My New Year - 2014

For the last few years I have seen people choosing a Word for the year instead of making resolutions.  I thought I would take a stab at it this year.  I've been mulling it over and I think I have finally come up with my word for 2014.

Persevere

I found this definition that I thought really went with what I wanted to do this year.

persevere:  to persist in anything undertaken; maintain a purpose in spite of difficulty, obstacles, or discouragement; continue steadfastly.

Last year I felt like I had a year of giving up.  I was exercising really well and then I got hurt in February.  After multiple chiropractor appointments, doctor visits, working with athletic trainers, and an MRI I still haven't figured out what is wrong with me and how to make the pain go away.  Because of this I have started and stopped exercising many times over the last year, giving up when it got too hard. I let my healthy eating go because it was just too hard to try to eat good when my family wasn't on board with me.  It resulted in a year of bordering on depression again and feeling like I wasn't accomplishing anything in my life.  

Then a few bright spots entered in.  I finally found an adult dance class that I LOVE!  It's so fun dancing with ladies my own age and especially with my sister.  The teacher is fantastic and so full of energy, her good vibes just feed your soul.  I have also been doing a lot of Family History Work this past year.  Mike and I have been able to take Michela and Hunter a few times this year to the temple to do baptisms and I've also been able to give names to other family members so they can get involved as well.  I have so many names to do work for and find new names every day!  It is such a wonderful way to spend some of my extra time and helps bring the spirit into my life and my home.  

My sister in law, Stephanie, introduced me to the Green Smoothie Girl and I have really fallen in love with her 12 Steps to Whole Foods Program.  I have resolved to get my family eating healthier this year and we are taking it one step at a time.  This month it is introducing green smoothie into our diets.  We have been making smoothies for a long time, and I've been drinking green smoothies, but my kids have shied away from the green stuff.  I decided this month that we would try to have green smoothies every morning.  

Somedays have been better than others.  Some kids have been more stubborn than others, but they have finally all come around!  I think these green smoothies are really helping with their digestion and I love the fact that they are starting off their morning with a power boosting start.

So my goal this year is to Persevere.  To not give up and to stay the course in the changes and decisions I am making to improve my life and my family's.  I know it won't always be easy and that we won't be perfect everyday, but I also know that I have the strength to keep going.  

I Survived Cycle 1

Today is the beginning of Cycle 2 on my new exercise and diet plan.  Yes, I made it through Cycle 1, though at times I didn't think I was going to be able to.  The Fast day didn't kill me right away, it was the effects the day after that threw me for a loop.  I did okay on the whole water only thing, but the protein supplements got harder and harder to take as the day went on.  I was supposed to down a ton of pills that day, but I started to get sick of swallowing them every couple of hours, so I know I didn't get enough of them in my system.  That night I was so tired and worn out from the not eating, together with the 3 workouts I had to do that day.  Of course Michela was at a party so I had to wait until 10:00 to go get her.  When I finally got to bed I crashed.
Mike had to wake up at 3:00 in the morning the next day for his Marathon, so I got woken up too.  Unfortunately I could not go back to sleep afterwards.  I tossed and turned all night, not being able to get comfortable because my body was so sore and my stomach was turning.  I alternated between thinking I was either going to pass out or throw up.  My alarm finally went off at 6:45 and I laid there thinking there was no way I was going to be able to get up.  I was shaking so badly and was very dizzy.  I dragged myself downstairs and slowly made myself a protein shake.  (The day after the fast day is protein shake day.)  I lugged the blender out onto the patio so I wouldn't wake anyone up and blended up a much needed shake.  I gulped the thing down trying to fill the ache in my stomach and to get something in me.  I had the worst headache that day and felt so weak.  Of course I had to get all of the kids up, fed and ready to go because we were leaving at 8:00 so we could cheer Mike on at the race and then it was off to the soccer field for three games, one of which I was coaching.  As the day went on I felt a little bit stronger but I was so spent.  Luckily Sunday was coming up the next day so I could have a break from the workouts.
This time around I am going to have to tweak fast day a bit.  There is no way I can survive that experience again.  I'm thinking I will allow myself at least some veggies during the day and perhaps a protein shake after one or two of the workouts.  It's not like I can just sit around all day and recoup, I've got 5 kids to take care of and a billion things to do.  Hopefully I can avoid the exhaustion and sickness this time around.  The number on the scale did drop, but scales can be so touchy.  I'll wait to see if it drops again after this cycle is through before I can say if it is really working or not.  The funniest part of this whole thing is Michela's little comments every day.  "What can you eat today Mom?"  "Protein shakes all day!?  That  is so sad."  Couldn't have said it better myself.

Time to Fight the Flab!

I've been feeling rather unfit these days.  After having Laina, almost 2 years ago, I haven't been exercising too much and eating way too much junk.  When I got pregnant with Laina I got really sick and wasn't able to eat much during the pregnancy and felt too crappy to do much exercising.  All of my hard work of the two years before went up in smoke.  I felt my muscle tone slacking and saw the weight creeping back into places I had worked so hard to lose.  Let's just say when Laina was born I was so ready to start exercising again.  The problem came when I started to realize that my baby wanted to scream more than sleep and thought naps were for the birds.  I was exhausted, left with no time for myself, and incredibly depressed.  Enter the emotional eating.  I've always been an emotional eater, but I think I took it to a whole new level as I sunk deeper and deeper into depression.  I tried to put on a happy face, but inside I felt alone, sad, angry, and hated myself.  I lashed out at the people I loved and I had no energy to do much of anything.  I was in a serious funk.
The last 6 months or so I've been trying to pull myself out of the black hole I had fallen into.  I have started and stopped many an exercise regime, but have continued to fill the void inside of me with sweets.  About a week ago something inside of me just snapped.  The catalyst might have been a picture of me with Chase's soccer team that I have been coaching.  Let's just say I looked gross.  Of course I started cramming more junk in my mouth because I felt so bad about myself.  One day as I was eating a candy bar I realized I didn't even like what I was eating.  It tasted disgusting and I felt disgusting.  Something had to change.
I heard about this diet and exercise plan online and it is not for the faint of heart.  There are five cycles of five days each.  One of those days is a complete fast day, only drinking water and taking protein supplements throughout the day.  Guess what day I am on?  I figure if I just stay really busy I can make it through the day.  Let's keep our fingers crossed and say a little prayer for me.  Along with the diet plan there is hard core strength training and HIIT routines.  I will be working out 3 times today.  One down this morning, two to go.  Why am I taking such a drastic step?  Because at this point I need a big slap upside the head and a big kick in the booty to jumpstart my life back onto the path I need to be on.  Why am I telling you all about this?   Because I need some support and I feel like maybe I can be more successful if others know what I'm doing so I have someone to be accountable to.
So it is only day 2 of my 25 day plan and I know I have a long way to go, but I am so determined to see this through.  I guess when I had my birthday I realized I need to get going on getting healthy again, because the big 40 isn't too far away.  Along with getting healthy, I want to work on my style and get myself out of frumpyville.
So here's to hoping I can do this and don't turn into a grouchy beast while I'm doing it.  The good news is there is a cheat day every five days.  I should be able to hold out for 5 days, don't you think?

You Say it's My Birthday

I celebrated my 38th birthday the other day.  Yeah, I know, I look much younger than that.  :)  Michela picked out a Dora birthday card that sang Happy Birthday to me.  I got some garden gloves and a trowel so I went over to the Nursery on Friday and picked up some plants for my garden.  Aria and I planted the seeds and plants and now we are just waiting to see if the garden will survive the heat and Miss Laina.  It was all of about 5 seconds before Laina was stepping on and digging up everything we had just planted.  Oh well, hopefully something will survive.
On Friday night we went out to dinner at the Olive Garden ( my kids love that place!) and came home for ice cream and some goodies.  On Saturday Mike and I went out with some friends and family.  We first went to see The Avengers movie (Loved it!) and then went to eat dinner at Malawi's Pizza.  My favorite pizza is the Capri with all of those yummy tomatoes on it.  And of course we had to order a couple of the dessert pizzas.  Who can resist the chocolate peanut butter one!

It was a fun few days of birthday activities, but I'm kind of glad it is all over.  Now I just have to figure out how to get myself back into shape so I can feel fabulous when I hit 40 in a couple of years!

A Night Out with Michela

On Saturday Michela and I spent quite a lot of time together.  In the afternoon I watched her in her first soccer game of the spring season.  They won easily and it was a great start for the team after the long winter break.

That evening we drove up to Salt Lake to go to the Young Women's Broadcast at the Conference Center.  It was gorgeous spring weather so we walked around the new City Creek Center and had dinner there at a yummy little bakery cafe called Hagermann's Bake House & Cafe.  We both got soup and sandwich combos and the food was delicious.  The bread was to die for!

The meeting was fabulous.  There was a young women's choir and all of the Young Women's Presidency spoke.  The closing speaker was President Monson and I so enjoyed his talk.  I hope Michela got something out of it and felt the wonderful spirit that was there. 

Outside of the Conference Center they had flags and banners in the value colors.  It was a beautiful sight to see them waving above all of the lovely and righteous young women in attendance.

We walked across Temple Square and admired the flowers and the cherry blossoms that were starting to bloom.

After the meeting we walked around City Creek for a little bit longer.  It is really pretty and there are a lot of fun shops and restaurants.  We didn't get to see very much, but we definitely want to go back there and explore some more.  We felt like we were at a big celebrity party when we had to wait in line to get into H&M.  It was pretty funny.

On the way home we stopped for shakes at In 'n Out and sipped on them the whole way home while we talked and sang along with the radio.  Such a fun night hanging out with my newly teenage daughter.  I'm looking forward to many more nights like this one.

Cutesie Girl

I finished the skirt for Laina! I was having a bad day a week or so ago and I decided I needed to make something. I had wanted to get this skirt done by Valentine's day, but it was not to be. I did get it finished for Church on Sunday and she looked so darn cute in it!

I used some leftover fabric from the Valentine skirt I made Aria last year.

I don't know what it is, but once I start cutting out fabric and sewing my whole body starts to relax. I could feel the tension releasing as I started rolling my rotary cutter. I get in this kind of zen zone when I am sewing. I mentioned this to my sister in law and she looked at me like I was a bit crazy. I know sewing stresses out a lot of people, but for me the whole process of creating is so soothing to my soul. The only time it is stressful is when I am trying to unpick stitches with a baby on my lap! :) Hopefully for my sanity there is lots of more sewing time in the near future!

Projects for Baby

Yes, I'm still here. If this baby doesn't come tonight I will be getting induced tomorrow morning. At least the end is in sight either way. I swear I thought I would be having this baby every night this week. I have been having lots and lots of contractions but they always stop before they amount to anything. Last night at about 1:30 I woke up having really hard contractions every ten minutes. I waited awhile to see what would happen and instead of getting closer together, they got farther apart until they finally disappeared. I am a bit frustrated with all this teasing. What is it about my girls, they have all been the hardest and longest labors.

With each day I find I have more time to do things, so here are some pictures of some of the things I have been working on in the last two weeks.

I restuffed the crib bumper. I am using the bedding I made for Aria because I loved it so much and it looks so cute in the room. The crib bumper was in a sorry state. I can't believe how saggy and deflated it was. Now it is super cute and puffy again.

I recovered the cushions on my rocking chair and Mike painted it for me. Mike bought me this rocking chair back when we first started trying to get pregnant with Michela. I've rocked all my precious babes in this chair but I just couldn't stand the forest green fabric with the pink roses on it anymore. I didn't quite think the project through though and after wrestling the back cushion to tuft it with some covered buttons I realized I wouldn't be able to sew up the channels on the sides. Luckily there is a awesome little upholstery shop nearby and they sewed them up for me. What I wouldn't give for an industrial sewing machine!

I made myself a pretty, lightweight nursing cover. I could have used these with all of my other babies.
I also made a car seat canopy for the infant car seat. Of course I had to go the extra mile and put a ruffle around the edge and made cute little flowers to go on the handles and front. Why make it easy on myself?!


I still want to make some cute burp cloths, maybe I'll have time for that later today, and applique some onesies, but I'll have plenty of time for that after Peanut is here. As well as getting these projects crossed off my list I've also gotten a lot of mending done, turned a couple of pairs of pants into shorts and shortened the sleeves on a few shirts. Other projects done consisted of organizing around the house. It's been a busy month but I'll be so glad to be able to relax after Peanut comes and just concentrate on taking care of our new little one.

Due Date, Come and Gone

Yesterday was my due date. I started it off with a trip to the Midwives and got encouraging news. I was dilated to 3 cm. and she said my cervix was very soft and ready to go at any time. All day yesterday I had contractions. The contractions were painful at times, but they were always on the borderline. They never quite got to that accordion squeeze stage.

I spent yesterday running last minute errands and working on projects. I kept laughing at all of the people who, when they found out it was my due date, exclaimed, "what are you doing out shopping?!" As if I should be home laying on the couch just waiting for this baby to come. The thing that made me laugh the most was that I went to renew my license and as I plopped down into the chair to take my picture I thought, "I wonder how many women would take their license picture when they are 9 months pregnant?"

Last night I was so convinced that I was going to have this baby and then the contractions stopped. Frustrating! I guess I should just look at it as more time to get things done, and I always need more time! I'll try and get some pictures up of the cute things I've been working on sometime today.

2 Weeks to Go!

*Two More Weeks to Go Until Peanut is Due!

*Having Lots of Braxton Hicks Contractions.

*Major Sciatic Pain.

*Burning Up All the Time.

*This Baby is Constantly On the Move.

*Not Getting Much Sleep.

*House is a Mess.

*No Closer to a Name for this Little Girl.

*Loving Washing and Folding all the Little Baby Clothes.

*Still So Much to Do!

Crappiest Day Ever

In the last few weeks of pregnancy sleeping isn't the easiest thing to do. Yesterday I woke up at 4:45 am to go to the bathroom. I crawled back into bed and tried to will myself back to sleep. I tried to clear my mind, but all the things I need to do kept racing around inside of my head. I thought of waves on the beach, which usually helps, but no, those darn thoughts would not go away! The other problem is that I am hot! I cannot sleep when I am too hot. I have the fan on, the AC going, but I'm still roasting. I looked over at Mike as I kicked the sheet off and saw that he had an extra blanket on top of him. What?! How can he possibly be cold? I would love to have the window open but I swear we live in an aviary because come 4:00 or 5:00 every morning the birds start a chirpfest.

I finally got out of bed and decided to go start working on my to do list. I got a little bit done but I was so tired that I kept finding myself staring off into space. I went back up to the kitchen, got the kids some breakfast and fed myself my bowl full of cereal topped with Lactaid Milk. Tasty...

Swim Lessons went good, but my sciatic pain was killing me so I must have looked like a limping, waddling whale wandering around watching the kids in their classes. Add to that a baby who has decided it is a gymnast/karate expert and must practice all day long!

After lessons we rushed home to shower and eat some lunch. Of course the kids took FOREVER so we were late getting on our way to my sister-in-law's house. Plus I had to change my shirt because I ended up with strawberry cream cheese all over my belly. My sister-in-law had called before lessons to see if I had time to come by her house around noon to go through her maternity clothes. Of course I said yes, thinking I would have time to run by there after lunch and before Chase needed to be at the dentist.

On the way we had to stop at a Pharmacy to fill a prescription for Chase for this sedation medicine to help him relax at the dentist while they filled his cavities. Chase gets so tense and nervous at the dentist that he often refuses to open his mouth or gags up a storm while the dentist is working on him. Of course the pharmacist needs half an hour to fill the prescription which means I can get to Sara's house and then have to turn right back around to get it in time for Chase to be able to take it one hour before his appointment. So I take the kids to Sara's and let them play while I run back to the pharmacy with Chase.

I get back to Sara's with about half an hour to spare before we need to leave for the dentist. I quickly start trying on clothes. It is getting too hot around here, so I am in desperate need of some short sleeve shirts. With only 3 weeks left to go I really don't want to go buy anything else. Of course half of it won't fit, Sara has the smallest ribcage I have ever seen. So I grab what I can carry and run down to my car. After gathering the kids and thanking Sara I rushed off to the dentist.

As I am racing down the road to my surprise I see this behind me.

That's right, I got PULLED OVER! Like I have time for this! And to make matters worse my license just expired and I haven't been able to renew it yet. Did you know that you have to bring like 5 forms of identification to the DMV now to renew your license and change your address on it? One of the things you need to bring is your Social Security Card. Where in the heck is my card? I have no idea. My kids' cards are safely filed away in a cabinet but I have no clue where mine is. You can also bring in a W-2 form but I haven't worked out of the home in over 15 years so it's not like I have one of those laying around. So add another thing to my to do list, apply for a new Social Security Card so I can renew my license. I digress, back to the cop. I tell him we were late for the dentist and that I am so sorry. He gives me a warning on the expired license and knocks off some numbers on the speeding, maybe he saw my big belly and car full of kids and decided to be nice.

Now we are really late for the dentist. Luckily our dentist is our neighbor and is very nice and understanding. He gets Chase fixed up lickety split and I think maybe I'll have time to lay down and take a little nap when I get home. As Chase gets up I notice he is super woozy. I had to lead him out of the office and to the car with one hand on his shirt just in case he went down. At home I have him lay down on the couch and he then sleeps for 2 hours! I couldn't get him to wake up. Maybe we'll have to do a half dose of that stuff next time.

I stare at the sink full of dirty dishes and decide a rest sounds much better. Shortly after laying down Hunter comes and tells me that Aria was cutting things with my good sewing scissors and has pooped her pants. She is potty training right now and has been doing such a good job, why does she have to do this right now? I take her upstairs, dump the offending matter into the toilet, get her all cleaned up and walk past my room where I look longingly at my bed and pillow. And when I get downstairs my sink is still full of dirty dishes. Ugg!

The bright spot of the day? Mike stopped off at Costa Vida to pick up some dinner because I just couldn't deal with making anything. Today has to be better.

Birthday Surprise

This morning I woke up to a little surprise. It was snowing! And not just a little bit of snow, but a blizzard! We got a good 3" at least.

And yes, the date is correct on this blog entry. It is May 24th, not March 24th, but May. I've never had snow on my birthday.

Yep it is my birthday. I turned 36 today. I got the best compliment from one of my Visiting Teacher's when she asked me if I was 30 yet. :) Plus they brought by the most heavenly homemade bread. Yummo! My friend Natalie brought me a cute bag, flip flops and earrings. The only thing that fits when you are pregnant are shoes and jewelry! Ha, Ha, ...

We also went to Carrabbas for dinner with my brother Brian, his wife Stephanie, my nephew Kyle, and my sister Tiffany. Brian and Steph gave me a cupcake cookbook. It is the cutest thing. It has all these great and easy ideas for decorating cupcakes. For some reason I have been really into cupcakes lately. I just think they are so much easier for birthday parties than a cake. Plus they don't fall in the middle like my cakes tend to do.

It was a pretty low key birthday for me. On Sunday we celebrated with dinner at Mike's parents' house. She made me Red Velvet Cake. Here I am ready to blow out my birthday candles.

Today Aria and I pretty much just lounged around the house. I was able to watch the Series Finale of Lost. Let's just say it was a teary morning saying goodbye to one of my favorite shows. I also got a trip to Costco in without children! How good is that! And to my great surprise they had La Brea Rosemary Olive Oil Bread. This is my favorite bread of all time and they haven't had it at Costco in like forever. It makes the best homemade croutons. I can't wait until I can have a big salad.

And to top it all off, I am now on the one hand count down. Yes, that's right, only 5 weeks left to go.

I'm so excited to get this new baby here, I am so done being pregnant. I am ready to snuggle her and rock her instead of being kicked and punched by her. Still no name, but don't you think it would be pretty funny to have Peanut Staker on her birth certificate?

Exhausted

Let's just say I haven't been sleeping so well lately. For the last week and a half I have been sick with a stuffy nose which makes sleeping difficult. In addition at 7 1/2 months pregnant I have to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and when I try to go back to sleep Peanut starts doing her Kung Fu training. To top it all off Chase has a cough again and was coughing most of the night last night. This morning I crawled back into bed for a half an hour because I couldn't keep my eyes open. Two days this past week I have fallen asleep while Chase has been reading his take home reading books to me.

I don't think "Exhausted" quite describes how I am feeling lately. Is there a word for beyond Exhausted? So sorry I'm not doing so great at doing any new posts. I have a list of projects I want to complete before the baby comes but I can't seem to find the energy. Hopefully I'll be feeling better in the near future. So to recap the last couple of weeks for you- I'm still very pregnant, the kids are in the middle of state testing at school, it's raining here, soccer games and practices galore, still no name for the baby, and I'm getting nothing done. Now I think I need to go lay down for a while. :)

Winter Preggo Outfit

It's supposed to be Spring around here, but Winter isn't ready to back down yet. We've had cold and some snow the last week so I've had to keep the Winter wardrobe in rotation. This outfit is super comfy and has a little 80's vibe to it.

None of the articles of clothing in this outfit are maternity. The sweater is from Old Navy (love the cowl neck), the long sleeve white T from Gap, and the jeans are from Old Navy, ones I made into maternity jeans. The boots are from DSW. I got them about a month ago and love, love, LOVE them! I always feel a little bit sassy when I put them on.

New Magnet Board

While Mike was gone on his golf trip last week I decided to get a couple of things crossed off my project list. This is our command center in the house. I bought these at Pottery Barn a few years ago. The one on the left has our family calendar where each child is color coded so I know at a glance who has what going on. There is also a place to hang our keys and keep our temperature gauge. The one on the right is a magnetic chalkboard. We've never really used it as a chalkboard because there isn't enough room to write anything under all the papers. Last Christmas Mike's cousin Carrie gave us magnet clips with all the kids' names on them. This has made it very easy to keep track of all their important school papers. I've been wanting to make a much bigger magnet board for a while now. I hate how the papers all hang off the board and often hide the clock. I found this frame at Michael's for half off. I took out the glass and bought a piece of sheet metal at Home Depot. I laughed when I asked the guy at Home Depot where the sheet metal was. He looked at me and then said, "You're making a magnet board, aren't you." I wonder how many women have asked him where the sheet metal is. :) Unfortunately it was a smidgen too big. Fortunately my sister-in-law Megan showed up right then. She went out in the garage, found some gloves and tin snips and went to work on trimming it down. It fit in beautifully! I switched the arrangement because the wall on the left had way more space. Now I have plenty of room for all of the kids' important papers and anything else I want to stick up there. I keep smiling as I walk by it. Thanks for the help Megan!

Maternity Shirt #2: J. Crew Inspired

When I got back some of my maternity clothes from my friend she also threw in a black t-shirt she had bought. She bought it near the end of her pregnancy and thinks she never got around to wearing it. Let's just say it was a Liz Lange XXL Black V-Neck Tent! There's no way I would ever fit into that shirt so I decided to do a little refashioning.

I was inspired by a shirt from J. Crew. (It is no longer on the website.) I loved the ruffles around the neck and the asymmetry of the neckline.

I cut up the side seams of the shirt and sleeves. Then I used another t-shirt as a pattern to take in the sides. I also cut off the sleeves, took them in a bit and moved the shoulder seam so the sleeves weren't hanging off of my shoulders. I also had to hem up the bottom a little. I used the excess I had removed from the shirt to make the ruffles. I ended up with a cute fitted shirt.

I love how I don't even look that pregnant if you are looking at me straight on.

I kind of blew out this picture so you could see the detail at the neckline.

At first I had the ruffles going down but when I flipped them up I loved it even more. For the other ruffles on the side I took some smaller pieces, gathered them up and then randomly bunched them together. I then attached them by hand in a few bunches.

Super cute black shirt that can go with so many different things. I really love it with my gray boyfriend cardigan from Shade.

It also would look really cute dressed up a bit with a skirt and heels. Now I'm ready to tackle a couple of more gigantic tees.

Maternity Shirt #1: Jalie Pattern 2806

I have heard a lot of good things about Jalie patterns. I was encouraged when I saw on another blog that they had taken a Jalie top pattern, altered it a bit, and made a cute maternity shirt. My first attempt at this was Jalie 2806. It is a blousy scoopneck tee with a little gathered detail at the neckline.

I went with the size closest to my bust measurements, since when I am pregnant I can be rather top heavy. I then swung out the side seams on the front piece to give my growing tummy a bit more room and lowered the bottom hem of the front a bit.

This is what I came up with.
Next time I think I'll raise the neckline a bit. It is just a teeny bit on the low side for me.

Notice the gathered pleat at the neckline. It gives a little more fabric ease to the front of the shirt which is great for the preggo tummy.
A side view of the pleat detail.
And here was my outfit for the day. I actually got dressed up a bit because Mike wanted to meet me for lunch.
The skinny jeans were some non maternity jeans I found on clearance at Old Navy a couple of months ago. I put in my own stretch panel and tapered in the bottom of the jeans a bit more to fit into my fabulous new riding boots. The beautiful scarf is one I picked up in Italy on one of our trips. This turned out to be a pretty chic little outfit on my pregnant bod. Love it!

St. Patrick's Day Topiary: Tutorial

I really have no St. Patrick's Day decorations. I usually leave up my Valentine's day decor for half the month of March and then start putting up Easter. I wanted to come up with a fun craft for St. Patrick's day that looked elegant and was easy to make.

You will need:

- a pot
- a styrofoam ball ( I used 4" balls.)
- Four leaf clover garland
- floral foam
- a wooden dowel or stick
- paint
- ribbon
- green moss


I started out trying to hot glue the garland around the ball. After a few burnt fingers and a few melted clovers I figured there had to be an easier way.
On my next try I decided to stick one end of the garland into the ball, then I wound the garland around a few times, cut off the piece and stuck the other end into the ball to secure it. I just kept doing this, changing the direction and placement of the garland until the ball was covered. Much easier, much safer and much faster.

I then painted my pot black and my dowel gold. I wedged a piece of floral foam into the pot and stuck one end of the dowel into my covered ball and one end into the foam. Next I covered the foam with the green moss and tied a gold ribbon around the pot. It ended up looking a lot cuter than I hoped.

I have a nook in the wall of our entry where we have a painting hanging. I usually like to use this little shelf below the painting for a little holiday decor display. These two topiaries turned out perfectly for this spot. Now I just need to come up with something to go inbetween them. Hmm...