a very good pregnant lady.

I know that very little growing happened between bedtime August 7th and morning on August 8th, but all that I can think when I look at him now is "Little boy!"

I think he had a pretty great birthday. It started out with a free donut from the ladies at Dunkin, who fawned all over him and told him that they could remember back before he was even born.



We did some riding on his new bike, a birthday present from Grandpa Buddy...



...We sang with the birthday turtle...



... We did some swimming with his friends for a mini birthday party...





...And ate some super cool Star Wars cupcakes...






... All that, and it's not even over yet! We're heading off to Jersey later this week for a triple birthday extravaganza, including celebrations for Charlie's big 3, my bigger 3-0, and the BIG 5-0 for my Aunt Jeanne. Can't freaking wait!

The Fragments

FF is brought to you by Mrs4444!





Overheard in the office (while Lady 1 is taking a picture of Lady 2): "Ok, smile! Now, don't look like a dinosaur, stand up straight."

WTF?



Do you like "People of Wal-Mart?" Then you'll love Transit Peeps. Don't get me wrong, I love public transportation. I'd live in DC for the Metro, alone. Even with this gigantor escalator.





Charlie is BIG into Star Wars. He's also big into asking random questions about characters that don't really exist - like "What did Chewbacca have for breakfast?" and "Where's Obi Onobi's house?" I usually just make stuff up, but I was too busy dying laughing at the irony of his latest question on the way home from school - "Where's Luke Skywalker's daddy?" Poor kid has a lot to learn.



Speaking of Star Wars, I came across the Depressed Darth blog a few weeks ago. Depressed Darth shares his thoughts on "life, love and how to get rich quick. Plus general dark side news from across the galaxy…" Also, his thoughts on Obi-Wan marketing the smartphone that isn't a Droid.



In keeping with the Star Wars theme, I'll share this awesome cover from February's New York Post.



Who else is BEYOND excited that football is back?! Yes, I'm a baseball fan first and foremost, but I also love football. New York Jets football! Go Green!




NFL pre-season just wouldn't be NFL pre-season without Brett Effing Favrerererere taking up more space in the headlines (space? get it? theme week? hahaha). Come ON! You're seriously thinking about coming back? Just sit down and shut up.



NFL pre-season means that the hot, hot days of summer (seriously, we're on 14+ days straight in the 90s) are coming to an end. We've stepped up our time at the pool so that we can suck every last ounce of enjoyment out of it. Did you have a pool when you were little? We were lucky, because both sets of grandparents did. That didn't stop us from begging for a slip-and-slide with a splash pool at the end. It turned out to be a big disappointment. I'm Remembering has put together a compilation of "Expectations vs. Reality" in honor of fancy kiddie pools and disappointed children everywhere.



I have a haircut appointment at lunch today, a few months overdue. I haven't actually blow-dried my hair in over a month, it's just too long and overgrown. I'm also in desperate need of highlights, but I can't find three hours in any day to go and sit at a salon. Woe is me.



50 days until Air Force Marathon! Can't wait to have one of these shiny hunks of metal around my neck.

Weekly Fitness Feature - Oh, The Places You'll Go!

My husband has a different fitness philosophy than I do. He couldn't care less about working out in order to look good - he says that's not what it's all about. He's probably right, but I'm (wo)man enough to admit that looking decent in what I'm wearing makes up about 30 50% of my health and fitness goals. His main concern is all about what he's able to actually DO.



He wants to be able to just pick up whenever he wants and go hiking in the mountains, or rafting down a river, or biking down a mountain. All of which we did last week. (Wow, was it really only last week?!) He also likes to mop the floor with the younger guys on the paintball field. I think that probably accounts for a good 75% of his motivation - not looking like the "old man" around the college-age kids out there.

After our big vacation, I'm starting to see his point. Everything that we were able to do and enjoy would have been made more difficult, if not impossible, had we not been exercising regularly. The hiking took some serious stamina and cardiovascular fitness. Even though we weren't exactly sprinting through the woods, the constant pushing onward and upward and the higher elevations were tiring on the lungs and heart. The running I've done was definitely helpful, since my legs were already conditioned for keeping me moving for hours at a time.

The rafting trip required a surprising amount of physical exertion. I was really shocked at how sore my core muscles were after the morning trip down the river, but I guess it makes sense when you think about needing to keep your abdominal and back muscles engaged nearly 100% of the time just to remain upright in the boat. Add in the bending and leaning for the paddle strokes, and you've got yourself an ab workout that would even make Tony Horton (P90X creator and exercise guru) proud. Each paddle was a crunch.

Even when we weren't actively seeking adventure and excitement (Wow, I can't even type that without thinking to myself "Adventure? Excitement? A Jedi craves not these things."), we were constantly on the move. We covered miles every evening, walking through Vail and Lionsgate. Sure, maybe some of those miles were treks to the gelato shop or to the bar, but hey, after days full of activity, we deserved it. All the more reason to indulge in a variety of local beers and handmade sweets - carbohydrates for recovery :)

The whole time, I just thought about how lucky we were that we were able to take a mini vacation at all, but, moreso, how lucky we were that we were actually able to enjoy it in the form of some amazing physical activities. Had we been out of shape, I'm sure the trip wouldn't have been nearly as fantastic.

How else would I have been able to take in such magnificent views?



Well, I guess I could have just rode hopped in the gondola, but that wouldn't have been as rewarding, now, would it?

The Joy of Reading

So, everyone and their mother has been blogging about the Hunger Games series lately, which is funny, because the trilogy has already been written and movies are already being cast. I guess there's just a large group of us who are way behind the times.



Rarely do books and movies live up to their hype, but the first two books have been the best books I've read since Harry Potter. Best to the point where I started Catching Fire (book 2) at 8:30 on Wednesday night and stayed up until 2:00 the next morning because I just couldn't put it down. I haven't had a reading marathon like that since Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows! Back in the day, reading like that was a regular occurrence. I loved nothing more than sitting up late at night, lost in a good storyline.

I'm number 13 on the holds list for Mockingjay (book 3) in the local library system. I pitied myself on Facebook and was inundated with offers to lend me copies of the book, but I think I'd actually prefer to wait for it - it gives me something to look forward to. Drags the experience out a little more.

I'm always mindful of the fact that my mother did an excellent job instilling the love of reading in all three of her kids, and I hope to do the same for Charlie. I can't wait to share some of my all-time favorite books with him - Tales of a Fourth-Grade Nothing, Harry Potter, Henry Huggins, Goosebumps - all the classics! Right now he's very much into his Star Wars sound book, which is really meant for grown-ups. Go, Dogs, Go! and Where the Wild Things Are still make regular appearances at bedtime readings.

Although, Go, Dogs, Go! is making me feel a bit stabby, lately. It might have to "disappear" for a week or so ;)

Friday Fragments - Shoutout to my Peeps!

Happy Just OK Friday! (how's that for some cheesy secular humor?)

Friday Fragments is brought to you by Mrs4444!



While my mind is too focused on marathon running to post about anything serious or relevant (and I've got a ton of stuff on my "list of things I want to blog about," I just can't be disciplined enough to get it together), I'm going to enjoy a mindless Friday morning and frag about Peeps. Yes, Peeps. That (supposedly) marvelous marshmallowy delight that used to come around only once a year during the Easter season but has suddenly morphed into a year-round culinary option.



I think I'm probably the only person in the world who doesn't like Peeps. I've just never been a big fan. Partly, I'm sure, because they're shaped like animals. I don't eat things shaped like animals. That doesn't mean that I don't enjoy them from a pop-culture phenomenon perspective, though!

I also love to use the word "Peeps" to refer to my homies, mostly just because I'm really too old to be throwing around terms like that and I like to make my teenage cousin roll her eyes at me.



Let's start at the beginning. Did you know that Peeps have been around since the 1950s? True story. They used to be individually hand-shaped, but the process was automated once the Just Born candy company took over. Ever wonder how Peeps are actually made? The Chicago Tribune put together a neat slide-show that takes you through the process step-by-step.


That's a lot of peeps! (Getty Images)

If you're feeling adventurous, try making your own. My friend over at Beantown Baker did it, so you can, too. Or don't, just click over to admire her awesome Peepiness.

Peep Show!


What would happen if you used these little marshmallow creatures to re-create Star Wars, Episode IV? Apparently this was a burning question for some, because now you can find out.




Perhaps the most classic of fun Peeps sites, Peep Research documents a variety of experiments designed to test the resilience of our marshmallow friends. (Caution, graphic images may not be suitable for children who worry about the well-being of the chicks)


While we usually think of Peeps as pleasant little colorful peace-loving beings, there are counter-cultures within the Peep society that enjoy a good jousting tournament every now and then. Only the strong survive.




Think Peeps are only good as Marshmallow treats? Serious Eats begs to differ. They have an entire collection of Peep recipes, including Peepshi, Peepza, and Deep Fried Peeps - because everything is better fried.


And, of course, for the most irreverent among us, The Passion of the Peeps. (Only including a link to this one so as not to inadvertently offend anyone.)

Happy wonderful glorious FRIDAY! Marathon is a week away. Excuse me while I die of anxiety.

Best Superbowl Commercial Ever

Maybe it's just because I have a little boy of my own who is obsessed with all things Star Wars (especially Darth Vader), but watching this one made me feel a little teary.

Friday Fragments

Friday Fragments is brought to you by Mrs4444!

My friend Lynn found a dancing Brobee at a thrift store and gave it to Charlie. It's his new favorite friend. He went from having absolutely zero interest in any TV to being completely enthralled with Yo Gabba Gabba! I love that show. It's not that I'm encouraging my kid to watch TV, just that having something to distract him with for 15 minutes while we make dinner is a helpful thing. That and we had a great time dancing along with Elijah Wood in the living room.

Tried a new Ben & Jerry's flavor: Boston Cream Pie. It was just ok. I've been kind of disappointed with the recent flavor rollouts, with the exception of Mud Pie. Full review to come soon.

I laugh every time I hear or see an advertisement for the cheesy movie of the summer: Piranha 3D.

"There are thousands of them! And they're pissed!"

How awesome is that?

Old Navy had a 30% off everything sale online yesterday, so I did some e-shopping and thought I was going to get Charlie's fall wardrobe for about $60. Not so much, because when I put in the code it turned out that it only applied to one item in my order. I was very disappointed.

I've tried to order Charlie a Star Wars lunchbox twice now, and both times my order has been canceled. I'm disappointed.

Speaking of Star Wars, I want the new R2D2 Droid phone! Too bad I have to wait another 18 months before I can get a new one.

Is Roger Clemens going to jail? I think he's a giant toolbag, almost to brett favrererere status. I think he was a great pitcher, steroids and all, but come on. Man up to the fact that you enhanced your performance. Stop being a liar. Give your kids someone they can look up to.