Disney Princess Running Playlist

I'm sitting here in the middle of packing for Disney and I'm just so excited. I practically grew up at Disney World and still, at 25, get so excited about going back that I can't handle it. I feel so badly for kids and adult who have never experienced that joy, and so blessed that I've gotten to go so many times. This trip is triply exciting because not only am I going to Disney with my family, but I also get to take not only my dearest friend Sara, but also my fiance' Cameron! Cameron has either never been, or went so long ago that he can't remember it. He can't tell the difference between Disney and Universal. What a lame-o.
This trip is for my second time running the Princess Half Marathon. I ran my first half last year at this race, and I'm looking forward to running it again. I learned a lot in that race, so even if I didn't take my training as seriously this year, I think I'm more mentally prepared, and any runner will tell you that's 90% of the race.

One thing I learned: Running this race without a costume of some sort is like trick or treating on Halloween without a costume. People do it, but you just look silly.
So this year I made myself a tutu:

It's shades of blue and white and sparkly and I just love it. I ran around my apartment in it a week ago when I finished it to make sure that it didn't interfere with my stellar running form and I'm sure I looked like an idiot (my fiance' told me I did) but the test was successful and the tutu is a go.

The other thing I learned: they entertain you on the run... but not enough.
I don't typically listen to music when I run, so I didn't think plan on bringing music to the race last year. Plus I was so excited to listen to classic Disney songs piped through loud speakers along the course and be entertained the entire time. I don't even know where I got the idea that that would be happening...but it didn't. There were well-spaced moments of entertainment, and occasionally music, but large portions of the race are run along major roadways and it's just not possible to have music or characters or whatnot at every turn. So this year I decided to bring my own playlist of classic Disney songs, with the occasional random addition that just seemed appropriate (come on, I Gotta Feeling by the Black Eyed Peas is completely motivational at 5am!). I'm a run-walk-run kind of runner, so I included both upbeat songs and slower paced songs.

Here's the songs I've narrowed down to my favorites, in alphabetical order per my iphone:

Arabian Nights - Aladdin
Be Our Guest - Beauty and the Beast
Be Prepared - The Lion King
Beauty and the Beast - Beauty and the Beast
Belle - Beauty and the Beast
Can You Feel The Love Tonight? - The Lion King
Circle of Life - The Lion King
Colors of the Wind - Pocahontas
Don't Stop Believing - Journey
A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes - Cinderella
Friend Like Me - Aladdin
Gaston - Beauty and the Beast
A Girl Worth Fighting For - Mulan
Hakuna Matata - The Lion King
Hawaiian Roller Coaster - Lilo and Stitch
I Gotta Feeling - The Black Eyed Peas
I Just Can't Wait to be King - The Lion King
I'll Make a Man Out of You - Mulan
Just Around the Riverbend - Pocahantas
Kiss the Girl - Little Mermaid
The Lion Sleeps Tonight - The Lion King
Once Upon a Dream - Sleeping Beauty
One Jump Ahead - Aladdin
Part of Your World - Little Mermaid
Party In the USA - Miley Cyrus
Poor Unfortunate Souls - Little Mermaid
Prince Ali - Aladdin
Some Nights - Fun.
Someday My Prince Will Come - Snow White
Something There - Beauty and the Beast
Son of Man - Tarzan
Trashing the Camp - Tarzan
Two Worlds - Tarzan
Under the Sea - Little Mermaid
When You Wish Upon a Star - Pinocchio
You've Got a Friend in Me - Toy Story
1985 - Bowling for Soup

I took out some of the songs that seemed like they would be great, like Hercules' I Can Go the Distance, because while the message is great, the beat or whatever (I'm no music student) just wasn't there for a running playlist. I realize how hypocritical that is when I include songs like Some Day My Prince Will Come... but this is my playlist and I can include what I want. So there.

To all the other Princesses out there running on Sunday: Good Luck!

Bistro Set

It's a rainy, dreary day here in Atlanta, so I thought it was a perfect time to post this blog about the little bistro set from my parents' attic that I refreshed and gave new life to my balcony with... Dreaming of sunnier days and all that. :)
My mom got the set from her grandmother and after using it for years, it ended up in the attic. I had an adirondack chair on the balcony all last summer, but it was a little too big and clunky so it needed to go. This bistro set is much more size appropriate and with the addition of the table, it's more likely to get used.

The set is a wire-framed glass top table and two chairs. They were painted a cream color that had started to look a little drab and while the vinyl upholstery had seen better days, it kept the cushions and particle board discs underneath in excellent condition.

I put my handsome boyfriend (now fiance!) to work by disassembling the chairs. The seat and back were held onto the frame with a couple screws.

The frames almost disappear when the cushions are gone.

I enlisted the help of my brother and his powerwasher to clean the years of dirt and grime off the frames. I cleaned up anything leftover with some sandpaper to ensure a nice smooth surface. The frames got one more good spray down and then were left to dry.

After a day of drying, the frames got several new coats of glossy white paint.

The chair on the left has the new white paint while the chair on the right has the old cream paint. The difference is subtle, but it really gave new life to the frames.

To start the reupholstery process, my mom helped me take the vinyl off the particle board. The vinyl was attached with staples, so we had to pull the staples out one at a time. It took a long, long time, but we needed to save the vinyl to use as a pattern for the new fabric.

This was one of the back pieces. It had the particle board disc, the vinyl on the back side, the cushion for the front and the vinyl for the front. I reused the discs and the cushions.

I numbered all the old vinyl pieces so I would know exactly which chair it went on and which cushion it matched in case they were slightly different sizes. I laid the vinyl "patterns" on the new outdoor fabric I chose and traced them.

You can see the faint white chalk lines from where I outlined all the pieces. I love this new fabric. It's so punchy.

For the seat cushions, I put the foam back on the seat, wrapped the fabric around the edge and stapled it in place. I stapled it in a star-like pattern, as if the seat cushion was a clock face, starting at 12, then 6, then 9, then 3, so that the fabric would be evenly tight on the seat. Then I went back and added staples until they surrounded the seat.

I went through a lot of staples...

Since the back of the chair frame is open, the same wrap-and-staple plan wouldn't work on the back cushions. I did the back side first and stapled the fabric to the rim, then flipped it over, put the cushion on and did the front side. This way the staples and uneven fabric edges would be hidden by the frame around the chair back.

Once the paint on the frames was dry and the reupholstery complete, I could put the chairs back together again.

The original feet on the chairs had dry-rotted with time, but they were made specifically for the set and I knew I wouldn't easily find replacements for them. After a few ideas were thrown around by the family, the decision was made to just get regular chair feet that can be found at any home improvement store. The frame legs of the chairs and table did fit into the standard feet and with the use of glue, they won't be easily coming out. Problem solved.

The set takes up the perfect amount of space on my small balcony and come warmer days, I can see the fiance and I enjoying a nice weekend lunch or dinner out there.

New Years Resolutions

New Years resolutions are a fun, annual event for me. I always start out with the best intentions, but the resolutions usually last approximately as long as it took me to think them up.

This year I'm going to tackle resolutions from a different angle. Instead of starting things, I'm going to finish them.
I'm moving to a new apartment at the end of March and I've been taking inventory of what I need to pack and there are just too many projects-in-progress. I want to complete all the half finished projects that I've started, or I want to get rid of them. I have several half knitted scarves that I've just set aside for another day. If I plan to finish it, I need to do that. If I hate it and don't want to finish it, into the trash, or donate pile, it goes.

My Harry Potter cross stitch is the most glaring example. It has been sitting on my mantle for far too long.
I posted this picture of it in my Bucket List blog post on August 12, 2011.

 

A year and a half later, this is the progress I've made on that project...



 

That is just embarrassing.
So this is my belated new year's resolution: finish what I've started.
I'll even give myself a deadline on this particular one. Finish this Harry Potter cross stitch this year.
I hope this resolution lasts longer than most...

Christmas Traditions

Back in 2010, shortly after moving out of my parents house, I posted the recipe for Christmas morning breakfast pizza and called it my family's only Christmas tradition. Now, two years later, as I'm back home with my family celebrating the holidays with my boyfriend for the first time, I find myself introducing him to traditions I hadn't previously realized we had.
For example, I wouldn't consider doing a Christmas puzzle a tradition, but if we do it every year without fail, I think that makes it the definition of a tradition.

All our puzzles are different and all are Christmas-themed, but they don't necessarily have all their pieces. Most of the puzzles come from garage sales or thrift stores.

I guess I should have realized how serious this puzzle tradition was when we had to take one with us to do in the hotel room over the Christmas break we spent in Canada....

The other important tradition that I hadn't realized we had involves the Christmas ornament.
Lots of families have ornament traditions, so it's not surprising that we have one as well. Our tree is covered in ornaments from our family vacations. Some families collect magnets, spoons, or shot glasses from their travels, we collect Christmas ornaments.

Some are more expected, like this Santa Claws from our trip to Cape Cod... (cheesy, I know.)

 

While we had to get more creative with others, like this keychain-turned-ornament from the World Of Coca-Cola from our vacation in Atlanta...

 

...or these earrings-turned-ornament from our trip to Las Vegas.

Each of these ornaments bring back memories of the family vacations of my childhood during a time of year when we should be reflecting and cherishing. It's a tradition that I want to continue as I get older.
Cameron and I got a start on our collection after our trip to the Len Foote Hike Inn. While we were there, we got a standard patch and once we got back, we turned it into an ornament by slipping it into a clear, glass ornament we found at a craft store.

It fit perfectly and will be a wonderful memory of our trip for years to come.

I hope your own holidays are full of family traditions and warm memories!

Merry (belated) Christmas and Happy New Year!

Gifting Groupons

With the holiday season approaching, Groupons and LivingSocial deals are being gobbled up for presents. They're not the impersonal, generic gift cards we're used to. Since these deals are for specific items or outings, they're just as personal, sometimes more so, as a physical gift, and kudos to you for being savvy enough to buy more for less.

 

The hard part of giving something like that is actually how to give it, how to wrap it. If it's an item that you could redeem to get your hands on and wrap, problem solved. But if it's a outing or an item that you can't redeem or something the recipient needs to redeem, that's where the problem arises.

 

I've purchased a LivingSocial deal as a present this year and it's an activity for the recipient. I can't do anything except print out the voucher as the present. But I don't want to just fold it up and put it in an envelope. That's not the least bit fun to unwrap. So I've done a little researching to find creative ways to give what is essentially a piece of paper as a present.

 

One of the online deals I see fairly often is a subscription to a magazine. It's a great gift. The Boyfriend got me a subscription to Southern Living for my birthday, which I LOVE. Instead of just telling me that he got me the subscription, he gave me the current issue with a note tucked inside.  Instant gratification. This works great for magazine, but what about other subscriptions? Maybe you got someone a year of Xbox Live. (Hey, I've seen a deal for it..) You can't really tuck it into an Xbox, but you could tuck it into a DVD case or CD jewel case.

 

Another deal I see pretty often here in Atlanta is for wine tours or bottles of wine from local wineries.

This image is an advertisement for a Vineyard Estate Wines gift card, but it's a great idea. You could slip the gift card or deal voucher into a wine glass, or empty wine bottle. If it's for a brewery tour or brewery class, slip it into a beer glass or empty beer bottle. Glasses can be a cheap but reusable addition to your gift.

 

Yet another category of deals I've seen plenty of times is photography. Sometimes it's a photo shoot, sometimes it's turning your photos into artwork. One easy way to wrap it is to frame the voucher in a frame, like Holton Studio did here.

Extra points if it matches the current decor of the recipient!

 

The last category that jumped out to me as gift-worthy is vacations. There are certainly plenty of them available on Groupon or LivingSocial. While you could find something that related to the destination, the simpliest idea I found was to request a brochure or packet from the location. Unless you're going to Disney World, having a little more information about the destination would probably be beneficial.

 

However you wrap your gift certificiates or deal vouchers, put a little extra thought into it and multiply the joy of present giving and receiving.

 

P.S. Happy 2nd birthday to my little blog.. and thanks to all the readers who have stuck with me. :)

Patchwork Plaid Shower Curtain

In my last post, I talked about how the boyfriend had moved to his new apartment and was in dire need of just about everything. One of the things that made it on the list was a shower curtain. When I asked him what he wanted his bathroom to feel like, he said "AMERICA". I almost wish I was kidding, but let's be serious, that's a great answer.
So I looked around for some not-over-the-top patriotic shower curtains and came up with nothing until I randomly stumbled across PB Teen's Regatta shower curtain:

He instantly loved it, but asked me if I could sew it for him instead.

We played around with the proportions of the patches a little bit and came up with this plan:

A standard shower curtain is 72" by 72". We decided on 6 columns, each 12" wide made up of patches that were either 6", 12" or 18" high, varied in their placement so the columns would be 72" long.

We went to Goodwill for the fabric. I decided we should stick with standard shirts for continuity instead of adding in flannel or other heavier weight shirts. Cameron helped me choose 12 men's old plaid shirts in shades of red, white and blue in various plaid patterns. We tried to choose large or XL shirts for the most fabric, but we ended up with a few smaller shirts to get a particular pattern we liked.

 

To allow for sewing seams, I cut the 6"x12" pieces at 7"x13", the 12"x12"s at 13"x13" and the 18"x12" at 19"x13". That gave me half an inch on each edge.

I used the backs of the shirts to get the largest 19"x13" pieces and then the fronts and sleeves were cut to make the 13"x13" and 7'x13" pieces.

We spent quite a bit of time one night laying out the final pattern. We wanted to make sure the patterns and colors were spread out. While I was cutting out the shirts, I cut a few extra of each size so that we would have more options during this stage.

To sew the curtain together, I sewed the individual columns first and then sewed the columns together to create the whole curtain.
Once that was complete, I sewed the whole piece to a fabric curtain liner for both extra stability and the ease of already having the holes for the hooks at the top. It was at this stage that I hemmed the curtain.

Cameron loves the final curtain and so do I. If the shirt pieces happened to include plackets, buttons or pockets, I left them on. They add a lot of interest to the final piece and show that it was sewn from shirts. And the use of the curtain liner helps the top look more finished than buttonholes would have. Great success.

Adventures in Distressing

One of the things I love most about my boyfriend is his encouragement of my DIYing. He recently moved to a new apartment with almost no furniture so he's had to get some. One of the things he decided he needed was a headboard, like a real adult. After looking at tons of headboards online and in stores, we found nothing that he really liked that was in a decent price range until we came across distressed door headboards. He liked the rustic nature of them. We knew raw doors came fairly cheap from home improvement stores, but when we went to look at them, we came across something we both liked even better: Fencing. So he bought some.

He cut it down to the right size and got it ready to distress over in his mom's driveway. This project was too big for either of our apartments.

He full well knew what we had intented for the day and still wore decent clothes. Who does that?
But he was a good sport and beat up the fence like a champion. We used hammers to hit, screwdrivers to stab, and saws to...saw... We also used a baseball bat and some sort of claw thing that Cameron's mom found in her garage. I had heard that when distressing, you should always beat up the piece way more than you think you should because it's probably still not enough. So we beat and beat.

And some times he beat it up a little too well. It usually went like this:
Me: Be careful not to hit it too hard.
Cameron: Don't worry, I got this. *SNAP*
...and it happened more than once.

But it was nothing a little wood glue couldn't fix.

Once it was beat up to our liking, we sanded it for a longggg time. All our pounding and scraping left a lot of little wood shards sticking out that could be dangerous to both Cameron and his bedding so we had to smooth them out.

Then we painted it a nice shade of espresso brown.

The paint made the beatings even more pronounced and awesome. As you can see in this picture, we only messed with the top half of the fence. It didn't make sense to spend time and energy beating up the half that would be hidden behind the bed.

I really love the headboard and so does Cameron. Cheap, custom and masculine? Mission accomplished!


But I couldn't just let Cameron have all the fun.
I have a little black leather chair in my apartment that needed a side table. Because the chair is a very small size and the corner doesn't have much extra space, the table needed to be a lot smaller than anything I was finding. A weekend trip to an antique market/junk yard made me the owner of this gem:

I'm not sure what the original use of this was, but the man was selling them as light fixtures. This one was in a little pile off to the side without a light in it. A little bargining and it was my future side table.
A blank clock face from Michael's was destined to be the top.

 A lot more distressing.. and a little more of Cameron's over-zealous-ness left me with a beautifully beat up piece of wood that was cracked right down the center. Wood glue to the rescue and it was perfect again.

Staining the clock face turned out even better than I could have expected. It was perfect.

 



The wood disk fit right on top of the metal base, attached by a nut and bolt. It's a little tall, but not uncomfortably so. It's a great size for the corner and I really love it.

I'm going to chalk both of these experiments up as successes!