Run, baby, run

I'm using the Ease Into 5K app on my iPhone to get back into running.   Prior to getting pregnant with Lily, Mark and I did a number of 5Ks, but during my pregnancy and afterwards for the better part of a year I had a lot of joint laxity that prevented me from starting to run again.   It's going really well now, though!  

I've decided to stop with the initials.  Anyone who can use Google and knows my name can figure out my husband's and kid's name, and what I post here is pretty far from controversial.

Mother's Day at the Connecticut Science Center

For Mother's Day, Mark and Lily took me to the Connecticut Science Center, where they were offering free admission to moms who came with their kids.  Lily got in for free, so the cost of Mark's admission was barely higher than the cost to park (don't get me started on THAT).

Lily's a little young for some of the exhibits but she had a blast checking everything out.   We wore her in the Boba because the Science Center's website suggested not bringing strollers in, but we totally could have strollered her!   The first thing we came to was a really fun water exhibit - smocks provided:

   

Then we moved to a building activity and a golf ball spiral:

Next we started heading upstairs and saw the really cool dinosaur exhibit.   There are fossils and animatronic dinosaur sculptures.   Lily was OK with the dinosaurs until the very end, when a T-Rex scared all three of us!  

After beating a hasty retreat from the dinosaurs, we were able to let Lily dig like a paleontologist and then checked out some really fun music and lights activities:

We continued through the science center to exhibits about sports, the human body, and climate change.  There was also a very interesting exhibit on the flora and fauna of Connecticut.   She got to pet a snake and was very gentle with it.  

We rounded out our visit with some playtime at the area sponsored by the fine folks at Lego.

Did I mention that their elevators are "mine" and they're in glass hoistways so that you can see the inner workings? 

Overall, we enjoyed our time at the Connecticut Science Center very much.   It was a great place to spend Mother's Day with my family.   We rounded out the morning with lunch at The Counter in West Hartford and then it was home for Lily's nap.  

Spring cleaning

I'm trying to get some spring cleaning done.  It's not going smoothly, since we have a perpetual mountain of laundry in the basement, but this is an ongoing issue for us that I'm trying to get control of.   The first (and really, only) step is to wash everything and either pack it away in storage or put it in closets/dressers.

I called out sick today because I really do feel like crap, but I can't justify laying on the couch so I'm trying to be productive.   I've done two loads of laundry from the mountain, packed away all of L's 12-18 month clothes and her 18-24 month cold weather clothes, cut out PUL for a diaper cover that I'm going to sew this afternoon, touched up paint from when we installed chair rail in our dining room six months ago (embarrassing that it's taken this long), and worked on organizing the playroom.   We need to anchor the new desk to the wall for safety and then M needs to move his desktop computer over to it.   Once that's done, we can move the old desk to the basement for storage, move L's toys in from the living room, and we'll be in business!

M and I are planning our summer DIY/home improvement projects, but now that our playroom will be done and the dining room "refresh" will be finished, most of those projects will focus on the exterior of our home.   At some point we need to hire a chimney sweep to come in and sweep the chimney and install a cap so that we can safely use the fireplace next winter.  As a result of the three trees that came down in our backyard during last year's freak October snowstorm, we'll have a ton of firewood (maybe literally!).

Back to sewing

I've been on a sewing kick for the last few weeks.   M got me a sewing machine for Christmas a year and a half ago and my middle school home ec skills have been slowly coming back as I practice.   I enjoy sewing for different reasons than knitting - it takes a lot more prep work but you have a finished object with less actual sewing time.   Knitting, on the other hand, is eminently more portable and (IMO) the more fun of the two.

The first project to share is a wetbag.  I have a great wetbag with a dry pocket that I use for cloth diapering on the go, but wetbags are perfect for anything wet or messy and I want to sew two larger ones to use for swim lessons with L and for our used un-paper towels.  I had 1/2 yd of the monkey fabric in my sewing box and I bought 7/8 yd of white PUL from Joann Fabrics for 70% off since it was the end of the bolt.  This is a notable project because it was the first time I'd sewed with PUL and the first time sewing in a zipper/using the zipper foot.   I used this tutorial and here's my finished wetbag:

Since my sewing machine isn't compatible with a walking foot and I couldn't find a Teflon foot, I used cornstarch on the shiny side of the PUL and used a ball point needle.  It worked out really well with no pulling.  The zipper foot is so easy to use - I can't believe I was afraid of zippers before!

The second project to share is an outfit for L.   It's McCall's M5416, Toddler's Dresses, Tops, and Shorts:

And here's mine:

It's the type of pattern where just a few pieces can make several different looks depending on embellishment and trim.   I measured her and made the size 2 (which I think is roughly a 2T).  It's a decent fit for her now and should it comfortably through the summer.   This project was the first time I've made a facing in a garment and the first time I tried to do a blind hem on the sewing machine.   I admit that while I blind hemmed the shorts, I gave up on doing it on the top; it was just too fiddly and I sewed a straight stitch hem instead.  I think if my machine could use a hemming foot it would have been a piece of cake, though.    I really like this pattern!

Sorry for the blurry area in some of my photos.  L got her hands on the camera and was swinging it around by the cord, so I have a feeling a new one may be in our future.