Resolution and Goals Update

Back in December I blogged about some of my resolutions and goals for 2012. I figure the only way to stay on track is to revisit those goals and check on our progress. 

2012 Goals:

125 pounds

Run a 5km race

Run a 10 km race (Entered in one on March 11th) 

Run a half marathon

Run leg 1 of the Sinister 7

Do 3 consecutive chin ups

Meet my Baker family in Toronto

Donate Blood (along with a list of other good deeds)

Take more photography courses and start a small photography business (Finished my first course)

Update my AFLCA certification 

Take another AFLCA course

Start a mom group/ play date group

Take a trip to Vegas (without baby)

Start an RESP for Alexander

Save minimum $5000

Go for a psychic reading

Attend Church

Get Rid of my GDL
Learn more about investments

2012 Resolutions:

Floss my teeth everyday 

Brush Bensons teeth everyday

Cuss less

Walk Chevy more than once a week (really working on this one)

The purple is my progress and the cross-outs are my accomplishments. With only 2 months of 2012 under my belt I'd say we are progressing nicely!

The list of "good deeds" mentioned above with donate blood should probably be started as well:

Donate Blood

Pay for someone behind me at a drive thru

Deliver Coffee and Donuts to a working crew

Take baking to a fire department

Donate Formula to Mothers in need

Play with dogs at humane society and donate food

...

Sew cute!

The Inspiration

Alexander received a towel for one of his baby showers that was fleece on the outside and terrycloth on the inside. It has a hood and is super warm and snuggly! We use it every time we go swimming, and when he was a teeny tiny babe we used to use it to keep him warm while we would have a quick hot tub after our swims. It works great as 2-in-1 towel and blanket, the towel dries him off and the blanket with the hood keeps him warm! After receiving my first sewing machine for Christmas, and finding a super easy hooded towel pattern I decided to put my creative skills to work and try to make one of my own. The hooded towel pattern I found was a little more basic than what I wanted my final product to be so I just did a few modifications to the pattern and voila! 

I found the pattern on pinterest (duh, of course I did) and I used my own inspiration from the green towel above to turn it into a towel blanket. The pattern is from a blog that made it super simple to sew the hood! I started by purchasing terry cloth, fleece and a cotton accent fabric. I purchased double what I would need because I wanted to make one as a gift! The fabric turned out to be ALOT more expensive than I had anticipated and hindsight I could probably buy this darn towel cheaper than I made it for! But nevertheless this is a project for me to learn from. Another idea might be to go to walmart or some similar store and buy towels on clearance to save money on the terrycloth portion. Anyway back to my sewing, I then cut the fleece and terrycloth in the same measurements and sewed them together! Afterwards I followed the pattern on the blog I mentioned above to create the hood and simply attached the hood to my towel blanket! Im sure a pillow would have been more challenging than this project but I have a lot more use for this one so there you have it! Below is my finished product!

My hooded towel blanket

I think he likes it

Cupcake Party

On Saturday we had our first of many, ladies nights. We are going to have them once a month, each with a different theme and host. The point is to get together with some gals, share a good laugh and get out of our normal routine. For me that means I get to be Jami, not mommy or wife, for a few hours. And for the other girls this might mean they aren't, wife, girlfriend, receptionist, student, or whoever, they just get time to themselves! For our first ladies night we had a cupcake party. This whole title, cupcake party, created a lot of buzz with others as they were wondering what the heck a cupcake party is. Basically, the host pre-baked a ton of cupcakes and on the evening of our ladies night we sat around decorating and eating cupcakes! Don't worry we took a to-go box home, and didn't eat them all that night. We also each brought a an appetizer and had a potluck of items to start with before the cupcakes! 

Nom Nom

Our finished products

Decorated Cupcakes

Toppings

Pre-made cupcakes

It was a really fun night! And for the first time, I didn't worry about my boys at home. Since switching Alexander to the bottle he is so much better for his babysitters. Dad was on babysitting duty all day Saturday, including the evening when I went to the ladies night. They did great together the entire day, and it makes life so much easier for me when Im not anxiously worrying about them while I'm gone. 

If you don't follow me on pinterest, you really should! One of the great things about putting your babe down for a nap is an hour of alone time! And what do I do with my alone time other than cook, clean, plan, write lists, fold laundry... I craft! I love all of the things I find on interest and with my newest addition, the sewing mating, I'm hoping to work on a few new projects. Around Christmas time I posted about some of the DIY projects I had completed, inspired by pinterest. My midline photo wall, glitter shoes, christmas decorations, tons of baking recipes and the list goes on. Well in last few months I have worked on a few more and am inspired to start a few new projects in the coming months!

Post-Christmas a few things I have accomplished include:

tried out the no-bake energy bites, and I must say be careful they are truly addicting

baked some no-bake cookies (seems like an oxymoron)

whipped up a batch of slow-cooker baked potato soup!

decorated my own Toms

made my own scrapbook paper iPhone case

Made candy apples

New Pinterest-Inspired Projects:

Sew some hooded towels (with my own labels)

Sew an apron

Bleach Pen Art Onesie

Try a muffin tin recipe

Try the vanilla microwave cleaner recipe

Make a shelf frame for my bathroom

(post bathtub photo's in the bathroom)

Create a laundry station

I'd like to make something like this but
with a shelf instead of a blackboard
Where do I find a shelf?

I'd like to set up a laundry station just like this, outside our
laundry room for the when the kids (well Kid right now) are
older they can take their baskets with their clean clothes
and put them away. Simply Brilliant!

Candy Apples

How could I forget! Last Saturday we made some tasty creations, candy apples!

They were not hard at all and they turned out delicious! I'm not sure where the recipe came from but it was dummy-proof for sure! I think this would make a great birthday party idea for school-age kids.

We started with washed, crisp green apples and stuck in skewers for the stick. 

(We doubled up on skewers for extra support)

We placed them on a cookie sheet with tinfoil that was sprayed with cooking oil.

Next we microwaved caramel and dipped each apple into the caramel, coating it completley.

We then refrigerated the apples for 20 minutes to allow the caramel to harden around the apples

While waiting on the apples we melted milk chocolate

and cut up all of our toppings

Then it was time to decorate. We took our chilled caramel covered apples out of the fridge and dipped them in the melted chocolate, covering them completely in chocolate. We then topped them with our cut up candies, including sprinkles, smarties, skor and crispy crunch. 

After the apples were completely covered in toppings we put them back in the fridge to chill for another 20 minutes. And after that it was go time! They were delicious! 

They were pretty big apples so I think if you were to plan this for a birthday party or to do with smaller kids, I would try to find smaller apples (like the size of a crab apple). They would even be fun as part of a carnival style birthday party with cotton candy and popcorn! Anyway I will be planning a first birthday before I get too carried away with a carnival birthday so I will leave it at that! 

** one thing to help with the decorating. When you cover the apples in the milk chocolate, allow some of the chocolate to run off of the apple before you decorate. If the chocolate is too thick on the apple, your toppings will run and drip off, leaving you with a naked apple and a pile of chocolate and toppings.