Happy Halloween!
Month: October 2015
make: Wild Things pillow
My beloved embroidered pillow got a little too much love and developed a few little holes. So I moved it to museum status, which meant we needed a new pillow for the couch. Since I’ve been messing around with paint lately I decided I would print a design on a piece of fabric and sew a pillow. I had the idea for a quote and started browsing Pinterest for quotes about home. I tell Brian I’m looking for a quote for a pillow and he immediately suggests “I’ll eat you up I love you so” from the book Where the Wild Things Are. I’ve always been a fan of the book and even had a stuffed animal Wild Thing, so I decided to go for it. There are a lot of prints out there using this quote and a few others from the book, mostly in reference to a nursery (why do babies get all the fun?). I liked the ones with the crown, but also some with the silhouette of a wild thing which is what I ultimately went with.
I created a pattern for the background with the freezer paper technique. For the lettering I used a fabric paint marker. I purchased the fabric paint markers from Target. They have pretty good color and apply easily, but look less finished and professional, than the stencils. I free handed the lettering after one practice round on a scrap piece of paper. I had to go over the letters an additional time as the gold paint was a bit harder to write on than straight fabric.
After heat setting the paint I picked out a star fabric for the back and sewed them right sides together. I sewed a pillow insert using some other solid fabric and stuffed it from another pillow i was getting rid of. After I inserted the pillow form inside I hand stitched the bottom.
make: DC screen print
Inspired by the KC heart shirts so many fans wear to the Royals games (go Royals!) I decided to try a DC heart for my next shirt print project. I am going to a baby shower for a coworker friend who is expecting twin boys. I figured they needed DC heart shirts too.
Following the same process as the make shirt I printed out a heart and the letters D C, traced the design on freezer paper, ironed the design on the shirts, and used a foam pouncers to apply the paint. The red went on a little spotty so I did two layers.
I couldn’t let the babies have all the fun, so I made one for me too. The grey shirt took a bit more paint and the shirt is stretchier than the other one I did, but I think it turned out great just the same.
take: the rest of Paris
We went to this hipster bar in this hipster neighborhood. Ordered two beers, stared at the bartender blankly when he tried to simply tell me $12 in French. But then we were rewarded by watching the man in this picture dance around for awhile.
Napoleon never got to enjoy the arch, but we did.
We ate here on our first night, then realized we could see it from our hotel balcony.
Somewhere in Paris…
Sacré-Cœur
From inside the Louvre
They removed the love locks from the bridge, but left them on the fence leading up to the Pont des Arts bridge.
I got all up in the gargoyles of Notre Dame’s faces
Our walking tour was wet and wild. Ok, just wet.
Luxembourg gardens
gait: wanderlust 108
Heading in to Wanderlust I wasn’t sure what to expect. It seemed a little hippy, but also a fun day of exercising outdoors.
One advantage to this event was that it started at 10 am. So I didn’t have to get up before the sun. A disadvantage was that it got a little hot by the time the 5K started at 11, but there was a cool breeze all day and enough shade to get out of the sun if you needed to.
The event is billed as a Mindful Triatholon. The first stage is a 5K. The 5K was the least exciting. As I had worried the route was just around the RFK parking lot, however it was a step worse in that it was two loops! The start was a little crowded, but soon thinned out. My friend Becky found me soon after and we ran the rest of the 5K together which made the time go quickly. We finished in 27:17, not near my fastest, but that wasn’t the point now was it?
We had a little break to cool down and pick up all the free stuff this included a yoga mat, hair ties, water bottle accessories, yogurt, chia tea, kefir, kashi, temporary tattoos, and some people got tribal painting on their bodies. We also got a headband when we checked in.
Next up was dance yoga. What is dance yoga you ask? I didn’t know either. There was a DJ set up on stage and out walks MC Yogi. He was a great motivational speaker and had us do things like clap along to the music while in a lunge. Then we just collapsed in to a major dance party.
Next was normal yoga, it was a good flow class but nothing special. I was worried about the meditation portion, but ended up enjoying the practice. The instructor is also a tri coach so she isn’t just about the spirit. She lead us through metta meditation where we pictured people in our lives and sent them health and happiness.
The main part of the day was over after meditation, but I signed up for two small classes. First up was hoola hooping. She taught us how to use our hands, do a few tricks, and some yoga poses while hooping. It was fun and I only almost hurt someone with my hoop once.
My second class was slack line. It was a pretty quick and basic class, but I learned to kneel on the line and I stood for maybe two seconds on the line. It was a lot harder than I expected.
Overall Wanderlust 108 was a great experience and I will definitely try to check out some of their other events.
make, take, and gait 