Halloween 5k

I wasn't planning on doing the Halloween race this year, but Mr M had drill and LMS wanted to do it, so I decided I'd walk it with TLM in the carrier.

Last year LMS and I wore matching outfits rather than costumes. This year I planned Halloween costumes that could also be worn in the race. Definitely a good plan on my part.

LMS wore her Madeline costume 

TLM and I wore our tree & owl costume. I made the tree two years ago and the owl this year.

LMS finished in 49:48, I was just behind her at 50:00. This doesn't accurately reflect the fact that for the majority of the race I was holding her hand and encouraging, and at times gently pulling her along. She did decide to start the race at a run, though, and went a decent distance before stopping to walk, at which point I caught up to her.

I walked the whole thing, though it was a fast walk. LMS didn't appreciate my speed toward the end, she kept wanting me to slow down. TLM slept the whole time. I figured he would- so far every time I've put him in the carrier he's conked right out and stayed asleep even through me removing him and putting him back in his car seat.

I convinced LMS to jog to the finish line, which is why she finished ahead of me :)

I haven't trained at all since the Four Miler the last weekend of August, unless you count the 45 minutes I spent on the treadmill the day before TLM was born (more on that in another post), and I felt good during the race. Afterwards my pelvic area was a bit sore- I've been so sedentary lately that the muscles just aren't used to being used, plus they're still recovering from pushing out The Little Mister :)  They got sore a week or so ago after I ran a bunch of errands one afternoon, so I was expecting the soreness.

I won the Best Costume! Having an actual baby in the owl won me huge bonus points :) It was a pretty nice prize, too: a bluetooth-enabled wireless speaker donated by one of the race sponsors. I'm looking forward to using it at our homeschool station.

Old House Flashback

I still have a couple posts left about our summer road trip. Here's one of them.

We made one last stop on our way home on our road trip this summer.

Last summer LMS and I stopped by the house my family lived in for a year when I was in elementary school. This summer we stopped by the house my family lived in when I was in jr high and high school.

Unlike the house last summer, I do have some half-way decent photos of this house. This is one I took when I was in high school. It's a bit grainy from being scanned in. I definitely didn't have a digital camera back then...

This is an aerial photo that some guy did. Apparently he'd fly over farms, taking photos, then go to the farms and try to sell the photos. This is pretty much the opposite of the picture above, which shows the front of the house. This photo shows the back of the house, the barn, the pole barn, and a garage.

This house was built in 1888 and had had some work done on it over the years, but it wasn't a super-up-to-date house. It had one bathroom (built in the addition on the left side of the house, along with the kitchen) that had a blood red sink in it. The trim and closet doors were also blood red. Really not sure why anyone would want a blood red bathroom. Of course, the wall paper in the kitchen was pretty hideous, too, so there's no accounting for some people's taste.

Anyway, the house wasn't as cool as the one we visited last summer (no dumbwaiter or walk-up attic), but it had lots of space in the yard and several outbuildings that we were able to use.

I took these photos as we drove past. We had the trailer hooked up, so couldn't just pull into the driveway and back out again like we did last year. Drive-by pictures don't always turn out well :)

As you can see, the giant old trees have all been cut down, which is sad. One actually came down in a storm while we were living there, so it's not surprising that the rest have come down in the 15+ years since then. The cool wrought iron fence hasn't been kept up very well, either. It looks like the front door actually gets some use now (we never used it), and they've added a porch over it. I really like the shutters they've added, but I think the porch is kind of ugly.

You can just barely see a sliver of the garage between the tree and the side of the truck window, and now that I'm staring at it, it looks like a new garage with two bays. The old garage held one car and opened on a different wall. Wish I'd noticed this while we were there. Hmmm. Anyway, we used to get ice storms in the winter, and I remember one winter there was thick enough ice on the driveway for us to ice skate on it. So fun!

* * * * * * *

An interesting (maybe?) fact:

It was right about at that bush that I got hit by a van while running when I was in ninth grade.

This was my first time being back in the area in 16 years and I was surprised at how much I remembered, what was still there, and what had changed.

Owl and Tree Costume - A Mom and Baby Costume

yes, The Little Mister is in there :)

This year I had planned on doing matched costumes for Mr M and I, but then realized I really needed a costume that would allow me to keep TLM with me in the carrier, and my original idea just wouldn't work.

After doing some googling, looking for costume ideas for babies in front carriers, I finally found an idea  I liked here for an owl. I found quite a few ideas for babies in back carriers, but for some reason I just couldn't find very many for front carriers. Luckily this idea was one I could work with.

Two years ago I made a tree costume for the Halloween 5k I participated in, and I still had the costume, so I became the tree for TLM's owl to sit in.

The inspiration photo had an owl hat for the child to wear, but since TLM is so young, I've been keeping the hood of the carrier up to keep him more isolated when we're out running errands. Instead of a hat for him, I made an owl head to cover the hood of the carrier. 

This turned out to be a pretty easy project. I spent a bit of time cutting out feathers from various colored sheets of felt, then figured out how I wanted it all laid out. Once I had that down, I started at the bottom row of feathers and hot glued each one to an old tan polo shirt that I had sitting in my stash.

I also hot-glued the ribbons that attach it to the carrier and the brown fabric owl head to the old shirt I used as the base of the owl body.

The back isn't pretty, but it's functional, and you can see how I attached everything. I used hot glue to "hem" the cut edges of the shirt so they wouldn't show.

Before putting the carrier on, I attached the owl to it using the ribbons. The gray ribbons velcro around the waist strap, the cream ribbons tie around the shoulder straps, and the brown ribbons for the hood loop through the purse straps (I have a Boba carrier, and I'll be doing a post about it later). Once the owl was attached and the carrier buckled on I could put TLM inside. 

The carrier straps cover some of my felt tree leaves, but you get the idea.

I think it turned out great, and apparently so do others :)  I've used the outfit twice already and have gotten lots of compliments on it. The extra layers from the shirt and felt also help keep TLM warm when we're outside in the chilly October weather- bonus!

Madeline Halloween Costume

channeling "Madeline and the Bad Hat"

While I was working on projects before TLM was born, I started on LMS' Halloween costume. After some searching online for ideas that would be easy to do, I decided on Madeline. I'd make the blue jacket, find a hat, and we'd be good. And it mostly worked out that way :)

I used last year's Princess Buttercup costume pattern to make an updated pattern. I shortened the length and made it a little wider in the torso area. I didn't take any more in-progress photos because I always forget that part. I'll point out the various details a little further down in the post.

After checking all the local stores for a hat that would work and not having any success, I found this one on ebay.

I hot glued some black ribbon over the existing black ribbon, then made a bow with long tails for the back.

I also hot-glued some round elastic inside the hat to hold it on LMS' head better. The hat fit fine without it, but with all the various activities that she'd be wearing it at I figured the elastic would make life easier, and it totally did.

The completed jacket, hat and a pair of ivory fleece gloves. I'd wanted some white knit gloves for her to wear, but couldn't find any, so we went with the fleece ones instead.

--  I used the pattern I showed above for the jacket body, then made a cape to go on top. I sewed the two together at the neckline. I just used blue fleece- I figured it'd be easy to work with and would keep LMS nice and warm. The edges don't actually need to be hemmed, but I hemmed the bottom to give it weight so it would hang nicely. I didn't want the edge of the cape to be too bulky so I left it alone.

--  I ended up cutting the sleeves a smidge too short (not sure how that happened), so I added cuffs to make them longer. 

--  I sewed a piece of fleece to the front edge to make a placket where the buttons and button holes are. 

--  I used white fabric (leftover from the Princess Leia dress two years ago) to make a peter pan color and red fabric (from last year's Princess Bride dress) for the tie.  The tie is completely non-functional and is sewn on so that the jacket opens completely at the neckline. There's a piece of velcro instead of a button at the neckline to make it easily adjustable.

--  And then because I'm OCD and don't already have enough to worry about, I sewed ricrac to the jacket hem, the edge of the cape, and on the sleeves. Unnecessary, but I like the extra bit of detail it adds.

We completed the look with white bobby socks and black mary janes.

LMS insisted I take photos from all sides, so here's some poses (ok, mommy take a picture with me like this!) that show her outfit pretty well.

Demonstrating her "Madeline walk"- slow and careful, since that's how you walk when you go everywhere in two straight lines with 11 other girls :)

The last few photos are LMS being silly and having fun posing for the camera.

I finished the main construction of the costume before TLM was born, but didn't get the details done till last week, just in time for the ward Halloween activity and the Halloween 5k (more on the 5k later this week). If I wasn't such a perfectionist about the details I could have finished it a lot sooner, but that just doesn't work for me :) I'm very happy with how it turned out and LMS really likes her Madeline costume.

Sunday Funny

I was taking a nap on the couch after church a week or two before TLM was born, and LMS decided I needed to snuggle with some of her stuffed animals. Mr M took a picture of just how many of her stuffed animals she shared with me (I count at least 9). Good thing stuffed animals don't weigh a lot :)

Ever Wondered What a Scud Missile Launcher Looks Like?

This is a completely random post because I'm quite sleep deprived still.  The Little Mister (TLM) prefers to sleep during the day and stay awake at night :( So I'm sharing this because we thought it was kind of cool, and didn't require much writing to go along with the pictures.

Awhile ago we had the chance to check out a decommissioned scud missile launcher. There's only a couple left, so even though it was kind of a random event, we had to go check it out. How often does an opportunity like that present itself?

It was quite large- those tires are over four feet in diameter.

The Little Miss wanted pics of her inside it. Check out the old-school control panels.

There were several little seating compartments in the vehicle, and they all looked super-cramped. LMS fit ok, but a full grown man? It would be a tight fit.

The driver's compartment reminded me of the old '59 flat bed Chevy truck my dad used to have when we were younger. It smelled like that truck, too. Diesel fumes, maybe?

Apparently they raised the missile earlier that day, but it was back down by the time we got there, so we missed seeing it.

Mr M's mom was with us (waiting for TLM to make his appearance). Those hands on the doors are Mr M's- the doors wouldn't stay open, so he held them open for the photo.

Have you ever gotten up close and personal with a scud missile launcher?

Homeschool Cupboard, Part 1

We have this wall at one end of our living room. To me, it's just awkward because it's not really big enough for a seating area; it's just a short wall between a hallway and the doors to the deck.

I had this cabinet here for awhile, but I moved it to the library to hold our musical instruments.

After I moved it, I thought of putting a cute old curved front desk in the space. After all, we needed a desk to organize our papers and such.

But then I started seeing secretaries everywhere. They look nice, and you can close them up and hide your mess :)  However, the only ones available locally are way out of our price range.

As I pondered what type of furniture to put in that corner, I was also pondering our school location. I originally intended to use the basement for schoolwork, but the north and west-facing windows just weren't cutting it. We like our sunshine. Since we have a nice big south-facing window in the kitchen, we've been using our dining table for schoolwork.

yeah, the table is never this clean

Unfortunately, everything ends up scattered all over the table and it just looks cluttered. I've been working hard to get the house organized and de-cluttered, and the cluttered condition of the table was bugging me worse and worse.

Then I had a brainwave: I could solve two problems at once. Remember the awkward wall? It's right next to the french doors that open onto the back deck, so there's lots of available sunlight, making it a reasonable location for our schoolwork. But I didn't want a table in that corner, always sitting out. We don't do schoolwork 24/7 (at least not at a table), so why should it be seen 24/7?  I didn't want to just shift the clutter from the kitchen to the living room.

As an aside: if the library was a smidge larger and had south-facing windows (north-facing windows with a porch roof above them just don't let in enough light), we would totally have it set up as our schoolroom.

Anyway, As I thought about hiding our school stuff, I remembered the Craftbox Workboxes that I'd seen on various blogs. They're a cabinet that opens out and a table folds down, and when you're done, you fold it up and in and it just looks like a cabinet.

The Workboxes weren't quite what I was looking for, but I knew I could design and build something that would work for us. A lot of thought, a lot of measuring, some drawings, more measuring, more thinking, and I was finally ready to start the project.

The basic frame design is similar to the bookshelf frames I built for the library, but this frame is shorter and meant to stand alone. I installed a single stationary shelf about a third of the way up to stabilize the frame and support the table top.

2x4 base

base with bottom shelf attached

base with the rest of the frame attached

the stationary shelf

The table top is a piece of 3/4" oak plywood trimmed with oak screen trim. I attached it to the stationary shelf using a 30" piano hinge.

back to front: backing plywood (1/4"), table top (3/4" oak plywood), shelves (3/4" oak plywood)

frame with backing and trim attached

At the other end of the table top I installed two table legs that I'd purchased a couple years ago for another project but ended up not using. I attached a 2x4 between the legs to add stability and to keep them lined up. 

table top up, with single eye hook at the top that didn't work out

table top down

I used hinges to attach the legs to the underside of the table top so that they could swing down when the table top is folded up. I also attached some locking hook and eyes to keep the legs from getting kicked out of position when the table top is down.

I wanted to be able to keep the table top from falling down when in the up position, so I installed a hook and eye on each side of the table top. I'd tried one at the end of the table that hooked to the roof of the cupboard, but it interfered with the movement of the table, so I had to change it out.

I used my favorite metal shelf strips in the top and bottom sections so we could adjust the shelves to our needs.

table down, with shelves in, doors not yet attached

table up, hooks on the sides keeping it in place, lower shelves visible, drop-down drawer front attached to fixed shelf

The next step was to add doors. I started by installing a drop-down door that would allow the table top to remain down while the other doors were closed. This involved a 1"x6" board, two hinges, some rolling catches to keep the door shut, and some drawer pulls.

After that was in place I measured and measured again, then started building the other four doors. I used 1x3s for the frames and 1/4" plywood for the panels. Before I screwed the frames together, I used our table saw to cut a groove for the plywood to sit in. Then I used my Kreg jig to drill pocket holes and glued and screwed the pieces together like a jigsaw puzzle.

these aren't the doors for this cupboard, but I used the same method, so I only took one set of pictures

After each door was built, it was time to attach the hinges and connect the doors to the cupboard.  I did have to do some trimming with the table saw, though. Despite my best efforts to build square I could not get the doors to hang completely square. Very annoying. Once the doors were on, I attached more roller catches to keep the doors from swinging open, then attached a handle to each door.

Once everything was built and put together, I realized I'd used the wrong hinges. See anything problematic here?

The doors block half the table space and make it impossible to reach anything we put on the shelves.

                Oops.

So I ordered new hinges, and I'm hoping they allow the doors to fold back out of the way. I'll replace the hinges, and then paint the inside of the cupboard and the shelves so we can start using it. I don't want to have to pull everything back out to paint later, so I'll paint before putting everything in. The outside will get painted later, just like all my other pre-birth projects.

I will say that it took me awhile to build this cupboard. Since I designed it, I had to think about the best way to do everything before I actually did it to make sure it would turn out how I wanted it to (and I still missed the mark with the door hinges).


I've been working on this project while I worked on the sofa table, the side table, the library side table, and the LEGO habitat, and even with the hinge issue and needing to paint the interior, I've finally reached the point where I can call it done. Yay! I almost feel like a "real" carpenter :)

Despite the parts that didn't turn out quite how I wanted them to, I'm really happy with how it turned out. It's always good to see what I envisioned in my head and on paper actually work out in real life.

I'll post an update once I take care of the hinges and the interior paint.