Sunday, January 29, 2012

Sweater Pants!

I ran to Target the other day and picked up a super cute sweater on clearance for $3.50. Steal! Sadly, the sweater did not fit. I found myself at Google, wondering what I could do.

Then, I was reminded of one of my favorite sites: Prudent Baby. I love, love, love Prudent Baby and think it is so wonderful that they have a tab for projects by craft. I can go see all of their sewing posts with a simple click. It. is. awesome.

Anyway, I remembered seeing this post about sweater pants and figured my super cute blue and green sweater would be perfect. And it was.

I had some elastic in the amazing sewing hutch I received after the passing of Mr. Husband's grandma. I had my lovely sewing machine ready to go.

The tutorial was super easy to follow, and the pants were finished in 15 minutes. I gave them to my niece and had her try them on. She's on the small side for her age (18 months) so the pants were a bit long. Believe me, it was easy enough to roll the bottom of the pants for a perfect fit.

If you have any old sweaters lying around, sweater pants are a simple project (and a quick one, too!).

Monday, January 2, 2012

2012

It is hard to believe that 2012 is here. Christmas and New Year's Eve flew right on by, and here I am at the end of winter break. Work starts again tomorrow. The alarm clock is set, and will it ever be a rude awakening. The perks of being a teacher: just over a week off in the middle of winter. It sure is wonderful. Heading back to school, though, is dreadful. The kiddos are SO excited to be back, but had plenty of time to "forget" how to be at school (hey, that happens when you're five or six). They're giddy little buggers, they've gotten used to hearing Englush all day instead of Spanish. Needless to say, it is an adjustment for them.

It is also an adjustment for me, the kindergarten teacher. Those twenty kiddos will come bounding into the classroom at a time in the morning I have not seen all week. Obviously a smile will be upon my face and coffee a necessity.

But, let's get to he point. I didn't sit down with my iPad tonight to write about my transition back into the real world. My intent was to put my resolutions for the year out for everyone to read on the world wide web, in hopes that the motivation will be there to stick with them this year. Actually following through with a New Year's resolution is not something I can say I've done. At least I dint remember. Truthfully, though, I've never really had New Year's resolutions. But this year is different.

Last Tuesday, the gang of girls and I headed up to the outlet shops at Albertville. With the new year on the horizon, a friend was telling us about how resolutions are done in her family. Each person comes up with three resolutions: one that pertains to their relationships, one that pertains to their physical health and one that has to do with their spiritual health. After some thinking, we each shared our three resolutions for the year.

Here are mine:

Relationships: to be more social. I see my parents and siblings every Monday. I see my girls every Tuesday. I don't remember the last social gathering I attended on a weekend. I would like for this to change!

Physical: I am going to run a half marathon in May. Mr. Husband is joining me, along with my friend B. I'm nervous, because I'm overweight. I'm nervous because I'm not a great runner. But, it is okay to be nervous. I can run a half marathon.

Spiritual: attend church more often. Now, I'm nowhere near pregnant, but it is important to both Mr. Husband and I to bring our kids up in the church. Before we can do that, we need to be in the habit of going to church ourselves. One of the girls with me while discussing our resolutions came up with a great one: to volunteer more. I think I'm going to make that one of my resolutions as well.

So, there they are. My four resolutions for 2012. And now I have got to get to bed. 5:30am will be here WAY before I know it.