Weekend Wrap Up

What a four day weekend it was! I didn't get anything craft related done at all, but the weekend was jam packed with family goodness.

Thursday, the fam went to my aunt Aida's house for Thanksgiving. Literally, everyone showed up this year. It was packed, it was loud, and it was a ton of fun. Of course, no Thanksgiving would be complete without Dirty Grandma. This year, she had us cracking up because she was singing a Rhianna song. She's always got something up her sleeve.

On Saturday, I turned the big 3-0! Let's just say it's the 5th anniversary of my 25th birthday, mmkay? My family surprised me by driving to the dirty Jerz and meeting us at a restaurant. I had no idea they were coming, especially since my mom called to apologize that they couldn't see me. Sneaky sneaky!

Mmmm, cake.

Hubs got me an awesome gift,,, a kindle! He knows what a book nerd I am, haha. Lord help anyone who tries to talk to me on the bus now. ;)

My friends at work also went into super sneaky mode this year. They threw me a surprise party at work and made a scrapbook for me. It's the awesomest book ever. I can't show you every page, but here are a few of my favs.

This is the "Moving to Jersey" page.

This is the "Back to School" page. Tell me that crop job doesn't make you laugh? Haha!

And this is the "Cougar" page. Sheesh, I'm old enough to be labeled a cougar now? I thought 30 was the new 20?

Those crazy kids didn't stop there. As if the scrapbook wasn't enough, look what they gave me. Do they know me or what? I have no idea what to use it on. Any ideas? I want to use it wisely!

Thanks to my friends and family for making my 30th birthday traumatic awesome and memorable!

P.S. - They're lucky I didn't try karate chopping anyone when they jumped out at me in the restaurant! Who am I kidding? ;)

I hurt...

... from Black Friday shopping.

This is the first (and maybe last!) year ever, that hubby and I did some major Black Friday shopping. I can't even begin to describe the madness.

But finding a $70 pair of boots for $25 in my size made it worth it, haha.

I'm 7 am... going to bed now!

Happy Gobble Gobble Day!

What a year it's been! I'm thankful for so much that I have to share just a few....

I'm thankful for an awesome hubby.

I'm thankful for the most amazing kid I could ever ask for. She makes my world go round.

I'm thankful for my parents and sisters. We've only grown closer as we get older and I appreciate our relationships so much.

I'm thankful for good health.

I'm thankful for a good job.

I'm thankful to be able to attend school.

I'm thankful for amazing friends (I'll tell you more about them later this week).

I'm thankful for Weight Watchers. I've kept it hush hush because I was so afraid of failure, but I can spill the beans now. Since the end of June (right after Hershey Park), I've lost just about 40 pounds and have dropped 3 dress sizes. I've still got about 20 pounds to go, but I feel so much more in control of my health. I know I could have done it on my own, but the structure of WW has been amazing to help keep me in check.

I'm thankful for Zumba for not feeling like exercise at all.

I'm thankful for the crafts that keep me sane.

I'm thankful for all you crazy, crafting, Internet peeps who keep me inspired.

Last, but not least, I'm super thankful for the invention of cannoli cake. Holy wow, delicious!

Happy Thanksgiving, my friends!

Baby Jumper

Holy wow, can you believe November is more than halfway over? The month is just flying by!

I managed to squeeze in some sewing time this week. I should have been working on baby shower gifts that I need by tomorrow *gulp* but instead I had an itch to make a jumper for my cousin's 5 month old baby instead.
I winged it based on some finished jumpers I saw on the Internet and a 3-6 month baby outfit for general sizing. It came out cute, but not exactly what I had planned in my head.

Poor Teddy! He's playing Theodora again today, against his will. If Piper were home, I have a feeling she wouldn't be too pleased with Teddy's makeover either. ;)

I used some scrap purple corduroy that was left over from a bunny I made for the same baby and the lining is made from leftover flannel from pajama pants I made for Pi last winter. It looked a little plain, so I added an applique heart. The heart is my favorite part of the whole thing!

The buttons are from a seller at the Carroll Park flea market in Brooklyn.

Of course, after I finished this, I found THIS tutorial. Ahh well, too late for this jumper, but I'm definitely going to give that one a shot soon.

The plan for today is to buckle down and finish those baby shower things I need for tomorrow. So far, I've not been industrious at all. I watched a free movie On Demand and ate two slices of cold pizza for breakfast. I've still got time, right?

Wish me luck, haha!

Whoops!

Getting my gigundo not-so-minivan out of my parking space and down my driveway requires reversing back towards my neighbor's fence and doing a K-turn.

I'm terrible at judging distance when reversing. Terrible! So you'd think that I would know NOT to answer my phone while reversing towards the fence.

Mmm, not so much. So I'm reversing... the phone rings... I look down to answer it... forget I'm reversing... and @#$^&%&$%!!! Back right into the neighbor's fence.

I was going slow enough that I didn't knock it down, but I did crack a post. I'd like to tell you I was cool as a cucumber and handled my stupidity well. But, I can't lie to you. I didn't handle it well. I panicked and then I cried.

Having to ring the neighbors bell and confess was really hard to do. But, my neighbors happen to be pretty relaxed people and weren't mad. In fact, they found the humor in the situation.

When I came home from work the next day, this is what I found. Mini orange cones protecting the fence. Ha!

Totally hilarious and completely deserved! I've learned my lesson, I promise!

Belts, Birthdays, and Cakes, oh my!

Piper started taking Tae Kwon Do classes in September and has taken to it really quickly. She's earned three stripes on her white belt since she started, which earned her the privilege to test for a new belt. Yesterday morning was her first testing day and she rocked it! Check out her fancy pants orange belt. I'm pretty sure she could kick my butt with those moves!

In other family related news, my dad's 47th birthday was this past Wednesday. We couldn't make it to Brooklyn that day because of parent teacher conferences, so we went to have dinner with the fam yesterday.

Yes, we're the dorky family taking pictures in Pizzeria Uno.

My little BFF and I.

My dad with my twin sisters, Jennifer and Tiffani. My other sister Inky was there with her boyfriend, but I guess I didn't get them in any pics. Sorry Inky! Should analyze the unconscious motivations of that? ;)

My uber cute parents.

I baked a Boston Cream Cake on Friday night. Baked is really a loose word for this one. The whole thing was made with a yellow box cake, French vanilla instant pudding, and microwaved frosting. It was really good though.

One little problem though... the top cake cracked when I was putting it on top. Oops!

Being as it was late and I had no fancy cover-ups, Piper and I decided to throw some chocolate discs on there, stick a candle in the mouth, and call it a day. Can I get a woo woo for the totally ghetto cover up? Ha!

Here's dad, grandpa and mom's favorite baby, Shyla. I swear that dog thinks she's human.

It was really nice to spend the night with my crazy family! Happy Birthday Dad!

This monkey never gets old.

As this is the third one this year, you must be sick of me showing you Molly Monkeys by now. But they're too cute not to make!

My other teeny neighbor Ava, turned 5 in October and I thought Molly Monkey would be a great gift. Especially since she is BFFs with the other 5 year old neighbor who got a Molly Monkey in February. Now they both have monkeys (I made sure to make them different so they don't confuse them).

I knew Molly was a hit when Ava told me that Molly has a special spot on her bed with her favorite dolls. That's the best kind of thank you a crafter can get.

You can get the free pattern for Molly Monkey HERE.

**Please excuse the dark nighttime pictures. Ahh, crappy winter pics are back!**

P.S. - That carrot cake added two pounds to the scale over the weekend. I may have gorged myself a bit, but oh man, it was so worth it!

November...

... is not for dieting!

Carrot Cake recipe at the end of THIS post.